Santana could feel his scratchy face against her cheek. She felt his strong arms lift her up from the ground, and the warm air that played through her hair as he whispered that she was his angel and he would be back for her soon. Then he was gone. The door had shut. All the warmth seemed to have left the room with her father, leaving it cold and empty. Santana ran to her mother, a lone figure standing in the kitchen, watching through the window as Santana's father slowly disappeared into the distance. When the little girl wrapped her arms around her mother, sobbing quietly, Mrs. Lopez could only place a hand on her seven-year-old daughter's head, still watching the retreating figure as a single tear rolled down her cheek. She knew that Santana's father was not coming back soon. She knew that he would not be bursting into the house again as he'd promised, eyes sparkling, overjoyed to see his young, beautiful daughter running towards him and his wife smiling from the kitchen. This had been goodbye. Santana looked up into her mother's eyes and saw something there that she couldn't quite understand. Her father had left many times before, but he had always returned a few days later. Why was her mother looking so heartbroken? So lost? Her mother's eyes betrayed it all. Santana may have been young, but in that moment she understood that her father wasn't coming back. She began to cry even harder and pushed at the older woman, suddenly angry, and sprinted out the door. Mrs. Lopez watched her daughter run up the sidewalk, but her father's figure had already faded into the sunset. Santana continued to run, tears streaming down her face.
"Papa!" she shouted into the darkening sky.
"Papa! Papa! Papa!"
There was no response. Santana's father had always come when she called. She slumped to the ground exhausted, sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, clutching her knees to her chest as she continued to cry. She held her hand to her body, cradling a small golden ring in her palm. Santana's father had given it to her the day before, smiling as he had slid it onto her pointer finger. It was all she had left of him. Why would he leave her? HOW could he leave her?
When Santana returned to her house half an hour later, her tears had dried. Her eyes were puffy, and her mouth quivered, but she was done crying. Her father was gone, but she had decided that he must have had a good reason. She walked silently by her mother, who had opened her mouth as if to speak, but then Santana was past her, her bedroom door closing behind her. In that moment of silence, Santana was sure she heard a muffled sob from the hallway as her mother finally allowed herself to cry.
"Papa?" Santana sat up in bed, and was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she had cried out to a room of sleeping pre-teen girls. One of them stirred slightly, but none of them seemed to have registered that Santana had shouted, or that she was even awake. Santana's embarrassment quickly turned to relief, which then morphed into anger. Why would she be dreaming about her father? It had been years now since the day she'd sat bawling on the pavement. She was over it, so why now? She let out a frustrated sigh, and quietly got out of bed, sliding into a pair of worn slippers. She softly padded across the dormitory, carefully closing the door behind herself before making her way up the stairs to the Slytherin common room. Normally Santana didn't mind the dungeons, but on this night she wished that she could have been somewhere closer to the night sky. The green tapestries and low hanging torches were no longer foreign. They'd become her home. This was her second year at Hogwarts, and she had found that late at night, the common room was a good place for her to gather her thoughts. She had never encountered anyone else there in those early morning hours, and so she jumped when a boy suddenly got up from one of the soft green armchairs by the fire.
"I swear I'm going to bed, I was ju-, oh it's just you," he said quickly, relaxing as he recognized Santana's face in the flickering light.
"Hi Puck," Santana greeted.
She was surprised to see him here, but for some reason, on this night, his presence didn't bother her. Puck sank back down into the armchair, and Santana took the one across from him, making sure that there was still a chair between them. They sat there in comfortable silence for a long time, both lost in the fire and their own thoughts.
"Today's my mother's birthday," Puck suddenly said.
Santana started. She had almost forgotten that he was there.
"She would have been 39."
Santana opened her mouth to speak, but the 'Grow up,' or 'Get over it,' she was expecting to come out caught in her throat, and instead she just looked at him. Puck seemed just as surprised as Santana that she hadn't replied with something insolent or biting. They had built a type of friendship over that past year, but it stood mostly on pillars of coy words and blatant, witty teasing. Santana couldn't remember the last time she and Puck had discussed something other than the terrible Mohawk he'd gotten that Summer, or her skinny arms. She noticed Puck playing with a small necklace around his neck. It was a simple piece of jewelry, a small Celtic charm hanging from a silver chain.
