Catch The Snitch

There was one problem with being a seer that Colette failed to foresee and that lay with the ball. Her fellow students wished to know for certain if someone would say yes or no to a question, or if things might work out. Even with her words of caution, that trying to pick out what was going to happen for certain from what might was trying to follow one particular ripple on a lake during a rain storm... Students still came to her, whether from desperation, nervousness or anxiety she could not have predicted. Honestly Colette wished the ball was over already and given how everyone seemed to be behaving about it, she felt even less inclined to go than before.

The young woman wandered the ground aimlessly, a serene dreamlike expression on her face. She hummed a rapidly changing tune to herself, one moment it was a jaunty melody, the next a depressing dirge, before switching up to something not quite definable. Colette did not have many friends at Hogwarts, her arrival at the school caused quite a stir, even if someone looked past her abilities as a seer. She was attractive and possessed a French accent which served to make her popular among many of the boys at the school. Though, so far any attempt to draw her attention romantically had failed. Colette spent too often lost in the future or otherwise in her own little world, regardless few people appeared able to grab her attention for very long.

She knew her house was disappointed in her refusal to join the Ravenclaw team, but she had not wished to explain the reason as to why she no longer flew on a broomstick. The vision was an unpleasant one and she held no desire to die mid game anytime soon. After a while, she seated herself on the grass, not concerned about the potential mud stains on her jeans from the ground and started to read from the book she brought with her.

Theo was in his own little world. Like Colette, he had a book. However, he was scribbling notes in his book, tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth just slightly as he seemed to be pacing the grounds. Every once in a while he would look up at the sky, mumble something, then scribble down something else. He probably looked mad to every other student on campus, but he learned from a young age not to pay any mind to those who criticized him or poked fun at him. After all, like his mother said, if someone is unkind to you it's probably because they need to learn to love their self. So the little whispers and giggles were something he learned to tune out.

He didn't expect them to understand when it was the time of year when you could catch a glimpse of the extremely rare to track down exactly when the augurey were moving into the area near the school. He squinted at the overcast sky near the forest and began a brisk walk in that direction. Unfortunately Colette was in the pathway between him and the spot he'd been rushing toward. Theo flew forward, landing face first in the mud. His notebook and his pen went sprawling off ahead of him somewhere. "Oh...drat. Terribly sorry." He began to apologize, those the mud had caked onto his face and he was having trouble identifying who...or what...he'd tripped over.

It felt like a who to him, but you never really knew what you were going to encounter on the grounds. With the luck he was having he'd just tripping over something or something that was not open to apologies from a careless 5th year. "I just didn't see..." Sort of true. He wasn't really looking at where he was going.

A thought unexpectedly interrupted her reading. It was a dream she had a long time ago now, where she found herself sitting on the cool grass enjoying the company of a good book, when someone, unexpectedly tripped over her. The problem was, Colette still happened to have regular dreams, just like any ordinary wizard, witch or even muggle. It felt so mundane, such a regular dream that she entirely disregarded it as something to think about. True, she wrote it dutifully in her diary, along with every other vision or dream she ever had. But she believed it to be something ordinary. However even if she realized that it was more than an amusing actions of a sleepy mind, there were few details she observed or could recall. Colette only realized herself that it happened to be a dream, when someone tripped over her legs and landed with a soft thud in a patch of mud.

She had exclaimed in surprise and shock, finding herself hastily attempting to get up to her feet as she recovered somewhat. The figure who tumbled over her, was clearly a male, judging from the voice. Though with the mud now caking his face, it obscured his features making it difficult to see who he was and his age. "Mon Dieu!" Colette exclaimed, her dark brown eyes full of concern as with one hand she searched through her pockets for a handkerchief. Finally succeeding in finding it, she held it out to him. However, after a few seconds she realized that he might not be able to see properly with all of mud on his face, perhaps it obscured his eyes. "C'est bon laisse moi t'aider." She said as she started to dab at the mud and dirt caking his face. It only just occurred to her that in her surprise and shock, she fell into her native French as she was want to do.

