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1
“Welcome,I am Solana and this year I will be your prefect for the Hufflepuff House!”
Solana grinned so widely her cheeks began to sore, morphing her face into an almost robotic expression, she grimaced in the mirror. Sighing, she put down her brush and collapsed onto her bed which was scattered with magazines, robes and other assortments of Hogwarts and magical paraphernalia. Her mother had been so proud that she had been chosen as this year's prefect, but she really didn't feel proud.
“Solana!” She heard her mother yelling from downstairs, “We will be late.”
Groaning, Solana hurriedly grabbed her brown knapsack, shoving all the assorted items on her bed into her bag, and slipped on a pair of loafers running downstairs. The strong scent of fried onions, spices and steamed dumplings entered her nose and enveloped her senses.
The stove was warm and she saw her mother standing over a pot stirring some noodles with her hair tied up by a rubber band while dawning a long flowy wrap dress. Her mother always had silky smooth black hair, yet it was beginning to gray at the top. Soon she would be complaining about which box dye matched her skin tone and if she should have more layers. Solana sighed, she would miss home.
Sitting at the table she grabbed a steamed pork bun savouring the flavourful food and began to pull her hair up into a bun, using her want as a hair accessory and began grabbing all her secondhand books to shove into her bag.
“Eat first girl”, her mother said, placing a steaming bowl of noodles in front of her and some sliced pears on the side.
It was her mother's way of wishing her luck and love.
“Thanks, Ma” Solana said, quickly slurping down her noodles knowing she wouldn't receive this at Hogwarts.
Soon after her whole family bundled themselves into their champagne-coloured Toyota and drove down to the train station. Thinking back, when she was first accepted into Hogwarts her parents were mortified. It certainly wasn't the prestigious university they had planned for her future nor was the fact that she was a ‘witch’.
As Solana passed by the familiar parks and forests filled with muggles she felt a pang of nostalgia. It was her fifth year at the school of magic and things were looking…rough to say the least. The previous year and the passing of Cedric really had created a huge hole in many of her fellow Hufflepuff's hearts including her own.
Solana couldn’t say she knew the chap very well but one thing was for certain, he had been a good person. Always kind to everyone and fair during the games. He had been nice to the Golden Boy when many were not and above all he hadn’t deserved to die the way he did.
Many at Hogwarts chose to reject the idea that Voldemort hadn’t returned. Choosing to fault a 15-year-old instead but Solana saw the way Harry had screamed in despair. Those eyes, sometimes she saw them in her dreams. She could feel his genuine terror inflicted into her own heart when she first saw him during the games. Needless to say, filling Cedric's shoes as a prefect as well as the looming threat of one of magical history's worst villains returning didn't exactly inspire a great start to the year.
“Solana time to go” She looked up to see her father staring at her through the rearview mirror and she nodded quickly.
All three jumped out of their car and grabbed her cases of books and trunks of clothing. Solana grabbed a trolley cart and piled all of her items carefully. As she rolled her cart she saw some other students with their trunks and items, some with cages of magical familiars. She had begged her mother for the first three years to get a cat, owl or even a toad. Yet her requests had been denied citing all the work and maintenance that comes with an animal not to mention the cost.
She tenderly hugged her parents before entering the station. Her father petted her head while her mother kissed her hair and clasped Solana’s face in her warm palms.
“Something is changing Lana, I feel it. Be careful.” Her mother said, kissing her forehead pushing her towards the magical entrance. Solana nodded to both her parents and waved furiously while smiling softly.
She loved her parents.
Yet as she ran through the brick wall between platforms she couldn't help but think over her mother's words. They replayed in her head and she was astounded that even her muggle parents could indicate that something was wrong in the magical world without even knowing a single thing about it. Her mother had always been very sensitive to shifts in the air making her think that she was at least magical-sensitive.
“Move mudblood.”
Solana was broken out of deep thought by the feminine nasally sneer belonging to one Miss Pansy Parkison. The slur did not go unnoticed by Solana and she instantly bristled at her voice, glaring daggers at the female embodiment of awfulness.
