The New Marauders and the Password Panic

Lunch

"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Edith had been frozen. Her jaw dropped. She locked eyes with another shocked face through the noise of the crowd. Her twin sister.
Lydia Tanaka had been sorted into Gryffindor moments before Edith. She had thought they'd be in the same house but... she guessed not. She sat down with the other Hufflepuffs and felt rather helpless. Not only had she been looking forward to a school year by her sister's side, she had been rather dependent on it. After all, Lydia was the only person her age who knew sign language. And while Edith COULD talk... she really didn't like to.
"Hey!"
She jumped and whirled around to face another first year hufflepuff. He wore sunglasses and had a mess of big spikey hair at the top of his head. He also had a wide nose and a gap toothed smile that were uncomfortably close to her face.
"I'm Brian!" He said, sticking his hand out.
Edith looked unsurely down at Brian's hand but grasped it anyway. He firmly shook her hand, his smile never weavering. She smiled a bit too. Brian was a little jarring but at least he was loud and had a big mouth. That made him easy to hear and understand.
"What's your name!?"
Her smile dropped. Uh oh. What should she do? Brian seemed to notice her distress and tilted his head to the side.
"What's wrong? Can't you talk?"
She felt bad for lying to him, but she shook her head "no" and tucked her hair behind her ears to expose her hearing aids.
"Oh!" Brian exclaimed. "You're deaf! Okay, I get it now. I guess that means you don't talk. Can you hear me at all?"
She nodded and pointed to her hearing aids again.
"Oh, duh." Brian smacked his forehead and laughed. "Is there anything you need from me?"
Edith had a list of her needs locked and loaded at all times. But usually, Lydia would explain it for her so she wouldn't need to speak. So instead she just blinked, wordlessly.
"You know what? I'll look it up." Brain told her.
Edith smiled sheepishly.
...
To make matters worse, she and Brian weren't even allowed in the same dorm room. On the bright side though, neither of her roommates seemed like they wanted to talk to her. They were both brunettes. One was snoring loudly when she entered the room and the other had her nose stuck in a book. Her third roommate however...
She was a small girl, definitely shorter than Edith but Edith was rather tall for her age. She looked odd. She was VERY pale and her hair was crisp white. Her eyes were PINK and even her eyelashes and eyebrows were pale. But none of these things mattered because the moment she raised her hands, Edith's heart exploded with joy.
"Hi." She signed. "Sorry. I'm mute. Do you know sign language?"
Edith immediately dropped her bags and sighed back to her:
"Yes! I'm mute too!"
Edith hadn't meant to lie to her. But the look on the other girl's face. Her eyes widened and a bright smile crossed her features. Her name was Alice and she loved animals just like Edith did. The two of them spent the rest of the night talking in complete silence. They spent so long chatting that they both fell asleep mid-sign.
...
Their first class together was Herbology and it was safe to say they were both thrilled. After that they had potions and that was a bit more challenging. Edith couldn't hear very well and was falling behind. Alice tried to sign her all the details she could but she was muggle born and had never heard of most of the things she was hearing which meant she didn't know what they were in sign language. She thanked the stars for that Ravenclaw boy, Ceril. Alice had disappeared into the crowd, chasing after that rude girl. But Ceril had offered to walk her to lunch. She appreciated that. She wanted to take him up on his lunch offer but she was dying to see her sister again. They'd met up briefly at breakfast but Lydia's friend had gone missing and she wanted to look for her.
"We'll meet up at lunch." She signed.
Edith nodded.
"Okay. See you then."
She wondered if she could bring Ceril along? Lydia wasn't particularly territorial. Maybe she and him would hit it off.
"YO, Edith!" A familiar voice called.
The Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw duo turned in the direction of a waving Gryffindor with Edith's face. Ceril blinked as if he were attempting to discover if his eyes were deceiving him and Edith tugged on his arm.
"Come?" She signed to him.
Ceril got the idea and nodded with a smile. They walked over to Lydia and Edith brought her in for a hug.
"This is my friend, C E R I L. Introduce yourself?"
Lydia turned to Ceril and did as she was told.
"Hi! I'm Edith's twin sister, Lydia." She said with an extended hand.
Ceril shook her hand.
"It's a pleasure. I'm Ceril."
"I know. She told me your name." Lydia informed him while gesturing to her twin.
Edith flushed and signed something quickly.
"She hopes you don't mind." Lydia translated.
"Not at all." Ceril smiled.
Edith tapped Lydia's shoulder and began signing to her again.
