Melanie hummed to herself as she looked around the Gryffindor dormitories. It definitely felt very warm and welcoming. She could also adjust to this easily. Right,she had something to do. Still humming, Melanie smiled and opened her suitcase where her clothes were all neatly folded and packed. She didn't need so much clothes but she had felt the need to pack as many dresses as possible for her Queen Alice.

One dress at a time, she took them out of her suitcase and laid them out on the red sheets of her bed. Onve she saw Queen Alice, she'd pounce. She also wondered if she would be able to convince Queen Alice to ley Melanie do her hair and put a tiara on her head. Alice would be so adorable.

Oh,, she had that tiara in her suitcase somewhere... She'd just unpack her dresses first. And then put Alice in a few... and snap a few pictures. Now... where was she?

Penelope went straight to her dorm once they were all finally making their way up to Gryffindor tower after the feast. She didn't pay attention to anyone or anything until she reached her bed in the dorm and collapsed onto it face down. It was only when something soft nudged the side of her head that she looked up.

"Hey, Spot," she greeted her cat, smiling slightly as she was relieved to know her cat had indeed gotten safely off the train and to the castle. She didn't bother to look at the foot of her bed for her trunk - she assumed it was probably there too. She ran a hand along Spot's back, stroking her for a few seconds before deciding it was time to sleep.

Not bothering to change into any pj's, Penelope pulled back the covers and snuggled under them, Spot moving down to curl up at the foot of her bed. The second year really hoped she would be able to get to sleep quickly. She didn't want to continue thinking about the days events. Not any of them. And she was tired of feeling the way she did. She just wanted to sleep and then wake up and not feel anything at all. If she could simply exist...that would be easier.

Sarah walked into her dorm and was delighted by the fact that her trunk was there. That was incredible. She would have screamt with delight had she not noticed a lump on the bed next to hers. Someone was there. Yet who was it, "hello..." she called softly. Who would be in bed so quickly. Sarah was tired, her stomach bloated and all. There was a cat at the bottom of the bed too. Sarah really wanted to check up on her brother, yet she had no plans of going into the boys dorms. It probably stunk...
She rummaged through her trunk, making sure all was there. Yep, everything was in place, just as she had left it, piles of clothes scattered everywhere.

Selina trekked her way up to the Common Room for the first time this term aimlessly muching on some stolen bacon on her way up. The redhead wasn't exactly sure if they were allowed to take food from the feasts up to their dorms- something about vermin control or some nonsense- but Selina had never observed that rule so she wasn't about to start now. Besides, a little bacon never hurt anyone and she was hungry. Or if it did people were going to have to deal. Bacon was, in a word, delicious.

As she munched and contemplated the rules in some ruddy old handbook that she had no doubt tossed away early in her Hogwarts career, she found herself suddenly in front of the fat lady. Uttering the LATIN PASSWORD, which just about made her day, she ducked her head and entered the familiar red and gold common room. Merlin, how she had missed this place, but she was not in the mood to be nostalgic. She was on a mission, a mission that consisted of hitting the morning rush before she went to bed.

It was rather early in terms of bed time for the first night back at school. Most students wouldn't be back in their dorms for quite some time, as they would be catching up with their friends and such. People wouldn't start to drift into the Common Room for at least another hour or so. But Selina decided instead to use this time wisely and reload up on posters for Mortimer. She needed to find her bat before Quidditch season... and as soon as possible because a Mommy needs her baby. It was a cruel fate that was handed to her about her bat. So she was planning to head to the dorms, grab more posters, hang them up, so that when people awoke the next morning for the early birds and whatnot, they were already hanging up so people would be aware. Because she was being sort of descreet about it now.

THAT was her plan. She needed to hand out more posters, but once she got upstairs she noticed a strange site. There, as a lump underneath their covers, was a person already back in the dorms. Who in their right minds would already be back? That was just silly. They should be out with their friends....