Pansy responded with an ugly jaunt sticking her tongue out at Solana and making disgusting faces.
“So bloody immature” Solana mumbled under her breath “At least her pug face matches her bloody personality,” She said a little louder eliciting what sounded like a slight chuckle disguised as a grunt.
Solana looked for its origin but all she caught was the wisp of silvery blonde hair that looked somehow familiar. She was bewildered but chose to brush it off, thinking nothing of the interaction and boarding the train.
Solana walked between compartments searching each one until she settled on the one with a familiar voice she could recognize instantly. Grabbing the compartment door she slid it open swiftly as a fox obtaining a loud shriek.
“EEK SOLANA!” Hannah screamed, scaring the living daylights out of her.
Solana giggled loudly bending over from laughter as she embraced one of her best friends.
“I missed you so much, but you need to stop scaring me,” Hannah said, closing her eyes and hugging her best friend.
“Indeed, however Hannah, you need to calm your nerves,” A masculine voice said from the corner of their compartment.
Solana’s eyes landed on the face hidden behind a book, another member of their group.
“Hello Macmillian,” She said with a grin, greeting the boy with a grin, “I see our fellow bookworm has arrived early as per usual.”
“Yes, I hypothesized that you would be late. Have you forgotten that as prefects, we are supposed to be in the first two carriages?” Ernest said feigning ignorance.
Solana groaned, refusing to admit that,yes, she had indeed forgotten that fact.
“Solana, come on, that sounds like so much fun! You have your own compartments!” Hannah exclaimed, however, all Solana wanted to do was stay with her friends.
“Of course but we need to first wait for-” she was cut off by the arrival of their final group member.
“Everyone calm down, I have arrived!” A loud voice announced strolling into their compartment with the confidence of the chosen one himself.
“Hello Justin,” Ernest said, rolling his eyes.
Immediately, however, Solana pulled off an imaginary tophat and dipped her head to their golden-haired compatriot.
“Ah yes yes of course, a very good afternoon to you dear sir” She said in her most pompous accent she could muster.
Justin pretended to adjust his imaginary fan and batted his eyelashes.
“Oh dear me Madame Khin, what a very pleasant surprise to be grace by your presence” He responded in the highest falsetto he could muster.
A beat passed between them.
Instantly they both doubled down with intense laughter and Solana swore she could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes from their giggling.
“Hi Justine,” Hannah said sweetly and he winked at her eliciting a giggle.
Ernest rolled his eyes again and smiled standing up to fistbump Justin in their own complicated handshake. Justin turned to clasp onto Ernest and Solanas shoulders beginning his dramatic schpiel
“Ah my two beautiful prefects, please sir don't cite me for a partial infarction,” Justine said feigning terror.
“Watch yourself Fletchley I just might, also why only me? Lana’s a prefect as well” he responded.
“Yes but unlike you my friend, our girl Lana is a kindred spirit in mischief she would never dream of reporting me,” he said whilst winking.
“Of course not my dear Fletchely, how could I if I am also a part of said mischief,” Solana said in agreement.
Hannah groaned, “Lana you are now a prefect you and Justine can’t keep causing trouble,” she said clearly anguished.
“Darling Hannah, we wouldn’t dream of it!” Justin said, allowing for another round of laughter from the two of them.
Ernest rolled his eyes at the two of them while shaking his head in feigned disappointment. He always did keep the group in check along with Hannah. It was usually just Solana and Justin who caused the most problems. They had been fast friends from the start both being muggle-borns and all.
The most distinguishing fact, however, was Justin’s wealth. He and his parents were much higher on the social scale in the muggle world than Solana’s family, often prompting some tone-deaf comments about wealth. Sometimes ranging from “Let's go on vacation!” to “your parents don't own a yacht?”.
At first, it was much harder for him as he was used to flattering the golden trio and people akin to his family's prestige. Yet after a few years, he began to mellow out and became more of a goofier prankster. Of course, his charm always did help in a sticky situation.
