Friday, 05 August 2022

It was quiet in the Mutineer tent; for once. Most students were out and about, enjoying the sun and the many activities the camp offered. Dee might have been among them, would have been, if she hadn't come back to the tent to grab her notebook, then gotten lost in her notes. The current page displayed disjointed bullet points for possible future Headliner articles, rough ideas that were nowhere near ready but that she tended to jot down and add to when inspiration struck. Nothing was more frustrating than having a brilliant thought, but then realising a day later that you had failed to follow up on it and then forgotten what it had been in the first place.

Originally, she had only opened it to add a note about another successful recruitment for the event Howard and Dee were planning for the beginning of the school year, but as usual, she had gotten distracted. Now she was just sitting on her bed, cross-legged, staring at the paper without actually reading anything, her thoughts wandering paths far away. Were her friends waiting for her? Possibly. Did that move her to stop daydreaming and return to the outside world? Not so much.

Sitting in the semi-darkness of the tent, unmoving, Dee was likely easy to miss for possible other occupants of the tent. She only stirred slightly when a noise caught her attention, not loud but unusual for that it came from inside the tent rather than the laughing and chatting sounding in from the outside. Eyes blank, Dee turned her head into the direction it had come from automatically, then blinked to focus and process what she was seeing.

Serena was so far ranking rather high on Dee's list of mostly pleasant people on her tent, there were a few that had done more to earn ire or just doubt their general mental capacity. Their social circles didn't intersect much otherwise, from different Houses, years, sports, they did not have much in common. Apparently the Hufflepuff had come to adjust her trademark fashion accessory, apparently today's bandana was not positioned to her satisfaction anymore.

She'd already started drifting off again, the appearance of one of her team mates not enough for the moment to keep her attention, when she started, abruptly setting down her notebook as she realised what she was seeing. Taking off the bandana had revealed Serena's ears - ears that Dee had so far not noticed. Or rather, she hadn't noticed that she hadn't actually seen Serena's ears... which were uncommonly pointy.

Suddenly excited, Dee didn't even pause to think for half a second, dropping the notebook to the side and scrambling off the bed before marching across the tent towards Serena in what was likely an unsettling way if you didn't expect it.

Past weeks and months of listening in on Hogwarts' steadily churning rumour mill in the hopes of finding more mixed race students had robbed her of any semblance of shame she might have had (there hadn't been much to start with), and her eyes were bright in the dim light of the tent. "You," she said, gesticulating towards Serena as she stopped, now only a few steps away. Her voice was urgent, but there was no mistaking that the enthusiasm in her words was one of positive nature. "You're a part-goblin, aren't you?"

@Serena Towers

She was uncomfortable, checking her bandana had been covering her ears every two minutes. Maybe she was overthinking this but it was starting to make her nervous, worried that she was drawing even more attention to them by constantly adjusting it. However, the fear could not be described. Arjan was here somewhere. He was around - and definitely furious - that he was not part of his own school's hex team. Whilst she was trying her best to avoid him, she would spot him around. It was irritating the heck out of her.

The too-small-for-her-year Hufflepuff ducked into her tent as soon as possible to avoid getting seen by him and his gang of friends that were around. She sighed softly before making her way to her bed. It was quiet, and it looked pretty empty at a quick glance. Maybe she ought to have looked around a bit better but she was just relieved to be back in her tent and alone.

She quickly took out a mirror, propping it up onto her trunk as she bent down onto her knees and sat down in front of it. Pulling off her bandana quickly, she started to ruffle her hair and quickly tried to adjust it. Her plan was to move quickly before anyone else came in. Howard already knew but she wanted to avoid certain members from finding out - especially Bloom, though she was fairly sure he would have told her by now. It made her sick to think of, given their history. It did not help that she recalled the Ravenclaw speaking about SCAR and how she could relate to the whole situation because she was a half-blood... even though that meant that she was still human. Half-bloods were definitely seen as inferior in the purists' eyes but compared to half-breeds? They were a blessing. She would not understand that.

Serena jumped slightly as she heard the word 'you' suddenly. The voice was close by and there was a lot of energy in it. "I- Wh- N-no-" She started to stumble over her words, her eyes widened as she quickly pulled her hair forward and over her ears. Serena fidgeted as she stared at the source of the voice. Dealla Prince. This Ravenclaw was actually one of the few people that she had no issues within this tent. Her heart pounded aggressively in her chest and she was pretty sure she could hear her heartbeat in her ears. Was she sweating? It was certainly starting to feel hot in here. Her throat started to feel dry. The energy in her voice did not seem... angry nor was it disgusted.

