Closed A Step Towards Unity Group 5

Rita listened carefully as Simon gave a short description to each type of special races and concluded his speech by saying the half-breeds are basically amazing friends to make in Hogwarts despite some struggles they and the other students may encounter due to their special races. "Thanks for your information about those special races, Simon. And you are totally right, the half-breeds are amazing and great friends to make in Hogwarts!"

Then, another housemate of the black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff besides Simon and Roro, AF, greeted her back before the girl with long wavy light-brown hair did something really clumsy. AF was holding a glass of cranberry juice but Simon`s words had made the poor girl choke. Guess what? The juice just spilled on the white pants of Charlie. "Holy cow. Charlie must be mad this time. It could have been better if she is not wearing white pants, but she is. AF should join the Clumsy Club." The black-haired Hufflepuff thought.

And as Rita had imagined, Charlie was definitely mad. After commenting on the article being dumb and saying hi to the Second Year Hufflepuff and saying they had never met before, while they actually had met before in the Musicians Corners club meeting, the cranberry juice incident happened. The poor Ravenclaw girl was definitely mad about the incident, and quickly sprinted out of the rehearsal room before the Second Year Hufflepuff could possibly say anything to the poor girl, leaving a word of sarcasm.

The Second Year Hufflepuff then turned to AF and said to her housemate with long wavy light-brown hair with a little anger, "Look at what you have done, AF. I know you don`t mean it, but you need really be careful next time. Maybe you should join the clumsy club to share your clumsy experience. By the way, what point in Simon`s words make you choke? I suppose it is just a description of the special races, or is there something about Simon you are all keep hiding? Wait, maybe I should not ask about that, I don`t mean to hurt anyone`s feelings, but you really need to be careful next time, AF."

The Second Year Hufflepuff could not believe how was coming out of her mouth, but her sixth sense told her there was something not quite right about the group. AF`s choking upon Simon`s seemingly normal words just told her there must be some secrets hidden in the seemingly innocent group.
Word count: 650+541+410=1601/800
Interacting with: @Simon Kincaid @AngelFyre McCubbin @Aurora Griffith @Adya Oakes @Charlie Jacobsen @Mahlioz Evethisawe @Della Barfield

Reducio

OOC note: I am pretty sure this post is gonna lead to some IC conflicts as Rita is beginning to discover the secrets of the group members, but please remember Rita`s words are just IC, I love all of you OOC!

[quote][quote]
AngelFyre was still struggling just to breathe, and was rather occupied with that basic necessity, but was not completely oblivious to the rampant sarcasm and scolding being tossed her way.

She could definitely understand Charlie being upset, that was a given, but she had apologized. She did not expect that to make everything right by any means, but it was only a start. It was not as if the white outfit could not be saved. She was a witch after all, and one scourgify was all it would take to erase the crimson stain. Surely Charlie had to know that, too, even if she herself was possibly not at a point in her studies to have learned to cast it just yet or had not perfected it. The Ravenclaw was definitely furious when she spat out her sarcastic exit line, but AngelFyre felt there was more to it than just the cranberry juice. Whether Charlie was simply having a terrible day and that juice incident was the straw that broken the camel's back, AngelFyre had no way of knowing, but she did not rule out the possibility that there was more to it.

Where AngelFyre's anger did flare, and uncharacteristically made an appearance, was when she was being scolded by Rita Su. The girl had the nerve to spout her holier than thou suggestion that AngelFyre should join some ridiculous sounding club called 'The Clumsy Club'. It was a blinking accident. Sheesh! They happen... to everyone... Rita Su included. One accident does not make one clumsy in general.

AngelFyre would have let that go if Rita Su had stopped there, but she had not. More than anything, however, it did not escape AngelFyre's notice that Rita Su could not be bothered apparently, to even acknowledge that AngelFyre was still gasping for air while she was scolding her, let alone check to see if she may need any help. Maybe the Sorting Hat did not get it right every time, she thought. Very unHufflepuff-like behavior.

As she was coming to the end of her spasms and finally beginning to fall into a normalized breathing pattern once again, Rita Su took it not one, but about 20 steps too far. As she stood there and demanded to know what made AngelFyre choke and then in the same breath accused AngelFyre of hiding something about Simon, AngelFyre was definitely certain the Sorting Hat had gotten it wrong because she was feeling less like a badger and more like a lion about to make its kill.

