Closed All That Glitters

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney had been planning this for months, when it was just a seed of an idea when she'd seen Eric at school at the start of the year, to now. She'd never forgiven him for his insults during their first meeting, and now it was her turn to finally make sure everyone else was aware of just how unpleasant Holland was. Though, he'd certainly hadn't been helping his reputation with his deplorable behavior at school already, but Sydney still relished the idea of taking him down a few more pegs. It helped that Holland's loathsome personality and also made an enemy of Daintree, and Sydney had been thrilled she'd been able to recruit him into her plot. As great as it would be to single-handedly take down Holland, even she knew when extra hands and eyes were needed.

It'd been tricky, getting the writing on the wall quick enough without being spotted, but they'd managed, Sydney placing the final flourish of the high letters on the wall, spelling out ERIC HOLLAND SUCKS in large letters. All she needed to do now was the final touches, a quick flashing-paint charm to really finish her masterpiece. She cast the spell with a quick flourish, feeling a deep rush of satisfaction as the letters began to flash garish colours. There was no way anyone would be able to ignore this now. Now they just had to hide and wait.

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Dain had been unkeen to really get involved in so called bad behaviour, he wanted to quit the school but he also wanted to be well liked by the people at the school. However when the opportunity arose to get back at the dumb boy who’d been picking on Lucky, Daintree was all for it. It seemed that the other boy wasn’t particularly well liked by several people and Dain was more than happy to get involved. Being in fights with someone who people didn’t like could only benefit him. That and he welcomed the opportunity to become better friends with the girl - Sydney. They had been tentative friends, as in, he could probably speak to her if he wanted to but hadn’t had too many opportunities to. Now however he was pretty happy to help out, though by the time he got there Sydney had pretty much done everything. ”Looks like you didn’t really need much help from me,” he joked in a friendly tone. He grabbed some of the paint and underneath wrote ERIC HOLLAND IS A LOSER. He was careful and purposeful, making sure his writing was large enough to be seen but not interrupting the writing that Sydney had done. His wasn’t flashing like hers was and he frowned a little, clearly he had missed a step. ”How do I get it flash like yours does?” he asked, once it was flashing too, they could hide and wait for the dumb loser to turn up. ​

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney tried to hide her flinch when Daintree finally showed. She'd been hoping to orchestrate a carefully planned stealth mission, but the idea of waiting when Holland could appear at any at moment made her skin crawl. "My artistic vision couldn't wait any longer," She said simply instead to Daintree, watching smugly as he added his own jab at Holland to the wall. "It's a spell, here," Sydney cast the charm on Daintree's message too, trying not to come across too condescending for once. The combination of her excitement and nerves where making it hard to control her tone, but it wouldn't do to alienate her only ally in this whole endeavor before they'd finished. "Perfect, now.." Glancing up and down the hallway, Sydney did her best to tuck herself behind a suit of armor, motioning to Daintree to join her and hoping it'd give them a good vantage point without being too obvious. Gripping the glitter bomb tightly, Sydney settled in to wait. She didn't want to miss a second of this.

