The shockwave from the hallway confrontation didn't end with the final bell of course.
It reverberated through the very gossip-sphere of Scholomance Athenaeum, mutating and amplifying with each retelling. The story of the "Elemental Prodigy and the Top-Tier Nerd" had become the only story circulating around.
By the next few days, it was inescapable. Whispers trailed them like perfume.
In the Alchemical Labs, two students hunched over a simmering cauldron. "—saw them by the west staircase," one hissed, stirring counter-clockwise with excessive vigor. "He was carrying her books. Carrying them. Not like, taking them to be mean. He had this... this look on his face."
"Was it the murder-look?" her partner asked, wide-eyed.
"No! That's the thing! It was the opposite of the murder-look! It was like... a 'I-will-murder-anyone-who-touches-these-books' look. It's different!"