Finding her footing, she was able to stand completely erect now, and she reached over, ironically enough, to grab Simon's water bottle and she took a few sips to soothe her burning throat. She capped it and then addressed her 'housemate'.

"First, let me just say, I am fine. Thank you so very much for directing your concern where it, of course, should have been, and that was not on the choking girl but on a clothing ensemble that will be just fine with a scourgify. I truly do hope my coughing and gasping for air did not force you to have to raise your voice too awfully much while lecturing me on what I really must be careful about in the future. I have a mother, Rita Su, and last time I looked, you are not her, so I will thank you very much to keep your condescending tone and suggestions to yourself next time."

When AngelFyre was angry, her voice became quiet, but commanding. Her normal lightheartedness and gaiety was nowhere to be heard. It was a low rumbling, threat level event. She took a step towards Rita Su. Just one, but one was enough to close some of the distance between them and guarantee that eye contact would be made... and held.

"And here is a bit of free, unsolicited advice from me to you, since that seems to be the coin of your realm. Think twice before approaching me in the future with your sanctimonious, demanding tone, especially when it comes to Simon. Why you are of the opinion that you have any right to demand anything from me about him, or cast unfounded accusations as to why a girl choked on some juice, is the pinnacle of your narcissism. You are owed absolutely nothing, from me or from him."

Turning to the people who were still present, AngelFyre managed a more than decent facsimile of her normally cheerful self. "My sincerest apologies to the group for the recent, most unfortunate events, and for my part in them. This rather devolved from what we were all here to experience, which was unity and understanding. If anyone has more to say, or to ask... politely... I am more than willing to try to move forward."

Then she sat back down, not making eye contact with Simon. He had never seen her or heard act like that, so when they did speak about it, she wanted it done in private. Seeing disappointment in his eyes would only add more fuel to her fire right now and that would bode no good for anyone.



Interacts with @Rita Su
Mentions @Simon Kincaid @Charlie Jacobsen @Della Barfield @Mahlioz Evethisawe @Aurora Griffith @Adya Oakes

AF`s harsh words were literally like stabbing a sharp knife into the heart of poor Rita, who was about to cry out. The Second Year Hufflepuff had expected her housemate with long wavy light-brown hair to be mad about her incredibly inconsiderate words, but she was never expected that she would be THAT mad. With the other girl taking a step forward and having direct eye contact with the black-haired Hufflepuff, Rita was just afraid and wanted to escape from the whole situation. "AngelFyre? She is just being scary now. What if she takes a step further and even starts a physical fight or a duel with me? I am so afraid of that. I know I am being wrong; it is just a very small accident that everyone will encounter, choking on the drink, which just takes a simple cleaning charm to cope with, and I am taking it one hundred steps further, I should probably apologize to AF before she takes this to the next level. I am so afraid of that! I would just run away as quickly as possible if she ever lifted her fists or her wands!" The black-haired Hufflepuff thought.

"Alright, chill, AF. I`m terribly sorry for my words and for making you that mad. I understand I did something wrong, like terribly wrong, and I sincerely apologize for that. Afterall, it is just a small accident that everyone encounters every now and then, and I am taking it 100 steps further. I really shouldn`t ask that kind of questions to you and to Simon, and I am really sorry for my wrongdoing. I am also deeply sorry to everyone else for what happened just now. So, could you forgive me for my wrongdoing, and could we just move on with the discussion, okay? So has anyone of you got anything else to say about the article and about your opinions on the topic of special races in general?" The Second Year Hufflepuff apologized timidly in a low voice, not even dare to lift her heads to look at AF directly. Rita hoped her apology would at least made AF feel a little better, but she was not sure whether she should have a separate moment with her house mate or not for some one-to-one confession and understanding. The Second Year Hufflepuff really did not want to form a hating relationship with her house mate and did not want this incident to result in some further misunderstanding between the two badgers.
Word count: 418+1601=2019/800
Interacting with: @AngelFyre McCubbin
Mentioning: @Simon Kincaid @Della Barfield @Mahlioz Evethisawe @Aurora Griffith @Adya Oakes

What in Merlin's name was going on here?

