More Plotting (Deirdre)

Aoife, with all the ridiculous stuff that had been happening this term, had completely forgotten about her promises to help Deirdre! It had completely slipped her mind to find the older Hufflepuff and she was slightly worried the girl disliked all her awesome ideas so much, she was deliberately avoiding her! And that wouldn't do, so after work one day she set out to find her friend. Her first thought was to go out to the grounds, but the grounds were huge and Deirdre could be anywhere. Anyway, it was starting to rain a little bit. So she decided she would have better luck in the basement. That was probably where all Hufflepuffs chilled when it was raining.

It was a good time to go, because it was almost dinnertime so she didn't think she would have to camp out there long before Deirdre turned up because surely the girl would need a break from her studying eventually. She imagined that was what she was doing. A lot of seventh-years seemed to be doing that now, though. Not just Deirdre anymore. NEWTs must be really serious and hard. And she was struggling with OWLs.

She decided to make herself comfortable on the floor next to the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. And because she wanted to prove how smart she was to Deirdre, she took out her DADA textbook. Other than the stuff from class, she hadn't looked at this at all, so she was slightly behind. Like in every other lesson. A lot of Hufflepuffs came out then. But not Deirdre. Where was that girl. "Shun you, Hufflepuff!" she yelled in frustration.

Deirdre had had her nose stuck in her Potions book all day after her classes, without any time for the History of Magic books she'd taken from the library yesterday or for the Charms homework. For her, that was time well lost. Right now, nothing in her head was making any kind of sense and the NEWTs were far too close for her not to be worried.

The other Hufflepuffs in the common room, where Deirdre was desperately trying to remember Golpalott's Third Law, were begining to shuffle out one by one. Hufflepuffs were usually early for dinner, but nonethless, them leaving allerted Deirdre that she'd been sitting there far too long already. Merlin, she needed a break.

Taking her time with picking her books, Deirdre stuffed her things in the worn-out bag that had seen better days and headed out, pretty much tagging last after two other girls.

Still enguffed in Potions-y thoughts, Deirdre didn't notice the Gryffindor sitting in front of the door until she yelled "Shun you, Hufflepuff!" and Deirdre almost tripped on her in her surprise. A few of the other girls also turned, so Deirdre smirked a little and asked, "Which one?". Since Aoife'd been sitting there even after most of the Hufflepuffs had left already, it was probably safe to assume that she was waiting for Deirdre specifically. That made her a bit nervous, because the last time Aoife and she'd talked, it had been about her dying her black hair in an even more bright blond that the streaks she'd gotten last summer. Nonetheless, Aoife was an awesome person to hang around, Deirdre'd decided.

Deirdre kneeled next to Aoife, moving her bag from her shoulder, and waving to the last Hufflepuff to leave the commom room.

Aoife scowled at the unfamiliar Hufflepuffs who decided to give her funny looks. Was it socially unforgivable to publicly shun a housemate of these people? Made sense, but she shouted whatever she wanted to whenever she wanted to. And she had a pretty good reason to shun Deirdre, because she STILL HADN'T COME OUT. Was it possible that she'd missed the girl? Or maybe she'd been in the library? Damn, she should have thought of that.

She was about to admit defeat and go and get dinner, in the hope that maybe she'd see her there, when she FINALLY turned up! And with a sarcastic remark too. "You, obviously!" she grumbled. "You took long enough! I mean, weren't you hungry?" It didn't make any sense that someone might not be desperate to go to dinner and stuff their faces with awesome Hogwarts food.

"ANYWAY," Aoife continued, deciding to forget that Deirdre was stupid and shunworthy. "I was looking for you because I believe you're in seventh-year now, and since it's not long until you graduate, we really need to discuss your plans to leave your mark on Hogwarts."

She'd been thinking, and leaving a mark could be metaphorical or literal. Deirdre could do something that people would remember or actually leave a mark, with bright graffiti or something.

Well, someone sure was cheerful. Deirdre rubbed circles in her forehead, trying to sort out her thoughts - which were positively revolving around the ingredients of Amortenia - before replying with a simple, "I have to study for the NEWTs." Deirdre didn't actually expect Aoife to understand the necessity of knowledge, given the conversation they'd had regarding Aoife's OWLs last year. "I just don't look at the clock much.", she sighed.

Aoife quickly brushed that off with a loud 'ANYWAY' and a snap of her wrist in Deirdre's general direction. Just as Deirdre'd expected, Aoife had decided to come all the way down here to talk to her about her graduation plans again, and quite frankly, Deirdre was a tad scared. She'd never been the act-on-it type, so this would at least be a challenge. "Okay", she allowed, getting up from the floor and pulling Aoife up with her.

"What do you have in mind, then? Something methaforical, or...?", she probbed. If she was going to do this - and she wasn't given much of a choice, really - then she'd have to at least choose the lesser evil from all the random ideas Aoife could surely come up with. The last time they'd talked about this, Aoife had mentioned doing something bright to Deirdre's hair, and it'd been long enough for her to think of something else entirely; Deirdre wasn't about to just go risk her valuable assets for the sake of a 'mark'. So for that matter, mybe graffitti could do it, it'd be painless for her and easy to get removed later on, too.