Friends and Foes on the First Week

Elyon had barely gotten inside the Great Hall before she heard mumbles, whispers and gossips about Harry Potter. Not only the Gryffindors, but the Ravenclaws, the Slytherins and even her own house were gossiping about the boy, although he sat with his friend and tried to mind his own business while eating breakfast.

She frowned. 'Why can't they keep their gossiping at their common rooms?' She thought tired, not in mood of this. Besides, he wasn't someone to watch at like some animal at the zoo.

With a sigh, she settled by the Hufflepuff table and began to get herself a bowl of warm porridge and a glass of orange juice. She didn't had any friends to sit with or to keep her company, but for some reason everyone had found themselves friends already.

'I guess I'm probably the only one who isn't so social.' She thought and ate her porridge, but not before she poured a little milk and a spoonful of strawberry jam in her bowl.

She had always wondered how others find friends so fast. Her brother Randall had it so easy, she remembered in his first letter home, he had told about he made friends with three boys on the first day. It wasn't surprising, as he was a social butterfly.

Gwen had been a surprise. She usually kept for herself, but maybe she found company with the other Ravenclaws.

Elyon looked at their table, they seemed very intelligent and proper in contrast to the Gryffindors, whose openly laughed and were noisy in general. The Slytherins were neither boisterously loud or proper loud, but they seemed like somewhere in the middle, they did talk to each other just like how her fellow Hufflepuffs talked eagerly to each other.

'Or perhaps I haven't been around people enough to understand them.' Elyon came to the conclusion as she finished her porridge and made herself a cheese sandwich.

Hopefully she would eventually make a new friend today.


So, the first class would be Defence Against the Dark Arts, it was a shared class with the Slytherins.

A very interesting subject she had looked forward to until she found out it was with the snakes and she felt her stomach drop.

Randall had a lot to say about their generation of Slytherin, mostly bad things and the reason why Elyon didn't wanted to engage with the Slytherins to any cost. It didn't helped that her father also had a great deal of issues with Slytherins, never mind her own mother was a Slytherin.

A sophisicated, proper Slytherin with dignity, she used to say.

Elyon felt wary as all of the Slytherin and Hufflepuff students gathered outside the classroom on the third corridor. Everyone had someone to talk to and she felt clearly overpowered by social stigma.

She didn't understand. This was how it was supposed to be, right? Everyone should be friends with someone, including herself. Wasn't that true? Everyone in this school had friends or someone to turn to, so why didn't she had?

Why wasn't it what it's supposed to be?!

Elyon felt her throat tighten, she tried to loosen her tie to breathe. Her heart slammed against her chest wildly, her hands began to tremble and she tried to hold her shoulder bag properly.

'I can't...I can't breathe...' Elyon's thought echoed, her silent voice wanted to scream out and she wanted out.

Escape.

Flee.

Run for her life.

No!

Elyon shook herself awake. No, she wouldn't act like this. She weren't supposed to get a bit frightened by a mass of students and her mother would be so ashamed of her right now. 'Dignity...always show dignity, no matter what.' She reminded herself, what exactly her mother would say.

She changed posture. Straighten her back, shoulders relaxed, chin up and nose right.

A deep breathe and exhale slowly.

And then, Elyon walked towards the large group of students from Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, more confidently than she felt. But how did that matter when she must show everyone what her family name meant and she couldn't be the weak link of it. Never on her life.

Suddenly everyone noticed her and began to whisper as Elyon walked past them. She could hear them, but Elyon knew she must ignore them. The butterfly hairclip was probably the main cause, otherwise she would just be "the other Pemberton girl".

And what she did heard.

"Isn't that Pemberton's sister?"

"Yes, it is. The first one in Hufflepuff."

"Pemberton in Hufflepuff, that's unheard of."

"Isn't she sister to Randall Pemberton, the Gryffindor?"

"Look at that hairclip!"

"I heard it has a fine status?"

"Yes, I heard she's granddaughter to the Korean Minister of Magic."

"I also heard she's his successor."

Elyon tried to shut off her ears, ignore their gossiping.

'Just ignore them...ignore them...' Her mantra went off in her head. How could Harry Potter stand this, hearing people gossip about him and not go crazy of it? This was unbearable.

