Surrender our Rights and Wrongs

[Marisol Woods]

The new school semester was about to begin which meant that Marisol's punishment would take effect beginning tomorrow. The entire school had heard about what had happened to the Ravenclaw common room and now that she and her best friends had been caught, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the school found out who did it too. Marisol didn't care what anyone thought, she was glad Teagan knew it was them, but the only person who's opinion she cared about was unfortunately a Ravenclaw. She had sent Noelle a note asking her to meet her by the lakefront. It was the last time Marisol would be able to go outdoors aside from the nights in which she was escorted to the cavern during full moon weeks, so she wanted to enjoy the fresh air while she still could. She hoped Noelle wouldn't be too angry at her for trashing her common room. Noelle and her sister were the only Ravenclaws she cared about so she just wanted the dark haired girl to know that before all the rumors and bad mouthing about Marisol began to circulate and Noelle would choose not to associate with her anymore. She sat down at the edge of the lake and threw small rocks into the surface as she waited for the third year to show up soon. ​

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[Noelle Seung]

Noelle had been both shocked and confused when she had woken up to see her house's common room as a disaster site. It perplexed her that anyone - let alone a student - could spend time planning and then trashing a room that was like a second home to her, and to countless other Ravenclaws. What perplexed her and disgusted her more than the state of her common room, however, had been the whispers she had heard that whoever had trashed the common room, also somehow smeared manure over the pillows of a few of the fourth years. It left Noelle reeling and not wanting to return to the castle after having a relaxed mid year break free from such destructive madness. Though alas, she needed to return to school and learn while she was able to, so she had bitten the bullet and returned fully intending to get along well with the rest of the year.

Receiving a note to meet Marisol had made the transition back to the castle much easier, and put Noelle in high spirits regardless of the semester that was about to begin. She had gotten ready as soon as she was free, and walked from the Ravenclaw tower to the lakefront just in time to spot her friend sitting on the edge of the water, throwing rocks. Noelle sped up her pace and approached the Gryffindor, smiling wide and happy to catch up with a friend she hadn't seen in what felt like so long. "Hey!" She greeted, refraining from immediately giving Marisol a hug so she didn't seem as eager to be in the girl's company as she truly was. "How were your holidays?"
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[Marisol Woods]

Marisol put down the rock she was about to throw into the lake as soon as she saw Noelle coming and smiled at her brightly. "Hi!" she said, equally as excited to see her but now her stomach did flips as she grew nervous to confess to the girl what she had done. It was clear by Noelle's friendliness that she still didn't know what Marisol and her friends had done, so she would have to break the news to her. As much as Marisol hated the thought, she was glad it would come from her and not from someone else. She gestured for Noelle to sit next to her and Marisol turned her body towards her. "My break was okay, uneventful but good to see my family," she shrugged casually. She had been punished by her parents so it hadn't been much fun but Marisol had enjoyed it nonetheless since it was better than what she'd be returning to here at Hogwarts. "How was your break?" she asked in return, both stalling for time and also happy to be talking to the Ravenclaw girl again.
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[Noelle Seung]

Noelle smoothed the skirt of her dress down before sitting next to Marisol. A dress wasn't the most practical thing to wear to meet someone at the lakefront, but she had wanted to wear something that allowed her to feel pretty and confident as she caught up with her friend. She tried to ignore the small worry in her mind that her clothing would become damp the longer she sat next to the lake, and instead focused her attention on Marisol, listening to her speak. It was nice to hear about the girl's holidays even if she had described them as uneventful. "I'm sure they weren't that uneventful." She commented reassuringly, still smiling at her friend.

Noelle's holidays could be described in the same fashion since all she had done was relax and play music while returning to see her family in France, but that was what she enjoyed most about the time off, the lack of responsibilities to wake up for and all the free time in the world to do whatever she wanted. Noelle leaned back, resting her weight on her hands as she answered Marisol's question. "Mine was uneventful too, but I wanted it to be uneventful. I just played guitar and spent my days with my family in France." Spending some proper time to herself after what had been a stressful first semester was all Noelle had needed. She was happy to have had the opportunity to rest and recuperate before returning to Hogwarts. Though she was apprehensive she felt much better than she did when she left for the holidays, and furthermore began to feel better as she continued spending time with her friend.
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[Marisol Woods]

Lately Marisol had been stewing in her anger after having been caught so she was always perpetually irritated, but being with Noelle always made her feel a lot calmer and cheerful. Somehow the girl had that effect on her. The Gryffindor smiled at the girl when she talked about her break and nodded her head. "That sounds nice and relaxing, not uneventful," she said with a reassuring smile, chuckling a little. She knew that feeling of being able to relax after a stressful semester except hers had been slightly squandered by not being allowed to write to her friends. "I was grounded during my break which is why mine was pretty boring," Marisol said hesitantly, deciding to just get to the subject. As much as she wanted to continue hanging out with Noelle, she'd feel worse if she she wasn't honest with her just for selfish reasons. Marisol tugged on the sleeves of her cardigan and said, "Do you remember what happened in the Ravenclaw common room last semester?" ​

