House of Cards PV: Estelle Nyx Closed

Estelle was glad the school holidays were approaching. Of course she loved Hogwarts and all its wondrous secrets and magic but she missed her grandfather, her parents and her muggle friends. She hadn't seen them since Christmas and couldn't wait to see them again.

Estelle had planned to grab a book and spend the afternoon reading in the shade of the Courtyard. She felt she deserved a break from the stress of her end-of-year exams and a good book would do just that.

Estelle wandered down the many flights of stairs, book in hand and carrying her small bag, and out into the Courtyard where an older girl was stacking cards into what was already a truly impressive tower.

Estelle was unsure how to approach her as, being a first-year library dweller, she hadn't interacted much with the older years. She hoped this girl wouldn't immediately dismiss her as a useless first-year. She actually had a lot of experience building card towers. Her mum loved cards and had taught her many card games and tricks. She had watched as her mother built towers that were taller than her young self. She had always wished to live in a card castle.

She approached the girl as loudly as possible, so the girl wouldn't be startled and knock over any of her cards. She held out a pack of cards she had in her bag.

"Can I help you build the tower?"

For others Estelle might have been the most obvious person in the room and saw her from a mile away. Unfortunately Callie didn't enjoy the same awareness as everyone else. She often lost herself entirely in her work without a single clue about the world around her. Most of the time it took the people around her to remind her that yes, she had indeed been in the library for hours and needed a break. So it would come as no surprise that the younger students sudden arrival gave Callie a fright.

"Argh-" She exclaimed and managed to knock over the house of cards entirely in her sudden fright. Callie let out a mild groan and turned around, fully expecting Thomas or Elias to be behind this foul trickery. Although her temper was decidedly quenched the moment that she saw it was not the two idiots in her life but rather a much younger student. One that Callie didn't particularly recognise.

Rather than berate the evil fiend responsible for the destruction of her house of cards she greeted Estelle with a wide grin. The last thing she wanted was to scare off a younger student. "I uh..." She took the pack of cards into her hand and set it down beside the rest. "Well...I certainly need all the help I can get! I want to get this thing taller than me!" She beamed and shuffled over slightly to make room. "I'm Callie by the way. Fifth year Ravenclaw, I'm afraid I don't think we've met."

"Nooo!" Estelle exclaimed as the girl, who introduced herself as Callie, knocked over her tower.

Estelle apologised profusely for scaring her and making her knock over her card tower. She felt so guilty and hoped Callie wouldn't hate her for what she did. She was clumsy at the best of times and she had thought Callie would be able to hear her coming a mile off, but when you are that focused, outside noises don't affect you.

Estelle knew what that was like. She had often been teased by her friends who had waved hands near her face while she read and she had barely batted an eyelid.

Estelle began to help Callie rebuild the tower and introduced herself.

"I'm Estelle Nyx. Again, I'm so sorry about your card tower."

Estelle hoped Callie wouldn't assume she was like most of her family. They were known for their blood supremacist beliefs. Her father had been disowned from his family for marrying her mother (a muggle) and Estelle had grown up away from wizardkind, in a muggle school in central London. She hadn't fully understood much about magic until she was about ten - only that it was amazing and awesome but it had to be a secret. Estelle, contrary to her open personality, was surprisingly good at keeping secrets.

Fortunately for Estelle, Callie paid very little attention to the goings on of the pureblood families.Whatever they did or believed meant very little to her in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately she was at the very same school as the purebloods with the exact same if not better grades. No longer did Callie feel the same insecurity as she once did in her younger years as with age came confidence. Sure she still had to work a little harder to catch up but that was a given. Besides at the end of the day Callie couldn't help but wonder if the magical families would even still be around if not for the occsasional muggle born or halfblood.

"Ah, don't worry about it! Things get rebuilt all the time. Pleasure to meet you Estelle, even if it is under godzilla like circumstances! Estelle is a lovely name...do people call you Stella sometimes?" Callie let out a laugh and started to carefully rebuild the tower. Despite her loud smiling demeanor she worked with a surprising degree of care. Truly a miracle considering how clumsy and generally unlucky she was. You just had to look at her duelling track record for evidence of that.

"What are you doing way out here anyway? I get its a lovely day and all but I figured most people would be busy with summer coming up and all." Callie mused as she continued her work rebuilding her work of art. "Before you ask yes, I am avoiding responsibilities a little. Duelling season just ended so I have a weird amount of time on my hands. I'm not used to having this much free time!"

@Estelle Nyx

Estelle was glad the Callie wouldn't hold her tower destroying against her.

"The only person who calls me Stella is my best friend from primary school. His name's Aryan and I call him Art. Everyone else calls me Estelle, but you can call me Stella if you really want."

She shrugged. She wasn't that bothered about nicknames, but she'd prefer Estelle over Stella any day. Art hated his nickname and she disliked hers so they had made a joke of calling each other by their nicknames.

Estelle was honestly avoiding work. Her exams were soon and she should be revising but it stressed her out and she'd trapped herself into a hole with her anxieties. Plants, books and fresh air always helped.

"I should probably be revising for my exams but I needed a day off."

Estelle was so excited when so heard that Callie was a Duelist, she nearly knocked over the small card tower she had assembled. She had recently signed up to her house team and, although she hadn't yet had her first duel as she was still on the waiting list, she was so excited about the prospect of duelling!

"I just joined the Gryffindor team for Duelling - do you have any advice?"

"Ah, so the whole right to call you Stella thing is super exclusive then? I'll have to earn the honour. You can call me whatever though, I don't mind! Callie...Jensen...Cal...whatever!" Callie smiled to Estelle briefly but otherwise kept her focus on the construction of the tower. As loud and generally bold as Callie was she still had a respect for peoples boundaries. Except maybe Thomas and Elias. By now she had known them for so long that there was very little she wouldn't pester them both about. Put simply Callie was a girl who had a lot of questions about the world and more often that not she did not hesitate to ask them.

"Oh, you're not finished yet? I finished today! I guess now I need to start thinking about my OWL's next year but thats like...months away!" Callie clearly had not thought about her fifth year yet. It was months away! Why would she? "Are you heading into your...second year? Third year?" The girl looked younger but Callie had never been great at pinpointing year groups. Once she had mistaken a fifth year for a first year and that did not at all go down well.

"The Gryffindor team? Oh, you'll be on the team with Galton! He's a great duellist. You can learn a whole lot from him!" At the mention of duelling Callie abandoned the construction of the tower entirely to look toward Estelle. She'd been involved in duelling since day one and it took up the vast majority of her free time. So whenever someone was willing to listen to her yammer on about it? Callie jumped at the opportunity. "As for advice? Practice your spells to perfection . I failed a lot in the early days and set myself on fire more times than I care to count. The last thing you want is to hit yourself! Strategy is important too but you're on the opposing team! I've gotta keep team secrets and stuff, you know?"