"Mon Dieu!" She repeated, any other student might have been angry with the fact he fell over her or find it amusing he was now splattered with a liberal cover of mud. "Look at you, you're covered in mud." Colette commented, wondering if he was hurt at all. "You're not hurt are you?" Unfortunately, her attempts to help, Colette was mostly serving to move the mud about his face with a now rather grubby handkerchief, a far cry from the gleaming white article of cloth it had been previously.

For a brief moment, Theo thought he'd knocked his head so hard that he couldn't understand words anymore. It took him a bit to process everything going on, but eventually he recognized some of what he was hearing; he didn't understand it, but he knew it sounded French. After things cleared, he would absolutely be thanking her for her assistance, but for now he was struggling even with her help. Her attempt to wipe his face only caked the mud on more. He reached up and scraped the mud off of his eyes, leaving a streak that looked like a mask. "Don't worry, I'm not hurt at all." Theo assured the student, not recognizing her. Of course, he didn't know of a lot of people so that really didn't mean much. "I'm wonderful." He pushed himself up to his feet.

"Are you alright? I'm terribly sorry for how clumsy I've been." The 5th year was genuine and his voice filled with friendliness just as would be expected from a Hufflepuff. "I haven't ruined your handkerchief or book or anything have I?" The look he wore with the mud was nothing less than comical. It coated his front half, but not his back half. He reached into his coat pocket and took out his wand, "Tergeo." He said, and with that the mud cleared itself from him and his new acquaintance. "That's better." He smiled warmly at her through kind eyes. "My name is Theodoric Delacroix, but you can just call me Theo."

Eventually, the pair of them were able to clean him up a bit so that he could clean his eyes and actually see. Colette took a step back, pleased to see that he was somewhat recovered and no worse for where, despite his impromptu mud mask. "I am glad to hear it." She responded, becoming once again her calm and serene self. "I can't imagine the teachers would have been best pleased to have heard that you had hurt yourself non?" She added on, with what might have been her attempt at a rare joke, though finished with the French no. She cocked her head to one side for a moment, as if examining him for another angle might make it more obvious that he happened to be wonderful.

He looked, to her at least like any other teenage boy, save for the covering of mud and the habit of falling over French seers. "Oui I am fine, thank you for asking though." She assured him calmly. Colette glanced down at her book, to her it seemed fine. "Yes it is fine too. Unless you can read French you won't be able to read it." Most of Colette's books were in French, apart from the few from the set Hogwart's list. "Je suis Colette." She introduced herself in turn, complete with a small curtsy, or her best attempt at one whilst in jeans, before pocketing her now clean handkerchief.

"I had a vision of someone falling over me." She stated as if this were a normal thing to say to someone. "I thought it was a regular dream, not something seen through my inner eye." Colette smiled at him. "I suppose even if I had interpreted it correctly, I would not have known that you were that person or today was when it would happen." She fell slightly, a dreamy expression forming on her face as she followed the line of thought through her mind, zoning out as she did so. Colette was an oddity in Hogwarts, both in terms of behavior and accent. The kind hearted, viewed her as quirky, the less so as just plain weird, even for a seer.

Theo didn't seemed phased by her behavior nor her accent. "Well, I'm not sure many of the professors would be surprised," he commented. Lately he'd been very distracted in terms of his surroundings. It seemed he was hyper-fixated on some of his personal interests that just happened to be overtaking his ability to be mindful about where he was moving and who he was running into in the process. This, however, had been been a big enough knock from whatever it was he'd been so focused on that he was actually paying attention to Colette. Until now he'd only really tripped over things, not people. So her presence and her quickness to rush to see if he was okay must have been what he needed to finally snap back to reality. He chuckled at her little joke and shrugged, "I've not been the most graceful lately. At least I didn't fall out of a tree this time." That had been in Hogsmeade. As she cocked her head to the side, he subconsciously tilted his head in the same direction ever so slightly.