Simon had his arm around AngelFyre, resting his hand on her back as she coughed during The Accusations of Charlie Jacobsen. He still stood there during The Exit of Charlie Jacobsen. He was still there during The Accusations of Rita Su, and The Rebuttal of AngelFyre McCubbin. When she stepped toward Rita, that's when his hand left her. He was most grateful the entire time that she was coughing so much because that meant she was getting air through and he didn't have to begin CPR. While lip-locking was his favorite pastime with AngelFyre, he'd rather it be due to recreational matters, rather than life-saving measures.

Rita got her last words in and it seemed that everyone was trying to get this train back on track but Simon wasn't sure that was going to happen. AngelFyre was now seated and he watched her, trying to gauge her emotion. She was livid, he knew that much, but he didn't quite know if she was embarrassed as well or not and if so, she had no reason to be.

Simon wasn't even upset at Rita's accusations but it still would have been better to come up to him privately to discuss if she had thoughts she wanted shared. Granted, this was a Unity meeting but it was done because halfbreeds weren't comfortable revealing their true selves. Like Charlie - storming out. Partially, Simon wondered if she was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. He had met her already, and her first words to him were: “Hello, I’m Charlie. Are you a Dhampir too?” Maybe, with non-dhampirs, she wasn't so open about her dhampirness.

This Unity meeting wasn't bringing them too much together beyond their views. Thankfully, everyone saw the thick bias of The Daily Prophet article and agreed that it was appalling. Simon had showed him that one because it didn't hit hard so much. It was full of nonsense, but honestly, he could have shown them some articles in their own Hogwarts Headliner that were about the same. Would they have agreed with that now that they were talking about halfbreeds within their own walls?

And were they really stating the truth? Halfbreeds COULD be dangerous. Simon realized that more than ever now in coming into his third year at Hogwarts. This was the year that he, as a dhampir, was getting his adult fangs. This was the year that he was gaining the unsettling presence whether he liked it or not.

"Honestly, I don't think we're ready for a Unity meeting, sadly. I don't think we're there yet - at least not in this group. Here at Hogwarts, we've got MUCH bigger issues at hand. I mean....we're getting this upset over having some juice spilled on our clothing or having some juice spilled on our friend's clothing - we're not ready to discuss fellow students that are werewolves taking wolfsbane to curb potential attacks, or not ready to discuss fellow students that are dhampirs taking blood rations to prevent potential attacks, nor are we ready to discuss fellow students that might be part veela or goblin or giant with tempers that might go awry."

Simon walked over to where AngelFyre was and he extended out his hand for her to take. Everything always seemed better when the two were connected with touch. "Charlie is my friend, although, her words pertaining to the most amazing girl in the world have saddened me. Those coming to her defense, and in doing so, also saying some sharp words to the most amazing girl in the world has also saddened me. We go to a school of magic and the juice that got on her pants can be removed in the blink of an eye. If we didn't? - Well, they're still just pants. She could find new clothing, or cover that up in some artistic way, or hell, just wear some juice-stained paints. Again, they're pants."

Maybe this Unity meeting should have been for Fifth and Sixth and Seventh years, when some maturity had kicked in.

Simon went down and sat next to AngelFyre.

Finally, Simon opened his mouth to speak, and the third year fellow Hufflepuff prefect would say some words that Rita would consider as quite mature and wise. Afterall, they were just still quite immature preteens and early teens aging between 11-13 and had just created such a big fuss upon the spilling of a cup of cranberry juice, a very small and quite common accident everyone would run into every now and then, and there was actually no step towards unity during their discussion since nobody actually revealed their true identity, and there were even more conflicts and chaos after the cranberry juice incident happened. Just as Simon said, they were just not ready for some of the more mature topics about Halfbreeds at such a young age.

