Post-Rescue

Natalie felt herself get picked up and carried off by the boy from the Quidditch pitch. He was oddly strong for an eleven year old, but she did not object, since it was a free ride up to the castle. Plus, she might get to make a new friend.

She felt the ride get a little bit smoother, meaning that they were no longer traveling on the uneven grass of the grounds and had moved to the stone of the entrance courtyard. It also meant that her ride was over, before he actually got her to the hospital wing and she had to explain what happened.

She opened her eyes and grinned up at the boy. "Hello!" she said cheerfully.

After hopping down and brushing little bits of dirt and grass off her uniform, she looked back at him. "I'm Natalie Olivier, and you didn't look like you were enjoying yourself at all back there," she introduced with a bright smile.

"I'm perfectly fine," Natalie assured him. "You just looked like you could use a hand to make a getaway."

She couldn't really comment on how the girls had been acting, since she didn't hear them. She wasn't even sure she knew their names. "Can you imagine if I'd told them that the Frazzlegorps were building an army? That would have been funny," she giggled. "Of course, they are building an army, but they're completely harmless. I think," she added as an afterthought.

She shook herself out of her thoughts. "So Landon Montgomery, why were you talking to them in the first place if you weren't enjoying yourself?"

Natalie nodded in comprehension. "How peculiar. Perhaps the Frazzlegorps have already gotten to them... That would be bad," she considered going to the Headmaster's office to warn him, but she brushed it off. "Highly unlikely, though. I can't see how Frazzlegorps would be attracted to Ravenclaws. They hate the color blue."

She realized she was getting off track again. "I've never played Quidditch before. I've never even been on a broom before," she said. It seemed like they were in for a nice chat, so she decided to make herself comfortable at the base of the statue of Cornelius the Confused.

Natalie was surprised that Landon didn't know about Frazzlegorps. "They are tiny creatures, smaller than a fruit fly, and if they somehow get inside you, you have irrational reactions to everything that happens to you. There was a witch in Bath who was infected, and when her boyfriend proposed to her, she jelly legs jinxed him and slapped his mother," she said quickly with a nod of certainty. "I'm not really sure what else they like or don't like. Still doing some tests."

She thought about the one time that her mother had tried to teach her how to fly. At the time, she had been six years old and absolutely petrified of heights; she had ended up wrapping her arms and legs around a tree in their backyard and not moving until her mother put the broom away and went inside the house. "I don't think I'd like it," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Too high for me."

Natalie cocked her head to the side and looked at Landon, then burst into a fit of giggles. "You're funny, Lando. Can I call you Lando? I'm going to call you Lando," she grinned.

Her stomach grumbled loudly but food could wait for the time being. Talking to Landon was far more fun than going to the Great Hall or the Kitchens to eat.

She listened attentively as he explained the delights of flying. It sounded like he really loved it, which Natalie found admirable. It was important to have a passion for something in life. "Who says humans can't fly?" she asked. "Have you ever tried?"

"A few years ago?!" she said incredulously. "That's rubbish. How do you know things haven't changed since then? You have to check regularly. You never know what could happen."

She got up off the base of the statue and looked around for something she could jump off. The closest thing she could see was a small bench. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. "Come on," she said, grabbing his arm and dragging him to it.

Using his shoulder for leverage, she climbed up onto it. She held out a hand to help him up. "Come on, we're going to try to fly," she said with a grin.

Natalie smiled widely as Landon joined her on the bench. "Alright, you jump that way," she pointed, "and I'll jump this way," she pointed in another direction, "that way we won't hit each other when we flap our arms."

She took a tiny step away from him, as far as the bench would allow, so that they would be less likely to slap each other. "Ready? On the count of three. One... two... three!"

On her final word, she lept from the bench, flapping her arms like mad. Unsurprisingly, she landed on the ground with a tumble. She should have been disappointed by failure, but instead, she just laughed.

"Anything?" she called to Landon, still laying on the ground.

"Thanks, Lando," Natalie said as he helped her to her feet.

She brushed herself off for the second time that day. "Well, look on the bright side, nothing is broken, and we proved two things today. One- people still can't fly, two- gravity still works!" she said cheerily. Far too many people focused on the negatives in life. "We're being pretty darn productive, I'd say. A lot of people don't accomplish this much in a month, let alone one day, because they simply don't try."

Her stomach grumbled again, no longer ignorable, but she was having so much fun with Landon. "What do you say to going to get something to eat?" she asked.

Natalie raised her eyebrow at him. "Cheeky! Scientific discovery always makes me hungry."

She looked at the arm he offered to her as if she had just watched it sprout from his body. "Don't be ridiculous," she said.

She grasped him by the shoulders and turned him around so he was facing the doorway. "Ready?" she asked, even though there was no way he knew what to be ready for. Then, she leaped up onto his back and locked her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

"To the Kitchens!" she declared, quite pleased with herself for managing to get two free rides from him that day as he set off for the kitchen, hardly bothered by the extra weight on his back.

(OoC: permission to god model was granted by Landon)