[OPEN] That'll Show 'Em

Ace had outsmarted the weather.

She wasn't sure why, but she had woken up with the distinct feeling that she was going to get unfairly caught in the rain. Her dorm-mates had snickered, she could see it in their faces, as she donned her bright yellow raincoat. The rain had cleared up for a few days, and the sun was streaming through in the Great Hall for breakfast. But Ace's instincts had rarely led her astray and she pulled the coat around her, refusing to take it off. They could say whatever they wanted. She wasn't getting caught in the rain. Not today.

It didn't catch her at Herbology. Nor did it catch her at Care of Magical Creatures. The sun warmed her skin through the Charms class windows.

And then, during her free period, as she went on her usual walk, devouring an apple as she went, it happened. A drop. And a drop. And a drop. And suddenly, a downpour. Ace smirked flipping her hood on as she passed by a pair of Hufflepuffs, grinning widely at them. Who was laughing now?

There was a roar of thunder and she picked up her pace, ducking her head to keep her face dry. As she went through the corridor, other students were rushing for cover, since none of them were wearing raincoats. Idiots.

That's when it happened.

Her foot slipped, and it skidded slowly, and suddenly her leg was lifting into the air, and she was sliding forward, and she fell backwards.

The whole seeing stars thing was an over-exaggeration, but she definitely saw bursts of light from behind her eyelids as her head connected with the cobblestone, her tailbone immediately beginning to develop a bruise, uniform soaked. She could hear laughing but that wasn't what bothered her.

She didn't have to look. Her bag had broke on the fall. Her books were soaked.

She slapped the ground. "DAMN IT."

“I find your coat very beautiful.“

The girl, all wet from the rain, was among the other students in the hallway, studying Ace. Although she had had an unfortunate falling that amused the others, Rose was not laughing along for several personal reasons. Her hand moved up to push away the wet hair clinging to her cheeks and foreheads before she approached the other Hufflepuff, but instead offering her hand there, she picked up the books, scattered all around the floor, and put them back into the bag before taking a seat right there on the floor.

Rose studied the bag, although the look in her dreamy eyes only screamed ’distant’ as she did so. A moment later she opened her mouth:“This is not bad. Actually I can fix it if you’d allow me to.“

Only then did the brunette look at Ace, as if remembering that the girl in the raincoat was not simply resting on the floor, but she had slipped and fallen. She probably gathered several bruises here and there too. “Oh my! Can you get up? Should I call for a professor to help you? How many fingers am I holding up?“ Rose then proceeded to lift her hand and show her two fingers while curiously looking at Ace. The other looked alright to her, but there was always a possibility of internal damage, no?

Merlin, her entire body was aching. She knew that as the day went on she was only going to get more sore, and the night would only deepen the pains. But if anyone were to see her chugging pain potions, it would only double down her reason for embarrassment. She didn't need that on top of her usual criticisms from her peers. Hell, she prefered the other critiques. At least they didn't imply she was weak.

And the hat thought she couldn't pull of Gryffindor. She certainly had the pride.

She heard a voice as she pushed herself up, the stone ground biting into her wrist as her other hand reached up to run a hand through her hair, pulling it out of her face as drops of water streamed down her forehead and nose. Did someone really think she gave a monkey's arse about her coat now? It had never been a fashion statement, it had been an emblem for her own ability to somehow predict the future. But a lot of good it did her now.

She dropped her hand as the girl offered to fix the bag, finally turning to squint at whoever it was had decided to venture from the safety of the crowd. Figured. Gold always had that peaceful zen-like quality that Ace would probably never understand, and certainly never possess. Frowning, Ace said, "Less worried about my bag and more worried about the books."

It was then that Gold remembered that Ace was on the ground not by choice, and that her fall had been involuntary. Ace blinked a few times, looking at the girl as though she couldn't be serious. She swallowed back a wince and grumbled, "I'm fine." She placed her hands on the ground and shoved herself up, when her ankle suddenly twinged and she dropped back down, catching herself before she really got hurt. "It's fine. I just need to shake it off."

Rose's dark eyes studied Ace's features with bright interest and care. She frown on the other's face, even slight grimaces that she tried to hide - she was not even sure from whom! - were a clear evidence that she was in a lot of pain, but Gold knew Ace's character. Even if she'd offer her couple of herbs to relieve the pain, the sixth year would most likely not even accept the kind gesture.

She hummed quietly, letting that sink in for a moment. Despite knowing already what the other one might say, she made a mental note to prepare her at least a cup of tea to ease the uncomfortable feeling after the fall.

She smiled slightly at the mention of the books and opened the bag to take a quick look over the cherished equipment. "They are all fine," she informed after a while before getting on her knees.

Rose gasped quietly and rushed back to Ace's side, although the other managed to prevent herself from getting hurt once more. Again, Rose hummed quietly before completely settling down next to Ace. "Take your time, Ace!" she smiled at her softly before digging into her own bag and retrieved a small box. A sweet scent of cinnamon filled the air immediately and then she opened the box:"Apple pie. Would you like some? I made these myself."

Supposedly her books were all fine, but her Potions book looked as though each page had hungrily absorbed as much of the puddle as it could, and she knew it was going to be an absolute pain to get it back to normal later, after the pages had all dried and crinkled. Right. Like she needed another excuse to bug Christian. She needed her own book. She couldn't go the semester borrowing his.