"It's true then?" A loud voice shot through the ocean and gossip. Everything went quiet and Elyon felt a strange rush of unfamilliar emotion. The back of her head seemed to...tingle? It was like a sixth sense, that suddenly went off.

It wasn't good, something didn't felt good at all and she could feel it so strongly. It was almost as if that strange tingle tried to warn her about something.

She quickly turned around, facing a pale Slytherin boy in her age. He had white blond hair and a smirk already she didn't liked. He was accompanied with two other boys, who were much stronger and bigger than her in comparasion.

"Exactly what is true?" Elyon said and crossed her arms, waiting for an explaination and the boy walked forth to face her directly.

"That you're Elyon Pemberton, the first Hufflepuff in your family." He smirked. "Your grandfather is the Korean Minister of Magic, isn't that right?"

Elyon frowned, she didn't see the big picture why it was such big deal. "Yes, that is correct." She admitted slowly. "How that is any of your concern, I fail to see."

"Everyone talks about you right now." He said. "Your hairclip is proof enough, everyone knows your status is high now."

"I don't care what people say about me." She answered cooly. "I'm only here for a good education, nothing else."

He scoffed, but smiled anyways. "A lone wolf then. I like your style." He said. "Name's Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."

"Elyon Pemberton, although you already knew them." She replied. "Who are those then?" She pointed at the two, gorilla-like boys who seemed like bodyguards for Malfoy.

"Crabbe and Goyle, they're my comrades." Malfoy shrugged. "You're high status in our society, so you definately should belong there. Soon you'll see others are less worthy. If you want, I could help you."

He offered a hand, but Elyon didn't took it.

"I'm not blind. I can clearly see who is worthy or not." Elyon stated. "And I don't shake hands with someone I haven't even known in five minutes."

He didn't blush, but his pale cheeks went slightly pink. "You should watch that attitude if I were you, Pemberton."

"We'll see if my attitude brings me problems, shall we?" Elyon answered with a smirk of her own. "I'm a badger, yes. But it doesn't mean we're less worthy than lions, snakes or eagles."

Right in that moment, professor Quirrell just arrived to open up the classroom. "S-so sorry for m-my late a-arrival, s-students." He stammered hastily. "L-let's get to c-class, shall w-we?" He said and opened the door, letting inside the students.

Elyon walked over to a random desk when Susan walked beside her. "That was so brave!" She whispered excited. "You stood up against Malfoy! If I didn't knew better, I would've taken you for a Gryffindor."

"Thanks, I guess." Elyon said lowly and sat beside her friend. "I'll never live down this..."

"Don't worry about it." Susan comforted her and smiled cheerfully. She had pink headband in her chestnut brown hair, it went down to her shoulders. "He had it coming, after all."

"I suppose so." Elyon said, uncertain if she liked it or not.

They didn't got to talk more before the lesson started.


"I'm very disappointed." Elyon said as they exited the classroom.

"Yeah, I am too." Susan admitted. "I mean, it's Defense Against the Dark Arts! But it felt like a joke, he kept stammering all the time! Can I borrow your notes later?"

Elyon nodded. "Sure thing, just remember the adress."

Susan laughed and Elyon felt confident enough to laugh along, it felt good to finally have a friend.

"But really, you were so brave to stand against Malfoy. I heard Potter already done that, yesterday at the train." Susan continued. "How funny it is, you and Potter-"

"It doesn't mean anything, just a coincidence." Elyon defended herself hastily. "Besides, Potter is an entirely different person. I'm just a Pemberton daughter, overshadowed by my better siblings." She added, feeling bitter over how everyone seemed to always prefer a goofball like Randall or prim and proper Gwen.

"Well, I think you're pretty great." Susan said.

Elyon couldn't help it and smiled, feeling a warm feeling in her chest.


History of Magic was a pain.

Elyon had always loved history, but this had seriously disappointed her as the teacher were a ghost and he had the world's...

Most.

Boring.

Voice.

'Merlin, what did I do to deserve this...' Elyon thought for herself and yawned, fighting to stay awake.

When the bell rang out by lunchtime, she had almost rushed to the Great Hall with Susan at her heels. "Ugh...I thought I was going to faint." She yawned. "Did you get any notes?"

"All I could manage with." Elyon sighed. "We take a look on that later. Let's see what's for lunch, shall we?"

