On the Way Down

[James Grey]

• Jamie was loving staying with the Featherbottoms. It meant he got to spend the whole summer in Hogsmeade, and Cora's brothers were fun to hang around.
  
  The being in Hogsmeade part was the best part, though. All of the people from strange places running around! Jamie loved adventure and was quite infatuated with the idea of travelling the world someday. Currently talking to people from other places was the best he could do, so there was no where else in Great Britain that he'd rather be that summer.
  
  Also, if he was here he did not have to see the evil stepmother.
  
  Being in Padmore Park had its benefits. Namely, the ability to climb trees. Jamie sidled carefully along the thick branch of the tree, arms outstretched for balance, determined to find a good place to sit and people-watch.
  
  Unfortunately, the better a place was for watching, the worse it was for being on. The branch he was on creaked and Jamie hardly had time to blanch before it snapped, sending him tumbling towards the ground.

  

[Elisabeth Fairfax]

Elisabeth loved the summer in Hogsmeade, it was a beautiful time of year when it was easy to believe that this was a place possessed of magic. The trees rustled and shook with the little living 'things' which made the park their home. The call of the summer birds, encouraging their young from their nests and the calls of avid children encouraging their friends to join their games.

It had been too warm to spend the afternoon in the shop, indeed, she had been shooed from the premises by the manager to 'enjoy the afternoon.' She was a young woman, the older lady had said, too young to be cooped up indoors when the day was so glorious. So she had taken the hint and done as she had been asked.

'Aresto momentum' she called pulling her wand and pointing it at the boy to slow his ascent. Her reactions were not entirely cat like and she wasnt sure if the boy had lost all of his momentum when his body came to rest on the ground. 'Oh my dear boy are you alright?'. She asked, trying to appraise him without invading the young, and unknown boys personal space.

  

[James Grey]

• He was falling so fast and grasping upwards as if he could grab hold of the branch and save himself.
  
  This was it. He was going to die, and it wasn't even going to be particularly heroic. No one told stories about the twelve year old that fell out of a tree.
  
  Except then he was going much slower, still flailing his arms, and landed on the ground with an oof rather than a horrible crunching sound. He sat up and brushed himself off, smiling at the nice lady he could only assume had just saved him.
  
  "I'm alright," he said, "Thank you for not letting me fall!"