"I think you are absolutely right, Simon. Afterall, we are just some still quite immature preteens and early teens who would even make such a big fuss about such a small thing like the spilling over of a cup of cranberry juice, and we are just not ready to discuss some of the more mature topics covered in this area. There really isn`t any step towards unity in our discussion, and even more chaos and confusion when AF just accidentally spilled that bottle of juice on Charlie`s white pants. I think we should actually have the meeting later when we grow older and is able to handle those more matured topics. Anyway, it was nice talking with all of you this afternoon besides the drama, I guess?" The Second Year Hufflepuff with short black hair finally replied. She wanted to go, but she also wanted to stay to hear the opinions expressed by the other members of the team. Finally, the black-haired Hufflepuff decided to return to her seats and simply listen quietly and waited for other members of the group to speak, if there is anyone opening up, as Simon tried to comfort AF to prevent her from feeling bad about that cranberry juice accident. It had been decided, if there was no one trying to speak, then Rita would simply just go as there really was nothing else she could do here besides wait and listen at this point.
Word count: 367+2019=2386
Interacting with: @Simon Kincaid @AngelFyre McCubbin @Della Barfield @Aurora Griffith @Mahlioz Evethisawe @Adya Oakes

date: 1/27/23 | place: Rehearsal Room | #ba9826= Aurora(English) | Thoughts= Italics

Not much happened over the next several minutes. Rita shared her views on what we were talking about, and people were generally just giving their opinions. Until they weren't. AF had been drinking cranberry juice, and then she started choking on it. Alarmed, I said, "AF, are you alright?" A few seconds slipped by, and chaos engulfed the group.

The cranberry juice drink slipped out of AF's hands and onto Charlie's white pants. Pants that had to be white, of all things. But I wouldn't have expected that to happen either. "Uh oh..." I said very quietly. Things hadn't ended well for Charlie. It's not that big of a deal! I thought, but it might've been for Charlie.

Rita's words to AF surprised me...like, a lot. I couldn't imagine the fact that she would actually say something like that rattled my composure a little. Half not knowing what exactly I was doing, I apparently intervened. "Whoa whoa guys, let's not fight, okay? AF, please don't take it personally..." And this was why I was a Hufflepuff...

AF retorted with a rather harsh statement, and I sensed that things were spiraling out of control, but before I could come up with something to say to calm both people down, things seemed to really be spiraling out of control. "Wait, wait, wait. Let's not fight- please- we shouldn't be fighting over things like this, it's not that big of a deal." It was sad how the situation had ended up, with two Hufflepuffs of all people.

Even though Rita had truly apologized, I still felt uneasy. I sat down and inhaled deeply, then let it out. I might have been out of my mind for a second when trying to intervene, but I didn't want anyone to fight. So while there's no use crying over spilled milk, or juice in this scenario, maybe we all just needed a lesson in maturity. I dunno, I was no teacher, but it seemed right that we all shouldn't be fussing over something like this.

So, not wanting to try and intervene again in fear that I would only make things worse(I might already have, I certainly hadn't made them better), I sat down and took deep breaths. If we were losing our heads over spilled cranberry juice, imagine us talking about something a lot bigger, because even though I might've only been 12, I knew perfectly well that we really needed to work on our understanding so that this wouldn't happen again.

"I do not agree with that 100%, but for the most part, I think that we need to work on our maturity and understanding of each other before we try something like this again. Something worse might happen if we do this again and we're not ready, and if we're arguing about spilled juice, then, well..." I said, at first not realizing that I was standing up. I didn't think I had to say anything more, so I sat back down and continued breathing deeply. I may have liked drama, but not when it involved this.

I wasn't sure if we were ready yet.

interacting with: @Simon Kincaid @AngelFyre McCubbin @Della Barfield @Mahlioz Evethisawe @Adya Oakes
mentions: @

[quote][quote]
Almost immediately upon sitting down, AngelFyre was more sorry than she would ever be able to express to the group in general, but to Rita Su in particular. Anyone who knew her, and sadly, these people did not, would know how out of character that whole display was for her. The absolute terror in Rita Su's eyes made AngelFyre want to cry. If AngelFyre had been the lion, Rita Su had definitely been the gazelle. It was the verbal equivalent of a bloodbath.

Simon always said she had a way with words, but words could be weapons, too. AngelFyre was learning that she had a felicity to be kind and wise with them, but she, apparently, could just as easily be an assassin. This she was not proud of; this she needed to put some solid effort and prayer into changing, and the sooner the better.

