Name: Sally-Anne Lynette Perks
Date of Birth: November 17, 1980
Appearance: dark brown hair, grey eyes, glasses (in first and second years), once had blonde hair and blue-grey eyes during a potions experiment
House: Gryffindor
Family: two brothers, Graeme (16) and Corey (20)
Specialities: major Potions, minor Herbology and DADA
Likes: her brothers, Snape, her room at Hogwarts (not the people in it), chilli, swimming early in the morning
Dislikes: her parents, her housemates, classes she can't understand, Voldemort (and people who can't say his name for fear of it), close-minded people
Blood: pure
What we know about him/her: She was sorted just before Harry, but doesn't show up in book 5 during OWL time (check and see! It's weird!)
The Story of Sally-Anne Perks
In Sally-Anne's first year, she was sorted in Gryffindor... but nobody took any notice, because right after her was THE Harry Potter. She began an immediate grudge of the messy haired boy right then and there.
She was suspended three times; once for something she didn't do; once for being in the wrong place at the wrong time; and lastly, because she truly didn't care about her attitude towards the teachers anymore.
At Hogwarts, when you're suspended – an extreme measure, taken only when the student is asked to leave the school, and they plead for a second chance – you are locked in a room in your House Chambers, and left there all day, every day. You get fed pretty well, and have the companionship of the occasional ghost or person-in-a-portrait.
Sally got pretty well acquainted with the portraits in the Gryffindor Suspension Room during her time at Hogwarts.
The one time Sal was praised by her teachers, or even noticed aside from the times when she got suspended or got a detention, was when she scored twenty points for Gryffindor for tied-topping the class in Potions. Snape had been surprised at her success, and had awarded the points as a reward.
She was the only Gryffindor who really took to Snape. She liked him – he was fair, in a twisted way. Yes, he favoured the Slytherins... but only because he thought that was the right thing to do. He had no reservations about giving praise where it was due.
Sal was hopeless at flying – could barely mount her broom. Not much better at Charms and Transfiguration. Astronomy she fell asleep in, as in History of Magic (but the latter was expected). Herbology was another subject she did slightly better than usual in, as well as Defence Against the Dark Arts.
About Sal's home life... it wasn't much better than her school life. One of the main reasons she got suspended instead of expelled was the fact that her parents were going through a nasty divorce – her mother had been caught cheating on her father with a man twelve years her younger.
Sal had two older brothers, Graeme and Corey. Graeme was a prefect, in his sixth year. Corey was a second-year apprentice in the wand-making business. They both adored their little sister, and Sal and Graeme stayed with Corey in the holidays, instead of going 'home' to their parents.
The year passed uneventfully, as Sal thought all would. Apart from a few things (the suspensions, holidays, and some strange occurrences at mealtimes) not much happened to or around her.
But the summer holidays were fast approaching... Sally and Graeme had to, by wizarding law, spend at least a week with their parents, renewing the blood-tie between them (a special pure-blood family ritual). Corey was 'old enough and ugly enough to look after himself' as the saying went. After the blood-tie ritual was completed, Graeme and Sal escaped the hell-hole of 8 Privet Drive, and Corey welcomed them into his apartment.
Then Sally's second year, and Graeme's seventh, rolled around. They rushed around, got everything they needed and, on September the First, Corey shepherded them onto the Express just on time – right before the Weasleys went through the barrier.
The siblings separated once they got on the carriage – Graeme had gotten Head Boy that year and was allowed to sit in the first carriage. Sally sat around the middle of the train, with the well-known troublemakers, the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan. She scored herself a couple of good pranks to play on the girls in her dorm – also a few tid-bits about secret passages around and out of the school.
The first term passed by rather uneventfully – she hated Lockhart, and didn't pay one scrap of attention in his class (pretty unusual, eh?). Harry Potter's spectacle was known to her, but not interesting – she preferred to stick to herself. Once or twice she sat with the other eleven-and-twelve year olds in her year to find out some gossip; and though it was mildly interesting ('Harry Potter is Salazar Slytherin's heir!' He's going to kill all the muggle-borns!' 'Poor Justin... wonder who's next?'), it was nothing to write home about. As she was a pure-blood, she figured she had nothing to worry about.
Christmas holidays came and went; poor Hermione Granger was Petrified. The dorm seemed quiet at night without her habit of spouting random facts in her sleep ('The ban on witchcraft in NSW, Australia was lifted in 1969...' or 'Wingardium Leviosa: swish and flick...').
