21 December 2011
Wednesday at 3pm
Pandora's Attic, tiny Diagon Ally junk shop

A great few of the Peppers were in Diagon for Christmas shopping and it had come time to split up for awhile - all the better for secret selections for certain sisters. She wore a chullo hat with long earflaps with yet longer braided strings hanging from them. Her long lime-colored coat was unbuttoned in the warm shop, and she strolled through the aisles picking at the eclectic merchandise, her gloves fingerless. Pandora's was her secret weapon for gift-giving. You had to just sort of open her mind and the right thing would speak for itself, call out as perfect for a loved one.

Something made of cobalt blue enamel and silver caught her eye. Looking at it more closely, it was a lunar clock. Many moving disks (still now) moved and clicked together like the swirling of the heavens to mark the phases of the moon. She half-smiled, that wry unhappy kind of smile. These were as much for werewolves as old hedgewitches.

It was hard not to think of Lucinda Temple who'd bared her secret to her in that empty dusty classroom. That poor girl. She advanced the dial with her thumb. It click-click-clicked moving from waning to cresent to new.

When the door bell jingled, she looked up and saw a familiar face. She brightened and waved.

"Fauna Blake, get out of here!"

A few days after the investigation into Grimshaw's tailoring, Fauna had decided to stop by Pandora's and ask the owner a few questions about the creepy bone flute that Abby's friend had bought there. At the very least she'd get a look at the shop and the things that were typically sold and maybe even buy a few gifts. She'd only been to Pandora's a few times, but it seemed like her type of place.

She walked briskly down Diagon, still in her black slacks after leaving work, and wrapped up in a red peacoat that made a few of the Aurors chuckle every time they saw it. Fauna wore her cupcake hat to offset the Level Two vibe, and walked in.

Zeta! Theta's little sister and one of Fauna's favorite Hufflepuffs.

"Fauna Blake, get out of here!"

Fauna widened her eyes, took a few steps back out of the shop, and started to let the door swing closed.

Then she came in again, smiling, and apologizing behind her to the people she'd nearly walked into. She glanced at the counter, hoping to spot the owner, but the shop girl there looked too young.

Fauna moved forward, giving Zeta a light hug.

"How are you?"

She looked younger than Fauna remembered, somehow, clad in her usual neon colors. Fauna had often let Zeta borrow her hats and her various painting sets, and had enjoyed sketching beside her in the common room. Zeta was calm only compared to Winnie, but fiercely loyal.

"Theta said she might run into you today. I'm just doing some last-minute shopping. Like everyone else," she chuckled, moving to let someone pass her in the aisle.

Zeta hugged Fauna and stood back.

"You look like a real proper Auror," she gasped and gave Fauna's coat sleeve a little tug. "The hat really tops it. Strikes fear in the hearts of the crime-doers, very probably."

Turning back to the clutter-filled shelves, she slipped a pair of ornate spectacles off a mannequin head and tried them on. She looked over at Fauna through the gently whirling lenses.

"Chic, non? So what's it like out there? I did four hours of multiple choice questions last week."

Zeta grinned from beneath the rhinestones.

Fauna smiled, wrinkling her nose and tugging off her silly hat in the warmth of the shop. She stuffed the hat into her pocket and smoothed out the winter static from her hair. Her eyes danced in amusement as Zeta tried on the whirring spectacles.

"You look like a real proper prepper - Pepper!" she chuckled. Say that three times fast.

"Um, you know," Fauna shrugged her shoulder, glancing at the shelves they stood by and reaching out to gently touch the dials on the moon clock. "It's rainy and chilly out and there's a chance of Slytherin once the sun sets."

But Zeta was not here to listen to her make lame jokes! "How has Hogwarts been treating you, besides the terrible tests that I don't miss? Or do you not want to even think about Hogwarts?"

Fauna's smile quirked to the side in understanding.

Zeta giggled. Rainy, chilly, and morally-ambiguous slash oft-maligned slash misunderstood but also get-it-slither-girl seemed about right for the weather lately.

