Who: Susan and Hannah When: 12 December, night What: Struggling through apology letters Where: Girl's dorm
Rating: PG
Tossing her flamingo-feather quill on the desk, Hannah sighed loudly and rubbed at her eyes. This apology letter to Pansy was impossible! She just couldn't fake it, and she wasn't snarky enough to do it in a round-about manner that looked apologetic but was really insulting.
"Susie, am I allowed to say 'I'm sorry you're such a horridly thoughtless bint' in my letter?" she called over to her cousin.
Susan did not look up from her book; it was too useful as a shield to hide the smile that threatened to spill across her features. You're Head Girl. You cannot laugh. "No, Hans, I don't think that is entirely appropriate," she called back over the top of the transfiguration text. Susan felt dreadful for Hannah; served Pansy right, really, for being so awful all of the time. "Maybe you can call her a stuck up prat?" If one hadn't been listening to the tone of her voice, the comment might have seemed quite innocuous.
Hannah gave her friend a lopsided smile and bit her lip. "I don't think the professors would like that very much, and I'm not terribly fond of detention." Sweeping an erase-all over the parchment, the ink on the page vanished. "I've got to come up with something, or I can't go into Hogsmeade this weekend, and I just have to go. I've tried pretending she was a friend I'd upset, lying outright...nothing is working. I just really, truly, am not the least bit sorry. She's just lucky I didn't punch her in her stupid little pug face."
"Hmm." Susan tossed her book down and leaned over the side of her bed, legs askew, rear in the air, the sounds of scrounging audible beneath the bed. After a few moments, she huffed upward, hair a complete mess, but triumphant! "Dictaquill!" She flopped out of bed into her slippers and trudged over to Hannah's bed before promptly reflopping down. "Just tell me you're sorry for something. It'll write it. We'll change the name. Done!"
"Won't work. It has to be personal," Hannah replied, defeated. "If I could have just scribbled 'I'm very sorry' I would have done that days ago."
With a face, Susan tossed the quill back over her shoulder. "Thought it might be easier to say it than write it." She peered at the parchment, lip stuck firmly between her teeth. "Is there anything you said that you -are- sorry for?"
"Well..." Hannah thought back to the night Pansy had caught her out after hours. "I'm sorry I called dueling club stupid. I'm almost sorry I insinuated that Draco and his family might kill her next. I'm sorry I didn't think of other names to call her while I was at it. I'm very sorry I didn't hit her. I'm sorry I mentioned hearing my dad crying."
"Well." Susan latched onto the one thing she might be able to use. "How about apologizing for the Draco part? That's a good start." She nudged the parchment back toward her cousin, face a mixture of hopefulness and some attempt to feel responsible and supportive.
A long sigh, and Hannah dipped the quill and began writing again, this time speaking the words aloud as she went. "Pansy," she began. "I owe you an apology for my behavior the evening you caught me out after hours." Well that wasn't so bad - certainly a better start then she'd had before. "I should not have said that your boyfriend's family might come after you and cause you harm. I would not want that for anyone, even you, and of course if you have not broken up with him they would have no reason to do so." She looked up at Susan and smiled proudly at what she'd written so far.
Susan tilted her head a bit and gave Hannah a supportive smile. She was proud, honestly, that Hannah was making the effort. Apologizing to Pansy was harder than... just about anything. Mostly because she didn't deserve it. Trying to focus, Susan reread the start of it; "well. That's very good! You might not want to include that last bit. It's a little..." she struggled "... suggestive?"
"I know it is," Hannah admitted with a grin. "I don't want her thinking she's completely getting her way; especially since she'll probably show all her friends. Oh!" She started writing again. "As a prefect, I should be setting a better example for the students. While I believe that standing up for yourself is important, it need not include insulting the other person in the manner I did with you. Sincerely, Hannah Abbot."
Susan returned the grin. Aha! Triumph! "Good." She watched her cousin scribble out the rest of the letter and clapped her hands as the flourish on the final T was swept out. "Not bad, Ms. Abbott!" She put out her hand in mock congratulations and shook Hannah's heartily, laughing.