“Ok ok, now that we’ve finally all seen each other Solana and I need to move towards the first compartment,” Ernest said slowly ushering her out.
Justin nodded and pretended to salute them giving Solana a ‘give em’ hell’ glance while Hannah gave an encouraging smile. Solana reciprocated, grabbing her bag and moving through the train's slim halls. In reality, she was quite nervous, she knew that Ernest, in his eternal wisdom, could just read for the next few hours.
Solana really just wanted to stay with their group joking with Justin while braiding Hannahs's hair and reading magazines together. Now she had to sit with many potential people she didn't know. In truth she thought Hannah being prefect was a much better idea with her sweet welcoming smiles or even Justin as he would have loved the prestige that came with the title. However she had been chosen, and the more they made their way up toward the first two carriages she became increasingly nervous.
“Solana calm down, stop acting like Hannah,” Ernest said to her quietly pulling her out of her thoughts and grounding her.
“Slight diss on Hannah but thank you, Ernie,” Solana said with a grateful smile.
He nodded in response and they made their way to the front areas. Solana carefully slid the door open revealing some of the other prefects from their year. She spotted Padma and Anthony from Ravenclaw deep in discussion with Hermione about charms. Ernest instantly gravitated toward their conversation abandoning Solana. She tentatively sat beside the only remaining person, Ronald Weasley who looked so bored she swore he was practically withering before her eyes.
“This blows, doesn't it?” She said, giving him a knowing look.
“Tell me about it, I can feel my life fading. Harry should’ve been chosen instead of me.” Ron responded and they both half laughed in an awkward sort of way.
She knew his older twin brothers well enough through Justin's shenanigans, but she chose not to mention them. She knew it must be exhausting for him to constantly be compared to his siblings, especially with so many.
“Do you have any clue what we are supposed to do as prefects?” She asked, “Beside the letter they gave us telling us to patrol the carriages during the journey, I have no idea.”
“Beyond giving some blokes a tour and making sure things don’t blow up, no bloody clue ” he responded and instantly they both felt a mutual respect through their equal ignorance. A comfortable silence settled between them.
Suddenly the compartment door slid open with a loud thud and in walked the evil witch of the west herself, Parkison along with a head of somehow familiar blonde hair.
“Malfoy” Ron uttered under his breath almost cursing his name, no scratch that, definitely cursing his name.
Pansy wrinkled her nose in disgust at Hermione, Ernest and Solana most certainly because of their blood status. She confidently took a seat choosing to side eye everyone else and keep her distance from the rest. Malfoy, on the other hand, walked in behind her and Solana could feel his gaze falter for a quick second before following Pansy’s lead and choosing to isolate himself from the others.
The mood shifted in the compartment and suddenly Solana felt a suffocating feeling and silence settled over the group. She glanced at Ernest who gave her a knowing look before settling into his book.
‘Well he’s no help’ Solana thought, trying to think of ways to break the discomfort. An idea sprung to her mind.
“Ok, bets on, which house do you think will have the most points taken away for infractions during the year?” Solana said to no one in particular.
“Most likely not Ravenclaw” Padma said and Anthony nodded in agreement.
“Probably not Hufflepuff, however that Justin of yours..” Hermione said trailing off and Solana began to giggle while Ernest rolled his eyes once again. She swore that the boy's eyes would one day just roll away due to Justin alone.
“He’s very mischievous but we love him,” Solana said and Ron smiled knowing he got along quite well with the boy.
“Maybe Slytherin” Padma said “Their first years seem to get into trouble quite a bit” Anthony said.
Wrong move. Solana saw Malfoy bristle, taking it as a personal insult to his character.
“Are you kidding me? It was the golden trio who caused the most strife in our first year” he said with disgust while gesturing to Ron and Hermione.
“You’re bloody mad Malfoy, if you weren’t such a Merlin's pain in the arse we would've been fine” Ron exclaimed in response with Hermione's nods of agreement.
