Fancy Seeing You Here PV Scarlett Closed

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SEPTEMBER 7TH
@Lucia Fox

Blood could be seen behind a second-year Gryffindor girl as she walked slowly and carefully to the Hospital Wing, trying not to make the floors of Hogwarts too much of a mess. The girl in question was a redhead - a fair-skinned one with pretty dark-brown eyes that didn't look so pretty at that moment. They were wild. They conveyed aggression clearer than the sky on a summer's day. They looked dangerous. The blood - the girl's own blood - only added to the insane look around her. Her stomach hurt like hell. Her nose felt broken. And her robes were a bloody mess, her hair windswept, but not in a relaxed, surfer-like way. This girl - too any onlooker - look like a freaking mess.

Scarlett had acted out of pure stupidity when she had started to spread rumours about Anastasia Beckett. It had caught her ear, the rumour. The fact that Anastasia might have actually murdered her parents, and that was why she went MIA and started to dress in a wannabe emo manner. Scarlett had chatted to an old friend of hers about this, and Anastasia just so happened to be passing by at the time. Needless to say, she had not been pleased. A reckless, impulsive spirit just like Scarlett's own, Anastasia hadn't hesitated to launch herself at the girl, proceeding to smash her nose in, drawing blood. A crowd gathered round to watch - it wasn't so often that there was a public spectacle in the corridors. The Gryffindors looked a sight: attacking each other, robes flying, eyes wild, blood dripping from their faces. It was all a blur after that. She only knew that a lot of fighting had happened, and the brawl ended with three students dragging the vicious Beckett away from Scarlett, who had nastily insulted the third-year and left.

Afterwards, Scarlett had aimlessly wandered Hogwarts, giving herself plenty of attention with the state that she was in. Scarlett had no idea where she was going, before deciding to settle on the most logical option - the Hospital Wing.

And here she was, limping towards her destination with an angry look in her eyes. She exuded a sort of aggressiveness, like 'Don't you dare talk to me'. Her mouth was twisted into a scowl as she entered the infirmary. Where was the nurse? She heard the guy was newly appointed. He should be more punctual. Though, Scarlett couldn't really blame him, what with all the students of Hogwarts being trouble magnets.

Scarlett was about to turn around and leave, deciding her friends in Gryffindor could help her patch up her injuries, but then she caught a glimpse of long, wavy black hair. Was it - could it -

"Lucia!" cried Scarlett in glee, barely refraining herself from cackling. A friend was here! "Oh my goodness, why are you here? Don't mind me, I'm just..."

She glanced down at her chaotic self.

"Um, visiting."

This was said awkwardly and hastily. She hoped Lucia wouldn't comment on her current state. Anyway, it was all Anastasia's fault.

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Interacting with @Scarlett Aden

Lucia moved further into the room, looking for an elf to give her medicine to, but then she heard the voice of her friend Scarlett calling her name.
"Oh, hey Scarlett!" she replied over her shoulder. "Just handing in my allergy- Merlin!"
While she was speaking, Lucia started to turn around, and as soon as she set eyes on Scarlett gasped in shock. Hurrying over to her friend, the girl exclaimed, "What - in Merlin's name - happened to you, Scarlett?!"
Quickly, she pulled the redheaded Gryffindor over to a nearby sink, and turned the tap on for her so that Scarlett wouldn't get blood all over it. "Look, here, wash the blood off your arm at least. Merlin, who's blood even is it?"
It was obvious from the tone of Lucia Fox's voice that the poor girl was panicking slightly at seeing her friend this way - dressed almost in rags and covered with blood, the lion looked almost like she had dressed up for Halloween early. Or, at least, she would, if Lucia hadn't been pretty sure the blood was real and not fake.
"Merlin's beard..." she breathed as the blood drained into the sink, mixing with the water and making it look as if there was more than what there already was.

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[font=times new roman]SEPTEMBER 7TH
@Lucia Fox

Scarlett smiled a bit as Lucia said hi, not looking at her. It felt good to have friends. Better friends than enemies was what Fiona always used to say. Of course, Fiona's time at Hogwarts was also riddled with rivals, though she had gotten her revenge in a far more sassy, classy and badass-y way than Scarlett had - humiliating them, wrecking their social life and so on. All in a days work for Scarlett's incredible (at least in her eyes) aunt. Fiona surely wouldn't approve of this whole brawling business, which was why Scarlett would accidentally-on-purpose leave that part out when writing to her.

A gasp of shock - footsteps -

Lucia had seen her injuries, it seemed.

