In Three Dee Closed

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@Dealla Prince | @Maria Dee

𝓐madea stepped out of the classroom with a pep in her step; classes were finally over for the day. Even though she knew that she was going to have to go home and do a lot more homework probably late into the night, Amadea was glad that the classes had completed. Fourth year, as she had expected, was ramping up from last year; there was more work and more things to learn all of the time. Amadea was also quite busy this year. She had made an important promise to herself at the end of last year, a promise that she was determined to fulfill. Already she had participated in so many new things, such as the field day events and signing up for the SWAG club. Plus, she was now the Dueling Co-Captain for the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team. Add that to her responsibilities running the Gobstones Club and anyone could see how Amadea had stretched herself thin with commitments.

However, this is what she loved. She loved being busy and she loved always having something to do. Having a lot on her plate didn't stress her out; it helped her learn how to manage her time and make specific schedules so she could get everything completed. Amadea stepped into the hallway that was now buzzing with students; she didn't recognize many of the people and was surprised by the fact that it didn't terrify her to be surrounded by people she didn't know. She remembered being a scared, shy first year walking around the corridors, getting lost in the hallways as she attempted to find her classes. She had grown so much from that time; she was a fourth year. That was crazy. The way time flew was mind-boggling.

Amadea stepped into the hallway and followed the flow of students as they happily exited the classrooms after a long day. She was still lost in thought about time and memories when she heard something cut through the chattering crowd.

"Dea?" someone had said. Amadea turned around as she looked for the speaker; who had just called her name? There were two other girls standing in confusion as well; Amadea didn't recognize either of them but could tell that they were a Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw based on the color of their robes. Had one of them called her name? Perhaps they recognized her from a club or activity from school, but Amadea didn't know them. She wracked her brain trying to think of why they would be talking to her. Finally she just decided to ask. "Did one of you say my name?"

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@Dealla Prince || @Amadea Campbell

The hour after classes meant that students flocked around the corridors enjoying the ignorant bliss that comes with youth. Students hurried to leave their classrooms ready for the day to be over, anticipating time to be spent with friends or thinking about what the house elves would serve for supper. Maria had just finished her last class and decided to spend a few moments loitering about the corridors. Normally she’d be observing the people who’d walk by or do some writing but today she simply leaned against the walls absentmindedly looking at the people passing by. She’d had a lot on her mind lately, mostly about the recent events that had happened in her life. It wasn’t something she should have been surprised about really, a lot of things had been changing, so why should this be any different?
She supposed the only new and exciting thing she had going for her would be dueling. When they’d opened the roster the young Huffle was ecstatic to sign up for the team. Over the summer she’d done a great deal of practice with her spells, and she was far from where she was when she first arrived. At first it worried her mother, that she did magic so frequently at home, but when she saw her daughter thriving she knew she couldn’t stop her even if she tried. Her mother. She wondered how she was, and how Aiden was, and how her father was. It wasn’t often that she thought of them, but it made her miss home whenever she did.

A voice, a shout that she thought was something saying her last name shook her back to reality. “Dee!” The voice called. Her head whipped around to look for the source. It was odd, the way the person so casually used her last name, as no one but Professors ever really called her that. Looking around she caught the gaze of Dealla Prince. Of course, the person was probably calling her. “Oh no, it wasn’t me, I actually thought someone was trying to get my attention.” She denied.

Then another girl, someone who looked older, who Maria had noticed from club meetings also turned to the two, asking if they’d said her name. What? “I’m sorry, no, uh, are you called Dee as well?”

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By SK

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Now, if Dee had actually known Maria's last name, the girl's explanation might have cleared up some of her confusion, but they'd only ever introduced themselves to each other via first names at their first meeting in London, and Dee had never bothered to ask for a last name. She hadn't given her last name, or even her full first name, either, as far as she was aware. Consequently, she didn't. Additionally, she wasn't quite on top of her game right now, thoughts still caught between all things duelling, ball, and, admittedly, dinner, and all Maria's statement did was confuse her even more.

"What?" she asked, befuddlement plain in her voice. "Dee doesn't sound even remotely close to Maria." She was about to add more, but the third girl she had noticed, the older one who had seemed just as confused as Maria and herself, now also stepped into the conversation, and Dee's confusion only grew. It wasn't possible that they had all reacted to the same name, was it? She couldn't ever remember meeting anyone else who also went by Dee, it wasn't a very common nickname. There had to be some other explanation.

"What?" she repeated at Maria's question, entirely perplexed by now. As well? "We can't all be called Dee, right? Maybe someone cast the Confundus Charm on us?" Being under the influence of a charm that caused confusion and misdirection seemed to be a more likely scenario to her. Why in Merlin's name would Maria go by Dee as a nickname? That she believed her name to be Dee due to a Confundus Charm, some magical mischief by a random prankster, yes, that made more sense.