Solana could almost see the slurs and curses rolling off of Pansy’s tongue and could tell this would not end well so she chose to intervene.
“Merlin’s beard, you two need to calm down” She exclaimed “It’s not like Griffydor didn't cause trouble but so did Slytherin,” she said matter of fact.
“Besides, I don't think we can really blame any of the houses, that year too many suspicious things were happening that were out of our control,” Ernest said, backing Solana up.
With that, the discussion was over, she couldn’t tell if she made the situation necessarily better or worse but one thing was for sure. That space was way too small for the eight of them. She quietly let Ernest know she was going to patrol the hallways then quickly slipped out from their carriage.
Breathing a sigh of relief she exhaled and headed straight ahead and peeked through the windows into each compartment. Aside from finding a few stray frogs or comforting some homesick first years, there was little for her to do. But it distracted Solana from any other worrisome thoughts so she welcomed the distractions with welcome arms.
“I’m just so worried” She heard a boy's cry followed by intense sobs.
Solana rushed to the next compartment and was completely befuddled by the scene in front of her. She saw an increasingly annoyed Malfoy beside a second-year Ravenclaw attempting to comfort the young boy. She could almost see Malfoy about to yell at the poor bloke so she tapped in with a tissue and a warm pat on the shoulder.
“Hello I’m Solana, can I ask what's wrong?” She said gently and the boy began to sob in her robes.
“I-I just feel so much worry for school..” He sobbed on and she tenderly comforted him. Shouldering his whimpers and reaffirming him that he would be ok.
It was hard to be a 13-year-old and she understood it more than anything. It wasn’t just school it was homesickness and she knew the reports of the dark one returning wouldn't be very helpful at all.
The young boy soon fell fast asleep and Solana looked up to see the disappearing shadow of Malfoy. She quietly rose and turned to follow him, unsure of why.
“What do you want Khin?!” Malfoy said, whirling around and sneering at her. “Here to rub in the fact that you saw me just now, hmm?!” He asked accusatory.
Solana felt the urge to actually begin taunting him for being such a pain in the arse but chose to take the morally high ground.
“Merlin's pants Malfoy I wasn’t going to do that, don't get your knickers in a twist” Solana whisper shouted. “I was just checking in if you were ok for goodness sake.”
Malfoys face flashed briefly with confusion before settling on annoyance, “I don’t require someone like you checking in on me, I am perfectly capable and fine.” He finished with a look of disgust.
Solana stepped back and felt genuinely a little hurt before retorting, “Malfoy we are prefects grow up for bloody sake, not everyone is out to get you and maybe you should be a little bit more patient yeah? Before you get kicked from being a prefect, maybe think about your twat like personality.” She said coldly and walked away cursing his name under her breath.
Little did Solana know, for a slight second Malfoy felt a twinge of regret. He hadn’t seen a Hufflepuff so riled up enough to curse him out, although she seemed familiar. Nonetheless, he was secretly thankful she had come and helped him with that bothersome second year, as he was indeed close to cursing him out. He really did like being a prefect as his father had been quite proud. He settled that if he were to tolerate any of the lot, the Hufflepuff wouldn’t be the worst, even if she was a mudblood, she was useful.
Meanwhile, Solana returned to the prefect's carriage thoroughly disgruntled. It’s not as if she didn't expect Malfoy and Pansy to be such foul people. They always had been, but that still didn’t mean they could go around calling her horrible names and such.
Heading back to their compartment, Solana spotted a sleeping Ron and Ernest as the only two remaining prefects.
“Did you go on patrol?” She whispered to Ernest and who nodded while entranced in his novel on magical schools. He briefly looked up at her for a split second.
“Everything alright?” He asked her quietly.
Solana wasn’t surprised in the slightest that Ernest could tell her shift in mood. He was always quite sensitive to emotions in their group on account of his observational nature, as well as Hannah who was constantly switching from one emotion to the next. He had always had these qualities; he just gained the will to care when it came to their little group.