 

[Noelle Seung]

Noelle averted her gaze from Marisol and looked to the lake, nodding to her words while watching the water and noticing the small ripples among the otherwise calm surface. She frowned slightly when Marisol said she spent the holidays grounded but chose not to ask about it until she was asked about the trashing of the common room. She then looked back to her friend, keeping a neutral expression. "I remember waking up and seeing everything messed up, and a bunch of people freaking out." she answered, not thinking for a second that Marisol's grounding and the trashing of the Ravenclaw common room were related. It might have been stupid of her to not make a connection about it, but she thought highly of her friend and the idea that Marisol could have done anything intentionally destructive hadn't crossed her mind. As far as she was concerned, her friend would only ever be destructive under the influence of a full moon, when she didn't have any control. If that ever happened it would hardly be Marisol's fault and Noelle understood as such. "What about the common room?" Noelle then asked, wondering why Marisol had brought it up.
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[Marisol Woods]

Marisol bit her lip as Noelle asked her about the common room. She had been hoping that the Ravenclaw would put two and two together, but now Marisol had to confess to it openly. Maybe Noelle had figured it out, but she was making Marisol say it anyway, to admit to the damaged she'd done. She deserved that much from Marisol at least. She took a deep breath and said, "Well...we did it, my friends and I." She let the last word hang in the air for a moment so Noelle could take it in and then quickly launched into detail. "We figured out a way to break in. It was supposed to be a prank, but we got a little carried away," she shifted uncomfortably. "I know what we did was awful and I'm sorry that you had to deal with it, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm really sorry," she said as if she was in a rush to get those words out. She wanted to apologize to Noelle specifically for putting her through that, but Marisol was not sorry for doing it in general. ​

 

[Noelle Seung]

Noelle had thought that Marisol's grounding and the Ravenclaw common room trashing were mutually exclusive. That was until Marisol said otherwise, which shocked and confused her at the same time. She looked from her friend and back out to the lake, frowning as the words hung in the air. She nodded at the apology but wasn't sure of how else to react so she waited a few minutes, using the scenery as a distraction before turning back to Marisol. Noelle did feel confused more than anything, and the only way she could think of to solve her confusion was to ask questions, to try and make sense of her friend's confession. She still thought highly of Marisol despite how angry she knew she should have been, and wanted to believe that she wouldn't have put in so much effort to trash a common room that was meant to be a haven for all Ravenclaws, without an exceptionally compelling reason. "Why did you do it?" She asked. "And Ravenclaw? why Ravenclaw, and not the other houses?" As she spoke she tried not to sound anything other than neutral, hoping that would make her friend feel comfortable enough to continue being honest with her.
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[Marisol Woods]

Marisol thought she hated the silence that followed, but when Noelle spoke up, she hated disappointment she felt even more. Even if she couldn't hear it in the dark haired girl's tone of voice, she could tell with the words she'd chosen. Marisol gave a big sigh as she considered how to answer. "Honestly, at first it was just a mission, something to cross off our bucket list," she said with complete truth. She and Asaiah had come up with a list of adventures for them to do before they graduated from Hogwarts. "We chose Ravenclaw because none of us were in that house, and it seemed funner to break into Ravenclaw than Hufflepuff," she said with a little chuckle despite herself. She immediately cursed herself for making a slight joke when she was trying to tell Noelle how sincere she was. "We were just going to break in and leave our mark somewhere, the thrill of knowing we'd been in there was enough," she said.

"But then," she hesitated, "none of us has really had any friendly encounters with Ravenclaws." She glanced at Noelle and quickly added, "Except for you, you're the nicest one in that entire house." Her scowl was obvious even if it wasn't directed at Noelle as she explained. "There's this girl who kept tormenting us, I don't even know why. She got mad at Asaiah for hitting her during a Quidditch match I think?" she said questionably. The feud with Teagan had gone on for so long she'd even forgotten how it started. "She punched him while he was in the hospital wing and ever since then, I've wanted to get my revenge on her. Then she - she found out about my condition, so she started taunting me with it," Marisol said, quieter this time, pulling at some grass that poked through the pebbles. "I was afraid she'd say something one day," she said, trying to make excuses for her actions.

There were others, Zara and Agrippina, that she'd wanted to exact her revenge on as well, but it seemed silly to admit out loud to Noelle now. Fights over boys. How childish. "So after a while it sort of became a plan for revenge," she concluded with a guilty shrug. "That's why we only targeted the fourth year girls, not anyone else," she said. Marisol picked up a rock and threw it into the lake as she said, "I know it's stupid, so I understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore," she avoided her gaze as she said it.
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[Noelle Seung]

Noelle looked out to the lake again as she listened to Marisol's explanation. She bit her lip when Marisol explained that trashing the common room had initially been something to cross off of a bucket list and it would be 'fun' to single out Ravenclaw. Cheap thrills were simply that; cheap, because they were at the expense of others and in this case at the expense of all the Ravenclaws. Noelle wasn't even hit with the worst of the trashing and had simply woken up to see everything a complete mess, but it had shook her. The common room was supposed to be a safe place, free from stress where all Ravenclaws could wind down and express themselves and Noelle had expected the same sense of safety she always felt when she woke up that morning to a disaster site. Though she continued to listen and shuffled uncomfortably when Marisol said there was a Ravenclaw girl that had caused problems during quidditch and had even taunted her about her condition.

