"Someone said they'd heard something like a wolf making all kind of racket on the third floor in the restricted corridor, but you didn't hear that from me. Understood?"

-Fred Weasley

Chapter 13: Divining Daphne

I stood in the door way of my Divinations class we shared with Ravenclaw and half the Slytherin first-years. Slytherin and Gryffindor were the largest sorted classes this year, and so they often divided the Hufflepuff first years, being the smallest sorted class, to round off and fill seats in these classes.

Or at least that's how it was explained.

I slowly came to suspect that we were divided for the specific reason of building out of House relationships. I usually sat in this class with Leanne Merrymount and Meagan Jones. Today they, as well as Susan, were all seated with different Ravenclaw students. And it looked so natural. So natural that I didn't even notice I had been doing the same thing all along with Dean and Seamus. My eyes had been opened to so many things this week, since my last conversation with Cedric.

"One of you is going to die before the school year is out."

I physically shook the thought from my mind and scanned the room. It seemed like all the Ravenclaw that I'd consider sitting with were occupied by a Hufflepuff already. Susan occupied the space next to Sue Li and Padma Patil, doubling her chances I suppose. Padma was always kind and smiled at everyone in hello. There was a cricket crawling on the back of Leanne's cardigan once and she whacked it off with a notebook and I thought, maybe I could be friends with someone like her. Crickets don't scare me none, but it was a nice thing to do. Well maybe not to the cricket.

Leanne was seated with a girl named Lisa Turpin. A girl I knew nothing about. The seat next to the two of them was empty and I thought to sit there, but then I thought the better of it. Leanne wouldn't make eye contact with me, but she looked beyond terrified. I could tell she was looking at me through her peripheral vision and her entire body seemed like it was screaming at me "Don't even think about it!" I could understand why. Leanne's Guide was probably putting a lot of pressure on her to make friends and I might be causing her some trouble if I sat next to her. Her eyes darted to me then quickly forward again when she noticed I was staring. I couldn't do that to Leanne.

"One of you is going to die before the school year is out."

Leanne was a nice girl. Leanne still spoke to me here and there. Leanne didn't deserve to have to compete with me for a friend. And what if Lisa didn't even like me better? Would I make a better friend than Leanne? I doubted it.

Instead I had a seat at the table in the far top corner in the back of the room. There, one girl sat by herself. Grey Girl.

She seemed startled when I dragged out the seat beside her, but her face didn't compare to the utter horror of the Hufflepuff girls in my class as they openly stared my way. Meagan, Susan, and Leanne all looked at me as if I had just punted a puppy into the blackboard.

A cat was all I'd ever kicked, but I wouldn't tell them that. I think maybe witches might like cats better than dogs.

Daphne Greengrass was the girl I met on the train. I don't know why, but I often found myself really wanting to be her friend ever since that day. Maybe it was just me wanting to redeem myself from my failed greeting. Cedric may have laughed at the thought of making friends with someone from Slytherin, but I didn't see a problem with it. And you know, Cedric has been just saying things and telling me what to do and maybe he isn't always right.

"One of you is going to die before the school year is out."

Dean and I grew up like Muggles even though we aren't. I don't think Daphne would know anything about the Scooby-Doo character her name reminds me of because I think she might have always grown up as a witch. I think as future Queen Sow of Hufflepuff, it is my duty to make sure I have an advisor like, what they said, is diverse in thought. We needed a witchy world expert who could fill us in on the things me and Dean did not know.

I spoke confidence into my brow, jaw set, I extended my closest hand to Daphne again. "HI!" She jumped a little. "I'm Mary McGowen-Smith. We met before, but I introduced myself wrong. I know that now. My apologies for offending you Daphne Hydrangea Greengrass."

Her nearly white brows raised into her perfectly swooped hair before coming down into a frown. I noticed she had a thing for intricate top knots and braids. Her hair always looked cool. I'd barely brushed my own since arriving at Hogwarts. I hoped she didn't judge me for it. She hung out with a couple other girls that looked like the type that might have ruined birthday parties for girls like me back home, but there was one beefy girl in their group with an eyebrow harrier than Cedric's and a jaw like a giant Pitbull. So, I think she maybe isn't so bad.

"How did you know my middle-name was Hydrangea?" She asked. "Have you been…have you been stalking me?!"

I quickly waved my hands in denial. "No! I wouldn't do something like that! I mean not to say anything poor about you. You seem cool. But I'd hardly have time to stalk someone around all my studies. Sometimes, while I'm talking, I'll just know things. And just now I thought you looked like your middle name would be Hydrangea, I think. I don't really explain it too well."

She didn't seem to be looking at me, but at my wrist. I followed her line of sight to my bracelet. It had the faintest glow again. I had noticed it seemed to pick up on even the teeniest, faintest bit of psychic energy. It's what Cedric called it. I thought maybe there would be more seers like me, but Cedric said I was pretty special. The only other Seer he knew of was Professor Trelawney and she sort of scared me. I wanted to tell her we were the same, but she only ever seemed interested in bad omens and I don't think I'm ready to talk about that sort of thing yet. I haven't had a scary dreams or visions since leaving the Ministry to get registered and I wanted it to stay that way.

