Author's Note: I am so sorry that I have been away for so long. There have be a whole lot of issues with my life such as illness and work related. However, my husband working a really nice job now, so I can work on stuff more since I will be a stay at home wife. Comments are always welcome and please, do enjoy.
I sighed with frustration as I scratched out the answer on my Charms test and replaced it with a better answer for the fourth time in this test. It shouldn't be this hard, I thought as I read over another question. Professor Flitwick wanted to see where our level of work was before the O.W.L.s so he could work on what he thought we needed to cover more in depth. Since I failed the practical portion of his test, with hilarious results according to Albus, I wanted to make sure that my written portion was amazing to make up for it. Albus had already handed his test in and was waiting outside for me to finish along with the other members of the class that were taking a longer time than most.
"Only fifteen minutes left," Professor Flitwick warbled from his desk at the front of the room. I muttered a curse and started to write faster, most of what I was writing not really legible to anyone but myself and maybe Fred who demonstrated an uncanny ability to decipher any handwriting whatsoever. It seemed like only seconds had passed by the time I got to the last question and scribbled down an answer just as Flitwick said it was time to pass in the papers. I handed it over and dragged my feet out of the classroom.
"I am sure that you did just fine," Albus chuckled when he saw the look on my face. "You are amazing at the information part of Charms."
"But I want to be able to do it!" I whined.
"You are getting better," Albus told me as we headed toward the Great Hall. "I mean, you haven't broken a table in days."
"Thanks," I drawled. It was frustrating that I could brew N.E.W.T. level potions without even trying, but the simplest enlargement spell gives me problems. The lumination charm actually set Professor Flitwick's desk on fire. The Ravenclaws were constantly making snide remarks about how it was perhaps a good thing I hadn't been placed in their house after all since I couldn't seem to master such simple spells.
"HEY! EMMY!" I heard Ed yell. I tilted my head back and saw him leaning over one of the bannisters two floors up. "Wait for me a minute! I wanna talk about the game Saturday."
"Does he ever think about anything besides Quidditch?" I sighed as Albus and I leaned against a wall to let other students pass.
"I think I saw him actually studying one of his Transfiguration book the other day," Albus joked.
"So, we are playing against Hufflepuff on Saturday," Ed huffed as he approached us. "Lily is the Seeker. That girl is a beast when it comes to flying on a broom."
"I know Ed," I told him.
"And she is also super good as spying the Snitch from far away, so you will have to pay extra attention to the field and not the crowd," he said.
"I know Ed."
"And-"
"Ed, I either get to the Snitch before her or I don't," I snapped. "I can't help where the Snitch goes or how close I am to it when it is released." Ed blinked a couple of times at me blankly before turning to Albus.
"Charms?" he asked Albus matter-of-factly
"Why does everyone assume that I am pissed off all the time after Charms?" I growled.
"Because it is safer for us to assume that than blame the other issue you could possibly be having," Albus replied with a grin.
"What the…ppff…zzzt," I sputtered as the each of them grabbed an arm and guided me to the staircase.
"Did you hear about the reward that Goyle is offering for information about who started the rumors about you?" Ed said.
"I think it is ten Galleons," Albus replied.
"Considering that he is the one that started the rumors I am not surprised he didn't take up a collection for the reward so he could keep the money since no one would dare accuse him of it," I sighed, grateful for the subject change.
"He is determined to redeem you in the eyes of everyone," Albus said. "After all, the letters from his mother seem to be getting more and more demanding about the status of your relationship."
"How do you guys know what his mother is sending to him?" I asked, looking back and forth between them before closing my eyes. "No, never mind. I don't want to know." Over the past couple of weeks, I had learned not to question exactly the boys did when I was studying or in therapy. The pranks they pulled were brilliant, don't get me wrong. I just don't want to think about things like how they managed to transfigure the banisters to look like candy canes without the professors finding out. It must have taken hours of work and the Prefects should have caught them, not to mention James. Then again, The Clan told me that the prat did have a sense of humor from what I have heard, so maybe he looked the other way. Since most of the pranks were harmless, I usually looked the other way when I saw one of the The Clan setting one up. I know it was bad of me as a Prefect, but it was kind of awesome to see how creative with magic they could be.