Somehow in this brief interaction, he was getting the feeling that Colette wasn't like most of their peers. In his opinion, that wasn't such a bad thing. It was boring to be like everyone else. "Afraid French is not a language I speak--or read--fluently." He paused then added on, "I'm more of a ..er.. well I'm better with alternative methods of communication." Whatever that meant. In his mind it made sense. He was referring to his ability to understand magical beasts and plants. Was it a language? Not officially. But to him it was the same as those who could understand French or some other language. "It's a pleasure to meet you Colette."

The Hufflepuff seemed intrigued by her vision statement. "Vision, you say?" He thought about it more as she elaborated. "I've read about people who have visions. Fascinating skill. Were you born with it or was it acquired through practice?" He hadn't seemed to notice her dreamlike state or perhaps he just thought it seemed perfectly normal. "I've never had a vision myself, but I have heard that there are some rare plant ingredients that can be useful for that sort of thing." His head tilted as she fell slightly, "Are you sure you're alright? Would you like me to sit with you or...take you somewhere?"

It was in no way, shape, or form the right time, but he wasn't always the best when it came to social cues, "Your accent is fascinating, by the way." It was a compliment despite it seeming like an odd thought.

Oh. Do you often end up falling and hurting yourself?" Colette questioned, sounding ever so slightly confounded. She looked at him curiously, trying to see just how and why he kept injuring himself or getting covered in mud for. Colette grinned at his chuckle, she liked being able to make people laugh even if most of the time what she found amusing, no one else particularly enjoyed. "Why did you fall out of tree?" She inquired making it sound as though he climb trees simply to jump out of them. "You cannot fly that way. You need a broom or a levitation charm." The small French girl explained as if that were the only reason anyone might attempt to climb a tree for, flight.

"That is... What is the word, how do you say, a pity no?" Colette commented on his inability to speak or read French. Most people she encountered in Britain did not know her language at all or French people for that matter. The many Muggles she encountered on the way to the train station to get to Hogwarts merely assumed her behavior to be because she was foreign as she overheard several of them mutter. "Alternative methods?" She repeated, sounding fascinating. "Like dance, song or music?" It was a little known fact that Colette could both sing and dance, downside was she only sung in French and it was not anything close to modern music.

At his words, she looked at him strangely, cocking her head to the other side. "What do you mean?" She asked before swiftly saying. "Do you mean to say you find it a pleasure to make my acquaintance? Or do you mean that meeting me gives you pleasure whether I want it or not? Or perhaps you mean it's a good day to meet a pleasurable person?"

His words brought her attention from matters ethereal and back to the material plain, with reality crashing back in manner akin to an ocean wave flooding into a rock pool. She blinked. "I was born with it. It misses generations in my family though." Not that there were many Descoteaux's left now. "I have not taken any plants, most of them are too green." Colette told him flatly as if he had suggested something terrible. "Non non, I am fine. We should get some cake." She said straightening up. "Nothing green though."

Colette never one to understand social cues or appropriate timing nodded the once. "A lot of people say that. Do you mean you find it fascinating or do you mean my accent makes you find it fascinating? Or that I myself with the accent makes it fascinating for you?" She asked him, glancing about her suddenly. "So cake?" She insisted making it evident, she expected him to come with her to the castle in search of a delicious spongy treat.

"Lately? Probably at least twice a week." Theo found it somewhat amusing that she seemed to be asking why he fell out of a tree as if it was intentional. "Well, isn't it--" No. It wasn't obvious. He learned that when he asked Amelia the very same question in Hogsmeade. "I was actually studying some of the shrinking habits of mokes. There's a new study that aims to compare them to occamies. I thought it was a good opportunity to partake in my own studies, but I seemed to have just gotten carried away." Today he'd been scanning the skies for a different type of creature, but he hadn't had any luck up to this point. "Well, to our knowledge we can't fly that way. But who knows if there is some other method of flight that we simply haven't discovered yet." Even Theo lost track of the real reason that he was in the tree now, entertaining the idea that he might just be in the tree to try to fly.

