A/N: I wrote this for Bren's "Broken Quill" challenge on FA, here: http/ forums. fictionalley. org/park/ showthread. php?s &threadid 109860 (take out the spaces). The rating is just for language. This has spoilers for nothing in specific, really, but this takes place during the Trio's sixth year. Su Li is from JKR's "Harry Potter and Me" interview. I own nothing here; none of these characters is original.
Mandy Brocklehurst was scribbling furiously. She shouldn't have put this essay off – she had had the time to write it last Saturday, but no, she had taken a long walk around the lake. Merlin's beard, she was the worst Ravenclaw ever!
Except for Luna Lovegood.
Mandy groaned and shook her head. She could not let her mind wander right now! This Muggle Studies essay was due tomorrow, and Professor Harper did not take late work, so focus!
Her handwriting was really messy when she was in a hurry.
She scribbled another paragraph. Just the conclusion left now! She sat back in her chair. Thank God the library was almost empty at this time of night – she was renowned in Ravenclaw House for her amazing conclusions to essays, and she didn't want anyone to know that it took her ten minutes just to think out the general ideas for her conclusions. It was her academic secret. No one else could know.
She inhaled slowly, letting the conclusion fill her mind. She contemplated for a minute or two, waiting for the opening sentence to her conclusion.
Ah. There it was.
She leaned forward over the essay, savoring the smell of ink and parchment. This was her moment. She pressed the quill down on the paper, slowly writing out the words, admiring the way the letters were shaped, the way the words fit together—
Then her quill snapped.
"Fuck!" exclaimed Mandy. "Shit, shit, shit, fuck!" She did not like being interrupted in her moments of crowning glory. She picked up her bookbag, digging through it for a quill. Half-finished essays, graded essays, schoolbooks, novels, she pulled them all from the bag, looking desperately for another quill. She had to have another quill!
Then she realized there was nothing left in her bag. And no quills on the library table but the broken one.
She glared at her bookbag – it had never failed her before – as she half-heartedly turned it upside down and gave it a shake.
She sighed, letting her head fall onto the book-covered table. What was she going to do now?
She started organizing the tings from her bag into piles. She would have to pick this up, first. Then ask Madam Pince if she had any spare quills. If the grouchy librarian didn't, she would have to go back to the Ravenclaw common room and bum a quill off someone to finish her essay with, then write home for more quills.
She sat back up in her chair, the same pose she had struck for contemplating this conclusion. She left her essay where it was and her bag on her chair, then – straight-backed, feeling like a soldier on a deadly mission – she strode towards Madam Pince's desk,
It was a bit hard to stride in a library at any time, and Mandy was feeling rather ashamed of herself. Any self-respecting Ravenclaw had at least two back-up quills at any given time. She felt like she was failing Rowena.
As she passed the shelves, she saw Su Li at another table. Mandy stopped striding to glare at Su. Mandy wasn't sure if it was the forces of nature that wanted her to see only things she could glare at tonight, or if it was just her bad luck.
She had been friends with Su for their first five years at Hogwarts. They had eaten together, studied together, taken the same classes in third year. In short, they had been inseparable.
Then the O.W.L.S. happened.
They had all the same classes to study for, so they drew up a chart and plotted out how they would spend their time. They lived, breathed, and would have eaten studying for the O.W.L.S. if they been able to figure out a way to do it. They were together in this fight!
Mandy had gotten all O's and two E's. Su had gotten all A's and one E.
Mandy remembered waiting at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters for Su, excited to share her grades and hear what Su had gotten. They didn't keep in touch over the summer; Su's mother was a Muggle and owls flying around scared her.
Su had been livid that Mandy had gotten better grades. She was convinced that Mandy must have somehow cheated. They had had a huge fight on the train, and they had barely spoken to each other since.
Mandy tossed her hair over her shoulder and continued to stride. She put Su and her recent quill/conclusion shame out of her head, walking boldly (she hoped) towards Madam Pince's desk.
A few feet away from the desk, her step lost its confidence and she shrunk back to the sixteen-year-old Ravenclaw who had been so excited over a conclusion she broke her quill.
"Madam Pince?" The librarian looked up. Slightly heartened, Mandy continued, "Do you have a quill I can borrow?"
