Sally-Anne Perks looked up from her book and stared blankly at her housemate.
"Go on, look!"
She followed the direction that Megan's finger was pointing at; Wayne Hopkins stood laughing merrily with Zacharias Smith, next to the roaring fire of the Hufflepuff common room.
"Well?"
"I'm not sure," Sally-Anne said. "What am I looking at?"
Megan Jones threw her hands in the air and was clearly suppressing the need to cry out in frustration. Hannah Abbott, their resident Prefect, noticed and walked over to where Sally-Anne was comfortably sitting.
"Is she still going on about it?" she asked, sounding defeated.
Sally-Anne could only nod; she was longing to get back to her book, but she knew Megan wasn't finished when the girl sank into the armchair next to hers and began her predictable rant.
"He should be ashamed of himself," she said in a low caustic voice. "He should be on his knees, begging me to teach him the right way of things."
Hannah sighed heavily and posed the dreaded question.
"What are you talking about, Meg?"
Megan cringed at the nickname, but her hateful resolve was stronger.
"Wayne Hopkins and his..." She was on the verge of spluttering. "His vile breeding!"
The way she said 'breeding', Sally-Anne could swear she was referring to their housemate as a common farm animal.
In all likelihood, a pig.
Megan gave way to her mother tongue and muttered something unintelligible, shooting daggers at Wayne's back with her eyes. She went on like that for a whole minute (Sally-Anne was keeping tally), then Zacharias noticed her looking and nudged Wayne, who turned and waved at the girls in seeming confusion.
Megan crossed her arms and turned her face brusquely.
"Did you see that?" she breathed. "How dare he!"
"Honestly, Meg!" Hannah exclaimed. "Just give it up already."
Sally-Anne laid her book aside to back her friend up.
"He really was just waving at us," she said. "Nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"That's what I'm saying," Hannah asserted.
But Megan had had enough; she stood up abruptly and marched over to the boys, who had gone back to their previous conversation. Sally-Anne and Hannah watched as she tapped Wayne on the shoulder and proceeded to give him a piece of her mind when he was face to face with her.
Zacharias recoiled towards the other two girls, snickering.
"One of these days she's going to ask to be moved to another House," he said, watching the shouting match.
Hannah couldn't hide a small smile.
"What was the Sorting Hat thinking when he put those two together..."
"It is supposed to be a thinking cap," Sally-Anne added, unhelpfully.
Megan had resorted to dialect again and by the look on Wayne's face, he was having trouble picking up on the meaning of everything she said.
As he had publicly acknowledged on their first night at Hogwarts, he lived with his family in Glamorgan, had been taught to read and speak English at an early age so that he'd be able to read his mother's old Hogwarts spell-books. Save for his father's side of his family, he barely ever spoke his native vernacular.
"I should have known it'd be them," Susan Bones said, her voice thick with sleep.
"Were you sleeping, Bones?" Zacharias inquired. "It's hardly nine."
Susan yawned. "Whatever, Smith," she said snappishly.
Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan came down from the boys' dormitory with identical looks of annoyance on their faces. They joined the others on one side of the common room, asking what had prompted the shouting match, this time.
"Megan should feel proud of her heritage," Justin noted shortly afterwards, "but she shouldn't try to impose her ideas on Wayne."
Ernie nodded. "Agreed."
"Oh, shut up, Macmillan!" Susan snarled, rubbing her eyes and yawning again.
Megan's parents were both Muggles, and they hadn't bothered to learn English in their younger years, so when the letter from Hogwarts had arrived, it had been Megan's duty to read it and translate for them. They hadn't been happy to send her away, off to a school God-knows-where; they feared she'd lose herself there. Megan had been brought up the traditional way and she was scornful of the anglicised Welsh, like Wayne and his family - she called them traitors, as she had been instructed to do.
"Where's Stephen, by the way?" Hannah asked, glancing around.
"Oh, he's off with Spinks in the library," Zacharias said offhandedly.
More or less everyone nodded in confirmation; it wasn't unusual for those two to study late.
"I reckon she ought to be out of breath soon," Justin said.
"Ten minutes and counting," Sally-Anne chimed in.
A small crowd of Hufflepuffs had gathered in the common room by then, though nobody was in the least surprised or appalled at Megan's and Wayne's nonsensical yells that threatened to rouse the whole castle. Some looked worried; it hadn't been pleasant the last time Professor Sprout had had to tear them apart.
