Uniform. Study break.

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The day before the Slytherin/Hufflepuff game was completely and utterly annoying. People were much too excited for a bloody game. Then again, Murphy planned on going in case someone started bleeding or if she could possibly get a bloody chunk of hair or a finger to take home as a souvenir. Murphy was too afraid to play Quidditch, but she secretly enjoyed watching it. She wouldn't cheer for any teams, but she liked to watch. She generally watch from afar, however, with a lunch and a camera and a pair of binoculars. She knew she couldn't get a sample from so far away, but she could hope. One never knew with those games.

It was Slytherin and Hufflepuff, anyway. If Slytherin didn't beat the crap out of Hufflepuff during the game, they would afterward. No matter what. Even the bigger blokes like Dion Fayette and Razzy Chancelier stood no match to the hyped up, steroid-filled Slytherins and their rather sturdy looking brooms. Murphy knew. She once watched a few Slytherins beat up a Gryffindor after one game. She took pictures, of course.

But other than that. Murphy was getting sick of people talking about it. She didn't care who was going to win. She didn't care if Hufflepuff was short a player. She wanted to see someone's guts sprawled out. Was that so much to ask? Well, yes... It was... But Murphy still didn't care about the game.

And much like the violence she was surely to see during and after the game, Slytherins were already roughing up innocent Hufflepuffs in the hallways. Murphy helped out a few of them, but mostly walked right past, as she had no business with them. She felt a bit bad for leaving the innocent victims, but she usually had places to go. Such as class. Lord knew what Storm did to late comers. Murphy usually didn't mind it when people fought. But there was a difference between fighting and bullying. And Murphy knew what it felt like to be bullied... Boy, did she know...

Not much to her surprise, she stumbled across a victim as she strolled along to the library. It was too late to defend them, but they had thick bruises lining their cheekbones. Murphy frowned and stopped herself. It was a Slytherin, which was actually a bit surprising. But Murphy simply saw them as another victim. "You alright?" She asked, helping them up to their feet. They simply stared at her, shorter than her and much more pudgy than her. "You're a girl?" they responded.

Because of that, Murphy quickly snapped a picture of their beaten face. They complained loudly and asked her to get rid of it. But she simply shrugged and said, "I'll think about it." They continued to whine at her, but Murphy was more concentrated on the ugly witch statue that stood behind them. Murphy liked that statue. And she was lucky enough to have its hump in the shot she had just took. Now that was art.

"Sorry, yeah? But I'm keeping it," she responded finally, "Your face looks horrendously gorgeous. You should be lucky to have that beauty."

"But I'm a guy,"

"Yeah, I know," Murphy shifted uneasily. Men were lucky. They were never called "gorgeous." She wanted that freedom. She lifted her camera, threatening to take another picture. They got the message and ran off. She stood, alone, staring up at the statue. She wondered how well she could sculpt...

Uniform

Hogwarts was exceptionally noisy for a Thursday.  All sorts of hype over one Quidditch game.  It was annoying for Aiden.  He didn’t particularly enjoy having people he had hardly ever talked to before asking him who he thought would win the match.  The strangers, seeing as Aiden was a Slytherin, assumed that he would respond in favor of his own house.  However, they were to be disappointed when Aiden shot them a look of irritation while shoving his way past them without an answer.  No, he really did not care who one or lost the game.  He really did not care for the game being held the next day at all.  It wasn’t that he didn’t like Quidditch.  Aiden was a fan of sports, but his view on sports was a bit different.  He valued sports for the physical activity, technique, and skills required rather than the competition.  Yes, he would most likely end up going to the game, but it wouldn’t be to cheer for Slytherin or Hufflepuff.  It would be to watch the players... their plays, and skill.

Also, there really was no point in Aiden getting hyped up about a game.  He had other things he needed to focus on, like his school work.  The boy’s grades had been quite average.  Any other parent would probably be happy to know their child was making the marks Aiden was, but Aiden didn’t exactly have any other parent.  He had his overbearing father who was never pleased with anything that his son did because it could always be better.  This time around Aiden was working to perfect his grades on the threat of being locked up in a single room with a tutor the entire summer holiday.  Knowing his father never lied, Aiden had increased his study efforts but did so grudgingly.  Maybe another reason Hogwarts seemed to annoy Aiden that particular day was because he was jealous of how carefree and excited most of the students seemed to be?  It wasn’t fair.

Hands in his pockets, Aiden walked up the stairs to the third floor.  He was taking his time heading up to the library.  What was the point in rushing?  The only things that awaited him there were the endless hours of school work and studying he would have to do.  On the plus side, though, at least it didn’t seem the place would be too crowded.  Everyone else had the game on their mind.  The library would be the last place they would want to be.

The sound of a camera woke Aiden up from his thoughts.  He looked down the corridor and noticed an all too familiar boyish-looking Gryffindor with a younger student.  The corner of Aiden’s mouth lifted as he recognized Murphy.  It was odd that Aiden had been able to meet a Gryffindor he could actually tolerate.  But he had.  Murphy wasn’t quite like the others.  For one, she definitely didn’t act like any girl in Hogwarts Aiden had ever come across, which he liked because teenage girly girls were definitely a species of human Aiden never cared for.  Also, she really was a talented artist.  Aiden didn’t know anyone else who could make even the ugliest stone statue in Hogwarts look as interesting as she could in a photograph.  That was talent.

“Found a new subject to work with, have you?” Aiden mused as he walked up to Murphy, following her gaze up to the statue of the humpbacked witch.  “Very...unique.”