She approached the form and noticed that long tresses of brunette hair were peaking out from underneath the blanket. Only one person had hair like that- Penelope. And by the way that she was laying down, she seemed rather upset. Her blue eyes flickered down to her posters that needed reloading and she decided. Penelope was more important right now- the ickle lion looked like she needed someone to talk to. So she set down her posters, but not her bacon, and then settled herself on the edge of Penelope's bed. Resting a hand on top of the blanket's Selina asked, "Hey Penelope, sweety? Are you okay?"

Penelope was tempted to ignore everyone and pretend to be asleep...but that voice was familiar, and it didn't belong to any of the people she was unhappy with, so...it wouldn't hurt to respond, she guessed. Leaning up just a bit and resting herself on an elbow so she could see her fellow second year, she replied, "Hey, Sarah." Spot even raised her head at the voices and meowed her own greeting before laying her head back down to fall asleep. Nothing was going to get in the way of her beauty sleep, at least.



Try as she might, it was really hard getting to sleep. But Penelope didn't give up easily, so she continued to lay there on her side, staring but not really seeing what she was staring at and trying to clear her mind so she could fall asleep. Meh. Stupid mind. Stupid day. Stupid everything.

Preoccupied as she was, she didn't hear anyone enter and she didn't entirely feel the bed shifty slightly as someone sat down on the edge of it - and even if she had, she probably would've just assumed it was Spot shuffling around and trying to find a better place to sleep in. It was only when the older girl spoke that the second year was aware of another presence in the room. She didn't even have to turn to see who it was, but she did anyway, now sorta laying on her back.

"Oh, hey, Selina," she said. She glanced at the bacon in the Captain's hand but didn't ask if she was willing to share. Penelope was surprisingly full from the feast...even if her appetite had somewhat disappeared towards the end of it. But as for the question...Penelope briefly debated how to answer and in the end decided on the truth. Lying was dumb and pointless anyway. "No, not really." She hadn't felt anything close to okay for the majority of the day...

That was probably the saddest hello that Selina had ever received in her life. What made it all the more tragic was that ickle Penelope was the one who was uttering that hello. Ever since she had met Penelope she had been a ball of joy. Heck, her and Anya had always been the two to keep Quidditch practices high energy. So she could not even imagine what had brought Penelope down so much, but, rest assured, whatever it was Selina was going to have a serious talk with the cause. No one upset her ickle Gryffindors.

Trying to ignore her desire to beat whomever had hurt Penelope's feelings to a pulp, she pulled a little bit of the blankets away from Penelope's face so she could see her better. Offering a small smile, she was somewhat glad that Penelope had decided to be honest with Selina. It would have been quite the task to get Penelope to open up if she had resisted being honest. Because no adorable little second year willingly retreated up to the dorms on the first night who wasn't upset.

The redhead asked as sweetly as she could, "Penelope, what happened? I know it isn't cool to tell an older student, but I hate seeing you upset." And that was the truth. Maybe she could help the best she could. Or try at least.

"Oh it is you Penelope! Glad you are sleeping in the bed next to me"Sarah leaned more into her trunks, pulling out her things for the night, her floral patterned nightie, her funky slippers which looked like oversized sneakers, yet were soft and some rainbow striped sleeping socks, to keep chillblains away.
She then placed the item on her bed and sat down next to them. "Well, it was quite a day, was it not?". She yawned luxuriously."What is up? Something got you down?" It sounded like an oxymoron - the up/down business. Yet Sarah really waned to know what is wrong. After a filling supper it was probably not hunger pangs that was making the girl so sullen.
She then noticed the cat that had meowed at her, "is that your cat? what is its name?"

But now that she'd been honest with Captain Selina about not feeling okay, Penelope had to decide just how far she wanted to take this honesty. Not that she would outright lie, but she could refuse to answer some questions. Because Penelope wasn't sure what Selina would think or how she would react if she knew exactly how she felt - and even though Penelope didn't care what most people though about her, Selina was one of the exceptions to that rule.