"Nothing happened Lucia-" said Scarlett, protesting slightly as her badger friend dragged her over to the sink to rinse off the blood. "Seriously, I'm fine-"

An odd habit of hers. When she had a mild little cough, she would fake dramatic scenes of death and plague. When she was bloodied-up with a broken nose, she said it was all fine. Scarlett had her arm pulled under the tap and she had to admit, it felt better. The freezing water numbed her senses. She desperately wanted to fix her nose, get something for her splitting headache (courtesy of Beckett's American tackle) but she couldn't show weakness. She couldn't.

"I'm fine. Really." Scarlett watched the blood drain out. "It's just someone's blood, okay? No need to worry."

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Interacting with @Scarlett Aden

Scarlett protested as Lucia practically dragged the lioness over to the sink, but Lucia silenced her with a glare."You don't look fine," the Hufflepuff decided sceptically, and watched the blood flow down the sink.

Soon, Scarlett's arm was nearly clean, and Lucia could see a few bruises dotting the other girl's skin like mistakes scribbled out on an essay. The thought reminded Lucia of the essay she had to complete - the one which she should have done several days ago - but she pushed it to the back of her mind. This was more important. Scarlett was more important.

Putting Scarlett's arm out of the sink, Lucia dragged over the other one, forcing the lioness to turn around. "Who's blood is it though?" she asked, voice slightly high pitched - a feat for a girl who usually sang alto. "How come it's all over you?" Lucia thought she could guess, but preferred to give her friend the benefit of the doubt. Surely... hopefully... "And-" the Hufflepuff peered at Scarlett "-what happened to your nose? Merlin, Scarlett..."

Lucia wasn't very good at healing, but she knew the basics; or, the wizarding ones anyway. There had been many a time when little Willow had got herself into some scrape or other and Lucia had been the one to fix her up - although that had usually just involved calling Rosa to do some kind of healing spell. She had once seen a Muggle wearing some sort of plastic strip over their knee, which puzzled the witch greatly, but Lucia had usually made do by just shoving a potion down her sister's throat.

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@Lucia Fox

Scarlett let Lucia drag her to the sink, feeling way too tired to protest. The anger had fizzled out of her, and now all she had was a small, brewing loathing for Anastasia Beckett. She watched as the blood swished off her arm and into the sink, the Hospital Wing feeling so clean and light and fresh and airy - in stark contrast to the Hell's Pit that was her nose. Lucia then pushed her from the sink, demanding to know what had happened in a rather high voice. Shrill, concerned even, That was a surprise. She wasn't used to people feeling concerned for her when they were fussing over oh-so-traumatised Miss Anastasia Freaking Beckett. Scarlett shifted under her friend's worried gaze.

"Well, about that..." she started sheepishly. "I may or may not have gotten into a fight with someone in the hallways. And - er - the offender in question may or may not have broken my nose. I also might've been spreading some teensy weensy gossip and kicked the attacker in multiple places. And they also might've tackled me. And then someone also might've Flipendo-ed me in the shoulder."

She winced a bit at the memory, and whilst Flipendos didn't exactly hurt, the mental thought of it stung. Why didn't Beckett receive the Flipendo, seeing as she was the one attacking Scarlett?

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Interacting with @Scarlett Aden

As Scarlett's arm became a little less bloody, Lucia caught the eye of a house elf tending to someone on a bed opposite the two second years. "I'll be over in a moment," he said with a nod.
"Thank you," Lucia said quietly, and turned her attention back to Scarlett as the house elf bustled away.

"Oh Merlin, Scarlett!" Lucia's eyes widened as the lioness told her tale of woe. "That must've been some pretty bad gossip..."

But, now that Lucia knew her friend wasn't going to have any permanent damage - broken noses were easy enough to heal, after all - she was more concerned about the long term effects of Scarlett's fight, mostly for Scarlett. The Aden and Fulton families were both rather highly regarded in the wizarding world, and who it was who attacked Scarlett could make or break their reputations. Though Ebony Fox wasn't exactly the richest pureblood, she had still taught her daughters the importance of who they associated with. Lucia had... bent the rules a little during her time at Hogwarts, but there were ways in which to ruin one's whole family with a schoolgirl fight, and Lucia hoped that wasn't what Scarlett had done.
"Who was it who attacked you?" Lucia asked, and steeled herself.

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@Lucia Fox

Scarlett liked to think she would be perfectly fine without friends - she loved having them and she loved to be social, of course, but the bane of her existence didn't rely on them. She liked to think she could be a lone wolf, working alone, doing things alone, but evidently that wasn't the case. Anyway, Scarlett really was glad to have Lucia to help. She honestly didn't know where she would be without her, and her heart swelled with gratitude for the Hufflepuff.

"Thanks so much," said Scarlett, voicing her thoughts out loud, as Lucia called for a house elf. She grimaced as Lucia spoke, thought mustered up a small smile and shaking her head in humour. "Very bad gossip, actually."

