Gravity Stay the Hell Away From Me [Pierce]

[isabelle katherine wood]

First days were always the bane of Bella’s existence. It wasn’t that she didn’t know where her classes were, that was the perk of having a subject in the same classroom for six years in a row. It was just that once she returned to school and started being around all of the people she hadn’t seen since before the summer she remembered why she had been so excited to go home in the first place. This summer had been particularly enjoyable for her. She’d spent a great deal of time practicing her keeper skills in pick up games involving her entire family. Some kids, a few of her siblings included, would get tired of their quidditch obsessed parents but Bella wouldn’t have had it any other way. As it was she was hoping to try out for professional teams after she finished school and it was very convenient to have her parents more than willing to pick up a broom and practice with her whenever her heart desired. Even better was having her father, a professionally ranked keeper, at her beck and call.

But now she was back at school and usually this would irk her to no end because it would mean she couldn’t just spend all day practicing and flying as she would so love to. Instead she had to begin studying again and attending classes and being a social being. Not that Bella really didn’t enjoy learning, it was all very interesting but unlike her classmates she didn’t plan on being and auror or a healer or whatever career this knowledge would be good to know for. All she wanted to do was be a quidditch player and so it was really superfluous for her to spend all her time in the library writing five foot essays about the importance of the great war of 1666 or researching the correct way to treat a werewolf bite. No, instead she simply wanted to be flying.

Of course, it was no mystery to her professors that she had no interest whatsoever in what they were teaching as she sat in various desks located in various classrooms throughout the day and stared out the day. She loved this time of year. It was getting to the point in the year and they were at such an altitude at Hogwarts where it was no longer scorching hot from the summer nor was it exactly chilly. She would be able to fly after classes were done wearing her olive green short sleeve tee shirt and those jean shorts her mother had handed down to her that rolled up right above the knees. Oh how desperately she wanted to skip her Herbology class and just get a head start on flying but she knew ditching the first day was not the best idea and she was sure she’d regret it later when she didn’t know the proper way to approach uprooting a Mandrake. And so it wasn’t until well after three o clock in the afternoon that Bella was able to sprint back to her room and shed her school robes and retrieve her broom.

Finally, she pushed her way out of the Entrance Hall doors and into the fresh air of the coming autumn. There was a slight warm breeze dancing across the grounds and it lifted her brown wavy hair off of her shoulders as she walked, or rather jogged towards the pitch. She always loved the first take off of the year, because there was so much potential behind it. It would set a bar for all of the flying she would do this year, what it would mean to her, what it would show about her, how much she would enjoy it. And every year she would approach it in a different way, whatever her heart and body wanted to do at the time, because it was best to do things like this impulsively and not think about them too much. Last year Bella had stood with her eyes closed breathing in the scent of clean grass and imagining how muddy it would be on an April day when there was a quidditch game, how disgusting all of their uniforms would be by the end of a game like that.

But today the adrenaline rushing through Bella’s veins was hard to ignore and as she approached the pitch her jog started to increase in pace, and soon she broke out into a run. Laughing to herself for she must look insane to onlookers, Bella just ran and laughed. When her foot hit the pitch she swung her broom about and without slowing her pace or really stopping to get properly situated on her seat, in one swift motion she pushed off the ground and was soaring into the air. The exhilaration she felt as the air beat upon her face was everything she had remembered it to be, the sun reflecting off her eyes and her hair and her skin causing her to emit a sort of glow. She kept rising in the air, up and up until suddenly and without warning she dropped and changed directions, maintaining her speed and even doing a few spins and flying upside down for a bit. This was what she loved most about flying, this feeling of reckless abandon. As though nothing else mattered.

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[professor edward p. d'arcy]

Demon De Garde, as he was once referred too, growled slightly to himself as another oblivious boy managed to bump right into him as he walked towards the great doors of the school. The boy was no older than a 2nd year and he looked up at Professor D'Arcy with fear. D'Arcy's eyebrow arched as he glanced down at the boy. "Well?" he insisted waiting for the boy to answer. The boy went bright red and began to mumble. D'Arcy had no time for this, he wanted to make sure the quidditch pitch was in top order before his first class began. He sneered at the boy. "Next time you watch where you walk, and if you bump into someone you say I'm sorry!" and with that he gripped his cane and thrust it before him as he walked.

