Stress Relief

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio hadn’t been back at school for very long, and he was already feeling like he was being sucked into a void. He didn’t really seen it coming. Here he was, with plenty of friends and now with a prefect badge stuck to his chest, and yet he felt so incredibly alone. He knew it was to do with Rowan and the lack of closure he’d gotten when she’d left him that night in the courtyard, and he knew it hadn’t been his fault, but that did nothing to eliminate the nagging feeling he had in his stomach all the time. He was firing some of the spells he knew at the dummies in the duelling room as a way to at least be making use of his time before the lessons began. He enjoyed being part of the SDA but he also felt like they didn’t have much of an opportunity to practise their defence outside of the duelling tournaments, so it was up to him to keep up to date with everything they’d already known. The fifth year had made more progress than expected last year and he had been very proud of himself. Now, he just needed to keep hold of what he did have left. Elio fires another stunning spell, hitting the dummy straight in the middle of his chest, and feeling like he’d been stunned by something in the chest too a few months ago.​

 

[Vegeta Arai]

Vegeta Arai was back in the school where he hated and still, nothing to show for it. He didn’t even know what to do after this year. He needed to look into a career but he also didn’t want to. That meant that he would have to deal and decide, which Vegeta had no hope in figuring it out. It was all blocked inside, locked within the hatred and shame. That was why he found himself down in the dueling chambers, to let off some steam. Rather than fire at the dummies, he found someone else instead. Perfect. He didn’t want to get caught since he liked to attack with the person’s back turned. He got out his wand and pointed right at the Gryffindor’s back, “Reducto!”

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio was lining up his next shot, when he felt the full force of something slap him between the shoulder blades. The fifth year had no time to react as he was thrown forward, lifting off the floor for a second before crashing into the dummies up ahead. Upon impact, his glasses fell from his face, and he heard the crunch of them being crushed under the weight of a limb, although whether it was his or the dummies he wasn’t sure. After catching his breath for a second, laying out on the floor under various body parts, he called out, “Did you miss!?” He didn’t think anyone would have aimed for him on purpose, thinking he was one of the props, so surely it would have been an accident although it still irritated the prefect. He looked up from his spot on the floor, pain in his back and he lay on the cold ground, and saw a boy from his dorm. He tried to avoid Vegeta as much as he could, especially after last year. Elio was still angry at him for picking on Elsie. The fifth year picked himself up, grabbing his wand and fearing he might need it. This was not the first time he’d been near blind in a confrontation with him either. “This ones taken,” he said dryly, waiting for an apology.​

 

[Vegeta Arai]

Vegeta couldn’t help but let out a loud laugh as Elio soared through the air, crashing into some dummies. Of course, he didn’t miss. How could he have missed that prefect? Wait. Elio was a prefect now. What kind of things could he do to Vegeta? Anything? Well, maybe Elio wouldn’t because he might be a shrimp? He could hope. “I didn’t miss. I hit the biggest dummy in this room. Never thought I would see trash take itself out.”The Gryffindor insulted the prefect with a nasty tone. It was taking more effort to be mean which was tiring itself. He still had his wand out, but he didn’t know any spells that couldn’t be blocked, since that was what he assumed Elio would do.

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio had to smile at the ridiculousness of the situation, of course Vegeta was still out to get him. Elio had interfered when he was bullying Elsie and now he had a grudge on the fifth year too. Although Vegetas insults didn’t hurt, they did surprise him. How could anyone talk to another person like that and think it was acceptable? “Don’t you have anything better to be doing, or is picking on students the only thing you’re good at?” He asked, wanting to hunt for his glasses still on the floor but not wanting to give the boy another chance with his back turned. He tightened his grip on his wand, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he realised he may well need to prove that he remembered what he’d learned. “You should save your energy,” he said with his eyebrows raised. If he had to stop Vegeta from hurting any more students then he’d certainly do what he could. ​

 

