"Miss Bridgewell!"
Pauline jerked awake to find a scowling potions professor's face inches away from hers.
"If you are going to fall asleep in class," Snape sneered, "Then I would prefer it to do it in another class and not one that you need desperate help in."
"I'm sorry, Professor Snape," she replied timidly as she tried to break eye contact with his cold eyes.
The greasy haired man folded his arms, let out a very heavy sigh, when the door from behind the class slammed open to reveal a much disheveled Gryffindor.
"Mr. Potter! Third day of classes and you show up late to mine!" Snape yelled as he paced himself to the back of the dungeon and yanked the boy by the ear to the front of the room. He pushed Harry into the seat next to Pauline and pointed at the two of them.
"Detention tonight, both of you."
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"Way to be setting an example for me, Pauline," Angelica said as she sat with her sister, Cecelia, and Abigail under a tree in the courtyard, "Weren't you suppose to be more responsible than that?"
"Shut up, Angie," the brunette mumbled under her hands as she lay on the grass.
As if it wasn't bad enough that Shri still refused to speak to her or any of the others, she was losing sleep over what to do about the offer of private lessons with Professor McGonagall. She wasn't going to tell her parents, but they had found out anyways and could not be prouder. Now her little sister was giving her a hard time for not accepting the opportunity right then and there. She just wanted to curl up into a ball and throw herself in the lake. Maybe she and the giant squid could get well acquainted.
"Shri just walked by with those Patil twins," Abigail said as she shook Pauline's foot. Not wanting to miss another chance, the Hufflepuff bolted up to her feet and chased after the Ravenclaw girl.
"Shri!" she called and finally gained her attention, "Thank goodness. I really need to talk to you."
"Well, make it quick," the Indian girl said as the other two giggled and whispered to each other.
"Umm… could we talk privately maybe?"
Rolling her eyes, Shri asked the Patil twins to wait for her outside of Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She turned back to Pauline with perked lips as if she had eaten something sour.
"Well," she said as she got irritated, "I'm waiting for it."
"I know you're still sore about McGonagall asking me to take some more lessons with her, but it's not my fault," Pauline said, "It's not like I asked her for them. I know I'm not as brilliant as you, but you don't need to be mad at me for something a professor asked me."
Shri scowl did not seem to be tethering at all. Pauline thought that Professor Snape's glare was this worst, but he had nothing on what the Ravenclaw girl had. Her glare never wavered.
"So you've made your decision on what you are going to do?" she asked as if she was tasting vinegar.
Pauline did not understand where all this hate was coming from. She knew how Shri got when she was bested by Hermione Granger, but this was something worse. This was like jealousy that she had never experienced before.
"You probably shouldn't," Shri continued as she pulled a thread off of Pauline's vest, "You wouldn't be able to handle the first week. How would you find time to study for your other classes? Perhaps you shouldn't even show up to the next meeting at all."
And then something snapped in Pauline. She may not understand why her "friend" was acting this way towards her, but this was not right. There was a loud pop heard through the air and all of the students in the courtyard stared. Shri was holding her cheek as a red hand print showed against her tan cheek. Pauline felt a sting in her hand and hot tears roll down her face.
"I'll show you," she said softly, "I'll show you!"
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Sulking in the girl's bathroom, Pauline hugged her knees close to her body with her face buried in them. She couldn't believe what she had done. She hadn't hit anyone in a long time and never had it been a friend. So much for being fair and loyal, she was sure that she had caused her house to lose points for being aggressive to another student.
"It wasn't like she didn't deserve it," she muttered to herself, "But it's not like she needed it either."
"Pauline," said a voice from behind the stall door, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," she squeaked and cleared her voice before getting off the floor. She unlocked the door to find a frizzy haired, brown eyed Gryffindor with a look of sympathy on her face.
"I saw what happened in the courtyard," Hermione said as she offered her a handkerchief.
"Of course you did," Pauline said as she wiped her face, "Everyone did." She felt her hand start to shake and she balled it up to hope it would stop.
"Everyone thought it was brilliant," the smartest witch in her class giggled as she tried to lighten up the mood.
"Shri didn't deserve that," she said as she handed the handkerchief back and walked over to the sink to splash water in her face, "I should have done something else."
"Well maybe you could have," Hermione said as she got a towel for her, "but there is no point in worrying about it now. Sure most of Ravenclaw will hate you for slapping one of their best students, but you'll prove to that Indian snob that you're more than just a kind face."
"Wait, so you know about the lesson McGonagall offered to me?"
Hermione nodded, "She asked me to see if there was any way to convince you that you should take her offer."
That comment made Pauline give Hermione a weird look.
"Oh I had nothing to do with those mean things Shri said. That was all her," she said as she defended herself.
"Well there's no point in taking them," Pauline lamented as they left the girl's restroom, "Shri is right. There is no way I could keep up with the lessons and my studies. I'm struggling in potion already. I even have detention on the first week."
Hermione caught her hand and made her look at her, "You're more than what you give yourself credit for. You were the girl who turned a spider into tumble on the first try. You have the talent that would make anyone envious. Just try."
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Cleaning the trophies with the famous Harry Potter would make Abigail squeal with delight, but for Pauline, she was consumed with what happened earlier that day.
"Umm… Pauline," he said as he pulled her back from her dazed state, "I think that one is polished enough."
"Oh right," she said as she look at the shiny house cup in her lap and moved on to the next one.
This was awkward. This was very awkward. She had mostly talked to his other two friends, but rarely had she talked to the main focus of their small pod. Maybe she should have let Abigail make some polyjuice potion and do this for the night. It would have been a whole lot easier than having her sit here with her head swarming with thoughts.
"So," Pauline squeaked, "Excited about the new Quidditch season?"
"I guess," he replied as he grabbed a new trophy to polish, "Doesn't mean Oliver is going to back down on all the practicing he'll have. He wants the Quidditch cup so bad this year."
"Oh Oliver," she said as she felt a little blush coming to her face, "It's his last year, isn't it?"
"Yeah," the Gryffindor replied as he took a break and looked at the clock, "Only an hour has passed. How long are we here again?"
"Till midnight," she said as she felt the awkwardness sink in again.
"You and I don't talk much, do we?" he asked as he looked her in the face, "Ron talks about you a lot though. He says you have a knack for beater."
"Oh, I'm not that good," she said breaking eye contact with him and going back to the house cup she is polishing, "Not compared to his brothers. My dad was a beater for Hufflepuff when he was a student here. They said he had true talent, but he had a terrible injury. He walks with a cane now-a-days. He hates it."
"How did it happen?"
"Dad really doesn't like to talk about it."
"Oh," and again the awkwardness took over and again another hour painfully went by. There was no point in trying to catch his interest, but then an idea came to mind. It would seem awful to do, but it might actually work in a way.
"Umm… Harry," she said meekly, "Perhaps you and I could be partners in Potions this year, well seeing that we got detention together."