The House Ball

	Penny Haywood awoke in the dead of night.

	She wasn't sure what exactly had dragged her from her pleasant dreaming, but she knew she would have to find out soon. It would be nigh impossible to fall back asleep if she couldn't quiet her wild imagination.

	Groggy and yawning, Penny pushed back her covers and readied herself to get out of bed when she heard a noise.

	Penny froze.

	Slowly, Penny groped in the darkness for her wand. Her delicate fingers closed around its familiar wooden texture.

	"Lumos," Penny whispered as she flicked her wand. A soft glow enveloped the dormitory. She cautiously scanned the room with her wand and stopped dead in her tracks when a guilty face appeared in the light.

	Penny blinked.

	"Merula?" she hissed, not quite sure she wasn't having a surreal dream.

	There was no doubt about it. The shamed, dimly-lit face belonged to Merula Snyde. The infamous Slytherin bully's face was oddly devoid of its usual malevolence. Instead, she looked terrified.

	Merula put a finger up to her lips. She glanced meaningfully at Penny's roommates.

	Penny's eyes shifted to her three friends. Two of them were fast asleep. The third was shifting with an annoyed expression on her face.

	"Penny, Penny," she muttered. "Penny turn the light out. Nox it, nox it already," she groaned as she turned over onto her side.

	Merula remained as still as a statue. She needn't had bothered. Penny's roommate had kept her eyes shut to avoid the light, and now she was already back asleep.

	Penny, half-outraged and half-confused, dimmed the light of her wand until it was barely bright enough to use to illuminate her path. She stealthily left her bed and slid into a pair of yellow slippers.

	She sneaked over to Merula's side and put an unfriendly arm around the shivering intruder's slim shoulders.

	"Come with me, now," Penny whispered sweetly.

	The two witches managed to escape the bedroom unheard. They tip-toed past a few slumbering Hufflepuffs and found an empty room where they could (hopefully) speak in private.

	"What are you doing here?" Penny whispered angrily. Her face was just barely lit by the wand she held in between herself and Merula, and from the looks of it, Merula wasn't too pleased either.

	"I, I don't have to answer that," Merula shot back.

	"What? Merula, this isn't a game anymore. You snuck into our chambers, you're breaking school rules by being out of bed after dark. You're breaking even more rules by being in the wrong common room, after dark! How did you even get past the paintings and the- Nevermind. Look, you have to go, now."

	"I can't!" Merula hissed.

	"Why not?"

	"I'm. Not. Telling."

	"Okay. Then you can leave and go 'not tell' somewhere else. I'll show you the door, and you better be thankful I'm not reporting you directly to the Headmaster!"

	With that, Penny grabbed Merula by the arm and began to pull her towards the exit. But before she could manage to take another step, she heard sniffling.

	"What, do you have allergies?" Penny asked, not entirely sarcastic.

	Merula ripped her arm out of Penny's grasp and sat back down. Her chin was resting on her knees, her arms wrapped around herself.

	"C'mon, this isn't funny-" Penny began. She stopped after the wand's light reached Merula's face.

	There was a brief pause. The only sound was miserable sniffling.

	"Oh my god, you actually are crying."

	"Don't, don't, tell. Don't, tell," Merula choked out in between muffled sobs.

	Penny stopped herself. It would be all-too-easy to wake up another Hufflepuff student to keep an eye on the intruder while Penny went to go inform one of the teachers. They would finally, finally, be rid of miss Merula Snyde- bully and blood-purist! The idea was extremely tempting, and yet...

	"Okay," Penny said, putting a hand over Merula's mouth before her sniveling could wake anyone up. "Okay, I won't rat on you. But no more crying, okay? And you have to tell me why you're here. Deal?"

	Pulling herself together, Merula wiped her nose with her uniform's sleeve. She ran a hand through her messy hair and did her best to fix it. When she caught Penny staring, she threw her a glare. Penny noticed that it was severely lacking.

	"Merula, start from the beginning."

	Merula sat back and crossed her arms. Her purple eyes darted to the ground as she refused to make eye contact.

	"I was, I was trying to steal something from you. For my, for my, um, potions. I needed the ingredient that you... You..."

	Penny's eyes, usually so wide and friendly, narrowed.

	"No, no no no. I am not risking my butt here so you can sit back and lie to me. Why were you in my room?"

	Merula's lips pressed together fiercely.

	"Why? Merula, why? Tell me. Merula."

	Merula shook her head. She didn't look ready to burst into tears again, instead, her cheeks were turning a faint red.

	"Merula. Tell me the reason. C'mon, tell me. Merula. Merula."

	Finally,

	"Merula, tell me or I'm throwing you out-"

	"Dress!" Merula nearly shouted.

	Penny lunged forward, cupped her hand around Merula's mouth. For one moment, the two girls stayed absolutely still as they waited for a student or teacher or ghost to jump in and berate them. Instead, the silence lingered.

	"I think we're fine," Merula finally said. "You Hufflepuffs sure sleep soundly."

	"Yeah, we do. They're tuckered out, probably because of all the group... Nevermind." Penny stroked her chin as she thought to herself.

	"What do you mean: 'dress?'" Penny asked.

	Merula's face, already a light red, went totally crimson.

	"No way. You came here to steal one of my dresses?"

	"One? How many do you have!?"