What he would give to be back in his younger days.....Playing for the international French team and being called Demon De Garde, Pierce's eyes looked off into the distance as if he were back in the memory. The crowd chanted his name when he walked out onto the field before he would save the french team from disaster. He grinned but once he heard a bunch of teenage girls giggle his mind came too and he looked at them, he smiled slightly thinking they were giggling at him, but instead it was the new potions teacher behind him, and he was the young attractive male teacher that all the girls fawned over. Typical. He scowled to himself and he angrily limped faster. But as he did his face was masked with pain and he gasped and clutched at his leg cursing under his breath.

As he clutched onto his leg, he heard swooshing and he turned about face and he squinted as the sunlight hit his eyes painfully. He shuffled around so his body was facing the pitch, he had been walking towards the entrance but he heard the swooshing from the other end. There he saw her. Bella Wood. He smiled gently and he put both hands on his cane as he watched her swirve around the goal posts. She was so much like her father, they had the same form and the same determination. It was a pity she was a hufflepuff and not a slytherin, with her talent they could have the cup. Pierce turned away from her and he moved quicker than usual towards the quidditch pitch.

He walked through the entrance and he lost his breath like he did everytime he walked through there. Remembering all the times he played here while he was at school.....they had won the house cup in his seventh year, and he was of course, the captain. He limped over towards the nearest bleacher and he grunted as he went up a few steps and he sat down sighing and he once again rested both hands on his cane in front of him and he looked up into the sky where Bella was. He smiled at her as she whipped through the air, cutting through it so easily........He once sighed as he haired flew about her head her brown locks flying out of control. How beautiful she looked...........

[isabelle katherine wood]

This was what she lived for, the rush of the air, the coolness of the late afternoon, the way her heart was pumping in her chest as she flew effortlessly around the pitch. Bella liked to imagine her parents here years ago flying as she was. While her mother had never admitted to coming out to the pitch just to fly she knew for a fact her father used to sneak out in the middle of the night to do just that. It meant to him exactly what it meant to her: life. That’s all her life was about, the phenomena of being able to be high off the ground and make things work the way she wanted it to. That’s how she bonded with her father the most, why she was daddy’s little girl. And she loved it.

A movement in the stands caught her eye and she whipped her hand around to see who was watching her. And there he was, a man who had been there Bella’s whole life, who had helped her father teach her how to fly and train her as a keeper. He was like an uncle to her. When Bella had met DG she’d been a toddler and flying on a toy broom. He’d been a constant figure in her life and she had almost forgotten he was going to be teaching here this year. Her father had told her over the summer and she couldn’t have been more excited. Sure, he was going to be the Head of Slytherin but she was sure she could guilt him into helping her train and work on her technique.

Smiling, she touched down in front of the bleachers he was sitting on and ran up the stairs to where he was sitting. Leaning over him she gave him a quick hug and stood up. DG! I didn’t think I would see you out here today! That was a lie. Well, not really. She hadn’t been thinking about anyone when she had come out here, only about getting in the air, so it was almost true. But she hadn’t thought she would see him for the first bit, he would be busy teaching and stuff like that. She sat on the bench he was sitting on and grinned at him, crooking one leg up on the bench and sitting on it. So are you going to help me become the best keeper ever this year or what? She set her broom on the bench in front of her and reached up to pull her hair into a ponytail. This year was going to be fun.

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[professor edward p. d'arcy]

D'Arcy grinned as he saw her see him, he held up a hand to wave to her. She came straight for him and he sucked in his breath as she picked up speed fast, and she touched the ground gracefully. He exhaled and scowled slightly at her. "You know if you hit the ground too fast you could break an ankle" he said to her, but she took no notice of his comment and she hugged him, but not long enough for him to wrap his arms around her. His eyes did flicker closed as he smelled her scent. Sweet perfume she wore since she was 10.

Bella began to speak and he looked up at her listening attentively. "Well i do work here you know....and my first class is about to begin.....first years.....god help me...." he said and he reached up and ran a hand through his grey hair. He inclined his head sideways as she sat down besides him. But as she did she crooked her leg so, and D'Arcys eyes moved upon her figure until he directed his eyes away from her, scowling at himself slightly. Not knowing why he had just done that.

