Closed A Not-So-Friendly Competition

[Dorian Fitzwilliam]

"Right," Dorian said, dropping his stack of books right next to Anisha before flinching at the sound it made, undermining his entire prepared speech, much to his frustration. "Right, uh-" Dorian cleared his throat "-If we're going to do this competition, let's make it fair," he said, stiffly taking the seat next to Anisha and re-straightening his books before sliding over a piece of parchment. "My classlist, with space for yours. I'm sure we're taking the same thing but we'll need to compare. And. And we should set aside some time each week to compare progress and such too," he said, adding the last part a bit quicker. As irritating as Anisha was, and she was, she was one of the few students in their year where Dorian actually felt like she could challenge him. The competition might be a round about way to do it, but there was no way Dorian was going to ask her outright about her opinions, not when that could so easily inflate her already dangerously large ego. Therefore, the rules had to bet set. Safely. But it didn't mean Dorian couldn't get a little more out of it than the satisfaction of winning either.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

When Anisha had agreed to compete with Dorian about the OWLs, she had just assumed they'd check at the end of the year who got better grades, but trust a Ravenclaw to overcomplicate it with a bunch of extra rules. Anisha propped her chin on her hand as she watched Dorian take a seat next to her, raising her eyebrow slightly as he showed her his class list with room for her to add her own. "How are we going to compare progress? Extra credit? Graded homework? Study notes?" She asked him. "Isn't it much simpler to just say whoever has the better OWL results at the end of the year wins?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. "This kind of just sounds like you want to study together every week, which I would be fine with, for the record." She said, holding up her hands in case he took it as an attack. "Anyway, these are my classes." She noted them down, trying her best to write neater than Dorian had, just for the fun of it. She did like making competitions out of nothing, which was why she was enjoying this.

 

[Dorian Fitzwilliam]

"We can compare how we do on homework assignments at least," Dorian said, bristling when Anisha seemed so keen to dismiss his idea, more so when she seemed fit to tease him on top of it. "I just want to be sure we're all above board, isn't half the point of a competition the actual race? No point me working hard only to find out I left you in the dust at the end of the year," he said defensively, trying to ignore the way his cheeks were heating up when Anisha said she didn't mind studying with him. "It's important to be sure we're on the same page. To make things fair," he assured her, pointedly ignoring her accusation and glancing over at her class list.

"Good, we have the same schedule," he said, as if he hadn't taken note of her books and been sure of that already before school had even started. He also had the same damn Emily Blythe book burning a hole in his school bag too, but he wasn't about to mention it. "I hope the upper year professors don't waste our time too much, there's only so many ice breakers I can take when we should be practicing spells and such," he said, hurriedly grasping for a change in subject and glancing at the list of professors on their class schedule.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha wasn't sure if she understood Dorian right, so she turned to him. "Above board? Are you saying I might cheat?" She asked him, her expression dangerous before softening again. "Dorian, it's about the end result right? I'm fine doing this stuff- but let's agree that the one with the highest OWL score wins." She said, glancing at the books before returning her gaze back to him. "You mean there's no point in working hard and studying for one of the most important exams of your life besides beating me?" She asked, a slight smile on her face. "Glad I'm so important to you." She added in a lighter tone.

She nodded when he said they had the same schedule, she wasn't surprised. He always seemed to be in all of her classes. It was nice, in a weird way. Anisha smiled slightly. "I mean, they probably want to get to know us a bit before teaching us for three years, we're strangers to them." She said with a shrug. "Maybe we can also compete about who is better at ice breakers?" She added with a smile. "That was a joke, by the way."