Interlude : Jason Cromwell/OPEN

The Whomping Willow. Such a strange and dangerous tree. The fact that something that symbolized life in most cultures that could also take life so easily was oddly beautiful. Well, that's what Maura thought. She stood and silently gazed at the tree as it swayed it's limbs angrily at her as if it were daring her to go any closer. Maura wondered how many lives the ancient tree had taken during it's time. She took note of the skeletal remains of different birds, small and large, that lay scattered under the tree.

After several more long moments of reflection on the Whomping Willow, Maura pulled a small notepad from her pocket and a Muggle writing utensil. With these tools she began to write a poem about the tree before her and about the life and death that it simultaneously symbolized. From time to time she looked back up at the tree to reflect upon it again for inspiration.

Jason had managed to get into the tree, he'd heard from others that if you touched a certain part of it's roots it went deadly still as if it were just a normal tree. He'd done it and climbed up into it. Of course when it decided to start it's dance again it wasn't that much fun being on it. It was worse than the bull riding he'd done a couple months ago. Eventually the tree had calmed itself again, no doubt biding it's time.

About an hour passed where he sat in silence with the tree and then suddenly it started swaying violently again. Jason held fast to the branches and but for the swaying of the tree never would've noticed the girl who had approached, it was for her that the tree swayed, not for him. He watched her, hiding most of himself behind the thick trunk, until she became distracted by a notepad and started writing.

He made one small move and it was all opportunity the tree needed. Jason felt the slap of a branch on the small of his back and then the weightlessness he associated with falling. He let out a yell as he went flying through the air towards where the girl stood and fell sprawling out at her feet. On impact his breath had been knocked out of him so he lay face down and gasping for air, his face burning from the scrape of the grass when he'd skidded to a halt.

While Maura scribbled on her small notepad a very human yell suddenly shattered her thoughts. She looked up in time to see someone hurtling toward her. It was one of those strange moments that seem to happen in slow motion, but one that you still couldn't do anything about. Maura didn't have time to even attempt to get out of the way. Luckily for her, the young man landed at her feet instead of landing on her. Maura took a couple clumsy steps back and simply looked down at him for a moment in shock.

The next moment, the shock wore off and anger at the fact that he had shocked her took it's place. "Where the hell did you come from?" was the first thing that came out of her mouth. She shoved the notepad and pen back into her dress pocket and looked around for some sort of clue as to what happened. No one seemed to be close enough to have witnessed the flying guy and no one was reacting to what happened. His gasping made her feel even more uneasy, which angered her even more.

Maura knelt beside him as best as she could in her little summer dress and turned her head sideways to get a better look at him. "Doesn't look like you're dying...I'm not going to take on any responsibility if you do die right here, you know, so don't bother asking me to tell your mum that you love her or something."

Jason coughed and sputtered while looking up at her, his body lay twisted on the grass and he grinned up at her. "Tree..." The word was grunted and then his head plopped back to the ground. He was aware of her next to him and caught a glimpse of her looking at his face. She looked even more interesting up close. At her words he stared at a small rock just in front of his left eye and started laughing. It was a little random to him, the thought of dying had never crossed his mind. When he sat up to look at her he was still shaking from the laughter that was fading. He could tell he would definitely be suffering for his excursion up the tree in a few hours, his back was aching where the tree had hit him. "I'll live, I promise you." He answered with a grin and winked at her. "Besides, it would take a whole lot more than that tree to get me dead." He got up awkwardly and held a hand out to help her up while rubbing his back with his other hand. "Packs a wicked punch though, doesn't it?"

Maura was utterly amazed that the young man was even able to laugh and, though she would never admit it, she was a bit amused by his laughter. When he offered her his hand, she looked at at it for a heartbeat and then took it. "At least he's a gentle man," she thought.

She looked at the tree and wrinkled her nose. "I have always wondered why they call it a Whomping Willow," Maura said sarcastically. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her dress and looked him over. As much as it annoyed her, she had to admit to herself that he wasn't a bad looking guy, even though it looked like he had broken his nose a few times. From what she had just witnessed, it wouldn't have surprised her if he had. If anything, it seemed to add a bit of charm to his face.

"Either you're superhuman or just real moronic and real lucky. I doubt the survival odds when it comes to a Whomping Willow are very high. What house do you hail from?" she asked and then made an educated guess. "Gryffindor?" As she said it, Maura raised her brows in a presumptuous way.

