RP: The British National Pastime
Date: 17 March 2005
Characters: Katie Bell, Cedric Diggory
Location: St. James' Park, Exeter, then dinner
Status: Private (albeit in a public place)
Summary: Cedric & Katie go to a football game, rather than a pub, for St. Patrick's Day.
Completion: Complete
( The British National Pastime )
Characters: Katie Bell, Cedric Diggory
Location: St. James' Park, Exeter, then dinner
Status: Private (albeit in a public place)
Summary: Cedric & Katie go to a football game, rather than a pub, for St. Patrick's Day.
Completion: Complete
( The British National Pastime )
Katie waited for Cedric to set the food down, before she unpacked the dishes and casting warming charms on them. That should last until they came back in. "Who needs a microwave when we have this 'technology'?" she pointed out, placing the last charm on one of the chicken dishes.
Accepting the track bottoms Cedric rummaged around for, Katie found the washroom to change. The bottoms were much too large, but a shrinking spell later, and they were practically tight. Much easier than rolling them up, since they'd be more than likely to slip down with any sort of activity. She would just have to counteract with an engorgio later, and they should be as good as knew. She would have made some comment on how they smelt like him, but in all honesty, they just smelt like laundry soap.
Exiting the washroom, she unzipped her red sweater, contemplating taking it off as she headed back towards the kitchen. It wasn't like they were playing a full game, but the activity should be enough to keep her warm in the sports tank in the relatively nicer weather. Besides, the zip up sweater limited movement. Deciding, she took it off, hanging it over the kick of the kitchen chair. That was what warming charms could be used for if need be.
Katie kicked the ball experimentally on the kitchen floor while she waited for Cedric. Attempting to do one of the fancy moves she had seen the players do, popping it up in the air, she accidentally broke a mug sitting on the counter top. Glancing around guiltily, she cast a reparo quickly, setting the fixed mug back on the counter when Cedric came in. "Ready?" she asked brightly, standing in front of the mug.
Reply
But coming back downstairs to find her waiting, he about choked. Was she trying to kill him, dressed in that tight, white, half-backless thing? And what had she done to his bottoms? They ... weren't baggy. In the least.
"Merlin," he muttered under his breath. Yeah, there wouldn't be any problem learning to let himself notice her physical charms -- not if she kept dressing like that. And summer was coming. Thank heavens his own bottoms were on the loose side.
"All right," he said, ducking into the kitchen to grab a pair of green tea bottles to distract himself. "Let's go and play ball."
He followed her out, and kept his eyes on her back, not her bottom -- although bare like it was that wasn't much better. But the scars on her arms and the hint of one wrapping from her side made him frown. He'd never really asked her how she'd got them, or the one on her cheek. The war, no doubt, and most people didn't like talking about the war, but he couldn't resist rubbing his thumb down one of the more obvious on her left arm. He didn't say anything, just frowned slightly. Then he snatched the ball from her before anything got too heavy and took off with it across the back garden of the bookshop, laughing. Of course, he was supposed to be using his feet but he hadn't wanted to risk accidentally kicking her hand.
Dropping the ball onto the grassed, he waited for her to catch up, then kicked it away from her. "Steal it, Miss Bell."
Reply
At his comment, she raised her eyebrows at the challenge, grinning, "Like that's going to be a challenge Diggory. I should give you some kind of handicap, although that seems fairly impossible with football. Maybe I'll let you use your hands to even up the playing field." She really didn't know how not to be competitive sometimes.
It took a minute for Katie to get the ball, with the tangle of legs she was scared she was going to trip him, but she poked it away almost by accident, letting out a triumphant cheer and pumping her arm, kicking it now herself, between her two feet. When Cedric lunged, she kicked it with the inside of her left foot to the right side of her body, crossing over around him, and kicking it straight forward between a tree and the house - a distance that comprised about six feet. "Goal!" she chucked as she yelled the words, knowing that hadn't been quite their aim, even as she grabbed her wand and muttered, "accio ball," bringing it back.
"Try to make it at least a little difficult," she winked impishly, using her knee to bounce the ball of in the general direction of Cedric, crouching in a ready position.
Reply
"Difficult you want, is it?" he replied to her challenge, determined to make a better show of things. She might be in better shape, but he had longer legs. When she leapt forward after passing him the ball, he kicked it sideways away from her and chased it down, getting there first, to kick it away again. That worked fairly well, until he started running short of breath, then he tried to block her from it, back to her almost like basketball, but she just ducked under his arm and snared it with the side of her foot and she was off again.
Trying to get it back from her was quite a challenge. "I don't even know where my goal is!" he shouted at one point, grinning, and tried kicking it through the same spot she had, but it just bounced off the house and thank goodness it hadn't hit anything or Hermione would kill him. Then again, that's what Reparo was for. "Damn," he said as she raced to get it and there was no way he could catch up to stop her from kicking in through.
