2 January 2012 @ 10:45am
The Hogwarts Express on its way out from London
Directly following 2 Jan - Do You Love Justice?

Zeta Pepper was furious enough that any shred of embarrassment nor regret could be found. She stalked towards the front of the train, passing through a few cars before thinking about finding a compartment for fuming. On the way she slapped more posters on compartment doors, facing in. There was no freaking reason the older Slytherin boys had to be such knobs about just trying to help people. Including their classmates. Slytherin house was definitely going down hill, top to bottom. She hated to think that way, but hey - she wasn't the one prejudiced against werewolves.

She immediately softened her generalization when she saw Noriko Wakahisa in the corridor. They'd become acquainted in Dueling Club last term when Noriko had aced her with a good Disarming Spell.[1] Zeta resolved she really needed to learn a proper counter-spell for that.

"What's up, killer?" she asked. "Lose something?"

1.	20 Nov 2012 - Dueling Club

When Noriko had first boarded the Hogwarts Express, she hadn't been worried.  She'd been occupied with getting her two younger brothers on board and making sure that Daichi didn't accidentally dump his trunk all over the corridor, and besides, she often didn't see Eirene until after the train had already left the station. 

But then the train had left, and Noriko had had to kick Taiki out of the compartment for trying to lick their younger brother.

No Eirene.

The trolley witch came by, starting to make her rounds.

Still no Eirene.

One of Daichi's Ravenclaw year mates had come by to join them, and the boys had both gotten themselves sticky with the Jelly Slugs that Daichi had bought off the trolley with his Christmas sickles.

Still no Eirene.

Finally, impatiently, a worried Noriko had left to find her friend.

She'd been searching the corridor of the Hogwarts Express, peering around corners and peeking into compartments.  But as she made her way to the back of the train, there was still no sign of the other witch.   It was extremely unlike Eirene not to find her immediately as soon as they got on the train, at least so they could compare notes on what Christmas gifts Eirene had sent to which professor, and so the Ravenclaw girl could brag about her grades from before the holidays.

Someone spoke up ahead of her, and Noriko looked up.  It was Zeta Pepper, the older Hufflepuff student who had practiced with her at the last dueling club meeting.  Even if Zeta was older, she had been encouraging during their duel, and Noriko had spent plenty of time giggling at her antics, even if Professor Storm had thought her footwork wasn't up to snuff. 

"I'm not sure," she said, a worried expression crossing her face.  "You haven't seen Eirene Antonopoulos, have you?  I can't find her anywhere."

"Eirene?" Zeta had to think a moment. She knew the younger kids in her own house, but there was less opportunity to catalog the rest of them. If she was honest, they tended to be a short, noisy, frantic lot. At least it helped they were all color-coded at Hogwarts.

"She in Slytherin with you? Maybe she's in the loo."

Zeta crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. It didn't really occur to her anyone could actually be lost on the Hogwarts Express. Everybody rode it. She didn't know exactly why, but the whole school was on the train, except for those who'd stayed over at Hogwarts over the holiday.  Noriko seemed concerned but there wasn't any reason to worry.

"I can help look if you like. Have you ever made one of those Seeknotes? Heard them called Whizzpers, as well."[1]

1.	I'm imagining notes folded into a bird or plane shape and enchanted to find their recipient. Novice level enchantables, little trick popular among some students for note-passing.

Noriko shook her head profusely as Zeta questioned if Eirene was in Slytherin.  Noriko wouldn't have minded if her friend was in her house, particularly if it meant that all of Eirene's frequently-earned house points were converted into emeralds instead of sapphires inside the enormous hourglasses in the Entrance Hall, but Eirene was also the most Ravenclaw of anyone she knew besides possibly Frank Sellaphix.  Picturing her fellow fourth year in anything besides blue-and-bronze just felt wrong.

Zeta, at least, offered a plausible explanation for her friend's absence.  The suggestion was even followed up with an offer to help.  Noriko brightened at the suggestion to try using Whizzpers; she'd seen a few zooming around the hallways before the holiday break, but had never learned the enchantment to make one herself.  If she sent one to find Eirene, then her friend would be really impressed.

"No!" she said, enheartened.  "You can help me make one?  Really?" 

For the first time, she noticed the stack of papers that were tucked under Zeta's arm.  "Is that what those are?" Noriko asked, craning her neck.  She couldn't see the whole parchment sheet, but it had a lot of drawings and something about snacks. "To make Whizzpers?"

Noriko shook her head like she had nargles in her ears. Okay, Eirene Antopopulace was not a Slytherin. "Okay," she responded backing down a little. Noriko was in Slytherin - it wasn't meant to be an accusation even though that house was being, uh, superlative lately. Noriko was a good reminder that it was the boys, not all the greenies.