Jason released her hand as soon as she had straightened herself, he didn't want her to think he was some kind of perv. He snorted at her comment and looked up at the tree, for a moment he got lost in the sight of it but stopped his mind from wandering even more and looked back to the girl. It took him by surprise that she was looking at him though and grinned at her. "Hey, I'm just me, but I'm sure my mother would agree with you on the latter." He paced away from her, vying towards the tree again. It started swaying and Jason just managed to jump out of the way of an angry branch. He raised his eyebrows and took two steps toward the girl again. "Stupid tree." The words were muttered and very low and the shadow of his frown was gone before he stopped his two steps. "Gryffindor?" He asked showing his dislike at the suggestion. "Hell no!" He shook his head at her expression. "Hufflepuff actually, as if Gryffindor would be able to handle me." He flashed her a crooked smile and laughed shortly.

An unwilling smile had begun to curl the corner of Maura's lips as she watched the strange boy move toward the tree and back. If anyone got a smile from Maura, it usually wasn't a kind one. However, the boy before her had somehow brought out a small, but sincerely kind smile from Maura Wells.

"Can't help but wonder if anyone can handle you," she said in an almost shy sort of way; tilting her head a bit, her eyes moving from him to nothing and back. She took her hands out of her pockets and linked them together behind her back and went to drawing patterns in the grass with the tip of her sandal.

For a second Jason's expression blanched but then a wide smile stretched his lips. His mind was reeling, was he really seeing what he was seeing? He lowered his head just a little and looked at her as if hiding behind his lashes. "I might be tempted to allow someone to try." He answered with a familiar tone of voice. She really was as interesting as she'd looked from a distance. Usually people became less so when you actually spoke to them, but not her. His grin faded slightly and he looked down at the sandal that was drawing in the grass before taking a step toward her.

"You seem smart enough to be in Ravenclaw so I suppose I would be guessing right if I said you're from Slytherin?" He took another step towards her, there was barely any space between them now at all and a sweet scent reached him that made his heart pound even more rapidly than it already was. There was something to be said about girls like her - not that there were many like her - but they could make you lose your head with one look. "It's a good choice." His voice was down to a whisper now and he reached behind her back, separating her hands and taking one in his own before bringing it in between them.

He looked down at her hand and slipped his fingers in between hers, tracing light circles on the back of her hand with his free hand. He could see his mother's face at his directness - as with everything James ever did there was no pause to weigh the options, you either did it or you didn't. He hoped the girl in front of him liked him as much as he guessed, else he might be in a lot of trouble really soon.

Maura Wells instantly realized what she had done to the poor boy, but hadn't yet realized what he had done to her. She knew exactly what he meant by his comment, but ignored it none-the-less. His step forward made Maura's legs twitch slightly in the want to step back, but she was determined to hold her ground.

Maura nodded slowly at his guess, but her smile began to fade as he took another step closer. Such closeness with anyone made Maura a bit uncomfortable and much more so when the person was a stranger. Her heart pounded so hard that she could feel the pulse in her neck throb against her skin, but she did nothing to stop him from touching her. Goose bumps broke out over her skin as his hand met hers and they became more severe as he linked his fingers in her own and traced circles on her hand. With her level of comfort going down although she was physically enjoying his actions, her level of anger began to rise. "The hat did not sort you well," she stated as she looked up at him without blinking. "No one else would be so foolish and narcissistic."

Even as she spoke her harsh words, Maura's feelings for the boy and his actions warmed. This alone made her feel even more uncomfortable and out of control. She had never before felt so strongly for someone so quickly and it frightened her, but deep down she didn't want him to stop. Her want of him, a stranger, was the most frightening part of it all. Maura made no move to take her hand from his or to create distance between them.

If Jason had been anyone else he might've seen the effect he'd had on her initially and taken a step back, but he was who he was and the fact that she didn't pull away from him was enough reason for him to hang on to her. The sting in her words didn't really hit as hard as it could have if they weren't still holding hands. The truth of it was that he'd never really been that close to anyone who wasn't family and his brain had turned to mush along with the pounding in his chest. He laughed a short, breathless laugh and stared at her lips. "Narcissistic..." He looked into her eyes and then back to their hands again. "It's not against the law to pull away."

The reaction from the boy caused Maura's brows to knit. She could truthfully say that she had never met anyone like him, which was a good thing. When he stared at her lips, she had to keep herself from licking them to be sure that something from her last meal hadn't stayed behind and allowed herself to do so when he looked at their hands again. She followed his gaze for a moment and found herself speechless, even in her mind. This was a rare thing indeed.

