Morning, Hufflepuff Dorms.


Osha had gotten up earlier than usual because of a nightmare she couldn't remember - and frankly didn't want to remember. She didn't see how it could possibly help anyway. It wasn't early enough for her to stay in bed so she got on with her morning, quietly, not wanting to wake up her dormmates who were trying to sleep in on Saturday.

That went out of the window while she was sitting on her bed, brushing her teeth while she flipped through this weekend's Witch Weekly[1]. Reading WW in bed was her weekend indulgence, sometimes even with a biscuit or cup of tea pilfered from the kitchens. It was comforting to ogle the gossip of the world.

But when she got to the ad for Calaveras....

"Zeta!" Osha pulled open the curtains on one side of her housemate's four poster bed, hissing urgently. "Zeta, wake up!!" she climbed under the comforter and shook its warm, sleepy occupant. "Oh come on! It's not that early!"

Well, not too early anyway. Osha nudged under the covers with her feet and stuck the magazine in front of Zeta's face. "You have to see this."

1.	31st March - Full Moon Festivities

"Mrph cold!"

Osha was welcome in Zeta's bed, but far less so if Osha's mission was to jostle her awake on a Saturday. Osha had let in a rush of cool basement air and her bare knees against Zeta's legs were cold. Something glossy-slick and cool flapped against her face, a magazine. Zeta's opened her eyes and reached to reposition the magazine. Osha smelled like minty toothpaste.

"Mmm," Zeta mumbled again. "What is it, what's wrong?"

What did she have to see. 'Full Moon Festivities' at ... Calaveras? Her eyes weren't quite awake yet.

"What's Calaveras?" The name sounded familiar. "What is this?"

She couldn't parse Osha's expression, couldn't tell if she was excited or upset.

Osha rolled her eyes, as if it was totally unreasonable for her housemate to not be wide awake at this very instant.

"It's that pub near Knockturn!" she explained with a huff, propping herself up against the headboard as she pulled the covers up along with her. "Or it was a pub, I think it's a restaurant now or something. Mum said some American bought it over."

Her mother wrote her about the latest goings-on in Diagon - or at least whatever she heard from those passing through Floriblunders. Osha didn't think much of Americans, the tourists in London were so rude.

"Anyway..." Osha squinted at the page, like she could burn a hole through it with her glare. "You know what? I'll read it, sleepy head," she mussed up Zeta's hair. "Tired of dreading the full moon? Fed-up with those early nights, fearful thoughts? Of having to feel afraid in your own wonderful magical town?"

She made a sound of frustration. "They want to throw full moon parties. Werewolves not invited. Duh."

Osha explained and wakefulness set into sweet Zeta. As far as rude mornings, a pretty girl snuggling in was as good as it got. Zeta stifled the thought. She needed to key in. Whatever was going on, it was important.

Zeta rolled over to have a better look. "Americans," she echoed snarkily.

Then, Zeta literally gasped and pulled herself up to headboard to look over Osha's shoulder. "They're not serious," she breathed, her mouth agape, her reddish blonde brows knit. It was tasteless and cruel. "Why would they do that? It's so mean. What's even the point?"

That feeling was coming again, the rushing thoughts, the fist-balling anger. The injustice of it all made Zeta want to hex someone. Someone needed to shamed out of existence.

There, that was the reaction she was looking for! Osha grinned a little and shook her head, curls jostling against Zeta's red crown. Not everyone appreciate her housemate's fiery zeal for justice but Osha loved it.

She loved that the other girl still asked stuff like, what was the point of being mean? Because yeah, that was totally a question everyone should be asking! Why be mean!

"Zee," she placed her hand over Zeta's. "We know why they do it. People like throwing parties and they'll go right up to each other's faces and say you're not invited, mate."

Human nature, thought Osha. She sighed, settling back against the headboard and raising her eyebrows. "They just want to... to get into their stupid little parties and laugh about the poor werewolves."

Here in the bed next to Osha with he magazine between them and rage-making news in the air, it felt to Zeta like she out to be bare shouldered and have a cigarette between her fingers - all like a scene in some black and white movie. Or a perfume ad. She imagined for a breath that she and Osha were spies in one of those high-ceilinged Paris apartments with a balcony view of the Eiffel Tower and that they already knew how they were going to get revenge.

The fantasy was just a flash, like a breeze. Without it, Zeta wasn't sure where she'd put it all, the overwhelming feeling of needing to explode.

"And It's just ... allowed. Not even the decency to be subtle. Me, I'm embarrassed someone hearing me unwrap a tampon in the loo and these pigs take out a full page ad announcing their nastiness. I hate everything."

In her fantasy, Zeta ashed the cigarette. "I know people who'd go to that."

       "I hate everything."

Osha flipped the magazine close, shooting her dorm mate a half-smile. Oh she did not mean that. Even if she had a point. Like, a really good point. It seemed indecent that anyone could take out such an obviously discriminatory ad. And she bet loads of people didn't even blink when they saw it!

