Reading Between the Lines

[Sophie Wilson]

The last few weeks had been turbulent ones in Sophie Wilson's life. The time moving up to the yule ball she had been sort of fighting with some of her closest friends and feeling rejected by a boy that hadn't actually outright rejected her. Then the yule ball happened, which changed a lot of things for her as well. Never had she expected to be the type to have a boyfriend at thirteen. The word still felt strange in her head, and she was actually glad the beak had separated them for a while. Things with Isaac felt natural and easy, but she worried putting this label on it would make it harder and feel more forced. She hoped not. Now that she was back at school, she had elected not to seek him out all the time. Things would just go bad if they suddenly started spending every waking minute together. Sophie knew herself well enough to know she would get annoyed with him no matter how much she liked him. Instead, she had chosen to sit in the Student Lounge with one of her new books, knowing that perhaps they would run into each other here by chance. A part of her hoped to run into Elly as well, so she could fix the rift between them. Though any of her friends would be a welcome sight. Even though she was usually happy to be alone, after spending most of the Christmas holidays by herself she was sort of itching to socialize, which was rare for her.

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley wandered into the Student Lounge on the off chance that she might find one or more of her friends there. She was bored, and it would be good to catch up with them after the holidays . . . although honestly, Hayley wasn't sure she could face Harley after what had happened. A couple of weeks away had not dulled the pain of what she could still only think of as a betrayal. Not a betrayal of her, as such - after all, Harley hadn't known about her feelings, and was still loyal to her as a best friend - but a betrayal of Harley's principles. In the time she'd been back at school, Hayley hadn't even been able to look at Odette - but total avoidance wasn't far from the usual situation between her and Odette, so the snake hadn't noticed yet. Preoccupied with such depressing thoughts, Hayley noted that none of her friends were here, and that even if they were she might not be in the best frame of mind for socialising. She was about to leave when she noticed someone else, someone she'd been meaning to speak to, and who might be exactly what she needed to take her mind off her relationship troubles. She didn't know Sophie Wilson well . . . at all, really, but she knew her by sight. The younger Ravenclaw hadn't been someone Hayley had any reason to take notice of, until she'd written a certain article in the Hogwarts Monthly. Hayley approached. "Hey, you're Sophie Wilson, right?"

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie's mind was wandering in different directions, as the motivation to get started on her school work this early wasn't really all that pressing. As someone approached, she looked up. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw who it was, and even though the girl's voice was friendly enough, Sophie was sure the girl was about to yell at her. This was Hayley Elridge, the girl she had written about in the paper. Of course, she had written about people before, but this had been the first time she had written something so personal. The Slytherin had clearly been invested in her idea and seeing it picked apart in the newspaper couldn't have been fun for her. Her eyes flickered to the door, wondering if she could get away. The girl was older than her, which meant she probably knew more offensive spells. Sophie couldn't help wondering if she was about to be cursed for her article. Frowning slightly, she looked up at the other girl. "Yes, what do you want?" She asked cautiously.

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley hesitated, uncertain of precisely what she wanted to say, and unnerved by the look in the younger girl's eyes. Was she . . . frightened of her? The possibility that she might scare someone like this hadn't occurred to Hayley before, and it alarmed her. She was loud and pushy, and this girl had written some quite scating things about her . . . but that wasn't the point. Hayley sat down heavily beside her. "That article you wrote about the revolution . . . I, uh, wanted to . . . thank you for it, I guess." She gestured awkwardly, trying not to seem alarming, still unsure of how to say what she meant or even precisely what she did want to say. "You gave my ideas a chance, and after what happened at that meeting - well, I didn't think anyone would." She sniggered abruptly, thinking of another detail that was worth mentioning. "And the way you ripped into those Potter/Kingsley a**holes - that was some quality snark." Hayley wished she'd managed to say more of such things at the time, rather than freezing like some useless fool.

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie's frown only grew as the girl sat down beside her, and she crossed her arms in front of herself as she eyed the older Slytherin. So, the girl didn't seem like she was about to attack, but she still expected some sort of negative reaction. So when Hayley said she had wanted to thank her, Sophie didn't believe it. Her expression remained skeptical as the girl kept talking, then held up her hand. "Hold up." She said with a small frown. "I did consider your ideas and then pretty much declared them stupid, you did read that part right? I wasn't picking your side or any side, I wasn't biased." Even though she appreciated the compliment on her snark, she didn't like the idea of being seen as picking a side in this argument. "You could have handled things better, but they did take things way too personally." She added with a shrug. "As far as I could tell, anyway."

 

[Hayley Elridge]

"Yeah, yeah, I'm not accusing you of being biased." Hayley flapped a hand dismissively; she hadn't come here to talk about journalistic integrity. What she had come for she wasn't entirely sure, but she had never let that stop her. "That's kinda my point, actually. I . . . didn't expect to get anything other than hate. You were harsh, yeah, but you were harsh to both sides." For the first time, it struck Hayley just how desperate she'd been for any sort of positive reinforcement. If she'd been as she normally was, angry at the world by habit and inclination, yes, she would have been insulted by the article. But under these circumstances, she'd been relieved that it contained any shred of fairness. It shocked her to realise that her pessimism had spread so far. "And you actually came up with some interesting, valid criticisms, which is more than anyone did at the actual meeting." Hayley sighed. "Yeah, I didn't . . . plan, or deal with things, too well. I've never -" she chuckled "- planned a revolution before. But I never could've anticipated the level of stupidity of those little sh**s." Hayley was still fuming about that, all this time later. How could they be so idiotically self-centred as to make her words all about them? How could they be so vindictive as to take it as far as violence?