Her heart pounded against her chest many times before her mind caught up with it and somewhat forced it under control. "This is true," she said before slowly extracting her hand from his, but she stood her ground and even leaned forward a tiny bit. Maura stared hard at the boy as if she were going to perform some legilimency on him. Finally she tilted her head and looked at him with a much softer expression. "You seem to be a very strange person... Who are you?"

((Sorry it's so short.))

Jason felt a twinge of regret when she pulled away - it was true he could've been a little more, he had no idea, a little more what? He wasn't sure there was anything that would've made her hang on to him. It was a plus that she didn't move away from him though, but he felt like the moment was changed and so he took a step back. "Jason Cromwell, and who might you be?" He smiled at her despite the fact that his stomach had just dropped like a rock in disappointment.

Maura smiled back at him in reply to what he had said. The smile reached her eyes yet again with him. She was a bit disappointed that he had backed off, but it also made her feel very much in control of the situation. Her mood changed drastically again and she considered making her own move on him, but she felt that sometimes holding off can make things that much more enjoyable later on.

"That wasn't what I meant, but it will do...for now..." she said slyly before going back to making patterns in the grass with the toe of her sandal. "My name is Maura Wells," she said without looking back up at him.

Jason couldn't help feeling a little uplifted when she smiled at him, her smile was open and light and made him feel like the disappointment he felt was unfounded but he couldn't be sure on that point. She was starting to confuse him, that was a good sign - it was only when people held no fascination and wonder that things got boring... She had both, even her eyes had a mysterious quality, like he could drown in them if he dared looking. "That's a good name, I like it." He was starting to feel like he was misreading all her actions, there she went with the sandal in the grass again which indicates shyness and yet she didn't seem to mind too much that he'd been so bold with him. "Are you always this confusing?"

Maura paused mid-motion and her smile widened a little bit. She looked up at him without moving her head and thought about his words. She looked at him fully again and stated, "I'm afraid that you are asking the wrong person. I don't find myself confusing at all. After all, I always know what is going on in my own head." With that said, Maura looked past him at the Whomping Willow.

She took a few slow steps as if she had all the time in the world and stopped beside Jason. "You had to have gotten into the tree in order to fly out of it. How did you do it?"

((This was the thread that I lost a post for. Sorry if the replacement sucks.))

((It didn't suck, don't worry.))

Jason blinked and frowned again. "Well, take it from me, you're confusing as Hell to people who aren't allowed in there." He answered her with a light tone and indicated her forehead without touching her. He wouldn't touch her again unless he was absolutely sure she wanted him to.

He looked at the Willow when she mentioned it and pursed his lips. Damn tree. At this point the score stood at 1-0 to the tree, Jason would have his moment with the tree again some time, just... not right at that moment, his back was killing him where the branch had struck. He watched Maura, making sure she didn't go any closer than she already was, the tree would most likely crush both of them if it got the chance.

Jason stepped up beside Maura and pointed at the root with the nodule. "Do you see the root on the far left there?" He waited a few seconds for her eyes to find the root he talked of and then continued. "Look along the top of that root, just about the middle, there's a small nodule there." He lowered his arm and turned to face her. "If you can hit that the tree freezes."

Quote :

Well, take it from me, you're confusing as Hell to people who aren't allowed in there.

Maura took that comment as a compliment. In her mind, only fools were transparent and she liked to think that she wasn't foolish.

Quote :

Do you see the root on the far left there? Look along the top of that root, just about the middle, there's a small nodule there. If you can hit that the tree freezes.

When Maura's eyes met the root she thought he meant, she nodded and then she found the nodule. "What purpose could that possibly have?" she wondered out loud. "Certainly that isn't natural, some witch or wizard had to have bewitched it."

Maura squinted at it and then up at the tree. "Did you throw something at it?" she asked. Her curiosity going full force now.

"I'm not too sure, I don't really know if anyone would know, there's so much about this castle that's apparently unknown, and people tend to overlook the Whomping Willow." Jason grinned, he hadn't taken his eyes off her again and he could see the curiosity burning in her eyes. The willow was quiet now, almost like it was ignoring them. "I used a spell, it doesn't hurt the tree I don't think, just pokes it and it freezes. Maybe the nodule holds some kind of shock factor when it's touched... Wanna try it? It's not so bad in there, obviously a little rough when the tree decides to wake up and you're still in it."

Maura looked over at Jason with a large grin. "Hell yeah, let's do it," she said in a whisper of excitement. She took off her sandals, set them aside and then pulled the hem of the back of the skirt of her dress through her legs and tucked it into the tie around her waste so that she wouldn't flash her panties at anyone. Then she got ready to run for the tree when the nodule was activated.

