Two Falling Stars

The October-gray sky smeared across the horizon, tinged with barely-there wisps of scarlet and azure at the edges where the sun was sinking below the horizon. Angelina wheeled her broom over the Quidditch pitch, which looked smooth and soft in the fading light.

"How about this?" Katie shouted, a few yards above her head. Angelina looked up, and watched her best friend climb tentatively to her feet, arms outstretched and a crazy, lopsided grin on her face as she teetered on the handle of her broom.

"That's easy, Katie," Fred scoffed, grasping the broom handle and hopping expertly onto it, gripping the edge with his feet.

"We were doing that at five," George agreed, following his twin's movements until he, too, was standing atop his broom. "Angelina?"

The brown-haired girl laughed at them, and spiraled to their level. She grasped her broom handle and dropped her legs over the side, until they flailed in thin air. Then, twisting her wrists like a gymnast, she flipped her body forwards and jumped, landing perfectly on her feet on the broom handle like a cat.

Katie clicked her tongue.

"Always the show-off," Fred grinned.

"That's me," she said, flashing her friends a quick smile. They began to laugh.

"FRED! KATIE! GEORGE! ANGELINA!" Oliver roared, a thousand feet below them (it seemed) just a tiny dot on the Quidditch field, waving his broomstick angrily. "I told you before - I will NOT tolerate any PIG games during practice! Get down here, you four!"

"Oh, Oliver," Angelina groaned. "You're no fun!"

Winking at her friends, she hopped back onto her broom and sped towards the ground. In a few moments, she, Fred, George and Katie were landing lightly on the soft grass of the pitch. The team's captain, Oliver Wood, was shooting them enraged glares, Quaffle tucked under his arm. Behind him, Harry struggled with his boots. Angelina noticed their other team-mate, Alicia Spinnet, standing quietly behind Oliver, face set impassively, her warm sea eyes betraying no clear emotion as her gaze settled on the daring brunette.

Angelina felt her stare, and felt the sudden urge to say something.

"Now," Oliver said, interrupting her thoughts. "Let's get down to business. The match against Slytherin is next week - and, in case any of you have forgotten - we MUST win!"

"Loosen up, Wood," Fred snickered. "There's no way they can beat us." Immediately the chestnut-eyed Keeper whirled around.

"That's exactly the kind of thinking that will get us fried on Thursday, Weasley!" he roared. "No slack! We will not give an inch! We cannot get comfortable!"

I believe in miracles

"Okay, Oliver," Angelina said, assuming a take-charge voice. "Consider it covered. Last night, I took the liberty of coming up with a fool-proof plan for victory." Oliver raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, sure," she shrugged, feeling Alicia's eyes on her even more now. The team drew in around her. "It's pretty simple. The Slytherins have an awful offense - everyone with half a brain knows that. Their Chasers can hardly compete with our speed, and most of the time they're left in the dust." Oliver nodded slowly. "So they rely mostly on their Defense, right? Which happens to be bloody good. Cheating aside, their Beaters can send a Bludger the length of the field if they want, and their aim is dead on. So what we have to do, is stop their Beaters."

"Angelina," Oliver sighed, "we've gone over this. Quidditch doesn't have room for tactical Beater strategies. The rules force us to handle them blow-by-blow."

"That's where you're wrong, Wood," she grinned wickedly. "Okay, the Beaters main objective is...?"

"To hit a chaser, of course," Fred piped up. "I mean, from a Slytherin's point of view."

"But from a Gryffindor perspective?"

"To protect the Chasers," George said.

"Exactly. My plan is: Forget the Chasers. Let us fend for ourselves." Jaws dropped.

"What? Angelina! We can't do that!" Fred exclaimed.

"That's ridiculous!" Oliver roared. "You'd be toast!"

"Not if the Slytherin Beaters were too busy protecting themselves from Fred and George's Quaffles to bother with us," she said, a glimmer in her eye. Katie's face broke into a wide grin and she whooped loudly.

"And we have a winner!" she yelled. "Yes! It's perfect!" Even Wood was grinning.

"Can you handle that, Fred and George?" he asked the twins. They raised their eyebrows at him.

"Hell yeah," they chorused. "Sounds like some bloody good fun."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," George rejoined.

"But guys," Alicia started, her voice with that worrying edge to it they knew so well. "Madam Hooch will see right through that - you'll never get away with it."

I believe in miracles

Since you came along

But nobody was listening to her, they were all too caught up celebrating Angelina's ingenuity. Nobody, that is, except for Angelina.

*

Where did you come from, baby?

How did you know I needed you?

You know, I needed you so badly

Did you know I'd give my heart gladly?

Angelina curled up against the arm of her chair, feeling the warmth of the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room as the hour neared one in the morning. The hands that held her Transfiguration textbook were going numb, and every few moments, she would shake herself awake again, and plough on through her reading.

