Chapter Four - Lena.

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I walk down the hall, my arms swinging. No one dares to mess with me, not since last year. 

Thinking about last year makes me bite my lip in terror. I don't want those new girls, Saoirse and Peggy, to find out that their new friend is a- well, let's just say that it's partially my fault that Kate is so very strange. 

I'm not looking where I'm going, and suddenly I hit a wall, shoved aside by someone on their way to class. I look up to see Severus Snape, the slimy git with that long hair and bat-like robes, stalking off in the other direction. I quicken my pace to catch up with him, and then shove him on the shoulder, hard. He stumbles and I smirk in spite of myself. 
"What did you do that for?"
I straighten my (ironic) grey vest and turn to him. "It was for shoving me out of the way a moment ago."
Snape glares at me. "Oh, it's you, Fairweather. For a moment, I thought it was someone who had the courage to stand up after something bad happened to them." On that last, he raises his voice.

I roll my eyes, even though that one hurt. "If that's true, then shouldn't you be sitting down?" My whip-quick Ravenclaw mind is excellent at dishing out insults. 
His lip curls. "At least I don't buy all of my clothes at charity shops, like you and that Hufflepuff girl."
For a second, I'm confused. That Hufflepuff girl? I have no idea who that could be.
"Hey, I choose to buy my things there- unlike some people I know."

I can see the hurt filling Snape's eyes, but I don't have time to feel sorry for him. He whips out his wand and shouts, "Engorgio!"
I wince as my nose starts to tingle. I raise my own wand (olive wood and unicorn tail hair, eleven and a half inches) to fire a hex in his direction, but my vision is obscured suddenly as my nose swells and turns a dark purple. 

*   *   *  *

The Hospital Wing is quiet and white and soft-looking, and full of wrinkles. 
No, that's just the curtain pulled around my bed. A voice comes from the one next to mine, and I pull the curtain open.

"You know, personally, I think that cauldron strength should be standardized so that they don't explode. It's very painful to have bits of Pewter Standard Size Two buried in your arms."

The voice belongs to a girl about my age. She has long, dark curls and the biggest, most curious brown eyes. She's clad in a yellow silk dressing gown that was most likely the fashion about forty years ago, as it has pearly buttons and reaches to her boot-clad toes. When she sees me staring, she waves cheerfully with a bandaged arm.
"Hi again, Lena! Remember me, from the train?"
I smile, realizing I'm certainly a little ,dizzy, not remembering the person who'd debated 'Died and Prejudice' for an hour with Kate '! name is''Of course! Your name is...'' My head's still misted... ''Pepper?"
She chuckles."Peggy. You see to be a bit woozy.  What are you in here for?"

I could make something up, crack a 'you should see the other guy' joke, but Peggy's eyes have an earnest honesty in them. No matter what I say to her, she'll tell me the truth.
"I got in a fight with someone, he hexed me, and now I have a giant purple nose. You?"
She grins sheepishly. "Added sixteen drops of volatile liquid instead of six and blew up my cauldron. I have pieces of pewter embedded in my limbs and some acid burns. Also, I bought this gorgeous vintage dress from the '20s at an auction for sixteen quid, and the potion dissolved part of my dress. I'm going to be here for a while."

I laugh, not at her, but with her. Peggy has this cheery aura around her that sucks you in. No matter how bad of a day you're having, she seems as though she can cheer you up. She picks up a chocolate frog off of her bedside table (where she got it, I don't know) and splits it in half, grinning and handing me a piece.
"Chocolate makes things better," she quips, and we both laugh. 

*   *   *  *

Peggy walks with me outside, towards the Great Lake. According to her, we're meeting up with the girls from the train, and I'm thoroughly excited to see Kate. She's been like a sister to me this whole time, and she even forgave me for the thing last year. Even though that's what gave her all of those issues, even though I'm the one who accidentally gave her PTSD and depression and painful shyness, she still says that the two of us go together like earwax and toffee. She most likely means the Bertie Bott's flavors, but you can never be too sure with Kate.

"-and of course, I said no, and then he tried to hex me, but I ducked, and he was so impressed that-" Peggy stops, and I realize she's been ranting for the past minute and a half, and now she's looking to me for a response.
"You did the right thing, Peg. Now be quiet for a second."
She closes her mouth, smiling brightly, as I hear a deep, throaty singing voice carrying across the water. It belongs to Kate, and she's singing 'Dancing Queen' again.

As I listen, an accented voice that has a Spanish lilt to it joins Kate, taking up the harmony of the song. Someone else is clapping the beat of the song, and an Irish voice scats along with the claps. 

Peggy grins and starts to run to catch up to her friends. Her neon yellow modified zoot suit (trust me, I don't know either), which reminds me of a Muggle prison uniform, lets me keep an eye on her as she dashes through a thicket of trees to the sound of singing. When the Irish voice (belonging to Saoirse) begins to take up the dancing break, Peggy squeals and starts to dance. She leaps and twirls, her hips shaking and legs stomping and arms whirling above her head. She laughs joyously, and I start to join her, picking up the rhythm of the dance. 

When the song ends, we all cheer and laugh. Standing with Saoirse and Kate are Claire, the prefect from the train, and a girl I don't recognize. The girl has long dark hair with a graying streak in it, plus a gauzy dress in scarlet, the color of her house, I assume. She's pretty, with a dark natural tan and flashing, almost black eyes. 

"This is Sisa," Saoirse says, gesturing to the girl. "Sisa, this is Elena Fairweather and Margaret Glenn."
Peggy raises her hand, as if we're still in class. "Saoirse, with all due respect, just call me Peggy. No Margaret, no Glenn, please."
She turns to talk to Sisa, and I sit back and sing along as Kate strikes up another ABBA song.Someone walks down the path, and I turn, hearing the footsteps acutely in the corner of my mind. It's Sirius Black, he's a Gryffindor and a bit rude and annoying, really. He has an inflated ego, just because he's popular. I roll my eyes as he heads towards us, trying not to think about the unfortunate time when we dated for precisely a week and a half in fourth year, but he bypasses me and goes straight to Peggy.

"I'm sorry," he says, though what he's apologizing to her for, I don't know. "I never apologized properly about earlier today, and I should have."
Peggy smiles softly and looks down, to where she's pleating the Hufflepuff tie she wears with her comically sized suit. "It's alright, Sirius. We all do things we're not proud of, sometimes." 
"You're a pretty fantastic girl, Megs," he says.
Peggy (Megs? What is this?) gives Sirius a quick, tight hug, and then he walks off. 

"Why did he call you Megs?" Saoirse asks my question for me. 
"He knows I'm Margaret Glenn, but doesn't know that most people call me Peggy. I like it, it's...special."
Oh my God- Peggy has a crush. She's staring at Sirius as he walks away, with a dreamy expression on her face. Someone's going to have to tell her that Sirius Black is a player and a heartbreaker, and that if she falls for him, her heart will just be added to the list. I would tell her, I should know, but I don't want to be the one to burst her happy bubble. 

Instead, I head back towards the castle alone, Peggy's words still ringing in my ears. 
We all do things we're not proud of.Ain't that the truth.