A/N: Thanks to my reviewers, I'm so glad I actually HAVE reviews!

charmedsisters: (First off, thanks for reviewing, like, every chapter.) If you'll recall in a chapter a while back when they were fighting the demon Pepper could FREEZE it and THROW THINGS at it (she got Prue's power when she died) and in the bookstore with Hermione she could DEFLECT the book. I haven't revealed her fourth power yet, but I will in time....

Stephanie: What makes you think Pepper and Malfoy are going to hook up? Though, it could happen...anything is possible in my mind :-)

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Chapter 8

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"Today's the day," Pepper announced to Harry, Ron and Hermione at breakfast on Friday. Her first week at Hogwarts was over and tomorrow was the day she was to meet with three of her teachers, Sunday she'd meet with three more and her free periods next week were filled with meeting the other professors.

"What day?" Ron asked, brandishing a piece of toast at Pepper.

"Don't tell me your actually going to do that, Pep," Hermione said.

"Yep," said Pepper. "I'm tired of watching, it's time he gets a taste of his own medicine."

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"She's making a peace offering with Malfoy," Hermione answered.

"Not exactly a peace offering," Pepper corrected, "I'm just going to go up to him and ask him what his problem is, see how it goes from there. I mean, he really has no logical reason to dislike anyone he does, so I want to see why he hates everyone."

"Cause he's Malfoy," Ron told her. "He doesn't really need a reason other than his father has power and he was raised to hate every that isn't...well...him."

"Too bad," Pepper said. She watched as Malfoy got up from the Slytherin table, (followed by Crabbe and Goyle with Pansy Parkinson attached to him), and exited the Great Hall. Pepper got up and followed a little farther behind him. Once she got out of the Great Hall, she figured she was all right to confront him. "Hey Malfoy," she called.

He stopped and turned around to face her. "What?" he scowled. "Come to ask me on a date, Halliwell?"

"You wish," Pepper said. "No, I was just wondering what your problem is."

"I don't have a problem, though you're going to have one in a minute if you don't back off." She saw Crabbe and Goyle crack their muscles threateningly.

"Sure, anyway, you do have a problem. I'd like to know why you hate everyone who's not Pureblood."

"She's just saying that to get you, Draco," Pansy Parkinson said. "Mudblood scum," she added to Pepper.

"For your information," Pepper said, "I'm Pureblood, not Muggle born, thank you very much. But, I wasn't talking to you I was talking to Malfoy. So, Malfoy, it was just a topic of interest to me why you have to be a rude bastard."

"Bitch," Malfoy muttered before turning on his heel and walking away.

"Fine! Be a coward then!" Pepper called after him, though she couldn't think of why he was a coward.

"That worked, didn't it?" said a familiar voice from behind her. Pepper whirled around to see Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny standing there.

"Well at least he learned I'm a Pureblood," Pepper said, shrugging.

"And that matters because...?" Ron asked.

"He won't have his arm growth calling me a Muggle born any more," Pepper answered, referring to Parkinson.

"Come on, we've got to get to Transfiguration," Hermione told them, rushing up the marble staircase in the entrance hall.

That night Harry took his Firebolt and his broom maintenance kit down to the common room to fix it up. Hermione was lounging in a chair finishing up a report due next week and Pepper and Ron were sitting in front of the fire, Ron teaching Pepper how to play Wizards Chess. Pepper jumped every time a chess piece smashed another piece. Ron kept laughing and then getting frustrated with her.

"She's not going to beat you anyway, Ron," Harry said, pulling out polishing supplies, "You're too good at chess."

"Well she could at least stop JUMPING!" Ron exclaimed as Pepper jumped again when his queen knocked out one of her pawns.

"Sorry," Pepper apologized, "It just surprises me every time. Ooh, Harry, that's your broom?" Pepper asked, suddenly seeing Harry's Firebolt.

"Yea," Harry answered. "It's a Firebolt. Second best broom on the market."

"Cool," Pepper said, abandoning the chess game and going over to sit next to Harry's broomstick on the floor.

"Hey," said Ron, "What about the game?"

