To the best of your ability, and in no more than 500 words, respond to the following challenge:
Using the five randomly generated words below, write a short drabble that truly captures your strengths as a writer:
-Pursuit
-Compatible
-Obstruct
-Gunfire
-Tantalizing
At first, it really was all in the pursuit. But that little spark of something when she laughed with Severus Snape was impossible to miss, even from the corridor where he stood, transfixed.
The first time he became aware Hogwarts even had a library, he became aware of her.
Oh, certainly he'd noticed her before. Noticed the tantalizing way the light would dance upon the burnished copper of her hair, the startled look in her eyes when she would glance up, perhaps feeling his gaze, and the immediate scowl that would then bloom upon her pale, freckled face. Certainly, he hadn't missed her lack of appreciation for his Quidditch victories, her scoff of disapproval when he and Sirius fooled around, the way she spent every spare moment she had with Snape –not because she had no other choice, but because she wanted to. But seen her? Actually looked at her, and found something in those gleaming green pools that made his heart twist and his stomach suddenly drop into his shoes? That was the first time, and he was horrified to discover, nowhere near the last.
He was very much conscious of the fact that they disagreed on virtually everything –what he considered confidence she considered arrogance, what he saw as harmless fun, she saw as disobedience, and what he thought was disloyalty, she thought was justice.
More importantly, however, they agreed perhaps too forcibly on one particular matter: friends come first. Always.
So every time Snape glanced darkly at Remus, every time the Slytherin made a menacing comment about Sirius' family, every time Snivellus laughed at Peter's expense, the dirty grease-ball paid for it. Dearly.
And every time he raised his wand, she'd be there to obstruct him. Their arguments were in every way like gunfire. They shot at each other with carefully-prepared ammunition, and by the time it was all over they both felt battered, full of holes they couldn't see. He'd be disgruntled, she'd be indignant, and then both of them would storm off in opposite directions livid and hating each other and completely in disbelief that the other could be so daft and yet –
And yet, when days had passed since their last row, he would feel the stirrings to do something, anything to set her off again. Steal her Charms essay, light Snapes' robes on fire, and yes, even ask her out to Hogsmeade. Her cheeks would tinge pink and her eyes would narrow, but if he wasn't entirely mistaken, she was relieved and grateful and just as excited as he.
Because when you're compatible with someone, truly compatible, it doesn't matter that her best mate's out to kill you, that you reenact her conversations with Slughorn in falsetto during lunch, or even that sometimes, you'd like nothing better than to throttle each other.
For you can dig in your heels, fight the will of the universe, but still it will inevitably drag you to each other, two halves of an imperfect, but beautiful whole.
READ AND REVIEW!
This 500-word drabble was written as part of an application for the HEXRPG Project Ink Contest. I actually ended up with over 600 words and about four different versions of the same thing until I finally managed to cut it down to EXACTLY 500 words, so I'll probably be putting up the longer ones sometime in the near future. Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading it! I know I had a lot of fun writing it.
Leenie