All we are saying

[Kayleigh Zhefarovich]

The third year Slytherin had not seen a proper Dueling Tournament before. She reckoned it would be a ton of fun. Kayleigh decided that she wasn't going to join this year though, she wanted to see what it would be like first, how it would play out and the types of spells they would use. Kayleigh liked to study her opponents before she attacked. The blonde also wanted to learn new spells, feeling as if she would definitely not have the upper hand as she was only a third year. Kayleigh wondered what kind of spells, charms and hexes she would see, and wondered if there would ever be a way to combine different spells. It would be so cool to have a spell that would trip the target, and then petrify them as they landed. Or to make the target's legs dance while laughing uncontrollably. Of course, those would be able to be done by sending two spells after each other, but it would be much cooler to just have one spell. Currently, Kayleigh had two spells that she had learned that year as her favorite. Reducto was the handiest spell ever, but she loved the Jelly-Finger spell to use on other people. She'd done it once or twice to her best friend, Desislav, (though she would never tell him he was her best friend). Kayleigh was impressed with the spell, but she couldn't say the same for Des.
The blonde had tied her hair up in a top knot, getting into the mood of dueling. She definitely wouldn't leave her hair down if she were to fight. It would just get in the way - she learned that quickly when she practiced her sword fighting. Long hair was both a curse and a blessing; she definitely loved having long hair, but it got everywhere, and it was so frustrating to miss something because you couldn't see it, because your stupid hair was in the way. Kayleigh pulled her robe on over her shorts and t-shirt, before heading out of the Common Room and towards the Dueling Tournament, feeling incredibly excited. However, a sight ahead of her, before the Dueling Chamber, piped her interest. A boy sat, someone she recognized, with pink hair, reading a book. It was definitely an interesting place to sit and study, or even try and read, especially with the Tournament happening. Kayleigh's mind quickly remembered where she'd seen him before; he was always doing things around the school with his club, holding meetings, or protests or whatever. He'd always intrigued Kayleigh, but was always surrounded by people, or too busy doing stuff or shouting something. But here he sat, alone. With his pink hair. Kayleigh stopped short in front of him, and saw his sign "Give Peace a Chance" . She quickly realized he was probably not too happy with the students fighting each other, but she also quickly realized how incredibly cute he was close up. The blonde had not been this close to him before, and could now see why people fell for his charm. Still. His hair was pink. "Why is your hair pink?" Kayleigh queried, tilting her head, trying to figure him out.
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[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell hated violence, he really hated it and thus when he'd found out that the Student Defence Association were hosting duels and teaching kids how to violently fight one another he had decided to create a one man protest, he'd tried to get Archie to join him but had been entirely unable to get him, his best friend was in the Gryffindor house and it was the one place Orwell couldn't access freely. It meant however that he was by himself with his one placard, reading, Give Peace a Chance and a book, after all Brock was no idiot he knew he wasn't going to stop anyone from fighting, he knew he wasn't going to change any minds, but it was the principle of it more than anything else that seemed to ring in Orwell's mind. Having spent his holidays in his community did that to him, the king of flowers always came back more excited and invigorated than ever before, the praise at his actions while at school and his continued questioning of the animagus form which he'd brought up to some of the community expert theorists had proved to him to be useful in guiding him and they were encouraging enough to keep him on the Anarchist path of thinking. It brought him back to hogwarts and made him long for the forest and be glad for all the opportunities he'd ever gotten from being able to learn at the school, but it did also spur him onwards and continuing with being the student of action if nothing else.

Orwell's plans for the year were going to keep him extremely busy, he would stop at nothing to try and bring Archie out and having fun as much as possible, and he planned on hosting another LGBT+ pride event and he had more to do with the gardens and wild patch, with all that to do, the teen also faced his first important exams and though Brock always told himself he didn't need to do well in them to achieve he wanted to, Orwell wanted to prove himself to just about everyone in the school, that he wasn't just some bright haired boy who liked stirring the boat but that he was smart. His grades would mean nothing to his parents and nothing to his community and likely even his NEWTs in the long run would not result in him picking a high powered career but they were for him. He was sat in front of the entrance to the Duelling tournament the placard leaning on the wall behind him, his fading pink hair stark against the darker concrete stone of the dungeons and a book in his hands, The morality of werewolves. Orwell doubted he would even be allowed into the duelling tournament hall, given that he'd been kicked out of Defence Against the Dark arts less than a year ago and Professor Styx ran the duels, or monitored them, which meant if he tried to go in, he assumed that Styx would forcibly remove him. However he was interrupted when someone spoke directly in front of him asking him why his hair was pink and with his dark green eyes looked up from the book and to the girl in front of him, a younger girl than him not someone from the Wild Patch was asking the question and to it Orwell just shrugged, "I wanted to," he told her honestly, "Do you like it?" Orwell smiled at the girl as he asked the question wondering why the abrupt nature of her greeting.
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[Kayleigh Zhefarovich]