When Noriko indicated the SAWS fliers tucked under her arm, Zeta acted like she'd forgotten about them.

"Oh, erm, they're fliers for SAWS. I'm putting SAWS back together, but no, these will work. Let's find a seat."

There was an empty set of seats further up the way in one of the open cars. Zeta led the way and pushed someone's luggage out of the way. She took one of the fliers and made a fold.

"You need a square first, so you fold the corner down and then tear off the extra." She'd worked hard on these, and had spent an extra hour figuring out a duplication spell that wouldn't ruin them. And here she was tearing one up.

"Now, write your note." Zeta handed Noriko a pen from one of her hair buns. She sat back in the chair as she waited, feeling distracted and a little blank.

SAWS?  Noriko blinked and tried to squint more closely at the stack of fliers.  Wasn't that the group that had spiked the punch and turned everyone into werewolves at the Halloween ball during her first year?[1] 

But Zeta didn't seem like the sort of person who would spike drinks or invite werewolves into the school.  Noriko dutifully took the pen and the paper square, turning the flier over per Zeta's directions so she could write on the back. 

Dear Eirene, she started to write, taking painstaking care to form each letter neatly.

"Why are you starting SAWS again?" she asked, sneaking a glance up at Zeta.  The Hufflepuff seemed a little distracted; was she annoyed that she was having to help Noriko?  "I thought everything was okay with werewolves, isn't it?  Even the Headmaster's a werewolf now?"

1.	It was Devlin.

Zeta didn't know Noriko that well, but she seemed like a good kid, so Zeta gave her the benefit of the doubt when she gently questioned her plan to restart the notorious club. She seemed genuinely seeking rather than trying to pick holes in it.

Zeta looked out the window at the landscape chugging by. Rainy day.

"Some things got better, but people are still prejudiced. Their excuse is that werewolves are dangerous, but it doesn't make sense if you think about it. They don't have a lot of power in the system, either, so it's up to us to change things."

This might have normally been a stand-on-the-table speech for Zeta, but now she just picked at her nails. Her mind kept going to her empty wand pocket.

"I mean, you'd be surprised. Even at this school."

Zeta began to talk, and Noriko listened, her quill paused against the back of the flier.  People are still prejudiced.  She knew about prejudice from Muggly the Bear, which she still snuck in to listen to on the Wireless when her younger siblings weren't around.  Muggly dealt with all kinds of issues of unfairness, like Cindy the Squib, who was sometimes left out of things by Muggly and his friends because she couldn't do magic, and Wendy the Werewolf, who had a whole song about how she was only hairy sometimes.

It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic.  Noriko still found the idea of werewolves terrifying, not the least because she'd nearly been attacked by some herself at the old Halloween dance.  When the moon was full, she often refused to go out into the Hogwarts courtyard, even though the school was supposed to be well protected.  But confessing that didn't seem like the sort of thing that would impress someone like Zeta Pepper, who wanted to change things for the better for werewolves instead of being scared of them. 

Zeta still seemed distracted, though -- staring at the window instead of looking at her, her hand drifting to her pocket again and again.  Was she upset at Noriko for taking so long and wasting her time?  The Slytherin realized she had better hurry and finish her letter.

"What do you mean?" she asked, as she returned to her writing.  I...hope...you...had...a...good...Christmas...  "No one's being prejudiced to Professor Greyfriar, are they?  I thought everyone liked him," she said, with the sincere confusion of a student whose worst run-in with a professor had been being caught hiding under Professor Storm's desk when she'd tried to leave an apology note after accidentally splinching him.[1]

1.	22 February, 2009 - Sorry is the Magic Word

"Not everyone does," Zeta answered. Zeta certainly liked their burly, talkative, strange werewolf headmaster. She liked how he defied convention. He looked like he ought to be scary, but she can't remember if she'd ever heard him shout at anyone.

"I've heard comments. Mostly ignorance, but talk matters. And there are more werewolves than the Headmaster at Hogwarts. Have been. Are now." Zeta looked back at Noriko. She certainly couldn't say anything about Lucinda Temple, nor would she want to. But Greer Grant had been in all the papers. Everyone was going to know.

"There's a girl coming back to school this term. Probably on the train somewhere, Greer Grant? I think she's in Gryffindor. But you really never know who's a werewolf or who's got a werewolf in their family, right? So I guess I think it's important."

She sat forward a little to see if Noriko had finished. Was she writing a novel? Like those letters in the war documentaries on WWN. My dear Eirene, my heart grow heavy e'er I think of you and the time that keeps us apart. Things are quiet at the front, and every moment ticks forward both bringing me closer to home and farther from the last time I saw your face. I fear I shall ...