"I'm making a rather sad show, aren't I?" he called, leaning over, palms on knees, to catch his breath. He was starting to sweat a little. "This is actually sort of hard to do."
Reply
She'd had the right of it at the game, football was much more fun to play than it was too watch. After she'd kicked it through the "goal" another time, she glanced back to see Cedric leaning over, catching his breath. Guiltily, she dribbled the ball back towards him, wondering if she was pushing this too hard. They were just fooling around, but she was used to going fairly full out doing things, and that might be occuring here.
"You okay?" she asked, trying to pop the ball up and balance it on the top of her foot, grinning when she succeeded, "And, neither of us are ready for the football world cup, yeah? I've probably got the skill level of a little kid as well. I," grinning, she popped the ball off her foot to land on the ground, "just don't care."
"Come on old man," Katie teased, knowing he was only a year older than her, as she kicked the ball back and forth between her feet, motioning with her hand, "See that large bush over there? You stop me from getting there with the ball and I'll...okay, no idea. I'll let you insert an appropriate wager. Not that I think the your decision will matter." Challenges like that were the only option, it was hard to play any kind of game against one another with only two people.
Reply
At her challenge, his mouth dropped. "Old man, is it? Ha! You're on. And I have no idea what to wager -- ah" -- he frowned -- "Oh, never mind. Make me desert sometime, or give me a backrub or something. What do you want if you make it?"
He waved at her to start. "Bring it on, Bell." So it wasn't really a British saying, but he'd picked it up in Canada.
And she did bring it on. She clearly had no intension of losing this, and he had no intention of letting her win, either. It was fun, and he was grinning, but it wasn't without an edge of adrenaline challenge either and they were banging up against each other mostly because they weren't really good enough to dance in to steal it otherwise. He was intent on using his weight and height and she was intent on using greater agility and speed.
Naturally he wound up tripping her, or she tripped him, he wasn't sure which, but they both went down on the grass, he on his arse and she half sprawled over his legs and ... she was really close. And that was ... a lot of sweat-damp skin on her back that he was staring at. He bent and blew on it, half to be silly, half to distract himself from the reaction in his underpants, coming on as quick as a blush. The ball had rolled somewhere off to the side; he should have been thinking about getting to it first. Instead, he was watching her recover.
Reply
She shrugged before lunging around him, laughing when her hip bumped into his. She'd just tossed the bet out there, and she supposed pride was as good as anything for motivation. She was grinning the entire time as she tried to get past him, both from the exertion, and because they were both so obviously horrible at the skills part of football. She was certain it was his foot that got tangled up between hers, sending them both to the ground, her half on top of Cedric.
It was awkward and embarassing for her, positioned like that, and she went to push herself up, placing her hands on the ground when she felt Cedric blow lightly on her back. For a moment she'd thought she'd imagined it, but a quick glance over her shoulder proved other wise. It felt....she didn't know how it felt. It was just air - air from his mouth - but it and the proximity, and the feel of his body under hers, made her body react in ways she didn't quite expect. She could recognize it for desire, and it shocked her.
Scrambling slightly, Katie pushed herself off him, getting to her feet. "Clumsy," she joked lamely, straightening her top. Pausing, she looked down at Cedric, just staring for a moment. She'd not thought of him in that respects often - having relegated him to 'friend' in her mind a long time ago. And, she was sure he thought the same. Shaking her head, she broke her stare, knowing she was being obvious. Leaping over him, she went off to get the ball while he still sat there, dribbling it quickly towards the bush.
"I win," she said with a smile, kicking the ball back towards him, but the response wasn't quite as jubliant as before. Now she was just thinking of his suggestion of backrub from earlier. "But I don't require a boon. I've already got you painting a mural for me."
Reply
"Bloody hell!" But he was laughing, hands on hips. "And no boon? That's very Gryffindor of you -- all for the pride of winning," he teased.
Walking over to where he'd left the tea, he tossed her one. "I need a break." And he plopped down on the grass, opening the bottle to guzzle half of it. He was definitely sweaty now. "I have a feeling I'm actually going to have to practice some of that stuff before I can do it. Imagine that -- it doesn't just come naturally?" He chuckled and flopped back to look up at the sky, arms behind his head. It had turned into a relatively nice day after some cloud cover that morning. The sky was very blue.
"It's good just to be outside. I am so ready for spring." He turned his head slightly to look up at her. "What's your favorite summer thing to do, Bell?" Back into the competitive spirit from the game, her last name fell off his tongue without thought.
Reply
"And what, there's something you're not immediately good at?" Katie twisted open the bottle, "Colour me shocked?"
Sipping at the tea, she looked down at Cedric where he had laid back. "Favourite summer thing Diggory?" She rolled her eyes at the use of the last name. "I don't know. I was always a big fan of swimming - but rarely had the occasion and opportunity to do it. But, I like most things you can do in the warm weather. I've never been much of a winter person - for me, snow is only good for seasonal atmosphere."