Katie, Fred and George, her 'best friends', had gone to bed hours ago, chiding their friend lightly for spending more time perfecting her flying stunts and sharing in the twins' pranks than she did on her homework. Of course, none of them were exactly model students either. Fred and George were habitually falling asleep in class, and Katie was often getting detention for being 'insolent' and 'irresponsible' with her academic priorities.

Angelina smiled to herself, thinking about her friends and each other their individual roles in their gang. Katie was the rebel - always talking back to a teacher, instigating brawls with other students (especially Slytherins) and bucking authority. She was the kind of girl who enjoyed a good fight (and certainly held her own in one, too) and, though toting a thin mean streak that often caused her to pick on the younger years, was a loyal friend behind her tough exterior.

George was secretly a brain. He was the thought behind most of the Weasley's schemes. There was nothing he liked better than coming up with a scheme to sabotage the Slytherin Quidditch team's brooms or break into Filch's office. Fred, on the other hand, was definitely the daring in the Weasley duo. He didn't do anything unless it offered a certain kind of thrill. Falling under that category was, consequently, attempting to break every single Hogwarts rule in the book and making out with Katie in the back of Charms class. (Which, Katie protested, only happened once, on a dare!)

Angelina put down her book and gazed into the fire, momentarily forgetting school work. If Katie was the rebel, George the schemer, and Fred the prankster, than what did that make her? The answer came easily. She was the exhibitionist. Anybody who knew her well would swear she'd do anything for a crowd. Growing up in a large family, a sort of overlooked tomboy who felt estranged from her straight-laced, do-gooder siblings, she had discovered the wild child inside her after meeting Katie and the Weasleys. A little bit of Katie's irrepressible audacity, and the daring madness of the twins, added with her own repressed craving for attention, had formed Angelina into a regular show-off. She laughed loudest, flew highest, dived fastest (well, except for Harry) and was, in any group, the unspoken leader.

Shedding her shy shell, she had stepped into the Hogwarts' limelight - not in a Prom Queen kind of way, but in her own, devil-may-care, excitement-addict kind of way. She had come to ascertain the thrown of Gryffindor easily, with a mix of suave coolness and the aura of mysterious danger that seemed to follow her everywhere. From an outside, it would seem like she had it all - three loyal friends, popularity, all the attention an unruly girl could want, and the respect of an entire school. But in truth, Angelina knew she had nothing near the perfect life.

In truth, she was lonely.

It was an odd way to put it, but it was the truth. Her friends had grown up - Fred and Katie had started drifting away at evenings to the Astronomy Tower, and even George had little time for her, in between Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and making eyes at some Hufflepuff bombshell. More and more, it felt less like The Four of Them, and more like Just Angelina. Whereas before she was flanked by her friends at all times, sometimes she looked over her shoulder to find no back-up, or she blinked and suddenly Katie was flying at some Slytherin and she didn't understand why, anymore. She had drifted away, closed herself up, bored and lonely, feeling the desperate claw for attention even stronger now.

One would think that an exhibitionist would be happier without complications like friends to have to share the spotlight with. But Angelina found exactly the opposite. Now that she was drifting from her friends, she only had her crowds - attention, yes, but in a way that was faceless and droning - nobody seemed to possess the eyes to see Angelina for herself, they only saw the daring stunt, the thrill, the risk. There was only one person who Angelina thought still saw her for her - and that was Alicia Spinnet.

Alicia Spinnet.

Quiet, serious, coolly observant, slightly snobbish. When they had joined the team, Alicia had been somewhat of a veteran, who seemed to obviously think too highly of her skills. She was a good girl, focused on her grades, responsible, friendly, but a little aloof. The Four had immediately labeled her a 'weird snob' for her outlandish robe colors and cold distance. Everyone assumed that all six of the original team were inseparable - no one guessed that the Four secretly steered away from Alicia, not being mean to her to her face, or treating her like an enemy, but constantly shoving her out of their circle, reminding her of how she didn't belong with them. Angelina felt a stir of guilt. She had, in fact, been the leader in this endeavor. She was ashamed to admit that Alicia was another hapless victim of her quest for attention, a pawn abused so that Angelina could feel better about herself - as if, in comparison, Angelina had more friends, or belonged, so that made her better.

Things had changed. Angelina had gone from secretly loathing Alicia to being genuinely intrigued with her. She played life as a solitaire, a loner, but seemed pleasantly complacent with her situation. Every night, she resigned herself to studying alone in the corner, and falling asleep to the music of the other girls' secret whispers - every morning she ate alone, studied alone, sat alone in class. She hardly smiled, except when Angelina caught her eye and sent her an impulsive grin (it seemed to be nothing she could control, when she locked gazes with the lonely girl, her face seemed determined to smile), which she returned. Angelina pretended to shrug this off, but in truth, Alicia's smile set off fireworks of strange emotion inside of her, so strong they seemed almost visible - as if an electric current was passing through their stares, alighting the room with a fiery vibrancy that anyone could have felt.

