SPOILER!!: Olivia!

Quote:

Originally Posted by WitchLight27

Olivia was set to throw the next of her collected stones to the tree when she heard a rather familiar and authoritative voice. She was caught! She turned to look at the sound and saw Professor Stewart standing a few feet away from her.

Olivia made her way towards the Professor, leaving her stones behind her. When she was right in front of her, she greeted the Professor just like how she would greet her in class. "Hello Professor. You're calling for me?" pointing her finger at herself. She looked around but no one else was here. Most likely, it was her the Professor was calling for. Clearly, she hadn't heard anything.

Kay looked suspiciously at Olivia. How innocent these kiddos could be, acting as though they hadn't been up to no good. "Yes, I was. Were you not aware just how close you were to the Willow?'' Did she want to sustain injuries? Did she not care about herself? Or just as badly, did she not care about damages she could have caused to the tree?

"Aside from that, Ms. Hurst, I've seen you pelting stones at the Willow.'' It was no use trying to deny it because Kay wasn't blind. "Ten points from Ravenclaw. That Willow has been a part of Hogwarts's history for many, many years. What do you have to say for yourself?''

The colder months with the bitter wind and snow had caused the Willow's branches to freeze and ice forming. Annoyed that it was restricted due to the cold weather, it shook its branches with a loud creaking sound to throw the heavy snow and ice to the ground below it.

Feeling a bit lighter than before and annoyed that it sensed the presence of students nearby (especially the one that had thrown rocks [Olivia]): it swung the branches towards a group of them and a Slytherin [Caleb] escaped just barely when a branch whipped towards him.

A reminder as well as a warning to them not to stand too close. It wasn't known to miss twice.

It was time to continue her training. Her endurance needed to be increased and doing hill sprints would do the job. She made her way towards the Whomping Willow, making sure to stay well out of reach of the magnificent tree. Once she was sure she was at a safe distance, she folded into a seated position on the ground and took out her notebook.





After placing her quill back in her bag, followed by her notebook, she got to her feet and began jumping jacks for a warm up. She knew better than to start stretching before her body was warm. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!” she counted as she jumped. She followed the jumping jacks with side stretches and gentle lunges. “Here we go.”

She started running up the hill, towards the large rock on the left that she was going to use as her marker. Her lungs heaved with effort and she quickly knew that she underestimated just how hard it would be to sprint up a steep hillside. Thankful to have reached the rock, she turned around and started back down. Her pace down the hill was much slower, but she could still feel the burn in her legs, muscles straining to keep her balanced and upright as she ran. “Four more times. Just four more times.” She tried to cheer herself along as she ran up and down the hill.

After her second full rotation, she pulled her notebook and quill out, with sweaty hands and pounding heart, and marked through her plan. She was absolutely exhausted. Once again she put her notebook and quill back in her bag, then flopped back against the cool earth, gazing towards the beauty of the Whomping Willow.

Anna reckoned Koen had better things to do than training with her every single day. Bothering him once a week was probably enough, and she didn't want him to get fed up and not want to teach her any more martial arts.

So THAT day she decided to go over all of the stuff he had already taught her all on her own and hope for the best.

The Gryffindor was pretty confident she'd get at least most of the moves right and wouldn't get herself seriously injured. "Thumbs all safe!" She told herself as a reminder, making sure her thumbs were in the exact position Koen had showed her. Sounded silly, she knew, but that was one of the things he HAD corrected her on, so there. She'd be mindful of that.

The girl decided the Whomping Willow area would be the ideal setting that afternoon because it was something interesting to watch while she moved. The fighting tree could even serve as inspiration! Whomping Willow. Warrior Willow! Anna felt like what she was doing was some kind of warrior training - or at least that was what she told herself to make things more fun - so there! Perfect inspiration.

She started with the first stance she had ever learned. That one she had already mastered - for all she knew - and she was pretty confident about it in general. The look on her face was now of deep concentration as she focused her gaze on one specific point: the Whomping Willow.

Of course, it was a moving specific point, but that didn't quite bother her. Not yet, at least. She was starting slow and would only eventually speed up to what Koen and herself were working on the last time they met. Second stance... not bad. Then again, she was biased, because she believed she as pretty good at this. Though having her teacher there would've been more reassuring, but she was doing fine so far, according to herself.

Always minding the position of her feet and her thumbs, Anna continued the repetitions until the moves seemed more like a highly practiced dance choreography. Her moves were probably not as graceful as a dancer's should be, but that wasn't her intention anyway. Her moves were precise, tight and full of strength - or as much strength as a thirteen year old could muster. Which for her was a lot, alright! She was STRONG.

According to herself. But hey.

Watching the Whomping Willow as it did its thing, Anna did her own thing too, constantly moving as accurately as she could, fixing her stance here and there whenever she felt it was necessary and when she felt she could do better. She'd be there for a loooong time now and she was fine with that.

Cold who? She didn't know her.

The sun shines down on the Willow, it's warm rays having melted the icicles that formed this past winter. A gentle breeze is blowing, which causes the tree's limbs to sway as if it were slow dancing.

Needless to say, the Willow is a pleasant sight right now. The nice day may entice you to walk along the path that has been placed a safe distance away from it. Once you get a good look at the tree, however, you notice something shining at the base of the tree. What is that glistening at its roots? If you squint your eyes, you might be able to make out that they are gold coins. From afar, you might assume that they are Galleons. But a closer examination will prove otherwise and date them quite a bit.

Will you summon these coins? Or will you test fate and try to snatch them with your bare hands? The choice is yours...

Finally the weather was warming up! The Willow swayed contentedly in the breeze, happy to be rid of the winter chill and ice weighing its limbs down. It stretched its branches to soak up the precious sunshine when...

Wait, what's this? The tree felt a strange sensation. Something was tickling its roots!

GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!!

The Willow thrashed its branches about wildly, trying in vain to stop the uncomfortable tickle.

The slight blonde had fallen into a trap of depression. Of course, she hadn’t known that T H A T was what it had been or even why that sinking reeling sensation of impending doom had seeped into her bones. It had seeped and settled like winter’s chill, maybe it was due to the fact that YETI was nowhere to be found or it was something far simpler.

The end of the year was approaching and with that, her best friend was leaving. Leaving, sure, sure they had summer but that wasn’t anything like six more years of being together. Of being close, side-by-side inseperable close.

”hey tree,” she quipped as she walked forward and watched the tree as it flailed at its own roots – the flail was what drew her attention. What…was that glinting thing? Taking a dashing step forward she charged forward closer to the glinting coins on the root. ”I’ll help you tree,” she was being kind. Kind, and foolish, and reckless.

*WHACK! THWACK!*

The Willow's branched whipped back and forth, trying to get rid of the small glinting objects at roots. The itch was unbearable!

The tree sensed a small human's presence, and... was the human speaking to it? Just what it needed. It was already distressed enough! It swung one of its heaviest branches toward the child. Go away, small human!

Beth saw the branches swinging of course, that wasn’t too friendly. Still, it wasn’t like the tree was meant to be someone – or anyone’s friend. ”oh shush you, I’m trying to grab that off of you” she huffed at the tree as she dodged forward trying her hardest to avoid its branches. They did after all look quite heavy – man would that hurt.

She was close, so close.