"Does Quidditch start soon?" Pepper asked Harry, ignoring what Ron had said.

"I'm hoping practice will start soon, I think it's in three weeks or so," said Harry.

"Can I come to your practices, I'm interested to see how Quidditch works. I want to learn to fly, too."

"I can take you on my broom, after practice starts," Harry said. "Not alone, in case you're really bad and you crash and it breaks."

"Sounds good," Pepper said happily. "Now I'll finish the game Ron."

Saturday was a day that Pepper had been dreading and it came all too quickly. She woke up early and had to make her way through the castle alone, as her friends were still asleep. She found the entrance hall and exited the castle, heading towards Greenhouse 1 where she was to meet with Professor Sprout. She spent most of her morning there, the professor deciding she was well caught up but giving Pepper lots of work to do. Dragging her already heavy bag back into the castle she searched around for the Ancient Runes room.

Pepper found she was mostly caught up in that subject, too, though she got work to do. By then it was time for lunch so she made her way down to the Great Hall with her bag, which was bursting with work. She sat down heavily at the table where most of Gryffindor was already sitting.

"Where have you been?" Harry asked.

"Meeting with teachers," Pepper answered, piling her plate with food. "I've got lots more work to do now. They think I'm mostly caught up, though. Said I learn really fast. Gave me work to practice on, just in case. I was wondering if perhaps you'd give me a hand Hermione..."

"If you mean do some of it for you than, no, I will not," Hermione replied briskly.

"Nice try, Pepper, but we ask all the time. Hermione's not one for cheating," Ron told Pepper.

"It's not cheating, it's...okay, it's cheating," Pepper admitted. "But I already have a lot of work to do and – "

"And, you'll have to learn to get it all done," said Hermione.

"Fine," Pepper sighed. "I have two weeks to get my extra work done, anyway."

"Have you been to see Snape yet?" Harry asked. Pepper shook her head. "He'll probably give you a week, knowing him."

Pepper noticed Harry had been right about what Snape would do, he did indeed only give her one week to do the work, and he'd given her much more work than any of the other teachers had. She also found that Professor Snape quite enjoyed pairing her and Malfoy together in class. He did it every chance he got, which was a lot. She always thought of a smart-aleck comment, sometimes a flirtatious one, but Malfoy always came back with something or made her look bad in front of Snape. Ever since she'd said something to him about his attitude he'd been especially nasty to her. As hard as she tried, she just couldn't beat him, though she'd caught him off his guard a few times.

Pepper excelled quickly in her classes, competing against even Hermione, who was supposed to be the smartest witch in the school. Hermione became jealous, even after she and Pepper had spent numerous hours together, studying, reading and talking.

"I'm sorry if I'm making you jealous, Hermione, but it's not my fault if I'm good in class," Pepper said.

"I'm not jealous," Hermione answered huffily. "I just..."

"She's wondering how you got so ahead in class, when it took her six years to be this good," Ron finished for Hermione.

"Ron," Hermione said, offended. "I just-well, I guess I am jealous," Hermione finally admitted. Then she turned on her heel and walked back up to the dormitory.

"Good job, Pepper," Ron scowled, and followed Hermione. She heard him banging on the dormitory door.

Pepper sighed. She hadn't meant to make Hermione mad or jealous. She supposed she could just tone it down a little in classes...not raise her hand so much and get herself noticed...She really wanted to keep her friends.

The next day in Transfiguration when Professor McGonagall asked questions had come to expect Pepper to answer, Pepper didn't even raise her hand. She just stared down at her book, trying to look puzzled and pretending not to know the answer. Hermione's hand, however, shot up.

Throughout the whole class and for the rest of the day Pepper didn't answer a single question. Hermione did not say anything to Pepper until dinner, when she was too curious to hold it in any longer. "Pepper?" she said cautiously.

Pepper thought that Hermione, Ron and Harry had been avoiding her all day because they'd been pissed at her but the tone Hermione spoke in was careful. Pepper looked up at Hermione across the table. "Yes?" she asked emotionlessly.