It felt like an eternity that she just stood there, staring at her as she tried to think of what to say. In reality, it was a few seconds at most but her brain and heart were in overdrive right now. The panic was surging through her body unashamedly. Dealla knew. And Serena did not consider herself to be a liar. There was no backing down from this. Yet again, she had been caught. It was time to face the music, "Y-yeah, I am..." She whispered ever so softly as she found herself turning to look at the floor, not sure what else to say or do.

How could she be so careless? Was Dealla here the whole time?? Had she just entered?? Why had the former seeker who could spot a golden snitch from a mile away not see a person in the tent?!

Perhaps Serena looking like the magical equivalent of a deer caught in the headlights (a Mooncalf caught by a Basilisk's gaze, maybe?) should have been signal enough for Dee to back off a little. Slow down, perhaps rethink her words. Alas, when caught up in excitement as she was, thinking wasn't really her thing. The quick, automatic way Serena moved to hide her ears, however, did not go unnoticed.

There weren't many part-goblins at Hogwarts, from what Dealla knew. Really, the only one she'd met - that she knew of - hadn't been at Hogwarts at all. It was the half-goblin she'd met two summers ago in London. Dhampirs, part-giants, those were the easy ones to recognise of those that had special heritages. Seers tended to be more open about their gifts from what Dealla had seen, as were metamorphmagi.

The confirmation of the assumption that Dee's thoughts had immediately jumped to - having your thoughts caught on one subject for months on end does leave its traces - came so softly that it was barely audible, and that was finally cue enough for Dealla to notice. Not that it would stop her, but she did pause, then took a small, deliberate step back out of Serena's personal space, clasping her hands behind her back to seem less threatening. Did the Hufflepuff seem... nervous? Scared, perhaps? She wouldn't meet Dee's eyes. It... made sense. It was honestly a little impressive that she'd managed to hide them from people she shared a tent with, she obviously had a lot of practice.

"Oh, I'm not..." Dealla started, then cocked her head, trying to decide what she wasn't. A bigot? She doubted many bigots would declare themselves as such. Going to make fun of her or bully her? That seemed like an odd thing to promise; it should be obvious, not something to specifically mention. "I'm not going to tell anyone," was what she settled on, finally, then squinted. It was true, she was not going to force anyone who would rather hide their heritage out into the open, even if she had been spending a lot of time and energy trying to locate them. Soberingly few seemed to be willing to talk about their gifts, but who could blame them? "Unless you want to. You don't, do you?" She didn't seem like it. This probably wasn't the best time to try and recruit her for the event Howard and Dee had been planning... right?

"Um... sorry for spooking you. Do you want some... chocolate?" One of these days she'd get this empathy thing down. Maybe.

Serena felt her heart pounding so loudly that she was convinced she could hear it in her ears. This was not good. Her brain repeated the word 'shit' over and over, trying to figure out what to do or say. This whole thing was not good. What if it caused an issue with the team? Though... they all knew that Howard was a dhampir so... surely it could not be that hard to accept a part-goblin as a team mate. But her brain was not allowing her to be rational and the fear was seeping in quickly, consuming her.

She stared at Dealla, wondering what to say or do. What was the Ravenclaw even trying to say? Her eyes widened slightly as she heard the words that she probably needed to hear most. Well, one of the things she wanted to hear most. It was definitely top three but there were a couple of other things she wanted to hear a bit more, though she would not admit that. Her brother could not find out. He would kill her. And she had no idea how her parents would react on the matter. The whole thing was far too messy. Plus... how would the world react?

Serena nodded slowly. And then shook her head. Before nodding. "I- I mean- no- yeah- I-" She mumbled, realising that she had no idea what she was trying to say. Was 'yes' or 'no' the correct answer to the question? She had no idea - the negatives confused her for a moment as her brain was already panicking. She exhaled audibly to try and calm down, "I mean, thanks. I don't know..." She admitted with a sigh.

"Oh uh- I'm- Actually, yes, please," Serena fought against her natural instinct to just say no, move on and run away from the whole conversation. She replied with an affirmative on the chocolate, deciding just to accept the offer and to be polite. Dealla seemed to be quite friendly on the matter and, well, she kind of believed her when she said that she would not tell anyone.