"Can he sit with us- yeah, of course he can!" Lydia smirked. "So long as he doesn't mind being seen with a bunch of rowdy Gryffindors." She teased.
Ceril rolled his eyes.
"Oh, please. Such titles mean nothing to me."
Lydia grinned wider and gestured for him to follow as she led them to Gryffindor table.
...
Logan had been sitting alone for quite some time. She felt irritated that her friends from other houses couldn't sit with her. Sure she had made some friends in Gryffindor, mainly her roommates, Greta and Lydia, but they had both run off to their own things and she still felt cheated that she was restricted to the people she could sit with... or so she thought.
"Hey, Logan!" Lydia called.
Logan grinned widely and spun around. She was faced with two other students: a Hufflepuff and a... she gasped.
"This is my sister Edith and this is-"
"Ceril!" Logan jumped up.
"We meet again." The Ravenclaw smiled.
The Hufflepuff did some weird movements with her hands.
"Yeah, you two know each other?" Lydia said.
"We met in charms." Ceril explained as he walked over to hug a vibrating Logan. "I hope you don't mind the intrusion?"
"Are you kidding?" She beamed.
This was great! If they could sit with her then so could-
Molli.
...
Molli meekly peeked his head in. He couldn't help it. He didn't even know who he was checking for. His brother? ... Logan? He already made the decision that he couldn't sit with her so why did his brain keep going back to it?
His stomach growled. He groaned. Ugh, remind him never to skip a meal again.
"MOLLI!"
A familiar hand slapped down on his shoulder and he squealed.
"Stop that!" He yelled at Maverick as the older Slytherin cackled with laughter.
"Oh, I needed that." He mumbled. Then his face turned serious. "Where were you at breakfast?"
Molli froze.
"I-I decided to skip..." Those words felt so forgein, even if they were true. Mavrick made a weird face. "T-took your advice, y'a know?"
Maverick broke into a grin and smacked him on the back.
"Atta boy!" He praised him. "You should come to quidditch practice with me and Rigel some time. That'll help ya' slim down."
Molli winced.
"S-sure... sometime..."
"Welp! Let's get some grub!" Mavrick said, already dragging him towards the Slytherin table. "I'm starved."
Hunger rolled in Molli's stomach as he bit back another groan. He knew a thing or two about "starved".
For the faintest second, he met a pair of ember eyes. Logan was looking at him hopefully... but her expression dropped when she saw who he was with. He looked between her and his brother as if someone had thrown him between a rock and a hard place. But when he turned back to her, she wasn't looking at him anymore and instead chose to stare dejectedly down at her food. Molli's heart clenched. He felt sick.
...
Logan had felt... confused when she saw the light brown haired boy that had chased her just... casually walk up to her friend... and start a friendly conversation. At first she had been worried that maybe he was picking on him... but then she looked a little closer. Molli looked a little jumpy but... the older boy's face didn't read a hint of mocking. And when he slapped him on the back and began leading him towards the Slytherin table... it dawned on her. They looked REALLY similar. Molli caught her eyes and looked frantically between her and the older boy. That sealed the deal for her. He had been lying. But... why? And why did she feel so... BAD about it? This didn't change anything! So what if he was related to a jerk? A jerk is still a jerk regardless of who their brother is. He still saved her didn't he? He still helped her with her hair, he still braved her skateboard for her amusement, he still skipped a meal to hang out with her, he still gave her a tour and gifted her the book. A small smile crawled onto her lips. Yeah, it DIDN'T change anything. She'd talk to him about why he lied later but they were okay. They were still friends.
"Hey." A voice called.
Logan, Lydia, Edith, and Ceril all turned around to see a large third year Gryffindor towering over them. He was muscular with messy black hair and a scowl on his face. He was staring at Edith and Ceril.
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked.
"Eating." Ceril answered, boredly as he crunched down on an apple.
"Not here you're not." The third year sneered. "This is the GRYFFINDOR table. So you lot better pack it up and go elsewhere.
"Sod off, Hagmen." Lydia shot back. "I invited them."
"Well you can uninvite them."
"Not happening." Logan spoke up. "They're our friends. Back off."
The older Gryffindor, Hagmen, stared down at Logan slowly, as if that was somehow supposed to scare her, and laughed.
"Look, you're new here, so I'll let ya off with a warning." He leaned down to Lydia and Logan. "but let me get one thing straight. I DON'T SHARE MY TABLE WITH OUTSIDERS. Especially not snooty Ravenclaws and useless leftover Hufflepuffs."
POW!