The team lost the Quidditch Cup... again. The 'great' Harry Potter lost a Quidditch match – against Hufflepuff, for Merlin's sake! Sal got another suspension (she was good at weaselling her way out of expulsions) and a month of detention – all for one little prank! Well, she earned the twins' and Lee's respect, so it was worth it.
Gryffindor won the House Cup: yet again, thanks to Harry Potter and his band. The term then ended in June (with Lockhart gone, thank Merlin!). Sally-Anne and Graeme left the school, for the last time together, and met Corey at the huge, dirty, crowded King's Cross. The three took the District train line to Richmond, and the bus to Little Whinging. Sally-Anne performed the blood-tie ritual with her parents – which took three days – then all three left.
During these particular holidays, Sally's brothers took her all around London, sight-seeing. Her parents had never done that with her, always preferring to stay home or go to the zoo for her birthday, or something. They went to Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Greenwich, the Moulin Rouge, the London Eye, Hampton Court Palace and to see a play in the West End, among many other things.
But finally, it was time for Sally's third year. She had chosen Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Witchcrafts as her electives for the next three years. Ancient Witchcrafts, which I'm sure many of you have never heard of, studies many different forms of magic and magick (natural spells and remedies) in all cultures; Celtic, Italian, Native American etc.
When Draco Malfoy broke his arm in COMC, Sally laughed so hard she thought her ribs would break. She didn't like the arrogant prick too much. He was the first one to point out that she was practically invisible to everyone else – she punched him for that.
Sadly, Graeme got into a street fight between two wizarding gangs, and was put into St. Mungo's with a coma. He didn't recover, and died on New Years' Eve. Sally withdrew even further into herself, pushing away all efforts of friendship exuded by the twins and Lee Jordan. But, so long as she had Corey, and she didn't have to go back to her parents, she didn't become fully depressed.
The Sirius Black scare didn't stop Sally from going to Hogsmeade every time she could. It was a relief to get out of the school, even for a day. Sometimes Corey stopped by to visit her on those days as well.
Sally got chicken pox three weeks from the end of the Easter term and so missed the excitement that came with the teachers beginning to pile on loads of work during classes and for homework. Someone made sure to bring it to her in the hospital wing, so she didn't miss out completely.
Then when she got back to her classes the next term and finished the year, finally beginning to get on with her classmates after becoming a near expert on what had happened the night that Sirius Black escaped and Harry Potter once again catapulted himself into rumour and legend.
The end of the term approached, Sally passed her exams with average-to-good marks in every subject after working hard to catch up what she missed. She was as disappointed as everyone else to see Professor Lupin leave – she had liked him much more than either Quirrell or Lockhart. She wondered briefly on who they might have last year, after overhearing her fellow Gryffindors speak about it over breakfast – she thought that Seamus' idea of a vampire was a bit far-fetched... but she admitted, it would be quite interesting.
The summer almost flew by – Corey bought a house in the countryside with approval from his little sister. They spent the summer flying around in their nature-made Quidditch pitch; a large clearing in the nearby forest. They had been going to go to the World Cup, but Corey hadn't been able to raise enough money in time, and Sally had assured him it didn't really matter.
Fourth year began in an uneventful fashion. The other two schools arrived at Halloween – quite a surprise for those who had no inkling anything was happening. She wasn't too disappointed that Quidditch was cancelled – the three tasks sounded to be enough entertainment. She didn't see what the fuss was about over Viktor Krum – he was a great Quidditch player, but so what? He wasn't really that cute...
The first task was quite interesting – she hated to admit it, but Harry was very creative in using his flying skills against the dragon. Though to be fair, Krum was also quite inventive – though it was widely known that a dragon's weakest place was its eyes.
That Rita Skeeter woman was awful, Sally agreed with the three people she had made 'friends' with; Zacharias Smith, Hufflepuff, Daphne Greengrass, Ravenclaw and Blaise Zabini, who was in Slytherin. Those four were the living proof that they could overcome their House stereotypes and become friends.
Anyway, back to Rita. Her articles were thoroughly obnoxious, and obviously untrue – she had interviews with Malfoy, for Merlin's sake! Her coverage of the second task made the two girls gag, for she described Harry's performance as if it was the most selfish thing to do – bringing up the other little girl, instead of school pride.
The third task was by far the most interesting – the entire crowd had magical screens in which you could watch the contestant of your choice overcome the obstacles. Almost every screen was focussed on the Boy Who Lived. Only Hufflepuffs and teachers occasionally swapped to one of the other three. The Hufflepuffs were very loyal.
