16 November 2009
About 2 pm, between classes

"That's total bullshit, Strong, you don't know anything.  She was at practice."  Figaro was arguing with Kari Strong[1]  She'd just informed him that Hufflepuff would be losing their next match because Katy Bevans had got booted from the team by their notoriously strict Head of House, Professor Sandusky.

But Kari just crossed her arms and smirked at the older boy.  He could believe it or not. 

It only took a couple of inqueries to find out where Katy was likely to be found.  Soon he was rapping his knuckles against the girls' bathroom.  For a person who had no business being here, it was a location Figaro was actually kind of familiar with.

"Hey, I need to talk to Katy," he shouted into.  "Katy! Hey, why is Kari Strong saying you're off the team?"

Hufflepuff's Quidditch team had problems ever since Razzy left.  It may not have had anything to do with losing their old captain because Ayla and Angie had done a great job.  It was just a bad luck year.  It probably had more to do with losing the Fayette brothers than anything else.  Whatever it was - the broom sickness, the Fayettes, whatever - Hufflepuff was having trouble even getting enough players on the field.  So much trouble, in fact, that there had actually been space for Figaro to play, which was saying something as he was usually exiled from the space. 

What the hell had Katy done to piss of Old Dusty enough to get kicked off?

1.	NPC, Slytherin 4th Year

Lukewarm water sloshed over her fingers, washing soap suds down the drain.  There was a banging on the bathroom door that startled everyone in the bathroom between classes.  She heard her name and all of a sudden everyone's eyes were on her.  With a soft glare at the second year at the next sink, Katy shook her hands over the sink and wiped off the rest of the moisture on her skirt.  She slung her bag over her shoulder and burst out of the bathroom.

Katy came out snapping, her face fixed in a glare and her mouth ready to tell off the obnoxious cretin yelling her name in the hallway.  Figaro Sellaphix.  Of course.  Who else could it have been?  "Shut up!" Katy said viciously, glancing to her left and right to see how many people were watching them.  "What do you want, Fig?"

"Blimey!" Figaro had to take a few steps back to accommodate Katy's attitude as it came storming out of the bathroom with her.  Figaro was never one to be easily embarrassed or bothered by attention good or bad didn't see how Katy could be angry already.  Granted, he and the younger witch were not besties.  Although Fig might've expected they were on friendly terms.  What was her problem, anyway?

"Wow, you're dead pissed, aren't you?  Calm down," he said without much repentance in his voice.  He stepped back a bit from the door but they were still in the main part of the hallway.

"C'mon, just wanted to know if you actually got yourself kicked off the Quidditch team.  You can't be that stupid?"  Figaro really had no cause to be mean, and he usually wasn't, not like this.  Immediately he regretted calling her stupid, but it was out there now, floating between them.  He just hoped she wouldn't be a baby and just answer him.  Hufflepuff did not need to lose a player, especially not Katy.  Not now.  They still had a match against Slytherin in December.

With her lips pressed firmly together, Katy took a deep breath to try and calm herself.  Whatever rumors Figaro might have heard, he'd obviously not heard any of the darker ones that Katy would prefer not to be spread at the top of the loud-mouth's lungs.

She took a conciliatory step back but crossed her arms over her chest in defense.  Figaro Sellaphix had a way with words that left many around him surprised that he wasn't constantly sporting a black eye or broken bone.  He stood here accusing her of being stupid and the primary thought in her head had to do with how quickly she could hex him and whether or not she could get away with it.  In the end, Katy decided not to hex him because she was in enough trouble as it was.  She'd better not push her luck.

"I was stupid," Katy confirmed, spitting out Fig's own choice of words to illustrate how insulted and angry she felt at the moment.  "I was stupid and I got myself kicked off the Quidditch team.  Are you happy now?  Now, if you don't mind."  Katy dropped her arms and attempted to walk around Figaro and go to her next class early.

"N'uh," Figaro side-stepped to block her path away.  He was still looking at her like she's unraveled his favorite jumper. 

"You explain to me," he demanded, mirroring her surly posture.  He even turned his head a bit and raised his eyebrows like he'd seen teenage girls do to get the answers they were looking for.

"Because we're really screwed now.  You can actually play.  So what was more important than Quidditch that you had to set off Old Dusty and get yourself kicked off, eh?"