"I'm just ready to be done," said the younger Puff and returned the glasses to the prop head. Zeta had never been the most eager student, way more involved in art and antics and friends and clubs. It was increasingly hard to stay motivated in a routine that was feeling more and more monotonous and less and less meaningful while ... while things were happening.

"It's fine, you know. Literally nothing has changed since you left. But alright, you know, I have a question. How did you all get SAWS going?"

Zeta had been to a few meetings but she'd been both young and distracted to really be all in. But they'd gotten shit done. Real things.

Fauna blinked in surprise. Of all the things she'd thought Zeta would bring up, SAWS was not one of them. She leaned in a little more, glancing around out of habit at anyone nearby who might overhear.

"Astrid came up with it as I was moping," Fauna said, a shy smile flickering over her face. "She kicked everything off with her usual drive."

Zeta, like the other Hufflepuffs, hadn't minded Fauna's initial shyness, and had encouraged her as she'd grown bolder with the group.

"I helped out more and more once things got busier for Astrid. It was mostly a matter of posting fliers around school and erm, not being afraid to paste them over the Quidditch announcements. We would meet in Tulo's hut because it was a safe space for all of us there. She'd sort of quietly watch over things and offer tea and otherwise let us have free reign."

Her voice grew fond. She didn't know what she would have done without Tulo's steadying presence. Still didn't.

"Honestly, we didn't really know what we were doing, but we figured out a few things along the way."

Fauna paused, looking at Zeta with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. "Why, has there been talk of it starting again?"

Fauna made it sound like a very natural sort of process. Paste flyers, have meetings, drink tea. Zeta pursed her lips. She'd been hoping the answer would have been more concrete then that, but what that meant Zeta had no clue.

"No," she answered. "I mean, not really. We all saw the article in the paper about Greer, that she might be coming back."  Saturday's Daily Prophet had to be duplicated by the older students on the trainride home - 'Jane' Grant was easy to identify for the students.[1] Greer was a little bit of a cover, however. Zeta had been thinking of SAWS earlier in that week because of poor Lucinda who seemed to really struggling and completely unprepared for the emotional toll. Even if no one ever found out about Lucinda being a werewolf, when Greer came back in January, things were going to change.

"We should be ready. The Headmaster's really good, but he's, you know, an old man. And I don't think that'll be enough.  Feels like we should be doing something rather than relying on structures of patriarchal authority."

Structures of patriarchal authority, mhmmm. Yea. Zeta nodded.

1.	Dec 17 - Grants Sentenced in Werewolf Attacks

"I hear you," Fauna nodded, biting her lower lip to keep it from curving up into a smile at the phrase 'patriarchal authority'. Oh she missed Hogwarts sometimes. She felt a flare of pride for Zeta. Such a Hufflepuff, still thinking of her classmates while she was away from school.

"Well, Knox is not that old," she said mildly. Fauna would always and forever be Team Knox. "If you want to start up SAWS again, he'll be one of your biggest supporters and he has influence everywhere. I think he'd be a good person to meet with over break. He would be able to recommend a place to hold meetings and he'd know professors who would be supportive, but he'd let you lot run it all. Keep it student-led and organized. I think that's the main thing. We can't rely completely on the Hogwarts staff. Greer and others in her position need to feel supported by students and the outside world too."

She got that focused look she sometimes got on her face when she was totally invested in something. Her fingers tapped on the edge of the shelves.

And Zeta got that tweaked look she sometimes got when we was totally not interested in something. She listened patiently of course, really keen to fully take in all Fauna Blake could offer - she was a bit of a legend, even more than the Fayettes, who'd also busted out the badger den to become Aurors.

"Me and the old man aren't really besties at the  moment," Zeta said.[1] She didn't think he'd be a bear or anything, but she'd rather not have to go asking him for favors. Meeting with him over break? Uh... no...

"But I mean, do we really even need the professors, though?," she tilted her head and wrinkled her nose. "I wouldn't want students thinking that we're only going to do what we're told, you know? That we have to get permission for everything. Like, of course it'd be good to have staff support or whoa, that's a thing or two wrong. But we need independence to do anything real."

She looked at her nails beginning to think. "What did you do at meetings? How did you decide what you had to do? Did you get push-back?"

