Mauve was sick of patrolling the hallways. Yes, they did need to be on alert in case Sirius Black showed up again, but these patrols were useless. He was smart enough to get in the last time without detection, and the next time he showed up he would most likely do the same. The only thing these patrols were doing was making Mauve more irritable because she was losing sleep.
Her least favorite time patrolling involved the time she met Peeves. She was in the third floor, when a particularly colorful ghost floated down through the ceiling.
"A student out of bed eh? That can be corrected quickly." Peeves put his hands on either side of his mouth, preparing to shout. Mauve quickly intervened.
"First off, I'm not a student. Second, I'm Dumbledore's granddaughter so I expect some respect." Mauve quoted what Dumbledore had told her to say to Peeves when she finally met him.
"Respect not giving, Miss placebo student." Peeves turned upside down with his legs crossed so his hat's points almost hit the ground.
Mauve muttered a spell that caused Peeves's hat points to wrap around his head. He spun right side up and grasped unsuccessfully at his head, trying to get his hat off his head. "You will learn to respect me," Mauve muttered another spell and Peeves was blown through a wall.
Mauve hadn't seen Peeves since then.
The month passed with Mauve being scared out of her wits ever night and then surrounded with chattering students. Those two combined did not make for a happy Mauve. One day she was feeling particularly snippy she yelled at a student - actually yelled at them that everyone else was trying to concentrate - and then ran out of the room.
Mauve couldn't believe what she had just done. She had let her anger control her like she had hoped it never would. I'm turning out like…. Mauve's face twisted up involuntarily and she was forced to let out a sob…. my mother.
Mauve ran up to the only solstice she had left - a magical room on the seventh floor that she discovered one night by chance when she was patrolling. Her sobs turned into full blown crying as she ran and the only thing that kept the students from seeing her breakdown was an invisibility spell she had cast on herself as she ran.
To her dismay when she rounded the corner to the seventh corridor she saw a door where there shouldn't be one yet. She dropped to her knees and with it the spell dropped, and to make her day worse she saw George coming out of the room.
"Mauve! What's the matter? Are you hurt?" George leaned down next to Mauve and inspected her as if expecting to see a wound.
Mauve shook her head and acted on impulse by hugging him. He hesitated, then wrapped his arms around her and whispered encouraging words.
Behind Mauve Fred and Lee appeared loaded with as much food as they could carry. Unbeknownst to Mauve, George motioned to the pair to walk away. Fred seemed concerned but Lee shrugged and nudged him away.
Mauve couldn't remember how long she cried, just that the entire time George stayed with her. When she had no more tears left George suggested they go into the room to talk and since he left the door open they were able to simple walk in.
Before Mauve supposed they were planning, or plotting as she liked to call it, because there was a large desk covered in papers in the corner of the room. Now however, a soft looking couch took up the center of the room and Mauve sank down into it gratefully.
"Do you want to talk about it?" George sat down next to Mauve and looked at her cautiously, as if she were about to start crying again.
"No. Kind of. I don't even know why I was crying." Mauve was just as confused as George, she had never had a breakdown like that - ever.
"Let's start from the beginning: What were you doing before you started crying?" Mauve hung her head in shame.
"I was tutoring, then I lost my head and started yelling at some poor student. I was so shocked that I just tried to get away. I didn't want to yell anymore, I just wanted to escape from the situation."
George seemed surprised, "you broke down because you yelled at some bloke? Why would you do that?"
"I already told you I don't know, can we just - I don't know - forget this ever happened?" Mauves voice dropped near the end of her sentence and she stood up; ignoring how tired she had become suddenly.
"Do you want some tea?" George stood up.
"What?" He didn't answer, only headed over to the new kitchen area that had appeared in the now larger room.
"You can sit down while you wait, it'll only be a few minutes." Mauve glanced at the couch, then back at George, hesitant. He had found a teapot and filled it with water, then placed it on the stove and placed a spell on it.
"One lump or two?" George located two cups and a sugar container without difficulty. Now he was looking at her expectantly.
"Um, two please." Mauve sat down, confused at how this day changed so much in so little time.
Over tea Mauve shared that she was afraid to turn into a person controlled by their anger, she knew someone like that and she never wanted to end up like that person. Thankfully, George didn't push to know who that person was, he listened and commented but didn't judge outwardly.