Serena perched onto the edge of her bed, looking over at the door to make sure no one else had entered in the time. They appeared to still be alone - though maybe she not all that good at spotting people. "I guess it's just safer to, well, stay hidden," Serena continued after a few moments, trying to share why she was reacting so badly from the whole thing. It was not necessarily anything Dealla did but rather, the whole situation. It was safer to just not tell anyone and to keep quiet about it, she had learned. Hugh got hurt because he could not hide it. People tried to bait Howard because he could not hide it. The world hated on people like her, for no reason other than that they were different. It sucked.

"I realise that might seem very selfish, especially with us being on the same team and like, yanno, the whole supporting Howard who can't hid his blood like this. And it's not fair on him. Or you guys, for that matter. But I- I don't know, it's just-" She tried to reason, not entirely sure what she was trying to say or share. She did not want to deceive the team per se, she just did not know how to admit it. Maybe they had the right to know who they were partnered with - especially if it came out in the news.

How would society handle if the Hogwarts team was not only led by a halfbreed but made up of them? She had no idea but her teammates would likely also have to hear the news. Surely they knew what they were up against when they backed a dhampir champion though? Or maybe none of them really realised just how serious this was. In fact, she was pretty sure that Bloom had no idea. But she was very biased against her after everything. "Oh, don't worry, he knows about it!" Serena quickly added as an afterthought, realising that it sounded like she might have been hiding her identity to him or something. That was not the case. He had asked her to be on the team despite knowing. In fact, he was one of the few people who accepted that about him.

Dee waited, trying her best to seem patient, while Serena decided whether she did or didn't - or did? Or didn't? - want to tell people. Wait, would yes mean that yes, she did want to tell people, or yes, she didn't want to tell people? Maybe that was the problem, Dee could see how that might be confusing. I don't know, seemed to be a semi-final answer, and Dee frowned, then shrugged. It wasn't an easy question, she supposed.

"Oh!" she brightened up, a little surprised but pleased that her helpless offer of chocolate actually seemed to have been the right - or at least not wrong - thing to do, and bounded back over to her own bed, pulling a bar of chocolate from her trunk. She'd offer half to Serena, then bit into her own half. "Here!" she explained, chewing. "Chocolate always makes me feel better somehow, I dunno. You know, kinda warm? It's weird. But maybe it'll work on you, too."

She flopped down next to the Hufflepuff on the girl's bed, just far enough to - hopefully - not make her feel crowded. Apparently she was still doing okay, or maybe Serena just thought she had to explain her choices, because the Hufflepuff kept talking, and Dee nodded thoughtfully, popping another piece of chocolate into her mouth. "Oh, yeah," she agreed, frowning. "I can definitely see how you might be more comfortable if people don't know. That sucks, though." It was a plain statement, an obvious one. Perhaps even presumptous, considering Dee had never felt like she needed to hide anything just to feel safe. She'd never felt lucky for it, either, wasn't that just how things should be?

"I don't know how that makes you selfish?" Dee asked, eyebrows rising. "Not like it's any of their business." She paused, eyes flickering to where Serena's ears were hidden beneath her thick, black hair. It really wasn't very obvious, and Serena had clearly been careful about it. "Or, uh, mine for that matter, I suppose." She shifted away slightly, suddenly conscious of the fact that she had, after all, just come down on Serena with all the subtlety of a boulder and dragged something out in the open that was private. Should be private, if Serena wanted it to be. "Sorry." She cocked her head slightly, her own hair falling to the side. "I don't think Howard would blame you for keeping it secret? I'm sure there have been times when he wished he could do the same. I mean, I don't know him that well, but he doesn't seem like the type to hold a grudge just because he doesn't have the option you do."

Dee hesitated, wondering if she should add more, but unsure if she hadn't pushed too much already in her enthusiasm. Would mentioning that while he probably wasn't mad about her silence, Howard might also appreciate if she was open about her truth, only make Serena feel guilty? Or that other, younger students might benefit from her, too? There were many who felt like they needed to hide what they were, as Dee had had to learn over the past few months. Better to be safe though, she figured.

"Anyway," she added lamely, "it's really your choice what you want to share and with whom, right? Maybe you just need to fine more people one by one who you feel like you can trust. There's no hurry, is there?"

@Serena Towers