Jason's mood picked up in an instant, so she was gorgeous, intelligent and impulsive - a great combination. Girls were never really all that impulsive and even the ones who were would never consent to challenge the Whomping Willow... or so he'd always thought. He watched her edit her skirt and stopped himself from laughing out loud, the make shift shorts she'd created looked odd, like something out of a previous century. He looked toward the willow again and removed his wand from the inside pocket of his jacket, taking aim in the same movement. Jason then took three steps toward the willow, it did nothing so he took two more steps. The tree started waving its branches crazily again, trying to reach out toward Jason who stood just almost too close. "Innvenpuls!" A bright yellow light flew from the tip of the wind and landed smack on the nodule. The large tree creaked and slowed it's movements as if it had fallen asleep in mid motion, the branches returned to their original positions and everything went quiet. "M'lady." Jason bowed slightly and indicated for Maura to go first.


[Spell Innvenpuls derived from Latin and Norwegian - Pulsus meaning push in latin and Innvend meaning object in Norwegian.]

Quote :

Innvenpuls!

Maura held her breath as she watched the tree go still and looked over at Jason for verification.

Quote :

M'lady.

Maura flashed a mischievous smile at him and made a mad dash for the tree, grabbing hold of the closest branches and pulling herself up into them, using her bare feet for leverage. She had excitedly made her way about five feet up into the Whomping Willow when a piece of bark gave way and she went tumbling toward the ground. Maura gasped and then clawed desperately at the other branches in an attempt at getting a grip on one, but could not react quickly enough. Her fall was almost slow, but still unavoidable, so she did not hit the ground as hard as Jason had when she first laid eyes on him, and she fell into a pile of leaves at the base of the tree which made the fall less painful.

She lay there for a moment, looking up at the tree, trying to push the pain of the scrapes and bruises, that she had received on her way down, to the back of her head. "That was graceful..." she muttered and went to pull herself up when she realized that her legs were awful deep in those leaves. She pulled them out and moved the leaves aside to reveal an opening that looked to belong to a passage way. "Jason!" she cried out. "Come look at this!"

Without waiting for him, Maura pulled out her wand and crawled down into the hole. "Lumos," she muttered.

Jason jumped when Maura fell and was about to rush over to help her when she started scratching in the leaves strewn at the base of the willow. He rushed forward, getting over the shock of her fall rather reluctantly, it looked like it was high enough for her to get hurt but she had landed on a pile of leaves. The tree was still frozen and so he went straight toward Maura. He started running when she disappeared though. It looked like the trees roots had swallowed her. "Maura!" He yelled after her, bending down low to look through the roots.

He could see light from inside what looked to be a tunnel and he leaped into the opening. When he got down his eyes focussed immediately and he confirmed that Maura was still alright. He took a deep breath and exhaled in relief. "Damn woman, almost thought the tree was attacking you from below." He looked around, it was definitely a passage way of some sort. "I wonder where this goes." There was no need for his wand now since Maura was already lighting the way. "Care for a little bit more of an adventure?"

Quote :

Damn woman, almost thought the tree was attacking you from below.

Maura held back a laugh at the thought of the tree swallowing her alive, but she was grinning ear from ear.

Quote :

I wonder where this goes. Care for a little bit more of an adventure?

"I'd love some more," she stated, liking the boy more and more every moment they were together. "This must be why the tree freezes like that...so that this passage can be used." Before going any further Maura took a moment to examine her injuries and her clothing. The scrapes on her arms and legs weren't too bad, but they stung like mad. She figured that she could have the healer take care of that later though. As for her dress, it was filthy and she didn't know how it could possibly be saved, but felt there was no point in worrying about it now.

Maura stood so that she was crouching under the ceiling of the tunnel and held her wand out a little further to see if the end was in sight. "Hopefully this doesn't go to China. We wouldn't be prepared for that," she said playfully and started to make her way forward.

Jason grinned at Maura again, wanting to keep to her pace was wearing off now and he removed his wand. "Lumos." A small light came to life at the tip of his wand and he pointed it at the opposite direction. "It would seem like a viable option, but who really knows what those crazy old wizards were thinking when they came up with half the stuff in the castle." He pushed the sleeves of his shirt up slightly and bent his back slightly. The tunnel seemed to grow smaller the deeper you went. The tunnel wound it's way at a very light angle, whatever was at the end of it should be underground... or so Jason guessed. After a while though the tunnel leveled out and the chance that it was underground diminished. "Hey, what if there's something at the end of this tunnel that shouldn't really be disturbed, are you any good with that wand of yours?"