The librarian raised an eyebrow and shook her head. Mandy frowned. Damn, she thought. Besides, Madam Pince usually had something belligerent to say. That was odd.
Dismayed at her continuing lack of a functioning quill, Mandy turned to go back to her table. She would have to go back to the common room and ask someone for a quill. She had no problems asking teachers for things like quills and extra help, but a fellow Ravenclaw? She would mocked. Mercilessly made fun of. She would have to make friends with Luna.
She paused at the same spot she had paused before, looking through a bare spot in the bookshelves at Su.
That was one option.
Su already thought she was a dirty cheater and a liar and an all-around horrible person. What more harm could come of asking for a quill?
Mandy refused to let herself answer that question. She similarly refused to let herself think about what she was going to do. She changed direction and headed towards Su.
"Su, do you have a quill I can borrow?"
Su didn't even look up from the book she was reading. "No."
Reminding herself to breathe, unable to believe she was talking to Su, of all people, who thought she was a cheater, Mandy sat down across from her former best friend.
"Please, Su?" she continued. "I just need it for a couple of minutes, I'll give it back, I swear."
Su put the book down – Mandy saw it was Advanced Runes Translation – and looked up at Mandy. "What do you need a quill for?" she asked flatly.
"I broke my last quill and I'm in the middle of an essay for Muggle Studies," Mandy said, hoping that the plain, unvarnished truth would win her a quill."
Su raised an eyebrow. Mandy noted that Madam Pince had done the exact same thing. "Fine." She reached into her bag, and Mandy saw her lips move, but couldn't hear what she was saying. Her imagination told her it was, "I hope she gets an F on that essay."
Su handed Mandy the quill wordlessly, and Mandy took it from her silently. She was already a good five feet away when Su spoke up.
"Wait. Stop."
Mandy turned around, curious. Su continued, "You can borrow the quill if you'll do me a favor."
Mandy moved back towards the table as Su kept talking. "I'm… this is kind of hard to say. I know you're really good at Ancient Runes."
Su stopped for a moment, and, unsure of what to do, Mandy nodded.
That was apparently what Su wanted her to do, because she said, in a breathless rush, "I'mgettinga67andcouldyouhelpme?"
Mandy blinked. What the hell did Su just say? "Sorry, Su, I couldn't quite understand you, could you say that again… slower?"
Su leveled a glare at her former best friend. "I'm… getting… a 67… in… Ancient… Runes… and… could… you… help… me?"
"Geez, Su, I get the point, I'm sorry!" Mandy threw up her hands defensively. "Does this mean you've forgiven me for my O.W.L.s?" It was an odd thing to ask if you had been forgiven for excellent (and outstanding! she thought gleefully) grades.
"No."
"Oh." Mandy's small smile disappeared to a better place. "Er… Sure I'll help you, but can I finish my Muggle Studies essay first?"
Su nodded. Feeling a little cowed, Mandy went back to her table. She finished her conclusion more quickly than she would have liked, but Su was a bit scary. She hadn't been so scary when they were friends, had she?
She dumped the essay into her bag and hurried back to Su's table.
"Here's your quill. What do you need help with?"
Su admitted that she was struggling with the grammar, and interpreting phrases with pronouns. Mandy admitted she didn't entirely get pronoun placement, either, but she would try to help.
The two girls sat together and puzzled out the assignment Su was having a hard time with, then went over vocabulary from earlier in the month and reviewed conjugations for several irregular verbs. They didn't leave until Madam Pince kicked them out.
As they walked back to the common room together, now discussing Professor Ramsden's odd habits and whether they were a side effect of dealing constantly with Ancient Runes? Mandy felt a familiar happy feeling inside. The same way she'd felt when she'd seen Su again after last summer, before they had fought.
They reached the common room and headed up to their dormitory, still talking. There was something so comforting about a best friend, Mandy decided. But she had to wonder, what if Su was just glad for the help? What if Su didn't miss making color-coded study charts as much as Mandy suddenly did?
Su turned to her. "So, I haven't forgiven you for the O.W.L.s, but do you think we can be friends again?"
Mandy grinned hugely. "Of course!"
As she pulled her pajamas from under her pillow, Su added, "Besides, I'm the only one who knows about your Hobgoblins obsession."
Mandy glared.
Reviews and/or critiques are loved.