"Emmy," Lucy breathed as she came up to me when the three of us walked through the Great Hall doors. "I need some help with Ancient Runes. I can't translate my homework to where is makes sense."
"I think I can manage that," I told her with a smile. The boys let go of me so I could hold out my hand for Lucy to take. She was so precious, her eyes always so bright with wonder and untouched by the rest of the family's goofiness that I couldn't help but love her, even if she idolized her idiot Head Boy of a cousin. She lead me over to the Gryffindor table where the rest of the family was sitting and almost bounced with excitement when she saw that meatloaf was on the table.
"My favorite!" she squealed with delight before sitting down at the table and piling her plate high with mashed potatoes and meatloaf. I looked over her homework, correcting the minor mistakes while the entire family shouted around me about something or another. It took me a while to get through what she was trying to say, most of it garble about what she was like as a small child. It was interesting she would try to do something so ambitious with her limited skills. Even with my larger vocabulary, it was difficult to translate into Ancient Runes. I had to pull out my textbook a couple of times and borrow Rose's to get some better flow in the wording. By the time I was done correcting her work, dinner was almost over and somehow I had eaten what looked like two plates of food from the empty ones in front of me.
"It is too easy to get you to eat now," Scorpius sighed as I handed Lucy back her assignment.
"What?" I said.
"If we get school work in your head you eat, without question, almost as much as Colin does," Louis explained.
"So, what do you want to do Monday?" Dominique asked, interrupting my protest.
"I have a project I need to do," I told her while shoving my quills and ink back into my bag.
"But it is Halloween," Roxanne whined. "You can't do projects on Halloween."
"I have to have it done for the extra credit," I replied looking at Scorpius in desperation.
"But you have to come to the feast," Lucy said. "The food is awesome."
"Emmy, you need to at least come down for the dinner," Scorpius told me.
"The Charms extra credit won't take long if you do it on Sunday instead," Albus told me with a smirk. "And I will help you."
"Please come to the events," Lucy begged, bouncing up and down beside me.
"I can't make any promises," I sighed.
"James will make a fair schedule, he always does," Rose told me, picking up the Ancient Runes homework and running her eyes over it. "This is actually really good Lucy. Even before Emmy corrected it, you would have gotten at least and E+. You are both excelling beyond your class level."
"I do learn quickly," I joked.
"Please celebrate with us," Lucy pleaded as she leaned against me and batted her big brown eyes up at me.
"If I promise to do at least one event, will you let me be for the rest of my lunch?" I asked Lucy with a tap on her nose.
"Yes!" she giggled.
"And I promise to let you concentrate on your Quidditch match this weekend if you promise to come to the feast," Rose said.
"Fine," I grumbled as I tossed a couple of rolls in my bag before draining the pumpkin juice from my cup. "I have to get to the library. I promised Professor Cresten that I would have this project for him next Friday, and if I am going to be playing on Monday instead of working I have to get started now."
"Yay!" Lucy giggled while dancing around me as I stood. I gave her a quick hug before dashing off so I wouldn't be guilted into any more activities than I wanted.
"And as Seeker, MOREN!" Yohron Jordan roared over the pitch as I made the circle around the pitch with my teammates. The day was absolutely miserable, rain pelting down and the temperature so cold I could see my breath. I was bundled up in my thickest long johns with two mittens under my Quidditch gloves, and I was still shaking so hard I felt like I was about to come off my broom. In America, we wouldn't be playing in weather like this. When Albus told me that they only cancel games for cyclones or hail, I wondered if anyone would turn up to watch in this weather. It was amazed to see the stand packed with students and adults.