"I was wondering why you haven't been answering questions in class today," Hermione said.

"I didn't know the answers," Pepper answered, looking down at her food; she wasn't very good at lying.

"Pepper, I know you knew the answers. And if you were just doing it so I would be your friend again, don't. It may take me a while to get over you being as good, maybe even better than me, but I will eventually. I think I'm still your friend...but...my jealously is getting in the way. I'll admit, it's making me mad, too. So even though I may be mad at you, keep being you and I'll tell you when I'm ready to accept I'm not the best anymore..." Hermione's words trailed off.

Pepper thought that Hermione was taking this a lot different than anyone else would. Hermione admitted what was wrong with her and what was getting in the way of their new friendship and she'd tell Pepper when she wasn't mad anymore...when she wasn't jealous. She told Pepper not to change, that Hermione would adjust.

Ron, however, kept glaring at Pepper between bites, like he'd been doing all day. Harry didn't seem to know what to do. Pepper knew he felt loyal to his old friends, and he was on their side, (of course he was, Pepper thought), but he kept looking at Pepper helplessly, as if he wanted to say something to her.

Briefly, Pepper wondered if this was the end of her friendship between her and Harry, Ron and Hermione, even though they'd only been friends for two and a half weeks. She didn't dwell on the thought long, though, she didn't want to think about it. It was too painful to even fathom. She decided to skip the rest of dinner to go do homework and then write a letter to her aunts.

A week hadn't cured Hermione's jealously. Pepper felt lonelier and lonelier as the days wore on. Every day when she let her mind wander her thoughts always drifted to the bedroom drawer at home where she kept her razor blade. She supposed that if she told the three of them she was thinking about doing, they'd be back to being her friends in a minute. They wouldn't be real friends, though, they'd still be mad at her. Actually, Pepper thought, I don't know if they'd do that...were they really that good of friends? Would they rush to her when they realized she was hurting herself? When they found out she was depressed?...Pepper shook the thought.

She kept getting those glances from Harry, and Ron seemed to get angrier each class when Pepper was still answering questions. Hermione just seemed to be avoiding Pepper, and hadn't said anything to her since the day she explained her feelings to Pepper.

The only people that didn't seem to be too mad were Neville Longbottom, who'd become a friend of Pepper's over the last three and a half weeks, Ron's sister Ginny, who would still talk to Pepper occasionally, and Luna Lovegood, who didn't seem very fazed at all by Pepper being smarter than Hermione.

Walking alone to Potions a couple days later, Pepper saw Ron approach her, breaking away from Harry and Hermione. He walked in front of her, cutting her off and making her stop. She looked him in the face, puzzled until she saw his face and ears were very red, almost the shade of his hair, and he looked pretty angry.

"Do you do that on purpose, just to embarrass Hermione?" He said loudly. She wasn't sure what he was talking about. They'd been giving her the silent treatment for a little over a week now, why bring it up today? "You answer all those questions, when she could answer them just as well. You don't even give her a chance! Trying to be the Professors' favorite, are you? Well you've succeeded! Are you happy now!" His voice grew with each word and Harry and Hermione finally reached the two of them – Pepper not saying a word, and Ron saying too many of them.

"Ron!" Hermione gasped. "It's not your problem!"

"Since you won't say anything, I will!" Ron shouted back at her. "She needs to be told this, don't you want to make her feel bad! After what she's DONE to you! You've been laughed at!" Hermione ducked her head.

That caught Pepper's attention. She didn't know Hermione was being laughed at. Though she supposed that made sense as Hermione had been the best witch in the school, (or so everyone said), for the past five years.

"I-I'm sorry, Hermione," Pepper stuttered. "I didn't know you were being made fun of."

"It doesn't..." Hermione began, but never finished. Pepper guessed she was going to say "It doesn't matter," but since it did matter she couldn't say it.

"It does matter, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do this," Pepper said, and walked off, tears pricking at her eyes, head down.

