Lacy sighed contently as she watched the mélange of
ingredients boiling in her cauldron. The potions classroom hummed with the
sounds of measuring cups and quills scratching against paper as student took
notes on their individual potions.  A few
brave students in the back of the room were showing off to each other, performing
their intrepid act of holding their fingers right above the liquid in their
cauldrons. Lacy wondered how they hadn’t been caught and reprimanded already;
surely the professor would see this as knavery.

Rana came up behind Lacy as she was beginning to dice the
turnip on her desk.

“Hi, Lacy. Man, this class is boring,” she said. Lacy
sighed.

“Why are you so querulous?”
she asked. “School isn’t meant to be devoid of learning.”

Rana laughed and put her arm
around Lacy’s shoulders before she could shrug away.

“Oh Lacy,” she purred, “I
know school is about all of this. I just like to have fun, too!” Lacy couldn’t
help but smile at Rana’s back as she trotted back to her table. She did seem
like she was more fun than Lacy’s saturnine lab partner, who was leaning
on his elbows on the desk, half asleep. She swirled her wand once more over the
potion, which was beginning to turn a deep chartreuse. She jumped when
the professor tapped her wand against the board in order to regain attention of
the class.

“I hope your potions are
coming along well, students. Now, this is a special potion because it can help
those who ingest it attain a wish. However, this wish cannot simply be a velleity-the
witch or wizard must initiate the effort to attain or the potion will not work.”
She rambled on, and Lacy stopped paying attention. She barely even noticed when
class ended.

As Lacy was gathering her
things, she noticed a note slipped in among her papers. Turning it over, she
found a message in scratchy cursive that read,

“Meet me outside of the
Slytherin Common Room during lunch.” There was no signature, but Lacy was certain
that Rana was the one who had written her the note. She shrugged, figuring that
going to this secret meeting would be interesting at least. Besides, maybe Rana
would apologize for acting so arrogant on the first day of school. Lacy could
hope, right? She stuffed the rest of her papers and quills into her bag as she
hurried out the door to catch up with the rest of her exiting classmates.

A few hours later, Lacy was
trying to fight the foreboding sense of anxiety that was resting in her
chest as she made her way to the Slytherin Dungeon. They called it a dungeon.
Maybe she shouldn’t be doing this after all. Lacy paused before rounding the
corner. What if Rana was trying to trick her? Lacy pushed that thought away,
telling herself not to judge someone simply for what house they were in.

At first, she didn’t see
Rana when she rounded the corner. This part of the school was eerily empty, in
fact.

“Hello..?” Lacy called out
softly. She felt as though if she made too loud a noise, the walls would
crumble around her, like an avalanche.

“Lacy!” came a voice. “There
you are!” Rana was jogging towards her, carrying a very battered looking book
in her hands. She grabbed Lacy and pulled her to the side, as though they had
to be worried about being overheard despite the silent halls. Before Lacy had a
chance to ask why they were meeting, Rana held out the book for her to look at.
Though Lacy tried, she couldn’t quite make out the title.

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s a history of our
houses,” Rana replied, “apparently this rivalry didn’t exist originally and was
several years in the making. Maybe..maybe it can go back to the way it was.”
Lacy stared at her.

“You want to be friends.
After you were so rude at the station?” she blurted. Rana’s eyes glimmered.

“I know I come across as
arrogant. I try to put on this air of confidence…and especially now, that I’m a
Slytherin, and I’m kind of just expected to. It would be nice to have someone
in my life who wasn’t in Slytherin. Someone a little less judgmental than they
are.” Lacy felt her heart swell. She of all people knew what it was like to be
the odd one out. Maybe Rana wasn’t as awful as she had originally thought.
Maybe she was just doing the same thing Lacy was-trying to fit in. Lacy cocked
her head to the side as she answered.

“Okay.”