DISCLAIMER: I own nothing; JK Rowling rules and owns all. Even the names of the Ravenclaw girls are all taken from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. They were all mentioned at the sorting ceremony, except for Amelia Moon. The last name "Moon" was mentioned, but her first name and house were my own whim.
Chapter 1
Tiny rivulets of water streamed down Lisa's face, traced the outline of her nose, and dripped to the cold tiled floor. The warm water was refreshing and a shower was just what she had needed to calm down. The day's events had diminished her already bruised ego and she couldn't bear to think about it anymore.
She poured a dollop of fragrant shampoo into her palm and washed her long, curly brown hair. Scrubbing her fingertips vigorously over her scalp, she willed the ever churning gears in her mind to take a break for once.
As a Ravenclaw, her mind constantly dissected people, ideas, thoughts, and events with out asking Lisa's consent first. She willed her mind to empty, urged her thoughts to flow out of her ears and rush down the drain with the dirty water. She didn't want to think about what had happened any more, or ever again for that matter. Which meant, naturally, that the little movie screen in her mind's eye instantly kicked to life and began to remember with double the speed and double the clarity.
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"LISA!" The shrill shout pierced through the hubbub of the buzzing conversations that overwhelmed Platform 9 ¾. Recognizing the distinct voice of her best friend, Lisa turned toward the source of the sound a second too late. A she turned her head, a flash of black and gray hurtled at her out of no where and collided with Lisa's stomach.
Lisa let out an "Oomph!" from the impact and then returned Padma Patil's tight embrace with a grin. After a few seconds, the two almost sixth year Ravenclaws took a step back and beamed at each other.
"You marvelous, dollink, simply marvelous!" Padma gushed with a flap of the hand and a cheesy New York accent, stealing a line out of the American book series, Gossip Girl. Ever since the Patil's had taken a trip to the States, this had been a running inside joke. Padma drew her jokes from all kinds of sources and never failed to make Lisa laugh.
Giggling, the girls took hold of their trolleys and made their way toward the Hogwarts Express.
"So Paris treated you well, huh?" she continued with a suggestive nudge of her elbow into Lisa's ribcage. "You look really good, for real. Healthy and glowing and stuff."
Lisa rolled her eyes as the conductor helped them with their trunks. Lisa was really insecure about her appearance. Padma knew about her self-consciousness and had been on a mission to cure it since their first year. Six years later and her success had been minimal.
"No, seriously!" Padma assured Lisa as they settled into a compartment of the train. "You look -"
"Like a cow!" Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin sixth year, interrupted scathingly as she passed by their compartment. " If I were you, I'd be throwing up my lunch right now and then sprinting for the Slimfast." Pansy's cronies cracked up and Pansy looked smug as Lisa blushed crimson in shame. Ever since she overheard Padma and Lisa talking in their first year, Pansy had never given up the chance to torment Lisa about her size.
Loyal Padma came to the rescue, furiously jabbing her wand at the hysterical tormenters. "Listen up, you slimeball!" she shouted at Pansy, silencing the crew immediately. "You'd better stay away from my friend or I'm gonna -"
"Jinx me?" she scoffed, one eyebrow cocked skeptically. "You don't have the guts, Ravenclaw."
"Try me." Padma growled threateningly.
"I'd rather not waste my energy on a Mudblood and a Muggle lover," Pansy said condescendingly, smiling at both girls' cries of outrage. With a flamboyant swish of her robes, the Pureblood marched out of the compartment, friends snickering behind her.
Padma was shaking with rage. Her chocolate eyes were clouded with anger and repulsion and her face was bright red all the way up to her raven black hair line. "I can't believe her!" Padma stormed, pacing the small compartment. "What bullshit! She is the slimiest, greasiest, rudest little whor -"
She was cut off by the entrance of their two other Ravenclaw friends and roommates, Amelia Moon and Mandy Brocklehurst. Mandy was a tall and gangly blue-eyed blonde with a gaggle of freckles spattering her nose and cheeks. Even though her five foot eight frame was intimidating, Mandy had to be the gentlest person Lisa knew. Amelia was the shortest of the quartet, with a short brown ponytail and crackling green eyes. Tiny Amelia was no push over, fearless and stubborn as a mule.
Amelia cocked a dark eyebrow. "Please continue, Padma, I was deprived from listening to trash talk while spending the entire summer with my ancient grandparents."
"Sorry," Padma said sheepishly. "It's just that bi-, I mean that bum, Parkinson, completely insulted Lisa and I and we couldn't even retaliate!" Padma had regained her fury all over again.
"Shh, take a deep breath," Amelia ordered. "In…out…in…out. Good, now tell us what happened."
As Padma recounted the story, Lisa sat with her head buried in her hands. Mandy rubbed her back in small, soothing circles. Amelia inhaled a quick breath between her teeth when seething Padma finished. "That bitch," was all she could muster and she plopped down on the seat beside the distraught Lisa.
"Lisa, you know you aren't heavy. Mandy said rationally. Lisa sighed internally. She knew how this conversation was going to go; the four friends had covered this topic thousands of times.
"Yeah, Lis, you're perfect the way you are," Amelia assured her.
"We'd love you if you were the size of a hippo or the size of a chipmunk," Padma informed her. "And if you were the size of a chipmunk, we'd let you ride around in our pockets."
