Dancing with the Storm PV Stelle

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  ❛ Art Deco — Allure in Effect ❜
  Date: May 2, 2026 | Words: 878| Dialogue: #aa5713
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Stelle had always suspected that rain had a personality of its own. Not a particularly pleasant one, either. The fine rain was a nosy old woman who slipped under doors uninvited, perhaps that's why it reminded her of her grandmother. The autumn drizzle was a melancholy poet incapable of finishing a sentence, as if she were a father. And storms like this one were, without a doubt, army generals who enjoyed terrorizing the world to remind everyone who was in charge. That afternoon, the general seemed especially inspired. From one of the castle windows, she watched the water pour from the sky with such force that it seemed as if someone had decided to empty an entire ocean over Hogwarts, hoping her curls wouldn't get frizzy from the dampness after having made the ill-advised decision to style them that morning. Most of the students had reacted sensibly, that is to say, by hiding. The common rooms were packed: sofas occupied, fireside corners turned into contested territories with the usual intensity of teenagers who had nothing better to do.

Stelle had tried to participate. She really had. She'd read three pages of a book, then the same three pages twice, then spent ten minutes staring out the window. Finally, she'd concluded that sitting still was considerably harder than any exam. That's why she was wandering the corridors when something caught her eye. A small, drenched figure, running across the grounds in a downpour that would probably have convinced far smarter people to stay indoors. Stelle squinted, watched for a few seconds, and then smiled. Because she knew exactly one person who might think that was a good idea.

"Oh, no," she muttered to herself.

The smile widened.She didn't bother to think about it too much; the best decisions in her life rarely began with reflection. Five minutes later, she was hurtling down the main staircase. Other students watched her go by; some looked confused, one even tried to ask her where she was going. But the question was forgotten as soon as Stelle burst through the castle's enormous gates.
The storm immediately greeted her. The wind buffeted her with enough force to knock her half a step back. Water poured down on her in quantities that seemed downright unnecessary. Her hair began to stick to her face, and her robes absorbed moisture with admirable speed. Even so, she started to laugh because it was impossible not to. It was magnificent. The rain roared, the trees bent, the puddles had become small lakes. The whole world seemed to have forgotten how to behave; if her grandmother saw her, she'd be beside herself. And in the midst of all that chaos, she found Pamela. Naturally, she was splashing around. Stelle watched for a moment as she waded through a huge puddle with the same carefree joy of a five-year-old who had just discovered that water splashed. It made her laugh even harder.

“Pamela Graham!” she shouted.

The storm decided to swallow about half the words.

“You’re completely crazy!”

It wasn’t an accusation, it was a greeting. The wind tore golden strands of hair in all directions, and Stelle trudged through the soaked grass to catch up with her.

“I’ve been trying to decide whether to admire you or tell the teachers for ten minutes!”

Another gush of rain hit her face. She closed her eyes. She coughed. And received an offensive amount of water up her nose.

“There should definitely be rules against this!” she protested.

The storm responded by throwing more water at her; it clearly didn’t respect authority. For a few seconds, she stood there, breathing heavily and watching the spectacle. The gray sky, the endless rain, the trees swaying in the wind, and Pam spinning through it all as if she’d been personally invited by the storm. Stelle understood then something she’d always suspected. Most people were observing nature, but Pamela seemed to be conversing with it, and perhaps that's why it was so easy to befriend her. Because the whole world seemed interesting to her; even when it was trying to drown her.

"You know what?" she finally shouted.

Pam probably only heard one syllable out of every three.

"I think this is the worst idea I've had all month!"

She took one step after another toward a puddle. The icy water immediately soaked through her shoes, making her shiver.

"And that really bothers me because now I have to join in! But you will take care of my curls later!"