Figaro did have some sympathy for Katy.  Professors Sandusky was incredibly strict, as strict if not more so than even Professor Storm.  And he'd quickly built a reputation as a nice guy - until you crossed him.  But on the other hand, Figaro couldn't himself think of anything that was more important than Quidditch.  Not now when they were about to play Slytherin again.

He stepped directly into her path, forcing her to pull up short.  Her nostrils flared with an angry intake of breath.  His mocking was not lost on her and when he said that she could actually play, she was certain that is was just more mocking.  "There's not need to be so cruel," she snapped.  She was horrible and everyone knew it.  she'd only gone to the first game because the first string had all gotten sick and the house needed the help.

"I don't see how it's any of your business what I did .  You're not my friend, Sellaphix, you have no right to demand anything of me!"  Figaro had always been that bright presence that outshone everything else with little thought or regard to how things affected others.  Even now, his questions about her punishment were purely selfish and Katy hated him for it.  She'd have preferred he never even noticed.

Figaro's face dropped. 

"What?! Of course we're friends!"  He seemed genuinely surprised she didn't think so.  But that was the problem with spending most of one's time being a jackass: sometimes no one took you seriously.   However now was no time for thoughtful introspection - Katy was denying their enduring Hufflepuff kinship!  He had to get to the bottom of this or Hufflepuff was sunk.

"What d'you mean? What'd I do?  I got your back.  That's why I'm here.  We need you, Bev."  He slugged her lightly on the arm and winced out an apologetic smile.

Backpedal, Sellaphix, backpedal. 

Katy saw his arm coming for her but she was a little too slow to stop it.  Instead, after the jolt against her shoulder, she pushed the arm on it's way out, speeding up the process with vicious intent.  "No, you're not," she insisted.  "You may think you are but if you were really my friend, you would have asked me how I was when my mother died.  You only came to talk to me when my problems began affect you."

Katy stepped back and shook her head tiredly.  "I don't care that you're selfish, just don't pretend that you care."

She pushed his arm back and Figaro, genuinely entirely baffled, took a step back and gave her more space.  But then she said it.  About her mother dying.  He frowned.  He'd heard about that.  Katy's mum and Nick's aunt or something.  Was she really hurt that he hadn't come to talk to her about that? Figaro had never been any good at comforting people.  Hell, he'd even felt awkward when Sophie Flickwick's mom was killed by a werewolf last March, although he'd paid for that too.  But Sophie was okay now.  Why had Katy expected that of him?

Oh.  Right.  Friends were supposed to do that.  Maybe she was right.

"Oh right," he said, more quietly feeling like a total git.  "Sorry about that.  Didn't know what to say."  Lame excuse, probably.  Figaro hated being called selfish, but mostly because he was afraid it was true.  Not that Katy needed to hear that. 

Now what.  He still wanted to know what Katy had done to get taken off the team - maybe there was a way to get it lifted, at least for one match.  But now it didn't seem as important.   And for a rare moment in Figaro's verbose life, he didn't have anything to say.

Somehow, Katy had managed to strike the loudmouth mute.  After a half-hearted and mumbled apology mixed with a lame excuse, he fell silent and looked like he was completely at a loss.  That rare moment was enough to give Katy pause.  She wasn't any better with people than Figaro apparently was, although she tilted to the other side of the scale, being quiet and angry rather than loud and friendly. 

She sighed heavily and decided to take pity on her fellow Hufflepuff and chose explanatory words that lacked the vitriol she would have preferred to inject them with.  Anger was easier than pity or friendship.  With a slow shake of her head she said, "You didn't have to say anything.  I wasn't expecting anything from you because you and I are in the same house but we're not friends.  I'm not even friends with your friends.  All I ask is that you don't pretend otherwise."  The last part would said with derision, like she was mad at him for doing so, but deep down it was a plea.  She could handle animosity.  She could handle ignorance.  What she couldn't handle was the fake friendship that was only offered when someone wanted something of her.  She'd rather have genuine friendship or none at all.

Merlin's Bones.  Figaro hadn't been taken down as many notches by anyone other than his mother and Sophie Flickwick.  And he just thought they were exceptionally picky.  Katy also thought he was a shitty friend?  Bollocks.  He'd have to look into that because this - this did not feel particularly good. 

