Closed Conflict of Interests

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe had been itching to return to Hogwarts, but now that she was here for her final year, she felt a strange anxiety. Hogwarts had always been a place of endless possibilities for her, and there was a lot she still wanted to do and try out. But she was in her final year, so her time was limited. She had taken her notebook out during the break and had written down as many things as she could think of, hoping she would be able to get to all of them in between working at her NEWTs. One of the big things Phoebe wanted to do was leave some sort of mark on the school. Something permanent that she would know would remain forever as a reminder of her. She had thought long and hard about this, all of her ideas implausible. It was hard to think of something she could add to the school that wouldn't just be discovered and removed.

And that was when she realized it would be easier to do it the other way around. If she couldn't add anything permanent to Hogwarts, she could perhaps take something away instead. She had learned vanishing spells in her fifth year, and if she removed a small part of Hogwarts it might not be so noticeable, but she would know. Phoebe had eventually settled on vanishing a gargoyle, something that wouldn't stand out too much, but would still perhaps be missed. She had found a rather old and ugly one in the courtyard, and after making sure there weren't many people around, she tried to vanish it. It didn't work. Phoebe had first thought that perhaps she was a bit out of practice with these kinds of spells, so she tried again. And again. And again. The stupid thing wasn't budging. It hadn't occurred to Phoebe that she had never vanished something this big before, nor that it was probably protected from magic like this simply by being part of the school. She scowled at the thing, then gave it a kick. "Why won't you disappear, you stupid piece of stone?"

 

[Kauri Morales-Tipene]

Kauri felt like his to do list had gotten beyond ridiculous this year. It was almost tempting to drop a class or two, to ease the load, but Kauri had done that already in his OWL year, and he didn't want to let anything go now that he was so close to graduation. He was just going to do the best he could with the workload he had, and keep his head up and a smile on his face, no matter what. He had made an airtight schedule to get him through the semester, and now all Kauri had to do was stick to it, and hope nothing unexpected came up.

The next thing on his schedule was some reading, to get ahead in his textbooks, and Kauri was looking forward to relaxing for a bit. The weather wasn't terrible, and he wanted to take advantage, carrying a couple of books down to the courtyard to sit in the sun. Before he could even take a seat though, Kauri's eyes fell on Phoebe waving her wand at one of the gargoyles. As bad as things were between them right now, Kauri still wanted to stay on good terms with all of Rose's sisters. Phoebe, though... Phoebe frustrated him in class. Kauri had felt for a long time like they were in a constant competition to be the first to raise their hand, and Phoebe had him beat an annoying amount of the time. Still, that was no reason not to like her, Kauri told himself. He kept one eye on her though, and as Kauri was approaching his favourite seat, he heard Phoebe clearly talking about vanishing the gargoyle. Vandalism, that was... definitely something he needed to address as Head Boy. Right. But... would telling her sister off only make things worse with Rose? Kauri felt deeply torn, but there was nothing else to do. He couldn't let this slide. Sighing, he swallowed his worries, approaching Phoebe with his sternest Head Boy expression. "What are you doing, Phoebe?!"

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe tried the vanishing spell yet again, with the same result. She was starting to suspect the gargoyle was smiling at her, mocking her. That only made her want to vanish it more. If not vanish... maybe she could make it explode? A lot harder to get away with, but being in her final year had Phoebe feeling a bit reckless. She doubted they would let her not graduate just because she did some experiments. It was all in the name of learning, after all. At least, for the most part. Phoebe sighed as she saw Kauri approach, with a look on his face that made her think he thought he was as good as a professor now. Phoebe hadn't been surprised to hear he had become head boy. Kauri had been a goody two shoes for all of the seven years at Hogwarts, and annoyingly persistent in class too. Phoebe had started to suspect he sucked up to the professors with his nice boy act just so they would pick him over her in classes to answer questions. She didn't dislike the boy, but also had no idea what Rose saw in him. He was way too much of a stickler for the rules, and Rose had changed since she was dating Kauri. Phoebe didn't like it. She didn't like it when her sisters changed for their boyfriends, and it seemed to happen to all of them. "I'm trying to vanish a very stubborn gargoyle." She said, then grinned as she leaned against it to face him. "Maybe you wanna give it a go? If you manage, you'll finally prove you're better than me." She challenged, knowing he would never do it.

 

[Kauri Morales-Tipene]

Kauri couldn't quite believe his ears when Phoebe confessed what she had been doing directly to him. She wasn't stupid, was she trying to get in trouble?! "You realise that's vandalism, right? It's against school rules." He said firmly, folding his arms. "Phoebe, if you don't stop right now, I'll have to take house points." He said firmly, relieved his voice didn't waver. In all his time as a Prefect, Kauri had never had any actual reason to take points before, and now it felt strange to use that power, especially against a classmate, and especially against his girlfriend's sister. "Or I could refer you to Professor Josephs for damaging school property, I don't think she'd be happy."

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe's grin only grew at Kauri's words. "It's only vandalism if it works." She said easily. "So far, all I've done is wave my wand and said a word at it. Is that against the rules?" She decided to test it and made the wand movement again. "Evanesco." She said, keeping eye contact with Kauri. Then she looked at the statue. "Does it look slightly lighter to you?" She asked him conversationally. "Or am I just optimistic?" She raised her eyebrows at him. "You could bother Professor Josephs with this, but isn't it your duty as head boy to deal with unruly students by yourself? Would be kind of a waste of her time if you both had to punish me." She said, taunting him a bit. "Unless you're afraid to take some points? I won't cry, I promise."

 

[Kauri Morales-Tipene]

Kauri's frown deepened at Phoebe's weak defense. "Sure, and if I see someone just moments away from writing on the wall should I not stop them until they've actually done it?" He said firmly. "Intent still counts." He winced as she tried again, tensing even more. How was he supposed to deal with this?! It was as if she was taunting him on purpose. Had this been why Rose had done the frog thing? Pushing away those ugly thoughts, Kauri set his gaze on Phoebe, speaking as firmly and authoritatively as he could. "If you stop right now, I won't do anything. Otherwise I'll have to take some points, and alert Professor Josephs. I'm sure she would want to know one of her students has been trying to vandalise school property."

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe grinned at Kauri. "You should probably wait and see if what they're going to write is worthwhile first." She told him, acting like it was sage advice. She scoffed as Kauri refused to take points from her, telling her that she could get out of any trouble by stopping right now. If he had known anything about her, he would have known that had the opposite effect on her. She shrugged. "I'm sure she would be appalled" She agreed dryly, then she tapped her wand to the statue. "Evanesco." She said in the same tone, keeping her gaze on Kauri. "Oops." She added. She wasn't surprised it had no effect on the statue, but at this point she was more curious about the effect on Kauri.