Mary Smith and The Three-Headed Dog

13. Divining Daphne

"Someone said they'd heard something like a wolf making all kind of racket on the third floor in the restricted corridor, but you didn't hear that from me. Understood?"

--Fred Weasley

Chapter 13: Divining Daphne

I stood in the door way of my Divinations class we shared with Ravenclaw and half the Slytherin first-years. Slytherin and Gryffindor were the largest sorted classes this year, and so they often divided the Hufflepuff first years, being the smallest sorted class, to round off and fill seats in these classes.

Or at least that's how it was explained.

I slowly came to suspect that we were divided for the specific reason of building out of House relationships. I usually sat in this class with Leanne Merrymount and Meagan Jones. Today they, as well as Susan, were all seated with different Ravenclaw students. And it looked so natural. So natural that I didn't even notice I had been doing the same thing all along with Dean and Seamus. My eyes had been opened to so many things this week, since my last conversation with Cedric.

"One of you is going to die before the school year is out."

I physically shook the thought from my mind and scanned the room. It seemed like all the Ravenclaw that I'd consider sitting with were occupied by a Hufflepuff already. Susan occupied the space next to Sue Li and Padma Patil, doubling her chances I suppose. Padma was always kind and smiled at everyone in hello. There was a cricket crawling on the back of Leanne's cardigan once and she whacked it off with a notebook and I thought, maybe I could be friends with someone like her. Crickets don't scare me none, but it was a nice thing to do. Well maybe not to the cricket.

Leanne was seated with a girl named Lisa Turpin. A girl I knew nothing about. The seat next to the two of them was empty and I thought to sit there, but then I thought the better of it. Leanne wouldn't make eye contact with me, but she looked beyond terrified. I could tell she was looking at me through her peripheral vision and her entire body seemed like it was screaming at me "Don't even think about it!" I could understand why. Leanne's Guide was probably putting a lot of pressure on her to make friends and I might be causing her some trouble if I sat next to her. Her eyes darted to me then quickly forward again when she noticed I was staring. I couldn't do that to Leanne.

"One of you is going to die before the school year is out."

Leanne was a nice girl. Leanne still spoke to me here and there. Leanne didn't deserve to have to compete with me for a friend. And what if Lisa didn't even like me better? Would I make a better friend than Leanne? I doubted it.

Instead I had a seat at the table in the far top corner in the back of the room. There, one girl sat by herself. Grey Girl.

She seemed startled when I dragged out the seat beside her, but her face didn't compare to the utter horror of the Hufflepuff girls in my class as they openly stared my way. Meagan, Susan, and Leanne all looked at me as if I had just punted a puppy into the blackboard.

A cat was all I'd ever kicked, but I wouldn't tell them that. I think maybe witches might like cats better than dogs.

Daphne Greengrass was the girl I met on the train. I don't know why, but I often found myself really wanting to be her friend ever since that day. Maybe it was just me wanting to redeem myself from my failed greeting. Cedric may have laughed at the thought of making friends with someone from Slytherin, but I didn't see a problem with it. And you know, Cedric has been just saying things and telling me what to do and maybe he isn't always right.