Lungfuls of Dust

[Stella Lagowski]

From the window of the owlery, the Hogwarts grounds shrunk to the size of Stella's back garden. If she had been at all optimistic, she might have pretended she was sitting on a cloud. As it was, she was sat on a dusty old windowsill, watching the empty sky for even the slightest flutter of a feathered wing. Owls came and went, occasionally, but never in their beaks did they bring mail addressed to Stella. It was quite hopeless. Still she sat, drawing in thick lungfuls of dust and owl droppings. Waiting.

 

[Jakobe Vittori]

Though foul moods were more common to Jake, he'd never been this angry before. After everything that had happened with Scarlet and that Zhefarovich brat, he was loathed to believe that he could ever be hurt by something like that. As it turned out, yes he could. A letter to his friend Giuliano was the only thing set to calm him for now. Scrunching his letter angrily in his hand, Jake only came to a stop when he noted another student present. The girl from last year who he'd found out was famous in the muggle world. "Well if it isn't little miss daddy issues. How goes the sulking?" He asked, really not caring. As far as he was concerned she could have fallen out the window and he wouldn't even have cared.
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[Stella Lagowski]

There was enough venom in Stella's glare to subdue a bull. Jakobe. Could anyone possibly have been less welcomed? The sandy-haired Hufflepuff had enough on her mind without adding his snarky remarks to the picture. "Go jump off a bridge," she told him through clenched teeth, and she would not at all have minded if he'd heeded her advice.

 

[Jakobe Vittori]

Jake looked at Stella and smirked slightly. He was not in the mood for her today. Why couldn't she be off practicing magic like a good little b!tch. "If I do, I'll be sure to take you with me, Sweetie." He turned away from her and tied his letter to the leg of his owl before turning back to her. "Seems you're still stuck here, too bad, I was looking forward to telling everyone you'd died."
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[Stella Lagowski]

Stella's fingernails were beginning to itch. They itched to tear Jakobe's infuriating smirk right off his stupid little face. Don't retaliate, don't retaliate, she chanted to herself, repeating her Dad's words like a mantra. She turned her head back to the grounds on her left, refusing even to give him the satisfaction of her scowl.

 

[Jakobe Vittori]

Jakobe was so done with all of this. Nothing he did ever seemed to go to plan and now Spenser had made him a god damn prefect. Was the man insane?! Jake frequently went about terrorising first years and he was rewarded with a badge. Sometimes Jake really had to wonder if this school was still normal. He laughed at Stella as she appeared to be barely holding herself together. "I've got news for you, I've been made prefect. Cool, right?" he asked in the most sarcastically venomous tone he could muster in his current state. He was beyond angry and he was hurt and he was confused. A lethal combination in most people, but more so in Jakobe.
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[Stella Lagowski]

A prefect?! Was Professor Spenser insane? The only thing that boy deserved was to have his head dunked down the antiquated lavatories, and Stella was happy to volunteer. The Hufflepuff swung her legs into the room and stood up, fists clenched by her sides. She knew the exact location of her wand - right robe pocket - but didn't dare make a move for it. Jakobe was a jerk, but was he really worth breaking school rules over? Maybe he was. He had it coming for him, after all. A taste of his own medicine could have been just the thing he needed. But there was a problem, and it was all that stopped Stella from whipping out her wand on the spot. She was a second year, barely capable of casting a successful protego. Jakobe was a fifth year, and a far, far more accomplished wizard than she. "Great," she said through her teeth. "Now you can take house points away from Ravenclaw. Going to take any away from yourself? For bullying?"