"So are you going to help me become the best keeper ever this year or what?" he smiled at her, knowing that would come up. He shook his head slowly. "Your a hufflepuff......its a shame your not a slytherin then i could've taught you...but i guess not...." he said looking away from her slightly, almost teasing her. He couldn't help himself he turned back towards her. "Of course i'll help you....your a Wood.....it'd be an honor to help train Olivers girl...." he said beaming at her.

A silence fell among them and D'Arcy forced his gaze away from her. "So have you been made captain this year?" he asked her not really knowing since he was for slytherin. Just as he asked his leg had a painful spasm and he winced and clutched at his leg. But he was extremely embarassed and his tortured face looked away from her once more.

[isabelle katherine wood]

DG began to tease her about being a hufflepuff, saying he wouldn’t be able to help her. Of course she knew he was teasing because they were practically family and she knew he could never say no to her but all the same she would play his games. Jutting out her lower lip she bugged her eyes out in a puppy dog face she had always pulled on him throughout the years. It was as though she were ten again and begging him to let her take out his broom when hers had been confiscated as punishment for kicking her older brother in the shin. The poor old fool hadn’t been able to say no to her then either.

She couldn’t help laughing when he looked back towards her and said he’d help her. "Oliver’s girl? You talk as though you haven’t known me my entire life, DG. Is this how it’s going to be now you’re a professor at my school? All formalities because I’m not sure how I feel about that.” She grinned at him, knowing that this was just how he was. Her dad told her that he had been much different before his accident but she thought he was still alright. Maybe he wasn’t the most spry or the most energetic anymore but she couldn’t blame him. That would be like being mad at a frog for not being able to fly. It’s not the frog’s fault it wasn’t’ made with wings….not that she thought of DG as a frog. If she was going to think of him as an animal he would be more of a….well maybe a dog. Or a horse. One of those animals that you could tell was wise and had a story behind them just by looking into their eyes.

When Bella looked at DG she could tell that he must have been a stud back in his day. Well, he sort of still was but she wasn’t about to admit that she thought that to anyone. Absolutely not, he was in his forties and he was her father’s good friend and thinking about your fathers friend like that is just….weird. No he was more like a funny uncle to her, someone she could have a conversation with about quidditch or anything and she would feel older and sophisticated. And she had always been so comfortable with him that she really considered him more of a friend of acquaintance than as an authority figure. Perhaps she would have to readjust her thinking not that he was teaching at Hogwarts.

So have you been made captain this year? Bella readjusted, sitting on her hands and crinkling her nose as she stared at a spot on the bench in front of her. She hadn’t heard about who was being made quidditch captain yet. Their previous captain had only just graduated and supposedly was going to owl whoever it was they were appointing within the first week of school. As of now she hadn’t heard anything but she couldn’t imagine anyone else being made captain. Chewing idly at her lower lip she shrugged. "Dunno, I haven’t heard anything yet. Either way I plan on being fabulous this year" She smiled at him again, her eyes lighting up with the prospect of her future. "After all, I have to start thinking about what teams I want to try out for after I graduate." She paused for a moment. She’d never actually voiced her want to play professionally to DG and she wondered what he would think about it, whether he though she was good enough to stand a chance.

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[professor edward p. d'arcy]

Edward knew he really shouldn't be teasing her, seeing as she could see right through him. He looked off into the distance remembering the memory of her sitting in front of him on his broom his arm wrapped around her tiny figure as they soared off into the air. She had been only 8 or 9 then. He grinned at the memory of him coming into the house with Bella crying that her parents took her broom away from her.

It was once again her voice that woke him from his day dream and he turned his head slightly towards her as she spoke. He smiled at her tone. So she was uncomfortable about them being formal. Edward understood that but he was a man of principle and rule he opened his mouth to speak but was cut off once more as she continued. His crooked smile widened, his dimple large and clear. "Well Miss. Wood i hate to say it but i am a Professor now and you must address me as Professor D'Arcy. I can't have you calling out 'DG!' Just think of what everyone will think......" he exclaimed...wait...what would they think?

He shifted on the bench a bit uncomfortable, and his body temperature rose a bit and he pulled at the collar of his shirt. Edwards eyes were like magnets on Bella and they once again zoomed in on her face. They were twinkling in the sunlight as he looked at her. How beautiful she had become....from the little innocent girl now to a young women. She was smart, funny, great at quidditch.....oh....if only he were young again....she would've been perfect for him.....huh? Did he just think about himself with him in his younger days? What the bloody hell was wrong with him.