I believe in miracles

Since you came along

Angelina sighed, letting her head sink into her hands. She tried to quell the strange feelings she experienced when she exchanged smiles with the solemn Chaser, but watching her fly brought out a breathless awe she couldn't ignore. Her own style was so brash - so aware. She had perfected her skill in obsession, but her moves were still jerky and stylized. But Alicia had a rhythm, a bold beating like a heart, like the bass of an old blues song. She flew with a natural grace, a comfortable perfection that made you believe her home was in the air more than on the ground. But the best thing about Alicia's flying was how she knew - she knew she was good. She didn't know she was being watched, that everyone's jaws were dropping at her aerial ease, but her head was held high. She didn't need recognition. She had a power, a potency...a self-assured confidence that shook off everyone else's opinions, good and bad, like rain on a roof.

Angelina closed her eyes with a deep sigh. She froze as she heard the slight creak of the stair behind her.

Where did you come from angel?

How did you know I need one

You know you're everything I craved for

Every night and day for

"Hello? Katie?" she asked, closing her book and rubbing her bleary eyes hurriedly.

"It's just me," someone said. Angelina twisted around in her chair and squinted at the figure who was moving down the steps. Wearing her Quidditch practice gear, broom slung over her shoulder, Alicia was wearing her blue-rimmed glasses, face set in solemn determination. As always, her façade was confident and verging on neutrally icy. But Angelina could see the shine in her sea warm eyes, and the slight alarm in her voice.

"Hey," was all Angelina could bring herself to say. She smiled for lack of every other word she could have said. Alicia tripped off the last step, caught her eyes, and grinned back. For a moment, the air twisted, electrified, and Angelina felt shivering sparks of heat running up her blood in bright colors.

"Late night study session?" the girl asked.

"Late night flying practice?" Angelina rejoined. Alicia swallowed defensively.

"You really should be in bed, you know," she said, holding her chin up.

"I could say the same for you, too," the brown-haired girl shot back coolly. The other girl looked down at her with fiercely indifferent eyes.

"That's different. I'm a Prefect," Alicia said. "I'm allowed to be out."

"Yeah," Angelina snickered, rolling her eyes. "On the Quidditch field? Sure. You must have a hell of a time convincing McGonagall how much flying is helping your depression." Immediately she wished she hadn't said it. Alicia's eyes hardened. The blonde girl's depression was common knowledge, naturally, in the Tower, but she had never meant to speak of it so nonchalantly.

"What do you care about what I do to help my depression?" Alicia asked. Angelina looked up at the girl's eyes, saw the challenge there, the fierce depth, the concentration and determination that ignited something wonderful inside of her - but most of all she saw the honesty, the openness, the hope. Taking a deep breath, she stood up, letting her book slide off her lap and land softly on the floor.

//Do you even know who you are?

A rising dream or a falling star?

Is life good to you or is it bad?

Do you even know what you have?//

"I care," she said, meeting her teammates' stare with clenched teeth. "I do."

"Sure," Alicia mocked. "I've heard that before." Her voice was spitting contempt. Angelina took a step forward, not knowing what she was doing, enclosed in a whirl of vertigo, warm from Alicia's presence.

Looking into her teammates' eyes, she took her hand, pale, traced with slight freckles.

"But I'm telling the truth this time."

"Why?" Her voice was angry now, tinged with bitterness. "Why? You never cared before. You only cared about your little happy friends. Why?" Not knowing why -

"I'm alone." She waited a moment and looked up at Alicia's face. She was expecting to meet cold hardness, but was met with warm blue brimming with the sea.

"I guess," she said, her voice quiet and unsure, "that makes two of us."

Her hand pulled them closer, till their faces were so close, and their lips were touching, but neither moved, paralyzed by fear.

"This could really suck," Angelina considered.

"We could just hurt each other," Alicia agreed.

"I may not be in love with you," she whispered, closing her eyes. "How should I know what love is?"

"Open your eyes, Chaser," Alicia hissed. She did, and found herself overwhelmed as the sea spilled from the other girl's eyes, in deluges of salty warmth, running down the soft freckled skin of her face, down across her lips in rivers. The eyes that submitted these tears were fierce and strong, brave, alight with electricity.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid," Angelina choked, her fingers winding tighter around the other girl's hand. "I don't know how to deal with pain."

Her eyelashes fell as the other girl leaned forward, clasping her other hand with confident strength, and drew their bodies together, claiming her mouth with a kiss.

"Trust me," she whispered. "I do."

I believe in miracles

Since you came along

~fin~