Careless Crash PV Finished

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Ruby walked along at a steady pace, a little faster than the others in this corridor but not fast enough that she would accidentally bump into someone. She was headed to the library to pick up another book. Today was not a very good day—she was in a bad mood—and she hoped that settling down to read would calm her. Regardless of the success with that, it would still give her a distraction.

Why was she angry? It was just one of those days. First, someone had interrupted her reading earlier that day, and then when she tried to take a peaceful walk through the Grounds, some random person started talking to her and being loud. Even when she tried to escape to the area near the Great Lake, there were still people screaming. They were happy, sure, but she certainly wasn't when none of these people would shut up. Scowling, she was headed to the library. Maybe she could finally have some uninterrupted quiet time, although judging by the amount of people she had met in there, even that wasn't a given. She wasn't far from the library now, she'd be there soon…

Then some idiot crashed into her, knocking her over and apologising profusely. Icy eyes ablaze and a look of very thinly veiled rage on her face, Ruby picked herself up. “The hell were you thinking? Watch where you're going!” It was like a mix between a snarl and a yell. Logically, she hardly had any reason to be angry at this girl. Mistakes happened, they were normal. And so what if Ruby was irritated? She was a prefect, she was supposed to be controlled and a good example… but she wasn't thinking. “Mucus ad Nauseam,” she hissed before she had time to talk herself out of it.

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𝓡ushing to pick up all of the fallen books, Amadea scrambled around, hoping that @Ruby Cazares wouldn't be too angry with her. She was already overwhelmed enough and she didn't need anything else making her life any more difficult than it already was. She was so late already and this was only going to make her even later. She wanted to scream or cry but she knew that it was all her fault.

She stood, holding out the books to the other girl. As Amadea locked eyes with the other girl, she didn't recognize her but she did recognize the gaze that was radiating from her eyes. She was mad. Amadea opened her mouth to say something in response to her, that really she wasn't thinking and that was the whole problem, right? Or maybe she was just thinking too much and it overwhelmed her so much that she didn't realize where she was going. Whatever it was, she was ready to say anything to make the girl less angry with her; Amadea hated it when people didn't like her.

Before Amadea could say anything, though, the girl had whipped out her wand and was yelling Mucus ad Nauseum at Amadea. The Hufflepuff was still grasping the other girl's books; even if she had wanted to defend herself, she couldn't whip out her wand with her hands already occupied. As the spell hit Amadea, she stumbled backward and dropped the girl's books yet again. Then the effects of the spell really hit. She fell to the ground, sneezing and her nose began dripping. Between her sneezes she managed to get out, "What the hell?" Amadea fumbled around for her wand as she sneezed.

Finally she grasped the solid wood of her wand and gripped it as tightly as she could. "Reparifors!" she commanded, waving her wand. In a flash of purple light, Amadea's ailment was cured and she stood again, this time not bothering to pick up the girl's books. She glared at the other girl across from her. Normally, Amadea would try to reason and talk things out with her; she knew that it was mainly her fault that she had been carelessly running through the corridors and crashed into the other girl. It was annoying that all of her books had fallen along with Amadea's and that she would now be a little bit late for whatever it was that she was going to. But there was no need to curse Amadea. If Amadea hadn't been so overwhelmed already, she probably wouldn't have done what she was about to do next.

"Why the hell did you hex me?" she exclaimed, glaring at the other girl. All she would have wanted was for the girl to accept her apology and for them to move on. Was it really that difficult? With one last glare, Amadea pointed her wand at the girl. No one hexed Amadea Campbell and got away with it. "Flipendo!" she cried, waving her wand at the other girl. Somehow, maybe the fates had blessed the other girl (though why they would do that to someone who hexed her she didn't know), the girl evaded Amadea's spell by an inch. This only made the Hufflepuff angrier. She was a duelist. She was supposed to be good at this. All she wanted was for this girl to get a taste of the pain she had inflicted on Amadea. So, Amadea yelled, "Steleus!" As she pointed her wand yet again, she noticed that her aim was slightly off and the girl would easily be able to dodge again. Amadea's rational mind knew that it was her anger that was inhibiting her dueling skills but in the moment she was so angry that she wanted to scream for the rest of eternity.

At this point Amadea was so angry she felt like she could burst into flames. Flames. Throughout her three years at Hogwarts, she had learned that where there was a Hufflepuff there often was fire. So she decided to cast yet another spell toward the girl, praying that this one would hit it's mark. "Incendio duo!" she commanded, pointing her wand. Amadea was so angry that she wasn't even sure what she was trying to do; she watched as the spell made its way toward Ruby before hitting her arm. The sleeve of her robes subsequently went up in flames. Take that, Amadea thought to herself. No one hexed Amadea Campbell for no reason and got away with it.