The blonde always stood up for what she believed in, what she thought was right. At the ripe age of thirteen, Kayleigh thought she knew everything, that everything she thought was right was the absolute truth. If someone disagreed with her, well it was their own stupid fault. If they were worth arguing with, Kayleigh would. If they weren't, the conversation usually ended with Okay you have fun with that, and the blonde walking away. She never thought of joining, or starting up protests. She hardly saw the point in wasting her time trying to convince stupider people of the truth. It made Kayleigh wonder why Orwell did do protests, why he even bothered when people were too caught up in their own beliefs to listen to anyone else. If maybe he thought his time wasn't worth spending on himself, as if other people mattered more than himself. It intrigued Kayleigh.
And he was really cute.
The blonde felt awkward standing tall over him. As she pondered his question, she sat down opposite him, though she now felt awkward sitting on the floor. Did she like the pink hair? "It's interesting." She replied, still not entirely sure how she felt about it. She grew up thinking pink was for girls, though Orwell certainly seemed the type to challenge that type of thinking. Kayleigh wondered if he chose pink purposely so that people would ask him about it, so that he could talk to them about how anyone could wear any color they wanted, not just pink for girls and blue for boys. "Didn't you like your normal color?" Kayleigh questioned. "Or blue?" She didn't want to straight out ask him why he chose a girl's color; for some reason she didn't quite want to insult him. Usually Kayleigh wasn't as careful with what she said, and she wasn't entirely sure why he was different.
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[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell had since coming to Hogwarts never been bothered for his hair, rather the whole host of other things he did usually brought him to people's attention, but it was the first time he could recall ever having being singled out for just his head and he just watched her as she sat down in front of him, he took that as an indication to stop reading if she wanted to understand his hair it would be rude of him to continue reading it while directly in front of her. So, the king of flowers marked the page and then placed it down beside him as she gave her verdict on his hair, interesting. That in his mind could be taken as both good or bad, or even neutral he had to admit it was likely a good thing that he liked changing his hair for him, he didn't care what people thought of him and his hair, but he was naturally curious to know what this girl thought of it, what she made of it. Orwell wasn't sure how to interpret the way she'd said interesting, clearly she wasn't certain but he didn't mind, she could make her decision about it eventually and it be no skin off his back.

Orwell ran a hand through the messy faded pink hair at her question, he barely remembered really what his natural hair colour was by this point he'd been changing it so often since he was still quite young, he thought his natural colour would just be weird now, so he just shrugged at her, the best way to respond he though, "It's not that I don't like it, or didn't like it, I just love changing my hair, picking all sorts of colours," Brock told her with a friendly smile, "I've been blue before, and I think I might go purple next, neon green is my favourite," Orwell continued pulling at a few strands of hair around his fringe, "Have you ever dyed your hair?" he motioned towards her hair, a little curious if it was the colour that made her curious or just the fact it was dyed.
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[Kayleigh Zhefarovich]

The duels were bound to be starting soon and Kayleigh was now sure she'd missed out on the best seat. But she knew that there would be second rounds, if even third, so she could always see them then. For some reason, she didn't want Orwell to know she was excited to see the dueling. Kayleigh knew the saying that starting a relationship off based on a lie means that it would never last, but she, for reasons unknown to her, wanted to impress the pink-haired boy. The thoughts were slowly formulating in her head, but she didn't want to admit that she had a crush on someone. He was just interesting and really good looking, but she'd never say that out loud. Kayleigh could imagine what Desislav would have to say if she told him she fancied someone. But she didn't. Orwell was just interesting. And good-looking. Which she knew she kept thinking but it was true, and she definitely did not have a crush on him.
Kayleigh listened to him speak, nodding her head as he stated his reason for pink hair. She didn't ever remember his blue hair, but when he said neon green, Kayleigh remembered it. She definitely didn't like the neon green, and furrowed her eyebrows when he said it was his favorite. The blonde didn't reply but shook her head when he asked if she had dyed her hair. "No, I'm only thirteen." She stated matter-of-factly, because Kayleigh knew that you had to be a specific age to dye your hair. It made her wonder just how old Orwell was, and she hoped that her being thirteen didn't put him off of her. Though it didn't matter because she didn't like him.
"Are you angry at everyone dueling?" asked Kayleigh.
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[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell looked at this girl in front of him that seemed to be thinking of what he'd said, and the boy couldn't help but just enjoy speaking to someone, the few words they'd already exchanged, he'd been sitting outside the duelling tournament and aside from a few greetings he hadn't spoken to anyone. When she replied somewhat bluntly with her age, as if that explained why she didn't dye her hair he just smiled, "We're magical, from magical families, there are spells," he replied that usually made it safe for him to be able to dye his hair without the use of chemicals that were harmful for the environment, though he did more than once nowadays also use the colour dyes that a person could buy, he went between the two depending on how his mood was, the only thing that was true was that, Orwell didn't ever have his natural hair colour, "I started by magically changing my hair, now most of the time I use products you can buy, magical hair colour change is good but with the ones you can buy the colour fades slowly so no two weeks are the same," Orwell didn't usually have to explain his hair colour and it was definitely a little strange to explain it, but he felt like she might appreciate the explanation.

