Tanya Degurechaff

Lavender was surprised at me coming to her to ask about hair cuts, but seemed excited to try a styling spell from one of her magazines. I stopped her before she could grab her wand and suggested we do this with supervision of a teacher as it might qualify as experimenting with a spell. With that settled, I suggested we find Professor McGonagal.

"Now?" Lavender asked, grabbing her wand.

"If we need to schedule a time for her to supervise us as you practice that spell, it is best to schedule it as soon as possible."

"I guess that makes sense. Why did you come ask me anyways?"

"You do a fine job maintaining your hair and have appropriate pride in it."

It took Lavender a moment to respond. I began to replay what I had said in my head and started to formulate a different way of saying the same thing when, "You came to me because you like my hair?"

"Yes." In our group, she arguably had the best hair. It was thick, full, and always had a healthy sheen to it.

"… Thank you."

Lavender was being quieter than she normally was for some reason. Looking at her, I saw that she seemed to be folding in on herself and was biting her bottom lip.

"Are you well? We can go to the Nurse's office if you aren't feeling well and I'll ask Prof. McGonagal myself."

"No. I'm fine."

Lavender seemed to bounce back to normal quickly, grabbing my hand and taking the lead in heading to our Head of House's office. I didn't know if this was a confusing child thing or a confusing girl thing, but I did not understand what was going through Lavender's head. Considering I spent an entire life as a woman, even a majority of my memory being of a woman, I decided to go with a confusing child thing. Whatever the case, Lavender began babbling about different things we could do with my hair.

"As long as it is easy to maintain," was my one specification. To which I was quickly assured it would be. There was a part of me that was concerned about what was going to happen to my hair, but after half a century of maintaining one hair style, it was probably time for a change.

Lavender mentioned something about putting some sort of potion based product in my hair. "As much as Snape might like you practicing your potioncraft, I said easy maintenance."

—

Prof. McGonagal was able to help us right away with my haircut and helped Lavender from going too far with the haircut when a mistake occurred. In the end, the mistake resulted in my hair being closely cropped over my left ear and having a strong transition to the right side where my hair hugged the side of my face down to my cheek. I would say it looked a bit too edgy for a twelve year old, but I am sure I would grow into the style. In the meantime, it seemed like an easy style to maintain. Should I decide I don't like it after living with it for a while, I could always just cut it again. It was just hair afterall. In the meantime, there was the quidditch match coming up that I guess I had to prepare for.

—

Lee Jordan

"Hello Hogwarts! You ready for the fourth match of the year? I said, 'Are you ready for the fourth match of the year?' That's better! Today's match should be an Exciting One. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff! Today's match is going to be a bit different from normal. The lovely Madam Hooch will not be refereeing today's game. Instead our least favorite Professor will be the referee for the match. So let's all give him a healthy boo-"

"Jordan! Professor Snape is still staff and you will treat him as such."

"Sorry Prof. As I was saying, let's all give Professor Snape the applause he deserves.

"Looking like a bunch of bees, the Badgers of Hufflepuff are buzzing out with Captain Finlay followed by his fellow chasers Rayne and Tansy. Next we have beaters Isla and Osla followed closely by Keeper Fleet and Seeker Diggory brings up the rear.

"And prowling out are the fierce Lions of Gryffindor! Captain Wood leading the way as Keeper followed by the lovely ladies-"

"Chasers."

"That too, Johnson, Spinnet, and Bell. They are followed by the masterful pranksters, Fred and George Weasleys as beaters and the bucking seeker Potter with TROLL CRUSHER bringing in the reserves!"

"Jordan! I made certain her uniform had her name correctly displayed."

"Huh, so it is. Degurechaff bringing in the reserves. Wood and Finlay shake hands before taking positions. Snape tosses the quaffle.. And THEY'RE OFF! Finlay to Tansy! Bludger from Weasley dodged and that's a whistle! Seems Weasley nearly hit Snape with a Bludger. Such an unfortunate miss."

"Jor. Dan."

"Sorry Prof. Anyways, that is a penalty shot. Tansy in position. The quaffle is flying! And Caught! Wood to Bell into a low swoop. Pass to Spinnet! Drop to Johnson and over to Bell! Bell barely manages to dodge a bludger tossing quaffle towards Johnson! Intercepted by Rayne! Over to Finlay. Back to Rayne. To Tansy. Charging towards the goals. Dodge a bludger. Pass towards Rayne. Intercepted by Bell! And Potter appears to be diving towards Snape! Is this some distraction ploy? NO! Potter caught the Snitch from next to Snape's head! The match is over 150 to 0 Gryfindor in the fastest game of the season!"

