The Consequences of Rule breaking [Nessa]

[Deleted]

October 23, 2025
@open to students!

Renfri hadn't planned on becoming the "Ghost Jaguar". It was a student rumor that had been floating around since the school year started. Because, when Renfri did have patrol duty she preferred to do so in her animal form. Could you blame her though? With her dead left arm, it made her feel less weak, less vulnerable, to wandering animal form. Because the injury had been her human body, not animal. Sure, the burn marks transferred, but the uslessness didn't. She'd never actually "caught" a student though. Usually, she just sneaked up on them, growled a bit, and they went running back to their common room. 

Halloween was definitely making nightly patrols more challenging. Since Hogwarts was running the island, students were allowed out until 1am, when the festivities ended. But they were supposed to go straight back to their common rooms when they god back to Hogwarts. Most did. Except tonight. 

Renfri lurked in jaguar form, prowling the halls in almost complete silence, her dark fur blending into the shadows. Being a black jaguar definitely made hiding in darkness easier. She stopped, a scent in the air. She inhaled deeply, focusing on the smell. Human. It wasn't a teacher though, as Renfri had made sure to learn the scent of the other teachers early on. It had to be a student. So, she followed the scent. It lead her to the third floor, and finally, to a lone student. Their wand illuminated the black corridor, but Renfri held back, sticking to the shadows. The light bounced off her eyes, like two yellow sparks in the darkness... Then, she growled, fully announcing her presence to the student that had dared break curfew.

[nessa abigael byrne]

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October was like a dream come true this year. Students didn’t have to be back into their dorms until one in the morning, and Nessa had been sure to take advantage of that to the fullest extent. There hadn’t really been anything too important she needed to get done at that hour, but the mere fact that she could sit somewhere late into the night without as much as a cleared throat from a disappointed teacher was awesome. It gave her ultimate fuel for being obstinate and to stick it to the authority figures. They held no power over her until the pushed back curfew now.

Today was no different than any other day this month, and Nessa was purposely pushing the limit on how long she was staying out of the Slytherin dorm. Curfew may have started a few hours ago, but she hadn’t been spotted by a teacher or prefect yet, so she didn’t really care. There was an abandoned classroom on the third floor that she frequented a lot when she wanted to escape the monotony and drivel of Hogwarts, and that was where she had been since after dinner. She had pulled a chair up to one of the windows and had it propped open so she could smoke, something she normally only dared to do while creeping along the edge of the forest or in Hogsmeade. But she wasn’t allowed at either of those places currently, and the empty classroom was the next best thing. She had never been disturbed here before, and didn’t think it would be any different tonight.

Eventually though, sitting there and realizing she only had a few cigarettes left to last to the end of the semester, Nessa collected herself and lazily drifted out of the room. She lit her wand as she did so, not really caring if she was caught at this point. What was another detention on top of the few she had already accumulated this year? Breaking curfew wasn’t nearly as horrible as the school made it out to be, and the fact that they expected the older students to abide by the same rules as the younger ones was asinine.

It didn’t take long until she realized she wasn’t alone though, her thoughts breaking from the stupid school rules when she saw the light of her wand reflect off of something low to the ground. The low growl came immediately after, and Nessa felt the hair on her arms stand on end. She was far from the type to be worried about the recent rumors of the Ghost Jaguar floating around, but the thing in front of her was definitely cat-like and sounded like one too. But if it was a ghost, there really wasn’t anything it could do to her, right? Yeah, sure, Peeves was known to throw things around and cause problems, but the most a normal ghost could do was try to scare her off or run through her, which would give her body chills at best for a minute or two.

Instead of running off like she felt like she should, Nessa stayed where she was, directing the light down at the big cat. “Nice kitty?” she said, her voice coming out way more pathetic than she thought was possible. Thank Merlin no one else was here to see this, because her reputation would have been in the trash by now.

@renfri ● 570 ● Disease by Beartooth

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

October 23, 2025
@open to students!

Well, this was different. Most students, especially since the rumors started, went running. A giant black cat lurking in the darkness had to be terrifying. It was why Renfri patrolled in jaguar form to begin with. What better way to stop rule breaking then put the fear of god into them?

This student, despite the obvious fear, held her ground. She moved her wand, so that the light finally fell upon the black jaguar. The black fur was sleek in the illumination, those yellow eyes focused intently on the teenager. Renfri stalked a few steps forward, those prominent shoulders shifting with each step, like any other cat stalking prey. The only thing that truly seemed to set this black jaguar apart was the horrible scaring on it's front left leg. Burns. While the fur had grown back, it would be hard to ignore. This jaguar had been in a terrible accident.

Renfri growled and barred her flesh ripping teeth at the "nice kitty" comment. Her message was clear. She was not a "nice kitty". She took another step closer. She didn't recognize the student, but that wasn't too surprising. It was Renfri's first year teaching. She didn't know the students that well yet. But it was easy to recognize a rule breaker.