Then again...maybe that was reason enough TO tell her?

"Just..." she started, trying to figure out how to word it. "...It's been a long day..."

Yeah, she was terrible at this "admitting what was wrong" stuff. But she was terrible at most things so it wasn't surprising.

"So am I." Glad that she was sleeping in the bed next to Sarah, that is. She liked Sarah, after all. Penelope watched quietly as the other girl was pulling things out of her trunk and then when she sat on her own bed with what Penelope assumed was her pj's. "Yeah, it was," she agreed with a nod. Whether it was quite bad or quite terrible was up for debate. She...shrugged at the next pair of questions. "I guess." Something...or someones.

She was a bit relieved when the attention was turned to her cat then. "Yeah," she answered with a nod. "Her name's Spot."

Cautiously she made her way into the dorm aware that she was the youngest Gryffindor though she realised that she recognised 2 of the other girls in the room, Sarah, who she’d met at the feast and the other girl who’d been dubbed the ‘scary bat girl’ by her Angel’s friend, Alexa. Right now she didn’t seem that scary though….

Seeing her cat already snuggled on one of the beds, so she quickly made her way over to the darling little black cat with pretty white socks… thankfully that cat had successfully gotten to Hogwarts and wasn’t completely dirty because of those cute little white socks… she was annoying to clean, she knew that already!

Petting the cute little cat she smiled as she snuggled into it slightly as it curled up against her before she managed to say hello to the other Gryffindor girl she knew.

“Hey Sarah” she greeted quietly, enjoying the company of her cat… “And um… excuse me but what are your names… I don’t exactly want to refer to you as the ‘crazy bat girl’… and I just haven’t met you yet…” she trailed off, hoping she wasn’t interrupting anything.

Right. So this was going to be one of those conversations. Selina was really not in the mood to drag out the real reason behind Penelope's upset. She was more in the mood to make a little lion who had obviously had a bad day feel better. Even though Penelope did not look like anyone could make her feel better, she had never spoken to Selina when she was dedicated to something. Actually, Selina went a bit nutters when she was dedicated to something. Therefore, since she decided she was going to make Penelope feel better, by Merlin she was going to succeed. No one deserved to be upset on the first night of Hogwarts, especially not Penelope.

Smirking a little at Penelope, she tickled the girl a little and asked, "Come on Penelope. Out with it. You know I don't buy that." She ceased the tickling and looked sincerely at the girl, "Come on, sweety... let me help you. I promise I'm a good listener." Actually that was true. People had been venting to Selina since she was a first year and once they started they never stopped. The redhead always checked her temper at the door whenever people needed to talk to her. Ask Kurumi. She had been venting to Selina forever.

A little more seriously she asked, "What's the matter."

Let me listen, Penelope.

"Well if you ever want to talk I am here." Sarah said, she did not want to push herself on anyone. "Spot! That is a cool name. I have an owl, her name is Angelina..." she then felt like taking it back when she noticed another girl walk in, that girl whose name was Angel. Angel -Angelina were quite close names. That is why many people do not name their animals the names often bestowed on humans.

Sarah turned to the other girl, "hey to you too, Angel." she laughed at the name Angel had called Selina."Angel, that is Selina Skyler, the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. She lost her bat, so her eagerness to find it is rather understandable." she said indicating to Selina. "and that is another second year - Penelope Greenwall".
Noticing that both Penelope and Angel had cats she said, "so you also have a cat? Perhaps it will make friends with Penelope's cat Spot" she said, showing the lazy form of Spot on Penelope's bed

SIIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

The feast was long and not even because of the food! She thought the Headmistress would never have stopped but she did and they got yummy food and everything was supposed to be good--but it wasn't! That had to be the worst night of her life! Was it even possible to get in trouble for giggling? As instructed she followed the others to the common room and walking up to the dormitories she saw Felix curled up nicely on the bed she guessed she would be sleeping on.

