2.

Pansy:

Goodbye good life.

Hello misery.

Hello, weird…girl.

She clasped her hands together and then cupped them to hold them under the stream of water from the faucet. She was in the unused bathroom on the sixth floor. She wet her face. She repeated the action three more times. Tears gathered around Pansy's eyes, and she couldn't hold them back, and they fell bitterly down her face. She bit her lip, holding back a pitiful sob.

Her misfortunes had begun with the loss of her money. Thanks to a decision by her father, a very stupid decision that boiled down to trying to swindle several pureblood families, they had ended up losing everything: their mansion, their house elves, their ancient heirlooms, the family business, and their bright and financially secure future.. At first she had been very angry with him. Now she wanted to turn back time, because a week after they went bankrupt, her father died in an accident. She really wondered if it was an accident or if it was actually something related to the pure blood families. With their money they could do whatever they wanted, even cause an "accident." But the truth, Pansy didn't want to know, she preferred never to face it. What bothered her most now was that her tantrum with him had been her last father-daughter interaction. It hurt. He had always spoiled her and she turned her back on him in his last moments. She blamed herself for it.

Her mother was forced to take charge and get a job in the midst of all that catastrophe; even Pansy had to help with a part-time job until everything settled down. It was the most miserable summer she had lived through in her short existence. With the recent grief of her father's death and a new life as a "poor person" she felt lost and sad.

One would think that arriving at Hogwarts would be a relief for her: seeing her friends again, whom she hadn't spoken to all summer; food of better quality and in greater quantity than she could afford during the summer; and in itself, a place that could feel like home. Not like her new... rented apartment. With gross stains on the ceiling and mismatched colors. Right now, standing in that lonely bathroom, she longed for that disgusting apartment.

Getting on the Hogwarts Express that day, the first thing she did was look for her friends: Draco, Daphne, Blaise, and Theodore. She harbored hope because what her father did or did not do did not define her. Her friends knew that. Right? The answer was no.

As soon as they saw her appear they looked at her with disdain. She got the message right away: she couldn't get close to them. Her father's bad decisions were also her problem, that's how pure-blood families worked. It was a wonderful start to school with her friends excluding her and ending up sitting alone on the train like a leper. Fantastic. The elegant and cunning Pansy went from being a major snake in Slytherin house to a mouse in a snake burrow to nothing after being eaten. She was between a rock and a hard place, waiting for the moment when they attacked her. And that moment came when trying to get out of the train, when they played the practical joke of locking her up. Maybe staying there would have been the best option, it was like a warning from the universe: don't go to Hogwarts.

After dinner, she wished she had left with the train. Daphne and her little sister Astoria cornered her in a hallway and clarified several points that were pretty obvious by then: they didn't trust her anymore, without money she had no reason to belong to that group of "friends" and she had better keep her head down and not draw the attention of any of the Slytherins with more influential families.

She turned off the faucet and headed for the showers. She needed a hot bath to relax and wash off the filth. She literally needed to get the filth off. After the verbal threat she had for dessert after dinner, her head ended up in the water of a toilet. It was too unpleasant. Just thinking about it made her gag. Her stomach was tense, so she eased her body under the hot water of the shower.

"I can't believe they did that," she murmured as she wiped her scalp vigorously. "I never did that to anyone, not even when they owed me a lot of money. It's too unhygienic."

She rinsed away the white foam that contrasted with her black hair and proceeded to wash her body with soap.

"They lack elegance," she growled.

Getting out of the shower she headed to the Slytherin dorms. She was late on purpose, she didn't want to find anyone in the common room. The bigger Slytherins, her now ex-friends, hated her, and the smaller ones weren't going to go against their superiors, if they talked to her it would be a suicidal act for them and their reputations. And to be honest: Why would they risk it for Pansy, someone who always treated them like they were disposable? Now that she had no money, she was disposable.

Pansy Parkinson suspected that karma hadn't even claimed half of her sins. Now that was discouraging.

. . .

The bulk of Slytherin had found new games, such as: put weird things in Pansy's food; put your foot in her way so she falls on her ugly face; take the mattress out of her bed and throw it into the lake to see if the giant squid will take it with any luck; use Pansy's clothes as the new and improved decoration of Hogwarts; and a long list of other activities.

Pansy Parkinson was already stressed to the brink and it was only the first week of school. The teachers tried to intervene, but their attempts were quite useless. They punished the offenders, yes, but those who did the deed were some of the most minor in their house who wanted to join the influential group, the popular, or whatever you prefer to call them.