Where as such a comment would have provoked a smile, Lisa wasn't in the mood. "Parkinson is right and you know it," she said, her voice cracking. Her friends began to protest, but Lisa plowed on. She had started and now she couldn't seem to stop. "Open your eyes, guys! You're supposed to be smart. Look at it objectively; that's what you're good at, right?" she said harshly. "I'm a size eight, 140 pounds. I don't have your grace, Padma, or your waist, Mandy, or Amelia's beautiful eyes. I have brown eyes, brown hair, and a waist like a tree trunk. I'm sixteen and haven't been kissed, and this must be the reason why. I'm not mean. I'm not stupid. But apparently I'm fat." Tears started to parade down her face as she slammed the compartment door and ran to the bathroom, leaving her disappointed friends behind.
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Fresh tears leaked from Lisa's eyes and merged with the water that toppled out of the faucet above. She was ashamed of her actions, but had meant every word. Still, she couldn't bear to have rifts between her friends and herself and she had apologized profusely before dinner.
Dinner. Lisa shuddered as her mind flicked back to the opening banquet: Parkinson tripping her with a spell right under Snape's nose; the obnoxious moos coupled with peals of laughter that had erupted from the Slytherin table all night long; the pity in her friends' eyes and the knowing looks they shared with each other throughout the meal.
Lisa resolutely traced the bluish bruise on her arm where it had hit the base of a suit of armor during her fall. Her eyes traveled from her arm to her waist and her fingers prodded her belly. She was strong, that was for sure; eleven years of soccer had seen to that. Her parents were Muggles, and she played defense in a summer league near her home. Her soccer skills were the only thing she was proud of, alongside her intelligence. Her legs, arms, and abs were muscled and strong and she could take out anyone who came her way. She could sprint, although endurance wasn't high on her list of attributes, and she could kick a ball half way down the pitch. Best of all, she had a mean nutmeg.
Despite all of this, she still carried too many extra pounds. She tugged at the skin on her stomach and then sucked in; only then were her abs defined. With a sigh she let her stomach go back to normal. She hated the way she looked.
Turning the shower off, Lisa toweled dry and stepped into her coziest pajamas. Trotting into her dormitory, Lisa settled on her bed and prepared to unload her crammed trunk.
"Hey Lis!" Padma called from her four poster bed, interrupting her animated conversation with Mandy and Amelia. "Who's on your shirt?"
Halfway through taking up a poster of the Italian team above her bed, the shocked Lisa let it slither to the mattress. She stared at her friend incredulously. Sometimes she forgot that all her friends were brought up in the wizarding world and some of their questions were surprising.
"It's Elmo!" she cried, shocked to her very core. "From Sesame Street!"
"Oh, is that a street near where you live?" Mandy asked innocently.
Lisa covered her eyes with her hands and moaned. "No, no, no, it's a TV show!" And with that, she launched into a full blown explanation of Big Bird, Elmo, and Oscar the Grouch, her wide-eyed friends hanging on her every word. When she ended, she finished tacking up her poster, patiently waiting for her intrigued friends to process all of this news.
Mandy broke the silence. "I still don't get this whole soccer thing." Lisa groaned. So they were going to have this conversation again.
"Yeah," Amelia agreed. "They don't even move in that poster. How boring is that?"
"It's fun!" Lisa defended herself.
"Yeah, yeah, what ever you say, dollink." Lisa threw a pillow at Padma as the others laughed. Padma continued, "I think you're one of the only two people in this whole entire castle who has a poster of soccer people above your bed."
This was news to the group. "Who else has one?"
"Dean Thomas." This remark drew blank stares and Padma sighed. "You know, tall, dark, Gryffindor, extremely hot," she prompted.
"Oh!" Amelia squealed. "Now I know who you're talking about! Seamus Finnigan's friend, right?"
Padma nodded, and Lisa and Mandy realized who she was talking about, too. "How do you know he has soccer posters?" Mandy asked.
"My sister," Padma replied matter-of-factly. Her twin, Parvati, was a Gryffindor. "Ron Weasely and Harry Potter are in his dorm, and they told Hermione Granger, who is in my sister's dorm, and Parvati told me. Apparently he has two or three posters and he's supposed to be good, although I can't judge that."
"Whoa, Lisa, I think we just found your soul mate!" Her friends giggled as Lisa threw the second pillow of the night at Amelia.
"Amelia is so right!" Padma laughed, and Lisa glared at her. "No, take it as a compliment, dollink, he's some hot stuff!"
Everyone laughed and Padma put on a high pitched falsetto and continued, "Mmmmm, wouldn't I love to spread him on a cracker!"
Still laughing, Mandy added, "I don't know, I think Blaise Zabini is pretty good looking."
Padma mimed throwing up with very accurate sound affects as the other girls squealed in disgust. "Ew, Mandy!" Lisa cried, clutching the stitch in her side from laughter. "He's in Slytherin! And he's a pig, too."
"I never said he was nice," Mandy said sweetly. "He just has a nice ass." More laughter erupted as Amelia countered Mandy's comment with, "Yeah, but not once as nice as the Weasely twins! Boy, did they grow up well…."
Most of the night continued on in this manner. Lisa went to bed feeling content, and for once her mind was at rest.