Thought I Could Be Anonymous. Accidentally Started a Friendship Side Quest
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
After dinner
No matter what other flaws Dealla Prince might have, at least she was willing to learn from her mistakes. This was mostly because it seemed silly to make life harder for herself, but the result stayed the same. Thus, after her previous experiments with Polyjuice Potion had shown that impersonating your close friend who also happened to be a rather well-known student at the same school you attended yourself was likely to lead to complications (both when you ran into people your friend knew, and when that friend found out about what you'd been doing), Dee changed tack. The sane choice might have been to stop her Polyjuice experiments. Instead, she'd spent the summer collecting hair from random Muggles on the streets of London and Whitehaven, surreptitiously plucking them off clothes while in the queue at her favourite cafe, or picking them up from the seats of the London Tube. The latter was the more adventurous version, as she hadn't always seen the person the hair belonged to, and as a result, she'd spent an hour locked into her dormitory room in the body of an old man just a few weeks ago. It had not been a pleasant experience.
Most of the time, however, the new strategy worked out fine. She'd worn the skin of teenagers of a variety of ages since her return to Hogwarts in September, strangers to the other students and to herself, and had learned that the sharp bite of her first experiments had indeed been specific to Peri's potion. (Interesting, wasn't it?) Her new habit allowed her to wander the castle corridors nearly unseen - friends not recognising her and strangers ignoring her, a nameless student lost in the crowd. It was strangely intoxicating, not being Dee for once. Not bearing the same expectations, anonymous; no consequences to her actions, as after her hour or two, this student would not be seen again in this castle. There was a freedom to it that she hadn't felt in years, tied down by unspoken social rules she'd accepted without ever realising it.
The body she was wearing today was that of a younger girl, perhaps thirteen years old, with blonde hair tied in a ponytail and light grey eyes. Despite not being particularly tall in her own skin, the jumper she was wearing hung past her fingers, and she'd decided to opt for a skirt after realising that none of her trousers would fit, either. It was odd, she mused as she hopped down the stairs to the fourth floor, how easy it had become to acclimatise to a new body. Her first few experiences had been disorienting, limbs too long and somehow wrong, as if her body had been put together at slightly different angles. Now it took her mere minutes to grow used to her new shape, whether that shape was smaller or larger than her own.
On a whim, Dee took a turn away from the stairwell and towards the Duelling Club. It wasn't a place she usually frequented during her Polyjuice time - tied too intricately to her real identity, both past and present. But why not mix it up a touch? She still wasn't Dee. She could do whatever she wanted. Nothing she did today would really matter, have any lasting impact. Sauntering into the duelling club came naturally, and she scanned the room out of habit, but none of the faces seemed familiar. All the better. Eyeing the practice dummies, Dee chose one roughly in the center of the room, and positioned herself at a solid distance.
A small grin flitted across her face, and she planted herself squarely in front of it, with no trace of her usual graceful duellist's stance. The girl she was today didn't have any technique, but she did have the spells. Pointing her wand at the target, she considered for half a moment, then picked one of the more difficult spells in her arsenal, one they had only learned in Transfiguration class a week or two ago. "Surpo Energia." It was the sloppiest casting she'd done in a while, but the Deterioration Hex still went off - that, too, was a mistake she had learned from. The cheerful look on her face required barely any acting, despite the subpar casting and questionable aim, only striking the dummy's shoulder. The effect was still nasty, degrading the material in mere moments. "Oops."
Closing one eye to squint at the dummy, she tried again. "Surpo Energia." Despite the careless energy, this one came out better, and hit her target squarely. On impulse, she followed it up with an Expulso Curse, cast almost negligently - and watched as the remainder of the dummy was reduced to splinters. "Oh, hang on, that wasn't a duelling spell, was it?" she mused aloud. She glanced around, eyes focusing on one of the other students nearby. "Was it?"
@Ara Villa
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
Thought I Could Be Anonymous. Accidentally Started a Friendship Side Quest
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Ara normally avoided the Dueling Club outside official practice hours. Not because she disliked it-- quite the opposite really. The room had become too familiar over the years-- though only 2 have passed. Every scuff on the wooden floors, every repaired dent in the walls, the pistes where people have passed out way too many times, every splintered practice dummy replaced after one accident or another. Too many memories lingered there, some were tied to victories people still talked about in passing while others were losses she remembered far more clearly than anyone else did.
So on quieter evenings, she preferred her dorm room when she practiced. Though lately, it felt stuffy in her dorm. Perhaps she needed to get some fresh air rather than staying cooped up in her desk or on her bed. Ara wouldn't be surprised if Minho was sick of her too. After twenty minutes of wandering the castle with increasing irritation, Ara had eventually found herself drifting toward the Dueling Club almost against her will, fingers loosely curled around her wand beneath the fabric of her pocket. Man, she was dressed too casually, only a stripped white shirt with a black vest topped off with some boring pants. She could've done better but deep down, knew that no one really cared about her clothes except for her. At least it'd be mostly empty at this hour. The thought died quickly upon entering the vicinity. There were still students scattered throughout the room, though not enough to make it crowded. Ara barely spared them a glance as she moved inward, expression calm but distant in the way it often became when she was mentally elsewhere, since she was, in a way. She'd almost headed toward an empty practice lane before a spell caught her attention. Surpo Energia. Where in Merlin's name had she heard that spell before? It took her a while until realizing it was definitely NOT a spell, a mere...what? Thirteen-ish year old girl could do. Even without identifying the spell, the manner in which it was cast felt oddly too powerful. Ara's head tilted slightly when an explosion decimated the dummy, quite unfazed by the sound itself, but was definitely interested now. Her gaze then went to the caster rather than the pitiful dummy. The blonde girl glanced around afterward, almost theatrically casual. “Oh, hang on, that wasn't a duelling spell, was it?” Ara was, unfortunately, the person she'd looked at. She gave the "whatchu lookin at me for HUH?" look. The question was unexpected. They didn't know each other one bit, yet they're directing it so casually. The "older" girl shrugged, slowly stepping closer, shoes crunching softly against scattered wood fragments. "No, the last one wasn't," she replied dryly. Seeing this seemingly young girl perform these feats did something weird to Ara. They cast like someone pretending not to know what they're doing. A part of her heart sank a bit. Prodigies were irritating pieces of work... if they were one. Dark brown eyes studied the girl as if she were one of the seniors from another team. It was both concerning and annoying.
long overdue xD sorry for the wait, youre the goat dee! title so long, it broke my coding lmao |
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| sta • 10 | eva • 9 | str • 7 SHOP wis • 9 | arc • 9 | acc • 10 |