Scarlett only hoped Lucia wouldn't see her differently or not want to be friends with her after this - inside, she had a small spark of worry. Would Lucia move on? Decide that another friend was nicer? Better? Easier? Lucia then asked her who had attacked her, and Scarlett had no qualms into giving her the name. She only hoped Lucia wouldn't do anything stupid, which was highly unlikely. The young badger was a lot more logical than Scarlett herself; that she knew. "Anastasia Beckett," said Scarlett in disdain. "Rich, snobby pureblood with anger issues? Have you heard of her?"

Scarlett was pretty sure Lucia's family were somewhere in the pureblood circles. Scarlett was pretty much clueless about the famous families though, but knew the Becketts were some sort of elite aristocratic bunch. The thought made her sick. They were probably the sort who spent all their money on lavish entertainment, without a care in the world for the people in poverty they could've been helping.

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[ @Scarlett Aden (so sorry for the late reply!) ]

Scarlett's admission that it had, indeed, been very bad gossip caused Lucia to pause. Was her attacker justified? But then again, no gossip should result in a broken nose. And, anyway, Lucia had spent enough time with Scarlett now to call her a friend, and surely she wouldn't choose someone really mean for a friend. Right? Scarlett was okay. Right.

But then she heard the name. "Oh Merlin's pants," Lucia said in horror, "Please tell me I heard that wrong. Scarlett, you do understand who the Becketts are, right? They're, like" - Lucia waved her hands in the air to accent her point - "one of the richest wizarding families out there! And Anastasia Beckett - you know her parents went missing, right? There's all sorts of gossip but I think most of it's just stories. But anyway, Anastasia's practically head of the family in their absence, that's that I heard!" Lucia paused in her monologue, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "Look, Scarlett; you fight a Beckett, your family fights their family. You can suffer huge social consequences for angering a Beckett. They're hugely influencial - for Merlin's sake, Anastasia's parents are a Lord and Lady!" Lucia suddenly wished she could sit down, but instead paused a moment, thinking. Then, she said, in the tone of voice of someone delivering bad news, "Scarlett, I think you're going to have to apologise. You apologise to her, she apologises to you if she's anywhere near decent, everything's fine. For your family's sake if nothing else. Take it from me - we got dis-invited from a Beckett event once, the year after my father... disappeared... and we practically got ignored for the rest of the year." What Lucia didn't say, though, was that it was just as well. She was only six at the time, but from what she remembered she was fairly sure that Ebony hadn't really been up to attending social events anyway.

outfit
speech #bf0040

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@Lucia Fox

[font=times new roman]S[/font]carlett was absolutely exhausted, and though Lucia was a good friend of hers, she could only take so much chat and worry. That didn't mean she wouldn't try to answer or reassure her friend though. Scarlett internally steeled herself for some more questions pertaining to the fight, which she just wanted to forget about for the time being.

"Yep, I know the Becketts," said Scarlett, only slightly weary with a forced smile. It hurt her nose. A lot. "Wealth, gossip, scandal - things that belong in a tabloid or a celebrity magazine or Witch Weekly - which is admittedly rather sexist - and not at Hogwarts."

More conversation. Scarlett resisted the urge to heave a sigh, but decided some rest could do her good. Hoping it wouldn't be seen as rude to Lucia, Scarlett flopped onto a bed to sit down on, patting the area next to her. "You can join me if you want," said Scarlett, meeting her friend's dark-blue eyes. "Standing up gets pretty tiring after a while." A slight quirk of her mouth would provide a small smile, to salvage some sort of light-heartedness where they could.

Scarlett flicked her wrist absent-mindedly. "Eh, I don't have a lot of biological family that's able to fight right now, so I think I'll be good." She shrugged. "And Lord and Lady are just titles and - wait what?"

Scarlett began to laugh at Lucia's next proclamation. She tried to stop the giggles but they burst out from her, turning into wheezy little hiccups because of her rather battered form. "Sorry," said Scarlett, over small jolts of laughter. "It's just - I - I don't really care and-" More laughter. "I mean - I don't care about social status and all that-" Another round of giggling. Scarlett attempted to quell her rather rude laughter with some deep breaths.

"Thanks a lot for your advice - it means a lot to me. I'm glad to have you as a friend, albeit an actually responsible one." Scarlett smiled at Lucia. "But I'm not one to really care much about social standings, and while I'm sorry your family had to go through that stuff, I'm not going to apologise to someone who did, well, this." She gestured to herself. Her black eye, her broken nose, her ever-so-slightly blood-splattered self and the ache in her shoulder from the Flipendo that wasn't necessarily Beckett's fault, but it had come from someone with some sort of relationship with her, so-

"Thanks...a lot, again," said Scarlett quietly. "Want me to go buy you some sweets? Which do you like?"

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