“Malfoy..” she groaned in response and he nodded understanding exactly what she meant. He had observed Slytherin's behaviour and could agree with the sentiment.
“Twat,” both of them looked over to see a now awake Ron, disgruntled at the prospect of even thinking about the blonde-haired-future-death eater. All three nodded in agreement and Ron stood up to go look for Harry and Hermione.
“Where did everyone else go?” Solana asked Ernest.
“Patrol of back to their friends. Headgirl and boy came in while you were gone to tell us that after patrolling we could go visit friends, however, we need to come back when we reach Hogwarts.” He responded.
“Thanks for waiting for me, come let's go see Justin and Hannah,” Solana said, grabbing Ernest’s arm much to his disappointment as he had hoped to finish the book he was reading without the distractions from Justin.
Leading him to their compartment they passed by one decked with green robes and Solana quickly caught a glimpse of Malfoy. His gaze pressed on her hand placement for a quick second before returning to what seemed like a very enrapturing conversation with Crabbe and Goyle.
Solana couldn’t place why exactly that seemed to bother her but she strangely let go of Ernest’s arm and they walked towards their friend's compartment. Luckily he missed the interaction as he had been, of course, reading.
“Hi, guys!” Solana said, greeting her two friends. Hannah was knitting a sweater in the corner and Justin had passed out and was in a deep comatose-like sleep on the other side of them.
“I see Fletchley is out,” Justin said, content with sitting in his silence.
“He tired himself out from jumping around the compartment to scare me” Hannah responded yet in such a matter that indicated she himself had knocked the boy out.
“Hannah, what spell did you use?” Solana asked curiously.
“Who said I needed a spell?” She responded slyly. They should’ve expected as much, Hannah had a keen interest in Herbology and medicine so concocting a special sleeping drought would be child's play.
Ernest nodded in approval and Solana smiled and rolled her eyes. Those two and their agreement in magic used for silence would be the death of her. Although she supposed they thought the same about her and Justin’s tendency for mischief.
“Anything off the trolley dears” She heard their door open and the elderly Honeydukes Express lady held her cart full of treats and snacks that made Solana’s mouth water.
Apparently, the smell was too delectable as their very own sleeping beauty awoke faster than ever much to the disappointment of Hannah and Ernest.
Justin went straight to work ordering loads of treats to the bemusement of the rest. Solana knew he would also often over order for her and that she would still try to pay him back later even if he didn’t accept. He knew she often didn’t have enough funds for too many snacks and would be compensated by her aid in homework. It was their silly little exchange that they did every year since the time they became friends.
“Here Lana, I ordered too much,” he said, handing her favourite treats such as Cauldron Cakes and Chocolate Frogs.
She gratefully tried to deny first and eventually accepted the treats with a very thankful tone.
They continued the rest of the train ride exchanging snacks and playing different games including yucky-tasting jelly beans. When their time was finally up, the two of them departed for their prefect duties promising to meet back in the great hall afterwards.
“Let's get this over with,” Ernest said and Solana nodded in agreement slightly dreading to see any Slytherins after the day's encounter.
They made their way to the front carriages and joined the rest of the prefects, Solana noticed that two Slythrins seemed to be missing from their group much to the annoyance of the head girl and boy.
She was a shorter brunette who kept insistently tapping her foot, almost willing Malfoy and Parkison to show up sooner. She had shoulder-length hair and wore a foreboding expression whilst the boy beside her towered over standing almost six foot seven. He seemed quite bemused by the short brunette and was quite attractive. He had caramel-coloured skin and silky black hair. While the brunette had soft tanned skin and slight curls in her hair.
“How in Merlin's bloody name can those two shit-for-brained Slytherins possibly misunderstand the meaning of ‘come to the front carriages 15 minutes before we arrive for instructions’?! They cannot possibly be this stupid I can’t believe Snape would choose those two thoughtless twats..” She continued to rant about the stupidity of Pansy and Malfoy to the point where she was almost breathing fire.