Hannah laughed and shook Susan's hand in return. "I just needed the influence of the Head Girl, apparently! Well, that's a relief. I really didn't want to miss the DA meeting or the shopping."
"There is no WAY I was going to let you miss that! Who's going to help me drag Lavender out of the castle?" Susan hadn't heard a thing from either the Gryffindor or Hermione, and she was beginning to worry about them both. "As for shopping... maybe you can help me find something for Neville? I am absolutely DOOMED when it comes to gift shopping."
Frowning, Hannah nodded. "I haven't seen her at all. They're both being so ridiculous about this. Things get so complicated when boys are involved. Because you know this isn't about the DA - this is all about Ron Weasley." Which she still couldn't totally believe. Not that Ron was bad looking or anything...he just wasn't her type. Then again, nobody had ever really been her type except Ernie, beyond the brief crush on Cedric - but nearly every Hufflepuff girl had gone through that for a couple years. "And Neville...I bet I know what Neville would really like." She closed her eyes and puckered up her lips, making exaggerated kissing noises.
Susan scrunched her eyes closed and just -giggled-. Honestly, she'd have LOVED to make out with Neville. They hadn't really worked their way up to that just yet, however. Her cheeks had already gone completely pink by the time her eyes reopened and she was scolding/tickling her cousin. "Hannah Abbott you are insufferable!" With a huff, she whined a bit, melodramatically. "You have to help meeeee."
"I am helping you, Susie!" Hannah insisted playfully. "Honestly, have you even really kissed him? You've been seeing each other quite a while, and you could both do with a bit of kissing."
"I kiss him!" On the cheek mostly. Susan wrinkled her nose a bit. "We're working on it!" Neville was a slow mover, and, honestly, Susan was a bit slow herself. She'd never had a proper boyfriend (aside from the mass hysteria known as Cedric -- but that thought made her sad) and wasn't sure what to do with one now that she had it. "ANYWAY." She chucked a pillow at her cousin, a distraction at all costs.
"Anyway indeed, Miss Bones," said Hannah, catching the pillow and putting it in her lap. "I strongly urge you to kiss that boyfriend of yours - snogging would also be good, but we don't want to frighten either of you so soon. As for what else to get him? A rare plant, I think. Maybe a nice new pair of gardening gloves."
Susan perked. Gardening gloves. "What a brilliant idea!" She blurted, mental notes taken all around (all around). "The gloves that is," she gave her cousin a withering frown, but it quickly collapsed back into a giggle. "Maybe some gardening robes." Her face twisted into a rather delighted grin. "Mmm. Gardening." Mm, gardening... mmm NEVILLE. "What are you getting for Ernie?"
"A good long snog," Hannah laughed, tossing the pillow back at her cousin. "I don't know. He's so difficult to buy for. It took me forever to get him that compass. I heard there's a limited edition card binder for Chocolate Frogs Cards, and I was going to look into that. Maybe a nice cashmere jumper. Any ideas?"
Susan caught the pillow full in the face, and a squeak issued forth, muffled and helpless. Once she had patted down the pillow (and stuffed it under her elbows for safekeeping), she considered. She was horrible at gift giving, but she thought about Ernie a moment. What did boys -like-? Her face looked amusingly blank for several long moments, and she finally shook her head. "I honestly don't know. I was going to get him a vest."
"See? My boyfriend is so much more difficult than yours." A blush rose on Hannah's cheeks. "That's why I intend to wear my new bodice for him."
Susan's eyes widened. First a blush. Then... a corset? "What!" Her voice raised to dangerously high-pitched levels. "SHOW."
Giggling, she pulled herself out of her chair and dug through her trunk, finally pulling out a deep-green velvet bodice with intricate beading and lace, and short flowing sleeves, as well as the matching skirt. "I'm going to wear them to his parent's party. It's very tasteful and elegant, really, though it does give a bit of...added lift in certain areas."