"Decent I suppose...my father taught me some defensive spells..." she said as she paused to look back at Jason. "I probably got ahead of myself. Climbing that Whomping Willow was pretty stupid in the first place...no offense. I don't know what got into me." As the words left her mouth Maura's face flushed because she did know what had gotten into her. A handsome young man was what got into her. No one else had ever managed to affect her in such a way. She hoped that the dim light wouldn't show the redness in her face. Maura gazed ahead mostly so that he wouldn't see her blushing. Never before had she acted so rashly and now that she'd come down from that, she was contemplating going back and leaving it all a mystery. However, her pride wouldn't let her.

"You can go back if you want..." she said with a smirk and started to quietly move along the tunnel again. "I'm going to have a peek at least," she whispered.

Jason laughed and grabbed hold of Maura's arm. "I've never turned back in my life, I won't be starting now." He squeezed past her, letting go of her arm when he was in front of her. "In some cultures it's considered a good thing if the guy goes first to, you know, protect the females. "He turned his back on her, biting back the smile that threatened. So far Maura was surprising him in her willingness for adventure, he wondered how long that would last and if she would react to what he'd said the way he thought she would.

((Sorry for the shortness.))

Quote :

I've never turned back in my life, I won't be starting now. In some cultures it's considered a good thing if the guy goes first to, you know, protect the females.

Maura stopped when he grabbed her and looked down at her arm where his hand was. Her eyes had quickly turned to slits. She glared at him as he pushed past her and was extremely tempted to hook her foot around his to make him fall face first to the filthy floor of the tunnel. Maura sniffed at his comment. "You have to be able to protect yourself to protect the females," she hissed at him. "Know how to do anything more than push things around with your wand?" she asked him in a snide way, forgetting all together about the volume of her voice.

Jason grinned widely, his back was turned to Maura so he felt confident she wouldn't see it. He was sure that if she knew he was merely being facetious she would be even more upset... at first. "Hey, you can cause quite a bit of damage while pushing at people with magic, you know... it's not all lightning and fire." He turned towards her then, unable to wipe the smile completely off his face. It was dark enough though that she might not see it. Her face was the picture of beauty, even now that she was angry - he dared speculate that she was even more beautiful when she was angry. "Ah, screw it." He mumbled and stepped up to her, his one hand slid around her waist, pulling her closer and the other around the back of her neck so she wouldn't be able to pull away too easily. In seconds his mouth was pressed against hers, and he lightly sucked at her lips, first the top then the bottom.

Quote :

Hey, you can cause quite a bit of damage while pushing at people with magic, you know... it's not all lightning and fire. Ah, screw it.

Maura rolled her eyes and sniffed at his first comment, but knit her brows at the second. She managed to get out a "Wha?" before his mouth was pressed against her own. Inside of her two very strong emotions were fighting for her attention. The one that normally won the battle was her need to be the one in control of any situation she was in. The other was a deep longing for Jason Cromwell.

Her body was quite rigid as the conflict raged inside her. Then she decided to oblige both. Maura managed to work her arms between Jason and herself. She put all of her weight into shoving him away from her, but had a firm hold on his shirt with one had. With the other she smacked him. She let the slap ring through the tunnel before saying, "Next time you should ask for permission before kissing a lady." Maura then pulled him back to her, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him furiously.

Jason was on the verge of pulling away from her, her body was too rigid for anything to feel very good, but then she surprised him yet again. She pushed him away, but not completely, she still held onto his shirt. His stare was intense and the small smile that curved the edges of his lips upward just intensified the look. He felt the sting of her hand on his cheek and gnashed his teeth but before he could do anything more than that she had her arms around his neck and her lips moved with his with a passion he didn't expect. She was contradiction incarnate but it was okay, Jason wouldn't object to anything that felt so completely right. His tongue moved with hers, the heat of it all building in his loins until he had to extricate himself from her.

He took hold of her wrists and pulled her hands down in between them, his eyes closed while he worked to steady his breathing. When he opened his eyes he was calm again, but one look at her was enough to make his lust for her flare up again in remembrance of the kiss. "Careful, anything more than that and I'll have to charge you." He said jokingly and released one of her wrists only to stroke her cheek softly with his fingertips. "You intrigue me so completely." His last words were whispered and even as he spoke them he knew he was already lost, he would be hers for as long as she wanted him to be.