[Vegeta Arai]

Vegeta narrowed his eyes when Elio asked if that was the only thing he was good at. Truth be told, that was all Vegeta had known since he came to HNZ. Prior, he was often beat up, made fun of, and enraged at others. This time, he was carrying his vengeance at his peers. All through the rage within Vegeta, lingered a small child, hurt. It wasn’t just his former classmates. His mom. Vegeta once overheard with Goku that their mom only named them that so that they would get hurt at school, and that would give excuses for them to have their blood drawn during ‘doctor’ visits. “You know nothing, Prefect.” With that, Vegeta sent out a slug vomiting curse.

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio really didn't know why Vegeta had it out for him, asides from the fact he'd stopped him hurting the Ravenclaw Baros girl. Elio wasn't especially close to Elsie, but there was no way he would have let anyone be bullied around by someone as vicious at this boy and if he could step in then he would. As predicted, Vegeta shot out another spell to him, and the fifth year got his wand up just in time to block the curse that came his way. He was ready and prepared for it and the blonde would need to do more if he was trying to shock him. "What are you even trying to prove?" Elio asked, frowning in irritation. He didn't suppose the Gryffindor would actually tell him there and then, but it made no sense as to why he was always trying to push him down. "You try and push people around, hurt them when they don't do what you want." Maybe he was angry at something, Elio didn't know. He just knew that if he was going to have to spent the next three years still sharing a room with this boy, they may as well get everything out into the open now. He lifted his wand again, different spells bubbling around in his head as he considered what would even make a difference to someone like him.​

 

[Vegeta Arai]

More questions were thrown at him. Yet, Vegeta had no answers. It was hard to figure out who he was madder at. The prefect, or the fact that he didn’t know himself. He remained silent, since no answer would make sense. Not even to him. Vegeta finally just gave in to his anger, and directed it all at the prefect. “I do it because I won’t give them a chance to beat me down! Not anymore!” Vegeta opened the dam up just a crack, and out came a hint of the reason why Vegeta did what he did. “Diffindo!” Vegeta cried out, hoping to do some damage.

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio only had a moment to process what Vegeta was saying before things got more physical. He wondered what the Gryffindor meant, whether he’d been beaten down now to the point he felt like this was all he had left, but that was never going to be a valid excuse to be a bully to everyone. Elio was on edge and by the time he heard what spell his dorm mate was using on him, he already had a block on the tip of his tongue. The prefect thought that Diffindo was something usually heard in lessons or when someone wanted to severe something, and he didn’t expect to be faced with that of all spells. Elio raised his arm, “Proteg..” Vegeta was faster at his spell, and it hit him on the arm as he was lifting it in defence. A shriek left the boys mouth as his arm was instantly sliced, dripping his wand to the floor and taking a step back, left hand flying over towards the wound. He looked down to see that the spell had hit him both in the arm and shoulder, clothes sliced cleanly and his skin was stinging and felt wet under his hand. It wasn’t dissimilar to a large paper cut, and the Gryffindor looked back up at the blonde in anger. They could have duelled but he was only interested in causing him pain, “You’ll never be anything if that’s your only strength,” He said through tight teeth, gripping his arm in pain, unsure what he’d do if he tried to beat him down any further.​

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan didn't spend a lot of time in the Dungeons usually, but these days she found the easiest way to stay away from Elio was to be in places she usually never thought he would be in. Even though she'd made the decision a couple of days ago to finally tell him she was sorry, whether he accepted it or not, she still hadn't yet plucked up the courage to seek him out and actually do it. It was hard after all, not something that was going to be easy to do and she'd made the decision already that if he wanted nothing to do with her she was going to respect that, because honestly she didn't deserve to have any kind of relationship with him after what she'd done. Not so much the confession, because she still would have done that even if she knew he was gay, though she would have done it a lot differently and not expected any kind of response, but because of the fact that she'd treated him so horribly after the fact, avoided him for several months and purposely gone out of her way to isolate herself from him. She'd never thought much about the type of person she would be in this situation and she wasn't sure she liked how she was seeing herself now, but she knew something had to be done. She'd chosen to head down to the Dungeons because she wanted to see her brother, but as she'd started walking, she'd heard a sound that she didn't like, a shriek. She didn't know who it was from or what it was pertaining to, but she immediately headed in that direction, hoping she could help in some way.​

