Author's Note/Disclaimer: I apologize for taking ages to update this story. I don't know what came over me; I must have been under the Imperius Curse or something. Also, some of the material is taken from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which, as you all know, is written by JK Rowling, not me.

Chapter 4

Sore and restless, Lisa tossed and turned in her bed. Madam Pomfrey had confined Lisa to the hospital wing for one more night. All Lisa wanted was to hop out of bed, sprint to her dormitory, and immediately catch up on all her missed work of the past three days. Unfortunately, hopping and sprinting would have to wait until the morning, when the potion the nurse had given her will have finally driven all the pain and swelling from Lisa's body.

The only thing that irritated Lisa more than the loads of schoolwork she couldn't get her hands on ("The key is to rest, my dear, rest!" Madam Pomfrey had scolded her when Lisa begged for her books and parchment) was the fact that Pansy hadn't been punished. Padma had told her that Snape had witnessed the whole episode, and helped Pansy get off the hook. Pansy blamed it all on Peeves, and Snape backed her up.

So embarrassing! Falling half naked into the arms of a Gryffindor after floating around the ceiling like the Heisenberg! At least some good had come out of the episode: ten points went to Gryffindor for Dean's wonderful ability to keep his head in a crisis. Conversely, Padma, Mandy, and Amelia had lost three points apiece for forgetting their wands in their dormitories.

I can't believe they forgot their wands! Lisa thought incredulously to herself. Good thing the Sorting Hat didn't mention common sense as criteria for the first years to get into Ravenclaw. My friends wouldn't have been shafted into Hufflepuff! Still, Lisa thought, they wouldn't have been punished for being stupid if Snape hadn't brought it up with Dumbledore. Snape…that slimy prick….

Thoughts of Snape brought her train of thought back to Pansy. She shuddered. Pansy had commenced her destroy-Lisa's-self-esteem campaign only a couple of hours after the girls' arrival at Hogwarts. Lisa could remember everything perfectly:

Surname beginning with a T, Lisa was one of the last three first years to be sorted. Her heart fluttered with nervous anticipation. One of three! What if she was standing with the rejects? What if they had made a mistake in sending her a letter? What if she wasn't actually a witch and they sent her home on the train instead of sorting her?

Her knees shook as McGonagall called out, "Thomas, Dean," and a black boy, wildly tall for a first year, ambled up to the stool. He sat and plopped the hat onto his head. Lisa was astonished by his steady features and even gait; how could he not be nervous?! She was positively quaking! And the gangly red haired boy next to her looked as if he was about to pass out. Then she noticed his white-knuckled vice grip on the edge of the stool. So he is nervous, she thought to herself.

Ages passed before the sorting hat finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" Dean's knuckles turned their regular color as he yanked the hat off his head, grinning, and practically sprinted to his table.

Now she was one of the last two first years to be sorted. Gulp.

"Turpin, Lisa," McGonagall called over the cheers of the Gryffindors. Trepidation swamped her. The hall hushed as Lisa stumbled to the stool. She jammed the hat on top of her wavy locks. The hat fell over her eyes.

"Hmm, what have we here?" said a quiet voice in her ear. She jumped, startled. The hat laughed softly. "Not a lot of courage, I see, or self-worth, either. If your gleaming intelligence wasn't so obvious, it would be Hufflepuff for you. But no, intelligence overshadows your low self-esteem – which you should really fix, dearie – so it'd better be RAVENCLAW!"

The Ravenclaws sent up a roar as Lisa tore that hat from her head and trotted over to her table. She felt her cheeks flush pink as she took a seat on the bench next to her friend Padma, who she'd met on the train coming to school. Padma grinned and hugged her, and a bunch of other kids clapped her on the back and shook her hand. Instead of paying attention as the last boy was sorted, she focused on steadying her quaking hands in her lap. By the time Ron had been sent over to join the Gryffindors, she had her extremities under control, and the weight of what had just happened hit her like a ton of spell books.

She was in Ravenclaw! She hadn't been left behind! Wooo!

Professor Dumbledore got to his feet and beamed out at the students, his arms spread wide. The students gave him their attention.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you!"

Lisa's giggles at the headmaster's apparent madness transformed into a gasp as the empty dishes in front of her suddenly filled with every food she could imagine. She suddenly realized how hungry she was. Delicious smells bombarded her nostrils, and she couldn't decide what to eat first. She took a little bit of everything.

Then she took a little bit more.

After ten minutes of steady eating, she was more than full. But she couldn't stop herself. She stopped eating to fill her stomach and started eating to satisfy her taste buds. She took more chicken, more potatoes, more vegetables – more everything. Some third years to her right snickered and pointed at her. Padma noticed her fervent eating and leaned in and whispered in Lisa's ear, "Are you…okay?" Lisa merely nodded and helped herself to more lamb.

By the end of deserts, however, Lisa wasn't okay at all. As Dumbledore stood to address the students once again, Lisa turned to Padma. "I'm going to be sick she muttered." Hand over her mouth, she sprang up from the bench and rushed from the Great Hall.

Padma found her in the first floor bathroom, heaving. Kindly, Padma pulled Lisa's hair away from her face and held it while Lisa sent her dinner into the toilet in reverse. When Lisa was done, Padma hugged her while she cried, and then sent her to the sink to rinse her mouth and wash her tear stained face.

"What got into you?" Padma asked, leaning against one of the sinks while Lisa washed up at another.

"Sorry," Lisa muttered by way of explanation. Padma cocked an eyebrow at her, and Lisa elaborated, "I have no clue. I was so full, but…I just couldn't help myself. I just…it's no wonder I'm not skinny."

"What are you on about?" Padma wondered, surprised.

"What, can't you see?" said a voice. The two Ravenclaws jumped as Pansy Parkinson emerged from one of the stalls, grinning mischievously. Neither Padma nor Lisa had thought to check and see if they were alone. Pansy met Lisa's red, streaming eyes in her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Lisa winced, and Pansy turned her gaze to Padma.

"I would think a Ravenclaw could pick up on the obvious," Pansy scoffed. "She's not exactly a broomstick, is she? More like one of the castle's towers."

"She's perfectly average!" Padma cried.

Pansy laughed. "Average? Hah! She just ate half of the food in the great hall! She's a pig! No, a cow!" Pansy laughed at her own joke.

As Lisa glared at Pansy behind her in the mirror, she wasn't sure whose reflection she despised more.