Closed The Clash

[Rhys Garner]

Though the year was still new, Rhys already found himself working on his upcoming article for the next issue of the monthly. He had felt that his last couple of articles had gone down well and he had done a good job of covering the last couple of Quidditch mathes. And while he enjoyed writing them, he was thinking of moving away from sports and focusing on something else for the next issue. So, there he was, sat in front of some paper and writing down article ideas that he might want to work on. If all else failed, he could always go back to his recipes.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia never suffered from a shortage of column ideas. There were lots of things about the school that deserved a critical eye, and addressing all of them would have required a thousand essays. The real work came in narrowing down her ideas. Her pieces couldn't be too provocative or else they'd get cut by the professors. She was also wary of championing any ideas that would be unpopular with most of the student body. But at the same time, Celia wanted to write something interesting, something she could later point to in her college applications. And while it wasn't her primary goal by any means, she also wanted to see just how much criticism of the headmistress she could slip into the Monthly's pages.

She had a lot of (sometimes conflicting) goals, and it was a struggle identifying topics that achieved most of them. So Celia had decided to go to the newsroom in search of some inspiration. It was an election year, which meant she had another well from which she could draw ideas. But before she brainstormed political op-eds, she wanted to see how the Monthly had covered past elections. Celia strode through the door, heading immediately for the archives. It was only as she was reaching out to pull open a drawer that she realized she wasn't alone. "What are you doing here?" she asked with a frown. After his Quidditch story last semester, Rhys was perhaps her least favorite person on staff.

 

[Rhys Garner]

Rhys was so lost in thought as he ran through different ideas that he hadn't even noticed that anyone else had even entered the room. And even if he had noticed he doubted he would pay them any mind. He wasn't exactly a talkative sort and was quite happy to simply ignore everyone in the near vicinity and just focus on what he was doing. So, he simply kept his eyes down on the page, another idea springing to mind which he quickly scribbled on the page just to make sure he wasn't going to forget it. Coming up with ideas was just the first step. Next he was going to have to go over them all and decide what he actually wanted to do some more research into.

It was only when he heard a sharp voice did he glance up from what he was doing, blinking as he looked at the other Slytherin for a moment. Then, he looked back down at his page. Then back up again. "Coming up with ideas," he offered plainly, "Why?" Why did she care what he was doing? And besides, what else would he really be doing in here if it wasn't something to do with the Monthly.