Something wicked this way comes

After a double potions class and Transfiguration homework, Alice was looking forward to take a break. Luckily, non of her friends actually seemed very inspired for studying today, and they eagerly joined her. But where should they go? 'Outside for some air' was the unanimous decision. Although Alice preferred the silent and dusty library, she joined the group out to the courtyard.

She must admit, the fresh winter air suited her. Her cheeks turned into a rosy red color and even her body seemed more lively now. Alice didn't seem to mind the cold that much either. Wrapped in their scarfs and coats, the group of girls sat on a large bench and chattered away. Alice joined in the conversation once in a while, but she mostly listened. The scenery in front of her was breathtaking and definitely a huge distraction. If only the snow would fall, she thought. Nothing made Christmas season more magical than when the first snow flakes come. Oh she couldn't wait. It was her favorite time of the year after all.

Her attention returned back to the group when she heard the girls giggling loudly about something. "What are we talking about...?" asked Alice curiously. "You surely know that Naomi girl, right Alice? What is her last name? Or never mind... Either way, we were just talking about her latest conquest. Obviously, she's had an eventful start of the year" said a dark haired girl with a smirk on her lips.

Alice did know about Naomi, in fact she has been hearing terrible rumors about her for a while. I mean when will the girls stop, she though. Feeling in a gossipy mood, Alice smiled. "Higurashi, you mean? Yes, she's quite dreadful I think. Not that I care about her 'eventful' year at all, but it's just plain rude to show off yourself like that in public. She must have not had a mother, poor thing. But even that would not be an excuse for acting like a common whore. I thought this was a school and not a Turkish harem." she said with a frown. "The poor girl must be so confused...someone has to tell her that" she added with a smirk

If there was something she couldn't stand it was gossip. Especially when it involved her family. The only family she had left were her siblings and she hadn't even seen Xemnas or Sora around lately. Naomi was the last thing she had and when she began to hear rumors going around about her sister, it just plain pissed her off. Sure Naomi wasn't the most innocent person in the world anymore, but it wasn't like most of the girls at the school were anyways. Most of the students at the castle now were just hormone prone idiots.

Hitamé just needed to get away from all the gossip. But it was everywhere. She figured that since it was so cold outside, not many people would be out there, and even if there were, there probably weren't enough to start something about her sister. Boy was she wrong. As soon as she neared the bench that was there nearest to the castle, she heard something rather annoying to her. She had had enough of all the stupid drama that all the other girl, mostly, caused. She was sick and tired of being dragged into it because they just had to involve her twin sister, the girl she cared most about in the world.

As soon as her sister's name entered her ears, Hitamé was on the girls who were gossiping about her. "What the hell do you all think you're doing?" she asked, rather annoyed. "You all think your so cool because you talk about others and make them seem like nothing. All of you are nothing but a bunch of sluts and whores who are probably worse than the girls you talk about." she spat at all of them. She was close to her breaking point and if she was messed with, challenged right now, she wouldn't hold anything back.

As Alice was giggling, she noticed a girl furiously approach them and rudely interrupt their conversation. She was almost red in her face from anger and Alice could tell that she was barely keeping it together. And with another look at her, she knew exactly who this girl was. She was Naomi's twin sister. She had quite a popular reputation around Hogwarts as well, although nothing like her sister. Alice felt in a playful mood and teasing this girl until her breaking point was exactly what she wanted to do. And besides, she was insulting them now. This girl had all of this and more coming to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you talking to us? It's hard defending your sister from the truth. No one is saying lies here. Quite the contrary. If you on the other hand have a problem with it, then that is something you have to deal with by yourself. But be careful...it might run in the family though" said Alice with a smirk on her lips. She wasn't just going to stand her and let this girl insult her and her friends. They were just repeating rumors, nothing else. Everyone does it. But what this girl did was crossing the line.

"And I understand why you are upset. Poor thing...it must be so hard to have a promiscuous sister like that. But hey, on the bright side you'll surely get to be an aunt soon. Because that's the road your sister is heading. And sadly, we can't choose who we are related to". She might have overdid it a bit, but she didn't care. This girl was attacking her and for the first time Alice didn't feel like backing off easily.

That was it. That was the one thing Hitamé wasn't going to tolerate. It was bad enough that they were talking bad about her sister, now this girl was trying to bring, not only her, But also her family into it. Without thinking much about it, Hitamé lifted her hand, that was formed into a fist and it collided with the girl's face. "You have no right to say sh*t about my family. It's not like your family is such a model one." she spat. If she wanted to bring family into this, then Hitamé was going to play the same game.

