This Impossible Year (Cassia)

[Deleted]

February 23, 2025

It had been not even twenty-four hours since Riley had burst—incredibly late—into their engagement party filled with guests, called off the wedding, and cut ties with his family. Being known as the girl whose fiancé had broken up with her in front of most of the school hadn't been on Priscilla Rosier's agenda, and she was more than happy to stay as far away from him and the rest of Hogwarts as she could.

Since she and her ex-fiancé had the misfortune of being in the same House, that meant that she had left Ravenclaw Tower for the grounds of the castle, where it was too cold outside for anyone to bother her. She found herself walking around aimlessly for a while, mostly because she didn't want to sit upon the ground or a large rock. Having cast Bluebell Flames from her wand for some added warmth, she kept walking and hoped that everyone would just forget about the party and what a disaster it had been.

@cassiopeia

[Deleted]

Cassiopeia hadn’t minded not going to Priscilla engagement party. If anything, she was relieved.

Prissy, as the girl’s not-so-dear friends called her, had spent the better part of their first few years bullying Cassia and, to some extent, succeeding. It had toughen up the artistic girl more than she cared to admit, making it so she was far from minding any of the things the other lady tried throwing at herself. Nowadays, the Blishwick was happy to let them follow on with their lives the ways they best saw fit; she wasn’t much of a fan of conflicts, in fact, it lessened her beauty and disrupted her wellbeing, so of course she tried distancing herself from everything and everybody who made her frown and - ugh - gave her wrinkles.

Choosing to spend her free time panting had come to her as easily as breathing. There was a large easel centimeters away from her careful, slender fingers, an horizontal canvas filled with forms and colors as she neared the end of her task. It’d be days until this particular painting was completely, she needed to let it rest still, but nothing quite pleased her as watching imagination turn into something real. She’d decided to paint a particular image inside her brain, instead of Hogwarts scenario, of cliffs and beaches, so cloudy and dark, with a range of colors from flowers offering a divine contrast. That she had chosen the grounds of all places to paint at was proof she didn’t mind people watching her, and though Cassia had a preference for silent workplaces, sometimes being surrounded by students helped with inspiration.

Her work was dutifully covered minutes later, while Cassia climbed up a branch of a tree next to where she’d settled. The chance to observe people was something she’d found she enjoyed years earlier, and it gave her a chance to understand their mannerisms and, of course, opinate on their - sometimes awful - choices of clothes. She did frown at the sight of Priscilla, however - not expecting to find her there though she’d heard of what happened. That Riley dumped her ass. Cassie couldn’t help but think to herself it was the wisest decisions, no matter his reasons; she didn’t see how somebody might want to spend more than a few minutes in Prissy’s companionship, let alone their entire life. It was a terribly tragic thing that purebloods were so set on traditions. How she longed for her own prince - or princess -, not something forced and… hurtful. Was Prissy hurting? In her place, she’d be relieved.

What Cassia wanted to know, she didn’t shy away from investigating. “Is that a wrinkle on your face?” Cassie would ask ten seconds later, upon getting closer, steps barely audible though present. Genuinely confused, in fact, with the sight of Prissy; was it really a wrinkle or a product of her imagination? Oh, dear - she could almost feel sorry for Priscilla if she’d aged this much in the span of hours.

Oh, boi hahahahaha this hair/makeup

[Deleted]

February 23, 2025

"Is that a wrinkle on your face?"

Priscilla spun around at the question, almost losing her footing as she turned to figure out from where it had come. The fact that the question sounded as though it had come from Cassiopeia Blishwick was enough to bother her. She honestly couldn't remember if her classmate had been at the party, but it was safer to assume that everyone had. At least, everyone knew, even if they hadn't been in attendance, about what had happened at Madam Puddifoot's.

Priscilla's gaze flickered upwards to meet that of her fellow Ravenclaw. "Are those Flobberworms or eyebrows, Blishwick?" she retorted, unimpressed that Cassia—as the matchmaker's niece, of all people—had been the one to come across her. Even some of the blood traitors in the Society for the Preservation of Magical Heritage would have been welcome; hopefully they still worshipped at her feet.

@cassiopeia

[Deleted]

It’s not that Cassiopeia wanted to get into a fight as much as she was curious. How could it be that the perfect pureblood princess was left behind? Though she did imagine the many reasons why Riley wanted to do so, as stated before, it created quite an image that didn’t fit all the standards she knew Priscilla had lived under. After all, why else would she be so stressed and need to let it out through being mean with people? Happy people simply didn’t bully others. Happy people knew how to act elegantly at all times, and they didn’t descend into some awful levels.