"One of you is going to die before the school year is out."

So, I usually hide my bracelet in the sleeve of my robe before coming into her class. I must have forgotten. I tucked it away into my sleeve and gave a sheepish smile. "I really didn't stalk you. I don't even know how to stalk someone's middle name out of them."

She seemed to accept this answer because she hummed and looked to the front of the room where Madame Trelawney had entered. Her bracelet was a solid sunset orange as it banged up against the other bracelets on her wrist. "Good morning, everyone!" Professor Trelawney flicked her wand and our textbook pages turned to a chapter on palm reading. "Today we are going to study the tapestries of fortune you carry with you daily. We're going to do a bit of palm reading." We took turns reading out loud from the text in class. With so many Ravenclaw, I didn't have to worry about getting picked on to read in class. If I did, I'd just drop dead of embarrassment right here.

"One of you is going to die before the school year is out."

We learned all the different lines in the palm and what they say about us. Most of the girls only seemed interested in the love lines. After Trelawney's dramatic display of predicting Lisa's untimely demise "One of you is going to die before the school year is out." we were made to practice on each other.

Daphne grabbed my hand before I could work up the courage to even ask for hers. She was frowning down at my hand. "What am I supposed to see?"

There was a silent pause between us before she gave me an annoyed look. Was she really asking me? "I-I'm not sure." I was scrambling to think what the possible right answer could be. "I think she likes it when we predict bad things. Like a death or an accident."

She just frowned and dropped my hand. "Well I don't want to see anything like that."

For the first time, this week, something else Cedric had said popped into my head. "Choose wisely." I think I had. "Me neither," I smiled. Then I held out my hand to her again. "I could try to predict something for you. It doesn't always work when I want or how I want but maybe I might see something that isn't terrible?"

Reluctantly Daphne gave me her hand. "If you see my death, you just keep it to yourself." I nodded in agreement. I cupped her hand in my two but there was none of the instant headiness that came with my usual visions. I tried using the exercise Professor Trelawney had us practice in another class. We meditated that day for the entire lesson. It was the only Divination class so far that I found helpful. We sat on the floor in pretzels and breathed in really deep, then out. In again. Out again. It was hard at first. I couldn't stop thinking about my studies. About my other classes. About Mama and Papa. About all the bedtime prayers I had missed during my late-night reading. But there was a moment in time where I thought nothing. Absolutely nothing. And then I felt something like, warm cracked lips on my forehead. It was so real, my eyes opened and I slapped a hand on it, looking around wildly for the bandit that kissed me before I realized it didn't happen. Not yet.

I breathed in and breathed out. In again. Out again. Daphne's hand twitched in my own but I held tight so she wouldn't move. I needed to concentrate. "What are you-"

"Shh!" I felt something. A tingling hot and cold feeling! It was happening!

I opened my eyes and saw Daphne looking at me. Only we were in a girl's bathroom and her face was redder than a tomato. "Good MERLIN! If- if we had stayed in that room for another second. Just a second, I would have died! I would have LITERALLY DIED!"

I dropped her hand and quickly pressed my palm to her forehead. "What are you- Stop that!"

"We have to get you out of here!" I whispered. "I don't feel a fever but you were so red."

Daphne seemed to pale but swatted me away when I tried to take her temperature again. "Will you stop! I'm fine," she hissed. "Should have known. You Hufflepuff are nutters."

But I wouldn't let it go. I couldn't. Somehow, I had gotten her to that bathroom. She'd said if she had stayed another second, she would have died. Literally! But how to get her to believe me? I got it! "Look!" I exclaimed, holding up my arm. "My bracelet is glowing. I really did just have a vision. Honest!"

Sure enough, my bracelet glowed a green. Brighter than it had since I'd put it on. She seemed to accept that I was telling the truth finally. "Well, what did you see?"

"I'm not sure exactly what was happening but your face was really red and you were shouting. We have to get you out of here."

"But how?"

I looked around, spotting the teacher- professor just a few tables away, and got an idea. I waved Trelawney over and gripped my sides. "Professor, I'm not feeling well," I moaned. I used to play ill all the time to get out of church on Sundays until Mama caught on. "Can I be excused?"

"Well, that's quite alright," she said though she cocked her head at me rather strangely. "Just hurry along to Madame Pomfrey's." I gave Daphne a pointed look, willing her to read my mind. Hoping I was telepathic too. How cool would that be?

"I'll take her!" Daphne volunteered, jumping up from her chair.

My eyes bulged out of my head. Just where Daphne sat…

There was blood on the seat.

Daphne followed my gaze and her eyes grew wide like saucers. In two seconds flat, her wand was out, and the chair was on fire.

