Fighting

[Sapphire Michaels]

Sapphire wasn't staring. She wasn't. She was sitting by herself at the end of the Slytherin table, maybe occasionally sparing a glance over to the Gryffindor table. But she wasn't looking at the infuriatingly fascinating, delightfully mad Mervyn Strangeways. She was checking to make sure her brother stayed out of trouble. They weren't sitting too far apart, Mervyn and her brother. They weren't all that far from her, either. That was why she had sat here, to keep tabs on her brother. He was in throwing range this way, in case he started acting up. There weren't any other reasons to sit here.

She sighed, propping her head up with her left fist, elbow on the table. She pushed her food around on her plate, not really hungry but knowing she needed to eat. She wasn't really sure what was going through her head. She had sworn off thinking about the stupid Gryffindor- she hadn't done anything but make a fool of herself since they'd met. She would just forget all about him and go on with her life.

Now if only her aching heart would listen.

Sapphire was preoccupied with the food she wasn't eating, and she didn't see her friend enter the Great Hall.

 

[Diana Hollis]

Diana was happy school seemes to have really started again, though she wasn't a big fan of most of the lessons. It was just nice to be in the swing of things, see what others were doing and be seen in return. She looked forwars to future events as well. Halloween was a party she didn't care much about, but she was already thinking of picking out her yule ball dress.

Today she had tried a braided hairstyle and was kind of pleased with the result. Her good mood soured quickly, however, when she approached the Slytherin house table and spotted Sapphire. The girl was not-so-subtly looking at the Gryffindor table, and it wasn't hard to guess who she was staring at. Rolling her eyes, Diana took a seat opposite of her, purposely blocking her view. "Earth to Sapph, you've got a bit of drool." She said with a vague gesture to Sapphire's chin. "Anyway, did you do the reading for Charms?" she asked, eager to distract Sapphire from that annoying boy.

 

[Sapphire Michaels]

Sapph blinked as she refocused on Diana, rolling her eyes a bit at her comment. "Right, I'm drooling over Onyx." She nodded towards her brother. She wasn't quite sure if she wanted to talk to Diana, but not sure enough to ignore her. "I did the reading, it was dry and boring." She took a purposeful bite of her food, making sure to play the part- she hadn't been staring and there wasn't anything Di could do to prove otherwise.

"Your hair looks nice today," She told the other girl, gesturing with her fork to the braid. Diana hadn't quite gotten in the way of Sapph's view of either boy, but she couldn't look at either without being obvious about it. She went back to eating instead.

 

[Diana Hollis]

Diana rolled her eyes right back at Sapphire. "Don't play dumb, you know the one I mean. Scammer boy with the dumb accent." She said idly as she grabbed a piece of toast. Honestly, she just wanted to see if Sapphire would react to those words. If she defended him, maybe that meant she actually liked him. Diana suspected that was the truth regardless. "Your taste is truly questionable." She muttered, needling her more. But the compliment about her hair made her perk up a bit, a hand flying up to adjust it. "You think?" She asked, smiling. "I could do it for you sometime."

 

[Sapphire Michaels]

Sapph let the comments on Mervyn slide, though they irritated her. The hair thing seemed the easiest to address, so she went with that first. "Oh, definitely. I always have such a hard time with my hair, and yours is always so flawless."

She picked up her goblet and took a sip of her drink, before setting it down and folding her hands under her chin. "Now, Di, we need to talk. Comments like that, you say them to me. I don't care. You can be as mean as you want about anyone you want. You say what's on your mind and you don't care what anyone thinks. I like that about you, I've never been good with words." Sapph looked her dead in the eye. "But comments like that, they aren't going to be said to my other friends again." She was completely serious. She didn't feel like fighting with Diana, but she also knew this needed to be addressed. Immediately.