Seeing Elio and Vegeta, Rowan immediately pulled her wand out. She knew all about Vegeta from Elsie, and she'd been meaning to have a conversation with the bully for years, but never done so because Elsie had made her promise not to. She'd never managed to thank Elio for what he'd done for her sister and she was hoping to return the favour in some way, except for this moment, all she was seeing was red. Red of the fury she felt inside and red for the blood that should be inside Elio's body now covering his arm. Vegeta had hurt Elio. Her best friend, and she still loved him even if he wanted nothing to do with her. "VEGETA YOU PIECE OF SH!T!" She wasn't sure where her anger was coming from, she had always been a bit of a hot head, though she'd managed to contain it for the majority of her time at school, but seeing Elio now, with Vegeta, made her furious beyond the limits she'd managed to keep for herself. She was seeing Elsie, on the ground, scared and alone and now he was trying to do the same to Elio? No F*cking Way. "You think you can get away with physically hurting people to get over your own selfish bullsh!t?!" She immediately ran between the pair, not caring that Vegeta had somehow managed to get one over on Elio. She was good at Charms, she was sure she could handle herself, but this, this she was not going to stand for. Elio could tell her to piss off later, right now she had a job to do, she was going to tear Vegeta apart, piece by piece, she was not in the mood for him today. She might have let it go before, but Elsie wasn't here this time.​

 

[Vegeta Arai]

Vegeta was so angry that he had not seen what he had done. He glanced behind him as he heard someone call him a POS. It was one of those Baros twins, one that he had not bothered. Vegeta turned his attention back to Elio to see the damage that he had done. All the anger just vanished, the moment that he saw some blood. Every single cell in his body became so overwhelmed with guilt. Regret. His eyes widened from the lack of rage. He was too trapped in his own mind to hear Rowan. Nor Elio. Instead, he focused on the wound. Why, why did he say that spell? Anything else would have sufficed, but that one. Vegeta knew that he had gone too far. He slowly put his wand away, and took off, running as if his life was on the line.

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio didn’t know what he was going to do next if Vegeta tried something else, but they were no longer alone in the duelling area. The fifth year looked to the entrance and his stomach churned, watching as the blonde that he hadn’t spoken to for months raged at the boy ahead of him. He was too shocked that it was Rowan of all people that were here to say anything at all, and he just listened proudly as she reiterated his thoughts, glad he had some back up in the situation. Adrenaline increased through the prefect as if Vegeta turned on Rowan, things could have gotten ugly very quickly, but to the boys surprise, his dorm mate seemed to realise quickly that he was outnumbered and slinked away. Elio had never gotten the chance to talk to Rowan about what he’d witnessed with Elsie; by then it was too late. But now that he had two instances of Vegeta bullying others he couldn’t not go to their Head of House, especially now that he was a prefect. His eyes returned to his former best friend, wondering whether that now Vegeta had run away like a coward, whether she would too. After all, it wasn’t like they were even friends anymore and there was no longer any threat to her. Elio leant down time pick up his wand and his glasses, planting the latter back onto his face before shuffling towards the door, hand still cupping his arm and expecting Rowan to disappear just as quickly, but Elio had an important job to do now. “I’m going to Professor Kingsley,” it was more of a statement than anything else, and he pushed passed Rowan before she could say anything else to him about him or Vegeta, trying instead to just focus on his next task, and try to ignore how much it was going to hurt if she decided to just carry on her way.​

 