"She gave that to you." Santana stated, and Puck merely nodded, looking more forlorn than she'd ever seen him.
She thought for a second, and then lifted her right hand, showing him the small golden ring she still wore on her pinky. Puck didn't speak, and Santana was glad. She wasn't sure why she was being so open all of a sudden, and she thought that if Puck had said something sappy or even tried to ask about her father, she might have smacked him over the head and returned to her dormitory. In that moment though, they both understood each other. They didn't speak for the rest of the night, and only when they heard the sounds of students getting out of bed below them did they finally get out of their chairs. Puck turned down towards the boys' dormitories.
"Lopez!" he said as he turned, signaling that this night, however comforting it may have been, was over, and that their friendship was back to normal.
"I'll see you in charms, mullet boy!" Santana snapped at his retreating figure.
"Not a mullet!" He called back to her, and though Santana couldn't see it, he smiled.
"I just don't understand why that Berry girl would ever think it was alright to wear those terrible earrings! I mean, they're OWL claws!"
Santana was walking across the grounds with two of the girls from her dormitory, heading to their Care of Magical Creatures lesson. One, a tall girl with wavy auburn hair called Jenn was ranting about her classmates' terrible fashion tastes, as usual. The second girl, Jade, who was smaller than both Jenn and Santana, had to trot every now and then to keep up with the two. She had shiny black hair and striking green eyes. Though she'd never admit it, Santana almost envied Jade's features. They were so beautiful. Santana supposed she could call these two her 'best friends,' but honestly, each of them was much more interested in maintaining their elevated social status than in genuine friendships with each other, and all three knew it.
"I know, but I think they're better than that terrible sweater she wore last week… You know, the one with the purple and orange puffballs? She would do well to take some lessons from you or San," replied Jade sympathetically, and Jenn smiled smugly.
"She almost reminds me of this weird house elf Puck told me used to live here. Apparently he ran around with like twenty hats and mismatching socks, you know? Then again, she might be a little weirder now that I think about it, I doubt the house elf would have suggested we all sing a song together to 'remember our basic potions,' " Santana contributed. The three of them laughed their way across the green at the oblivious Rachel Berry's expense.
Santana and her two friends had just barely contained their laughter when they joined their fellow classmates outside the cabin where they always had their lessons. A massive man wearing a large brown coat and bright smile was addressing the class through a frizzy mane of black beard and wild hair.
"… and then you grab the botruckle firmly, but not too firmly, you don't want to hurt him, and slowly stroke"
The three Slytherin girls burst out into renewed hysterics. A few of the Hufflepuffs they were sharing the lesson with glanced over at them disapprovingly, but the professor tried to ignore them and plowed on.
"They have very sharp fingers, and they'll cut you if they get a good swipe at ye' so you lot try to be careful. Alright?"
"Professor Hagrid, what exactly are we supposed to be doing with the botruckles?" asked a timid red-haired Hufflepuff girl, gesturing at the bucket containing the small, tree-like creatures.
"Oh! Well you feed them of course!" laughed Hagrid sounding bemused, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
He then turned their attention to a large bucket of what Santana though looked like maggots.
"Wood lice!" said Hagrid happily.
"We're supposed to TOUCH those disgusting things?" asked Jenn, sounding revolted.
"Aw come off it! They're just wood lice," said Hagrid, confused by his class's obvious lack of enthusiasm. "Completely harmless!"
"I'll do it, Hagrid!"
A blonde Hufflepuff girl had lightly bounded forward and was standing next to Hagrid, beaming up at him.
"Come on everyone, take a leaf out of Brittany's book and get excited! These are interesting creatures!" Hagrid said, looking down at Brittany with obvious affection.
"Now THAT'll be the day," snorted a thoroughly unimpressed Jenn. "That girl gets way too excited about anything. She'd probably do one of those ridiculous dances if she found a knut in the corridor."