The fact that her feet seemed more than a little unwilling to support her weight didn't seem to phase the other girl, and Ace found a strange suspicion welling up inside her. She didn't... get people like this. People who just seemed so at ease and willing to go with the flow. She wanted to say nice people, but that wasn't it. Christian was nice, and she thought she had him figured out - more so than she had anyone else, anyway. No, it was the whole at-one-with-the-world thing she didn't get. Clementine Lovegood was the same way.

Freaked her out,

Ace was just the opposite. She could see a fight in every news story, felt a revolution with the changing of the wind. If the roles had been reversed, she would have flopped the injured person over her shoulder and hauled them off to get help.

Not offered them a - a pie? Really?

Ace blinked at the girl, trying to remember her challenge to be more... approachable. "I... no. Thanks."

Thank you was approachable, right?

Rose turned her head suddenly as she felt Ace’s stare. It was not exactly antagonizing, but she could read out the fact that the other girl was not specifically fond of her presence there. Well, in her opinion she was better than some Slytherin who would most likely make fun of her. But as she looked around, Rose realized that they were being left alone by the witnesses. Perhaps they got bored of looking at Ace and her taking some of the space on the floor.

She tilted her head just to look back at Ace and smile at her confusion. Regardless, her denial was a rather polite one, which she came to believe was a rarity. Guess today was her lucky day?

Positioning herself a bit more comfortably, Rose nipped at the edge of the pie while pulling her own bag closer and then drawing small circles on the floor. “You know... while I do not mention this to anyone, I can cast healing spells. I think the most simple one should do the trick on you, considering I did not hear a crack when you fell? Hmmh... That depends on you though. I understand if you wish to rest. I can lend you my scarf and you can use it as a pillow if you wish, but I would keep my cape since it is quite cold...“ And, as if to confirm her own words, she pulled the collar closer to her chest, but even then her warm smile did not waver.

Anyone who knew Ace knew that she hated to admit defeat, and had a bit of a pride problem when it came to admitting that she needed help. She'd rather stew in quiet, unnoticed failure than reach out and share a success with someone else. It was something she was working on, something she had gotten much better at ever since she reached out to Christian Zabini. A lot of her had gotten better since she reached out to Christian Zabini.

Not that he needed to know that.

She wasn't sure she could call what this girl was doing help, though. It was all done with a helpful nature, but rain was still dropping onto their heads, Ace was still more or less collapsed in a puddle, her bag was soaking, and her ankle was throbbing. Gold had offered her a pie. Not exactly the most helpful thing right then.

Ace wanted to tell the girl to shove off so she could limp to an alcove and wait for the pain in her ankle to subside so she could limp back to her dormitory to lick her metaphorical wounds. But she and Christian had been talking about ramping up recruitment, about actually extending themselves, and here was a Housemate with a sense of duty.

Ughhhhhhh, fine.

"Either a healing charm, or you could help me out of the rain," Ace suggested, hating the way the words felt in her mouth. "Preferably both."

Rose looked over Ace, the soft and distant gleam in her eyes never disappearing, despite her being soaked wet from the rain. Hair was sticking to her forehead and some flower petals had fallen from the strands to her shoulders, but she paid no attention to them.  She did not mind at all being wet, though. To her it meant being showered by the nature itself and the magical aura surrounding Hogwarts probably cleaned the raindrops from all the toxins carried to them from the muggle world. And even if it didn’t then shower and a good shampoo always did its job in the evening. Corncern was a rare thing in her, nor did she really bother herself with that negative emotion even when Ace was there – on the ground.

As young witches, they’d be able to fix anything. And if not, they always had the possibility of going to the hospital wing!

Finally she smiled. Despite apparently being against such a thing as ’asking for help’, Ace succumbed to her offer and Rose could not be happier to assist her house mate. She twirled her wand once again before gripping it tightly and pointing it directly at Ace’s ankle. “We will get out of here, don’t you worry!“ she announced before casting ’Episkey’. Then she reached out to touch her leg, but her fingers caressed it gently. It was a simple healing spell and it should have worked on Ace’s leg. And considering she did not notice it bending in an unnatural way, Rose dared to believe there were no broken bones either.

Well – hopefully not.

“How does it feel? Does it hurt?“ she wondered before getting up and picking their bags too. “If it still hurts, I can carry you to school.“

Ace rarely heeded the advice of others, but she was a good daughter, and a good daughter tended to stick to the wisdom imparted unto her by her parents. It had been Hannah that had said healing spells were only to be done on oneself if there was absolutely no way around it. Something about a friend giving herself a botched nose job when trying to stop a nosebleed. Ace conveniently forgot her father’s healing advice, to only let professionals handle healing spells - relating, of course, to one Harry Potter and an armful of jelly.

So as much as she hated asking for help, she trusted her mother’s words, rapidly trying to come up with some sort of plan in the meantime. She knew she was venturing into risky waters, but she felt desperate to bounce back from her embarrassing failure, and something in her, an instinct for justice, was telling her that there was an opportunity before her if only she’d stretch herself…

Ace felt the ache lift from her ankle and she stood, shakily putting weight on it. Completely healed. Despite herself, the corner of her mouth lifted briefly, before dropping, her eyes glancing towards the other girl. “Thank you. I appreciate it. We should probably get out of the rain.” She hurried for cover, before turning to look towards Gold, shaking her coat free of rain and reaching up to run her hands through her hair.

She reached out for her bag to take from Gold and cocked her head, “You… like helping people. Right? I mean, everyone pretty unanimously agreed that I earned that fall, but you offered to help, rain be darned.”