 

[Diana Hollis]

Diana was pleased with the compliments about her hair. It was nearly enough to make her forget about the whole Mervyn thing altogether. But it seemed like Sapphire wasn’t going to let it go now. When the other girl challenged her comments, she sat up a little straighter, ready to argue her point. “That’s right.” She said as Sapphire complimented her way with words and the way she spoke her mind. But when she started to use a threatening tone to tell Diana not to say it in front of her friends anymore, Diana rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No. You can’t decide who I can and can’t say things to. If they happen to he your friend, that’s just too bad. I’m going to say what I want to whomever I want.” She stated clearly, returning Sapphire’s look unblinkingly. “And if your friend doesn’t like it, he needs to toughen up.”

 

[Sapphire Michaels]

Sapph raised a brow. "Oh, of course. I can't. But I'm your friend. Which means I can tell you when you're going to get yourself hurt." She didn't waver, but neither did Diana. Sapph was tough to shake, and it seemed she had found a friend who was the same. "What you said to Mervyn- and my brother- pissed me off a bit, sure. But that isn't what worries me. One of these days, Di, you're going to say something to someone who won't just sit back and take it. And they just might be quicker on the draw than you are." Sapph wanted Diana to listen to her, she really did. She wasn't sure if she would get through to the other girl, but there wasn't going to stop her from trying.

 

[Diana Hollis]

Diana frowned at Sapphire's words. "Right, you're concerned about me." She sneered, rolling her eyes and flicking her hair over her shoulder. "I thought you were upfront enough to just tell me when you didn't like something. But apparently you now have to couch it into some fake-concern so I will listen to you? I can handle myself." She scoffed. "And your brother was rude first. I never asked him to put his gross lips on me." She gave the girl a level glare. "I'm not going to get hurt. I can take care of myself." Then she gave the girl a fake smile. "But thank you for your concern." Sighing dramatically, she looked back down at her own food. "I didn't think you were the type to abandon your friends because a boy looked at you twice." She said pointedly, even though she knew it was unfair.

 

[Sapphire Michaels]

Sapph raised a brow and listened to Diana speak. From the glaring, to the sneer, to the fake smile. Sapph wasn't fazed by any of it. She raised her hand and started addressing each of Diana's points, raising a finger for each.

"First, I did tell you I don't like the way you speak to my other friends. That's the end of that, for now. But you are also one of my friends, which means I do get concerned. Granted, I wasn't overly concerned until I saw a face-changing boy switch goblets with a kid and then the kid got a vast array of nasty side-effects." She looked Diana in the eye. "All it takes is one wrong move, Di, and you could get hurt. Of course I'm going to be a touch concerned."

She raised another finger. "As for my brother being rude, I already kicked his ass for it. I just don't expect you to leave it at that. Whereas it doesn't completely bug me when you're rude to him, I felt I should just say something off of principal."

Sapph raised her third finger and addressed Diana's last point. "And if I was going to abandon my friends because a boy looked at me twice it would have happened with Alkander or Oliver. My issue is mainly that instead of bringing your concerns to me, you decided to personally insult one of the few people I find interesting in this school. I'm sure he's forgotten it by now and I'm certainly not going to do much more than this at the moment, but I do have to worry that one of these days you're going to insult someone who isn't as soft-hearted as Mervyn or someone as lenient as I am."

Sapph took a sip from her goblet. "Don't get me wrong Diana, if someone tries to cross you and you haven't done a thing to deserve it, then I'm sure they'll find their hair bright orange and falling out." Finished, Sapph took a bite of her breakfast. She was about fifty percent sure Diana was going to be mad, and about fifty percent sure she would roll her eyes and give some snide remark before the two went about their day.