"You know, I did hear she was really poor" chimed in Jade.
"That would explain a lot," sneered Jenn as the class moved up towards the table.
"I haven't heard anything like that," snapped Santana.
Santana wasn't sure why, but hearing both of them mocking the girl who had been so kind to her that first night at Hogwarts had quickly made the blood rise to her head. Her two friends also noticed the change, and dropped it, exchanging confused looks with one another. Santana was immediately embarrassed. The Brittany girl was no different than the Berry girl, or any of the others she made fun of on a daily basis. Santana hadn't even spoken to her outside of a few polite sentences like 'could you pass the powdered dragon claw' or 'why does Professor Sprout think it's alright to never shower?' since the night she'd been sorted. Who cared? She angrily snatched up one of the botruckles, which immediately sliced her with one of its long, root-like limbs. Santanaa swore loudly.
The same red haired girl who had asked Hagrid a question earlier giggled, and whispered something to her friend about how Santana wouldn't have been cut if she'd just listened before. Santana turned, sucking her cut thumb, narrowing her eyes and opening her mouth to retort when Brittany stepped right between her and the whispering girl.
"Hi!" She said brightly. "Do you remember me?"
Of course Santana remembered her. What a stupid question.
"Of cour- I mean, yeah, we met at the sorting right?"
"Exactly!" Brittany beamed. "My normal partner got really sick, and my horoscope told me I should stay away from the color yellow today," she said, eyeing the Hufflepuffs suspiciously.
"So do you want to be my partner today?"
Brittany clearly took Santana's slightly ajar mouth as a yes, and grabbed her arm, leading her towards the bucket of wood lice. Santana looked back towards Jenn and Jade, who were both watching the interaction. They looked confused and suspicious. Santana was momentarily worried, but then decided she didn't care and followed Brittany.
"I think you're hurting him," Brittany giggled once they were settled in a patch of grass with a handful of woodlice between them.
"So?" Asked Santana, before she could catch herself. "I mean…"
Brittany frowned a little.
"He's still a creature, he can feel things, you know."
Santana was about to say that he was more of a plant, or a root than a 'creature' but when she looked at Brittany's concerned face she thought better of it, and set the botruckle down.
"Sorry," she said, but the blonde girl was already preoccupied trying to get the botruckle to eat.
"I have a cat at home, but he never has problems eating. He mostly eats human food," mused Brittany as she nudged some wood lice closer towards what Santana had decided looked like a small, gnarled tree-man. He ignored the girl's efforts and glared at Santana. "His name is Lord Tubbington."
Santana didn't know what to say, so she just watched Brittany as she continued determinedly pushing wood lice towards the botruckle, all the while telling him he was being rude and that he should stop being so stubborn.
"Can you meet me tonight at eleven?"
Brittany's forward question had caught Santana completely off guard.
"What?"
"Tonight. Can you come? I want to show you something."
"But, why?" asked Santana.
"It's a surprise!" said Brittany with a grin as she bent to pick up the wood lice.
Santana stood also, and swept up the botruckle in one smooth motion.
"I really don't think I- OW!" Santana yelped as the creature bit her hand. She scowled.
"Meet me at the portrait of the alligator eating watermelon on the third floor, just be careful not to get caught," Brittany advised.
She looked at Santana's bleeding hand and seemed to reflect a little before saying, "He's really not very nice is he?" She bent down to the botruckle. "You should be nicer to Santana," and with that Brittany skipped away to walk besides a Hufflepuff boy Santana thought was called Finn.
Santana was still in a state of mild shock when Jenn and Jade appeared at her sides. Jenn opened her mouth to speak, but the look Santana threw her made her close it again promptly. Santana was still the leader, if she wanted to be friends with the blonde Hufflepuff girl, then she could be. They didn't speak for the entire walk up to the castle.