"Aye, but none of them are allowed in this bed are they?" she nudged Zeta's shoulder with her own and then rested her head on it, looping an arm through the other girl's. "What's really shit is that it's an adult place, we can't just boycott it like Zonko's."

Zonko's relied heavily on students and kids. This pub, restaurant, whatever? All the grown-ups would be there drowning their so-called sorrows and not giving a shit about werewolves.

"I'm going to tell my ma and da not to go there, ever." Osha mumbled, coming down from the indignation a little. "But why is it so hard to change people's minds, Zeta? It just doesn't make sense."

Zeta felt warmed and calmed as Osha snuggled up and wanted very much to feel the other girl's gentle way of looking at problems. It wasn't weak - it was thoughtful and strong. Zeta just felt angry. Like just now - Osha thought first of changing their minds; Zeta was sorting out ways to make them regret what they were doing, to feel terrible.

"It's just so mean," she repeated. "I heard it on the wireless, you know, 'how do I convince someone they should care about other people'. I just want to ..."

She tilted her head to lay it gently on Osha's.

"I wish we could go there over holiday and crash it. Stink bomb it or find some hex to make the entire place sink down into the sewer. Do it on the full moon, when they're all there laughing it up."

They'd all be getting on the train this weekend to head home for two weeks. And nowadays, Zeta was aware of when the full moons where - there would be on next Friday.

Zeta wouldn't even know how to do it, though. She'd have to sneak out on a full moon (impossible) and figure out a Floo. She could Apparate now, technically, but she didn't have the practice making the long jump from Bedfordshire to London.

"We could send Howlers." There she went again, eschewing hearts and minds for retribution. "Sorry. Just angry. You're so nice."

Although she had been awake a while, reading Witch Weekly and getting ready for the day, Osha felt like she could go right back to sleep now. It was just...  everything seemed too much to take in, if she closed her eyes it would all go away for an hour or two.

But she didn't close her eyes, laughing instead at Zeta's stink bomb plan. It wasn't a terrible idea, she thought, those haters wouldn't be able to party it up if they were holding their noses the whole time!

           "We could send Howlers. Sorry. Just angry. You're so nice."

Osha used her elbow to gently poke her friend in the side. "I'm not. I just don't think yelling at people does anything, I get so tired being angry all the time you know?"

When she was little she would be so mad at any sign of injustice, her whole face would burn up. And the Veela fireballs, Merlin, never again! Not unintentionally anyway.

"But we could send Howlers if you want..." Osha hugged Zeta's arm, her voice lighter. "It would make us feel better at least," she added in a giggle.

They couldn't change the world with a Howler but they could make themselves feel less awful about it.

Osha, sweet on the outside, fierce on the inside. People underestimated her. Things were different for Zeta, who felt like her passion wasn't taken seriously enough, like she was just a silly girl. That made her angry, too. Girls could change the world, could they not.

"Let's do it," Zeta said, feeling blessed that Osha would agree. "I don't have any, though. We could buy some off Rhys on the train."

Rhys was in Gryffindor and was known to have a stash of mildly contraband items in a hidden compartment in his trunk.

"Then send them off directly from London. I'm going to stay an extra day with Theta before going back home."

She already had loads of plans for the too-short two-week holiday, and the pull to include a visit to Calaveras was giving her a knot in the stomach. Or maybe she was just hungry. Zeta was loathe to sit up, but she did. She let her straight red hair down from it's very messy bed-head bun and shook it out.

Barely awake and already Zeta Pepper was making plans. Osha needed breakfast in her before she could even think that far along so she let her future self get carried away on her friend's words, buying Howlers off a Prewett on the train.

"Sounds good," she yawned and sat up straight as the other girl shook out her lovely hair.

The grass is always greener. Osha loved her curls and all the stuff she could do with them, but she felt a tinge of envy when she observed Zeta's red hair - the kind of hair that bent to the will of a brush.

"Do you and Theta have plans?" Osha reached out to casually run her fingers through the soft strands. "Ma's putting me to work at the shop I think. Spring, you know, there's going to be flowers everywhere."

She sighed a dreamy sigh, smiling to herself. Osha loved flowers. "Come see me? I can make you a bouquet to take home."

"Of course I'll come see you, dear," Zeta said with pink petals on her voice. She found her wand on the nightstand and tapped her crown. She uttered a little incantation so her hair would braid itself into to French plaits. She'd gotten quite good at it, and it left a hand free to pull out an outfit. She chose items for layering - it was a must in the castle when moving between rooms could mean completely new climates.

"Going to that mirror thing," Zeta said referring to the Mirror of Erised and the extra credit.[1] "And there's a Send No Crows concert. I'll come see you and you come with me."[2]

Zeta made a funny face as the plaiting spell found a tangle. Zeta worked it free with her finger. The spell wasn't perfect.

"Hoping to see Ambrose, too." So many plans for two weeks. "He's said he'll look into werewolf things at the Ministry for me. Relevant."[3]

1.	15 Mar 2012 - Mirror of Erised class trip sign-ups
2.	11 Apr 2012 - Look Inside, What do you Find?
3.	17 Mar 2012 - Pepper Pride