Fear of Falling

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Oscar Wilde

Chapter 1

The rain was coming down in thick sheets, pounding against the window like a giant. Sleet mixed with the rain, forming strange patterns on the window like a kaleidoscope; interesting at first, but easy to grow bored of.

Katie sat on the ground, hugging her knees, apparently starting out of the window of her dormitory with great interest, even though, thanks to the weather conditions, it was impossible to make out anything over a metre away.

It was empty; everyone was either in the Great Hall finished dinner, or in the Common Room, having finished dinner. The quiet covered her like a thick blanket. It was only the faint, steady ticking of a clock that seemed so far off in the distance that assumed her that she was still alive.

Like a zombie, unaware to the world, she climbed into her warm bed, wishing that her dreams would bring her happiness and peace, even it would only be for a few hours until she was cruelly woken up to face another day of reality.

It was a few hours later when her friends found her, curled up in a ball under the thick quilt cover, the curtains of her four-poster bed still lying open rather untidily.

'Poor Katie,' Helena whispered, pulling the covers that had been kicked off in sleep back over Katie.

'Too much stress,' Tania said, looking at her friend with pity.

'The power of love,' Angelina stated. She left her comment hanging as she left the room, heading towards her own dormitory.

-:-

The next morning started with the usual routine on Katie half; wake up to a blaring alarm clock, grudgingly get up and head straight to the bathroom. Unfortunately for her, as soon as she had resurfaced from the bathroom she was bombarded with her friend, already dressed and wide-awake, insisting they would "help her."

If by helping her they meant making her look better by fixing her hair, makeup and all of the stuff she usually laughed at the thought of, then they helped her a lot.

Half an hour later, the two girls emerged in the Common Room with a new Katie beside them. She couldn't help feeling special when people, who wouldn't normally give her a second glance, were staring at her, mouths opened. Being your stereotypical quidditch player, Katie wasn't used to all the attention, so found her cheeks turning a deeper shade of pink with every passing minute as she was paraded around like a show-dog, or so she felt.

'Breakfast!' Tania announced, and proceeded to lead me towards the Great Hall.

The trio entered quite unnoticed, much to my pleasure. Katie had quickly realised that she preferred being invisible as to being in the limelight, and she planned to keep it that way.

Like most mornings, she only had a small breakfast, which was more than enough to fill her even smaller appetite.

'What have you done to my chaser?' Oliver joked. Katie found him sitting across from her, yet she hadn't noticed him sit down. He surveyed her; up and down as best he could while she was sitting down, but she couldn't help noticing that his eyes linger over her a minute longer that they usually would. It was because of this that she could feel the pink tinge reappearing in her cheeks, as she diverted her eyes onto them now empty plate in front of her.

'See you tonight at practice,' Oliver said, getting up and leaving the Great Hall, towards his next class.

'Where are we now,' Tania asked, having, once again, forgotten her timetable.

'Charms,' Helena, our very own bookworm, answered automatically.

Sometimes, Katie couldn't help thinking that, if wasn't Helena's help when it comes to homework and revision, she would have been kicked out of Hogwarts years ago. Helena was always the one who would stay up helping her catch up after quidditch practice.

'Come on,' Katie said, not wanting to be late; even if she wasn't the best student, she still liked to stay on teachers' good sides.

-:-

Charms was uneventful. So was the rest of the school day.

When the last bell of the day went she was ecstatic, and left the greenhouse in such a rush, not paying any attention to where she was going.

It was because her inattentiveness, that she found herself sitting in the mud, students filing past her, having walked straight into something quite solid. Her bag had went one way, her folder the other and that left her in the middle, sitting on the ground like an idiot.

'Sorry!' she stuttered, not bothering to look up, but grabbing her bag from the ground before the damp could soak in through the material and soak everything inside, and before it got completely covered in mud. Reaching for the folder, she found a hand get to it first.

'Thanks,' she said, looking up to find herself staring into the most magnificent chocolate brown eyes she'd ever seen. And, if she wasn't pulled back into reality, she was sure that she would have got lost into them.

'No problem,' she heard a familiar voice say. The voice of Oliver Wood.

'See you later,' she mumbled quickly, hurrying off towards the castle, not daring to look behind her, and not stopping until she reached the portrait of the fat lady.

Mumbling the password, she entered without a sound and headed straight to her dormitory. She discarded her bag in a corner, and put her file on top of it, before changing out of her school robes and into something more comfortable.

-:-

At half six she left the Common Room in her quidditch robes, wanting to have a bit of time on her own to warm up before everyone else arrived.

As she reached the quidditch pitch, and mounted her broomstick, and proceeded to fly in wide circles close to the ground.

It took her a few minutes to realise a single figure standing on the ground, watching her fly, her hair flowing behind her in the wind, like an angel, he though, watching her every move carefully.

The magic in her graceful movements were lost when she noticed him watching, as she headed straight to the ground, her anger visible.

'How long have you been watching me!' she demanded as soon she she'd set foot on the ground, marching towards him.

'Long enough to know you don't fly half as good as that at practice,' Oliver shot back. 'I was on my way here when I bumped into you.'

Unsure of what to say, Katie merely glared at him, before turning around and stalking into the changing rooms. In silence, she sat on one of the uncomfortable benches, staring at the plain white wall in front of her, taking note of all the patches where the paint was starting to peel off.

'Katie,' she heard a voice call, but it went silence after she didn't respond. 'Sorry . . .' his voice trailed off as he entered the changing rooms and he sat down on the bench beside her.

'For what?' Katie asked coldly.

'For everything,' Oliver said, his voice full of concern. 'I want to know why you've been so distant lately. I'm worried about you.'

'It's complicated,' Katie mumbled as an answer, not wanting to take the subject any further. 'Anyway, you'll find out when the times right.'

'And when will that be?'

'I don't know . . .'

'Hey Oliver. Katie,' the unnaturally cheerful voice of Fred sounded from the doorway, killing the mood as he often did. 'Ready for an exciting practice!'

It was hard to tell whether he was being sincere, or sarcastic, but neither of the two had the energy to take the subject any further and follow their suspicions, so left the changing rooms to find the rest of the team in the air and already starting warm-up by throwing a quaffle around in a circle.

'Let's just go straight into a match!' Oliver called to his teammates, mounting his broom and taking off after Katie.

Teaser

'Hagrid . . . That's the Forbidden Forest . . .' Katie stuttered, edging away slowly.

'Not scared, are you Katie?' Oliver asked, clearly mocking her.

'No,' she replied.

Happy New Year xD!

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