Unfortunately the good times couldn't last, Mauve had to go back to her classroom and apologize. When she returned the student in question was still there, and seemed to accept that Mauve was stressed out and didn't mean to lash out at him, that it could have happened to anyone.
Mauve was glad that moment was over with, as well as the repercussions. Afterward some students seemed afraid of her, and Dumbledore had a chat with her about why she lashed out. He seemed to accept her reasoning, saying everyone was stressed with the recent events but that she must not take her anger out at the students again.
One good thing that came out of that event was the improved relationship with George. They could now honestly say they were friends. They had even planned to sit together as a large group at the upcoming match. The entire Gryffindor house seemed excited because apparently "if the Ravenclaws win we still have a shot at the cup!", as Fred told her.
The day of the match Mauve bundled up and met the group in the stands. Kara and April waved when they saw Mauve and Fred, George, and Jeremiah did the guy half wave.
Mauve situated herself in the spot left for her, in between Kara and George. The two groups were still getting used to each other. Mauve's friends weren't in Gryffindor and they were all older than George, Fred, and Lee so they hadn't had many chances to mingle before.
When Mauve first brought it up the conversation went like so:
"You want us to hang out with those trouble makers?" Jeremiah looked unhappy as he dangled his feet into the lake. He was sitting on the edge of a large rock with Kara next to him, then Mauve, then April.
"You hang out with me don't you?" Kara brought up a good point.
"Yea, but you don't make things explode for fun." He thought for a moment, "you don't, right?"
Kara looked guilty for a moment then laughed, "I could if I knew how, they make their own bombs right Mauve?"
"That, among other things. But that's the most distractive thing they have made!" Mauve tried to defend them.
"Didn't you say they were planning to make exploding candy but you shot them down?" April said with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Ha! Proof we shouldn't hang out with them." Jeremiah put his hands up to emphasize.
"Oh, I'll push you off this rock and feed you to the octopus of you don't stop being an arse." Kara looked ready to do just that so Mauve spoke quickly.
"Yes, they wanted to do that but I convinced them not to so that shows they're not pure evil."
"Not yet." Jeremiah said reluctantly, "but I guess we can hang out with them until they prove they are evil." On that note Kara did actually push Jeremiah over, he landed with a "plunk". Mauve and April tried to hold their laughter in but failed, while Kara laughed out right.
They all seemed very friendly now though, April was laughing at an idea that Fred had about a wand that turns into a rubber duck and Jeremiah was talking to George about guy stuff. That left Mauve to lean awkwardly over so that Jeremiah could talk to George while she started a conversation with Kara.
"Are you emotionally invested in this game" Mauve was wondering if the Slytherins had anything to gain in this match.
"Well as a house the Slytherins are hoping that Hufflepuff will win so the Gryffindors won't have a chance at getting the cup, as if that will happen. As me, I don't care either way, I just like to watch the matches. Especially when the Slytherins get hit by a bludger." Kara smiled, reliving her favorite moments in Quidditch.
"Why are you in Slytherin if you don't want to be in Slytherin?" Mauve had always wanted to know the answer, and now she felt like she knew Kara well enough to ask her.
"Because it's easier to be in a house I hate and not have to deal with my parents than be in a house I love and having to listen to them rant to me about how I have 'disgraced the family name' or something like that." Kara trailed off when it came to the end of the sentence and glared at the field, even though the game hadn't started yet.
"It must be pretty bad, talking with your parents. Seeing as you spent more time here than at your house you would think you would rather be happier here. That way you would only have to listen to your parents during breaks."
"You would think that, but if I ended up in a house other than Slytherin I would have been shipped off to another school within the minute, and I would never hear the end of it from my parents."
"I didn't realize." Mauve felt horrible for bringing it up, she wrapped her arm around Kara's shoulders and said "I'm glad you're in Slytherin then, otherwise you wouldn't be here."
Kara smiled and when April saw the hug she joined in, just in time for everyone to stand and watch the players walk down from the changing rooms and get ready to play.
The game went well, George and Fred were overjoyed that Ravenclaw won. When they had 'whooped' Kara muttered "obviously" to deaf ears.
It seems like an abrupt ending because I ran out of creative juices. I'll get them back, I just wanted to post this seeing as I almost promised to post last week, but I got busy. I won't waste my excuses, you don't want to hear them anyway. Please review, those always get me in the mood to write!
And if you're bored you can check out ScarletSecrets123's story called Destiny's Pawn which is also in the Harry Potter universe :)