Closed Spelling It Out

[Susie Lagowski]

Susie was miserable. First of all, she'd been horribly sick over Halloween, which meant she hadn't got to wear the incredible bat costume Uncle Nathaniel had made for her. Worse still, nobody had even seemed to have noticed she was missing. That part hurt the most. She thought she'd made friends, but none of them actually seemed to want to hang out with her. It had been easier back home; the kids there had flocked to her every recess, practically begged her to play with them. What was so different about Hogwarts that she was suddenly unpopular? Muggle school had given her a headstart academically, but it had apparently had the opposite effect on her socially. And in a place like this, being liked was just as important as being smart.

Maybe it was her fault. She'd been a bit obnoxious. No more obnoxious than usual, admittedly, but perhaps the kids here didn't appreciate her sense of humour. The trouble was, she didn't know how to be less annoying. That was her thing. Who was Susie Lagowski, if not a pain in the bum, a jokester, the class clown? If you stripped back all the sarcasm, the hubris, the bravado, who was she then?

Well, at the moment, she was a girl in dire need of assistance. All those books in the library, and she still couldn't locate a single dictionary. Stupid place. Even the school itself seemed to turn away in her presence, as though it were embarrassed to be seen helping her. “Forget it, then,” she muttered, shoving How to Spell back in its hole. Someone else clearly had a great sense of humour, but it wasn't helping Susie now.

The student lounge was busier than usual. Susie didn't even notice Tori until she'd put her books down on the table beside her. Ugh. It wasn't that she didn't like Tori. She did. But she always felt a bit funny around her. A bit not good enough. That feeling wasn't helped by the fact they hadn't spoken since before Halloween. A more reasonable, rational Susie would have apologised for standing her up and explained she'd been unwell. Instead, she'd decided Tori probably hadn't even noticed she was missing anyway and had had a grand old time without her.

Still, it would have been rude to pick a different seat now. Better to make the choice look intentional. "Tooori," she said, opening her notebook to a half-written Transfiguration essay. "You're smart. How do you spell 'conscience'?"

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

The last several weeks hadn't been very good for Tori at all. Outside of her academics, which seemed to be the only thing she was getting right at the moment, Tori simply didn't know how to handle the rest of it. She tried to hang out with everyone, and there were a lot of people in her house that she felt like she considered her friends, but they all sort of seemed to abandon her at the first opportunity and even though she'd spoken to Teddy, or well, she'd ranted and he'd sort of listened, and that had made her feel a little better, it wasn't fixing any of the little holes that seemed to be developing in her sensibilities. It just felt like no one wanted her around, especially Jasper and William. Felix seemed to be okay, but she really only spent time with him in class because he seemed to be more focused on the Hufflepuff boy, Jonah, and they were friends first so she didn't mind that honestly, but with Jasper? He was her friend first and so was William, and it felt really sh*tty to be the second choice all the time for everyone. She was even her mother's second choice. I was always Rory and Tori, never Tori and Rory and her dad was having other kids now and she was second choice again. He would be there for them in a way he had never been there for her. What exactly was she supposed to do with that actually?

She looked up. And then there was Susie, so preoccupied with other things she'd hadn't even bothered to let Tori know she wouldn't show up for their meet up during the Halloween Feast. That had stung, because she'd waited for half the feast and then when she'd gone looking, she hadn't even really know where to look. There hadn't been anyone at the common room to ask after her, they'd all been down in the Great Hall so she hadn't been able to find her. She'd left the party after that, because she'd not really been feeling up to it and then she just hadn't bothered at all. What would have been the point if Susie didn't want to have anything to do with her? Seeing her now was a bit of a shock. She cleared her throat. "Conscience," she frowned, because actually what a weird word. "Uhh, con shen sss. C, O, N, SHUNCE, S, H, U, N, CE? Why?"​