Immediately as the thought crossed her mind, she felt bad. She knew that it was just her anger that had caused her to do this and while she still had plenty of it left as she stared at the girl across the corridor from her, she also hoped that she wasn't going to be seriously injured from this. Amadea was unsure of what to do now, so she quickly bent down and reassembled the fallen books, setting them down at the girl's feet. Hopefully, this would all be over now.

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Ruby should be thinking logically. She should have apologised and got out of there, but she wasn't going to. No, poor Amadea happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was on the receiving end of Ruby's rage. It had been bottled up for so long, and she hadn't been dealing with it in a healthy manner. She had ignored it, pretended it wasn't there, letting it build up until it all came out at once in an explosion. And an explosion this was.

Her spell had hit, and god, it felt good. She knew it shouldn't—she was a prefect and even if she hadn't been, using magic to harm someone outside of the Dueling Club was wrong. Right, wrong, it didn't matter to her at the moment. All she knew was the anger, the jealousy, the hatred. This girl had hardly done anything wrong, but other people had. Her family had, Ruby had, and she couldn't cope with it.

“Why the hell did you hex me?” the other student cried. “Why the hell did you bump into me?” Ruby retorted mockingly. Those things were definitely not the same, one being much more severe than the other, but in her mind, they were similar enough. The girl had wronged her, so she was getting her revenge.

She took a sharp breath, unable to contain the emotions that rushed through her. Was that glee she was feeling now that she was the one in control? She did a very small hop, and this was apparently perfectly timed as a spell whizzed past her, narrowly missing. Another spell followed the previous one, but she managed to dodge again. This was almost fun. She didn't have to pretend, didn't have to listen or go along with others' wishes. She was alive, she was experiencing these emotions so powerfully. She had no doubt that her fun would be ruined soon by a prefect or professor eventually arriving at the scene, or a friend tearing them apart, but she would enjoy every second while it lasted.

“You can't even hit me? You really are useless,” she taunted, her lips curling in a sneer and a gleam of mirth dancing in her eyes. It was wiped away in an instant as the girl set Ruby's sleeve alight. A scream pierced the air as the sensation of burning hit her, despite her trying to clamp the other hand over her mouth before the sound escaped. “Extinguo!” she cried as quickly as she could, removing her hand to make sure the incantation was as clear as possible.

The feeling of flames licking at her skin had not been familiar to her. She burnt herself by accident as much as any regular person did, but she had managed to steer clear of the traumatic fires that had damaged so many students in recent years. The spiders' venom had felt so much worse, but that didn't mean that this pain was better. It was still pain, and she flinched at the sight of the destroyed sleeve of her robe and the painful red skin below it.

She blinked, slightly in shock as she looked up at the girl again. A flicker of fear passed through her eyes, and then the anger returned, stronger than it had been before. Ruby's actions were previously unjustified, but now? Now the girl had given Ruby a better excuse to cause her pain, to attempt to tear her apart. “You will pay for that,” she spat, her voice scarily quiet, shaking with rage. “You think I'm bad? Sure, I cursed you, but only to make you sneeze and feel sick for a while. It's not that painful. You just burned me; what the hell is wrong with you? You're the monster.” She stared at the girl as if she was disgusted by the mere sight of her.

She was doing what she knew how to do. Manipulating, turning the blame on others. Making them doubt themselves, feel guilty. Maintaining the look of disgust and unfiltered hatred, she said clearly, “Diffindo.” She made the motion with utmost precision, slicing the girl's skin with ease. There was no regret in the Slytherin's eyes.

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𝓗ad Amadea really heard the girl correctly? The rage was still boiling inside of her and it was a bit hard to focus on what was going on, but was this really all simply because Amadea had crashed into her? Sure, Amadea could understand the girl being upset; after all, she had been carelessly rushing through the halls. But was there really a need to hex her? This was absolutely insane; Amadea wasn't the type of girl that got in trouble or lost her temper often. She always tried to stay rational and talk things out when there was a misunderstanding. However the fact that she had been hexed was still vexing her.

A cold sense of satisfaction rolled over the Hufflepuff as her spell successfully hit the other girl, setting her on fire. The cruel words coming out of her mouth barely even registered with Amadea as she watched the flames erupt and the girl yelped in pain. Fire was something Amadea had experienced multiple times, which was definitely something that not many other people could say at her age. The weird sensation of being burned was quite odd and very painful, so Amadea could only imagine the shock that the other girl was feeling.