Just as he was going to speak to her to break the silence she began to speak. Her velvety voice bouncing off his ear drums as he listened and he snapped his head at her as she spoke of professional quidditch teams. He didn't know she wanted to go to pro level. "Oh well there are lots of good teams, you could follow your father and try out for Puddlemere United or go for the underdogs Ballycastle bats. Oh no! I think you should try Holyhead harpies! They are full of new and brilliant players just the other day in the daily prophet issue they--" he cut off noticing how excited he was getting. He looked down and fiddled with his hand.

The memory of his accident lingered before him as the silence continued between them.......

[isabelle katherine wood]

Bella’s smile broadened on her pale face as she saw his widen a bit. She liked it when he smiled. His whole face would light up and he would take on that wizened look of someone who really appreciated what was going on. But when she heard what he had to say she laughed and shook her head. “You’re kidding yourself if you think after all these years I’m calling you anything but DG. Besides it’s not like I’ll be in any of your classes, I’m not a first year anymore.” Almost, ALMOST unconsciously Bella reached up and tucked a stray lock of brown hair behind her ear as though emphasizing her point, although she didn’t know how tucking her hair behind her ear proved she was no longer an eleven year old. If she really wanted to prove it to him she needed simply to draw attention to her chest and had she been talking to a boy of her own age she might have done just that followed closely by crawling into his lap, but this was DG she was talking to and she wasn’t flirting…just telling him the facts. Right?

He seemed quite uncomfortable around her and she wondered whether she was bothering him or not. Perhaps he was waiting for her to leave so he could get ready for his class or maybe he had simply meant to say hello and leave it at that. And here she was blabbing away about quidditch and how she wasn’t going to address him as Professor and all sorts of nonsense. But she liked talking to him and so she looked down and shifted around on her hands that she was still sitting on but didn’t get up to leave. She wouldn’t leave until he asked her too. For once this was someone she would rather have a conversation with than run off to fly because oh the things he could teach her that would help her with her sport.

Looking back up she caught him looking at her and she smiled. Wondering what he thought of her she self consciously crossed her arms. DG was old. How old she wasn’t quite sure but she knew he was older than her dad and that was bloody old. But he was still relatively good looking and she was sure he had been with his share of women. It was strange and inappropriate but she found herself wondering how she compared to the women he had been with, what he thought of her. But then that was silly, he was a good thirty or so years older than her wasn’t he and here she was thinking if he thought she was pretty? Talk about acting like a first year….

After her self conscious admittance about wanting to pursue Quidditch as a career she couldn’t help but light up when he jumped into an analysis of the different routes she could take. When he mentioned Puddlemere she wrinkled her nose. Of course she had considered trying out for them and she probably would just for the hell of it but she didn’t really want to play on the same team as her father had because then she would always feel like she was being compared to him. After all they were both keepers. Good Merlin, did he think she was good enough for the Holy Harpies? That was a huge compliment especially coming from someone who had been the keeper for a professionally ranked team. Bella could nearly feel her heart pumping out of her chest as he spoke, finding herself leaning towards him in anticipation of what he would say next. But then…he stopped.

Bella watched as he looked down and away from her. The sorrow that filled her was only over powered by the pity she had come to associate with this sort of mood when it over took him. When she was a child and he would come to visit she would always ask her father why he seemed so sad all the time especially when they were talking about quidditch. Oliver told her that DG had been in a horrible accident when he had been playing for his team and it had messed up his leg so horribly that he had been forced to walk with his cane since then. When she asked what the accident had been he had said she’d have to ask DG herself.

Of course she had always been too embarrassed to ask him anything about it, feeling it was too personal or that she was just a silly little girl and why should he tell her? But sitting there in such an intimate setting with him, far from onlookers and the buzz of the castle she found herself overcome with sadness on account of his handicap and wanting to understand him better. Reaching out a very hesitant, friendly hand she touched the knee she knew to be injured. It wasn’t a very confidant touch or very purposeful, more of a question in the touch alone, and quite brief for as soon as she touched it she seemed to realize what she had done and with drew her hand. Her face did not betray her uncertainty however and she simply looked up at him. “DG…I always…Will you tell me how it happened?” Only then did her cheeks flush with her embarrassment and she looked away. It was just like her to ruin a perfectly good conversation too.

