Friday at last

[prof_stargazer]

Date: Friday, Oct. 12th
Time: Around 4:00pm
Location: Stella & Caleb's flat, to begin with...
Characters Involved: Caleb Moore, Stella Sinistra
Rating: With these two?  We'll start at PG-13 (and actually stay there!  Wow!)

Stella's week had been nothing short of horrendous.  The students had been out of sorts all week- either cranky or just too hyper.

Comments

[prof_stargazer]

Caleb's laugh was lost on the wind, making Stella smile and laugh along with him. She had nearly forgotten how much she loved this- as someone who spent most of her time looking at the sky, it should have been no surprise that she loved being up in the sky- but somehow it had been far too long since she'd done this. She pulled them high above Hogsmeade, the village growing smaller and smaller beneath them as Stella lazily turned them in the direction of Hogwarts. Her broom was not moving as quickly as usual with the extra weight, but Stella did not mind in the least. They weren't worried about speed, after all- this was purely for fun.

The sky was slowly darkening, the first stars starting to shine. It was a fairly clear night, though there were a few still-lingering clouds higher above them. Stella sighed happily- she couldn't imagine a more perfect evening than being up among her beloved stars with Caleb holding her.

As they approached Hogwarts, Stella had to slow down quite a bit and let go of the broom with one hand as she reached into her robes for her wand. It took her a few moments to adjust the wards surrounding the school grounds, but they were soon passing through the enchantments that surrounded Hogwarts, and Stella steered them to start flying over the forest, at least for now.

"Where do you want to go?" She called back, leaving their flight path up to Caleb.

[wolf_caleb]

Caleb felt like he was flying for the first time. He had the same feeling of thrill and excitement as he had when he flew on his first broom. It was all the better that he was able to share it with Stella.

"Over the lake?" Caleb called in return, loosening his hold a bit now that he'd got his 'broom legs' back. His sense of balance had returned enough that he didn't feel like he was going to slide off the back of the broom at any moment.

[prof_stargazer]

Stella's smile quickly faded at Caleb's request- out of all of the places at Hogwarts, Caleb had chosen the one that Stella avoided at all costs. She'd nearly had a nervous breakdown on her very first day at Hogwarts, simply because the first years were brought into the castle by boat. Soren had made sure that she was in the boat with Hagrid, but she'd still cried the entire way across, her fear of the water overpowering her excitement at finally being able to come to Hogwarts. She knew she'd told Caleb about her fear, but that had been a long time ago, and while she couldn't exactly fault him for forgetting, it wasn't anything she was going to readily agree to do.

"Not the lake, love," Stella called back, shaking her head. She wasn't sure if he could hear the fear in her voice, or if it had been whipped away with the wind. "Quidditch pitch?"

[wolf_caleb]

Caleb had felt Stella tense at his suggestion, and it took a moment for him to realize why. When he remembered her fear of water, he felt horribly guilty that he had completely forgotten about it in his excitement.

His hold around Stella's waist tightened and he pressed his front tightly against her back. "Sorry love," he said in her ear, hoping it was loud enough for her to hear. "Quidditch pitch would be perfect!" he added, louder.

Caleb realized that in all of his time at Hogwarts, he'd never actually flown around the pitch. He'd flown around the grounds, but it seemed that the pitch was always being used by one team or another for practice. It would be interesting to see it all from the players view. "Too bad we haven't got a snitch!" he teased, hoping Stella wasn't upset by his earlier idiocy.

[prof_stargazer]

Stella leaned back into Caleb's embrace, trying to let his reassurance and apology wash away the tension that had seized her at the mention of the lake. She nodded at his agreement to fly over the Quidditch pitch, and Stella turned them in that direction, taking them up a bit higher.

She wasn't sure if a team had practice scheduled for this evening, but she figured they'd best stay high, at least until they figured out if they were the only ones out tonight.

They approached the pitch lazily, and Stella could make out the blue-cloaked Ravenclaw team heading off the field, their practice time apparently over. She decided it would be alright to take Caleb on a low swoop, diving down towards the field before pulling them back up.

[wolf_caleb]

"Remind me that I need to buy a broom!" he cried when Stella came out of the dive. As the hovered over the pitch, he nuzzled the back of Stella's neck. "Thank you love, I needed something like this," he told her, resting his chin on her shoulder.

After the week he'd had, and the odd mood he'd been in, flying with Stella had been just the thing. He felt exhilarated and it was a nice change from the rest of the week.

"I love you," he murmured against her ear, holding her close.

[prof_stargazer]

Laughing again at Caleb's reaction, Stella took a moment to turn her head and pull back just enough that she could give Caleb a quick kiss.

"You're welcome," she smiled, still facing him. "I love you, too."

Seeing that the Ravenclaw team was now off of the field, Stella landed gently, getting off the broom and smiling at Caleb. "Your turn now, love," she smiled, encouraging him to scoot up on the broom. "Take it for a spin- you won't be able to leave the school grounds, but you can have your fly over the lake, if you'd like." Far be it from Stella to deny Caleb something he wanted to do- this was just one thing she didn't want to do with him!

"I'll wait here, and you can come back and get me. And then whenever we're ready to go home we can just land up on my tower and then Floo right home."

[wolf_caleb]

When Stella offered to let Caleb go for a ride on his own, he shook his head. "Not tonight," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and looking out over the pitch. There would be plenty of time to fly on his own, but his time with Stella was limited. "How about we go for a walk?" he asked, stepping back and holding out his hand.

The grounds were quiet and it wasn't nearly as cool as it had been on the broom. In a word, it was perfect. "Is that alright?" he asked, looking at Stella.