"How about you?" she asked lazily, setting down the bottle and lying back beside him, looking up at the sky.
Reply
When she warmed the ground, he smiled up at her. "Thanks. And yeah, there are quite a few things I'm not good at, even after long practice. But others ..." He waggled his eyebrows and let it trail off, only belatedly thinking that flirting with her might not be the wise course but it was too easy, and too much a part of their interaction and he was not going to let himself start changing things. Was he?
No, he wasn't. So he just grinned wider.
"Swimming's good," he replied in answer to her query. "Flying, obviously. Climbing trees. Um ... actually, I just like being outside, so any excuse. I like fishing, too. I have a pond on my property. It's not quite big enough to really swim in, or not beyond wading. Most of the time it's no deeper than my chest. But it has lots of little bluegill and occasionally something larger. My dad used to stock it with a few things, but mostly now it grows frogs and mosquitoes." He chuckled.
"And yeah, I'm with you on winter, mostly. It's cold and dark and a bit depressing. Autumn's all right, but I could skip right over winter. But snow is good for snowball fights," he pointed out, bottle in hand, sitting up a little to drink more.
Reply
Laughing at Cedric's comment she adjusted her head on her arms, determined not to find it weird 'going there', since it was hardly the first time they'd done so. Just because she was having some stray thoughts, it didn't mean anything. "Although I'm sure the girl at Hogwarts was disappointed, but I'm glad for the rest of them you improve with practise," tilting her head towards him, she winked, "And what fun practise it is."
Listening to his list, she agreed with the enjoyment of some and not with others. "Merlin it's been years since I climbed a tree - at least since my early teens - and in that case it was climbing down from my bedroom window. Functional rather than fun."
"How is it going with your property?" she asked, staying lying back when Cedric sat up. "Have you made any progress about getting the house rebuilt?" Looking around at the scenic area around him, she continued, "I do like the cottage here - a lot. But, it's not yours, is it? And, it is small." Scratching an itch on her nose, she added, "Of course I'm the one who's living in a flat that could fit into the bedroom of my old place."
Reply
"I'm also not the least bit modest, am I?" -- which just made him laugh harder.
At her admission to not having climbed a tree, he rolled up on his elbow. "What? No climbing of trees? That will have to be remedied. I have a couple of good ones, up at my place."
At her question about his property and moving back there, he resettled on the grass. "Ironically, I just spoke with Dean this morning. He thinks he can rebuild it pretty much like I'm hoping, and within my budget. And even have it done by autumn. So I'm really looking forward to that. We can walk down there sometime and I'll show you the place, and the blueprints Dean drew up."
Glancing over his shoulder towards the cottage, he said, "No, it's not mine. It belongs to Hermione, Ron and Harry. Hermione just insisted I move there when it was cold this winter, rather than keep living in the tent. I mean, it was a Wizarding tent, so pretty large. But even so, it had no real heat and the Warming charms tended to wear off by morning so it was as cold as Fury's tit when I got up. The cottage has a nice fireplace. But yeah, it's small, comparatively. Smaller even than the tent was, but it's warm. And I couldn't have kept living in the tent while they were working on the place.
"But it is, well ... a bit odd now. With everything. I do make a point of seeing Hermione in the shop, when I buy my papers. Haven't seen Roger, though." He shrugged, not really wanting to talk about that.
"What about the house you grew up in? I've talked about mine before, but what about yours?"
Reply
"Have you contemplated moving?" she had to ask, knowing it couldn't be easy living right by Roger and Hermione. Thinking about it that was part of the reason she couldn't think of Cedric in that way - besides obvious reasons like possibly ruining a friendship, and her just ending a relationship. The other man had fallen hard for Hermione, and still was far from over it. "I mean, not that you have to, but...well, have you considered it?"
It was easy enough to picture her family home, even while glancing at the cottage that was a fraction of it's size. "Big," she said with a laugh, "Opulent. A bit ostentatious in my mind. And a million other adjectives that mean the same thing. It's lovely, has an elegance to it, but it's not exactly homey. One get's used to it growing up there - but my childhood friends and I always tended to meet at their houses rather than mine."
"It's a family estate, in every sense of the word," Katie said, casting a glance at Cedric, "the grounds, the home - it's about the history of the family. Merlin, we had a portrait hall. Once I started school, my running joke was that the majority of things in the house were older than Dumbledore - which at the time meant a lot to me."
"My favourite room there though was the library," Katie told him, "not for the books, I tended to avoid most of them. But it's atmosphere was what I liked best about it. Stuffed armchairs for sitting in, and big picture windows. Outside of my own room which I could do what I wanted with, it was one of the few places I enjoyed being when I couldn't escape outside." It was also the one place she had spent evenings with her parents where they were all comfortable together. Shaking off the memories, Katie asked, "How about you, was there that one room that felt like 'home' to you?"
Reply
Leave a comment