Northern Downpour *Open*

[Vivienne Coffey]

Genius only comes along in storms of fabled foreign tongues,
Tripping eyes and flooded lungs.
Northern downpour sends its love.

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That morning she woke up early, the rain softly pattering against the windows. The sun was out, but it wasn't intense enough to take away the gray cast the rain gave everything. So maybe it wasn't the best time to go out and practice, but she had promised herself for the last few days that today she would go out and try.

What would a little rain hurt anyway?

Vivienne rolled out of the warm bed and ruffled her dark hair. Nobody would be out in this weather, she assumed, and decided that brushing it or putting forth any effort was useless. Besides, the rain would ruin it anyway.

She pushed her arms through a regular cotton white turtleneck and placed an old blue sweater over top of that. She put on her most comfortable pants and her trusty boots. Vivienne tugged the hair out of the collar and slipped outside. She took her broom from it's "hiding place" so to speak and made her way to the Quidditch pitch.

It was large and ominous, especially in the rain. But she was determined, and she didn't want to let herself down. "Well, better now instead of regretting later." She said with a sigh, mounting the broom and bolting up into the air.

Of course, she didn't have access to the golden snitch. Who would. She could go and grab a practice ball from the supply closet, but at the moment she just wanted to be in the air.

Vivienne took that as a good time to practice her flying skills. She needed to be quick and ready to go for the actual matches, and special skills were a must.

She knew how to fly with one hand, and occasionally she could stand, only if the weather was right and normally only in practice. Yet for some strange reason she couldn't get manage to fly with no hands.

That would be a perfect place to start.

Vivienne did a couple laps to warm up, flying around once with both hands, the next with one, and finally she attempted no hands.

At first it went exceptionally well, yet as she moved to her first turn, she found herself losing control of the broom.

Before she knew it, she was upside down on the broom. Her hair dangled in front of her face, now wet and sticking to her clothes. She quickly reached up and grabbed the handle, but remained upside down in aggravated silence.

outfit

[Nathan Anderson]

Running in the rain was a strange habit, but Nathan liked it. Especially in the colder months, he loved his cardio exercise and the cold rain just motivated him to run faster. Last week he did ten laps of the quid ditch pitch in 23 minutes. He was hoping to cut some times off that.

He was only wearing running shorts and a t-shirt, as a guy who usually wears long pants and jumpers, he felt pretty uncomfortable in the get up, but he figured that it was so early that no one else would be around to see him anyway.

He made his way to the pitch, but the presence of the rain in the air made it hard for him to see very far ahead, he didn't even notice that there was somebody above him until he was standing at the edge of the pitch. It seemed as if he had crashed some sort of ariel acrobatic show, though he knew that it was probably just a rouge broom.

After witnessing the show, he wondered if he should make himself known... It's not like he would be able to help, he didn't have a broom and even if he did, he would be dead useless on it.

"Uhh, hey!" He shouted up, hoping that the rain wouldn't drown out the sound of his voice.

[Vivienne Coffey]

Vivienne believed in herself. She knew she had to have faith and determination if she wanted to accomplish things, but the rain and failed attempts put a damper on that pretty quickly. The rain was running into her eyes now, and she blinked it away as she readjusted herself on the broom, sitting right side up and wiping at the rain in her face. It wasn't a hard rain, but more like the misty rain that got you soaked very quickly. Sometimes that was worse, at least in her opinion.

She tried to think of algorithms and solutions to her problem. Vivi thought of physics laws and geometric problems, none of which seemed to do her any good. With a huff she started out again, slowly with one hand.

That's when she heard the voice from down below. She came to an abrupt stop and blinked in the rain. Did she really just hear that, or was her mind playing tricks on her? Either way it wouldn't hurt to look.

She slowly descended until she could almost put her feet on the ground. From there she could see the silhouette of a person standing near the edge of the pitch. Vivienne smiled and waved. "Good morning!" She called out, trying to be as friendly as possible to the silhouette in the mist. "Come out to practice, too?" She questioned without moving from her position in the field.

[Nathan Anderson]

Nathan had a feeling that the voice he could hear was familiar. He frowned and made his way in a slow jog to the centre of the pitch where he could see somebody on a broom all but a few feet from the ground.

"You would probably have to be able to ride a broom to practice flying right?" He asked, going for sarcasm. "I just saw your sweet moves..." He said drawing nearer. Dark hair... blue jumper... "Viv?" He called out.

[Vivienne Coffey]

Rain was cold, and sitting on the broom without moving certainly didn't help. The silhouette emerged from the mist, drawing nearer and she began to recognize the figure who was approaching her.

"You would probably have to be able to ride a broom to practice flying right?"

At that she let out a light chuckle, Vivienne had all but forgot people used the pitch for other purposes besides flying. The person came closer and called her out by name. She blinked away the rain from her lashes and focused in on the person. She knew him. "Oh hello Nathan! What are you doing out here this early? And without proper attire nonetheless!" She lightly teased with the last comment, meeting him halfway on the pitch. "You're surely soaked to the bone by now." She added, looking at his shorts and t-shirt.

[Nathan Anderson]

Nathan's cheeks flushed as he wiped some of the water away from his legs. It was a useless action as water formed there straight away again. He was extra aware how north of the knee his shorts we're. "Ha, yeah, I guess." He said. She was right, he was soaked all over. He liked the cold though, the combination of freezing cold skin and a burning hot core was great... And the long hot shower when he finished was like heaven.