"Yes, it is a pity." Theo smiled and shrugged, "It just depends on what type of creature or plant I'm trying to communicate with. Some enjoy music. Some just like it when you talk to them, and some...well you really have to learn to read their body language in order to understand what they are feeling." He paused and think perked up a brow, "Er...it should be noted that most people would not consider my methods of speaking to creatures and plants to be ordinary."

His head tilted slightly again as he noted that she was peculiar. He knew that he was considered to be a little strange at times, but she was even more so. In a good way. It was entertaining and it challenged any normal thinking patterns to move outside of the norms. "I mean it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, of course. Though I guess any of that could apply--but I--er--" He rubbed the back of his head, trying to sort out some of that bit. Instead, he just gave her a smile.

"Too green? How can anything be too green?" Theo inquired, rubbing his chin. "Green is my favorite color." He blinked at her. Some people might have a filter, but not Theo. "Are your conversations always like this?" By like this, he wondered if she hopped and skipped from one thought to another so quickly often. However, he did agree to cake. Everyone liked cake. "Sure, where would you like to get some cake from?" He, of course, assumed she would know where to get this cake since she brought it up.

"Aren't those...all the same thing?" He asked, then he laughed a little and nodded. "Yes. Lets find some cake." He agreed, nodding toward the castle. "I bet we could sneak into the kitchens for some cake."

"You aren't very good at tree climbing then if you keep falling out." Colette pointed out, wondering if he needed some lessons in climbing trees in order to avoid tumbling out of them so often. He could only do so for so long without sustaining some injury or worse. "Are they real?" She inquired, listening to his every word, but she was clearly not particularly knowledgeable on her magical creatures as he. "Sounds exciting though, you setting up your own study." Colette pointed out, even if he kept being brought back down to earth with a thud. "Oui I suppose if you keep up the habit of falling out of a tree you might find out." Colette smirked at him, with an amused gleam in her eyes as if she thought the idea of him trying to fly in such a fashion distinctly funny.

"Ah, oui merci beaucoup." Colette responded quickly. "It sounds similar to divination, to a degree, it can be hard to explain concepts, thoughts or feelings to those who's minds are trapped in the material realm." A mysterious air infilrating her voice as she spoke. "Don't worry, I'm am sure you're as ordinary as I am." Colette attempted to reassure him, ignorant entirely of the fact that many viewed her to be anything but ordinary.

"Oui, it is likewise a pleasure to meet you to." Colette replied, with a single nod of her head before returning his smile. "Monsieur I have eaten no green plants to receive my visions." She insisted, still retaining her smile however. "Besides, I find several of them to be... Disagreeable." She clarified, though furnished no further information on the topic afterwards. Just what plants or vegetables bothered or otherwise concerned her so much, she kept to herself. "I like the colour blue, the same shade as my Beauxbatons uniform." Colette handed him her own favourite colour, if he wanted to like green, then all the power to him.

"The castle. Maybe there is some in the Great Hall or the kitchen? I can also talk to the chefs and inquire if they can cook some dishes from France." She turned to face him, suddenly very animated. "Why you have not lived till you have tasted Vichyssoise Soup." Colette stared at him expectantly as if hoping he were to say he loved the dish.

She titled her head to one side again. "Perhaps. You are the one who likes my voice after all so you would know?" Colette countered mysteriously. "Oui, then we can ask the nice House Elves if they can please cook some French dishes as I am feeling homesick as well as in the need for cake." She declared as if this were a normal pairing.