[nessa abigael byrne]

▲

The jaguar seemingly decided that the light being shown on it was an invite to get closer. Nessa backed up as it kept trying to get closer to her. While she liked big cats, this was too close for her own comfort. Being on opposite sides of a Plexiglas wall was more her sort of thing. Having the tigers ‘stalk’ her from the other side was cute when the orphanage had taken them to the zoo. A fun memory, among the very few she allowed herself to have. It was even funnier to watch the little kids get scared from the pouncing cat, and getting her to stop her laughing while they bawled always pissed off the chaperones. Apparently they didn’t find it hilarious that the kids actually thought the tiger could get them.

But this situation was different. She had made her mind up that this definitely wasn’t a ghost, much to her dismay, which meant that someone had let loose a jaguar inside the castle. If this had been anywhere but Hogwarts, she’d probably think the idea ludicrous. Except that this was a school for magical kids, and in the last few years she had seen enough weird shit happen that the addition of a wild cat in the castle definitely wasn’t impossible.

The cat growled at her as she tried to call it a kitty, its fangs barred at her as it took another step closer. “Screw this.” Nessa tightened her clutch on her wand and then promptly turned on her heels and ran, back towards the room she had just left, barreling through the door and slamming it behind her as soon as she was inside. Pointing her wand at the handle, she whispered the locking charm, and then stepped back, away from the door and towards the chair she had left by the window a few minutes earlier. “Oh no! Can’t open a door can you?” she yelled in the direction of the door, an awkward laugh bubbling out of her as she planted herself in the chair. Now all she had to do was wait until morning. Surely the cat would leave once people were up and about.

@renfri ● 364 ● Find A Way by Renfri

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

October 23, 2025
nessa abigael byrne

Well.... This was inconvenient.

Renfri had thought that, finally, this student had gotten the message and was turning to run back to her common room. This student seemed to have a different plan in mind. Because, the direction she was turning to run in? Definitely not the way to the common rooms. Nor was that unused classroom that she ran in and slammed the door closed. Though.... it was a solid plan, Renfri had to give the girl that. Cat's couldn't open doors. Renfri sat down, her whiskers twitching as she thought. This hadn't happened before. She could just change back and open the door, though that might raise suspicions that the teacher was the jaguar. But she couldn't leave the student locked inside either.

Quite the predicament...

The taunt though, that followed a few moments after she went into the room, felt unnecessary, and Renfri made up her mind. She transformed back into her human form, frowning as she felt the phantom limb syndrome. It was almost like she could feel and move her left arm, but she knew she couldn't. Her left arm just lay lifeless in the sling. With a sigh, she stepped up to the door and knocked softly. "That isn't your common room."

[nessa abigael byrne]

▲

“Stupid cat,” Nessa muttered under her breath as she rocked back and forth in the chair, pulling out another cigarette to light it. Even though she couldn’t see it, she could definitely sense that it was still there. Probably because it was too quiet. The employees at the orphanage used to do that too when she was up too late, or had snuck into Nate’s room so they could keep messing around without anyone bothering them. Whenever someone was on the other side of the bedroom door, it almost became painfully obvious because of how hard they tried to contain their silence. As far as she could tell, the cat was doing the same thing right now.

She felt like this was her victory, happily shoving a cigarette in her mouth and fumbling with her lighter as she pulled it out of her pocket. Her hands were still a bit shaky from the close call, and it took a few tries to get the thing to actually strike and light. Before she could get it all the way to the end of the smoke though, a knock came from the door and a voice accompanied it. Nessa felt her whole body go cold and her mouth dropped open in shock, cigarette falling out of it and onto the floor. What the hell kind of cat could talk and knock like a human? If she hadn’t been so caught off guard already from the cat encounter, she felt like an uncharacteristic scream would have probably come out of her. Whatever, or whoever, was on the other side of the door was definitely not someone she wanted to interact with. Failing to find any words to retort with and unable to move from the chair, Nessa stayed paralyzed in place and looked like she was a deer caught in the headlights; absolutely positive that whatever was outside of the room wanted to get her.

@renfri ● 322 ● Secular Haze by Ghost

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

October 23, 2025
nessa abigael byrne

There was complete silence in the room. The student not responding to Renfri's word or knock. Renfri waited a few moments but even then there was no response. She sighed, and reached down to the doorknobs, turning it. Nothing. The student must have locked it. Reaching into her pocket and pulled out her wand. It still felt awkward performing magic with her right hand. She'd been left handed her entire life. but her accident had ensured she might not ever use her left arm again. So, she was forced to learn how to cast its her weaker hand. It'd even required her wand being modified. But, she'd already gotten used to all the common spells. "Alohomora," she muttered. The lock clicked softly,

Pocketing her wand, she grabbed the doorknob once more. This time when it turned the door opened. Satisfied, Renfri pushed the door open. There was the student, seated and smoking. "Well. now. you're just racking up the broken rules tonight. Care to break a third?" Breaking curfew, smoking in the school. This girl just seemed to be testing the limits.