Santana waited until she heard deep, even breathing from every bed in her dormitory before she silently slipped out of her own, fully clothed. What are you doing? She asked herself as she made her way through the Slytherin common room, but she kept walking. She stepped across the worn green carpet and out of the common room. Santana watched the passage behind her quickly change back into a damp stone, wall, and set out up the steps towards the third floor. Everywhere around her Santana thought she heard footsteps, or small animals scurrying. By the time she had nearly reached the portrait of the sly looking alligator gnawing a piece of ripe melon, Santana was beginning to regret ever getting out of bed to begin with.
"Psst! Santana!" A voice whispered from the shadows, and before the Latina could even respond, a long slender arm had reached out and pulled Santana back into the darkness with her. "I knew you'd come!" beamed Brittany.
"Well yeah, I… What did you want to show me?" Santana whispered back.
"Follow me!" and Brittany took Santana's hand and began to run back down the stairs.
They were sprinting through the corridors, laughing hard. Santana didn't know why she was laughing, but Brittany had begun to giggle as they ran, and it was strangely infectious. They both stopped short as they turned a corner and saw a scrawny, skeletal cat sitting in a pool of moonlight. The mirth was suddenly gone from Santana, and she began to breathe more quickly.
"Brittany, isn't that-"
"Mrs. Norris!" Brittany happily said, nimbly walking over to the cat. It rubbed itself against Brittany's legs, purring as she reached down and stroked behind its ears.
Santana was dumbfounded. Wasn't this Filch's cat? The one that answered only to him? She had heard that running into Mrs. Norris in the dead of night was just as bad as colliding with the caretaker himself. Yet here was Brittany, completely unconcerned as the cat flopped onto its back and showed Brittany its tummy. Brittany obligingly scratched as the puzzled Santana came up besides her.
"Mrs. Norris isn't as bad as everyone thinks she is." Brittany stated, standing up straight again and looking down at the feline. "People just don't take the time to understand her."
With that, she had taken Santana's hand again and was leading her through the castle's twisted hallways. They stopped finally outside a door Santana had never noticed before. Brittany turned to face Santana, her hand resting on the door-knob.
"So I heard that you were going to try out for the Quidditch team," She began.
Santana was a little taken aback by Brittany's choice of subject, but answered none-the-less, "Yeah I was thinking about it… I mean I've never really played, but I was goalie back in Ohio so I thought I'd at least try."
Brittany grinned again, opened the door, and led Santana inside. They were standing in a massive room, its walls lined with torches and gleaming trophy cases. All around their heads there were bewitched golf balls flying and, Santana laughed, soccer balls.
"I was in here with Finn the other day and I saw this," said Brittany, steering Santana towards the back of the room towards an imposing glass case.
Behind its crystalline walls hundreds of awards and photos gleamed in the firelight. Brittany pointed to a faded picture of a Latina girl in green robes atop a broomstick, smiling and holding a bright red ball above her head as her teammates silently cried out in glee and her on the back.
"I thought that she looked like you." Said Brittany. "She's really pretty."
Santana blushed at Brittany's compliment. Many people had told her she was pretty, but it felt much more genuine coming from the blonde girl standing besides her.
"Anyways, it made me think about how I'd heard you were going to try out, and today when we were feeding the botruckle I got this idea…"
Santana chose not to remind Brittany of the fact that she really had not helped with the botruckle at all. Brittany was looking up at the ceiling now at all of the enchanted sports equipment circling their heads.
"So I asked Finn if he could get some of his older friends to enchant these, so that you could practice. I'm not very good at spells yet, but I would have done it myself if I could," Brittany continued excitedly. "You can take them outside with you! The soccer balls are enchanted to fly at the hoops and the golf balls fly around like snitches. I wasn't sure if you wanted to be a catcher or a keeper or a seeker, so I just asked them to enchant them both"
"Actually Brittany, I was going to try out to be a beater," said Santana, trying to look serious.
Brittany's face fell almost comically before Santana laughed out loud and told her she was only joking.
"So you like it?" Asked Brittany tentatively.
"I love it. Thank you."
Santana moved to hug Brittany, but suddenly felt awkward and just kind of brushed the girl's shoulder with her fist. Brittany didn't seem to mind Santana's strange gesture at all grinned at her. Santana couldn't help it, and grinned right back.