Shaking her head as if to clear it, Dee's gaze wandered from Maria to the unknown blonde girl. She supposed it wasn't entirely impossible that the two of them shared a similar nickname, considering she wasn't even exactly sure what she had heard. Maybe it had been a slightly different name. At least that could be cleared up quickly. "My name is Dealla Prince, but please, call me Dee," she said by way of explanation, realizing that the older girl must be even more confused with the random questions thrown at her by the two second years, without either of them introducing themselves. She hesitated, but really couldn't think of another explanation. Magical mischief or some cosmic coincidence, those were the two options. "So, um... Is your name Dee?"

@Maria Dee | @Amadea Campbell

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@Dealla Prince | @Maria Dee

𝓐madea's eyebrows scrunched in confusion as she watched the situation unfold in front of her. If she had been caught up on current trends in the world, (which she was not since no electronic devices were allowed at Hogwarts), she would have described this situation using the Spiderman meme. All three girls were looking at each other in confusion. Which of them had said Dea? Did they all have the same name? Amadea had never met another person with the same name as her; while there was a first time for everything she would be shocked if both girls were named Amadea and she hadn't heard of them before.

Then one of them spoke. Dee? Maybe that made more sense. Amadea had just heard the first part of the word and assumed whoever had spoken was saying her name. Justifying it all in her head, she realized she had probably just heard them incorrectly. Anyone who called her Dea was a pretty close friend, whose voice she should easily be able to recognize even among a throng of students in a busy corridor. "Ah sorry," she said to the two girls. "I thought someone was calling my name," she explained.

The Ravenclaw looked just as confused as Amadea felt herself. As Amadea listened, she quickly picked up on two facts: first, the Hufflepuff's name was Maria and second, her name was Dealla Prince, otherwise known as Dee. "I'm Amadea Campbell," she introduced herself. "I thought someone had said Dea, which is what some people call me," she said. "But...did one of you say Dea? Or was it Dee?" She laughed as she spoke, wondering how the three girls had gotten themselves in such a weird and confusing situation.

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@Dealla Prince | @Amadea Campbell

Maria’s eyes squinted and her mouth was slightly agape in confusion when Dealla had told her that her same sounded nothing like Dee. Of course it didn’t but that wasn’t what she was referring to. It took her a moment of pondering. Perhaps she never told Dealla her full name? The day they met wasn’t one she remembered with much detail. It was chaotic and blurry, and a lot happened. Maybe she never did tell Dee her full name.

How awkward. She closed her mouth nodding briefly to herself in understanding of the situation. She still didn’t understand what got them into the situation but she got where Dealla was coming from.

“Oh… right. I don’t think I told you when we met, um, you see my last name is Dee.” The younger Huffle stammered out. It felt odd to introduce herself this way, sort of against the proper way she was taught. But circumstance brought this upon her. “I don’t think it was a Confundus charm, maybe coincidence?” She looked to Amadea and back at Dealla “A weird and sort of creepy coincidence, but probably just a coincidence.” Maria had her own thoughts and conclusions as to how this all happened, like the forces of the universe just wanted to have a laugh today. Perhaps the chances that they would be in this corridor at this time altogether would be slim, but then again things like that seemed to be more Dealla’s area.
“I don’t know, I heard Dee, but I’m definitely sure it wasn’t from us.” She told Dea.

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By SK

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Cosmic coincidence it was, then.

Dee's mouth dropped open, slight disbelief quickly turning to amusement, and at the same time, something clicked at the back of her mind. "Maria Dee? Wait, why does that... Oh yeah! Aaron mentioned you because he thought it was funny that my nickname was your last name." She suddenly had the strong urge to slap her hand on her forehead, but resisted. Barely. "I could have thought of that." But then, that conversation had happened almost a year ago, so it probably wasn't a surprise that it hadn't been at the front of her mind anymore.

The older girl chimed in, too, and somehow Dee suddenly wasn't surprised anymore that her nickname fit in with them as well. Or, okay, she didn't have exactly the same name, but Dee, too, felt addressed when someone called her Dea, so she could relate. "Oh, that makes sense," she agreed, nodding, and the confusion on her face gave way to a bright grin. "Kind of a relief that we don't all go by Dee. I might have had to look for a new nickname if that was the case." While she didn't exactly like her name, at least it was rare, and so was her nickname.

A little belatedly she turned towards Amadea, amusement still plain on her face. "Nice to meet you, Dea! I promise talking to us isn't always this befuddling." Then she realised something else, her eyes widening slightly, and her voice full of barely suppressed laughter as she pointed to all of them in turn. "So we have Miss Dee, Dea, and Dee... which I suppose makes all of us together 3D?" Granted, depending on their background, the other girls might not get the joke. Was 3D a common term in the wizarding world? Dee wouldn't know. "So glad that we're now higher dimensional!" she added on, laughter dancing brightly in her eyes. "Hey, if we ever sign up for something as a team, we should make that our team name."