"You like to talk bull about others, well how do you like it? Your father is pathetic and worthless, he was a wimp most of his life at Hogwarts, hiding behind Harry, Ron and Hermione because he couldn't face things on his own!" she shouted. "You ... You're just a worthless, stupid girl who has nothing better to do than talk crap about others. Your brother might be the only half decent person in your family. But just him being a Longbottom makes him a disgrace to the Wizarding World, just like the rest of your damned family!" she hissed.

Hitamé had had enough with people talking sh*t about her family. It was bad enough, that she and Naomi had lived as orphans most of their lives, and now they found out they were the children of Death Eaters. Nothing about their lives was fair or even remotely normal, and little b*itches like them didn't help anything. "And for your information, I'm not trying to defend my sister from the truth. I know how she is, But I won't let you little **** talk about her that way." Hitamé said with narrowed eyes staring at Alice.

Without even realizing it, Alice felt Hitame's fist on her face. She stood there in shock and stared at this girl, as it took her a while to comprehend what was happening. This girl must be completely crazy, just punching her like this out of no where. "What are you, insane?!" You just hit me!" shouted Alice. It was clear that she hit a nerve by saying what she did, but she didn't say anything that could possibly anger her this much. The girl was obviously demented.

Not being a very violent person, Alice tried to calm herself down. Violence was never the answer and she was prepared to do a lot of things just to keep this situation under control. Even apologize if needed, not that she would truly mean it. But it would help handle this whole mess. No one wanted trouble out of this. She opened her lips to speak but was interrupted by Hitame's angry rant.

Every words she said hit her right in the heart. It was like she knew exactly where to aim, where it would hurt the most. Hearing those things about her father...she just wanted to cry. Someones even being this cruel and such a liar, she couldn't understand that. Hitame just trashed her whole entire family and even her family name. It couldn't get worse than this. Alice felt like fainting on the spot and just laying on the ground until the pain went away. She had never felt so attacked like this before. But besides her urge to crumble up and hide, a stronger urge appeared inside of her. An urge to prove this girl wrong and to teach her a lesson.

With anger in her eyes, she stood up and tackled Hitame to the ground. Grabbing her wrists tightly, she tried to control her movement. "Don't you dare talk about my family like that!! You have no idea what what we are like! And my dad...he is one of the bravest men in this country. He fought so you can have your freedom and you dare say that about him?! You're just the same stupid slut as your sister. God knows why would anyone expect anything better from you"

This girl honestly thought she could stand a chance against her. How cute. A stupid little pampered girl like her could never stand up to Hitamé in any way. Their style of life are way to different. While she had probably always had a home, food, her family, Hitamé and Naomi had nothing. They were stuck in an orphanage most of their lives until they ran away and lived on the streets most of the time. It almost made her laugh, that Alice thought she was even a slight challenge for her.

"Stupid girl, you're nothing to me!" Hitamé exclaimed and flipped the two of them over. "You could never stand up to me, ever. I know way more about fighting that you probably do. I've actually had to fend for myself before!" she hissed at Alice. Hitamé placed her hands around the girl's wrists and held them in a tight grip that could possibly make her scream. If she decided to do it hard enough, Hitamé could break the stupid girl's wrists. "You're nothing. Just like your stupid father and the rest of your family."

She had no idea what Hitamé had been through. From being tortured by Felix Barker to having been obliviated. Alice probably couldn't even imagine what all that could be like. But Hitamé, on the other hand, had actually lived through it. "What does it matter that he 'fought'? In the end Harry and the other two got all the glory!" she spat. When Alice called her a slut too, Hitamé just lost it. "Oh I'm a slut?!" she demanded. "This coming from the girl who broke up a couple because her hormones got the better of her!" she said. "Don't be surprised that I know that. Everyone does, you should hear what they say about you! By they, I mean those stupid friends of yours! Everyone is talking about how you broke up Zandell and Sarah because you f*cking kissed him and she saw you two!"

"So don't go calling everyone else a slut when you're even worse then that! You're even worse than a whore!" Hitamé screamed at her. At this point, her nails had begun to dig into Alice's wrist and they were leaving marks that would probably turn into scars that she wouldn't be able to hey rid of easily.

Alice tried holding onto Hitame for as long as she could, but she was too weak. In a few seconds, she was already on her back with Hitame on top of her, squeezing her wrists tightly. "Get off!" Alice shouted, trying to get rid of her grip. Her strength surprised her, as it wasn't the usual grip of a teenage girl she felt on her hand. It was a lot more stronger and painful.

Unused to aggression and any kind of pain, Alice's body started to shiver. But no matter how hard she fought against her, she couldn't even move an inch. "Do you really think I care about glory for my family?! People may think what they want...but I will always know the truth. The only reason my dad was overlooked in the first place was because of shallow people like you! And he doesn't have anything to do with this so don't you dare mention him again" screamed Alice as the anger went rushing down her spine. She couldn't control herself now even if she wanted to. She was way past the point of no return.