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[professor edward p. d'arcy]

“You’re kidding yourself if you think after all these years I’m calling you anything but DG. Besides it’s not like I’ll be in any of your classes, I’m not a first year anymore.” She spoke confidently almost unaware that he was a professor more like a friend of her own age. But Edward prefered it that way....didn't he? He shouldn't be he did? Why? He didn't know but he couldn't help but go alittle pale as he watched her small hand reach up and tuck a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. Her smooth, pale skin revealed.

She was so...magnificent he wondered if she had many boyfriends.....was she currently dating someone and if she was who? He'd have to anaylis the boy....Wait why did he have to? He's protective of her.....its normal seeing as he's known her for her whole life, looked after her practically became her second father. Then why was jealousy growing deep within him like a monster plotting its revenge on any that come into its lair. Bella Wood was much much much younger than him for christs sake. Why was he getting like this over a 17 year old girl. He's more than 3 times her age....well almost. Fatherly instinct. It must be. He said convincing himself heavily. Implanting the thought into his brain.

He took a breath in while she wasn't looking at him and when she turned back to him his eyes grew gentle and he smiled softly. "Let me ask you something....you've always called me DG, "hey DG" "Whats up DG" "Can you help me with this move DG?" but...do you actually know what DG means?" he asked her curiously. Wondering if she did know how much of a demon he was before he...nope he wasn't going to go there. Back into the black hole of self- pity and sorrow. He wished he hadn't made her feel uncomfortable. He didn't want her to dislike his company. Sure he was an older man who couldn't do much anymore, lost his humor and his good looks but he could have a great conversation about quidditch that was for sure. And it seemed she enjoyed that.

He wasn't really aware that while he was talking she was leaning towards her, they were practically inches apart, both sort of turned facing eachtoher. If someone were to walk onto the pitch at that moment....what conclusions would they come to? Would they spread rumors about Bella and how she digs the old guys. But that wasn't true at all. That whole stream of thought pierced through his mind as he finished speaking. After that his sorrow had overwhelmed him about his leg and he fell deep into that black hole he swore he wouldn't while he was around her. Too late.

his eyes on the ground, but a movement caught the corner of his eye as he saw a hand come towards him. He knew it was Bella's obviously, for there was no one else in the whole stadium but he didn't stop it at first and it was laid on his thigh.....where he had been hurt. He imediately flinched and he stumbled away from her, his cane fell to the ground and he regained himself, snatched the cane off the ground and stood up. Leaning on it heavily now that he was up and his weight was on it. He faced her but he couldn't look into her eyes. "I-i have to go the first years are coming......good day Miss. Wood...." he croaked the first part of the sentence stuttered. He had no idea what was going on.....but he needed to escape....and escape fast.

He began to make his way down off the bleachers and onto the grass field. And he rushed towards the front gate, ignoring the pain. Even though......he wished for her touch once more....NO SHE IS A STUDENT AND SHES 17. Edward was so confused, and his judgement muffled so, that he bumped right into a first year who cried out. "Oh...I'm sorry you ok?" he asked but he didn't really listen to the reply the whelp gave him. Insteaed he focused on a patch of grass and he could hear his heart pounding loud and fast within his chest a feeling exploding from inside.

"Are we going to start Professor?" asked a kid quietly and Edward looked up at the kid and nodded slowly. "Yes alright mount your brooms" he hissed at them. Anger starting to take control........

[isabelle katherine wood]

Bella recoiled when he sprang away from her. Chastising herself she inwardly yelled at herself. Why had she ever thought it would be okay to touch him? Why, why, why? It wasn't okay. When she had been nine it had been perfectly acceptable for her to perch in front of him on a broom stick but now...They just couldn't have that sort of relationship without people jumping to the wrong conclusions. But how she wanted that closeness...not with him of course but with someone, to be held and to soar over the trees on a broom and take night time rides like her mother and her father did, how romanticthat was. But that wasn't the problem at hand.

Her eyes welled up a bit when he seemed angry at her and gave her a cold fairwell. "Wait... But it was under her breath and she knew he wouldn't ahve stopped even if he could have heard her. For a moment Bella sat and wondered why she was such a stupid girl to have chased him off like that. She hung around for a few minutes and watched as he started teaching his class but decided she needed to get back in the castle and do something thinking. Sighing she stood up and grabbed her broom from the bench where she had placed it and took off to the castle. Well that trip had been dissapointing...

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