"I'm going back to bed," Susan announced. "I'm sure I'll hear all about tonight at breakfast."
They all said their 'goodnight's and 'sleep well's, but the brunette just waved in response.
"This is turning out to be a far less entertaining show than I had expected," Zacharias remarked, earning a painful pinch on his arm from Hannah.
"We should do something," she said.
"It would be our duty as Prefects," Ernie went on to say.
Hannah rolled her eyes behind his back.
"Wayne should be perfectly able to fend for himself," Justin said. "He comes from a working class family, after all."
They all stared at him uncomprehendingly, and partly offended.
"How is that relevant, Justin?" Sally-Anne finally asked.
"Well, he would certainly have had the opportunity to pick up on some tricks from the street," he replied. "It is admirable of him not to hit the lady, but she who lives by the sword dies by the sword," he finished dramatically.
Ernie patted Justin on the back.
"Well said, my friend."
Hannah was clearly on the point of saying something herself, when the shouting match came to an abrupt halt. Megan and Wayne were staring at each other, but when they opened their mouths to tell the other off, no sound came out.
"Brilliant!" someone blurted out, a third-year by the looks of it.
Wayne's lips moved soundlessly as he crossed the common room to its entrance and everyone eventually understood that he was going towards Stephen Cornfoot, standing a few steps inside with his wand drawn out.
"He just lurks in the shadows, a nondescript Hufflepuff in the crowd," Zacharias was saying, "and then bam! He saves the day."
"Sounds like someone I know..." Sally-Anne commented.
They all knew whom she was talking about.
"- and so what if she was getting the upper hand? I'd have squ- as- ... Er -"
Stephen had cleverly lifted the spell in the middle of Wayne's mute tirade, much to everyone's amusement. Megan, on the other hand, looked murderous.
"The party is over, people!" Hannah called, moving around the room. "Go back to your business!"
The small assembly of students dispersed, Hannah and her group walked to the cosy space opposite the fireplace, listening in on Wayne's complaints and steering clear of Megan's wrath.
"Mate, it was funny," Stephen said, smiling. "Would you really have preferred to be given detention by Sprout?"
"Of course not!" Wayne replied hotly. "I can't believe the Hat would put her here, of all Houses," he continued in a lower voice.
"Do be fair, Wayne," Justin told him. "The lady does make a valid point."
Ernie nodded. "Megan feels lonely here," he said. "She's the only Muggle-born girl around."
Sally-Anne faked a cough.
"No offence, Sal, but you aren't exactly..." He searched for the right word. "Jovial."
Zacharias snickered.
Jovial, honestly.
"I can barely understand her when she speaks," Sally-Anne said. "All those odd sounds, it strikes me as German most of the time."
"Yes, yes," Hannah said. "We all know how cumbersome it is to carry on a conversation with Miss Jones from the unknown regions of northern Wales."
"My point exactly," Ernie concluded.
They all agreed they were too tired to argue any further.
"Did you dump Spinks in the dungeons on the way here?" Zacharias asked Stephen.
"Don't be ridiculous," he replied. "Still studying in the library, I think."
While they bantered, the boys dragged Wayne to their dorm, wishing a good night's sleep to the girls in between jests.
"I wish I had never come to Hogwarts."
Megan had slowly made her way towards them; she was crying.
"Oh, Meg," Hannah said, hugging the other girl.
"You and Wayne will work things out," Sally-Anne said hopefully.
But Megan shook her head vehemently.
"He represents everything I stand against," she explained in a broken voice. "If Mam knew!"
Hannah exchanged a meaningful look with Sally-Anne, but they said nothing. It wasn't the time to question Megan on what she did or did not tell her parents about Hogwarts, and the wizarding world.
"Let's get some sleep, shall we?"
They walked into their dorm; Susan was slightly snoring in her bed. The girls giggled, but stopped at once when she grunted in her sleep. Silently, Sally-Anne slipped her pyjamas on and tucked into her bed as the other two did the same.
"Thanks," Megan whispered in the darkness.
Her wakeful housemates smiled, even if they both knew she couldn't see it. Tomorrow, they all decided, tomorrow they'd straighten everything out.