Chapter 8: Meeting Luisa
For most of the year, Petunia's life continued in much the same way, though her romantic evenings with James became fewer and fewer what with her studies for the pending exams. Come May, O.W.L.s approaching fast, Petunia decided that studying should be taken even more seriously.
That's why Petunia sat in the library, her books spread out on the table on a warm Saturday morning. She had library almost to herself, as the weather was magnificent and most of the students were outside enjoying it.
"Aren't you coming, 'Tunia?"
"No, I'm not! I have O.W.L.s coming up. And don't call me 'Tunia!"
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"James calls you ' 'Tunia ' all the time. Why can't I?"
"Because. Now bugger off, I'm studying."
"Would you say yes to James? You would wouldn't you?" Sirius whined, pretending to be offended.
"No, I wouldn't. And I've already told him so. Many times. Go away."
"Fine!" Sirius turned on his heel, still pretending to be offended and walked towards the exit where Remus, Peter and James were waiting. He had insisted on trying to convince her himself, being the stubborn person he was.
"Well?" asked James, "Any luck?"
Sirius shook his head. The Marauders looked over to Petunia and waved, but she just shook her head without even looking up.
"Definitely not coming?"
Petunia did not deem that last annoying question worthy of an answer.
Dramatically pretending to be highly dejected, the boys headed outside, leaving Petunia to her studies.
As the door swung shut again, Petunia glanced up. They were gone. Finally. The pests had been trying to convince her to go out flying by the lake with them for the past half hour.
And as much as Petunia would have loved to join the fun, she had exams coming up in only a month, not to mention piles of homework to complete.
"Well, they were rather annoying,” a strangely misty voice announced, interrupting Petunia’s thoughts of Unicorns, Trolls and Hippogriffs. Her Care of Magical Creature's notes were very hard to understand, even for their taker.
Ready to stick up for her friends (even if the unknown speaker was saying the complete truth) Petunia exasperatedly looked up at the person in front of her anyway.
"My name is Luisa. Luisa Frank."
"Yeah. Look, sorry, but what do you want?" Petunia had been up half of the night and was rather ill tempered.
"We are in a few of the same classes, I think."
"Yes," Petunia said slowly. She did recognize this girl. She was in most of her classes, in fact. Luisa was pretty much an outsider; Petunia usually saw her alone. Back before Petunia had befriended the Marauders, Luisa had tried to talk to Petunia, as Petunia also had no friends. But Petunia had not wanted to be friends with Luisa; Luisa was an outsider. A very strange outsider.
For, unlike Petunia, the Ravenclaw girl could have been popular. She was pretty, with curly, black, shoulder length hair, full, red lips and large, innocent, brown doe-eyes. Also, she came from a respected, pureblood family and her grades, though they were not top marks were passable.
But Luisa, though she was polite to everyone, was an oddball. Whatever people were doing, she did the opposite. Not only that, but she did not seem embarrassed by anything, not even going out with strange and eccentric Ravenclaw seventh year Xeno Lovegood who was possibly the most unpopular boy in school. No one spoke to him, not even other outcasts. Except, of course, Luisa.
"Petunia?"
"What do you want, Luisa?"
"Would you like to study with me? We could test each other," Luisa stated.
Why not? Petunia might as well do the girl a favor; after all she had no friends. And, now that Petunia’s reputation was good, since she was dating James, studying with Luisa couldn't hurt it. Besides, who knew, it might be fun.
"Sure."
"Great!" exclaimed Luisa with more excitement than Petunia would have expected.
Luisa pulled out her schoolbooks and sat down across from Petunia.
"I see you're studying Care of Magical Creatures. Are you doing Unicorns? Wonderful."
Before long, Petunia had forgotten the girl she was sitting across from was a weirdo. Luisa knew all there was to know about magical creatures, and she even told Petunia about some creatures Petunia had never heard of. Of course, most of them were so outrageous Petunia had a hard time believing in them, but it was still fun studying with someone who knew so much.
Care of Magical Creatures was finished in no time, and the two girls moved on to Transfiguration. Luisa was not as good at any of the other subjects as she was at Care of Magical Creatures, but Petunia got the distinct impression that Luisa was far from thick.
In fact, Petunia was starting to enjoy this girl’s company quite a bit. They studied well together, stopping every now and then to chat about other things.
Luisa had no siblings, and had basically grown up away from people her own age. An only child. Petunia envied her for that.
They finished studying by two o'clock, and decided to go down to lunch together.
Sitting at the Hufflepuff table (Luisa showed no inclination to go join the other Ravenclaws), many people stared, and whispered: Apparently Luisa had finally found a friend. But since Petunia herself was not that popular, and was protected from real ridiculing by dating one of the Marauders, not many people cared to talk about them for long.
Just as the two girls had begun eating, James, Sirius, Peter and Remus entered the hall. They walked over to Petunia, and looked questioningly at Luisa.
"Hey!" Petunia greeted them. She leaned over and kissed James quickly (“Yum! Potatoes!” he grinned and was rewarded with a smack and an “Ewww, James!”) before introducing Luisa to them.
"Nice to meet you," Remus supplied cheerily before sitting down between Luisa and Sirius who had already taken his place and begun chewing happily.
James, following suit, sat down next to his girlfriend, putting one arm lightly around her waist and filling his plate with the other.
"So, no time to go out with us, but time to socialize with the girls, huh?" James asked, feigning deep resentment.
"Very funny. No, James. We studied the whole time."
"You're kidding. That's mental. You're mental."
"That's why you like “ eh, love - me."
He laughed.
"But seriously, 'Tunia, the O.W.L.s aren't that bad. I got twelve, remember? It was a breeze," James bragged.
"Oh, shut up. I'm going to study as much as I see necessary, and there's nothing you can do to stop me! Right, Luisa?"
"Whatever. You're two nutcases, then," laughed Sirius. Petunia suspected Sirius didn't much mind the girl's reputation for being odd when he saw how pretty she really was.
"Oh, shut up!" came the reply from two mouths as one. Smiling when the Marauders made no further comment, Petunia returned to her meal. Finally she had found an ally - and a friend.