She did feel bad about the end result, but she would be lying to herself if she did not admit that she felt her anger at Rita Su had been justified; it just need not have been delivered with a metric crap tonne of overkill. AngelFyre had been so focused on saying her piece that she was only somewhat aware that another girl had been trying to smooth things over between her and Rita Su. AngelFyre was not certain, but she thought it might be Aurora. At least she had not also ended up a casualty of war as well.

All of this was rapidly flashing through her brain when she heard the clearly distraught Rita Su apologizing to her. AngelFyre immediately looked to her, but not in a threatening way. What she most wanted to do was rush over to hug the girl, but that somehow felt like it would not be a welcome gesture. Though she was apologizing, she was not making eye contact, and honestly, who could blame her. She had just gotten enough eye contact to last her the rest of the week no doubt.

Sigh.

And before AngelFyre could respond, Simon started speaking. He was talking of how they were not ready for the topic of Unity with respect to halfbreeds because well.... look at what had just transpired. She thought he had 99% of it right, but everyone seemed to think it was about the cranberry juice. That was just the catalyst. AngelFyre's anger had been triggered by the inconsiderateness in tone and priority. She did not feel immature. She felt hurt. Unseen.

She was winding herself up like a top again, listening to him, feeling like she had single-handedly screwed everything up, and then he did just the most Simon-like thing he could do for her in the moment, and he offered her his hand. She relaxed and immediately reached for his. She was no longer afraid she was going to see disappointment in his eyes as he continued on, standing up for her in the loving way she should have stood for herself and for him. This is why he was the dove and she the wolf. They were a good balance in that respect.

He presented it as a question that the group seemed to be too immature to handle the bigger issues that originally brought them there on a Friday evening. Rita Su and Aurora both agreed it might be the case, though Aurora seemed more gung ho to press forward, holding out some hope that lessons could yet be learned.

AngelFyre was feeling better and better by the second. Simon had taken his seat next to her, no longer putting any distance between them, and that was subconsciously soothing to her. She remained seated, but addressed Rita Su first.

"Rita Su, I owe you an apology. I do not do it in private because the grievance happened in public so I feel the apology should be in public as well. In fact, I owe the whole group an apology. I will simply say my feelings got hurt and priorities seemed to be focused on completely the wrong thing while I was in distress. I will admit I still feel that way, but the way in which I handled it was not proportionate, so for that I cannot apologize enough. I know I scared you...badly... and that is simply not okay. We do not know each other, other than by sight or by name, but I truly hope this incident has not put up a permanent impediment to getting to know one another better. I would understand, however, if it has and could not blame you in the least."

But if I may, I do think something of benefit may have come from the incident, and it does have everything to do with the reason we all gathered here this evening. Simon knows I am a classic movie lover. I mean like 1920's onward. Not 1990's onward, though there are some great movies every decade. I bring movies up because something that transpired between Rita Su and myself rather reminded me of the classic horror movie, Frankenstein. As soon as she said Frankenstein, she looked over to Simon and smiled softly at him. They had dressed as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein for Kim's Halloween Thrills and Chills Bash, and she had discovered then that Simon had not seen the movie, nor had he read the book. She had promised... he may have considered it a threat...that they would watch that and the Bride of Frankenstein movie over their next break. So Simon can always say that he went all the way to Austria, his first truly international trip, and saw Frankenstein for the first time.

"If any of you are familiar with the movie or the book, you know the monster is made to look the part... like someone... or something.... everyone should be afraid of, but if you pay close attention, it is the humans who are the monsters. The monster is simply seeking to make connections, to have friends and loving relationships, but that is just not acceptable to the villagers. They push him and corner him and come at him with fire and pitchforks. Their behavior essentially makes him, briefly, into the monster they always thought he was."

"The thing that really got to me, Rita Su, was the demand to know what secret I may be hiding. You presumed an awful lot in demanding. This is not an "outing" event. It is a Unity event. I have no idea who here amongst us is or is not a halfbreed or a pureblood, but I am pretty certain that demanding to know such is tantamount to chasing Frankenstein with pitchforks and torches. It does not foster a safe environment in which to open one's self up and expose a vulnerability.