"Felix!" She screamed. Hurrying onto the bed she grabbed hold of the sleeping kneazle, being careful not to hurt her hand that was in the make-shift sling, and began jumping with him in her arms. Hey this bed was pretty springy!!!

Jump. Jump....jump.....

She paused for a minute when she realized all the other girls that were already in here. One of them looked like she was trying to sleep but not for long and well she knew the others! WAIT!!! Eyeing Selina for a minute she contemplated not jumping on the bed anymore but she seemed pretty occupied so maybe she wouldn't even notice.

Jump. Jump. Jump.

"Oh hey Angel, hey Sarah!" She said with a wide grin. "You guys should try this! It's really fun!" Just then Felix let out a screech and scrambling from her hold. She watched with a slight pout as he settled on the rug. Her eyes shot up to the other girl she didn't know. "And hello to you tooooo, even though I don't know your name. I'm Alexa." Could anyone else tell that the 11 year old was far from sleepy?

Penelope nodded when Sarah said she was willing to listen if she wanted to talk - she was grateful for the offer - but she didn't feel like talking about it now. Not when there was now a first year she didn't know in here too. Penelope didn't mind the new girl's presence though...although it was somewhat weird now that it really hit her that there was a whole new year of first years, and she wasn't one of them anymore. Was this what it felt like to be a second year? Weird.

She nodded again and waved when Sarah introduced her to the girl, whose name was apparently Angel. Kinda like the name of Sarah's owl. Neat.

Spot perked up a bit when she heard her name again, blinking slowly as she raised her head. The room was awfully noisy, wasn't it? And...eh? Was that another cat? Her head turned in the direction of Angel and her cat, staring at them. Huh. So there was another cat. And - another LOUD human burst in and grabbed some another cat-like creature. Spot stared at them too.

Couldn't a cat get some sleep around here?

Penelope blinked when the other new first year started jumping on the bed. That...looked like fun actually. But she wouldn't be jumping on her bed right now, not with Spot there and all. Maybe tomorrow. She gave a little wave though when the girl - Alexa, apparently - spoke to her and introduced herself. "I'm Penelope."

Penelope jerked away instinctively from the tickling, though the faintest of smiles did manage to cross her face briefly, before settling back down once the tickling stopped. She bit her lip as she considered Selina's words. Well....maybe she could tell her. What could it hurt? Maybe it would be nice to actually say this to someone. Then she could be...more sure of it? Or something? Maybe she'd know what to do. Maybe Selina would know what to do about, though Penelope wasn't sure whether the older girl had ever felt like this. And honestly, Penelope hoped she hadn't. She wouldn't wish this feeling on anyone except maybe her cousin Xerxes because he was a git.

"It's just..." she started softly, slowly. "I think I 'like like' someone...but he doesn't feel the same. He likes someone else..."

While Selina had been getting comfortable on the edge of Penelope's bed to talk to her, a sudden whirl wind of ickle children came bursting through the room. She knew all of the faces, but the names were all just a tad fuzzy. It was hard for Selina to remember everyone's name in her house because there were so many. That was why- usually- the names that stuck in her head were those that had been on her team in previous years. Everyone else was soft of like a water color. Clearish, but still vague enough where she was perplexed. However, maye now would be a good time to learn everyone's names.

However, they all were talking so bloody fast and putting so much information into all of their sentences that Selina was just dizzy. What she did get from all of their little rants was that she did not need to introduce herself. The one girl knew her name and all about her bat. It was weird that people knew who she was without her having to say hello. Weirder still that everyone was so bubbly.

Speaking of bubbly, the climber bust through the doors of the dorm at that precise moment. Honestly, the redhead did not know the rude little first year by name, but she had a feeling that by the end of the year Selina and the rest of the house would know this girls name by heart. The Gryffindor point board would make her VERY familiar.

Rubbing her temples she told the girl calmly, "Do not jump on the beds... Thank you." Translation- get off the bloody bed.

