#hst:wizardry

‘’--  and it was SUCH a close call, Leo! you should have seen it,’’ Evan bounded eagerly at his side; smiles brightening her features as she, once again, talked about qudditch (qudditch training, more so, which wasn't as exciting as the ACTUAL game, but she still got excited, )  it’s all she really talks about, and when she was with Leo, that was even more so. He seemed to like it too, or atleast she thought so; either way she continued to ramble on to him about it. ‘’There’s another game soon! next week, or atleast, I think so --   everyone’s still caught up about the, y’know -- ‘’ deaths, ‘’--  but you’ll still come anyway, right?’’ the thought that he wouldn't was disheartening --   Leo was her friend, and she more than appreciated when he put up with her overly enthusiastic chats, let alone when he came to her games. ‘’Oh! I didn’t ask how you’re day was! --  how was your day?’’ 

“—AGH!” the sound that escapes her lips is unnaturally high and her stomach is doing flips in her abdomen, her heart pounding against her ribcage. the shriek isn’t unwarranted – she had just COLLIDED with a figure ( that’s what she gets for not paying attention ) but she’s drawn the attention of a few scattered students nonetheless, each morbidly curious if she was the next victim. ( she very well could be. ) slowly, her breath begins to regulate and she looks at the figure she had run into. “sor–sorry…” her hands are tremoring, but she hides this by clamping them together in front of her, her head ducking down to view them. “i didnt… i wasn’t paying attention.” 

‘’---- Nah,  it was the girl that sorta resembles a creepy girl scout? stepped too close to those funky freaky lookin’ fuzzy things in Creature Feature class --   it just had a nibble; rumor has it she lost four of her fingers or somethin’,’’ RUMORS; was exactly what the school of witchcraft and wizardry was built on -- bullshit. Briar had also heard most of the Slytherin house were secretly a bunch of lycans, ( Briar’s bet on there being atleast three hidden werewolves in the school STILL stood, but unfortunately not in her house,) she had also heard that the murderer was Voldermort’s long lost child, or hell; maybe it ACTUALLY was him back from the dead --   rumors were what kept this place alive; as stupid as some of them were. And gossip was what attracted Briar --   like moth to a flame. 

She collected it, storing it; future blackmail, she’d say --   but Briar was too lazy to actually threaten people with things like that, ( she was more straightforward. The ‘shut up, or I’m going to break your nose,’ technique was much quicker.) The only time she actually had use for what she had gathered was during these study session with Huan; although study sessions was a term that was used loosely; the times she ACTUALLY glanced at her book were occasional, she wrote a few lines at the max but overall, she just liked the serenity of it --    even now she had barely looked at her open book sitting in front of her --   her eyes settled out the window rather than the gibberish that was written against the pages in front of her; cue dramatic staring into the distance. ‘’So this killer, huh?’’ pencil twirling between the fingers and across her knuckles, Briar couldn't help but bring up the topic; the talk of the school; how could she not? ‘’What do you think about the whole thing now? I mean, they slaughtered a pureblood; sorta’ throws the whole situation out of whack, don’t ‘ya think?’’