let the games begin (VINCENT )

[Olivia Stella Lestrange]

It happened to be a very beautiful evening, one where most people would find themselves to be in the Astronomy Tower past curfew. It was nearing curfew, just on the brim of it, and the Slytherin Head Girl informed her comrades that she would be in the Astronomy Tower, guarding it from the rascals that decided they were better than curfew. They never came exactly right after curfew, which was eleven, but rather at about one in the morning or so, after most of the Prefects had settled in for the night. Olivia, the Head Girl, had had a rather rough day. One of the little Potter boys - Nick, was it? - had chosen her as a target for a prank, and although Olivia had halted him, she was reminded of why she was a target for his specific pranking. Not by him, the little twit had less guts to finish her off than a twig, but by his friend. One of them, she could not remember a name (like it was important to her anyways) had told her that her family was unwelcomed, unwanted by the people here. And somehow, beyond all recognition that it was just some rude boy with no sense of who has authority, it rattled her internally. She felt as though he had cracked her outer shell, exposing a sense of tiny weakness in her. Olivia did not like it. However, she'd merely laughed, and commented about the boy's family being of no importance of today's society nor the past's society. That sure got the boy back, and she'd walked away feeling a little better about herself. She walked, her ballet flat shoes colliding with the marble in a dull padding sound, and she exited the area with nothing more than her confidence tattered. She was not pleased about it.

Usually Olivia could tolerate the Ravenclaws. They were generally intelligent and could carry an intellectual conversation with her. She could tolerate any House, really, as long as they weren't bent entirely on having their name be the base of their popularity. Honestly, Olivia did not go around boasting that she was a Lestrange and that everyone should bow down to her almighty family power. Some people just had no self respect, and Olivia had hers. Although, boasting about being a Lestrange wasn't the typical piece of information that made her more of a welcoming or inviting person in other people's eyes. Except to the Malfoys and Zabinis and the like. They had all grown up together though,s o it was natural for them all to be seen in a different light than the beloved Potters and Weasleys. Such a shame that people should base an opinion just by the history of a surname. Olivia sat on a comfortable love seat, her favourite book nearby, and held her wand in hand loosely as she looked about. It was a rather nice area, the Astronomy Tower. The stars were clearly visible from the balcony to one side of her, a few feet away. Her hair was up, in a bun that she'd hastily made on her way to her last class, finding it to be bothersome when in Potions, because her hair could so easily catch fire if she bent too close over her Potions cauldron. The book beside her was vastly large, heavy enough to weigh about as much as the rest of her school books, but had a lot of information she loved to read within it. In fact, she was even mentioned a lot and had her own pictures in it. It was only in one chapter, and perhaps not the best way to be seen or mentioned, but she was in there and there was no cutting it out of every book made. Her father Rodolphus had made the pages, along with Bellatrix and her mother, who had been left anonymous for her own benefit. Olivia was in one picture with her father. When the picture moved, it showed her father picking her up as a five year-old and spinning with her. She was laughing, and every time she revisited the page she could almost hear the echoing, fading laughter, like she was going to the time of the memory and then being thrust back into reality. Call her nostalgic, but she felt content in that memory. Her father was in Azkaban now; she could do nothing but to live her life int he hopes that some day he'd be free and they'd live a somewhat more normal life.

Olivia automatically put her hand on the book, as though ready to read the book and set her eyes on the page she had read so many times she could read it word for word without looking. Right now, she was on patrol. As Head Girl, it was her duty not to allow students to be out after curfew. She had a responsibility to carry out, but right then, she felt like reading. Call it her nerdy side, be it that, but Olivia actually did not mind reading as a pass time. She removed the sweater of her uniform, placing it aside, leaving her with the white blouse, the Slytherin tie, her Head Girl badge, skirt, and flats. It was a warm, slightly breezy night, and to enjoy it, Olivia reclined in the love seat, letting her hair out of the wretched elastic, allowing it to drape over the back of the chair. Her raven black hair was long, stopping at the middle of her back. Olivia did not favor it cut short - it was a constant habit of hers to be playing with her hair. She looked up to the ceiling, to the stars painted on it and the various other art painted there, her ocean blue eyes skimming over everything. She was at ease, and not prepared to be bothered. Hopefully tonight would be easy for her.

