Fluke
By Ginny :)
I wrote this for no reason on earth, really. I was just looking through my saved work, and found this mouldering away, and decided to continue it.
I'll have you know that this won't be propperly romancy [I'm sure once you meet the main charactor, within 1/2 a page, it will be pretty obvious why...], partly because I don't want it to be [heck, that would ruin tha 'plot', such as it is], I can't write romance to save my life. Not in a million years. I just don't see the world that way... as will be clear to anyone who knows exactly how I got my 1st b/f [long story, and, I imagine, painful. Well, it was for him. It involves bycicles, and my inability to steer in straight lines ^_^] ANYWAY, I don't expect you care, and I'm rambling.
I own everyone in this, except Tom Riddle, pretty much. I think so. If I'm wrong, just pretend I mentioned the person in question, too... :)
READ & REVIEW!!!!!!!!
Ginny :)
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"Fluke!"
"What?" Fluke Astley was a pale 4th year at Hogwarts.
She was small, but still managed to look gangling. She wore a
permanently neurotic expression, and tended to be rather silent,
although some people put this down to swank, rather then shyness.
"Having fun drawing again? Hark at the next Picasso!"
Fluke's best- friend- sometimes, Pitty Edwidge commented, an ill-
disguised sneer to her tone, tossing her hair back over her slim
shoulder.
Pitty had used to be Fluke's best friend, but that was last year,
before she decided that she was above such things. And, with her
curtain of shimmering black hair, large dark eyes and pale skin,
she undoubtedly prettier then Fluke and her own untidy brown tangle
and equally dull brown eyes. Fluke had watched her only friend
turn on her with a kind of mild despondency. It was only what
she had always expected.
"Go away, Pitty," Fluke leant back down to her task
of drawing an elaborate unicorn, aware of the sniggers from nearby
students. She knew they all thought that she was a loner and a
loser, a dull Hufflepuff nobody, always hunched over a sketch
book, her forever ink stained fingers working on some new picture.
No one ever saw what she drew. Fluke refused to show anyone, including
Pitty. Especially Pitty.
Maybe if they saw what she was drawing, they'd stop their crowing,
but Fluke doubted it. It wasn't as if they cared anyway.
"Stop being such a little Nora NoMates, Fluke Astley!"
Fluke chewed the end of her quill, and regretted it as she got
a mouthful of feather, "Go away, Pitty."
"Fine. No skin off my nose," Pitty shrugged, and wandered
off to join the
rowdy group of cooler students then her friend. They moved on,
leaving Fluke to herself. The library, where she worked so attentively,
now otherwise empty.
Fluke was beyond caring. Carefully, she began to add in more detail,
trying to make the delicate creature she was committing to paper
become more lifelike, so that it seemed to shine with real intelligence,
real beauty...
"Gosh, that's so good!"
Fluke snapped her notebook shut quickly, blushing.
She blushed even deeper, when she saw whom it was that had made
the compliment. Tom Riddle. Tom Riddle, tall and good-looking,
striking with his pronounced turquoise eyes and charismatic mop
of untidy hair. Fluke had never really talked to him, just seen
him sitting at the Slytherin table with his fellow 5th years.
"It's nothing. Just a sketch..." she mumbled, embarrassed.
"It's really great, especially for 'just a sketch'. Let me
see," he held out a hand expectantly, but Fluke clutched
her sketchbook to her, acutely aware of her now very pink cheeks.
"Thanks, but..."
"Aw, come on, Fluke," -how did he know her name? - "I've
already seen one drawing. What harm could a few more do? I'm not
going to laugh."
He had a point. Fluke loosened her grip on the book, still unwilling.
No one had ever seen her drawings. They were... well, personal.
He kept his open palm out in front of her, waiting. Reluctantly,
she handed it over. She didn't know why she did. Maybe she trusted
him, despite the fact he was a Slytherin.
"Crikey," he let out a low whistle; "You've got
a talent for this."
"I, er... thanks. No one else seems to think so."
"Well, they're obviously blind, then. Where are your friends?"
"They... had to go." She wasn't about to admit to this
boy that her 'friends' were currently off sniggering about her
in the Hufflepuff common room.