Aha! She had gotten through to Penelope. The redhead had made the younger girl laugh. Laughter, from Selina's own experience, was the most effective way to help coax people into admitting what was wrong. Once they admitted what was on their mind then the other party could help them feel better. That was precisely what Selina was trying to do for Penelope and to a small degree Penelope was participating.

So the sixth year sat up a little straighter to give Penelope her full attention. And when the younger girl spoke Selina sighed. Boys. They were always the stupid reason why many a Gryffindor girl had cried up in this dormitory. The male gender that the stupid affect on lionesses that always, without fail, gave them grief. And now Penelope was starting to get affected by the plight of the opposite sex.

While the younger girl was talking, Selina adjusted her sitting position on the bed so she was sitting directly next to Penelope and leaning her back against the headboard. Her one arm wrapped around the younger girl's shoulder as she tried to find the right words. Unfortunately, no words when it came to affairs of the heart were ever enough. But they could help, "Look Penelope, boys are stupid. It's actual cruel that women are subjected to their stupidity in a way that makes their heart hurt. Men have this deficiency that makes them blind to how beautiful, wonderful and talented girls like you are. If this boy doesn't like you- he's an idiot." That was the truth, "I know that you don't think this, but if someone can't see how great you are... They don't deserve to have your heart."

Her eyes were starting to complain because of the extra work they would have to do to focus but jumping was so much fun and besides...everything looked cooler when they were moving. Plus the bed was nice and springy so the jumping could go on all night!

Her eyes fell to Felix for a moment. He was clearly ignoring her for disrupting his sleep but she giggled, knowing that once she eventually settled down to sleep he would crawl in right next to her. He was a sucker for her affection and they both knew it.

This meant there was nothing to really worry about so she turned her attention to the girl who she didn't know. Penelope, was it? She grinned at her. "Well hi there Penelope! Have you ever thought of jumping on the beds? It's a lot of fun!" The girl didn't look tired but at the same time she didn't look very happy either so Lex was only trying to offer her some fun. Though she was sure that the girl would have joined by now if she wanted to.



She continued jumping for a bit more. Selina didn't seem to mind or she would have turned around and said something about it. Unless...unless she was the silent type and one minute you were okay but the next you'd find a shoe in your face! O____O

This got her to slow down on the jumping for a bit but then she didn't think she would have thrown anything at her with so many others in the line of fire...it was too risky.

Jump. Jump. Jump.

Until she did turn and tell her to stop. Lex furrowed her brows...Selina actually said please and she didn't yell like back at the train! "But why though?" Nice Lex, ruin the good mood of the scary girl. Sigh. Curiosity was a terrible disease. "It's not like I'll get hurt or anything, I'm perfectly saf--whoa!"

Lex bounced right off the bed. "Ow..." She muttered, luckily she hadn't fallen on her hurt wrist or she might have started crying--and in front of the scary bat-girl nonetheless! "I'm okay..." She muttered from her new spot on the floor.

Alice skipped into the dormitories, ready to jump into her bed and have a good, long night of sleep. YES. She could skip now, broken leg all healed and fixed, see? Classes started tomorrow, correct? So I had better rest, she thought. BUT. Then she saw her friend Melon unpacking her suitcase. Her first instinct was to jump right into the Dorms and help her friend unpack. Maybe the lioness could meet all of her teddy bears?

BUT. Teddy bears didn't have sleeves and lace and chiffon.

Dresses. Melanie had dresses. She needed to slink out of there before she was seen by Melon.

Melanie covered up a yawn with her hand as she unpacked more dresses from her trunk. She could hang them all up or something... maybe. She wasn't sure. Where was Queen Alice? She really did need to wear at LEAST two of these dresses before Melanie fell asleep. Melanie looked around the dormitories before spying Queen Alice.

Beaming from ear to ear, Melanie walked over and gave the girl a giant hug. "Oh! You're here! And your leg is healed! It's perfect!!" Melanie exclaimed as she started to drag the girl over to her bed.