It’s why Cassia had the brightest of smiles upon hearing Priscilla’s words, far from a meaning glance directed at the other ravenclaw. “You tell me, mine have always looked better than yours. I supposed wizards haven’t yet found how to properly trim it.” A closer inspection and Cassia noticed it had been imagination, though she wouldn’t be surprised if Priscilla was full of wrinkles and bags under her eyes, and had chosen makeup to hide it. It was a shame the other ravenclaw was so good with makeup, because really, Cassia felt protective over it; it’d be better if only good-hearted people knew how to make others look good. It was a matter of bringing out inner beauty and not… masking cruelty. “I would be happy in your place, you know. Do you really want to marry somebody who even considered dumping you the way he did?”

@priscilla

[Deleted]

February 23, 2025

Cassiopeia turned her Flobberworm question back on her. "You tell me," she said, "mine have always looked better than yours. I supposed wizards haven’t yet found how to properly trim it."

Priscilla rolled her eyes, wondering if Cassiopeia really had nothing better to do than to criticize her skin and eyebrows. Her annoyance, however, only grew tenfold when she heard what the girl had to say next.

"I would be happy in your place, you know," Cassia told her, and Priscilla was more than happy to switch places. It would have been awfully ironic, she thought, if the niece of the Jimbo Blishwick had been broken up with by her future husband. If only they could have switched their roles, Priscilla would have gotten considerable glee out of rubbing it in. But why would Cassiopeia have been happy to be in her shoes? It was pure agony. "Do you really want to marry somebody who even considered dumping you the way he did?"

"I didn't exactly know that he was going to dump me, did I?" Priscilla snapped. She had some choice words for Riley Fudge, a number of which probably weren't the most appropriate to put in a Howler, and she'd already bawled her eyes out in the back room of Madam Puddifoot's—after he had left the premises as quickly as he had entered. She couldn't stand him anymore.

@cassiopeia

[Deleted]

It wasn’t entirely true, what Cassia said. She wouldn’t be happy in Priscilla’s place, for reasons anybody with a functional brain could understand without the need of explanations. Starting with the family she’d been born to, Cassiopeia hated the thought of living among people who judged others for matters of blood and magic, worse yet, with the most terrible reasoning, only supported by prejudice. She hadn’t ever dated, which was hurtful on its own, but when she did, it’d be terrible having a boyfriend who dumped her.

What the blue-haired girl meant, however, was that between continuing with a boyfriend who cared so little about her and following with her life without him, she’d take the second option without thinking. Why was it that some people were so set on appearances they let themselves live the most miserable lives? She could never understand it, especially coming from a family of so much love; there were motives behind her belief in true, fateful love. “That’s true.” Nodded, then, appearing thoughtful. For all she despised on Priscilla, Cassia almost took pity on her; it’d be entirely lessened soon as she knew about Kinsey, however for now, she thought to herself it wasn’t a nice thing Kinsey had done something so public. She would have hated to be that humiliated.

“You should take it as a lesson to have a better taste in guys. If you’re gonna get wrinkles and ruin your makeup, at least make sure he’s worth it.” Her smile was just as honest as it’d been more, if not more- Cassia deeply believed what she’d just said. Not one to lose time with terrible emotions when they weren’t worth it, it was Priscilla, in fact, who helped her learn this lesson. “Don’t give me this look… I learned this from you.”

@priscilla

[Deleted]

February 23, 2025

"You should take it as a lesson to have a better taste in guys. If you’re gonna get wrinkles and ruin your makeup, at least make sure he’s worth it."

That would have been valuable advice, perhaps, if Priscilla had chosen Riley for herself. Her parents and his parents had been the ones behind that; she'd never been given files of eligible bachelors to sort through in order to figure out which one of them was her choice. It was more of a business and political decision—as well as one of, naturally, blood purity and future lineage—and Priscilla didn't blame the adults involved in the slightest. They had only been trying to do what was right and proper, and the Fudges had been just as embarrassed by Riley's unseemly behavior.

For all of his now disastrously apparent flaws, Riley Fudge had seemed like the perfect catch. He was close enough to her age, and their families had moved in the same circles for years. They hadn't been in love before their betrothal—as her sister Berenice had been with her husband—but, by every indication, Riley had loved her and was a decent, respectable pure-blood gentleman.

Priscilla hadn't realized how much she had been glaring at Cassiopeia until the other girl scolded her, telling her not to give her that look because she had learned that same lesson from her.

"You could also learn how to leave people alone," Priscilla noted, a fake cheerfulness forced upon her voice as though that might get Cassia to take the hint.