When Marisol finished explaining Noelle nodded, then again looked back to her friend. She did not know if she should gloss the subject over or say what she was honestly thinking but she eventually chose the latter. Marisol had gone so far as to be honest with her in the past and even in that moment she had been honest. Noelle thought her friend deserved the same in return, in the very least. "Well, um, I'm shocked that it was you." She began, sighing before she continued. "But, I understand why you wanted to get revenge. No one should torment you about your condition, that's horrible and cruel of them and you deserve better than that. It doesn't excuse what you did, and why you had to bring the entire house, my entire house into it, but I can see it from a different perspective now." She paused, then opened her mouth to speak again.

"you are still my friend. It sounds like you have been punished enough, and I'm not going to make that worse for you." Noelle then smiled and used her elbow to nudge Marisol affectionately. "And I want to thank you for being honest with me." It would have been far too easy for Marisol to never mention it directly and allow Noelle to hear who had trashed the common room from someone else, so despite everything, she was thankful her friend had made the effort to come clean about what happened. That took a lot of courage and she would be at fault if she didn't thank Marisol for being so courageous in the face of more adversity than she was used to. "Now that that's over, do you want to see if there's anything to eat in the kitchens? I'm kind of hungry." Noelle half joked, wanting to return things to normal with Marisol so they could spend some proper time together. That was all she had missed in the holidays and she wanted to get back to having fun and hanging out with her friend.
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[Marisol Woods]

Marisol hung her head in shame as she Noelle responded to her confession. Of all the times she had been reprimanded, by the professors, her parents - this was the first time Marisol truly felt terrible for what she'd done. "I really am sorry," she said looking at the girl with wide eyes. She wanted to say it wasn't personal, just like she had told Zara, because Zara hadn't been her main target, and Noelle definitely wasn't her intended target, but she couldn't bring herself to make another excuse. She smiled appreciatively when Noelle said she was still her friend, though her smile didn't quite reach her eyes because she didn't think she deserved it quite yet. She shook her head when the Ravenclaw thanked her and this time a full smile broke out on her face. "You're a good friend, do you know that?" Marisol told her with a small nudge and a chuckle. Most of the time Marisol felt like a dark cloud followed her around and hanging out with Noelle felt like the sun hidden beneath them would come out again.

She grinned and nodded her head happily when Noelle suggested going to the kitchens. "Yes!" she said, dragging out the word in an excited hiss. "I'm starving!" Going to the kitchens was one of Marisol's favorite things to do in the castle and she wouldn't be able to do that this year since she was under lock down so she wanted to take advantage of her limited time now. She stood up and dusted herself off before reaching for Noelle's hand to help her up. "I should probably mention that I won't be able to hang out at all this semester," Marisol added hastily, not eager to return to the subject but wanting to mention this to Noelle. "I'm not allowed to leave my common room except for meals or lessons. I was wondering if maybe you'd have lunch with me some time? I'd still like to hang out with you but I just won't be able to do anything else but that," she said hurriedly with a small shrug, nervous to ask for some reason, but looked at Noelle hopefully. ​

 

[Noelle Seung]

Noelle could not do more than act bashful as Marisol told her she was a good friend. Really she was just being kind and diplomatic towards a situation she only now knew both sides to. Accepting compliments had never been her forte, no matter how small the compliments were so she was glad the subject was changed when her friend agreed to visit the kitchens with her. Noelle smiled wide and moved to stand up, raising her arms above her head to stretch. When Marisol caught her attention again by saying she was unable to hang out in the semester, Noelle raised an eyebrow but otherwise tried not to show she was bothered by it. "It's a good thing the semester hasn't started yet." She responded, feeling relieved when Marisol then asked if they could have lunch together. The offer was exactly what Noelle needed, especially when lunch times sounded like the only opportunity they would have to catch up. Noelle's semester was going to be exceptionally boring without regularly spending time with Marisol, but with mountains of sheet music to learn, her trusty guitar and lunchtimes with her friend on top of an entirely new set of classes to take, she was sure she could handle it. She would just need to make plans to hang out with her during the holidays to make up for their lost time. Noelle shook her head, then batted her hand towards Marisol casually. "We can totally have lunch and hang." She confirmed, stepping forward to link her arm with Marisol's before saying, "Speaking of lunch, let's get some food already!" as she began to lead the other girl back inside the castle.​

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