1.	Dec 16 2011 - Slipping

Fauna raised her eyebrows in surprise, wondering what had happened between Zeta and Greyfriar. The Hufflepuff seemed much more fired up and full of questions than Fauna remembered her being. Zeta was a fifth - no, a sixth year now, and a few years of growing up really made a difference.

She glanced around the shop and then back to Zeta, putting on a patient look. This was not what she'd expected when she'd walked in, but she had some time.

"We had to be independent because we couldn't trust the Headmistress," Fauna lowered her voice, though it was no big surprise that Snark hadn't been fond of SAWS.

"You don't need to necessarily involve the professors, just know who your supporters are. No shame in having support," she nodded, agreeing with Zeta on that aspect.

Especially when a few students would show up to meetings just to stir shite up. But Fauna doubted she could answer all of Zeta's questions thoroughly while browsing in the busy shop.

Fauna tilted her head, "Do you want to go to a cafe or somewhere and talk? I could go for a coffee."

Snark. Zeta pursed her lips into a flat knowing smile and cocked her eyebrow. Headmistress Snark had been the one to start all this off by kicking out Ollie. But she hadn't counted on Hufflepuff House showing up. When Fauna suggested they go and have a proper chat, Zeta bolstered and smiled.

"Alohomocha?" she suggested right away. It was better than Puddifoot's in Zeta's estimation. She liked Reducto too, although more for the music than anything.

As she lead the way out of the store and onto the slick cobblestones, Zeta continued.

"I just don't want any werewolves at Hogwarts to have to worry," she said shoulders up to her ears in the chill. "I'm not saying I think anyone would be horrible to Greer or anyone else, but I honestly think people just might not know. I had to about slap a couple of first years earlier this year."

"I'd say they should've known better, but they're, you know, infants."

It did occur to Zeta at that moment that she didn't know whatever happened with Feliks, Nicola, and the bizarre parcel.[1]

1.	15 Oct 2011 - Someone Likes You

Fauna stopped at the counter before they left Pandora's and asked the cashier when the shop owner might be in, then took one last glance around. A creepy, enchanted flute wouldn't look out of place here, tucked on a shelf beside that ancient-looking hurdy gurdy and an even stranger tortoise shell lyre.

"Give the first years a few more years before you start smacking them," Fauna laughed as they ducked down from the cold and chill outside. "Many of them come from, you know, intolerant families. Doesn't make it any less frustrating though."

Of course, Greer had been a first-year among other first-years when she'd been changed, and Fauna did not envy the kid coming back to school as a third-year. Was there any good year to be a werewolf?

Out of the rain again, Fauna ordered her favorite cinnamon latte and found a small table at Alohomocha near the window. She shrugged off her coat and didn't waste any time.

"Basically, our goal was simple. We wanted to give Ollie and other werewolves a chance at attending Hogwarts. So we'd write to the DP, we'd write to Gertrudis and the RCMC and others at the Ministry, we had that mixer at the Ministry, we invited Vlad to speak at Hogwarts. Anyone we could get involved, we did. Any contacts and connections we had, we used."

Had they achieved their goal while Snark had reigned? No. But they'd started the conversation. She paused for a moment, hoping Zeta would rethink her stance on talking to Greyfriar.

"It's going to be different now, well, now that we don't have to fight for basic admittance anymore," Fauna smiled. "What is your goal?" She asked hypothetically. "Is it knowledge-based? These are the measures Hogwarts has in place to protect all students, this is what actually happens during a transformation, that kind of thing. Is it focused on privacy, how to protect the identities of werewolves? When the DP included Greer's last name in that article they completely messed up any chance she had at coming back to school quietly," Fauna shook her head. 'Jane' protected no one when everyone knew the Grants.

"Um, is it activity-based? Is SAWS a place for werewolves and supporters to come together and do social things? Could be as simple as that. It helps, knowing you can play a game of Quidditch with a group of people who aren't going to sling stupid insults about silver and moonlight."

The staff at the counter called her name a second time, some variation of the word 'fern'.

Fauna got up to take her drink and huffed, "It's Fauna," and sat back down at the table and kept talking.