The four were absolutely shocked when Harry and Cedric disappeared from the maze, but they, like everyone else left behind, had to wait for them to return. And for one, heart-stopping moment, it seemed like they were both alive... but then Harry raised his tear-stained face and every screen focussed on Cedric. Well, except of course, for the screens of those down on the transformed Quidditch pitch assisting the Hogwarts champions.
"Bloody hell," was the quote most often uttered by the students during that night as the story of what had occurred in the Albanian graveyard (or so the rumours went) spread. "Poor Cedric," or "Poor Harry," were also quite popular.
Right near the end of the year, something happened in Core of Magical Creatures. Quite unknown to those who were involved with the Tasks, the class routine did continue, and 'accidents' happened. The most savage 'accident' was when a student who had recently travelled to Hawaii for a family holiday unsuspectingly brought a Lethifold with it.
The Lethifold suffocated one student (Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw, in Sally's year) to death, sadly. Three others, including Sally, were placed into a coma right near the end of the year. They all recovered after extensive attention from the staff at St. Mungo's. Sally, Ernie Macmillan and Morag MacDougal all donated large amounts – or as large as they could afford – to the fountain in the Ministry of Magic foyer.
The summer of Sally's fourth year was also spent quietly with her brother, and aside from a visit or two to the Ministry of Magic to see what Corey was working on, and attending Cedric Diggory's funeral, Sally stayed at home, practiced flying her broom and hitting things at the same time (she wanted to try out for Beater after the Weasley twins left), and read thick books to keep her occupied. Oh, and did homework... but that's boring.
Then fifth year began. Sally took an instant dislike to Umbridge, just like everyone else, and vowed not to pay one scrap of attention in her class. Fortunately, that was just fine – Umbo didn't notice when Sally began to read her own books instead of the stupid textbook, which she actually finished in three or four lessons.
She appreciated the fact that she was doing the same thing as most of the others in her classes – she was often far behind, or far ahead (like in Potions, but with her class, that wasn't hard).
A two-headed Runespoor was the most dangerous creature faced in Care of Magical Creatures that year by the class of 1991 (or 1998, if you look at it by graduation). It's middle head was missing (which is quite rare, it's usually the right head missing as Hermione Granger pointed out), as the other two had obviously gotten sick of dreaming and not doing.1
The Runespoor was the main reason Sally and Blaise missed out on quite a bit of schooling that year. The right (poisonous) head was suddenly spooked by something, and leapt out of the way of Hagrid, who was approaching it. Unfortunately, Sally and Blaise were the two students standing in its way – they had had to box it in to keep it from escaping. Actually getting a live specimen was a special allowance from the Burkina Faso Ministry of Magic, who are very protective of their special snake-like magical creature.
The two were put into a coma – this was getting slightly old for Sally – and woke up after three months. The people attending them at St. Mungo's were reluctant to allow them back to Hogwarts, at the risk of infection of the bites, and so made them do their work (and even their O.W.L's) by correspondence.2 As such, they missed most of the excitement of the year; including the wrap-up of the Hogwarts chapter of the legend of Fred and George; the DA; Malfoy's tirade about his father being put in Azkaban; Dumbledore's entire adventure with the Ministry, and finally, the students' reaction to Umbridge's regime.
However, Professor McGonagall filled them in on what had been happening as she swung by the magical hospital for her check-ups after the Stunning episode with those trying to capture Hagrid. She seemed almost gleeful when informing them about Umbridge leaving the school, which made them stare (as they had never seen her so happy). The Professor obviously really, really, really, really did NOT like Dolores Umbridge.
And at this time, July 16th 19953, Sally and Blaise are leaving St. Mungo's. Thank Merlin for that! I don't think I could have stood them for much longer – they are such troublemakers! Nothing like Fred and George Weasley, of course (I know how bad they are!), but still pretty bad! For hospital patients, at least.
And so I end this entry in my journal. I have had much fun recounting Sally-Anne Perks' Hogwarts life so far, but I am afraid I shall have to leave it here. I have to go and see my parents now.
Neville Longbottom.
1 This was an 'extended' lesson, one for only the students who wished to attend. You had to obtain special permission from the Head of your House before approaching Hagrid for joining the class.
2 This is my way of explaining why Sally's name wasn't called in the O.W.L roll-call just before Harry.
3 Heh, well... I needed to explain why I didn't have her sixth and seventh years... :D forgive me?