"Are we ready?" Madam Hooch yelled at us as we made our way down to the ground of the pitch. She gave us all a smile before holding up a Quaffle. "Now, I want a good clean game students! Get ready, and…GO!" She used magic to toss the Quaffle in the air till it was almost level with the seats. Lily and I stayed near the ground as everyone else flew straight up. We both watched as Colin got to the Quaffle first, sending up a cheer from the Slytherin portion of the stands. I glanced at Lily, who gave me a wink before flying up off the ground. My eyes scanned the ground around the stands before flying up to join the team in the fray.
"And Creevy makes a shot and oh Cadawallader makes the save," Jordan yelled. I scanned the sky, trying to get a glimpse of the Snitch as I settled myself near the goals. They usually wait a while before setting the Snitch loose, but sometimes the random time was within five minutes of the game starting. Scorpius and Albus were doing a fantastic job on keeping the Bludgers away from everyone and the Chasers were doing their best to keep the Quaffle in our possession. Hufflepuff had obviously been practicing since their game against Ravenclaw a couple weeks ago from the way they were handling the Quaffle.
"This game is going to take forever," Lily said as she came up beside me on her broom.
"Really?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the pitch for flashes of gold.
"Yea," she laughed. "The past couple of games the Snitch was let go within the first 30 minutes of the start."
"Shit," I sighed. Lily could be trying to get me off my game, but she was right about the Snitch times. If they let it loose the first 30 minutes into the game the last couple we had, then it was likely that the teachers were going to give us one of the longer times to make the game interesting.
"Well, I better get back to my side before I seem too friendly with the opposition," she told me with a wave before flying off to her team's side of the pitch. I decided to take a couple lap around the pitch myself, to see exactly all the nooks and crannies that the Snitch could hide once it was let loose. I was on my second lap around when Flint scored with the Quaffle. The cheer from our House stands quickly turned into groans as Matthew Zeller hit a Bludger directly at Flint. It barely grazed his shoulder, but it was a foul since it did hit him. Flint somehow got both the shots past Cadawallader, making the score 30 to 0.
The game went on like that for a while, scoring back and forth with the occasional foul against our team. Madam Hooch actually tossed Zeller out of the pitch on his third intentional foul that sent Smith to the Hospital Wing with undetermined injuries. Pucey took his place with a grin so broad I swear the ends reached his ears. Lily and I were yawning at the top of the pitch, far above everyone else as we both turned in slow circle on our brooms.
"Two hours…two bloody hours," Lily groaned.
"I am a block of ice," I told her shakily. My clothes were soaked through from the drizzling rain that started an hour ago.
"You would think they would release the Snitch once the rain started," she sighed.
"I wonder if they even notice in the stands," I replied. "Didn't you notice the spells on the stands to keep out the rain and most of the cold?"
"Son of a-" Lily suddenly dove from beside me, causing me to let out a string of curses and follow her. The Snitch was doing figure eights around the stands on the far end of the pitch. My Silver Star wasn't as fast as her Firebolt, but the size of my broom made it easier for me to turn and get ahead of her when the Snitch made a sudden turn towards the goals on my end of the pitch. Lily and I spent the next few minutes neck and neck, swatting at the Snitch when we could get close enough to it to attempt to grab it. I had forgotten how annoying the entire situation could be when there was a crowd of people screaming your name while you were chasing after a small golden ball with wings while flying on a broom. I guess it was the frustration about the whole thing that made me give that extra oomph to reach just far enough to snatch the Snitch just as it was about to fly right into Lily's open hand.
"Moren got the Snitch! Moren captured the Snitch!" Jordan yelled. "Slytherin beat Hufflepuff 280 to 70!" I flew over to Madam Hooch and gave her the Snitch before flying down to my team to celebrate.
"You did it!" Scorpius cheered as he lifted me off my broom and into the middle of the group. We were all wet, tired, and they were all probably freezing as much as I was, but it didn't stop us from screaming at the top of our lungs while the stands emptied out. Eventually, Madam Hooch forced us to get out of the pitch so she and Hagrid could take care of the repairs that were needed.