They entered the Great Hall and Elyon saw that most of the students had formed their groups of friends, sitting together and talking.

Suddenly she felt very anxious, her ears and cheeks burned when she heard her fellow badgers talking about her face-off with Malfoy. She passed the Slytherin table, unable to block away the sounds of snickers and leers. She had really made herself impopular among the snakes.

Susan stopped in her tracks when she saw Elyon wasn't following her. "What's wrong?"

"I think I need to sit for myself for now. I can meet your friends later, maybe?" Elyon said, hating how weak her voice sounded like. But she couldn't bear meeting more, new people and now when the every first-year in Hufflepuff and Slytherin talked about her...

Her new friend looked confused, but nodded anyways. "It's okay, you can just join us whenever you want." Susan patted her on the shoulder and left, settling down by the middle of the Hufflepuff table, joining her four friends who greeted her back happily.

Elyon, however, sat for herself and didn't felt hungry anymore. She sighed as she buried her face in her hands. Why did she do that? Now she had ruined her only chance to have friends, like a normal person.

But she weren't normal. She started to regret putting on that bloody hairclip, it attracted the attention of everyone and she couldn't stand people whispering about her. Randall and Gwen didn't had that kind of problems, but they weren't personally chosen to become their grandfather's successor.

Elyon perked up when she heard a small noise and looked up, there were Granger from Gryffindor with a glass of water on her hand. "Here." She said and put it in front of Elyon, on the table. "You looked like you're having an headache, so I took the liberty to bring you some water. But you really should go to the Hospital Wing, if you're feeling ill."

"Thank you..." Elyon said slowly, surprised that anyone had taken notice of her. "You're Granger, right? I remember you from the Sorting, I heard when you told Susan about the ceiling was enchanted."

Granger looked very pleased that someone had cared what she said. "I didn't knew you listened, it's great when someone does. Everyone always sighs or ignores me when I tell them very important facts they should know. You can call me Hermione. And you are?"

"Elyon. Elyon Pemberton." She replied. "I don't mind someone telling me facts, it's very interesting and I like to learn something new everyday."

Hermione smiled and took a beside her. "We're going to have Herbology together, so I hope you don't mind if we keep together?"

"No, not at all!" Elyon said hastily. "I-I don't have so many friends and I think I might ruined my chances..." She explained slowly, looking down. "I have never had any friends before, I used to always sit inside and read."

"I did that too." Hermione said and helped herself a little lunch. "I had a cousin to talk with back home, but we weren't really close. But then my Hogwarts letter came and I was so excited to begin here, to make perhaps real friends. How about you?"

"I have always known about Hogwarts, but for a year ago, my parents were unsure of where to send me because there's more than one school." Elyon told her. "I'm half-Korean on my mother's side and while she went here on Hogwarts, she had thoughts about sending me to Korea. But my grandfather told it was better if I went to Hogwarts, so...that's that."

"Oh, so your entire family are witches and wizards on both sides?" Hermione broke into a cheerful smile. "Like the Weasleys?"

Elyon nodded. "Yes, I believe so. I'm British on my father's side. I have actually met with the Weasleys because we don't live far away from each other. Around six, seven miles, I'd believe."

"You can always talk with him and Harry, they seems very nice. But I can't figure out why they're not really keen on socializing with me."

Elyon looked behind her, watching the mentioned Weasley talk and joke around with Harry. She felt suddenly very lonely, what she would do to have such friendship one day. To talk about anything, laugh about jokes and tell about their day. Every moment of such friendship, she would treasure it forever."

She turned to Hermione, who read a book while she ate her lunch. "We can be friends!" Elyon blurted out. "I-I mean, since we both haven't had much friends and so..." She stammered. "You can always say no, I don't mind. I really shouldn't said such thing-"

"I'd like to." Hermione said and looked up from her book, The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1. "I don't care much about "house enemies". It would be wonderful to have a Hufflepuff friend like you."

Elyon felt her cheeks burn. "You really mean it?" She asked, her chest felt so warm and Elyon knew she was both happy and touched. "Thank you so much, I won't disappoint you." She suddenly felt very hungry and helped herself some spaghetti. "By the way, have you had Transfiguration yet?"


Rest of the week were very eventful. Elyon was perhaps lonely in her own house, but her meeting with Hermione had truly improved her self esteem and she felt that the best way to get through this was to simply be herself.