In Slytherin house personal relationships and good social standing are important and it was always useful to keep the richest people happy. Besides, they had the best contraband in Hogwarts, the Weasley twins were a joke in comparison. Did you need a cash advance? Malfoy could help. Better clothes than the ones they sell in Hogsmeade? The Greengrass sisters at your service. Rare and collectible items? Zabini is your man. Also, for Slytherin students who have big ambitions like creating a revolutionary object or even getting revenge on someone, having the favor of the most important families in the wizarding world was a must. This was how purebloods got their way. Did they want to hassle Parkinson? It was easy for them to get a hand, the others would do whatever they asked, whatever it took to continue obtaining favors from the most powerful families.

For this reason, what the teachers did was useless. Unless they disbanded the Slytherin house, that poison impregnated in the root was impossible to purge. In addition, we were talking about the Hogwarts teachers, the same ones who thought it was reasonable to punish their students by taking them to a deadly place like the Forbidden Forest. What were they going to know about mental health and good cohabitation? They were noted for being good magicians, some of them good teachers, and none for helping their students in their personal lives.

Pansy was dragging her suitcase down the hall. She was filling it with her clothes that she found lying around. Again, they had played "decorating Hogwarts with her belongings."

he saw a white shirt hung over the helmet of a suit of armor that decorated the hallway. She tried to reach for it, even jumping, but it was too high. Angrily, she kicked the figure, which to her surprise fell with a thunderous clang. All the figures in the paintings moved and looked at her disapprovingly. She ignored them and grabbed the clothes off the floor.

"That's mine."

Surprised, she spun around, as fast as she could blink. A short blonde girl with, in Pansy's opinion, a bird's nose from the curve in the beak-like bridge, was looking at her expectantly, her eyes wide. Then she looked at the garment in her hands and realized that this shirt was too small to be hers.

The blonde had her hand extended, patiently waiting. Pansy held out the shirt to return it to her. Without even waiting for a thank you, she continued walking, leaving the blonde behind, who soon approached her anyway.

"What have you lost?" Asked the blonde.

"What do you care?"

"It must have been the nargles."

"The what?" Pansy had never heard that word in her life.

"They are creatures that steal people's things. They tend to appear more frequently at Christmas because of the amount of mistletoe, they love it."

The Slytherin wasn't sure those creatures existed. But what really bothered her is that that annoying blonde kept talking to her.

"Who are you?"

"Luna Lovegood."

"And what do you want?"

"To help you."

"Why?"

"Because you helped me," and when she finished speaking, she lifted the shirt in her hand, indicating that she was referring to that object. "Besides, I feel sorry for you."

Pansy looked at her like she was the most annoying bug she had ever encountered.

"You feel sorry for me?" She asked as she looked at Lovegood more closely, noting that she had some twigs in her hair and dust on her nose. Pansy should feel sorry for her, not the other way around!

"Everyone in your house harasses you, nargles steal things from you... They don't treat me well either. I understand you."

"Are you trying to have a friendly conversation with me?" Pansy couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was horrified at the idea.

"Sure, you helped me."

"I didn't…" She started to say quite annoyed, but was interrupted by Ginny Weasley who came running down the hall.

She felt naked at the thought that she could no longer make fun of that redhead for being the daughter of a poor family. She and Weasley were now on an equal footing.

"Luna, there you are! I found one of your shoes. Now only the other one is missing" the redhead smiled from ear to ear as she said it. But when she noticed the Slytherin in front of her, she tensed up and looked her up and down accusingly. With her withering gaze she seemed to ask: What have you done to her?

"Thank you!" Lovegood said as she approached Weasley, leaving behind a Pansy who could only think 'great, the weirdos multiply.'

"Is Parkinson bothering you?" The redhead asked, verbalizing her suspicions.

"Oh no, not at all. Pansy has only bothered the armor. Kicking it. I think she was angry."

She blushed because she had seen her lose control. She had been trying lately to maintain her usual demeanor, her trademark grace, because she refused to let the other Slytherin students manage to defeat her. She could have a thousand problems, but a Parkinson did not lose. Ginny Weasley, on the other hand, oblivious to Pansy's situation, was still looking at her suspiciously. Lovegood added:

"She helped me find my shirt."

"I didn't…" she tried again. But it seemed that no one there wanted to know her version of the events, since the blonde interrupted her again; which irritated her. Were they interrupting her on purpose?

"Pansy also lost clothes to the must search among all, so it will be faster.

Neither Pansy nor Weasley looked pleased at the idea, but the former did not refuse and the latter did not dare to contradict her friend. The truth is that Pansy was already sleepy and to continue searching for what she was missing alone seemed endless. Getting help from the weirdos couldn't be such a bad idea, since nothing in the world was worse than what her life had become. "So what if they see me with Loony Lovegood and poor savage Weasley?" she tried to convince herself, to pretend that her reputation no longer mattered to her. Although it did, a lot. It was just that she was already heartbroken and tired. When was the last time someone offered to help her?

They walked in silence looking for things. They managed to find Lovegood's other shoe hidden behind a wooden bench after a while.