Solana disliked both prefects, but still prayed for them when they did arrive.
“I’m Dhruv and the she-dragon is Luciana. We are your head boy and girls respectively and will be guiding you in your first years of being prefects.” He said calmly while Luciana continued to shout in the back.
He was obviously their calmer counterpart.
“YOU, Hufflepuff girl, go find Malfoy and Parkison” Luciana suddenly ordered with such fire that Solana swiftly departed, not daring to even say a single word against her.
She chose life.
She ran through each carriage before finally settling on the compartment she had previously seen. Swinging open the door she was greeted by the scene of one Parkison aggressively snogging Malfoy. She shuddered as they both looked up, Malfoy was covered in dark red lipstick stains while Parkisons hair looked like a bird's nest.
“Err sorry to disturb you two, but the head girl will actually have your heads for not showing up. Just wanted to let you know..” Solana started and quickly departed as soon as she came, turning increasingly pink.
By the time she returned her entire face was flushed and she knew she could never see either of them the same.
“Well?!” Luciana shouted.
“They were very busy and quite…invested…” Solana said, cringing at the thought.
“INVESTED? WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE MORE INVESTING THAN THEIR PREFECT DUTIES” She practically screamed.
“Ermm.. each other’s…lips?” Solana said timidly and immediately shuddering at the thought.
Ron began to double over in laughter while Luciana looked positively terrifying, she radiated fury and even Ernest couldn’t help but chuckle. In that instant, a disgruntled Malfoy and Parkison slid into the carriage and at that moment Solana couldn’t help it and began to snicker.
Malfoy looked furious.
Luciana looked wrathful.
Along came the most foul-mouthed string of insults that everyone's ears turned pink from embarrassment. Words of mothers, idiotic giants and Merlin's undergarments were mentioned multiple times even Dumbledore's front robes were free game.
At the end of it all 5 points were deducted from their house for each lipstick stain left on Malfoy's face and everyone else was in tears from laughter. Instructions for showing each house their common rooms were given out and they were finally released.
“This isn’t over Khin, you’ll regret this” Malfoy said under his breath as they were leaving. He was vengeful and angry.
“Not as much as you will regret it when the whole school finds out your makeout rendezvous” Solana replied in an action she would surely come to regret but in that moment, Malfoys face of hidden terror was enough to make it worth it.
“Solana you’re going to get into more trouble than it's worth,” Ernest said, warning her of her inevitable future.
“I know Ernie, but for once I think that was worth it.” She said choosing to follow through with her resolve.
The two of them departed from the rest of the prefects and walked over to their own group of friends. Justin was practically bouncing off the walls from all the sugar intake and she swore Hannah appeared to have aged 10 years.
“Rough trip?” She asked innocently.
“If you two ever leave me alone with that menace with high on sugar again I swear that’ll be the last time you see him,” Hannah said practically cursing.
Solana hoped those two would learn to get along sooner because if that was true, Justin wouldn’t make it to Christmas. Justin looked squeamish at this prospect and chose to quickly change the subject.
“I thought that you guys needed to do your prefect duties. What happened?” He asked Solana and Ernest.
“We do,” Ernest said, “After the welcoming dinner we will be stationed around our houses to help the senior students. Older prefects will show the younger students where our houses are.”
“I see, so what I’m hearing is that you two are stuck with us peasants until then huh?” Justin joked and received a hard glare from Ernest in return.
Hannah laughed along as they walked towards the magical carriages. Solana could’ve sworn she heard the Lovegood girl talk about them being led by some horse-like creature but she brushed the thought off.
Getting into their carriage she saw another glimpse of Malfoy, this time almost red in the face while a few upper years were taunting him and Parkison. Word seemed to travel fast.
They made eye contact and if looks could kill Solana would’ve been far gone. Maybe Ernest had been right about not incurring the wrath of Malfoy but at this point, it was too late.
The four of them were off to Hogwarts and Solana could tell that they were definitely going to have an interesting year.