"We will be celebrating tonight," Ed shouted as we headed towards the locker rooms. "I got a Weasley special am ready to go and the house elves already know to gather the usual celebration foods."
"Well let's get changed so we can eat up!" Colin said as he rushed into the boys' locker room.
"I will meet you all in a second," I yelled as I ran into the girls' side. The Hufflepuff team was already in there, Lily, Aria Bones, and Myrina Hopkins all talking in hushed tones in the middle of the aisle. "Good game guys."
"It was wasn't it," Aria said with a smile as she looped her arm in mine. "How about we help each other get out of all of these clothes and shower?"
"Bones, I like you lots, but not that way," I laughed as I disengaged myself from her arm. I turned back toward my locker and Lily turned me back towards the shower.
"Trust us, it will take more than just you to get all of the wet things off," Lily told me.
"Why won't you let me near my locker?" I asked, planting my feet on the floor.
"Let's just get you out of your wet things," Myrina said quietly, almost pleadingly. "You will catch your death."
"What is wrong with my locker?" I screeched fighting Lily's grip on my arm and turning to see what they were trying to keep from me. I didn't quite understand what I was seeing at first. My locker was half open and some of my clothes peeking through. It took a moment to notice there was writing on the door. The girls stayed back as I slowly walked toward it, shivering with a mixture of cold and strong emotions as the words "Slytherin Slut" became legible. I reached out with my trembling gloved hand, and flicked my locker open.
"Oh Emmy," Aria whimpered as my ruined clothes spilled out. Someone had cut my clothes so short that they barely would cover anything on me, even with my small size. Spelled glitter was on what little of my top that cycled through phrases I rather not repeat while the pants that were now the shortest shorts ever were Charmed to unzip and rezip. My underwear was barely a scrap and the bra was no where in sight.
"We didn't do it, I promise," Myrina whimpered.
"I know you didn't," I said, holding up the shirt and studying it. "I like you all, but none of you have the ability to do this kind of Charm."
"That is a Sixth year spell," Lily told me. "Fred could do those in his first year with his eyes closed."
"I swear we wouldn't…" Aria said.
"You guys aren't my biggest fans, I know," I said as I set the shirt back in the closet. "But, I also know that you wouldn't do something like this to me."
"Melody is a right bitch," Lily spat. "I bet 20 galleons that she did this."
"She did what?" Rose asked as she bounced into the locker room. Her smile disappeared when she saw the mess of my locker. "Melody?"
"We can't know that for sure," I replied as I peeled off my Quidditch gloves. "Let's just get me out of these clothes. Anyone got some spare clothes in their locker I can borrow?"
"I can have someone run up to the castle and get some for you," Rose told me. "As a Prefect, at least one of us has to stay here until a Professor gets here, and the boys would KILL me if I told them that you stayed in those wet clothes longer than you should have."
"But-"
"Emmy, come on," Lily said, tugging me toward the showers.
"I will take care of this, now go," Rose shooed. The girls and I helped each other out of as much of our uniforms as we needed help with before we could take care of ourselves. I spent more time in the shower than I normally did to try and thaw out myself. By the time I was done, the rest of the girls were already half dressed. I padded barefoot into the locker room and wrapped in a towel. My locker door was now sparkling clean and the clothes were replaced with a pile of clothes I knew weren't mine.
"Your house elves were very possessive of your clothes," Rose said with an apologetic smile. "Lucy had to make due with what she could grab."
"These aren't even mine," I said, holding up the jeans that were at least a size too big. "Did you get me a belt?"
"Yes, and I managed to dry your underthings while you were showering," Rose told me.
"Thanks," I huffed as I slid on said underthings and put on the jeans and the green and gold knitted sweater with what looked to be a large "J" on it. The sweater was enormous, coming down to just below my knees and I had to roll up the sleeves just to get to my hands. With a wave of her wand, Rose dried my hair and helped me tame my frizz ball while the other girls finished dressing.
