Neither Hannah nor Barbara were really sure if they wanted to confront Diana or not. One the one hand, she was not the kind of person who would typically groan and faceplant into her desk, so that was somewhat concerning to see. On the other, Diana wasn't exactly open to discussing her problems on a good day, and made it clear when she didn't want to be disturbed. She had a privacy wall up in their room for a reason. Hannah muttered arguments under her breath with Barbara, debating not only if they should disturb Diana's silence, but who would be the one to do it. If Diana was having a bad enough day to whack her head on her desk, Hannah didn't want to be on the receiving end of another lecture.
After the few minutes of internal debate, the conundrum was suddenly solved when Diana had pulled several large books off her shelves and proceeded to commandeer the entirety of the coffee table in the middle of the room. She splayed out the pages, cross-referencing from one book to the next, clearly already deep into her work from how little she acknowledged there being anyone else in the room. And since she wasn't behind her wall anymore, talking to her was fair game.
"So...uh, Diana?" Hannah asked. "Everything okay?"
"Everything is okay, yes." She said, not looking up from her books.
"Ah, you're…sure?" Barbara piped up. "You seemed…upset when you came in."
"Did I? Hmm." Diana's brows furrowed, and…was she…blushing? Her?
They waited for Diana to expand on that, or offer them anything at all to work off of, but she seemed too engrossed in her books. There was a considerable silence in the room, only broken by Diana occasionally flipping through pages rapidly as she scoured through her books. Diana was usually a hard worker, but in Hannah's experience this was not her typical behavior. She didn't usually just ignore her two teammates standing awkwardly at the foot of her table. Barbara looked to Hannah, as though she had the answers, and could only give a helpless shrug in response.
"Eh…what are you working on, then?" Barbara prompted again. "Is it homework, or…?" Diana, who had been running her fingers along lines of text in one of her books, didn't look up but did suddenly pause for a moment. With an almost unnoticeable shake of her head, she resumed her work.
"It's nothing, girls. There's no need to concern yourselves." Perhaps they should respect her wishes and let her be, but Hannah didn't feel satisfied with that. Something was clearly going on, and she wasn't going to leave her friend in distress. Besides that, she wanted to try the new tea she bought and there was no longer any room on the coffee table for her to sit and drink it as she liked to.
Shooting a quick glance to Barbara, Hannah stepped up to the table. "Well, we're your teammates, you know? So if you need help with anything, you can just ask us."
Barbara came to her side at the table as well, smiling encouragingly at Diana. "You've helped us out a lot, so if there's anything we can do, just let us know!" That had been enough to divert her attention from whatever she had been working on. Diana seemed stunned for a moment at her friend's solidarity. She glanced back and forth between them and her books, the concentration clear on her face. With an audible sigh, she finally turned and looked her teammates in the eyes.
"I…I need you two to keep this secret for me, if you could, please?" Diana asked them. Hannah did her best to hide her shock. Diana had never asked them to keep secrets for her before. Diana never acted like she had secrets for them to keep. Now she was even more concerned at what exactly had happened to their friend. Never the less, she and Barbara nodded their heads solemnly. If Diana needed their help, she could trust them.
"I mean it. This is…" Diana trailed off. When did she ever trail off? "T-this can't leave this room. This is not something I'm…comfortable with having anyone know. I need you to promise me you'll keep it confidential."
"Diana…" Hannah sighed. "I don't really get it, but yeah, of course we promise. We won't tell anyone."
Barbara made a show of crossing her heart with a finger. "Not a soul. You can trust us completely, Diana."
Seeing their agreement brought a rare smile to Diana's face. But even then, she seemed to debate with herself whether or not to tell them. After a moment, and a small, calming breath, Diana steeled her gaze. There was no denying now that Diana's cheeks were definitely red. Hannah had never seen her so out of sorts. She couldn't imagine what had happened to Diana to get her so frazzled. As Diana opened her mouth, Hannah's mind ran wild with what could've possibly happened to their teammate.
"I'm researching how to perform an amnesia spell."
"…You're what, now?"
"An amnesia spell." Diana explained. "It's a forbidden spell that allows one to tamper with memories and erase them, and I'm currently attempting to find a way to learn the steps to perform it. As such, I…need you to not tell anyone of this."
Hannah tried to form a response. She really did. Glancing over her shoulder for help, Barbara seemed to be in the same boat as her. Diana didn't seem all that perturbed by their silence, and returned to her books with confidence as she continued to lay out her plan.
"Now, for obvious ethical reasons, witches are not allowed to use this spell on someone without very special permission, and a student knowing it is breaking a very large number of rules. I would never condone this normally, but I believe drastic measures may have become necessary." Never in her life would Hannah have believed Diana would ask her for help to break not only school rules, but potentially the actual magic law.
"Diana, you're trying to brainwash someone?!"
"What?" She looked up in confusion, before her expression fell to a very serious gaze. "No! Of course not! Obviously I only plan to use this responsibly. I'm just erasing some short term memories. Just…ten minutes' worth, maybe fifteen. A half-hour at the maximum." Hannah wondered if this was meant to be reassuring to them.
