The New Marauders and the Password Panic

Mcgonagal Does Not Get a Single Day of Peace

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Hagmen, Lydia, Logan, and Edith had all been called to the headmistress's office as soon as professor Longbottom pulled Hagmen off of Lydia. What WAS a bit surprising was that, after the four of them re-entered the great hall, Molli and Ceril were called in as well. Edith began signing furiously and Logan's hands were waving at the same speed as she tried to explain out loud.
"Nononono, professor, please! They didn't do anything wrong!" Logan begged.
"I know." Longbottom said. "They're not in trouble, Miss Pulsifer. But I'd like them to come along anyway." He looked down at the two boys. "Is that alright?"
Ceril did not look phased by this. If anything he looked intrigued. He nodded right away, in unison with Molli who was pale and shaking at being put on the spot but didn't know how to say no.
...
Soon enough, they all stood in front of a tall, wrinkled, witch with long silver hair that only contained one or two strands of dark raven black. She was sitting silently in front of them, elbows on the table and chin resting on her folded hands. Her silence was eerily frightening.
"... One day..." Her voice puffed out in exasperation. "All I wanted was one, blasted, day..."
Professor Longbottom smiled apologetically and the students all looked confused.
"I... beg your pardon, Professor?" Ceril said.
"Never mind, Mr Williams." Headmistress Mcgonagall shook her head. "Now." She turned to Logan, Lydia, and Hagmen. "You three. Explain yourselves."
Logan opened her mouth to do just that when Hagmen interrupted.
"I shouldn't be here!" He insisted. "She punched me in the face! I'm the victim here!"
"SILENCE!"
Hagmen shut his mouth. Mcgonagal turned to Lydia.
"Miss Tanaka, do you deny throwing the first punch?"
"Nope." Lydia deadpanned, popping the "p". "And I don't regret it one bit, either."
"Interesting." The headmistress drawled, choosing to ignore her last statement. "And he fought back?"
Hagmen said "no" but everyone else in the room shouted "yes".
"I see. And I'm under the impression that Miss Edith Tanaka and Miss Palsifer fought as well?"
"Yes professor Mcgonagal..." Logan dipped her head as Edith nodded, guiltily.
"Oh come on!" Lydia threw her hands in the air. "That's different! She didn't fight him, she was trying to stop him from smashing my skull in!"
"MISS Tanaka!"
The room fell silent.
"Enough of your outbursts!" Mcgonagal demanded. "I will NOT raise my voice a second time!"
A short beat passed.
"Now... Miss Tanaka." She turned to Eidith. "Do you deny fighting?"
Edith slowly shook her head.
"If I may, professor?" Ceril politely raised his hand.
"Indeed you may, Mr Williams."
He nodded and cleared his throat.
"Edith did put her hands on Mr Hagmen but she never hit him." Ceril explained. "She simply clung to his arm, I assume attempting to de-escalate the situation."
He looked to Edith for confirmation and she nodded.
"Yeah, and then Hagmen decked her in the side of the head and broke her hearing aids." Logan spat, bitterly in Hagmen's direction.
Mcgonagal's eyes widened ever so slightly.
"Your property has been damaged, Ms Tanaka?"
Edith seized up and shook her head before thinking about it and then nodding and beginning to sign, trying to explain.
"W-wait one moment, Ms Tanaka." Mcgonagal said, turning to Molli. "It is my understanding that you know sign language, yes?"
Molli nodded, still shaking with nerves.
"Seeing as Ms Lydia Tanaka has been banned from speaking at the moment, would you be so kind as to act as an interpreter?"
Another shaking nod. He turned to Edith and stood staring for a moment as she relayed her message to him.
"H-Hagmen did break her hearing aids b-but Ceril fixed them with the repaire charm..." His cheeks flushed as he began working together the rest of the message. "A-a-also, Molli- I-I mean me and Logan came to make sure she was okay a-and she thinks we should be rewarded for that..." he leaned in to Edith for a moment and whispered. "a-are you sure? I d-didn't do much..."
She nodded vigorously.
"Miss Tanaka. May I?" Mcgonagal asked, presenting her hand.
Edith jumped and then nodded before slipping off her hearing aids and handing them to Mcgonagal to examine. She hummed in satisfaction and handed them back.
"Excellent work, Mr Williams. Ten points to Ravenclaw. And to Slytherin as well for looking after your peers. As for Miss Palsifer." Her expression darkened again. "That we must discuss further. You attacked as well, did you not?"
"Yes, headmistress." Logan said. "But, in my defence, he was holding Lydia by her collar and I thought he was about to punch her so I performed a leg sweep on him."
"So you claim you were trying to de-escalate as well?"
She nodded.
"Well I'm afraid that unlike Ms Tanaka, you did cause physical harm to Mr Hagmen and therefore will be docked five points from Gryffindor. As for your actions afterward, you will gain ten points for looking after your fellow classmates and will not receive detention."
Logan smiled in relief.