Elyon met with Hermione again during Herbology, in which they learned about caring for magical plants. She was pleased to show her knowledge about herbs, it wasn't that hard for her. Herbology and Potions were co-operating since you needed to grow the ingredients for the draughts.

But if there were something Elyon enjoyed herself in, it was Charms and it was the only other class Hufflepuff shared with Gryffindor.

Charms were much more than to just swing your wand and pronounce a few words, Elyon knew that. But to her surprise, she found the class being enjoyable and not only that, she did got paired up with Harry's friend, Ron.

"Careful!" Elyon exclaimed when Ron swung his wand too aggressively. "Blimey, you'll poke someone's eye with that. I think I should try."

Ron seemed very annoyed that he didn't got it right. "Sure." He shrugged and Elyon nodded, they exchanged places so now Elyon was the opponent and Ron was the subjective.

She took a deep breath and swung her wand. "Expelliarmus!" There were a flash and Ron's wand flew up from his grip, allowing her to catch it in her right hand. "Did you saw that?!" She exclaimed. "That was amazing!"

Just then, Professor Flitwich came by them. "Very well done, miss Pemberton. As you see, concentration holds a great deal of importance in casting spells and charms."

"Can we switch now, I think I got it." Ron said once Flitwick turned to Hermione who successfully disarmed Harry on the first try.

Elyon nodded eagerly, handing over his wand back. "Here you go. Oh and don't forget the wand movement, circulate and straight." She reminded him as she took the place as the objective.

"I know, I know." Ron said. "Now...Expelliarmus!" He shouted and swung his wand.

This time, he successfully disarmed Elyon and she didn't mind at all. In contrast, she was very happy.

"Great job, Weasley!" She squealed and clapped her hands. "Now you really got it!"

Ron shrugged. "It was nothing. You're good at telling what to do. You just add more details." He said as he threw her back the wand, ready for a go again.

"Yes, I figured maybe you need more concrete advices in casting spells. I enjoyed working in pairs." She said happily while she disarmed him again.

"You're not so bad yourself. I saw you use your left hand, by the way."

Elyon shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, I'm a lefty. My right hand got broken once and I couldn't use it at all, so I used my left hand for months and it just stuck." She explained, wincing when it was Ron's turn to disarm her and he did a splendid job. "Besides, I always favored left hand before. I only used my right hand before, because I didn't wanted to differ from my siblings."

"Yes, we met your brother Randall. He hangs around Fred and George a lot, they talk about him a lot." Ron said. "Pity he's kinda stupid at times."

Elyon couldn't help than to laugh. "Yes, Randall is stupid. But he got the heart at the right place and he cares so much."

And before they knew it, the lesson was over and they returned to their seats, writing down notes for their homework and Flitwick handed over points for students who did a remarkably good job.

Elyon sat with Ron and Harry in the middle rows.

"-and miss Granger, 10 points to Gryffindor for her knowledge of the Disarming Spell."

"She looks awfully proud of herself, don't you think?" He asked Elyon and Harry quietly as they left Charms afterwards.

Harry shrugged. "If you say so." He said and Elyon thought Ron had a point in that.

"I think it's justified." Elyon said after a moment, deciding to be neutral. "If you know something, then you answer the question correctly. That's how it is."

But neither Harry or Ron could object to that, so the subject changed. It didn't took long before they reached the Entrance Hall.

"This is where we part." harry said as he and Ron started to head to the dungeons, for the first Potions class. "You can come with us later, we're going to meet Hagrid on tea."

Elyon was estatic, spending time with new friends after school? No problem. "I look forward to it!" She exclaimed excited. "I'll meet you two here after my class, I'm having Transfiguration now. See you!"

And with confidence, Elyon sprinted up the stairs for her Transfiguration class and already longed for afternoon to come.


AN: Okay, I apologize a LOT for this delay. Life was getting in the way, depression is never fun and I have started school again, to read up my grades to get a high school diploma.

So far school is fun, I got great teachers and I travel every morning by train (so exciting!).

But I'm going to plan more weekly updates, so let's see if I can do it.

I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and I will see you next time!

- Lunan95

PS. I know Expelliarmus is supposed to be a spell they learn in their second year. But worked for this chapter's purposes...