[nessa abigael byrne]

▲

The click of the door unlocking was even more unnerving than hearing the person, or thing, on the other side knocking and talking. Those were, for whatever reason, more human than the door suddenly becoming unlocked and opening without as much as an utterance of a spell. Or at the very least, not one that she had heard or could even reasonably pay attention to.

Nessa was frozen in place, her eyes darting from the door, down to the floor where the barely lit and smoldering cigarette had fallen, and then to the window next to where she was seated. Obviously she couldn’t jump, she was on the third floor, the ground at the foot of the castle wasn’t even (she knew because she snuck around the outer walls to find places to hide from people and occasionally smoke when it was nice out), and rumor had it that there were charms that prevented people from going out the windows or falling from the towers. Plus, her fear of heights prevented her from even thinking of throwing herself out. Even if she steeled herself, she would probably only get as far as opening the window part way before chickening out. Going down in a fight against whatever was coming through would be easier than jumping to potential safety.

But she couldn’t even bring herself to pull her wand out again. She was stuck to the chair, hands shaking enough that she also dropped the lighter on the ground as well. The door eventually opened, and in stepped Professor Selwyn, who taught her History of Magic class. Nessa mentally swore at herself for being this stupid, because that was one of the classes she needed to ace to even be looked at as a curse breaker candidate. Or so said the one she had met with over the summer. “I only count one. Being out after curfew is only a detention or two. Not like I haven’t done that before,” Nessa countered back, suddenly feeling a little braver now that she was being directly challenged by an authority figure and realizing that her fear of the unknown on the other side of the door was unfounded. “And anyways, someone let loose a large animal in the hallway. It’s not my fault it trapped me in here,” she lied. The professor wasn’t nearly as scary as the giant cat lurking out in the corridors, which would hopefully show up soon so she could make her escape.

@renfri ● 414 ● Bite by Fickle Friends

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

October 23, 2025
nessa abigael byrne

Renfri eyed the student. Bold, brave. A part of her almost reminded Renfri of herself. Renfri had been a nightmare to her teachers as a student, but mostly because she didn't like sitting still for long. Classroom learning had been a challenge. Though now that she was getting a better look at the girl, she realized she did recognize her. She was one of the Slytherin girls in the NEWT class. That alone was impressive. Most students didn't take History of Magic to NEWT. They dropped it after fifth year. Only those that needed it for their future careers, or loved the subjects, took it after that. "Well clearly my rule breaking count is quite low then, if this isn't the first time you've done it." Renfri answered. If the girl wanted to be sassy? Well, guess what kid, Renfri was sassy as well. "Shall I take your comment as a confession and start rounding the detentions up?" In all fairness, Renfri didn't like to use "detentions". They were unproductive. At least, the way some teachers used them. It wasn't a senseless punishment, because it didn't stop the behavior.

At the mention of a "large animal" loose in the castle, Renfri couldn't help but smirk. A little too wide. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Large animal? In the hallways? I'm sure someone of your age could come up with a more believable cover." Of course Renfri wasn't going to admit that she was the animal that had cornered the girl.

[nessa abigael byrne]

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Was she being tested? The feeling that the professor was giving her made it seem like she wanted Nessa to push her luck and try for more detentions now. “I’ve been told that my file is fairly thick. Considering how many times I’ve already been in detention up till now, I doubt a few more will matter to McGonagall,” Nessa explained. She had been here longer than Professor Selwyn had. Clearly she was going to have to catch the professor up on a lot of it. Another couple of detentions wasn’t going to make or break her prospects of graduating, especially not ones that came from sneaking out after curfew. That would be like executing a petty thief for stealing chewing gum one too many times.

The worst thing that could come out of this though, would be if she was forced into a meeting with Professor Macmillan. That sort of thing would actually make her want to die from embarrassment. Talking about her feelings was never going to happen, especially with someone that was brought in to be a grief counselor. The only thing Nessa was grieving was the fact that she couldn’t have some peace and quiet while breaking the rules. It wasn’t much to ask for.

Nessa crossed her arms in front of her and stared straight at the professor as she questioned the story about the cat, though her face was still partially obscured in the shadows that were being cast through the classroom windows. It was hard to tell what the professor was actually trying to get at, only because Nessa couldn’t read her face. She was used to being chastised and punished at the orphanage, always of her own doing and not because her guardians were inherently bad people, and thought of herself as fairly decent at deciphering what others really intended with their words. Her distrust surrounding the professor only grew when she tried to spin that it was a lie. “Don’t call me a liar,” she growled back, even though the professor hadn’t actually accused her of being one yet.

@renfri ● 348 ● The Forsaken Effigy by Shadow Of Intent

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0