OPEN // you can run if you want

[TABITHA JANE WINTERS]

Tabitha had a knack for stretching the dress code. She was happy to wear the skirts and button down shirts, robes and striped ties. really her issue was the clunky black shoes. Tabby had a thing for heels and today she had on yellow and straw wedges that made her even taller than normal. Her blonde hair was pulled into a low side ponytail, laying over her left shoulder.

She licked her fingers to slip one piece of paper off the top of her stack as she adhered it to the wall. The posters were for her latest charity case, the mermaids of the blake lake and how they were not being respected by the school community. Normally she'd be trying to help organize school functions but it was too early in the year for most of those. So for now, she'd keep on raising awareness.

Tabby loved Hogwarts and was sad this would be her last year. She was a prefect yet again, and still the "puff princess" of her house, well liked over all. Hufflepuffs knew she had their back and would try to be strong for them. Otherwise, no one really knew her, the other houses had their own issues.

[NIAMH JENNA CONNOLLY]

Niamh didn't usually hang around the entrance hall, in fact she didn't usually hang around at all. Niamh watched as the girl... Tabitha, hufflepuff prefect, stuck posters to the walls. Intrigue getting the better of her, the quidditch playing sixth year Slytherin walked up to one of the posters. Niamh didn't care for mermaids, or goblins, or bloody leprechauns. She thought that purebloods were superior and that was that.

She gave the girl a second glance... high heels? wasn't that a little out of the dress code? Not that Niamh really cared. She wasn't following the code herself, in her jeans. Reading the poster, she fought the urge to roll her eyes. God she wasn't one of the do-gooders? was she? Niamh couldn't really stand those. Niamh lurked near the girl, watching her put up posters. "Do you think anyone really cares about this?" she asked a little harshly, but who could blame her? She was a Slytherin, she was meant to be 'mean'.

(outfit)

[TABITHA JANE WINTERS]

Tabby noticed the Slytherin girl loitering but figured maybe she was just waiting for her sleazy boyfriend of something. Or for a sad little first year to scuttle by. She hated to stereotype but Slytherins were bad news... except of course her little sister who was starting her second year in the house. It had come as a surprise, but only out of what the house had been for many years. Her sister wasn't mean, she was just ambitious and strove for what she wanted. It wasn't a bad quality, but Tabitha was worried she'd get poisoned by the others.

Then the loiterer called to her. Tabby turned and arched an eyebrow. "Doesn't matter, I'm getting the word out, which is the first step." She said. She was always the kind to help someone in need. "They will care." Tabby said with a bright and hopeful smile. It was tough to knock her down a peg, and while she might have seemed silly and a pushover, she wasn't whimpering in this angry chick's presence.

Tabitha didn't mind her anyway, because if this other girl pushed too hard, Tabby was a prefect after all.

[NIAMH JENNA CONNOLLY]

Niamh smirked. "Please. students will just pass these posters by. What one of them if going to stop and look" she spoke, well Niamh was lying a little there, she could think of a few people who would... her damn brother for instance... who happened to be in the same house as Tabitha, oh the joy. Niamh wasn't proud to admit her brother was related to her, it wasn't out of spite.. okay maybe it was. But deep down Niamh still would do anything for him.

He was her blood after all, and she looked after her own. Niamh probably fitted into the stereotype of Slytherin to the tee... well she tried to. "They will care will they?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice. "How delightful" she faked a grin, and clapped her hands together. Niamh couldn't be bothered to keep the facade up much longer. She ran a hand through her midnight black hair, shaking the curls loose. It was a bother having curly hair. It always got knotted and tangled.

[TABITHA JANE WINTERS]

Tabby faced her attitude with a smile, she'd learned it was the best way to piss people off actually. "You stopped didn't you?" She said cracking a smile and raising her eyebrows in an "i told you so" manner. If someone so cranky and unhelpful would bother to stop and read, someone nicer would too and maybe get involved. Besides, she could hardly talk for all students as if she wasn't one of them. This girl couldn't know much about the whole student body enough to predict their attitudes.

Tabitha rolled her eyes at the slytherins next movement. Tabitha may have been a Hufflepuff but that didn't make her stupid or weak really. She was confident she was just as good as this other girl, probably better given she cared about things besides herself and her kind. "Was that really necessary?" She said, shrugging the other girl off. It didn't matter what she thought really.

[NIAMH JENNA CONNOLLY]

"For reasons that did not involve the poster" she lied. Niamh was beginning to think trying to antagonize the hufflepuff wasn't worth it, and that she should have just walked past. She tapped her boot clad foot on the floor. She knew why she hadn't walked past. She was bored. The little first years had learnt to avoid the slytherins and now she had fewer targets. Niamh wasn't used to people talking back to her. Usually they just got scared and scurried off. Well usually she didn't talk to the seventh years in the other houses.

It was pissing Niamh off a little, and she placed a hand into her bag, and gripped loosely at her wand. She took a few deep breaths. Remembering that the girl was a prefect. She didn't answer her other comment, just shrugged, it might have been. Niamh wasn't that sure. She wanted to ask about her brother, little Lorcán Connolly, but she wanted that air of indifference to the family 'black sheep'. It was assumed by her father and uncle, that Niamh would follow his example. That was something Niamh had no qualms about.

[TABITHA JANE WINTERS]

Tabitha wasn't stupid. Many assumed that Hufflepuffs were slow, push overs and just nice. Tabby was nice, but she was smart and wouldn't take your crap if it was something she cared about, especially her friends. Of course, she wasn't by any means perfect, she was just a great example of a Hufflepuff, loyal and true. This girl's lies and put downs didn't much matter to her, life would go on, with or without the slytherin.

A silence fell between them and Tabby moved on, sticking up more of her posters. She didn't know what this chick wanted from her and there was no need to push it more than necessary. So far, she had nothing else to say and as such Tabitha didn't have anything to reply too, which was all well and good to her. She didn't need to waste her breath trying to convince someone who didn't care, to care. Sometimes there were lost causes.