"I run out here all the time. I usually come early because no one else is out here." He said laughing. He tugged at the sleeves of his shirt. "How goes the Ravenclaw quidditch team?" He asked, looking around for the ball case, though it looked as though she hadn't booked it out.

[Vivienne Coffey]

Vivienne dismounted the broom, grabbing it with a hand and slightly leaning on it. The feeling of standing was so much different than flying, and she greatly preferred flying. The ground was muddy anyway.

She didn't understand why he chose shorts on a day like this, but decided not to question him as he could easily question her right back. To each their own. Instead she smiled and nodded in return. "Whatever floats your boat." She replied, pushing her wet hair from her face.

She didn't picture Nathan as the running type. "I never knew you liked to run." She commented, pulling at her hair to try and get some of the water out.

"Oh the quidditch team? It's going well, just decided to come out and practice my skills. Do you keep up with the Hufflepuff team?" She asked, knowing full well Nathan never actually played.

[Nathan Anderson]

"Oh God..." Nathan groaned "The Hufflepuff quidditch team is about as talked about as the soil formation in Bali around this castle. Honestly I need to find a new team to cheer on." He sighed. Sometimes being a Hufflepuff was a but boring, but at least he didn't have to hang out with people that were miles smarter than him in Ravenclaw. "But huh, cardio is really very good for you you know?" He questioned., trying to move the conversation of of the embarrassing topic of the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team. "I'm trying to get more people into it." He added.

[Vivienne Coffey]

She laughed. Vivienne knew that Hufflepuff didn't have a great Quidditch team, but she didn't want to say anything about it. She never liked dissing other houses, even if they were genuinely worse than her. "Each team has their ups and downs." She commented, silently agreeing with Nathan to not continue the awkward conversation of Hufflepuff quidditch.

"Cardio, yeah. I bet it would help endurance levels too, a healthy heart is always a good thing." Vivienne wasn't the best at transitioning conversations, and she was thankful that Nathan probably wouldn't mind. "I could time your laps if you want. I'm not really doing anything." That wasn't her first choice of words, but it seemed better than awkward silence.

[Nathan Anderson]

Nathan was more than aware now of his wardrobe situation, and there wasn't anything he wanted less in the world than to be the centre of attention. "Well I can run around here any old time..." He said. "But what are the chances of you getting the pitch here all to yourself?" He asked. "How about you head back up and I'll send a few pebbles up for you to chase?" He asked... Seemed easy enough, and students before had obviously had the same idea based on the number of pebbled nestled in the grass.

[Vivienne Coffey]

Thankfully Nathan didn't want her to time him, Vivienne didn't want to do it anyway. It was more if a friendly gesture to try and fill the awkward moment. Running in the rain seemed dangerous, too.

Nathan's suggestion seemed like a lot more fun anyway. Vivienne grinned and quickly mounted her broom, hovering three or four feet off the ground. "Gotta practice every chance I get if I want to catch that Golden Snitch!" She chirped, happy to get the opportunity. "Thanks Nathan!

[Nathan Anderson]

"Alright!" Nathan exclaimed, this could turn out to be a bit of fun actually. He picked up the closest pebbled to him and tried to think of the best spell that would send it skyward.

"Ready?" He asked, pulling his wand from the waist band of his pants. "Asendio!" He shouted and the pebble shot straight up into the air.

Catching a pebble with a predictable course (thanks to gravity[) was probably going to be much easier than catching the snitch in a game, but Nathan figured that it would blend in with the dray grey fogyish rain that had settled on the pitch.

[Vivienne Coffey]

Catching pebbles would prove to be more difficult than Vivienne originally expected. Their sleek, wet gray would allow them to blend in with the rain and general gray tone of the place. Either way, it would help her to keep her focus. The snitch was generally fast and small, and the pebbles were small. It gave her something to do nonetheless.

Vivienne got herself at a more comfortable height and readied herself to shoot off at any second. She waited for Nathan to send the pebble into the air, gripping the broom with both hands. She found herself not even caring about the rain anymore.

The pebble left his hand, and she squinted in the rain to keep it in sight. Vivienne sped off toward it, reaching out for the pebble just as it reached the climax and began to fall down. She made a quick decision and loosened her grip on the broom, sliding to where she was upside down and quickly descended, catching the pebble.

Right-side up again, she felt of the pebble. "Hm, it's harder than I thought." She called out, tossing the pebble down to Nathan.

[Nathan Anderson]

Nathan was left on the ground with a gaping jaw. "What the?" He asked, unable to think of a coherent sentence. "You were flying upside down! How the heck did you do that?" He asked, he hand;t see such tricky flying before, looked like the Ravenclaw team was in for a chance this season.

[Vivienne Coffey]

She laughed. Flying upside down wasnt so much of a trick as an accident she learned to perfect. "It's basically just falling over and holding on for dear life. Not really a trick, and probably not something I'd do on a regular basis." She laughed, trying not to think about what would happen if one day she slipped and went plummeting to the ground. That was a scary thought indeed. "Nobody else really wants to do it, and I probably wouldn't think my team would like it very much either. But oh well." She grinned and sat on the broom, waiting for the next pebble.