	"Two, and- Look, that doesn't matter. What matters is that you broke into my room to steal my clothes! That can get you expelled, and socially ostracized forever!"

	"I was going to return it!" Merula whispered.

	"What?"

	"I just wanted it for, for, you know. I'm the most powerful witch, you understand? If I want something, I should, I should..."

	Suddenly, everything clicked. Penny put her head in her hands as she realized just why Merula had gone through all this trouble for a simple dress.

	It was the House Ball. At the end of each year, a great celebration was held to honor the new students of each household and to build excitement for the announcement of the House Cup winner. Penny hadn't thought for a moment that someone as asocial and egomaniacal as Merula would actually want to go. Who could she possibly want to go with? She actively antagonized every boy she came across, even the ones in her own house!

	But as much as Penny wanted to laugh in Merula's face, as much as she wanted to dredge this embarrassing fact up every day until the end of time, she couldn't bring herself to do it. There was no point mocking Merula.

	Penny was a social navigator. In the world of teenage communication, there are always winners and losers. Penny was a perennial winner, she had learned how to gain and stay in-touch with large groups of friends. She knew how to hold events, how to speak publicly without losing her nerve. She was a born social butterfly, a born winner. Merula, Merula was a loser.

	It was obvious, even without her cruel personality Merula never had a chance of being popular. She could have friends, sure, but they wouldn't be anything like the people Penny socialized with on a daily basis. And more then that, the people Penny was around kept Penny on a pedestal. Someone like Merula would never know what that was like.

	Merula, with her old robes and unfitting shoes. Merula, with her messy hair and judgemental expression that was her default. Merula, who spent all her time working on foul-smelling potions and eating alone. A lot of kids at Hogwarts carried old textbooks or cauldrons. Merula's were practically ancient.

	Penny came to a decision in a moment.

	"I have two dresses. I'll get you one, just stay here and don't get me in trouble," Penny decided.

	Merula said nothing, but nodded.

	Ducking her head out to check for passing Hufflepuffs, Penny creeped out into the dormitory and stalked over to her room. She gently opened the door and slid back inside. From there, it would be a simple matter of finding one of her dresses.

	One of her dresses.

	There were two.

	Penny paused. She put a finger to her chin and thought to herself in the gloom. Finally, she sighed and made her choice.

	She pulled the dress out of her room, careful to keep it from brushing the floor. When she reached Merula, she thrust the dress into her hands with little ceremony.

	"Here, take it. Take it, go to the dumb dance and have fun." Penny said.

	Merula looked up, not quite believing.

	"I can wear this to the dance?" she asked. "And you won't tell anybody I was here? You won't embarrass me?"

	Merula clutched at the dress. The shadow of doubt passed over her face.

	"No, no. This is a trick, isn't it? You just want to make me look stupid. You hate me, I know this is a trick, you can't fool me. You all hate me and-"

	Merula froze as if petrified as Penny pulled her in for a tight hug. Merula stayed there, shocked beyond words. Finally, she raised two trembling arms and wrapped them around Penny.

	"Nobody's ever, nobody's ever," Merula started. This had been a difficult night for her. She hadn't meant to open up like this, so totally and shamefully. She felt like she had exposed a raw nerve to Penny, but instead of striking her back like she had expected, Penny was showing her something Merula had never really encountered before. Kindness.

	"Nobody's ever given you a dress after you broke into their house?" Penny guessed.

	"Hugged," Merula squeaked.

	"Oh."

	After a while, Penny felt the hug grow a bit awkward and released Merula. She coughed into her fist and straightened her pajamas.

	"Okay. Take the dress and scram before Filch finds you or my friends wake up. And Merula-"

	"Yes?"

	"Go easier on my friends, okay?"

	-----

	-Day of the Ball-

	Merula Snyde was looking unusual. For one thing, she was walking with an unusual confidence. Gone was her typical self-satisfied swagger. Instead, she walked much more normally. A smile appeared on her face as she danced amidst a swarm of Gryffindors and and Ravenclaws, Slytherins and Hufflepuffs.

	Her partner was a fellow Slytherin, a vaguely handsome man that was nearly as infamous as Merula. Only, he hadn't really done anything to deserve the reputation.

	But deserving or not, the two students danced the night away to tunes new and old. They seemed genuinely, unquestionably happy.

	Penny gazed at Merula, clad in a fine dress that caught the light with every step she took. Merula was practically beaming.

	Penny hadn't exactly shown up in her pajamas either, but her dress was significantly more mundane. It was the sort of style you would graciously call "nice" before moving on without a second thought.

	One of Penny's friends sauntered up in her own stunning dress. She glanced at Merula, then at Penny.

	"I didn't know Snyde had such a nice wardrobe. Maybe she isn't as poor as most people think."

	"Maybe," Penny said evenly.

	"Aren't you going to dance?" her friend asked.

	"No, I'm tired. I think I'll stay here, if you don't mind."

	Shrugging, her friend waltzed away to go dance with some student or another.

	Penny sat and sipped her punch ruefully.

	It was funny. She still didn't know why she had been so nice to Merula. On the surface, she could claim it was just to get the girl out of her hair. Maybe she would even learn to be nicer after this. But deep down, she knew the real reason.

	Penny took another sip of her punch. She couldn't help but notice that, despite all the chattering people around her, she was truly alone.