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric had his usual scowl on his face as he wandered the corridors of Hogwarts. He was desperately looking forward to the holidays, even though he wouldn't admit that to anyone. Not even Nova. No one could know how much he missed his family, as that was pathetic. Of course, he technically had family here at Hogwarts, but to him they were just jerks. He didn't believe they would ever be real family to him, so he avoided them. He was kind of glad they seemed to be leaving him alone too, though that didn't help with the loneliness. He had his hands stuffed into his pockets as he wandered through the corridors, occasionally glancing up to see if he saw anyone familiar. He hoped to run into Nova, but even Mark wouldn't be too bad. As he passed something that was flashing different colors, Eric looked up. Then he halted in his step as he realized he saw his own name on the wall. He read the message, then the message underneath it. It was pretty clear to him who had done this. Immediately, rage overtook him. He looked around to see if he could see Sydney and her stupid smug face. Couldn't she think of something original to do? Instead of copying him? He wondered who had added the other message, but it didn't much matter. Eric angrily headed over to the flashing letters and started trying to wipe them away with his sleeve, which didn't do much. He cursed. He definitely hadn't learned any cleaning spells yet. Should he go to a professor? But he had no proof of who had done this, even though he knew. No, it was better to get revenge on his own.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Peering out from behind the suit of armor, Sydney's heart lept when she finally spotted Holland coming down the hallway. His attention was immediately caught by her and Daintree's masterpiece, and she felt a vicious stab of satisfaction at the rage on his face, allowing herself a moment of smug victory as she watched Holland scrub at the wall uselessly. She almost felt bad for him for a brief moment, but quickly quashed that feeling down remembering how wretched she had felt when he'd done the same thing to her last year.
With Holland's back turned, he was a sitting duck for the next phase of Sydney's plan, and she had to mentally coach herself to slow down as she pulled the glitter bomb from her robes, shooting Daintree a gleeful look from their hiding spots before taking careful aim. Things seemed to slow down and Sydney chucked the glitter bomb, watching it fly in a graceful arc and pegging Holland in the back. She had considered using magic to launch the bomb, but after feeling the visceral satisfaction of the throw and hit, Sydney knew she'd made the right choice. The glitter bomb exploded, sending a cloud of glitter over the entire hallway, and more importantly, absolutely covering Holland in it. Sydney couldn't contain her laugh, cackling to herself even as the glitter cloud stretched to cover the entire hallway, including their hiding spots. Eric would be finding glitter behind his ears for the next year at this rate.

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree nodded at her as showed him how to do the spell necessary and rolled his eyes in a friendly enough tone at the girl. He didn’t entirely mean it, he was genuinely asking and did want to know but her tone was one he’d expected and knew to act in kind. He nodded at her once it was all done ducked into a hiding spot where he’d like her, be able to see but where it wouldn’t be too obvious. He didn’t necessarily want to fight the boy again, but this was good vengeance. This felt right. He looked towards the boy who had picked on lucky. He was a bit surprised and had to hid his laughter a little as the boy tried to wipe it down with his sleeve, that would be absolutely fruitless surely and just get it all over the place on the boy’s sleeve. The slytherin just then looked towards Sydney as she threw the glitter bomb and he watched with an equal amount of glee as it hit the boy. He contained his laughter a little better than she was, but seeing him covered in the stuff was definitely a satisfying feeling, especially with how he had been towards other people, it just felt so justified. It was pretty amazing. He was covering his mouth with his hands, holding back the laughter as much as he could as he watched the sight in front of him. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

The letters weren't going anywhere no matter how hard he rubbed at them with his sleeve. He cursed and kicked the wall. He guessed he had to get a teacher, because he didn't know what else to do. Before he could even turn around, though, he felt something strike him in the back. He whirled around in time for the glitter bomb to explode, completely covering him in pink glitter. It didn't stop there, there was glitter all over the corridor, the floor and the walls covered with it. Eric stared at the mess in disbelief for a moment. Then, rage settled in. He heard the laugh and whirled in the direction, spotting Sydney and Daintree of all people. With a roar, he rushed over to them angrily. Without stopping to think, he shoved Sydney, as he knew even in his anger that this was her idea. "YOU'LL REGRET THIS!" He yelled as he shoved at Daintree too. He had no other words, just anger. The glitter was all over his face and he couldn't even wipe it away because it was on his hands and sleeves too. It was all a big mess, and the girl in front of him was at fault. He wanted to hurt and humiliate her in return.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney could barely breathe, too busy laughing at Holland, even as he spotted them. Any intimidation Holland would have usually had with his words was lost under a layer of pink glitter and Sydney had to grab hold of Daintree just to keep herself upright as she laughed, giving him a weak pat of conspiratory congratulations before stumbling when Holland shoved them both in succession. "Your face," She gasped out, going to wipe an invisible tear away from her eyes. "Not so tough now, are you?" Sydney burst into another peel of giggles, too busy riding the high of what they'd pulled off to really take anything Holland said seriously. She knew that she and Daintree should probably leave, before a professor caught them or Holland got violent again, but she was also enjoying the chaos a bit too much to want to bail out just yet. Besides, she thought with another spike of vicious glee, with Holland's reputation they could probably even pin the glitter bomb on him too if anyone asked.