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie's frown didn't lessen when the girl dismissed her concerns about bias, she really wasn't sure what to make of this conversation. If she had been in Hayley's shoes she was sure she would be a lot angrier. And she supposed that she had expected this girl to be a lot more combative, considering she had tried to start a revolution. "Of course I was." She said with a shrug. "Both sides had their idiotic moments. Though at least you didn't punch anyone, so you've got that going for you." From what she could tell, the entire thing had gotten out of hand and overwhelmed the Slytherin, though the cynical part of Sophie's mind added that she really should have seen that coming, considering the enormous change she had been suggesting. Sophie's mouth quirked up slightly when the girl mentioned she had never planned a revolution before. That was kind of a funny thing to say. "People always like the status quo more than you probably assume, change is scary." Sophie said with a shrug. "Especially when the consequences are hard to oversee. What you were suggesting it something that hasn't been experienced by anyone living. So of course you're going to meet resistance." Sophie sighed, not wanting to bring the girl down even more now that she had been so amiable in conversation. "But at least you're doing something for what you believe in, that's more than most people can say."

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Talking about this was bringing back some of Hayley's anger, than had been dulled by despair at the things that had happened since. With it came a measure of her old determination. Not that she would show that to this girl who had been so alarmed by her. "F***," Hayley said harshly, "I wish I had punched someone. Be better than the useless s**t I did do. If I ever see that f***ing Potter boy around, I am gonna punch him, right in his smug, ugly face." This probably wasn't the best impression to give, but it was true, and once they'd started Hayley couldn't stop the words spilling out. All that bitterness and hurt, pent up and ignored because other emotions, another hurt, was more pressing. Hayley made an effort to pull herself together, and nodded. "Yeah, I think I should've started smaller. I still believe in what I said - the only way we're going to get real equality is through huge social upheaval. But people aren't ready for that - to think about that." For the first time in months, she was thinking again about her proposed next step - a more civilised discussion, to gather the opinions and ideas of those who had signed up, who had been prepared to think beyond the instinctive human fear of the unknown. She had let those people down so far. Maybe soon it would be time to fulfil the offer she had made.

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie almost regretted bringing up the subject when the girl suddenly started swearing at her. It wasn't like it offended her or anything, but it wasn't her fault people had overreacted to her ideas. "Hey, if you had punched someone you would have looked just as bad as them. And I would have totally roasted you in my article." She said, a small smirk appearing on her face. "There's better ways to attack then with fists, you know. Words have more power." She said, shrugging slightly. "Perhaps you should show them you're smarter than them, adapt your plans, make your ideas more realistic. Show them you're not just loud but that you have substance." Sophie wasn't really sure where this was coming from, she didn't really care about the revolution at all. Sure, prejudice against muggleborns was definitely bad, but she didn't really think anything would change it. Especially not something like this. But from what she had gathered about Hayley, the girl could do better than punching someone. "Huge social upheaval isn't really achievable for someone still learning basic Charms at Hogwarts anyway." She pointed out dryly. "And talk to some people that know more than you. Things might not be the way you assume them to be." If the girl really was a muggleborn, she had been in this world for only a few years. It was pretty arrogant to assume she knew enough about the world and its politics that she knew what sort of change was needed. At the same time, Sophie couldn't help admiring her daring. Personally she would rather have died than speak in front of a crowd the way she had, especially about something so important to her. It had taken guts. "You'll get there." She said with a shrug. "Just ignore the people shouting you down without reason, they don't really matter in the end."

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley sighed. "I know, I know. It's just . . . Before . . . all this -" she made a wide gesture to indicate Hogwarts, magic in general "- I was good at punching people to defend myself and my friends. But these days, the people I need to defend myself against use magic, and if I tried to get into that sort of fight against them I'd probably lose." She chuckled softly. The time before she'd learned about the existence of magic seemed so distant now. She'd lost contact with the friends she used to fight for back in primary school entirely. Everything had changed so much, and she couldn't bring herself to lie to them. "So I'm learning to fight with words, but that never used to be my strong suit. And when the physical violence broke out at the meeting, I felt so bad for not being there. If anyone gets in a fist fight for my ideas, it should be me, not some random guy hearing them for the first time." Why was she being so honest? Why was she telling all this to a stranger? Perhaps it was the strain Harley had placed on her, of no longer being able to be entirely honest with her closest friends. She nodded at the younger girl's ideas. "Yeah, I will. I'm going to arrange a meeting, actually, a discussion group kinda thing, so everyone who's interested can come and talk about it in a more reasonable way, and I can refine my ideas a bit." Hayley shrugged. She didn't think she was making any assumptions - at least, not any that were wrong - but Sophie was right that there would be people who knew more than she did, resources she could use. "I know it's not really feasible to bring about any major change in the world while I'm still a student, but if we can start with some changes for the better here at Hogwarts . . . well, that'll be something, and not scare people so much."

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie listened to the girl say she used to be good at fighting people. That wasn't really something Sophie could relate to as she wasn't very strong. If she tried to fight someone physically she was sure to be beaten soundly. "Perhaps you should practice curses, just for the more annoying people." She said with a small smirk. She paused, considering her words about the fistfight at her meeting. "It would have made you look worse if you had been there, fighting." She said after a moment. "I get what you mean, but it would make people see you as violent and dismiss your ideas. Now it just looks like it got out of control, which it did." She hoped her words were making sense, it was kind of an interesting conversation to have. Public perception was odd and often unfair, but it was something to definitely keep in mind if she wanted to be a journalist. The idea of another meeting was probably smart, especially if it was more a discussion. "That sounds good." She said with a small shrug. "Good luck."