"You, Queen Alice, need to try these on! You'll look so cute in them!!" Melanie giggled, forgetting how tired she was as she kept a firm grip on the girl's wrist. The new Gryffindor didn't want the Queen to run away from prettiness. Oh, and Melanie wanted to take so many pictures of the younger girl being adorable in a dress! "You said no pink, right?" Melanie asked, as she used her other hand to move some dresses around so she could find a non-pink dress.

Queen Alice was not running away.

NOOOO. She had been spotted.



Alice stood still as Melanie wrapped her arms around the girl and then proceeded to drag her to the suitcase. The one that was filled the silky, lacy, pretty torture devices. "Melanie. Nooo. I don't WANNA wear a dress." Not unless her friend hugged a clown, anyways. "I won't wear it if it's pink, I won't wear it if it's not pink, don't care. I just don't wanna put one on." She tried to yank her wrist out of Melanie's grasp, but somehow, the older girl's fist seemed to have turned to iron.

She glanced at the exit. IT WAS TOO FAR. She would never make it. Melanie would probably lunge for her. She sighed in defeat and turned back to Melanie. "You remember the pinky promise. Have you hugged a clown?"

YEAH, MELANIE.

Melanie ignored the way the blonde was struggling. She wasn't letting go of the girl at all. She sorted through the soft fabric of the dresses, knowing there had to be the perfect red dress somewhere. Because y'know, red was Gryffindor-y and all and that would be cute to see Queen Alice dressed all Gryffindor-y.

"You have to wear one because we didn't go dress shopping over the summer," Melanie said, looking at the girl. If Melanie knew how to do puppy dog eyes, she totally would right now.

Except she didn't.

The girl went back to looking through her dresses, making sure she didn't loosen her grip on the younger girl. "Just be still and wear a dress, you'll look pretty," Melanie said, reaching over in her suitcase and finding the red dress. A triumphant grin went across Melanie's face. It wasn't a fancy dress or anything... just a simple, plain, red sleeveless dress. It was so totally Alice if Melanie could only get the- right... the promise.

"I'm not hugging any murderers," Melanie decided, swallowing that lump in her throat as she thought about clowns and how incredibly deadly they were. Nope. Melanie had no intentions to die. She very much loved living and wanted to be famous first. "Pleaaasseeee just try on the dress?" Melanie asked, looking at the younger girl and widening her brown eyes. Was that how a person did puppy dog eyes?

Boys are stupid. Yeah, Penelope could agree with that to some extent. Although...some of this next part...not so much. "But I'm not any of those things..." she mumbled. That is, she wasn't beautiful or wonderful or talented. Anya was though. So it was easy to see why anyone would choose her over Penelope. Jake wasn't really that much of an idiot for choosing the one who was obviously better... And there wasn't much to see in "how great she was," in Penelope's opinion. But...that last bit about not deserving her heart...

"How do I get it back then?" Because if that was the key for her to stop feeling like this, she was sure she'd do it.



Considering the amount of jumping she was doing, it certainly must have been pretty fun in Penelope's opinion. "I can tell." That it was fun. "I haven't really thought about it until now though. Might try it tomorrow." She glanced over at Spot, who was back to being curled up comfortably at the foot of her bed, clearly attempting to get to sleep once more. Penelope wouldn't disturb her by suddenly jumping on the bed.

And then Selina told Alexa to stop and suddenly - the first year jumped/fell off the bed. She said and sounded like she was okay, though... "You sure?" Penelope asked.

Selina had never hit a kid before, but Penelope was really testing that right about now. How could she think that she was not pretty, smart and talented? The second year was the epitome of those things. This was the reason why Selina really disliked boys and the way they affected females. They had this horrible habit of making girls feel like less then they really were. The redhead knew that first hand from a rather awful experience last year with her own boyfriend. And yet, it was sadder for Selina to see Penelope like this. The girl was just so crestfallen.