Susan's jaw dropped. "Scandalous!" She teased, filled with a sort of giddy delight in it. "It's so pretty, Hans," she crooned, propping her chin in one hand and stretching out the other to feel the delicate lacework. It really was beautiful... she wondered with a start if that was the sort of thing Neville would -- no. Neville would probably drop dead of shock if she wore something like that. "Honestly, that's probably a good enough present on its own." A grin.
"When I mentioned it to Ernie a while back he seemed to like the idea very much, so I have to agree." Carefully she folded it back up and hid it in the bottom of her trunk. "Though that was when we were talking about bodice ripping, and he really isn't allowed to rip that one, it's far too expensive. Not that....you know...we really haven't gone very far or anything."
The blush that had been receding from Susan's plump cheeks suddenly sprang back to life. "Ripping?! Hannah Abbott, you didn't mention this to me!" She seemed deliciously mortified, grinning, blushing, and shaking her head all at once. She knew her cousin well enough to know... well she -thought- she knew Hannah well enough to know that she wouldn't go -that- far. "I'm a bit surprised. Ernie's always seemed..." what was the word... "timid."
"It's all a ruse! He is, or he can be, but sometimes when we're alone..." Hannah grinned over her trunk and she shut it and came to sit on the edge of Susan's bed. "You know how passionate he can be about things - like how he went on about how the DA was the most important thing we were doing our fifth year. Well, he can be like that about other things, too. It's exciting, really. Not that I'd really let him rip my bodice off...at least not so soon into our relationship. I think we were talking about Megan's mum's books and it came up."
Susan laughed. "Those books will be the downfall of wizardkind!" She said waspishly, but she hardly meant it. They'd all taken peeks (and sometimes more than peeks) at those lusty novels. "I should slip one to Neville." She laughed. "I sometimes wonder if he's ever ..." she paused, flushing. ".. you know. Read about things... like that." Wondering suddenly how that must have sounded, she shook her head suddenly. "Not that I'd expect him to have. Or anything." She looked at Hannah pleadingly. "Oh you know what I mean!"
"I know exactly what you mean," Hannah laughed, poking her cousin. "I doubt it, don't you? I mean, he's grown up with his gran, and she doesn't seem the sort to keep things like that around, from what I've heard. But really, Susie, you don't want Neville to act like a strapping pirate prince, do you?"
Susan shook her head with a wrinkled nose. "No. No I definitely do not." Pirates were mean, and usually smelled bad. Neville, however, was delightfully clean, except when he had been in the greenhouses too long - and even then he still smelled alright. "I think I am quite happy with what I have." Settling back into her pillow, she sighed in a fit of contentment. "I'm so glad everything is oKAY."
Hannah's pirate prince wasn't at all stinky or mean - though he did tie her to the mast of the ship in that one dream. "Let him find his own way - it's probably more fun, anyway." She winked and covered a giggle.
Susan tried not to imagine what sorts of things Hannah might be insinuating (she did anyway), but grinned. "Bedtime, MISS Abbott, and don't forget to give that delightful letter to you know who before it's time to shop!"
Hannah rolled her eyes playfully and scooted across the way to her own bed. "Actually, can I borrow Nyx? I figure I'll send it off before bed." Hopefully it would scare her, but baring that at least it was over and done with.
"Absolutely!" Susan peered up to the top of her bed, where Nyx had perched himself, clucking dolefully to himself in his sleep. She didn't feel the slightest bit guilty when he awoke to her cheerful smooching noises, eyed her, and then suddenly dropped off the bannister and into her arms. "One day I'm going to drop you if you keep doing that," she scolded, before turning and handing the rather awkward bird to her cousin. "I hope he never does that to Megan. He'll flatten her."
Gently taking the owl, Hannah walked over and placed it on the desk while she folded her letter and addressed it. "Make sure she gets this, Nyx, and if you happen to scare her in the process there's a treat in it for you." She opened their door and out flew the bird as Hannah jumped onto her bed and quickly got under the covers. Tomorrow - Hogsmeade. Tonight - dreams about Ernie ripping bodices.