It does not offer a sense of security to those who maybe have considered coming out of the shadows, but more than that, it also took on a tinge of a witch hunt if I am being honest. Accusations are dangerous. Planting ideas in people's heads can cause all kinds of trauma and damage, to those who may be halfbreeds and to those who are not but have been questioned to be such. I think no matter who any of us are, we all need to be careful and respectful about that. People are allowed to keep their secrets to themselves, and that is as it should be."

As she was speaking, she squeezed her dhampir's hand three times. "When you accused me of hiding something about Simon, I admit I saw red. He is a big boy and can fend plenty well for himself, but it was an existential threat you posed to him in a number of ways, both subtle and blatant, and that I could not tolerate. I would hope not to tolerate it no matter who was on the receiving end, honestly. That is the benefit of this meeting, I believe. Something as "seemingly" innocuous as that question can be an example of what we should be looking not to do in general in large groups. I suppose if someone wants to know about folks the best way is probably to approach them privately."




Interacts with @Rita Su @Simon Kincaid
Mentions @Charlie Jacobsen @Della Barfield @Mahlioz Evethisawe @Aurora Griffith @Adya Oakes

It seemed that AF was not as mad to Rita as she was just now, but her words was obviously still pretty strong for the Second Year Hufflepuff with short straight black hair and yellow glasses to bear. Anyway, the black-haired Hufflepuff clearly made a really big mistakes with her angry and inconsiderate words, and those words had much bigger impacts to AF, Simon, and the rest of students in the group then she had once imagined. Just as AF said, even though they did not actually made a step towards unity with this unity thread, there was still a really important lesson that Rita needed to learn from this unity errand meeting, that was to really consider seriously the words she was about to say since those words could do more damage to others that she could imagine if she was as inconsiderate about her words in the future as during this meeting. Another lesson the black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff beater should learn from the meeting was she should really try to control her temper and did not let her feelings get better of her, which may result in her saying something really inconsiderate and she even did not know what was coming out of her mouth in this situation. Anyway, this errand must be one of the most unforgettable errands she had ever attended due to this unwanted chaos and those important lessons to be learned.

Sitting on her chair, Rita decided to take quite a long period of time but a valuable period of time for the black-haired Hufflepuff beater herself to reflect on her mistakes with her inconsiderate words and the lessons needed to be learned from the unity errand after hearing AF`s incredibly strong words, before finally opened her mouth to respond, "No, you are fine, AF. It is me that really should be sorry and it is actually all my fault for making you this mad and making the rest of the discussion group feel really uncomfortable. It is supposed to be a pleasant meeting with each of us sharing each other`s opinions and trying to reach a consensus about the topic of Halfbreeds, but it just turned into a moment of chaos and confusion when I said those inconsiderate words and made you that mad. I had misunderstood the purpose of this meeting and I really should not suggest that everyone is hiding their true identities. I completely understand not everyone is comfortable with sharing their true identities, whether they are Halfbreeds or fully human. I agree with what you said, there is definitely a lesson learned in this meeting, that is considering seriously about what I am going to say before I speak since those inconsiderate words I said would probably hurt others` feelings more that I can imagine. Once again, I am deeply sorry for my inconsiderate words and for causing such a big trouble to disrupt this once quite pleasant meeting."

After her quite long apology speech, the Second Year Hufflepuff beater bowed to the group to show her apology, then returned to her seat, feeling really bad about herself causing such a big mess and started to just listen to the other members of their discussion group do the talking, if there was any further comments, or else she would simply leave the meeting to spend some time by herself to reflect further on her wrongdoing alone.
Total word count: 570+2386=2956
Interacting with: @Simon Kincaid @AngelFyre McCubbin @Della Barfield @Aurora Griffith @Mahlioz Evethisawe @Adya Oakes

English | Parseltongue
interacting: @Rita Su | @AngelFyre McCubbin | @Aurora Griffith | @Simon Kincaid

Well, one thing was going well—sorta. Della's late entrance had not been seen. But the atmosphere in the room was thick with tension and tempers were flaring. The student who was now covered in red juice stormed out of the room. So much for unity.