"Hey Emmy," Myrina said softly, coming up to me and threading her arm through mine. "I have wanted to ask you for the longest time if you knew how to make potions for dry skin."
"In my sleep," I snorted.
"Can you teach me how?" she asked shyly as we trailed behind the others by a few steps. "I want to get into the beauty care field and the only ones that are on the market have horrible side effects, like nausea, for the first couple of days after someone takes it."
"You want me to help you try to improve on it as well as teach you?" I asked her. "I mean, the potions are simple enough to learn how to brew but it is challenging to modify something like that on your own without extensive knowledge of Herbology. I would feel more comfortable if I was there with you when you did them."
"Would you?" she breathed excitedly. "I mean, Third Year Herbology is pretty extensive but I would love to have your input on that kind of stuff."
"I can get some books from Professor Cresten about it and we can get together maybe sometime next week?" I replied uncertainly.
"Could you?" she said hopefully.
"Did you finally ask her for help or what?" Aria yelled back to us from the steps. I hadn't realized we were walking that slowly back to the castle. Lily, Rose, and Aria were all standing on the steps, waiting for us it looked like. "Cuz if you hadn't asked her for help for your stupid personal project you want to do I was gonna ask her for you later."
"Personal project?" I asked, stepping back and feeling myself growing numb again. This has happened before, me being as smart as I was. She was just using me to do some sort of extra credit work she needed to pass the class. The kids stopped asking for my help when I finally started to not do all the work, among other reasons.
"My skin is super dry," Myrina told me as she pulled up her sleeve to show me her arm. The skin looked almost like scales it was so raw and cracked. I couldn't keep my eyes from going wide at the sight of it.
"That looks painful," I said.
"The side effects are worse," she told me. "Please help me? I can't spend another year with my head in the toilet between classes."
"Of course I will help you," I replied. The look of joy on her face and the vice grip of her hug in gratitude still didn't stop me feeling like an ass.
"It is perfectly normal for you to feel like that," Dr. Whitby said as he put a puzzle piece in its place. It was the next afternoon, and I finally confessed to him how I felt about the whole scenario that played out yesterday.
"Really?" I asked, picking up a couple of pieces and trying them in the different slots.
"Most kids who are smarter than their peers are often taken advantage of," Dr. Whitby said as he took one of the pieces from me and set it in the area he was working on. We both discovered our love for puzzles one afternoon when another session was particularly brutal for another student and it had destroyed one of the puzzles that Dr. Whitby had on his walls.
"I just feel horrible for thinking the worst of people," I told him as I sat back and looked at our handy work. It was one of the ones on the shelf at Triple W I had been coveting every time I went into the store, but I didn't want to spend twenty Galleons on it with Christmas coming so close. My money stash wasn't even close to running empty, but with all of the things I had on my list to buy I figured it was just safer not buy anything until I got all of my shopping done.
"Why do you think the worst of people?" Dr. Whitby asked while putting a couple more pieces into place. The witch's face in the puzzle was half done, her eye blinking up at me and her mouth set in a grimace.
"I mean, most of the time anyone besides Maggie who spoke to me just wanted help with their homework or classwork, so why should I think that most people want to speak to me for more than that?" I replied with a shrug. I leaned back toward the desk and started to put together more of the pieces.
"Did you feel that way about The Clan or your other friends?" he asked me softly.
"They are different," I told him. "They knew me before I was the genius."
"Emmaline, there is more," Dr. Whitby said as he placed a rather large portion of the finished puzzle in place, finishing the witches face and most of her body. He leaned back and gave me the look I now understood as the "We will sit here until you tell me what I need to know" face. I tried to ignore it the last couple of weeks, but it was extremely hard to ignore someone whose entire focus was on you. I fiddled with the pieces in my hand for a moment, trying to put them together even though they didn't fit.