Some may be offended by her direct nature, but Theo was simply too aloof to take anything she said in a serious matter, let alone think she was insulting him. Colette had a point anyway. "No, I'm afraid I am proving to be very bad a tree climbing actually," he admitted, taking her observation into mind. "I'll just keep practicing. They say if you do anything enough you should, in theory, get better at it." So it was decided. He would continue to climb trees if it meant he would get a glimpse of some rare, or even some ordinary, magical creature. He may even climb into a tree to get a glimpse of a completely non-magical creature. "But of course they're real!" He laughed, his eyes wide as he tried to decipher if she was joking. In his mind, everyone was knowledgable about these sorts of things. Theo found her amused glance to be equally as amusing as she found the image of him trying to find an alternative to flying with a broom.

"Quite ordinary," he nodded, in agreement. Theo seemed oblivious to the fact that anyone might find either of them to be quite the opposite of ordinary.

The young Hufflepuff smiled brightly as she stated her pleasure to meet him. It wasn't often he got that sort of reaction. However, his face contorted in confusion of the disagreeable greens. Part of him was tempted to question her further on the matter, but his mother would not approve of him prying into a ladies personal business, so he chose to let it slide. "Beauxbatons. That would explain the accent," he said, sounding like he cleverly got to the bottom of a great mystery. "Why did you come to Hogwarts then?" Theo inquired. So much for not prying onto a ladies business.

"Oh yes, there is always something to eat in the kitchen. I prefer visiting the kitchens over the Great Hall," he admitted, "I sometimes sneak to the kitchens rather than sitting through meals. I enjoy talking with the house elves, they're lovely." He raised an eyebrow, "Vish-whatchie soup?" He had never heard of the dish.

His cheeks turned a bit pink. He didn't recall phrasing it in such a way, but it wasn't incorrect. It was a lovely accent. That faded fairly quickly though, as he had another confused expression on his face. "I often feel homesick...is cake a remedy for that feeling?" With that, the two began walking toward the Great Hall. He would lead her toward the kitches, as it was a route he was very familiar with. Coincidentally, it was also right near his own common room.

Colette tilted her head at him, seeming to stare at him or through him for a long moment. "Oui I suppose that is true though I'd recommend you be careful to avoid potential injuries." She cautioned, the last thing she suspected anyone might want would be to end up in the hospital wing. She shrugged her shoulders at his declaration that they were. "Do you... Erm... Have the evidence to support that?" Colette inquired, merely asking due to her own curiosity rather than an attempt to be mean. "You were saying you fell out of trees and then fell over me, maybe you have hit your head and seen things?" She seemed to examine him closely as if searching for any potential sign of injury or trauma.

"Fantastique." She beamed at him happily, a broad smile on her face, happy he believed himself to be ordinary and not weird for liking what he enjoyed. "Oui oui, it probably does explain the accent. A side effect of growing up in France." Her voice sounded somewhat wistful, but she was here and no longer a student an Beauxbaton. "My father he is a designer of broomsticks." The young teenager answered. "He was offered a job and did not wish for me to be in France by myself so... Since he moved, so did I." A brief flicker of sadness flashed with those dark brown eyes, only to be replaced by her usual calm serenity.

"Oh? But there is always so interesting a discourse to be had in the Great Hall." She replied with a thoughtful glance. "They are interesting." Colette added, though she rarely encountered many house elves, at least at the school so far. "Vichyssoise Soup." Colette repeated, sounding shocked he had not tried it. "It is a soup made of cooked and puréed leeks, potatoes, onions and cream. It is served chilled and garnished with chopped chives. Most wonderful." She added, without the slightest consideration for the fact someone else might not enjoy such a meal.

Colette noticed his flush. "Are you okay? Your cheeks they have turned red." Concern filling her voice, utterly ignorant to her choice of words being the reason for it. "Non, no I fancy something cakey." She explained the reasons behind it. "Je suis navré d'entendre ça." Colette apologized to him in French, blinking slowly as she realized her words, before translating to English. "I'm sorry to hear that... At least we can feel homesick together no?"