[Rowan Baros]

The rage inside Rowan was hitting a boiling point and she was sure she could feel literal steam coming out of her ears. Vegeta, that rat, had not only pulled a wand on Elio, but had physically harmed him with a spell often meant for fabrics. She'd used it herself often enough to help Elsie with dancing outfits. Her parents used it, her professors probably used it, but people didn't use it to go ripping the flesh off of the bones of other people. That was violent, it was barbaric and it was cruel, everything she had always known that damn Arai to be. She only wished she'd put a stop to him years ago, maybe then Elsie would have come out of her shell much earlier. It was her fault, really, for letting him do what he wanted for so long. She should have immediately gone to Kingsley when she found out that Vegeta was a piece of sh!t, but she hadn't been able to get any evidence of it, so it would have been her word against Vegeta. It was no wonder he was a Gryffindor really, since he was clearly full of bravado. They all were, which was probably part of the problem. She hadn't even really noticed Vegeta had left, her chest rising and falling in long and deep breaths as she tried to calm herself. Staring at the exit, she quickly tried to calculate how far he could have gotten, how long it would take her to catch and kill him and where she might be able to dump his body where no one would find it. Zennon would help, she was sure. He wouldn't want his little sister going to prison for that creep. She was about to take a step in the direction of the door, when she realised someone else was standing there... Elio. He still had blood dripping from his arm and honestly, he looked a bit pale. She turned to look down where he had been before, there was some blood on the floor. The wound must have been pretty deep.​

​

"Professor Kingsley?" She asked incredulously, the anger she felt before, calming only slightly as she looked at the tattered visage of her former best friend. "Not f*cking likely, you need to go to the hospital wing with that arm, you'll bleed out." It was the most words she'd said to him in six months, but they were important words. She shoved her wand roughly back into the pocket of her robes. She had found herself wearing them more often now that she wasn't dressing up for anyone and honestly, she just hadn't felt like herself. She'd stopped wearing make up, her hair wasn't immaculate like it usually was, she'd just thrown it up into a ponytail this morning. She hated it, but she couldn't bring herself to care if she wasn't happy. And she definitely wasn't happy without her best friend there to be happy with her. "Zennon helps out there, come on." She said, stepping past him out of the duelling chamber and into the dungeons.​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio didn’t need to go to the hospital wing. At least he didn’t think he did until he looked down to inspect his surroundings more closely and realised he was leaving a red trail as he walked. He tended his jaw, more aware of the shooting pain now that he paid his arm more attention. He would still go to the Head of House but maybe Rowan was right. Reluctantly he agreed, and followed pace just behind. Was he meant to say anything? The girl was probably just doing what she would with anyone, although he was old enough to know there the wing was without a chaperone. “Fine, but I’ve got it. You don’t need to come too,” Elio thought it likely she had many other things she’d prefer to be doing anyway given she’d been avoiding him for so long. There was no way that she would have suddenly wanted to be his friend out the blue anymore. She’d made it quite clear she’d only ever been interested in him romantically and now that was gone, he had to accept it and move in, just as his housemate had. He pushed his mind to consider Vegeta instead, and why he’d even picked on him in the first place. ​

 

[Rowan Baros]

Looking at Elio, it was so hard. She had flashes of memory every time she looked at him about the things they used to do together, what they used to be to each other and she hated herself that she’d managed to ruin that. She knew she should try and fix it, whilst she had a chance, but she didn’t know what to say to him. She still had the note she wrote him in her pocket like it was burning a hole in there, but she just couldn’t give it to him, it didn’t say any of the right things and it didn’t mean anything to him. There was no respect in it. She looked at him as he spoke and she tried so hard to keep the heartbreak at bay, but it wasn’t easy. “It’s fine, I’m here... in case you... you know, I’d never...” she couldn’t tell him she’d never forgive herself, she could see he didn’t want her around, she knew she was forcing the issue but what more could she do?​