With the dignity that only someone who has just willingly relinquished any semblance of sanity can possess, she ran toward the nearest puddle and she jumped. The water exploded around her legs, boisterous and perfect. Her laughter mingled with the roar of the wind. For a few moments, she forgot about homework, classes, exams, and any worries that might have existed. There was only the rain, the absurd freedom of doing something unnecessary, and a friend just as ridiculous as she was. Perhaps the adults would have said they were wasting time. Perhaps the teachers would have sent them straight back to the castle. Surely they would both end up with a cold the next day. But that was a problem for the future.[/color]

Speech -- Thoughts

Pam found her mind drifting as she played around under the rain. She reached a finger up, poking at a leaf hanging off an overhead branch. The glossy blade separated immediately, falling for less than a millisecond before the wind swept it up, and away. Pam felt a pang of guilt.

Oh dear, it was more delicate than I realized.

She glanced in the direction the leaf had disappeared, hand shielding her eyes as she stared back at the Hogwarts castle, in the general direction of what she assumed was the Astronomy Tower. She wasn't quite sure, it could've been wrong. The rain had nullified whatever little sense of direction Pam normally possessed. Which was not a lot to begin with.

A thought surfaced rapidly in her mind. What would the Astronomy Tower look like if I went up there now? The Astronomy Tower was one of her favorite places in the castle, and after the Library, she'd probably spent the most time up there. She imagined the glass dome, transparent and sparkling normally. It would probably be covered with water. She could lie down on the ground and stare up at the rain, watch it fall on her. Pam guessed it would appear the same as it would if she looked up now—

"Oops, sorry—" she rubbed her eyes, blinking rapidly in an attempt to ease the sting of water.

A shout reached her through the downpour.

Or at least she assumed it was a shout.

The storm had been making increasingly questionable decisions regarding sound quality.

Pam blinked rainwater out of her eyes and turned, squinting into the distance. A figure emerged from the grey haze.

For one absurd moment, she wondered if the storm had manifested a person. Is that a teacher already?! I've barely been here five minutes—

But no. Pam blinked. Then blinked again. Then wondered whether the storm had grown attached and was now playing a practical joke on her.

The figure continued moving.

Fast.

Which seemed like a questionable decision. Visibility was terrible and the grounds were currently composed of approximately sixty percent puddles.

But wait— why was that hair familiar—?

...

Is that Stelle?

"STELLE?!"

Pam blinked. Then blinked again.

Nope.

Still Stelle.

Still running through a thunderstorm.

More water knocked the disbelief right out of her. Pam let out a gleeful laugh, "I can't hear you!" she called out, attempting to get closer to the girl as she jumped through puddles with a kind of childish joy she didn't think someone like Stelle could possess at the sight of rain.

Stelle, who somehow managed to look put together even after an entire day of classes.

Stelle, who paid attention to things like curls and ribbons and appearances.

Stelle, who absolutely knew what rain did to hair.

"Would I be too full of myself if I assume you've come to join me?!" Pam demanded, catching the girl's arm with a grin.

Speech -- Thoughts

Pam giggled at the girl's words, brushing a lot of water out of her face and away from her eyes, "I wasn't gonna die," she joked, covering her eyes and glancing up at the sky for what was perhaps the third time in ten minutes. The storm was unyeilding, pressing down columns of water against her mouth and lower face painfully.

Pam wasn't someone who learnt from her mistakes.

She turned back towards Stelle, hands cupping a bit of the rainwater as it fell. She held it up to the girl, "See? Friendly. Aggressive... But friendly. Like an oversized puppy who doesn't know his own strength."

She giggled, throwing whatever water had accumulated in her hands at Stelle's face, "I thought I was gonna have fun without you too." She agreed, "Wasn't expecting you to join me. Or even notice me really."

Pam vaguely wondered if her friend could hear her. Although they were standing pretty close to each other, it was hard to say over the din of the storm.

"Your grandmother sounds like a nice lady!" She said louder, cupping her hands around her mouth in an attempt to get her message across.

The girl's next few words partially disappeared into the air scattered somewhere into the downpour before they could properly reach her.

Pam found herself pausing anyway.

Maybe Stelle was right.. Pam rarely found herself in a situation where she could just 'enjoy the moment' as they said. Maybe there was something nice about forgetting everything else for a while. No homework. No classes. No expectations. Just rain and laughter and puddles large enough to qualify as lakes.