Pansy had never bothered Lovegood personally, but all the rumors about that weird girl from Ravenclaw had made her laugh more than once in the past. As for Weasley, she couldn't say her hands were clean. From time to time she shamelessly dedicated some insults to her, mainly for being a girl who changed boyfriends like she did socks.

Weasley was too talkative not to break the silence, you could tell she was getting impatient. She was essentially so loud that there were even days when the entire Great Hall knew what she was chatting about at the Gryffindor table. Lovegood didn't hear her speak, deep in her own head, she was ahead of them, dancing to an imaginary song. No doubt she was raving mad and so distracted that they could have yelled in her ear and she wouldn't have noticed.

"Parkinson ... I don't know what you're planning, but don't bother Luna."

The aforementioned was surprised and a sarcastic laugh escaped her.

"Weasley, Loony stuck to me like a tick. I didn't look for her at all."

"Don't call her Loony."

"Ah… yes, I'm sorry. Lovegood I meant," she whispered without looking at the redhead, more interested in the search than the conversation.

Ever since she had met with the pair, she hadn't stopped looking around for more clothes instead of looking at them. After a while without anyone saying anything, she felt as if the back of her neck itched. And not real itching, but like someone was watching her intently. Turning to Weasley, she realized that it was she who was watching her. That made her uncomfortable. The girl realized that Pansy was waiting for an explanation, so she asked,

"Did your house hit you so badly on the head that you're apologizing now or what's going on?"

Pansy raised an eyebrow. Fabulous, a Weasley was making fun of her.

"I'm not saying it to be mean," the redhead insisted, although her smile tinged with malice indicated otherwise. "But I didn't expect you to know kind words."

After a while of silence, Pansy said something that surprised even herself. Maybe she just needed to let off some steam with people she totally didn't care about.

"I've spent only a week receiving insults and practical jokes. It's unbearable! It is not that I did not know that those kinds of comments were cruel, but I suppose that when I live them daily in my own life I no longer find them so funny. Also, I'm not in a position to poke fun at Lovegood with all my belongings scattered down the halls."

Weasley stopped short. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. On the verge of hysterical laughter, she said:

"I've lived through crazy things, believe me, even a bloody cursed diary. But this?" A giggle escaped her. "This is crazy!"

Pansy looked at her suspiciously.

"I'm glad you think so, Parkinson," she added. "I'm not saying everything you did is erased, but... let's just say it's okay with me tonight to help you find what the stupid Slytherins hid from you."

Pansy could have complained about the insult to her house, but instead a smile escaped her. It had been days since someone had said anything moderately pleasant to her. It caused a nice feeling in her chest. For a second, the sadness stopped gripping her chest so hard.

"Here!" Cried Lovegood. The two girls looked at the blonde, who was pointing to a corner where there was a green and silver tie. As she dusted it off, she stated the obvious, "This is definitely Pansy's. These nargles must not be very clever, nor did they go out of their way to hide it."

"Brilliant. What are we missing?"

"Nothing for me, the only thing missing was my shoe," Lovegood replied.

"What? So why did you keep looking?" Asked Pansy.

"You're still missing things. I said I would help you."

"You don't have to."

"What you don't have to do is play tough Parkinson," Weasley challenged. "What are you missing?"

"We're not friends, you don't have to be nice to me."

Weasley rolled her eyes, the Slytherin's attitude annoying her.

"What are you missing?" She insisted.

"The winter cloak!"

Pansy's eyes widened in surprise. Lovegood was the one who had said that, not her. Looking at her suitcase, she saw that the blonde had been going through it while she was in the middle of a staring contest with Weasley. Lovegood had a list in her hand. Pansy clicked her tongue as she remembered that she had written down all her belongings after having suffered that practical joke twice; that way she didn't forget to look for anything.

"Perfect," Weasley resolved. "Let's look in the courtyard, we haven't tried there."

Pansy tried to complain, but the two girls ignored her. Weasley even covered her ears to make it clear that she was not going to pay attention to her opinion. To make it more ironic, they were younger than her by a year, in theory they should have more respect for her and accept her refusals.

She heard the pair of friends comment:

"Wait till I tell Hermione about the night we had… she won't believe it! It will be fun to see her reaction, Luna."

Pansy Parkinson could only sigh in resignation. They were going to tell everything to know-it-all Granger. The last thing she needed is for the crazy pair hounding her to be joined by Hogwarts' most notorious bookworm. One of the people she had harassed the most.

But… what was she thinking? Granger having helped her on the train and finding out that she didn't insult the Weasley's most overbearing member that night was not synonymous with her now wanting to spend time with her. She felt foolish, especially for having been delighted and convinced for a few seconds that Lovegood, Weasley, and Granger would speak to her the next day. No doubt the run-in with Loony Lovegood had infected her with madness.