"Is there a…particular person you're trying to brainwash?"
"It's not brainwashing, Barbara. I'm merely…correcting a…social faux pas, as it were. Now, I believe these books may give me a start on where to look, but I doubt such a spell would simply be written out for all to see, so I will likely have to find a way to access Luna Nova's archives." Diana stood and began pacing, her finger tapping her chin. "I can most likely secure permission for some materials, but even with my privileges, no professor would directly approve of what I'm doing…hmm."
"Wow, Diana," Hannah interrupted, (and frankly, someone had to). "This is…really not like you."
"What did you do that was so bad you need to erase someone's memories?" Barbara asked.
"As I said, I'm correcting a faux pas." Hannah ran the phrase through her mind for a second, to translate its meaning from Diana's extensive vocabulary.
"Sooo, wait," she said, having deciphered Diana's intentions. "You're trying to brainwash someone because you said something embarrassing? Isn't that a bit…?" She couldn't really choose a word that felt appropriate, but Diana didn't wait for her to think much, giving an annoyed roll of her eyes.
"Again with this phrasing? I thought I made it clear that I am not brainwashing anyone. The only memory I'm changing is when I told them of a crush I had." Suddenly, Diana froze in place, quickly looking to her teammates, as if hoping they hadn't heard her.
They heard her.
"Oh my god! You confessed to someone!? Really?" Hannah couldn't hope to keep the excitement from her voice.
Diana actually growled in frustration. "I just can't seem to speak today…"
"You gotta tell us everything!"
"No," Diana said seriously, "I do not have to tell you everything. You promised to keep this secret, girls."
"Aww, come on!" Hannah complained. "If we don't know what's going on, how can we help you?" Diana was not moved by her argument.
"We can discuss this without needing proper nouns."
"That'd be weird just talking about someone without even knowing who they are. I can't just agree to scrub someone's brain if I don't even know who it is!"
"Girls." The warning in the tone was made very clear.
"I mean, you don't have to tell us their name exactly! We can uh…" The fact that she was backing off on such good gossip was a sign of Hannah's love and respect for her dear friend. It was unrelated to knowing she was planning to wipe people's minds.
"Let's just…use a random name! So we can talk about it!" Barbara jumped in to her rescue. "Like, someone hypothetically. Someone you'd definitely never wanna date. Like…Akko!"
Diana coughed.
"Hee hee, yeah!" Hannah laughed, playing along. "It's not like you'd ever go for her. She's totally un-date-able! The worst! I can't imagine what someone wou-"
"Anyway!" Barbara (rudely) cut her off. "So let's say the person you confessed to was Akko. Tell us everything you said to her, Diana!"
"…Sure." Diana said hesitantly. "Hypothetically, I was talking to…Akko, and I had been thinking about my feelings for this person. Akko in this case. As it were. As I was thinking, she was asking me what was wrong, and I…told her I had a crush by accident. I had said to…her that having a crush on her was inconveniencing me." Barbara nodded along as Diana told her story.
"So you confessed to hypothetical Akko, by accident, by saying that you thinking she was cute was a huge burden on you." Hannah was so glad Barbara was taking the lead on this. It was hard enough to be on the sidelines for it. If she had been the one doing the talking, she definitely would've laughed by now, and that would've made things worse. Maybe that dumb romance book Barbara liked had something like this and she was too used to find it funny.
Diana didn't look to find it all that funny either, though she never really found anything all that funny. "That was not how I worded it," Diana defended herself. "But in essence…yes. Hypothetical Akko asked me what was wrong, and I said that having a crush on her was inconveniencing me. Once I realized what had happened, I left."
"And you jumped immediately to giving her amnesia." Barbara said flatly.
Diana just waved her hand dismissively. "Not immediately, of course. It took me several moments to remember that I had heard rumors of a spell that could erase memories. Once I did, however, I decided the best course of action would be to make sure no one remembers such a conversation ever occurred. Hypothetical Akko isn't burdened with my feelings, I move past this childish crush, and we're all spared my haphazard confession." Diana looked quite proud of herself for coming up with what she thought was a very efficient solution. "Once I learn this spell, everything shall return to how it should be."
Hannah and Barbara shared a look that was gently described as being…concerned. Diana, who normally lectured others on ethics and morals, really did not seem to grasp what was at stake here with what was loosely described as being a plan. Hannah figured that with everything that had happened to her recently, some things would change, but this seemed like a total reversal of her behavior, and not in any good way. The conversation suddenly seemed a lot less funny. Hannah turned back to Diana and asked the burning question on her mind.
"But, are you really comfortable with messing with hypothetical Akko's mind like that?"
Diana blinked at the question, obviously unprepared to answer. "I…"
"Like, you said yourself." Barbara spoke up. "The amnesia spell is forbidden for a reason. Is that something you really want to do, especially to someone you love?" Diana's cheeks flared red at the word and she hastily tried to cover it up.
"L-love may be too strong of a word here! It's just…an infatuation, most likely."
"Diana, that's not the point."