Lydia had decked him. RIGHT. IN. THE. FACE.
Immediately, the table erupted into noise. Some surprised screaming from first years, some shouts of objection at Hagmen's words, and, yes, some shouts of: "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
...
Edith didn't have time to process what was happening. All she knew was that Lydia currently had Hagmen in a chokehold and the bully in question had a swollen cheek. Next thing she knew, the larger kid pulled back like he was gonna punch her in the face and Edith jumped into action. She leaped at his arm and pulled it away from her sister's face. The staggering movement caused Lydia to fall to the floor and free his other hand, which he immediately used to whack Edith in the side of her head.
Everyone screamed at the loud crack that was heard but Edith felt no pain... and that's what worried her. It didn't hurt... but the world around her went silent. She let go and rolled away before immediately clutching her ears... or rather... her hearing aids. One of them was relatively fine, just a little cracked, but the other... was shattered to pieces. Tears welled up in her eyes... and she ran.
...
"Edith!" Ceril called and ran after her.
Logan had been debating with herself on whether this was a bad idea or a terrible idea but the moment she heard the crack... she... saw... RED. Logan charged. The world moved in slow motion as she ran. One step. Duck. Kick out leg. Shift weight. Upright. RUN.
She had performed a PERFECT legsweep that sent Hagmen to the floor INSTANTLY before coming back up and beginning to run after Edith and Ceril while Lydia continued to beat the shit out of the offender.
...
Molli had watched all this go down with wide eyes. Before then he had been tearing into his food, much to Mavrick's displeasure and only vaguely listening to the three older boys. But after he watched Logan do that kick, the story Rigel was telling him about being blamed for some prank with a green feather was completely gone and he shot up instantly.
"I gotta go to the bathroom!" He managed to throw over his shoulder before sprinting out of the hall.
...
They found her gently sobbing in a corner a few halls down. Ceril got there first and immediately started consoling her.
"E D I T H" he signed. "W H A T S W R O N G"
Edith didn't have the energy to spell it out for him. She began frantically signing through her tears.
"Edith, just point to where it hurts." He tried to tell her. "I-I don't understand full sign language."
"I-I do..." a small voice called.
Ceril turned around to face the owner of the voice. A small, portly, Slytherin boy with chattering buck teeth. Ceril immediately placed himself between Molli and Edith.
"Who are you? What do you want?" He demanded through narrowed eyes.
The Ravenclaw's voice dripped with distrust. Molli flinched back before a blur of red shot in front of him.
"Don't talk to him like that!" Logan insisted. "He's my friend and he's trying to help!"
They both froze at the word "friend".
We're still friends... Molli realized.
Logan turned to him with a trusting smile.
"Do your thing, Molli."
The Slytherin turned to Ceril who slowly nodded and stepped to the side. Molli gulped and kneeled in front of the crying Hufflepuff girl. His sign language was a little rusty. He hadn't practiced a lot over the summer but...
"Hi." He signed. "I'm M-O-L-L-I. Are you okay?"
"No." She signed back.
Molli sighed in relief. Okay. They both spoke BSL. Good.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Can you tell me what's wrong? I'll understand, I promise."
Edith slowly moved her eyes up from his hands to his face. He gave her an encouraging smile. She sobbed and began signing.
"I broke my hearing aids."
She opened her fist and let the pieces fall into Molli's hand. He gasped.
"I'm so stupid!" She signed frantically. "They're so expensive and my parents aren't doing well with their restaurant I should have been more careful I should have stayed out of it I should have-"
Molli shoveled the pieces into Ceril's hands and began trying to calm her down in sign language. Ceril looked down at the pieces in shock, realizing the situation. Calmly, he took out his wand and muttered:
"Repairo."
...
Edith stopped mid sign when she saw Ceril holding his wand to her broken hearing aids. She saw his lips move and then saw the cracks in the white material knitting back together. Moments later, he gently pushed Molli to the side and presented them to her, now looking brand new. She gasped and held them tightly before popping them back on. At once, sound returned to the world. She turned to the Slytherin boy. Molli.
"Say something."
He blinked.
"... Beans?"
She sighed and crushed Ceril in a hug. He gently petted her hair.
"... Thank you." She said.
Her voice was weak and hoarse and weirdly toned as if she'd under/overestimated how much air she needed to make certain sounds.
And... no one questioned it!
No: "Wait, you can talk!?"
No: "Why didn't you just TELL US what was wrong then!?"
No nothing. Just smiles and, in Logan's case, silent joining in of the group hug.