If Amadea wasn't so angry still, she might have even felt bad. "You're the monster," the girl had spat at her. As the words pierced through Amadea's angry haze, she took a deep breath and suddenly it was like she was looking at herself from the outside. She had just set a girl on fire. What was she thinking? This was not who Amadea was; this was so out of character for her that she didn't even know who she was anymore. Amadea had spent so much of her third year trying to make up for lost time, trying to find that girl she had previously been before her father died, and all she was realizing was that she was straying even farther away with every second that passed. Never in a million years would she believe that she would find herself in this position, wand pointed at another girl, in the middle of a duel in the corridors but yet here she was. How was this possible?

Amadea dropped her wand in defeat, suddenly worn out. Her anger still radiated, pulsing beneath her exterior but she no longer had the energy to fight this girl. She wasn't going to drop her morals and forget who she was just to prove a point to this girl. And who knew, maybe being the better person would show the girl something. Amadea took a deep breath, stonily eyeing the girl. Before she could open her mouth to speak, however, the girl had already let out another spell that hit Amadea squarely on her now exposed forearm. Amadea let out a hiss of pain as the blood rose to the surface of her skin. "What, the, hell," Amadea growled. She was not going to stoop to this girl's level, no matter how much she wanted to just send the girl flying into next week.

Amadea bent down and kicked at one of the books she had knocked out of the other girl's hands in her initial crash. As she stared at the other girl, Amadea noticed something. "A Prefect, huh?" Amadea commented, pointing at the badge. "I wonder how Professor Jensen would feel knowing that you attacked an innocent student," she baited. "You know...I'm headed toward Potions class anyway. A quick stop to her office wouldn't be too out of my way." Amadea slung her bookbag over her shoulder, ignoring the flash of pain that rippled through her arm as she did so. "No, not out of my way at all..." she said, ready for this whole thing to be over. Whether or not Amadea was actually going to tattle on the girl was something she still hadn't decided, but she had the scars to prove it. For now, Amadea just wanted to get to her next class and come up with some logical explanation of why she was so late. With that, Amadea turned on her heel, ready to walk out.

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Ruby saw the girl falter. Before, there was, perhaps, a cruel satisfaction similar to Ruby's own in the girl's mannerisms, but the prefect's words had managed to shatter that. The moment of doubt caused the Hufflepuff to back down a little, to put her wand away. There we go. Ruby seized the moment of vulnerability and that was when she had cast Diffindo. Never let your guard down. Don't listen to someone who's casting spells at you. Don't trust them. The girl in front of her would have been in a better position if she had known that simple advice and taken it to heart. But she hadn't, and Ruby was the one who had been able to use that weakness to her advantage.

A cold, thin smile settled on her face. The girl's growling fueled her. It was a welcome reaction, a sign that she was affecting the girl, getting under her skin. She likely wouldn't be forgetting about Ruby any time soon, and that was what she wanted. A flash of dangerous irritation overcame her, showing in her eyes when the Hufflepuff kicked her book. “These belong to the library, you idiot. Don't touch them.” Ruby cared about books, no one destroyed them on her watch. She would definitely launch back into the fight if the girl had damaged them, but luckily she hadn't, and that would have been the destruction of school property. Nevertheless, it still irked her that this Hufflepuff had so little respect for something as precious as a book. It didn't even belong to Ruby.

She scowled at the girl's threat to tell Professor Jensen, but truly, that made her nervous. Internally, she was panicking slightly. She was fond of her Head of House and held a lot of respect for her, and to have this irritating Hufflepuff ruin Ruby's reputation was unacceptable. “If you go anywhere near her, I swear I'll make you regret it,” she hissed. “Anyway, what makes you think she'd believe you, a meaningless, ordinary Hufflepuff, over her prefect? She's never seen me do anything that's against the rules. Why would that start now?”

Her thoughts were racing. If Professor Jensen were to actually find out, the consequences would be dire. What would she do? Lie and risk the professor finding out the truth later? Twist the truth? She hoped it didn't have to come to that. She didn't want to lie to the professor, not when Ruby liked her so much and when the woman already had so much to deal with. The girl had begun to walk to class, so Ruby gave her a farewell. “Flipendo!” she cast. “Don't turn your back to an enemy. That's just foolish.” With a final look of disdain, she scooped up her books and continued in the opposite direction. Perhaps that girl would be more careful and watch where she was going in the future.

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