"Good heavens!" Professor Trelawney shouted. She didn't see what Daphne had done, having been fixated on me, but she was completely absorbed with the burning seat cushion at our table.

"Let's get out of here." Daphne grabbed my hand and we rushed out of the tower and down the ladder.

I crawled down first, Daphne coming down right after. She broke out into a run and I followed along after her, thinking we were going to the school nurse's office, but instead grey girl ducked into the girl's bathroom. Well, this one wasn't a bath. More like just a girl's toilet room. The loo as they called it. So fancy. "Daphne, we have to go to the nurse. You're bleeding. You're dying."

"Not yet I'm not!" Her face was redder than a tomato. Just like in my vision. "Good MERLIN! If- if we had stayed in that room for another second. Just a second, I would have died! I would have LITERALLY DIED!"

"That's it! That was my vision. You, just now!"

"Well a fat lot of good it did!" she cried. "Couldn't you have had your vision before I mooned all over my chair."

"Mooned?"

I immediately recognized this as the look someone gives me when they think, in that moment, there could be no one in the world more stupid than me. "Yes, mooned. Your moon cycle? Your right of passage?" My face was still clueless, I imagine. "For the love of- your menses."

Oh, that did it. "You mean when you become a woman."

"…right." She seemed to be squinting at me. "Um, Mary. Please…I know it's-um…your face."

"Hm?" I turned to the mirror over the sinks. It looked like my forehead was bleeding. "Oh? I hurt myself."

"Um."

"I don't think I remember hurting myself." I rubbed my forehead with my sleeve, hopefully trying to find a cut, but there was nothing.

"Mary!" I turned to look at Daphne, who seemed oddly uncomfortable for some reason. "Um, earlier. The ladder…"

"Yeah?"

Daphne turned away from me. "Y-you went down before me and, I think…I might have…dripped."

I…was she really saying what I think she was saying. I turned to look at myself in the mirror again. No cuts. No scrapes. No bruises. Just a red smear across my forehead like Simba in The Lion King. The girl I'm trying to make friends with just told me she might have definitely leaked her menses on..on..on my FACE. At that, I screamed.

"Calm down before someone hears you!"

"It's on my face!" I ran my sleeve under the sink and tried wiping it off. But I could still see faint red Simba on my forehead. "It's not coming off!"

"Who's in there?" There was the sound of approaching footsteps. "There better not be anyone skipping class in there."

Daphne grabbed my hand and pulled me into a bathroom stall. "What am I going to do?" she in a low voice. "That's head girl. The other Slytherin say she's the biggest gossip there is and I've got a big bullseye on the back of my robes. By the time I get back to the common room, I'm going to be the laughing stock of the entire school."

I stood there, listening to Daphne panic, watched the terrified look on her face while she dragged her hands over her face, and I couldn't help but see myself. How many times had I hid in the bathroom stall from bullies? How many times had I been afraid of what people would say or think of me. Ever since I got to Hogwarts, I really wanted to be a girl like Daphne. And I got to be. I don't think she's ever had to be a girl like me. As I heard the bathroom door open, I knew I had to do something. "Switch me robes," I whispered, shrugging mine off.

Her eyes bulged. She had been making so many kinds of faces it might get stuck that way. "What are you doing?"

"Hurry! Or do you want all your cool Slytherin friends to find out you got your period in front of the whole class today?" That was enough said. Say something for Slytherins, but she didn't even hesitate to switch robes with me after that. Then I wadded up a bunch of toilet paper around my hands. "And put this in your underwear to stop the dripping."

"Oi! Get out of that stall you two. Right now." We could see the head girl tapping her polished black shoe outside the bathroom stall. I mustered up my feeble determination, and unlocked the stall. The door creaked open to reveal the hard look of the seventh-year girl's face. "What are you two doing in there?"

My shoulders were square, my chest puffed, and my fists balled. "I'm a woman," I proclaimed. "And I have had my first period."

The older girl seemed torn between laughter and disgust. "And what the bloody hell is on your face?"

I glanced at Daphne, suddenly embarrassed. Instead, she stepped forward, chested puffed, shoulders square, fists also balled. "It's her right of passage as a young witch. Don't you read, Witch Weekly? The magical restorative properties preserve your youthful complexion for the next 40 years."

And with that, Daphne marched us out of the bathroom, ignoring the hysterical laughter of the Head Girl behind us. As we made our way to Madame Pomphrey's office, in my stained robes, I couldn't help but feel satisfied with myself.

Cedric would be proud.

(Lidia- Thank you again for reading! I didn't know how it would originally be received given that I'm introducing the story centered around an 11-year old Hufflepuff first-year but I'm glad there are people that like it :)

Reviews:

FenneHP- Thank you for investing in my OC. I appreciate the feedback. I can't make any promises about the typos, but I'll try to pay closer attention moving forward. I'm glad you've chosen to keep reading!

Ted- Thank you for continuing to read!)