[Vincent Olivander]

Vincent had started off the evening in a good mood, his Slytherin friends didn't even give him any grief. He still tried to avoid spending time with them, they cared little for authority and laughed at everything and everyone. When he tried to behave the same to fit in, he found his arguments weak for why Slytherins were better. He often needed help or encouragement from his acquaintences, but he never believed it. Though they never said it to their faces at risk of stereotyping, they had a lot of respect for the Malfoy family or the Lestrange family, or those other families with a history of famous Azkaban-dwellers. Then again, maybe the spawn of such families marvelled in the glory they were praised with. He hadn't seen Olivia Lestrange since March-time, before he had dropped the subject of Potions.

He would've thought he'd have seen her more often, being Head Girl, but it seemed they walked in different friendship circles. Vincent was starving that night, and had even tried to sneak into the Great Hall for a supper. Apparently a spell had been put on the food of the Great Hall so that nobody ate it after hours. The food looked delicious, mouth-wateringly so, but once you took a bite.. mouldy bread was not a nice flavour. His Cleansweep Eleven was locked away, and Vincent was convinced that night was the most deadly dull time. He hadn't meant to be wandering around at night, but he had been distracted by the Hogwarts herd of Hippogriffs that he'd seen earlier in a lesson, and wanted a personal meeting with one.

He made sure he was unrecognized though, he wore a headless hat that he had bought from a joke shop for two galleons. His hat and his entire head was gone, so all anyone would know was that a Slytherin student was walking around, and not who it was. The last prefect that tried to stop him came by an unfortunate case of a stinging hex, if only they could tell someone who did it. Vincent wasn't bad, but he firmly believed all the great wizards of the twentieth and the twenty-first century had to break the rules from time to time. His first exam was on June 18th, and he needed to study for his Care of Magical Creatures. How could he do that if he only got to watch others approach one? He then moved up to the astronomy tower, a headless student carrying a N.E.W.T Charms textbook.

[Olivia Stella Lestrange]

Olivia's eyes were closed, her head against the back of the love seat. She felt relaxed, something she had not been feeling lately because of all of the stress upon her. Studying had taken its course on her, due to the fact that the Professors were laying more homework on them to prepare them for their N.E.W.T.s at the end of semester. Her father was causing her annoyance when she visited him lately, with all of his talk of darkness rising again and such. Had she not seen enough of the darkness in him to know it was returning? Her mother was locked up, and the asylum sent updates about her and requests for her to visit. That obviously was not going to happen. Her mother was a crazy Veela, and the only thing Olivia had inherited from her mother was the Veela side, not the crazy. Olivia swore to herself that she would never end up where her mother was. And her friends were all getting on edge with their N.E.W.T.s, which caused people to get really snippy when attempting to study. The rather idiotic small First years had decided the other day that they would be as loud as can possibly be, and Olivia had to do both control of the children and damage control for the older students reviewing their notes and essays. That was her job, her duty; but some of the time she wished it was somebody different as Head Girl. She did not need more people fearing her.

As Olivia sat in her own silence, her own thoughts, she heard the faint sound of a door opening. Her eyes opened immediately, shattering her thoughts as she was now staring at the star-painted ceiling again. Olivia sat up, running slender fingers of one hand through the back part of her hair so that she'd smooth any flyaway hairs. She sat up fully, poised and ready to face anyone who entered - she had not been expecting anyone until at least another half hour later. The sight that had caught her eyes made her lean forward a bit and blink a few times to make sure she was seeing what she was really seeing. Slytherin robes, a body, but no head. The head seemed conveniently to be missing. Seeing as it was after curfew, excuses as to why she saw it were coming into her mind, listing downward until she ran out of ideas. She crossed her arms and sat back in the seat, toying with her wand between her fingers. "Honestly." She whispered, the word barely escaping her lips with a sheer tone of both slight disgust and irritation. She wasn't going to deal with a person who wanted to play around like a small child with her. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the person, who looked taller then her as they stepped up to the Astronomy Tower anonymously. Olivia stepped into Head Girl mode, and stood up, walking over to the figure slowly.

Olivia halted as soon as she was near by the person. Someone in her own house out late at night, well that was not good in her books, not at all. "Did you think some sort of hat would stop you from getting caught at all?" Olivia questioned, looking him or her directly in the eye (or where she had guesstimated his eye to be), even though he or she was taller than Olivia. She was not intimidated, so she held her ground, and had her wand in hand in case the idiot would think of challenging her. Her father had taught her well on defense, when he had been around. She was not going to let him down by letting her guard down so easily in front of a house mate. That would be ridiculous.