Open Circling the Drain

[Sydney Townsend]

Open to other 7th years after Maria replies with Samantha

Sydney glowered at the parchment in front of her. Maybe if she focused hard enough she could burn a hole through it and not have to deal with it. It didn't help that she was forced to work in the student lounge, what with the chances of running into Emily being far too high in the library. "I swear, they just give us extra busy work. I thought NEWTs were supposed to be difficult. They're just padding these last few months," she announced haughtily, sliding the book she'd been unsuccessfully trying to find a source in for her history essay. "I can't wait till we're all out of here and I can actually work on something interesting. Or useful," she said, sourly dropping her chin into her palm and glancing over the table at Samantha. Things between them were still a bit shaky, but Sydney was glad Samantha had seen the errors of her ways enough that they could talk again. Even if Samantha was still dating that prune of a human that was her boyfriend.

 

[Samantha Jacobs]

Samantha always was studying nowadays, especially with NEWTs coming round. She had been reading her textbook about History of Magic, fiddling with her pen, only partly listening to what Sydney was saying. Something about NEWTs. Samantha hummed in agreement, showing that she was was "listening". She quickly looked up when Sydney spoke again. "Sorry what?" Samantha says, her brain lagging like a loading page, trying to process what Sydney was saying. "Sorry, yeah, yeah. The work's a bit boring now. Just only stuff we already learnt," Samantha says with a small shrug and smile. The work that they were learning now was just repeats of what they had learnt the previous years, and it was getting a bit boring now. "Oh? Do you have any plans of what you want to do once you get out of here?" Samantha says with a chuckle and smile. The Hufflepuff was clueless about her own stuff. Deep down, Samantha was happy that she and Sydney were on speaking terms again. Even though things between them were still a bit rocky. She had missed spending her time with Sydney.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney clicked her tongue as Samantha took a minute to catch up. At least she wasn't the only one feeling like these stupid NEWTs were frying her brain. "Right? They're too busy making us pass stupid tests instead of actually teaching." Sydney rolled her eyes, frustratedly closing the book she'd been reading for good measure. What good was an index if it didn't have the words she was looking for. Samantha's question was much more engaging anyway, and Sydney leant back in her chair for a moment to feign thinking, as if she hadn't spent most of the semester already planning out exactly what she was doing the second graduation was over. "I think I'll try getting into competitive duelling. Six years undefeated here has to be worth something on the pro circuit," she said with a slow grin, not bothering to hide her pleasure at showing off her duelling credentials. "Would be a good way to learn some actually decent spells too," she added. "What about you? You still going to work at the clothing store or whatever?" Sydney didn't bother hiding her vague disdain for Samantha's little part-time job, though she tried to dial it down some. Money was money, she supposed, she just hoped Samantha was planning something a bit more impressive with her life.

 

[Samantha Jacobs]

Sam nods as Sydney had agreed with her about the school work. She was kinda getting bored with the same content that they were learning. But she guessed that she understood that for NEWTs that they had to relearn things. "I'm not surprised. You do, do well during duels" Samantha says with a small smile. She didn't necessarily watch duels, but she did hear things around school about them. Plus she always heard her cousin being his usual nuisance self during the duels. which didn't surprise her but did make her chuckle a bit. Samantha thought for a while as Sydney returned the question. "Honestly? I'm not sure. I might work there for a bit longer. Been applying for other part-time jobs. Just want to get some experience with different stuff I guess. I'm a bit unsure about what I want to do long term though"

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney nodded smugly when Samantha acknowledged her duelling history, not that anyone could really deny it at this point. Except maybe Michael Newton, but Sydney had her own plans to deal with him later. She was more interested to hear what Samantha had planned, tucking her chin into her palm as it proved more exciting than her history homework. “You’re smart enough, I’m sure you could find something worth your while,” Sydney offered demurely, moving to fuss with her ink well for a moment. "You wrote on the Monthly, maybe you could look into more writing?" She offered vaguely. Sydney had considered it herself, and while she didn't intend to give up writing once she graduated, duelling interested her more for now. “It’ll probably be easier for us to think straight once all this NEWT crap is over with too,” she added, rolling her eyes in the direction of their work still spread on the table.