Nova gave him an overly dramatic eye roll, scoffing at his response. "I've tried your authentic Italian food, relax. Doesn't really mean you have to be all picky about your food choices." Had no one ever told this guy to just eat what was on his plate? She could easily imagine him ordering around servants because of his slightly off steak or something. He definitely seemed rather spoilt, judging from the expression he had made when he saw all the breakfast food on the tables.
"Don't you know the house elves worked really hard on it?" She asked skeptically, brows furrowing as she took a bite of her apple. "Gabi. That's pretty," she said offhandedly, tossing her apple's core. Her eyes widened at his sudden realization — the lightbulb flickering on above his magenta head. She hid a snort. "He is not an..." She trailed off, eyes darting away exasperatedly. Nova wasn't one to swear in general, though she didn't mind if others did it. And clearly, Gabriele did it a lot. Like, it might have been a second language for him at that point.
"He's not a bad person," she started, giving him a flat look. "He wasn't even acting weird." Her expression softened slightly, and she glanced sideways at the Great Hall. "He's just really, really sarcastic. It gets funny once you get through to him." Her eyes flicked toward the Slytherin table, but she didn’t linger, turning back to the Hufflepuff in front of her instead. A tiny warmth bloomed across Nova’s cheeks, so faint she almost didn’t notice it herself. It was probably due to the wind, despite it being early September and warm as an oven.
"You know, you do swear an alarming amount," she said dryly, shaking her head. "Don't you even try to censor your words or do you want to get more detentions than there are days in a year?"
Thoughts - Italic ~ Nova's Speech - #a88400 ~ Gabriele's speech - #7B3F00
NOTES
@Gabriele Ricci-Armani
WORD COUNT: 318/200 words
Forward dated to September 15, 2025