Orwell let himself frown a little at her question and then shook his head, he wasn't angry at everyone for duelling, he knew it was pointless to get angry about it, he wanted people to pick to not fight, to not battle against their fellow students in fights that could end terribly. Orwell didn't think it was wrong to teach kids how to defend themselves but he thought that duels were just excuses to continue to pit students against one another and continue to foster hatred. However Orwell just shook his head at the question and look to the placard behind him before looking back at the girl, "No, I'm not angry at people for duelling, I'm angry at the professors for allowing the duelling to take place in the first place. The professors talk about promoting safety with one hand, in banning us from going to the cliffs or in the forest but with the other sanction events where children with enough power and determination could accidentally or intentionally kill one another," Orwell paused his gaze lingering on her as he spoke, "I don't think the student body or professors should be glorifying violence with a tournament or awards, we shouldn't be promoting violence between students," Orwell stopped thinking more about what he wanted to say, "I say no to duelling, and hope others will join me, but I'm not angry at people for wanting to do it, nor do I really think I'd win this fight, but I always think it's better to try, even if I change just one person's mind then it's worth it," Orwell hoped he explained it well enough to her, he smiled at her smiling in a friendly manner, even if she didn't think agree with him on it.
​

 

[Kayleigh Zhefarovich]

Kayleigh blinked when he responded. Her cheeks flushed pink, feeling like an idiot for not thinking about using magic to dye hair. But she'd never even thought of wanting to before. Kayleigh quite liked her hair color, she didn't think that she needed any enhancements or modifications to her body or the way she was born. She nodded at his explanation, her gaze shifting away as she thought about it. Kayleigh quickly realized that the only reason she would change her hair color would be to impress someone; to impress Orwell. A new thought dawned on her that she hadn't yet introduced herself to him, but she knew his name. Kayleigh wondered if he was just used to people knowing him because of what he did around the school. She dropped the conversation about the hair, though she was sure she'd have more questions eventually about it. Instead, she held out her hand to the pink-haired boy. "I'm Kayleigh Hunter." She said, a smile finally gracing her face, rather than her furrowed eyebrows and confused looks.
The blonde watched Orwell as he shook his head, and she kept her eyes on his, even when he looked away. When he looked back, Kayleigh felt their eyes connect, along with a spark in her stomach. There was something different about connecting with Orwell than there was when she spoke to anyone else. Maybe it was because she found him interesting, but also that he was spending his time to explain things to her, perhaps found her interesting as well. Kayleigh felt herself drawn into his words, though she didn't completely agree with him. She leaned forward, listening intently, her elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand. After he finished speaking, Kayleigh bit her lip and looked away, thinking. He had good points, but Kayleigh still didn't think dueling was bad. The blonde sat up straight again and looked at the boy. "But I don't think anyone will actually kill anyone else." She paused, not having even thought that that would happen. "And isn't it better to actually practice the spells we've been taught? Get prepared for the 'real world'?" She asked, her eyes on him.
​

 

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell smiled as the girl introduced herself to him, "I'm Orwell Brocken," he replied as he took her hand and gave it a light shake, happy to have met Kayleigh, as he was with most. To the boy meeting others was simply the best kind of experience, one he liked specifically with her because she had been so blunt with her question, so interested in an answer and he always liked spirit. The pink haired boy didn't think he'd ever met her before, or seen her before, though he did a lot around the school he didn't know everyone, and he knew from looking at her that she wasn't a Ravenclaw or he was sure he would remember such a face. Orwell who'd always been taught free love had never yet experienced even attraction yet, he'd had crushes on boys and girls but nothing beyond that, however he could admit that Kayleigh was more than a little pretty, perhaps one of the prettiest girls he'd seen, but he was not one for looks.