"Aria called it a "personal project" when she yelled about her talking to me about it," I said as I started to work on the puzzle in earnest. "At AMA, when the older boys found out that I was smart in potions and I was willing to help anyone get better in a subject I was passionate about, they would often ask for help with a "personal project" that needed my special attention. The first couple of boys were a little more hands-y than I would have liked, but none of them did anything to forward those first few sessions over cauldrons or in the Greenhouses."
"Emmy-"
"Nothing really bad happened Dr. Whitby," I snickered more to myself than to him as I thought back to the particular afternoon I was about to regale him with. "One of the Seventh Years asked if I would help him with his personal project in the greenhouses one Sunday afternoon while everyone was gone to the local magic market. I never went because I never had any spare money and I didn't want to put up with the teasing from some of the girls because I couldn't buy any of the pretty things in the stalls. It was like normal for the first little bit. He wanted to know what kind of plants could possibly be used in treatment for patients with asthma since most of the wizards and witches seem to grow out of it but the small population that has to live with it had very little options for medication to treat the attacks. Something useful."
"This first time he put his hand on my waist should have let me know he was up to something," I sighed with a rueful shake of my head. "I was lucky the Professor Lorenst chose to do the inventory when he did I suppose. The Seventh year had me pinned against the cabinets with his mouth sucking so violently on my neck that I had a hickey for almost two weeks. I don't like to think about the possibilities of what might have happened with him if the Professor hadn't come in. He was so much bigger than me." I felt tears filling my eyes that I really didn't want to shed. "I know it wasn't my fault, but I couldn't help feeling like I had done something to let them think that I was that kind of girl. Later I found out that all of the upper classmen had a betting pool over who could get into my pants. Apparently I was one of the few girls that were more interested in schoolwork than boys at my age. They were trying to see who they could get distracted first and interested in having "fun" they called it"
"Aria is female," Dr. Whitby said gently.
"I know that, but it still hit me hard," I told him, tears rolling down my cheeks. "I want people to like me, really like me because I am a fun person to be around. I don't want them to think I am just some smart kid who is only good for-"
"Emmaline," Dr. Whitby said as he grabbed my hands. I looked at his face and lost it. My body shook as I cried, Dr. Whitby listening as I poured out every incident that happened because I was so smart. Maggie being my only friend as the rumors about cheating made it's rounds, the boys trying to constantly make moves on me, and the constant strain of trying to hide exactly how smart I was in my classes from new kids only to find out they were told a couple days in and played along to get what they could out of me. I was blowing my nose into a handkerchief by the time our hour was up. Dr. Whitby leaned back and looked at me pensively. "I want you to do something a little different this week Emmaline."
"What?" I mumbled from behind the handkerchief against my face.
"I want you to try and at least talk to James Potter about something besides a Prefect schedule or where the others of The Clan are," he told me. I gave him a skeptical look that made Dr. Whitby chuckle. "Ah, yes that look. I have come to expect that look."
"You always ask the strangest things," I replied. After the first session, every week he asked me to do something new. The first task was keep a food diary so I could see how much I did (or in my case didn't) eat. The ones after were things like not studying over the weekend, or skipping a class that I didn't have a test in. I didn't understand the process, but I felt happier than I had been in the past few years.
"Just try for me hmm?" he said.
"Fine," I sighed as I got up and grabbed my bag. "Same time next week?"
"Of course," he said, waving his wand. The mat on the desk rolled the puzzle up and onto the shelf. Then he turned and gave me a smile. "And Emmaline? Happy Early Birthday. Try to relax tomorrow since you all will have the day off."
"Thanks Dr. Whitby," I replied before climbing out of the portrait hole. I was so tired I didn't even care that the boys had somehow made the common room some sort of mini Quidditch pitch that seemed to be re-enacting the entire match from yesterday. The last thought I had before dozing off to sleep was that if they would apply themselves in their school work as much as they did on their goofball spells, they would have amazing marks.