It felt strangely freeing.

The thought survived for all of three seconds.

Then Stelle grabbed her hand and took off running.

"Wait a sec—"

Pam stumbled after her, nearly losing her footing as she splashed into a large puddle in her path. She laughed.

Honestly, she had no idea where they were going.

The storm had reduced the grounds to a blur of grey and green and water, and at some point she'd stopped caring.

A flash of movement caught her eye to their left. Water rushed downhill in a stream that definitely hadn't existed earlier.

Pam's grin widened.

"Hey!" she called over the rain. "Do you think the Great Lake looks different during storms?"

The idea struck her all at once.

"What if we go see?"

Speech -- Thoughts

Pam's eyes lit up at once.

Honestly, she'd expected at least a token objection. Something about safety. Or common sense. Or not wandering toward a giant lake during a thunderstorm.

Instead, Stelle had agreed almost immediately.

It was deeply encouraging.

It was probably also concerning.

"Excellent decision."

As though nature itself objected, a powerful gust of wind slammed into her from the side, knocking her hair into her face and rendering her eyes temporarily out-of-service. Pam blinked, suddenly disoriented, and blurted, "Mr Storm, wait on the water for a second, my eyes hurt—" She rubbed her eyes for what was perhaps the fifteenth time that minute, before blinking owlishly at Stelle, "Alright so perhaps the weather disagrees."

The nature gods probably already knew Pam was not one to be deterred by the possibility of bad ideas.

Pam laughed anyway.

The grounds had stopped resembling actual grounds a long time ago. Between the puddles, streams, runaway leaves and questionable visibility, it felt more like they were attempting to cross an entirely different country.

"You're so easy to convince, by the way."

She sounded positively delighted by the discovery. Calm done Pam, control your troublemaking thoughts. Do not scare your friend away—

She's only been here five minutes.

It had probably been more than five minutes.

She had to ask, though.

"If I told you there was a dragon in the Forbidden Forest right now, would you come with me?"

She squeezed Stelle's hand in hers, tugging the girl towards the general direction of the Great Lake as she spoke. And by general direction she meant— "Are we going the right way? The storm has put my navigation skills on cooldown."

Water rushed downhill in every direction now, carving temporary rivers through the grass. Tiny streams crossed their path every few feet, weaving around rocks and roots before disappearing into the ground.

Pam watched one race past her shoe.

She briefly considered naming it.

Then, a leaf shot past her face at an alarming speed.

Pam stared after it.

Had the storm suddenly decided to weaponized foliage? Why?

She still couldn't quite believe Stelle had actually come outside.

Most people saw thunderstorms and immediately sought shelter.

Stelle had apparently looked at the situation and decided to make it everyone else's problem.

Or had she seen Pam and decided to make the girl her own problem?

Her mind wondered as she thought of the Great Lake. The lake had always felt enormous. Not like the ocean, of course. But enormous enough that standing on one shore made the opposite side feel impossibly distant. Pam had once wondered whether the opposite shore actually even existed at all.

So, how would it look when a large-scale storm got involved in the story? Did the surface turn silver? Did waves form? Could the giant squid tell when it was raining?

That last question lingered for longer than it probably should have. Considering Pam had never actually set her eyes on the elusive resident of the Lake before.

Would the Lake be pretty? She remembered how the Lake looked in the middle of winter, covered with ice down to it's core. The surface had glittered beneath the sunlight like glass, still and silent and impossibly calm.

It would be a very different situation now.

For starts, there would be no calm anywhere, not with the way the storm was raging on. Still, it was bound to be pretty, she supposed, being water on water and all. But if she had to guess, it would look scary too. Terrifying too. The sort of frightening that made people unable to turn their eyes away.

Terrifyingly beautiful.

Beautifully terrifying.

Was that even a thing?

It sure felt like a thing.

Well, there was no reason to keep lingering on the thought right now. Luckily for her, whatever the lake looked like now, they were about to find out.

Assuming, of course, they were walking in the correct direction.

Which remained an increasingly optimistic assumption.