In explaining his position, why he was here the teen was sure that she'd probably be put off, he didn't know what house she was so there was a likelihood that she would call him stupid and then walk inside, but he was pleasantly surprised by her reaction, he just nodded at her, a little smile on his face, as he listened to her point, it was right, he didn't think anyone would kill anyone else, he liked to think that, "I don't think anyone will, but there is still a likelihood someone might, we do not know our own strength in anger," the boy shrugged at her in reply as he considered her second point, "I'd be as opposed to fighting out there as I am here," Orwell's green eyes stayed on hers as he spoke, "I don't disagree, we should know the spells or be able to practice but why does it need to be for glory, and in what real world scenario will your opponent likely politely bow or wait till you've drawn your wand," Orwell glanced away, looking down at his book, "I'm also a little bitter because I'm not allowed to take part because I got kicked out of Professor Styx's class and he helps run this," the teen added with a soft laugh looking back at her, hoping that this might somewhat lighten the slightly damper mood.
​

 

[Kayleigh Zhefarovich]

The blonde smiled at Orwell as he introduced himself. She wasn't going to tell him that she already knew who he was, she figured that would be creepy. Kayleigh didn't know a lot of information about him, but she was enjoying the short time that they had spent with each other so far; she definitely wanted to get to know him more. Just as friends, she assured herself, because she sure didn't have a crush on him.
Kayleigh nodded her head at his statement about people not knowing their own strength. "But is there anyone here actually strong enough to kill someone?" She questioned. She watched him as he continued making his point, wondering what he would do if he was faced with a fight in the 'real world'. If he would back down, or try to talk them out of it. She wondered if he would be in a fight, knowing that not everyone agreed with opinions and if someone would actually fight him on his. But Kayleigh did agree with one fact, she didn't think anyone would bow before starting a duel. In professional dueling, she supposed it was the right thing to do, polite and respectful. But if there were fights on the street or brawls in the cities, she didn't think anyone would bow first. But his next statement shocked her. She laughed lightly, her mouth open. "Seriously?!" Kayleigh exclaimed, "What did you do?" It was probably along the same lines as not fighting, but she couldn't believe he actually got kicked out of a class! "So would you have taken part then?" Kayleigh asked, wondering if the 'protest' was because of being kicked out, or what he had said. "I could always be your dueling partner." Kayleigh smirked, jesting.
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[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell shrugged at her statement, "I'm not willing to run the risk," he gave a small smile to her as he spoke, since he would never want to run the risk of having some student accidentally die because an older student didn't know their own strength, but it was just his opinion on it. Orwell hated fighting, physical fighting was just about the worst thing to him, and he hated harming anyone, he knew that in the real life situation of a fight he would be useless, unable to really harm anyone try as he might to. Orwell didn't think he'd be good at fighting with spells either lacking conviction in them when he tried to cast harmful spells, Orwell didn't like thinking of himself as someone who would actively seek to harm others, even if it could be easily reversed, there was just something in his mind that felt like it was innately wrong.

Orwell liked being able to tell people about his altercation with the Defence Against the dark arts professor, mostly because everyone seemed really afraid of the man, and Orwell didn't care about who he was, or what he could do to him. The boy smiled at her laugh and her exclamation finding it oddly endearing which was something he hadn't thought of anyone's laugh since Archie, and Orwell loved hearing Archie laugh, "He wanted to cast crucio on a spider, and I said no," Orwell told her, "I wasn't going to let him harm a defenceless spider in front of me in a classroom, then he grabbed me and threw me out the class," Orwell was more than a little proud of when that had happened, he felt proud over having been able to stand up to him, even if it hadn't ended too great, since he'd just been kicked out of a class and spider had been unprotected, "I still wouldn't have taken part, but I probably wouldn't have done the protest, rather just talk to people about it, or have the wild patch give out flower crowns and leaflets in the great hall as a counter event," Orwell still believed in what he said just would've gone about it differently if he was attempting to remain on the Professor's good side, if he had one. He wondered why she was still outside of it with him when she said she could be his partner and the boy just gave her a little smile but shook his head, "You should probably go inside, I think it's starting," he told her with a small smile, he didn't think less of her for going, or think he would be annoyed at anyone for going, the students were not at fault for this.
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[Kayleigh Zhefarovich]

Kayleigh's mouth dropped slightly at the Professor's want. She didn't think that that would be allowed at the school, even more so that Orwell was manhandled, and she hadn't even heard anything about it. Admittedly, she was a couple of years younger than him, she thought, so maybe it even happened before she got to the school. It made the blonde wonder if she would be made to watch it. Kayleigh was definitely all about standing up for her rights and what she believed in, but no way would she stand up to someone like Styx. She probably wouldn't to any Professor, unless they were being detrimental to a friend's character, or something of the sort. Kayleigh wondered if she could just skip that lesson.
Kayleigh nodded, listening to what Orwell was saying. She wondered if anyone would have even shown up to the counter event, she may have passed through, just for a flower crown. But only after the dueling was done. Never the less, Kayleigh was glad that she had run into Orwell. She felt her cheeks blush as he rejected the idea of being her partner, and then encouraged her to go in. Kayleigh knew she couldn't exactly get out of it, he obviously knew where she was heading. So she stood up and made to head away, stopping before she went inside. "It was nice to talk to you Orwell." Kayleigh said smiling, before going in, trying to find a good seat.
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-FIN-​