She didn't go to Potions, she wasn't sure she could deal with Malfoy's snide comments right now. She went up to Gryffindor Tower, past the common room and up to her dorm room. Not surprisingly, no one was anywhere around – they'd all be in Potions – so Pepper flopped down on her bed. She was beginning to wish she'd brought the contents of her desk drawer with her...but she'd been trying to wean herself from it. She rolled over and spotted Hermione's bed. Her Astronomy book was lying open, unfinished homework sprawled over the bedspread. And then Pepper's eyes landed upon something else - the compass Hermione used for measuring the distance between constellations. It was sitting there calling to her.

She stood up, going to the door and looking out into the hallway to make sure no one was there. From the doorway, she pointed her hand at the compass and by curling her fingers the compass flew towards her. She caught it in her hand and, holding the pencil between her fingers, twirled it around. Deciding her course of action she walked purposely towards the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and placed the compass on the marble counter. After pushing up the sleeves of her robe she picked up the compass once again.

Pepper's hand touched the cold metal tool to her exposed white flesh, pausing for a minute before she slid it along her forearm. A few more tears fell from her eyes but she didn't stop her movement until she heard a voice coming from close by.

"Pepper?" It was a familiar voice. Harry's. "Pepper, where were you in Potions?" She heard footsteps on the stone stairs leading to the girls' dorms.

Moving quickly, she wrapped her arm in toilet paper and pulled her robe back down over the wounds. Wiping the few stray tears from her face and splashing her face in cold water she walked out of the bathroom towards the calling voice. She threw the compass on Hermione's bed and exited the dorm. Pepper ran into Harry halfway through the hall, knocking both of them to the floor.

"Ow," Pepper moaned, moving her arm up to the back of her head before realizing her robe sleeve was coming up, revealing the toilet paper that was now stained with blood.

Harry pulled her up by her injured arm, causing her to recoil in pain. "What's wrong?" Harry asked. "Aren't you coming to lunch?"

Pepper felt a tear escape from her eye from the shooting pain in her arm. She lifted her hand to wipe her face when Harry noticed the bloody tissue on her arm. He knitted his eyebrows in confusion and got on his knees to be closer to Pepper.

"Is your arm alright?" he asked.

"Me and my arm are just fine," Pepper answered, getting to her feet and storming down the stairs and going to lunch.

Not wanting to face Harry when he came down after her she went over to the Ravenclaw table and sat next to Luna Lovegood. Luna barely acknowledged her presence; she just nodded towards Pepper as if to ask 'how are you' before turning back to her meal. Pepper sighed in relief when she saw Harry come down and sit at the Gryffindor table, not even looking for her. Pepper was scared that Harry might put the puzzle pieces together; the bloody tissue, her skipping Potions, the story she'd told him about cutting herself before... Then she wondered why Harry even came looking for her when he hadn't said more than five words to her in the past week and two days.

Was he trying to say Hermione was over her jealously? Or was he just worried about me, Pepper wondered. Either way, she liked the fact that someone still knew she was alive.

"They're still not talking to you," Luna suddenly said as a statement rather than a question.

"Actually, Harry just came looking for me because I wasn't in Potions," Pepper replied.

"I'm not sure why you really want that girl as a friend, but if you give her time she'll get over it. She can't stay mad at you forever," Luna told her, choosing to ignore Pepper's comment beforehand.

That night in the common room Pepper tried to avoid Harry by going up to the girls' dormitory, but he caught her before she could escape. "Pepper," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder as she was heading up the stairs. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Pepper turned around and went back down the stairs. "Yes?" she said, trying to sound innocent.

"About earlier today..." he began.

"Harry, I was wondering why you even talked to me earlier, and why you're doing it now," Pepper said before he could continue.

"I was worried about you," he said. "I was wondering where you were, since you weren't in Potions."

"I wasn't feeling too well," Pepper said. "I just came up here to rest. I had a headache and my stomach hurt, it's no big deal. Just forget about it and go back to not talking to me." She turned back around to go up the stairs again but Harry started talking again.

"Pepper," he said quietly, "I don't think it was just that. Why was your arm bloody then?"

"I scraped it, that's all," she said before going up to her dormitory and leaving Harry standing there, knowing it was more than that.