Instead of hitting her upside the head, she opted for giving the girl a small squeeze since her arm was wrapped around her shoulder, "Yes you are. But it might be a little hard for you to see that right now, sweety." However, that did not mean that everything Selina said was untrue. It just meant that some stupid boy had hurt Penelope's heart and she did not want to think of herself as beautiful. Selina had a hunch why- the girl was probably thinking about why this stupid boy did not like her. She probably thought she was not good enough. The real reason was that this boy was just a blind idiot. Dumb kid. PENELOPE WAS GREAT!

Her heart? She wanted to get her heart break? At that moment, Selina's heart very well shattered for Penelope. That was one of the saddest things she had ever heard someone say in this dorm. And this dorm had been the place of many sad conversations. Just ask Kurumi.

She pet the girl's hair and sighed, "Unfortunately, it'll take time. But I promise... one day, some boy who is right for you will pick up all of the pieces and make it alright again. Of course, you don't need a boy to make this better. You are strong enough to pick up the pieces yourself. It'll just be hard." Because she did not want her little lion to think that boys were like candy. A different flavor every week. She had already failed to teach that lesson once...

Penelope frowned and shook her head slightly, the strongest amount of disagreement she felt like giving at this point. It was only hard to see because it wasn't true. That was always a fact even before this happened. She just...hadn't bothered to think about it as much before now. She'd never really had a reason to. But now...

Oh. So...there wasn't any way to just "get her heart back." Figured. So she'd have to feel like this for who knew how long. "But what if there isn't a boy who is right for me?" What if no boy ever actually liked her? Then she'd just be alone forever...not that that was SO bad, of course. She was used to that. So it was probably good when Selina went on to say that she didn't need another boy to fix this for her - she could do it herself. "How do I do that though?" Or was it something she had to just wait for and nothing else?

Ah hah! So even Penelope thought it looked like fun which meant there was no harm in jumping on the bed. "Great, so then will you jump with me tomorrow?" She wasn't meant to ask that question while Selina was still in the room, but she was so excited that it hadn't really occurred to her.

Being on the floor was actually quite comfortable; who would have thought?! Uhh, yeah...never better." She lied as she crawled over to Felix. He had become more alert when he saw her take a dive off the bed. "I didn't fall all that hard." Though now her bum hurt but that would pass so there was no need to bring that up.

This being the case she could change the subject. "Were you hurt in the whole portkey fiasco or are you one of those lucky buggers who knew what to do?" As much as she wanted to be a lucky bugger she had landed terribly and hurt her wrist, which when you looked at it, made it very stupid of her to be jumping on the bed....

What could she tell her that would make this better? If she was being honest with herself, there was nothing she could say to make this better. Affairs of the heart were very difficult. Especially when the injured party was too hurt to listen to reason, which was exactly what was happening with Penelope. Selina could tell her until she was blue in the face that she was wonderful and that whoever this boy was in reality was dirt, but she would not hear her really. All she would hear was what she wanted to hear and right now Penelope wanted to believe that no boy would ever like her and that she was not good enough for the boy who had hurt her heart.

What Selina KNEW was that when she eventually met this boy she was going to make him very sorry for hurting Penelope's feelings. People did not hurt her little lions' feelings. The younger students who Selina cared about were special to her and if this boy could not see why Penelope was so great he was an idiot. Seriously, what was wrong with him? She was bloody fantastic!

Dumb kid.

Oh poor Penelope. A boy would eventually see how wonderful she was, although it may not be this boy that had hurt her. So she just squeezed Penelope, "A boy will like you, Penelope. I know you can't see it now, but there is a lot about you to like. You are a great kid and girl. This boy is just stupid." If Penelope walked away with one thing, she hoped it was this- this boy was stupid. All Most boys were.

"You just need to see how great you are," which she was, "Once you realize how great you are, you'll feel bad for him because he doesn't see how great you are. I mean, seriously. If this boy doesn't like you... he has AWFUL taste." Seriously.