"As for you two..." she turned to Lydia and Hagmen. "You will most definitely receive detention. And ten points will be taken from Gryffindor. EACH."
Hagmen sputtered.
"But she threw the first punch! I was defending myself!"
"And I was defending my sister." Lydia shot back at him. "YOU CALLED HER USELESS!"
True to her word, Mcgonagal did not raise her voice again. She simply stood up and stared down at them and that was enough to shut them both up.
"There is never... NEVER an acceptable reason to fight on school grounds..." Mcgonagal directed at them. "Mr Hagmen... you are Miss Tanaka's UPPERCLASSMAN. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to provide a GOOD EXAMPLE to all first years. NOT to go around picking fights with them on the first day. This is why you will receive detention for the ENTIRE WEEK. If I hear any more objections to this, it will be three and I will deduct thirty more points from Gryffindor."
When no one else spoke up, Mcgonagal sighed.
"Dismissed."
...
Hagmen immediately stormed off, nearly bumping Edith over on his way out.
"This isn't over." He muttered.
"Woo!" Lydia breathed, throwing her arms around the two nearest people she found.
They just so happened to be Logan and Molli, the first who smiled warmly and the second who became stiff as a board and turned bright red. "I don't know about you guys but that was FUN! Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go find Greta and give her one hell of a high five. CHOI!"
And then the only ones who remained were the four of them, all looking around at each other awkwardly.
There was a short beat and then Edith signed something.
"She said-" Molli began.
"I know." Ceril smiled, all his attention on Edith. "Your welcome."
She smiled back and they fell back into silence.
"... Do you guys... wanna eat lunch together sometime?" Logan asked.
It was rather absurd, she thought. After all, inviting someone to eat with her was what started this mess in the first place, of course they wouldn't want to. But, to her surprise and joy... they agreed.
...
A bit had happened after what Hogwarts liked to call "the First Day Table Incident". To summarize once more Gryffindor had lost ten points from Lydia and 30 from Hagmen for fighting. Plus an extra five from Logan for the leg sweep. Hufflepuff almost lost a few for the fact that Edith jumped on him too but it was overridden by the fact that she was trying to prevent it instead of adding to it. Lydia and Hagman faced detention (Logan got out of it when they heard that she was helping Edith).
And... Logan, Edith, Ceril and Molli... became friends. It had completely snuck up on all of them. They had all mostly assumed that their... whatever that was was a one time thing. Apparently not. Ceril found himself helping Molli with his casting. Logan took Edith skateboarding. Edith was slowly but surely teaching them all sign language. And they made a habit of, every now and again, sneaking away from their respective houses to study or eat together.
Of course, there were a few steps that had to be taken to get there.
...
"I never apologized for being so suspicious of you when we first met." Ceril stated to Molli, meekly.
"It's okay. I oughta get used to it, yeah?" He tried to joke.
"You shouldn't have to. Condemning an entire house for the actions of those in the past..." He shook his head. "It's wrong. Plain and simple."
Molli fell silent.
"... This one's a neat spell."
"Ah, yes. Very useful too."
...
"So how would one go about learning sign language on a more intimate level?" Ceril asked.
Edith paused... and then shrugged.
"Well that isn't very helpful."
"Why don't we just get Molli to teach us?" Logan asked.
They all turned to the Slytherin who seized up under their attention.
"Yeah, how did you learn, M-O-L-L-I?" Edith asked.
"O-oh, uh... in the Slytherin common room, there's this... giant glass wall? It looks under the lake and you can see the mermaids there sometimes. One time, a few years ago, a hard of hearing student decided to teach the mermaids sign language so they could talk with them. After that it kinda became a tradition that everyone in Slytherin learns sign language so you can talk to the mermaids. M-my mom has kinda been dead set on me being a Slytherin my whole life so she enrolled me and my brother in lessons when we were little."
The other three just sort of... stared at him, trying to process what they just heard.
"... Don't take dating advice from the mermaids. It's all just some variation of "drown him"."
...
"I can just talk out loud to you..." Edith offered in a strained, choking voice. "Y-you don't have to learn sign language."
"Edith, while I'm super honoured that you trust us and your voice is beautiful, I can tell you're not comfortable with that yet." Logan told her.
"Yeah, Edith, we don't want you to feel left out in any language." Molli agreed.
"When you're ready to talk, we'll be ready to listen." Ceril told her. "Until then, we'll continue learning all we can."
Edith almost cried that night. Lots of hugs ensued.
...
"I'm really sorry I didn't tell you right away..." Molli whispered to Logan while they were in the library together.
"I forgive you." She told him, truthfully. "I just don't understand why you lied."
"I didn't really... lie. I just left some stuff out."
"That's called a lie of omission, mate. Still a lie."
"Oh... well... I'm sorry. I just... you were kind of the first person my age to talk to me... and... I didn't wanna give you a reason to leave."
Logan reached out to place a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry that your brother sucks. But it doesn't change anything. I'm not going anywhere."
They shared a soft smile... completely and utterly unaware of the beady eyes watching them from behind a bookshelf.