He did consider Katy his friend precisely because they were both Hufflepuff.  And not only did she not agree with him, she thought he was an arsehole.  Brilliant.

"I'm not pretending," he insisted and scratched the back of his neck.  "I thought you and I got on just fine.  Do you not want to be on the team, or...?"

He couldn't really understand why the Quidditch was a touchy topic or why she seemed angry that he wanted her to be able to play.

"Wait, did you quit? I mean, that's fine, but Kari Strong is saying you were kicked off."

Katy sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping in defeat.  Fig was dense.  Or maybe he just didn't want  to understand the words she was saying.  At this point, it was probably just easier to let this thing go and focus on heading off his questions about the Quidditch team.  There was plenty there to keep her busy.

She couldn't meet Fig's eyes as she guiltily though about how she would respond.  She desperately wanted to be on the team because it was one of the few things in her life right now that gave her any sense of purpose.  And contrary to her previous disbelief about Fig's faith in her skills, she actually had gotten a lot better since the beginning of the year.  She felt accomplished in a way that she hadn't felt since she'd mastered her first spell at school. 

"I didn't quit," she confessed sadly.  It never even occurred to her to lie about it, and say that she'd quit in order to put a stop to rumors circulating about the cause of her punishment.  "I didn't quit but why I was punished is none of your business.  I'm sure you won't have too much trouble finding a replacement for me.  I'll help if you need me to but it's unlikely that'll help much."  Katy had a fairly low opinion of her ability to relate to other people and she was absolutely miserable thinking about just how wrong her life had gone lately.  Of all the things she'd not be able to do.

Oh thank  Merlin, she was going to answer him.  Figaro cheered a bit when she finally relented and was going to tell him what was going on.  He smiled encouragingly, trying not to look mad about it anymore.  He really should have been nicer about asking in the first place...

But his cheer faded.  She wasn't going to tell. 

"Aw...! C'mon, Katy, you don't have to be embarrassed."  He smiled tolerantly and scoffed at the idea.  "I've been in trouble loads of times.  It's nothing, no one cares.  And you know Old Dusty - he's a bit off his nut.  You can tell me.  I won't judge."

He was less concerned about Hufflepuff finding a replacement.  Honestly, they had first years playing - they weren't going to win any prizes this year.  But it seemed pretty soulless for the Head of Hufflepuff to cripple his own Quidditch team to prove a point.

"I once framed Sasha Schlagenweit for cheating.  That was low," he said.  "And I've been sent out of class dozens of times for talking.  Written up for using magic in the halls.  Fighting with Callum, fighting with Erin - detention, detention.  Trespassing in the girls' bathroom, outing a werewolf, spreading rumors about the symptoms of Dragon Pox, stockpiling food under my bed, using school bludgers without asking, not being in uniform - c'mon Katy.  Can't be that bad, can it?"

"I wasn't hoarding pumpkin pasties, Figaro!" she snapped angrily.  How could he think that she'd stoop to something as petty as cheating on a test or spreading gossip or getting into a fight!?  She'd never gotten into trouble before.  She was a good student with good grades.  She kept her head down and didn't get in trouble.  That's just the way she was and the mere suggestion that she wasn't was highly insulting. 

"Look, let's just say that I got into something over my head and got into trouble.  I got caught and I'm better off for it.  Being banned from Quidditch is unpleasant but it's just."  She began to walk away from this whole thing and put a stop to it but something nagged at her brain and she was so irritated that she couldn't let it go.

She whirled on Fig with a glare.  "What on Earth makes you think I'd tell you anything when you are a self-confessed gossip who does more harm than good because he can't keep his big mouth shut!?"

She was so insulted!  Figaro tried not to smile at how pissed she was over what was probably nothing.  She must be new at this getting in trouble thing.  Figaro had learned ages ago that you couldn't take any of that petty stuff to heart.  Take your licks and move on.  Live and learn.  Merlin, what had she done!?

Just as he thought she'd had enough and was about to storm off, she had turned back on him with renewed wrath. 

He held up his hands in surrender as she rounded on him and Figaro again tried to keep the grin off his face.  "Whoa, c'mon!  Gossip?  Me? Let's be civil, Kate.  I won't tell if you don't want me to.  What did you do? Kill a first year? I feel like now you have to tell me, since you're so keen to keep it a secret."