 

[Diana Hollis]

Sapphire's composure was starting to annoy Diana. Clearly, nothing she said was actually affecting the other girl. The story about a boy switching goblets with a kid made her shrug carelessly. That hadn't happened to her, so why would she care? She would definitely be more careful than that. She tapped her fingers impatiently on the table as the other girl rattled off her points. Her words made her bristle. One of the few people she found interesting? Was she implying Diana wasn't? "If you find him so interesting, why bother talking to me?" She snapped. It was clear to her that Sapphire was taking this stupid boy's side. One word in particular made her furious. Lenient. LENIENT. As if Sapphire was simply putting up with her! She got to her feet. "I don't need you." She snapped. "If I'm such a bother to put up with, why don't you stop? That would be a lot nicer for us both." She snorted derisively. "And I don't need you to fight my battles for me with your dumb ideas. I'm not some weak kid you have to protect. You can go to your stupid Gryffindor for that." She flicked her hair back. "You really need to learn you're not that special, Sapphire. No one actually needs your protection. You're just trying to be this friend of everyone to make yourself feel better about having no personality at all. It's really sad." With another roll of her eyes, Diana turned away, ready to leave. She had just been saying things to hurt the other girl, but she had no doubt it would all bounce off her. Everything seemed to. Somehow, that was the most infuriating part of this conversation.

 

[Sapphire Michaels]

Sapph took a sip of her water, setting it back down as Diana got mad at her. Well, she had expected that. Sapphire waited until Diana had finished and was turning away before she spoke again. "You're right Di, you don't need me. I was the one who needed you. You're also right that no one needs my protection here." She looked at the girl, a hint of something under her calm composure. "I don't know how to work with that. That's why you've always been so fascinating. You've never needed anyone to look after you."

Sapph looked away. "I've had to fight tooth and nail from a very young age to get anything I've had and I've had to fight harder to keep it. I don't have a group of sisters, or a mum in politics. Hell, until recently I didn't even know my mum's name." She turned back to Di, not sure the other girl was listening. "That's why I've admired you. You're strong and independent. So yes, I was a bit worried that it could come back and bite you in the bum. Once you're done being mad at me, you know where I'll be."

Sapph took a bite of her food, having said her piece. It was up to Diana what she did with it.

 

[Diana Hollis]

What frustrated Diana most about this encounter wasn't what Sapphire was saying, it was the way it seemed not to bother her at all. She was just sitting there, sipping her water, not even getting mad. "Right, sure." She snapped, rolling her eyes. "You're just fine without me, don't try to turn it around. First you say you have to be lenient to even put up with me, but suddenly you're complimenting me? Please, I'm not that easy to manipulate." She clenched her jaw, not wanting to show that this was upsetting her. If Sapphire could stay completely calm, she could too. "I don't need your little sob story. Just because I have a normal family, doesn't mean I have a perfect life. This isn't even about that! It's about your stupid boyfriend being 'soft-hearted' and unable to deal with me. It's clear that you like him better than you like me, so why don't you go hang out with him instead?" She huffed out an angry breath, her temper getting the better of her. She was just trying to be hurtful now, to cause as much damage with her words as she could. "Oh, I know where you'll be. On your own, pretending to be too cool for anything to bother you. Have fun with that." Without waiting for a response, she stalked off, angry at Sapphire and at herself for not being able to be as composed as the other Slytherin girl. Her words probably didn't even bother Sapphire, everything seemed to roll off her completely.

 

[Sapphire Michaels]

Sapph shook her head. "I didn't say I was lenient with you because I have to put up with you. It's because I don't care when you're being rude about people. You can say anything and I won't judge. You know that. But I won't put up with you being needlessly mean." She told Diana simply.

"Mervyn isn't my boyfriend." Sapphire muttered, rubbing her eyes. She wasn't even sure if that was what she wanted from him, or what it was she wanted. "And he hasn't said anything about you. I'm just tired of constantly having bullies around." She ran a hand through her hair. "You're my friend Di, whiter you believe me or not. And friends tell each other when they're being jerks. I think,"

Before Sapph could say any more, or even really react to Diana, the girl took off. Sapph didn't bother trying to stop her. She had never been one to beg, and Di was really giving her a headache. Once the girl had left the room, Sapph put ER head in her hands and sighed deeply, tears pricking at her eyes.

Not that she would cry. Sapph gave that up long ago. But still, she didn't have enough people in her life for her to just toss away the ones that cared- even if it was only when it was convenient for Diana.