Alice knew that the whole situation with Zandell would come and bite her in the ass, but what she wasn't aware of how many people knew about it already. "You don't even know what happened! It wasn't like that. But I'm not going to explain myself to you... a silly little girl with daddy issues" frowned Alice as the grip around her wrist became even tighter. She could feel her veins pulsate underneath with a fast pace as Hitame's nail dig deeper into her flesh. She could feel the bruising it was creating fast and even the little drips of blood she had caused her. With a flash, Alice jabbed her knee into the girl's stomach and hoped that would get her enough time to get back on her feet again.

"It's no wonder everyone looked down on your father, and now why they do the same to you. You both are nothing. I don't even know how the other students could stand either one of you." Hitame spat at Alice, trying to calm herself down. This girl had no idea what she had just gotten herself into by taunting her. She didn't know anything about Hitame, which explained why she even taunted her in the first place by continuing to talk about her sister. Now, though, Hitame would teach her to keep her mouth shut, if she was ever near her.

What she did was so predictable though. Going for her stomach, oldest trick in the book. Hitame could see that coming and she immediately moved out of the way of her knee so she wouldn't get hit. Purposely leaving Alice with enough space for her to get up. "You really are stupid. You think I would fall for something as lame as a knee to the stomach? I've gotten into fights with better tactics than that." she laughed at the girl.

"It's obvious you wouldn't stand a chance against me in a physical fight like that, so how about I make it just slightly fair for you?" she asked raising an eyebrow. With a swift motion, her wand was out in her hand and she flicked it quickly. "Averte Statura!" she exclaimed, watching the spell speed toward Alice. Her eyes then quickly fell upon the other girls who were still standing there, not even helping their so called "friend". "I suggest you all leave before I take this out on you too." she hissed at them, her narrowed eyes seeming to grow darker as she glared at them.

"You know ..." she started saying toward Alice, "I feel bad for you. I never thought this would be possible, but you are even more pathetic than your father was. At least he could actually fight, even if it was near the end of his school career. You, on the other hand, I don't think you could do anything anytime soon." she laughed coldly. Her eyes had turned completely dull and lifeless, it was like she was one of the undead. It was amazing how cold her facial features could become when she was mad.

Alice was hoping her knee kick would do some damage but it didn't. However, she was back up on her feet, which was an improvement. Her lack of experience in duels or in fighting was very obvious, but she wasn't going to give up any time soon. Seeing Hitame pull out her wand, she took hers out of her pocket as well. Now this was the kind of fighting she was better at.

Before she could say anything or even cast a spell, Hitame's hex came flying towards her. It hit her right in the chest and it pushed Alice flying backwards until she collided into a nearby wall. She fell on the ground as the pain spread quickly throughout her body. She never felt anything like this before. Her arms and back were flaming red and she could feel the bruises growing quickly. Moving almost seemed impossible at this moment. She was breathless and weak. But even so, she couldn't let herself just quit.

"You think I care what you think? I might not be experienced in this as you, but that will only make you look a lot worse when I beat you. I am my father's daughter, and I intend to prove it right now. This is what it means to be a Longbottom" said Alice with anger in her voice. She was so sick of this girl, she couldn't let her win. She used all of her strength and concentration in this next spell, as she wanted to see the girl go down. No one talks like that about her and her family and gets away with it.

"Expulso!" shouted Alice with her wand pointed at Hitame. She watched carefully as her spell came rushing towards her target. She was powerful and accurate this time, she couldn't fail. It just wasn't an option anymore. She slowly but surely pushed herself up on her feet. It was probably the most painful thing she has ever done. Even just standing brought her excruciating pain, but she kept reminding herself that now was not the time to quit.

((It doesn't say closed...))

If there was one thing Liesl Dolohov was, it was a terrible gossip. That is, she was a gossip, and since gossip was generally considered a bad thing, people said she was a terrible one. When it came to gossiping... well, she had it down to a fine art.

She didn't exactly gossip with Alice Longbottom, though. The other girl was the daughter of one of the men who had tried to hunt down Liesl's daddy and put him in gaol forever. They weren't destined to be friends. But it didn't stop Liesl eaves dropping on the other girl and by god, the stock shone through. Longbottom was a perfectly respectable pureblood name and right now, Alice was acting like a perfectly respectable pureblood. Rubbing other people's names in the mud before promptly hexing them to hell and back.

Unfortunately, Liesl was also Head Girl, and that meant she was kind of obliged to do something about students having fights right in the middle of the courtyard.

"Protego," she said, flicking her wand toward Higurashi.

Liesl had learnt from the one time she'd met an actual Death Eater that often, a commanding tone could get more done than mere shouting would ever achieve. That, and they hadn't expected any intervention, obviously.

"No duelling in the corridors," she reminded them of the flimsy rule they were breaking, kind of.