[prof_stargazer]

"Perfect," Stella smiled, waving her wand to shrink the broomstick down enough that she could fit it in one of the inner pockets of her cloak. "All ready now," she said, taking Caleb's hand.

The grounds were quiet as they leisurely made their way off the Quidditch pitch and walked vaguely in the direction of the owlery, which was quite a ways off. Stella's gaze flitted between looking at Caleb and occasionally glancing up, smiling as even more stars appeared in the darkening sky.

"It is a beautiful night," she finally said softly, breaking the stillness. "We could not have planned this better if we'd tried."

[wolf_caleb]

Smiling, Caleb released her hand and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side. "I'm not quite ready for winter yet," Caleb admitted, looking skyward. "I feel like I didn't take advantage of the nice weather while we had it," he said, chuckling. "It's hard to think of something like weather when I've got you all to myself at home. Although, I am looking forward to making use of the fireplace," he told her, grinning.

[prof_stargazer]

"Well, we went to the park a few times and had some picnics," Stella reminded him as they walked. "So we didn't waste the weather completely." The summer had flown by awfully fast- it was rather unbelievable that they were already a month into the school term.

"But I am looking forward to many evenings cuddling in front of the fireplace," Stella agreed, returning Caleb's grin.

They walked for nearly an hour- just meandering around the grounds, enjoying the evening. Finally, though, the warming charms on their cloaks started to fade, and Stella was ready to head back home.

"I think our best plan is to fly up to my tower, then we can just sneak downstairs and Floo right home," she said, taking the shrunken broom out of her pocket and putting it back to its correct size with a flick of her wand.

[wolf_caleb]

"The Zoo was rather fun. I want us to go back in the Spring and see what new critters have been born," he said, grinning. "And picnics are always good."

They walked the grounds, managing to avoid students. Of course, that wasn't hard as none seemed to be about. Caleb wasn't sure what kind of curfews and restrictions the students had post war, but they hadn't seen a single once since the Quidditch team had returned to the castle.

When Stella resized the broom, he settled behind her, resting his hands lightly on her hips once they were airborne. They rose up to the tower, and Caleb's attention was focused on enjoying the view of the rest of the castle. At Stella's surprised murmur, he glanced down. Below them, two students were rather occupied with one another at the top of the tower.

Caleb snorted, then laughed outright. "Busted," he whispered in Stella's ear, unsure if he was referring to them or the to the students.

[prof_stargazer]

Stella could hardly believe her eyes when she saw the couple currently leaning against the wall of the Astronomy tower. Since the school had re-opened, Stella had gotten in the habit of setting wards on the tower when she was done for the evening, or when she knew she would be leaving the castle. They were usually just a simple combination of a ward and an age line- that way no students could access the tower, but any professor who wished to could still go up. Apparently, she'd been so distracted after class today that she'd completely forgotten about it before heading home.

Caleb's comment and laugh managed to bring a smile to her face, though, as they hovered above the tower, the students still lost in their own world and completely unaware of their audience on the broomstick. Stella turned her head back, grinning at Caleb. "Just be quiet, alright?"

She took them on a wide arc around the tower, landing on the opposite side of where the couple was currently snogging. "Don't move," she whispered to Caleb, motioning for him to stay silent and still.

Stella buttoned up her cloak to cover her decidedly non-professional outfit of denims and a jumper, and quietly walked around the tower until she was standing next to the door.

"Good evening, Mr. O'Dell, Ms. Kent," Stella said in her very best professor-voice, her arms crossed as she stared at the extremely startled pair of 6th years. "It's not past curfew yet, but I do believe there is a rule that no one is to be up on the Astronomy tower outside of scheduled class times, is that correct?" The two blushing students nodded, muttering "Yes ma'am," as they stared at their own feet to avoid looking at Stella.

"Ten points each from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, then," Stella nodded, gesturing towards the door. "And detention at 8pm on Monday evening." The two students quickly took the hint, rushing towards the door, and Stella could hear them nearly running down the stairs.

"Alright, you can come out now, love," Stella grinned, looking back around the other side of the tower towards Caleb.

[wolf_caleb]

Caleb watched in amusement from the shadows as Stella pounced on the two unsuspecting students. He couldn't image how mortified he would have been if he'd been caught snogging by a teacher. Not that there were many opportunities for getting caught in his case.

When the students hurried off, Caleb finally gave in to the laughter he'd been holding back. "Oh that was fun," he said, moving closer to Stella, grinning. "You're quite scary when you get that professor tone going on," he teased. "I almost felt bad for them. Alright, so I was too busy trying not to laugh to feel too badly for them," he admitted. He slid his hands around her waist, a playful grin on his face. "Can I have detention now, Professor? I promise to be a very, very bad boy."

[prof_stargazer]

Stella couldn't help but giggle a bit at Caleb's reaction, shaking her head as he walked towards her.

"So I'm scary now?" she asked teasingly, her arms looping around Caleb's neck as his hands settled on her waist. "And you haven't done anything to deserve a detention, at least not yet." Stella grinned, raising her eyebrows a bit. "Are you planning on getting in some trouble this evening?"

[wolf_caleb]

"Terrifying," Caleb answered, his attempt at looking serious failing miserably in light of her giggle.

Caleb glanced around, sliding his hands inside of Stella's cloak and grinning. "I don't know," he said, dipping his head to kiss her neck. "The punishment was pretty rough for snogging in the tower," he murmured against her skin. "If we stay here much longer, I think I could get in to all sorts of trouble with you."