@Maria Dee | @Amadea Campbell

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@Dealla Prince | @Maria Dee

𝓐 Confundus charm...the thought hadn't even crossed through Amadea's brain. While it certainly would explain why all of the girls seemed so dee-layed with their understanding of the situation, Amadea had a feeling that it was not the result of a spell and more just their own minds. She couldn't speak for the other girls, but after a long day of classes she was quite tired and her brain was not as quick as it was at the beginning of the morning.

"What a weird coincidence," Amadea said, laughing. Even though she had originally planned to beeline to the Common Room in order to start her homework, she was almost glad this dee-tour had occurred. It was a nice break from the rigor of classes and she was happy to have a good laugh to dee-stract her before she had to settle down to work. Plus, she had met some nice new people.

After three full years at Hogwarts, Amadea was almost surprised that she hadn't experienced this yet. There were so many students at Hogwarts that there was bound to be a name or nickname repeat and she was surprised that this was the first she was hearing of it. "Yes, thank goodness we all have different names," she said. It would be much harder to dee-duce which girl someone was referring to if they all went by 'Dee.'

"3D!" Amadea repeated with a laugh. Yes, it was dee-cided. If they ever joined a team together, they would have to use the name. "A higher dee-mension," she added with a laugh. "It is a dee-lightful name."

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ˑ༄ؘ ۪۪۫۫ ▹✣◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ ˑ * ˑ༄ؘ ۪۪۫۫ ▹✣◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ ˑ

ˑ༄ؘ ۪۪۫۫ ▹✣◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ ˑ * ˑ༄ؘ ۪۪۫۫ ▹✣◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ ˑ

Photo set by: Frost Cira

@Dealla Prince | @Amadea Campbell

Maria couldn’t help but blush at Dee’s mention of Aaron. She felt the warmth move from her cheeks to the tips of her ears. To put it simply their interaction at the start of the year was still such a fresh memory and she was still quite affected by it. But then again that was irrelevant in this situation. The Huffle giggled uneasily as she tried to hide her embarrassment. “Uh yeah, we’re good friends.” Nice save Dee, now shake it off. Hopefully neither other Dee (or Dea in Amadea’s case) would catch that.

“M-mmhmm.” Her voice came out a little shakier than expected, a little higher than her normal tone before she cleared it. “I mean, yeah I totally agree, I thought I was going to have to respond to Dee now.” Thankfully Amadea and Dee took up more of the conversation as they’d taken to the usual formalities for new acquaintances. It was truly and off coincidence that it was now of all times that they’d been introduced, especially because she and Dee were not only in the same year but had met before. Dea was on the dueling team with her and co-coptain to boot. Maybe it just slipped Maria’s normally observant nature.

Then the Dee puns slipped into the conversation. Maria was entirely too fond of puns as they were pretty much her father’s love language - really he just had no other outlet for humor- so the ones her companions made put a smile on her face. Perhaps it was better to say that it had changed her dee-meanor. “It’s very much works as a team name. We’ll surely be undee-feated that way.” She giggled.

“I’m sure a lot of people would find it endee-ring.” Needless to say she was her father’s daughter. “I can only imagine how funny this would be if we were in duels together.”

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By SK

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Dee didn't comment on or even really notice Maria's momentary state of dee-stress, instead grinning at Amadea, her eyes bright, still excited by dee-scovery. It seemed almost ri-dee-culous that they had all found themselves here at the same time. "In-dee-d. You'd think two of us would meet at a time, but not all three at once. It was dee-finitely a lot funnier like this, though. Maybe it was dee-stiny?"

Thankfully, neither of the two seemed particularly confused by the silly team name, so they were likely familiar with the term - and then started adding their own puns to the mix. Dee burst out laughing, dee-light dancing in her eyes. "It's a dee-al," she agreed, nodding, still shaken by giggles. "We will drive all other teams into dee-spair." Perhaps more with the combined dee-structive power of their puns than with their prowess at whatever the competition may be, but hey, it would still count. The more she thought about it, the more she liked the i-dee-a of a silly 3D team. Maybe they could make it happen at some point.

The corridor had started emptying by now, most students headed outside to enjoy the autumn sun, or to common rooms or library to do some stu-dee-ing. Dee herself had been planning to get started on an essay for History of Magic before Dee-nner, but meeting the Dees was un-dee-niably more fun. "Oh, you're duellists, too?" she asked, brightening up at the mention. Maybe they would make a dee-cent team. She tended to trust duellists a lot more than Quid-dee-tch players.

She took another look around. If she wanted to get anything done today, she should probably get started. "Which dee-rection are you headed?" she asked. Dee-pending on where they were going, maybe they could walk together for a bit. And throw around a few more of Dee's puns.

@Maria Dee | @Amadea Campbell
This is terrible and I apologise that you had to wait a whole month just for this
Particularly for Quid-dee-tch that one physically hurt me