The Long Awaited Finale Between Two Birds Solo Finished

june 30th, 2024		sunday, evening
wc: 850		dhampir | sensitive to sunlight
interacting with: @Asteria Nagla all godmodding of asteria was given permission to do so :]		mentioning: a LOT of people just for flavor namely: emily shephard + victoria lena jones + zophyr qethnis

At the beginning of Scout's first year at Hogwarts, she and her cousin, Asteria, had decided to start a competition. At the end of the school year, whoever had the most friends would win. Not friends like 'Oh, I've talked to them one time and know their name!', friends like 'This is someone I hangout with/talk to on a regular basis'. When Scout had made the competition, she wasn't sure what the 'winner' would get as a prize. Bragging rights was good enough for her, considering Asteria beat her in basically everything.

Today was the last day of school, therefor, the last day of the competition.

Scout knew she had won by the time dinner had rolled around. Normally, her and Asteria spend breakfast and lunch together, having a chat and whatnot. But today, Scout had skipped out on breakfast to turn in some final assignments, and she had decided to spend lunch with a friend. It wasn't on purpose (well, it kind of was, she wanted to keep Asteria on her toes until dinner).

"Asta!" Scout called out across the Great Hall. She was kind of shocked Asteria could even hear her, given that it was the middle of dinner, and everyone was there. During the middle of the year, and especially around finals, Scout had found that there were far less people in the Great Hall at meal times. Must be some busy people studying as much as they can! She was kind of late to dinner too, given that she had dawdled in the dormitory for a bit.

"Hey, hey!" She huffed, crawling onto the bench next to her cousin. "What's up? Are you excited? End of the year, end of our competition... how do you think you did?" She wanted to add 'loser' at the end, because she knew she had won, but that would be mean. Scout was nice!

"You're late, you should be disqualified." Asteria points out, and Scout shakes her head. "No way! I was actually trying to be on time. Let's just get straight to the facts! I already have a list in my head of all the friends I made, so I'll start first!

"First, one of the coolest people I know: Emily Shephard, a Hufflepuff who is totally cool with me being a dhampir. She's a muggle-born and is like super interested in the magical world." If Scout were being honest, she'd say Emily was probably one of her 'best' friends, but she also didn't wanna play favorites. "Second is my quill pall, her name is Elizabeth Stonewall. Her grandparents are French and she has a friend that goes to Beauxbatons." Lizzie was pretty cool, Scout thought. She got lucky with her quill pal, that was for sure. "Third is Zophyr Qethnis, they're from Uagadou. We met at the Masquerade Ball, I can't remember if you went. They helped me out of a full-body bind curse and I think we bonded over the chaos." Zophyr was a pretty cool name, names that had the letter 'z' in them were so cool.

"Those are the main people that come to mind, but I have a few more. I met Victoria Lena Jones and Mia Fuzy before the year began, and then I had a snowball fight with a bunch of people! Don't remember their names very much. Right, and then there's Brookline- we were at Flying class one day and then she fell and I tried to catch her- plus Tracey Bailey and Elisa, the other girl's who were there at class. Oh, and then I got in detention with a bunch of other people. I know they don't technically count as friends but like... there's a bond shared with people you break the rules with!" Asteria had already chastised her before about getting a detention, so she hoped she wouldn't get chewed out again. "What about you?"

Asteria took a moment to reply, playing with her fork. Her eyes felt heavy, "I think I'm actually going to head up to the dormitory, I'm getting tired-"

"Uh, excuse me, hell no! Tell me, tell me! How many friends did you make this year?"

The truth was, there was only one person Asteria thought that she could consider a 'friend', but it still wasn't particularly by the standards she had set. She tried to change the subject, and knew that Scout would keep pushing until she finally spilled the beans. "You won." She replied, sitting her fork down on the plate. She only knew Victoria's name and that she was a Ravenclaw, which was it. Did that even count as a friend?

"Huh?" Scout tilted her head. "Just like that? You give up so easily!" But she noticed that Asteria seemed pretty peeved by the situation. "Oh, well, maybe next year will be different. But this summer, I've got all the bragging rights in the world!"

Because, for the first time, Scout had beat Asteria in something.

I mentioned a lot of people in this post, so here's the full list of everyone just for funsies:
Emily Shephard, Victoria Lena Jones, Zophyr Qethnis (Mahlioz Evethisawe's iNPC), Mia Fuzy, Brookline Quinn, Tracey Bailey, Elisa Wagner, Elizabeth Stonewall, & then everyone who took place in this thread & this thread.