"The point was to correct a miscommunication. There's no need to spread more."
"Diana."
Hannah jumped back into the conversation. "Could you really live with yourself knowing you did this to her? Poked around in her head and just delete memories you didn't like? You don't see how messed up that is?"
"T-that's not…" Diana sputtered. "I wasn't planning to…!"
Realization finally set on Diana's face, and her eyes widened in horror as the implications of what she had just been preparing to do set in. Diana rested her head on her hand, suddenly looking incredibly guilty.
"I...I can't believe what I was thinking. How could I ever look at myself again knowing I did that?" Diana said. "H-how could I do that to hypothetical Akko?"
Barbara reached out and gave Diana's slumped shoulder a small squeeze. "I don't think you'd want to do that to anyone, Diana."
"Even you're not that mean!" Hannah teased. Barbara shot a quick glare for that, but Diana at least smiled at it. She let out a sigh, and smiled in gratitude towards the two of them.
"Thank you for that. You're…you're right. You both are. I wasn't thinking clearly. It's been a…trying day. I just…it seemed like the easiest solution at the time. I couldn't think of any other way out…how else to fix this…"
"You could talk to her?" Hannah offered. Diana just crossed her arms at that. Barbara rolled her eyes.
"Well, it's that, or just avoid her for the rest of the year." Diana raises a brow, and began to tap her chin in thought.
"…I am ahead in most of my studies. Perhaps I could just retire to my estate for the rest of the year."
Hannah gaped at her for a second before failing to hold in a frustrated groan. This had gone on long enough in her opinion. She did her best to imitate Diana's typical scolding posture. "That is definitely not proper witch behavior Diana. You need to be more responsible." Diana seemed taken aback at being on the other side of a lecture. "You obviously can't just quit school again. And uh, brainwashing, or invisibility spells or whatever aren't a good solution and you know it. You always make sure everyone keeps on their best behavior, so now you gotta follow your own rules this time and solve this problem responsibly! So you, uh…"
How did Diana do this all the time? Thinking of words was hard. "You…need to be responsible and just talk to her, without erasing anyone's mind. You gotta clear this misunderstanding up in person."
There was another long silence that hung over the room. Diana stared at Hannah for a moment, before glancing down at the table once more. She seemed deep in thought, running her hands through her hair. Hannah had just internally complimented her for her ability to think of things to say, and now she seemed to be trying to avoid it as much as possible.
"I…suppose if there's no alternative, then…" Diana finally said, with great reluctance.
"Come on, Diana. It's not that bad." Barbara reassured her.
Hannah smiled. "No matter how it goes, it'll still be better than, you know, brainwashing."
"It wasn't-!" Diana started, but quickly thought better of it. "…Never mind. I already regret quite a few of my choices today, but I suppose I'd regret that choice for the rest of my life." With another small bit of hesitation, Diana stood up from the table at last and made her way to the door. Her fingers wrapped around the door knob, and she took a deep breath.
"And I'm really hoping that I won't regret doing…whatever this will be." She turned to her teammates one last time. "Thanks again, Hannah, Barbara. I'm going to go…speak words. With Ak-...hypothetical Akko."
Hannah didn't want to ruin the moment by rolling her eyes. She instead waved Diana out and wished her good luck. "Go get her, Diana." With that, Diana left the room, more flustered than when she had come in, but with any luck, in a better mood as well. And less likely to brainwash someone, which was always a plus as far as Hannah was concerned.
"You know," Barbara muttered to her remaining roommate, "you laid it on sorta thick there with how much Akko is the worst."
"What?"
"At the start of it. Un-date-able? Really? That's not even a word."
Hannah, undeterred, jumped to defend herself. "Look, can you blame me? If I have to listen to one more spiel about 'how my totally platonic friend Akko is really amazing' or 'how Akko is so confusing to me sometimes but not in a bad way,' I am going to lose it."
"Do you really think them getting together will make that go away?"
"No, but she'll spend more time over there, which means Lotte and Sucy will get stuck with it instead of us." Which, okay, was perhaps not the most noble of motivations, but as far as Hannah was concerned, Barbara would thank her when they could finally go a night without hearing their daily dose of "Akko makes me feel emotions" prattle.
Diana was great and all, and Hannah had nothing but good wishes for her, but some people really needed to get out more.
(So the roles being reversed wasn't just "Akko is popular, Diana is not." Now Diana is the one who...something something Mayeneb Dysheebudo or whatever. Hannah and Barbara get to take Lotte and Sucy's roles, but I don't think Hannah is being entirely selfless here.
I don't usually find my writing all that funny ever, but Diana being like, what, 15 or 16 and saying "I'll just retire to my estate" is really amusing to me.
As an aside, "social faux pas" is an oxymoron, because "faux pas" implies a social situation. Left it this way because I like Diana using more words than she ought to.
...As an additional aside, there was an alternate ending to the last chapter after Diana says "huh" where instead of just calmly walking away, she full on booked it away from Akko. It was only funnier because it was too OOC for even this. So see? I do pretend to care about canon!)