"Ah," he nodded "never mind. People can be so fickle,
you know?"
Fluke nodded. She knew.
Tom Riddle sat himself down next to her. Fluke's insides seemed
to do a little jump. Did he really want to talk to a little nobody
like her, when he could so easily find one of the pretty, popular
girls?
Apparently so.
"What year are you in, Fluke?"
"4th year. The one below your'n."
"You look younger," he said, smiling slightly. Fluke
shrugged. She had always looked young for her age.
"Wish I looked older."
"Why? I think it's sweet, like," he said, his sea green
eyes sparkling. Fluke went roughly the same colour as a tomato.
"Th- thanks."
"Don't you normally hang around with that girl with all the
long black hair?"
Fluke nodded, a little reluctantly. This would be what he wanted;
to get to know pretty Pitty Edwidge through her, plain Fluke Astley.
It wouldn't be the first time. She waited for him to comment on
how nice Pitty looked, but he didn't.
"She has too many teeth. It makes her look like a vampire!"
he said instead, making Fluke giggle stupidly, "and she's
not much of a friend, if she leaves you like this."
"I'm not like her. She doesn't like me any more." Fluke
didn't mean to say it, but the words just came. Maybe it was the
sympathetic look on Tom Riddle's face "she's so much prettier
then I am, so much more popular... I wish I were more like her
and less like me, and... oh..." she stopped, realising how
pathetic she must sound.
"No, you're fantastic," he informed her sincerely, "You're
pretty, you're cool, you're nice, and, you're much better at drawing
then she ever could be. So, an added bonus!" He laughed lightly.
Fluke didn't know what to say to this.
The bell rang.
"'And, lo the fatal bellman ring stearns't goodnight',"
he said, getting to his feet, rolling his eyes.
"Pardon?"
"You don't know Shakespeare?"
"Um. Not much," she admitted shyly.
"It's just a quote from 'Macbeth'. Ignore it."
"Oh...."
"Do you come here every day?"
"Uh- huh, usually."
"I'll have to come and chat more often," he gave her
a bewitching smile. Fluke felt her insides turn to butterflies,
and tried to think of what to say to this. Nothing came to mind.
"Well, be seeing you, Fluke."
"Goodbye."
And he was gone.
Gosh.
Dear Diary, 20th September, 1948
I have decided to keep a record of my life from this day, a week
into the new school year, because, as my Divination teacher, Professor
Delphi, the crazy old biddy, said, "innneresting toimes ahead
for ye, young Fluke, arr, indeed! Innneresting toimes!" then
she laughed so hard her false eyeball fell out into Pitty Edwidge's
cup of tea that she was supposed to be drinking.
Pitty is supposed to be my best friend. Her real name is Portia,
but no one calls her that. She's very pretty, with Mediterranean
looks and a slim figure, not stick- like, like me, but she has
only half as many brains. I know I'm not clever, so I'm hardly
the one to talk, but she is worse. Maybe it's just laziness.
On the plus side, Tom Riddle, the best looking boy in school likes
me, not her! Yes, me! Boring little Fluke Astley! Hah! That's
one in the eye for Pitty!
I wonder if he just felt sorry for me? I do so hope not. He seems
so nice, sweet, and charming. He liked my drawings, too.
The only thing I'm any actual good at is art, and of course,
we don't learn that here at Hogwarts, though I do try and keep
it up, sketching when I can.
That's the thing about being a Hufflepuff ; you're nothing special.
Ravenclaws have all the brains. Slytherins are cunning. They say
there is a very thin line between bravery and stupidity, although
most Gryffindors rather tend to stand on that line. Us Hufflepuffs?
Loyal. That's about it. And hard working is nothing if you're
not clever, scheming or brave. Seems to me, us lot drew the short
straw.Still, you never know, Prof. Delphi may have been right...
'interesting toimes ahead!' and all.
Nothing more to say for today.
~Fluke~
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Please review! And tell me if you find Fluke annoying, please! If I don't post for ages, it's because I've sucessfully got myself grounded. Woopdidoo.
Ting tang diddle eye poe!
~ Ginny :)