Open Hurricane

[Celia Vuong]

Now that she'd gotten her early acceptance to college, Celia fully intended to coast for the rest of the school year. Sure, still planned on maintaining her grades and collecting a few more trophies, but she didn't have to. She didn't have to pore over every assignment or worry about sucking up to the professors. She didn't have to agonize over her teammates' incompetence or waste her time coming up with interesting club meeting ideas. She could just be.

And she could maybe have some fun. If she was going to be stuck here for another five months, she might as well enjoy herself. Celia knew she could wreak some havoc and burn some bridges during that time. The bar for getting an acceptance revoked was high, and she was sure that as long as she passed her classes and didn't get expelled, she would be fine.

So when it came time to organize the annual Dueling Tournament, Celia knew what she was not going to do. She was not going to spend hours wandering up and down the castle's endless corridors, putting flyers up by hand. No, she was going to let magic (and physics) do the work. Armed with a large stack of flyers advertising the tournament, Celia headed straight for the central stairwell right before lunch, when it was guaranteed to be busy. She tapped the papers with her wand and then tossed them over the side. Half of the flyers floated down towards the crowds of students, and the other half zoomed off to stick themselves to a random wall (or window or statue or suit of armor). It probably wasn't the best way to get the word out about the tournament, but it was definitely the most efficient.

 

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

Adorah wasn't normally around the castle at lunch time, but she had some lessons she needed to prepare for as the semester began, which meant putting in some extra time in her office. It felt odd to have an office in the castle, the place that had finally felt like a home. The former Ravenclaw still wasn't quite settled in her actual home, as it was the first time she'd ever lived by herself, and while it had been well over a year, she didn't always enjoy the silence, much to her surprise. However, being back in the castle had helped her feel more settled, it was mostly when she was within its brick walls.

The professor continued up the staircases, embracing the daily workout as she hit the sixth floor. She knew technology and magic didn't mix, but she really would have assumed they'd have figured out an option similar to escalators by now. Not far in front of her, she noticed a student, not realizing who it was until she saw papers flying through the air. A particular paper attempted to attach itself to Adorah's face, and she sputtered as she tried to pull it off and looked up to see what was going on. Rushing up to the seventh floor, she took a moment to look at the flyer and realized it was an advertisement. To her surprise, the head girl seemed to be the instigator of the paper attack. She wasn't sure if Celia was actually breaking any schools rules, but Adorah walked towards the girl hesistantly. "A rogue one," she said, holding out the flyer still in her hand, but as she held it back towards Celia, the paper struggled in her hand, looking for a means of escape, until she felt it slip from her palm and head off towards a painting who was very unhappy with being concealed.

 

[Celia Vuong]

From this angle, Celia couldn't really tell where the charmed flyers had flown off to, but she thought her plan had worked pretty well. She could already see some students holding copies of the regular, uncharmed versions and talking to their friends. Satisfied that she'd done her job, Celia was about to head off when Adorah approached her. She was a little surprised to see that the former head girl had managed to catch one of the charmed flyers. "Oh, you can just—" she started to say, but the paper took off before she could finish her sentence. It attached itself to a portrait, which immediately began to complain.

Celia sighed and gave Adorah a look as if to ask, "Really?" The least she could've done was to try and aim the flyer towards a wall. Celia pointed her wand at the paper and cast a nonverbal finite, causing it to float to the ground. Art was one of the few things she actually respected, and she didn't really want to deface any of the paintings (even if this one was pretty ugly). Plus she didn't need a portrait harassing her for accidentally blocking its canvas. Celia accio'd the fallen flyer and turned back to Adorah. "Since you're here, can you do me a favor? Can you remind your students that the Dueling Tournament's in a couple weeks? Here." She duplicated the flyer a couple times and held the stack out to Adorah before she could protest. "You can pass these out in your classes," she said with a wide smile.

 

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

Adorah watched as Celia unburdened the painting and heard it start to mutter something unpleasant. She knew the paintings didn't have actual real people inside, but they all seemed to have a life of their own, and she hated upsetting anyone... or thing. The professor turned back as Celia began speaking with her and looked at the flyers. She didn't even realize what they were for until that moment, and Adorah was drawn back to the days of her sister tryin to remain a victor each year. It was not something she had ever been interested in, but she thought it was good for a little healthy compeition here and there. Plus, it gave students a change to get their angst out and away from her classroom.

"Sure, I can hang one up in my room and along the staircase in the tower," she said, not feeling like it was any work on her. She figured most of the students would be aware of the tournament and held out the rest of the pile towards the Slytherin after she took two off the top. "Are you the organizing the tournament this year?" Celia didn't seem to be someone who would help out of the goodness of her heart to pass out flyers, which meant Adorah's question was probably unneeded, but at the same time, she didn't know for sure.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia's smile dimmed a little when Adorah pointedly ignored her request and instead offered to just hang a couple flyers up. She had a hard time believing that making an announcement at the beginning of class would be that much of a burden. Adorah probably didn't even use up all her allotted class time. Celia wouldn't be surprised if she was one of those teachers who liked doing dumb icebreakers and held study periods every other lesson. Still, it was better than nothing. "That'd be great, thanks," she said with a smile. And then she promptly tossed the rest of the flyers over the railing, allowing them to join the other papers fluttering below.

At the question, Celia blinked. "Yes." Obviously. But she at least had the sense not to say the last part out loud. Why else would she waste her time charming and distributing flyers? "Did you want to volunteer as a proctor? You're eligible since you're technically a professor," Celia said with a bright smile. She wondered if Adorah had read her column in the last issue of the Monthly. She assumed Adorah had, given the fact that she'd also been on staff back when she was a student (even if Celia couldn't remember her writing anything of note).

 

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

Adorah watched the way Celia continued to interact with her tried to keep a smile on her face. It was starting to seem like Celia didn't like her, and she didn't think it was just related to the girl's opinion on her being a young professor. If she was being honest, Adorah would also have been skeptical at someone as young as her teaching them anything. "Oh, no, I was never one for dueling," she said quickly, finally processing what Celia had just said to her. The former Ravenclaw wasn't sure what exactly the Head Girl meant by a technicality in her employment. She may have been young, but she did have plenty of experience, and definitely enough experience to teach first years basic astronomy. She knew she had to be careful with what she said next, as she was really honing her sister at the moment and almost let something not nice come out of her mouth. "I'm sure there are much more qualified proctors out there, as I'm sure you'll agree. But I must get to my office. Good luck with the tournament," she said quickly, turning towards the staircase before stopping, just for a moment. "I look forward to seeing your next article in the paper, Celia," she finished, still facing away from the girl, before heading up the stairs, away from the situation. Maybe this was truly why they shouldn't hire younger professors.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia was incredibly amused by Adorah's deflection, and she assumed it meant that the former head girl had read her column. "Oh, that's not a problem. Being unqualified has never stopped some professors from proctoring," she said cheerfully. The tournament had definitely had issues with unfair proctoring in the past, and Celia supposed she should be more rigorous in recruiting volunteers this year. But trying to figure out which professors actually had dueling experience would be far more effort than it was worth. She just wanted to be done with all these logistics so she could focus on more interesting things.

Adorah was pretty adamant about not being a proctor though — not that Celia actually expected her to volunteer — and she smiled politely as the former head girl wished her luck. Her smile widened into a smirk at Adorah's parting comment. "Thanks, I'll be sure to send you a copy!" Celia called brightly after her. She had big plans for her final column, and it was almost a shame that it wouldn't involve any thinly veiled personal attacks. But maybe she needed to change that.