Life as I Knew It

Chapter 9--Meeting Morag and Sally-Anne

Dinner went off pretty well with Millicent, except for one tense moment when Pansy called her by her name, even though Millicent had not introduced herself yet. Pansy managed to convince Millicent that she had introduced herself and forgot; how else would Pansy have known? From time to time, Pansy thought she saw, through the corner of her eye, Daphne staring at her again, but every time Pansy looked directly at her, Daphne was involved in a conversation with Theodore Nott, whose big nose suddenly made him look distinguished for some reason.

One time, Pansy also caught Moonshyne staring at her. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that Moonshyne was coolly appraising her. It did not take a genius to figure out that now Moonshyne was the alpha female, and for that reason it made sense that she would evaluate Pansy in this way. As the previous alpha female, Pansy would have done the same. Still, she hoped that Moonshyne had an inkling of who she was and saw her as a threat.

Pansy looked at Moonshyne and her companions one more time and counted the seventh year girls. If Moonshyne was a year behind them, as Harry had said, then there were only four seventh year girls other than Pansy. She asked Millicent who the other people in their year were. She confirmed what Pansy had observed about the number and that Sally-Anne Perks was not a Slytherin, if she was at Hogwarts at all.

"Listen," said Millicent. "There's something I need to tell you about transfer students. I've seen a lot of them come and go, and I'm actually starting to like you, so I don't want you to be one of them. You have to follow the rules and work hard in class. I know that you'll see others breaking the rules all the time or blowing off their schoolwork, but it's different. Moonshyne is golden because of what she did. No one's kicking her out of school. And Draco can get away with these things because he's head boy, but as--"

Pansy started. "Wait, he's head boy?" She turned to look at him again. At the station, he had not been wearing his robes, which was odd because Draco did not normally own Muggle clothes. Without his robes, Pansy had not seen the head boy badge. She had to remind herself that here Draco had not attempted to kill anyone, so he was eligible for the position. Still, her Draco would never had made head boy. Although she was sure he was smart enough for it, his grades were often highly average.

Pansy put the shock of that out of her mind. "You don't have to worry about me. Professor Dumbledore told me about the transfer students of last year, and I won't be like that. Although, I heard two of them are still here. Who are they?"

Millicent started to answer, but just then the headmaster stood and said his closing remarks. The next thing Pansy knew she was being herded out of the Great Hall along with all the other students.

Pansy ended up walking next to Morag MacDougal. Pansy had really never liked Morag. She had a habit of asking too many questions in class, to the point where you could tell that even the teachers were getting annoyed. Most of the questions she asked were only just slightly on topic, and she would often follow one up with another. Sometimes she would even answer her own question, making everyone wonder why she bother speaking at all. It was typical Ravenclaw to want to know everything about everything, but most of them were polite enough not to involve the rest of the class in this quest. Even the other Ravenclaws would groan or at least roll their eyes when Morag's hand shot up. Of course, all the evidence from Hermione to Tracey to Snape suggested that it was unfair to judge this Morag by the one Pansy had known.

"So, you're the new girl in Slytherin, huh?"

Pansy found this ironic since Morag was not supposed to be a Slytherin. "Yep. I'm Pansy."

"Listen, Pansy, we've seen a lot girls who thought they were cool, but we don't let just anyone into our group. So you better watch yourself."

My group, Pansy wanted to say. Draco and Blaise and Tracey were her group. Back when Morag could not even make friends with Ravenclaws and no one had ever heard of Moonshyne Riddle, this was Pansy's life. She sidestepped a little closer to Morag. "I never said I wanted to be part of your group," she said in a conspiratorial whisper. "In fact, I was over there with Millicent, purposefully not interacting with your group."

Morag flipped her hair, which was shinier than usual. "Oh, whatever, Moonshyne saw you throwing yourself at Draco."

"Then Moonshyne should get her freakish eyes checked because I think her sight's going."

Morag laughed. "You are so jealous of her. I knew it." Then she faded into the crowd, and Pansy lost sight of her.

When she finally made it out of the Great Hall, Pansy saw the most horrible thing imaginable. Sally-Anne Perks was before her, wearing a Hufflepuff scarf. Pansy wanted to run up to her and ask who had done such a horrible thing to her. But that would have made her look crazy, so Pansy restrained herself.

Instead, she walked casually up to her old friend. She noticed that unlike Tracey, Hermione, and so many others, Sally-Anne's appearance had not changed at all. She was still a little short and chubby with dirty blonde hair. Her cherub face looked the same as ever, but behind her eyes she was different. Sally-Anne had always had a sweet look about her, but in her eyes there had always been a glint that revealed her wickedness. It had been a surprise to everyone that first week when Sally-Anne turned out to be snide and vicious against people she did not like. To be honest, she was the most Slytherin person in their year. She was manipulative and back-stabbing, unwilling to let anything get in the way of what she wanted, but she was quiet, so few people outside of the Slytherins in their year knew. Despite all those seemingly bad traits, or really because of them, Pansy and the rest of Slytherin loved her.

So to see a Hufflepuff scarf on Sally-Anne, of all people, was quite a shock. She was chatting amicably with Hannah or Susan; Pansy always got them confused. Pansy inserted herself into the conversation, which neither of them seemed to find rude, and introduced herself.

"Hi, Pansy," said Sally-Anne with a big smile. "I'm Sally-Anne Perks and this is Susan Bones. We're in Hufflepuff."

She was so perky and unlike herself. The spark in her eyes had definitely died, and it made Pansy want to cry.

Susan gave a slight frown. "Just so you know, Slytherins don't usually talk to Hufflepuffs."

"Why is that?" Pansy asked innocently, although she knew the answer.

"Because they think we're stupid. If we were cunning, we'd be with you lot, and if we were witty, we'd be in Ravenclaw. And if we were brave, Gryffindor. But we are hard-working, and some people can't see the value in that."

Susan was defensive and confrontational. Next to her, Sally-Anne looked all the more Hufflepuff; she was a super Hufflepuff, the kind that made other Puffs, like Susan, defensive. Pansy found herself vowing to be nicer to Hufflepuffs before realizing, in horror, what she had just thought. It was bad enough she had made friends with Gryffindors.

"Well... okay," she said. "I need to stick with my own house so that I can find the common room. It was nice talking with you."

Pansy found Millicent. She vowed once again to restore the natural balance, for Sally-Anne's sake as much as her own.