Della was exactly sure how to parse what happened next—though she could only imagine that the conversation was continuing from before her entrance. Her head bobbed back and forth as the participants in the circle took their turn to say their piece. One Hufflepuff, named Rita she surmised, seemed to imply that Simon or AngelFyre or both of them were hiding something. This was unnerving—so was this meeting going to turn into a coming out? Would Della be expected to also come out? No one had noticed her here. She could make a getaway...

Thankfully, AngelFyre moved quickly to simmer the situation. Then came a quieter conversation about if Hogwarts was ready to have a conversation about unity. Della dwelled particularly on Simon's point—if there were potentially dangerous students here—say a werewolf twelve-year-old forgets their wolfsbane (she had no idea how the school enforced this)—how could literal children be prepared to deal with the consequences, let alone think of how to come together? But also she had to agree with the group (there was some bias on this point), no one should be forced to reveal private parts about themselves to others. Why wasn't an adult present here? How did the school rules even surround these things? Were there any?

Now that tempers had cooled and there might be room for more intellectual conversation, Della decided to finally enter the fray. She took a swig of her juice and cleared her throat, hoping not to alarm anyone.

"Personally, I find it odd that we're left to have this conversation by ourselves. I'm the first to admit that I'm muggleborn, and I'm new to all this magical politics stuff, though some of it doesn't feel too different to from stuff going on in the muggle world, but really we're all just kids. It's good to learn about each other and be open to differences, but this whole thing would probably work better if we had a mentor to guide us through the conversation. I also noticed we don't learn heavily about half-breeds in class. I now know somewhat about vampires or famous full-grown werewolves, but concrete facts about people that could be in the student population would be helpful for understanding each other. It sounds as if there's a lot of misinformation and bias about other magical races, and there might need to be a more comprehensive and systemic approach to fix it all."

Della gulped. She didn't mean for all of that to come out. She could only hope it was received well.

WC: 468

Welp, a whole lot had happened in so little time. Mahlioz couldn't decide whether to be horrified or impressed. She went with a mild touch of both.
She'd managed to catch pretty much everyone's names - one girl had gotten in late, right as everything happened. The blonde girl, who Mahlioz now knew to be named AF, had choked and accidentally spilled her juice on the brunette, Charlie, 's pants, which unfortunately happened to be white. It wasn't a really big deal - they lived in a magical world, after all, and some cranberry juice didn't do much damage. But Charlie seemed to have been having a bad day, and it was the final straw for her. She'd marched out of the room, her words dripping with sarcasm.

Mahlioz understood everyone's points of view - poor Charlie, who'd been drenched, but also poor AF who'd gotten blamed when it'd only been an accident. Everything had gotten too big too quickly, and soon enough people were angrily blaming each other. Even Rita, a good friend of Mahlioz's, was getting a little too inquisitive. Luckily, AF managed to get everything back on track and everyone who'd fought apologized.
Just when Mahlioz thought they were going to get back on topic again, Simon (the older guy) stated that he thought they weren't mature enough for these kinds of discussions. And although Mahlioz had to agree that that drama was a little much, it had just been an accident, right? People needed the chance to get better. The other students seemed to agree with him, though, so Mahlioz kept quiet. But a different girl, one who Mahlioz hadn't noticed yet and who seemed just as shy as herself, gave her opinion as well, so the young Slytherin decided to add.

"I agree that we may not be mature enough, or old enough or something... but this is something we need to talk about. It's an important topic, otherwise there wouldn't be an event all about it. But more importantly, if we don't take opportunities to learn to be mature now, how will we ever learn it? This is a way to figure it out. People don't just become mature, we need to learn it, in experiences like this one. And yes, I agree that we should probably have a mentor to help us through this. But we shouldn't just give up on the conversation altogether just because we don't think our tween/teen minds can handle it."
It had been a lot of talking, but Mahlioz didn't want to end the conversation at all, and she felt the need to tell the others this. As that other girl had said, the only way to get rid of bias was to learn. And learning was what she'd come here to do - she didn't know much at all about the other races. She knew the famous stories of werewolves and vampires, but those were biased and told too many times to be true. She wanted to learn about the kids like her, and what it was like, and how she could help them out. Even if she wasn't mature enough. She'd keep her mouth closed and listen to those who were.