@cassiopeia

[Deleted]

How could a half-blood girl ever understand the do’s and don’ts of traditional, old-school pureblood families? For most of her life she’d perceived their rules as either a joke or something to dismiss, not because she found the world was better without it but for the many miserable peers and terrible stories of people who got thrown out of their families for the minimum things. The fact that some people truly did believe they were better than others for mater of blood purity, however, made her blood closest to boiling; if she were somebody with a lesser control of her temper, things might not be looking so good for the makeup enthusiast.

Thankfully she saw no reason to interfere with other people’s judgments, unless they were using their preconceptions to hurt others, in which she case she tried her best to keep it from happening - with style, of course, and never frowning. If wizards movie ever turned into a thing, she would hope to be called as a dancer to one of these that have beautiful girls in the most amazing dressed while fighting for their lives and winning. Certainly, it’d be fitting of her standards.

“I could, but it took you two years to learn it. You can live with a few minutes.” Not an act of scorn so much as it was of irony. So now she truly did bother Priscilla? That was something.. quite interesting. As far as Cassia could tell, Priscilla had always gone about showing how much she enjoyed making her - Cassia’s - life miserable and, for that matter, couldn’t care less for the other ravenclaw. Not that Cassia meant to harm her likewise or anything, but this was a bit fun; more than she’d care to admit should somebody ask.

“If you follow me, I can find you some clothes that are better fitting of wizard fashion. There’s no such vengeance quite as good as looking your best.” It’d be an once-and-never-more offer, possibly to be turned down soon as she said it; but nobody deserved to wander about feeling sorry for themselves without at least one other person offering to try and make it better. Not even a monster (on her book). “We could change your hair, too. It looks good, but it can always look better.”

@priscilla

[Deleted]

February 23, 2025

"I could, but it took you two years to learn it. You can live with a few minutes."

Priscilla pursed her lips. She really didn't want to deal with Cassiopeia, but she decided that she would listen to her anyway. There was nothing that was keeping her from walking away from the other girl, and she considered doing just that.

"If you follow me, I can find you some clothes that are better fitting of wizard fashion," Cassia suggested, at which Priscilla had to let out a forced laugh. It was too funny that Cassia actually thought that she was the one with better taste. (That both of them probably shopped at all of the same stores due to the relatively small community that was wizarding Britain was entirely irrelevant, in Priscilla's mind.) "There’s no such vengeance quite as good as looking your best."

Blinking, Priscilla waited. What was she supposed to get out of this that she hadn't been doing since September? Moreover, what was she doing considering help from Cassia at all?

"We could change your hair, too," Cassiopeia added. "It looks good, but it can always look better."

"I'd rather use dragon dung as shampoo," Priscilla mumbled. Whatever Cassia might do to her hair, it wasn't as though she couldn't magically grow it back to the way that it had looked, but she really wasn't in the mood to go to all of that effort.

@cassiopeia

[Deleted]

Though it was far from likely Priscilla would even consider accepting Cassia’s efforts to help, she couldn’t help but offer it. After all, one of the Blishwick’s most important beliefs, after the idea of true love, was that everybody had inner beauty; meaning, even a person as ugly on the inside as Priscilla might hide something good, and because of that she was willing to find out what. She wasn’t blind, and the two girls had more in common than they were both ready to admit. It’s partially why the next words didn’t surprise her much, but instead had a smile set on the corner of her lips, barely showing teeth.

“I guess I should leave you to it, then. You know where to find me if you ever want to take me up on the offer.” With these words, Cassia was ready to leave and take the painting with herself; both things she imagined Priscilla wouldn’t oppose to, after all.

@priscilla

[Deleted]

February 23, 2025

Priscilla couldn't believe that Cassiopeia was actually still so intent on helping her. Either it was a clever joke, or she really did seem that desperately in need of help—which Priscilla really, really hoped wasn't the case. She could handle herself without the likes of Cassiopeia Blishwick, and she really wished that the other girl would leave.

She didn't have to keep wishing for very long, though. "I guess I should leave you to it, then. You know where to find me if you ever want to take me up on the offer."

Breathing an audible sigh of relief, Priscilla nodded. She couldn't believe that it had taken so long to get the memo across to the other girl, but she was glad that it had sunken in. It meant that she had yet another person at Hogwarts to avoid for the foreseeable future, but she could keep finding places to wander around for a while. She would even make use of the Room of Requirement, if she needed to. She'd be ensured her privacy there.

@cassiopeia
OOC: You can write one more, if you want, or we can end this thread here?