—

Harry Potter

Harry was happy to see that Tanya had waited for him as he took a private moment in the shower to enjoy the happiness and pride he felt. No one could say he was just a famous name as he showed everyone he was on the team for a very good reason. The previous hour after the game was a blur as Gryffindors swarmed the field and lifted Harry up on their shoulders and celebrated the swift win. A win that put Gryffindor House in the lead for both the House and Quidditch Cups this year.

"Good job," Tanya said softly as she stood up from the locker room's bench and slinging her own Nimbus 2000 over her shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

"Great!" Harry said with a huge grin.

"Good. That's good." Tanya smiled before she began leading the way back to the castle. "I think the Weasley Twins mentioned something about getting some food for a party. The Common Room will likely be a little crowded."

"Is that Snape?" Harry asked as he noticed a hooded figure looking like they didn't want to be seen walking towards the Forbidden Forest. The prowling walk brought to mind only one person in Harry's mind.

Tanya looked towards the figure and shrugged before turning towards the castle. "Possibly. I think we can still get some hot food in the Great Hall before eating whatever has been gathered for the party."

"What do you think he is doing sneaking into the Forbidden Forest?" Harry asked, following Tanya to first drop their brooms off at the broom closet before getting something quick to eat.

Tanya shrugged. "I do not know. Maybe he is getting some ingredients for a potion he is working on."

"Why would he be sneaking out during dinner to get potion ingredients?"

"He is a Head of House. Likely he is getting asked by the kids in his House constantly for help with things. This might be the only time he feels like he can get away unbothered."

"I guess that makes sense." Harry felt that wasn't right, but he couldn't see any holes in his friend's logic. Something in his gut was telling him that there was something going on. Something important.

Without any reason to be suspicious other than his gut, Harry just put his broom in the closet before quickly stopping in the Great Hall to grab a jacket potato. After getting a hot potato in their stomachs, the two began the trek back to the Gryffindor Tower.

"There you two are," Hermione squeaked as she marched over with Ron following closely.

"We won! You won! We won!" Ron yelled, thumping Harry on the back with a huge grin. "Let's hurry to the Common Room. Everyone is waiting for you! We're having a party! Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchen."

"I am sure that is an exaggeration," Tanya said.

Climbing into the Common Room, the four first years were greeted by a wall of sound as the house applauded Harry and dragged him in to congratulate him again and ply him with the pilfered sweets and handing him bottles of butterbeer that some of the upper years had hidden in their rooms from visits to Hogsmead.

Harry was the center of attention and for once he was happy about it. He earned this attention.

—

Oliver Wood

Having beaten Hufflepuff put Gryffindor in a strong position. Depending on the Ravenclaw vs Slytherin match next month would determine whether Gryffindor needed to straight up win against Ravenclaw or if there was a specific point spread Gryffindor could lose by and still win the Quidditch cup. Hopefully Ravenclaw would lose against Slytherin to give Gryffindor the best chance of winning overall. If they pulled it off, Wood would be over the moon as it would show his competency as captain, particularly with such a young team. Wood was the oldest member of the team by two years with everyone else being third year and below. Hell, their Seeker and reserve player were firsties. Bloody brilliant firsties when it came to flying on a broom. Frighteningly reckless too, pulling off stunts during practice that Wood would be too cautious to try. Then again, there is a reason Wood was a keeper and not a seeker.

Wood felt someone bump his side. "Enjoying yourself?" Olive asked. Wendy Olive was one of Wood's yearmates and the most outgoing of the girls in his year.

"Yeah. We won, our position is strong for the last game this year, and we have a great team."

Olive laughed and shook her head. "Always with your head in the game," Olive said before looking around the room quickly and pulling a bottle out of her robe. "How about something to add to the fun?"

Wood looked around and saw that Percy was distracted by his twin brothers and the other prefects were also distracted. He took a long drag off of his bottle of butterbeer before passing it over to Olive. Olive topped up Wood's bottle with the amber liquid of her bottle, passing it back to Wood. She then got onto her tiptoes to kiss Wood's cheek. "Find me later," she whispered before slinking off with her bottle hidden in her robes again.

Wood smirked and took a sip of his freshly topped off bottle, grimacing at the taste and refusing to let that stop him as he swallowed the spiked drink. Looking around the room, Wood spotted the smallest member of the team sitting by herself. Being the reliable, fabulous Captain he was, Wood decided to see what was up with his Reserve Player.

"What's up?" He asked, sitting next to Tanya, seeing she was nursing her own bottle of butterbeer and had a slice of cake the Weasley Twins had pilfered from the kitchens.

"Not much," Degurechaff answered. Despite having her back to the wall and sitting on the floor, Degurechaff was eating her cake with surprisingly refined manners. It reminded Wood a lot of his visits to his Aunt's house. Were table manners something she learned at the orphanage Wood wondered, or was it something she was emulating here?

