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FIC: Existed (Colin/Romilda)
Title: Existed (1/13)
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Colin Creevey/Romilda Vane
Fandom: Harry Potter
Word Count: 547
Summary: There is a marked difference between noticing and registering, and Romilda has never paid proper attention to a boy who wasn't worth the latter. Thus she thinks it's pretty safe to say that until this moment, Colin Creevey has never really existed for her. rarepair_shorts prompt 1: never really existed.
Notes: Link to prompt table.
It would be a lie to say that she has never noticed him before. The population of Hogwarts is hardly large enough for students within a year of each other not to cross paths, especially if they're in the same house. It's likely that they've even spoken before, short exchanges in the corridors, at the house table: excuse me; pass the eggs, please; sorry; thank you.
There is a marked difference between noticing and registering, however, and Romilda has never paid proper attention to a boy who wasn't worth the latter. Thus she thinks it's pretty safe to say that until this moment, Colin Creevey has never really existed for her.
Everyone in the compartment stares at him now. He doesn't make for a very impressive figure -- lanky but not tall enough to make up for it, hair a faded mousey colour, eyes a wash-out brown; he is nowhere near the black-haired hero with blazing green eyes that Romilda fantasised about all of last year. Yet he stands unwaveringly under the hostile glares of her four tormentors.
'We've been looking for you, Romilda,' he says -- a blatant lie if she's ever heard one. They've never been on friendly, or even first-name, terms before. 'Come on, we have a compartment already. You don't have to stick with this lot.'
'Think you're tough, Creevey?' snarls Gregory Harper. 'Don't suppose you'd like it if the Muggle-born Registry were to hear tell you're on the train.'
Creevey ignores this, his eyes focused only on Romilda. Come on, his gaze says clearly.
Fetching her trunk under the threatening eyes of the four Slytherins is nerve-wracking, but somehow, Romilda manages it. Creevey doesn't lift a finger to help her; nor do the Slytherins to stop her. She realises as she heaves her trunk out the door that they are throwing wary glances at Creevey's wand hand, which is at the ready.
'Eat dung, Harper,' she snaps, bold again now that she has an escape route. She doesn't look back to see the Slytherins' response.
Out in the corridor, Creevey helps her lug her trunk along. They don't say a word. Creevey seems to sense that the whole encounter has quite shaken Romilda and that she needs to compose herself. Despite her fantasies of being saved by a hero -- and her imagination was always quick to conjure up romantic images of Harry Potter snatching her from the jaws of death -- being cornered and having her family threatened by Harper and his cronies is more terrifying than anything she's ever dreamed up, and Creevey's timely intervention has inspired greater relief and more gratitude towards him than she wants to admit. He may have saved her, but he's still at the bottom rung of the social ladder.
Yet instead of simply thanking him and heading off to find her usual companions, she pushes her trunk halfway to the end of the train to Creevey's compartment to join him and a bunch of students she's always considered nonentities. She tells herself that it has everything to do with her relief and the fear of meeting more hostile Slytherins and nothing to do with the warmth of Creevey's smile and the welcome in his eyes as he extends a hand to invite her in.
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Colin Creevey/Romilda Vane
Fandom: Harry Potter
Word Count: 547
Summary: There is a marked difference between noticing and registering, and Romilda has never paid proper attention to a boy who wasn't worth the latter. Thus she thinks it's pretty safe to say that until this moment, Colin Creevey has never really existed for her. rarepair_shorts prompt 1: never really existed.
Notes: Link to prompt table.
It would be a lie to say that she has never noticed him before. The population of Hogwarts is hardly large enough for students within a year of each other not to cross paths, especially if they're in the same house. It's likely that they've even spoken before, short exchanges in the corridors, at the house table: excuse me; pass the eggs, please; sorry; thank you.
There is a marked difference between noticing and registering, however, and Romilda has never paid proper attention to a boy who wasn't worth the latter. Thus she thinks it's pretty safe to say that until this moment, Colin Creevey has never really existed for her.
Everyone in the compartment stares at him now. He doesn't make for a very impressive figure -- lanky but not tall enough to make up for it, hair a faded mousey colour, eyes a wash-out brown; he is nowhere near the black-haired hero with blazing green eyes that Romilda fantasised about all of last year. Yet he stands unwaveringly under the hostile glares of her four tormentors.
'We've been looking for you, Romilda,' he says -- a blatant lie if she's ever heard one. They've never been on friendly, or even first-name, terms before. 'Come on, we have a compartment already. You don't have to stick with this lot.'
'Think you're tough, Creevey?' snarls Gregory Harper. 'Don't suppose you'd like it if the Muggle-born Registry were to hear tell you're on the train.'
Creevey ignores this, his eyes focused only on Romilda. Come on, his gaze says clearly.
Fetching her trunk under the threatening eyes of the four Slytherins is nerve-wracking, but somehow, Romilda manages it. Creevey doesn't lift a finger to help her; nor do the Slytherins to stop her. She realises as she heaves her trunk out the door that they are throwing wary glances at Creevey's wand hand, which is at the ready.
'Eat dung, Harper,' she snaps, bold again now that she has an escape route. She doesn't look back to see the Slytherins' response.
Out in the corridor, Creevey helps her lug her trunk along. They don't say a word. Creevey seems to sense that the whole encounter has quite shaken Romilda and that she needs to compose herself. Despite her fantasies of being saved by a hero -- and her imagination was always quick to conjure up romantic images of Harry Potter snatching her from the jaws of death -- being cornered and having her family threatened by Harper and his cronies is more terrifying than anything she's ever dreamed up, and Creevey's timely intervention has inspired greater relief and more gratitude towards him than she wants to admit. He may have saved her, but he's still at the bottom rung of the social ladder.
Yet instead of simply thanking him and heading off to find her usual companions, she pushes her trunk halfway to the end of the train to Creevey's compartment to join him and a bunch of students she's always considered nonentities. She tells herself that it has everything to do with her relief and the fear of meeting more hostile Slytherins and nothing to do with the warmth of Creevey's smile and the welcome in his eyes as he extends a hand to invite her in.