It's a Fine Line
CHAPTER III
Written by*: Laura and Utopia
With two loud 'Oooph' s, the two clumsy Ravenclaws crashed together, sending Maria to her rear onto the floor, and Liam dazedly across her body, piled in a great heap. Liam's face was in the dainty nape of her neck, his mouth separated from her skin by only the long blue-and-bronze knit scarf that she had wrapped cozily around herself. Her smooth black curls were splayed out on the floor now from when she went down, seeming to become a pleasingly stark contrast to the white marble of the grey-flecked ground beneath them. For a moment, all the supposedly intelligent wizard could do was hold his mouth open ajar, glazedly meeting her flecked blue eyes with his, feeling her underneath his chest. Wow, those crystalline blue eyes. Images of the sea flashed into his mind, memories of standing on an icy shore, feeling the salty breeze stick in his wavy hair, lazily combing the beach with his mother, before his little brothers came into the world. It was a time of peace and affection that he was remembering, the one time during the divorce in which Liam could remember his mother actually being happy to be rid of his father, who had left. It was a good memory.
All at once, the boy came to himself and shook his head, embarrassed at having held eye contact for so long with a girl he had just knocked to the ground, and he scrambled to his feet, picking up her papers and stammering his apologies in nervous chattering, going on and on about nothing.
"Anyway, I-I'm really v-very sorry, Maria!" He said, knowing that his Irish pallor was now probably stained a deep cranberry shade, a quality his mother and he shared when they were flustered, and the teenager hugged the pretty girl's notebooks to his chest, trying to steady his nerves that had been shaken up twice by being knocked to the ground in the last five minutes.
"I'll m-make it up to you; how 'bout I carry these?" he gestured to her things that he was holding, with a sort of shrug that helped him get a better grip on the items. Among the stack were a bunch of romance novels, one actually being the crimson-and-gold covered book he had only just put down. There were a million school books as well, but the fact that she appeared to enjoy romance stuck out in his mind. Why would she read this stuff? He bet that her boyfriend wouldn't like it… because a girl with a face like hers wouldn't be able to remain single for long. There were a lot of guys on the Quidditch teams who teased eachother to ask Maria out (he was the bludger-fetcher for one semester in his third year and had had multiple dealings with the jocks in this way), and Liam was sure she was tied down. Not that love ever lasted, anyway. He straightened up and brought his eyes to hers again.
"Wh-where were you h-h-headed to? I was headed to the tower. You're in my house right?" he asked stupidly, although he had failed to connect the colors of her scarf with his own house, "O-or aren't you Slytherin, l-like your twin, Thomas?" He gulped as he said that, realizing that if she were a part of either house which was located in the dungeons he would surely not be brave enough to take her all the way down to the dormitories, at least not without running virtually the whole way. As he was afraid of the ghosts that made their homes down there, the Ravenclaw always avoided the place… not to mention the Head Boy for Slytherin, Thomas, would probably corner him on the way back and finish what he had started in the Library down there, where no one could see. Liam was so lucky he was a Ravenclaw, considering that the creeky old tower was cozy for him, up where the owls perched, keeping half-hooded eyes out for squeaking rodents in the grassy fields that swayed in the nocturnal breeze below. Good thing the brunette was only claustrophobic, not acrophobic!
The girl was really very pretty, the curly haired brunette noticed, and he really wondered about her race. Her accent was French, and her nose probably should have tipped him off about that, as well, but her skin was dark and her cheekbones abnormally high and jutting. Her dark hair, ebony with small natural strands of dark chestnut, was curled and made her mane bounce attractively just above her shoulders. Just what sort of people were in the twin's bloodlines was not apparent on either's face, though they were probably religious, considering Thomas had such long hair. Possibly Indian or Native American? Their skin was so dark, though… like coffee with honey and cream.
*Disclaim: Hogwarts and canon characters are owned by J.K. Rowling.
A/N: word count is 805.