"The meetings are a chaotic mess," she widened her eyes in a confiding way. "It took me forever to figure out that I had to go in there with a definite goal to start with. Emotions will be running high, you're going to get people who argue with each other, so it's good to have a focus and say, hey, let's try to do this one thing, how can we achieve it."

She took a sip of her coffee and burnt her tongue. And kept talking.

"Oh," Fauna shook her head and let out a chuckle at herself. "It's telling that I'm thinking of this last, but please, please talk to actual werewolves. Ask them what they want or what they would have wanted at school."

Her expression sobered. By the time Herschel Reid had invited Ollie back to Hogwarts, she hadn't wanted to come back. Others could attend, but Ollie hadn't wanted to, and it was all about listening and making sure nothing was pushed onto the very people they were trying to stand up for.

Zeta Pepper listened intently. She hadn't planned on a full-on social action planning committee, but here we are - it was happening. Christmas shopping be damned, uncle Francis could pick out his own damn socks. She mentally apologized, but didn't break her concentration.

She grimaced after taking a sip of her drink. Zeta was really trying to like black coffee but so far it wasn't working. She was starting to wonder if the whole point of civilization was trying to make coffee taste good.

Honestly, though, Zeta was starting to feel intimidated. The original SAWs they'd actually fought for something. They'd gotten political. They'd had to be underground. Zeta's initial impulse to get people to stop calling werewolves 'dogs' and make sure, what, werewolves wouldn't get in trouble for missing class - it was starting to seem like kid stuff. She didn't recognize hardly any of the names Fauna was dropping, nor did she have answers to any of her questions.

And Zeta also realized she hadn't talked to Lucinda about this at all. And she didn't know Greer. What if they didn't want the attention of having a club talking about them all the time, maybe even drawing heat?

The only thing she really wasn't worried about was being loud in meetings. She'd never had a problem with that.

"Honestly? I hadn't thought of any of that," she admitted, trying the coffee again. "I just felt like with what's going on that people should stop being such assholes about it. Like Kyson Cavanaugh saw a werewolf boggart. And there's a werewolf at school right now, and she's feeling really awful and alone. And Feliks and Nicola with that bogus book? That, and you keep seeing in the paper those horrible werewolf fights and the issues with unregistered werewolves, and all that."

Zeta shrugged. "Just felt like someone should do something."

Though Fauna had no idea who Feliks and Nicola were, and only vaguely recognized Kyson's name, she understood what Zeta was saying. Shit was stirring and Zeta just wanted people not to be arseholes.

A worthy start!

Fauna smiled warmly at her. "Just the fact that you're trying, that you're being a friend, it matters. I'm going to sound corny, but one person caring makes a difference. A few of your friends caring makes a difference. A whole group caring makes a difference. I mean, we didn't even accomplish what we set out to do, our initial goal, at least not directly. But who's to say that maybe Hershey, er, that Herschel bloke decided to welcome everyone to Hogwarts because of something we started. Or maybe someone, somewhere read our letters to the DP and it made them feel less alone."

She sipped at her coffee and winced, wondering when she'd burned her tongue.

"Um, anyway, don't let me get too intense about it. It's the badger in me. We can't stand arseholes, we just can't."

Fauna nodded, an idea already brewing in her head.

"You mentioned a bogus book? Something to do with Philip and Nicole?" She asked distractedly.

Zeta picked at the blue polish on her fingernails. Fauna was so nice and encouraging and didn't seem to mind at all that Zeta had rolled on in with this daft plan that had no plan. Things were going to be more complicated than she'd figured, but now she had loads more information.

"Nay, a Hufflepuff tolerates no arseholes," Zeta agreed with a giggle. Someone had written it in the bathroom in this fancy script. But they didn't always know what to do about it.

Fauna was asking after the first years. Zeta had to correct her. "Feliks Spectre and Nicola Bagnold," she said.

"Feliks got a package in the post that had a book about werewolves in it and it came with some silver twine. No return address. Clearly someone was having a laugh. Like, you can't pretend that a werewolf book is innocent education if it comes with silver."[1]

She sipped her coffee and looked irritated. "I told them of, that they should see Professor Storm at least."

1.	15 Oct 2011 - Someone Likes You