"That's good. You are not upset you didn't get to play?"

Degurechaff turned her head to look at Wood, her eyes steadily looking into his own. "No. Do I appear upset?"

"N-no," Wood said, suddenly feeling much smaller as he stared into the crystal blue eyes of a frozen lake. "I just noticed you were sitting by yourself and wanted to check on you."

Degurechaff broke eye contact and looked into the crowd in the center of the room, Wood's eyes following the direction to find Potter surrounded by other Gryffindors.

"Tonight is a time for him to celebrate. It is his win and I am happy for him."

Wood looked back to Degurechaff. Her expression was as difficult to read as ever and it could have been Wood's imagination, but he thought he saw a slight tinge of red on the young girl's pale cheeks. "Yeah, I suppose-"

"Tanya!" A voice nearby loudly and excitedly said, "Look who I found! She was on the mantle of the fireplace looking over us and being a guard kitty like I thought she was, but luckily she seems to like kitty nip in cat form so I managed to convince her to come down from there and let me hug and pet her and she is purring!"

Wood recognized the girl as one of Degurechaff's friends and yearmates, but could not remember her name. Whatever the excitable little girl's name was, Wood knew he needed to be the responsible one here because some people could be touchy about their pets. "You shouldn't be picking up other people's pets without permission," Wood said gently.

"I don't think Professor McGonagall is anyone's pet," the girl said with a smile. "Are you someone's pet, Professor?"

The cat meowed in the girl's arm and looking closer Wood realized that the cat did indeed look just like Professor McGonagall in her animagus form. Wood's eyes widened and he put his thumb over the opening of his bottle.

"Well, looks like you have company now, so I'll just leave you three alone," Wood said nervously as he quickly got up and began looking for Olive. The alcohol would have to be even more carefully hidden now that McGonagall was in the Common Room.

—

Parvati Patil

Theater Club was surprisingly fun considering the teacher in charge was Professor Snape and Tanya was the one that had organized the initial club. Tanya always seemed so scary and serious, but she was really just incredibly awkward and was worse than Hermione at being social. Which was saying something since Hermione spent most of her time with her bushy head in a book. Regardless, Parvati was having a lot of fun making the costumes. She had to learn a lot of charms and Professor Snape had no idea where to begin in making outfits so Parvati spent a lot more time in the library getting Madam Prince's help than she had expected, but the costumes were coming out well in Parvati's opinion.

"Alright students," Professor Snape drawled out as he entered the classroom the club was using. "There are songs in the play you all selected, so we will need to see what you all are capable of. Degurechaff, you first."

Parvati noticed a slight panicked look cross Tanya's face at being singled out for singing first and the smirk on the Professor's lips. It seemed the only one that didn't know that Professor Snape wasn't really a Drama Teacher and was just going along with the whole Theater Club thing because he seemingly couldn't say no was Tanya herself and Snape was taking pleasure in messing with her as much as could.

Tanya closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. "Vansaai ia cram cross tser los. Jessubay nam guo war." Paravati was certain it wasn't just her jaw that dropped as Tanya belted out whatever those words were in such a crystal clear and pretty voice.

"Schpetzy kazagrem schommy shatzgem. Toad tangerloo worm. Szar. Szar. Crow."

The strength of her voice and the passion was pallaple. Parvati stood up straighter as she listened, her eyes unable to focus anywhere other than Tanya's singing. If anyone was going to have such a powerful, beautiful singing voice, Parvati would have thought Lavender or maybe Lily, not rough little Tanya. The entire room was filled with only Tanya's voice as she sang on in some unknown language.

As she finished up her song a little over a minute later, the Weasley Twins broke everyone out of their stupor with loud applause and whistling, getting the rest of the club to join in. Tanya's face flushed red and a smile crossed her lips before she took another deep breath and schooled her features back into that hard to read expression she always wore, but with reddened cheeks to show she was pleased with herself.

"Right, very good," Professor Snape drawled out, his expression looking more annoyed than normal.

"That's going to be a tough act to follow," One of the Weasley Twins said with a laugh.

"Indeed indeed. Who would have thought little Troll Crusher had such a lovely singing voice?" The other one agreed, nodding along sagely.

"Perhaps you two could show everyone how you would follow her up," Snape suggested, glaring at the Twins.

The Twins looked Snape. "Us?" The first asked.

"I suppose we could," the second said, a fresh grin forming on both faces.

"Shall we?"

"We shall."

The twins then began to belt out some song rather badly, clearly focused more on getting laughs out of everyone than actually performing well with their antics.

The rest of the club meeting was spent with everyone singing some song for the group. Most of the club tried their best to sound good with a few following in the twin's footsteps and purposely doing badly. As the meeting came to an end, Parvati was sure no one else was as good as Tanya.