Sharpen Your Knives

[Tilda MacFusty]

September, 1883
tag: @Ellory Pendergast

She was prefect. She was prefect. How this happened exactly, Tilda would never know, but she was eternally grateful for the chance she was given. Seeing that her cousins had a less than smooth time at Hogwarts, Tilda was nervous upon entering their alma mater. The MacFusty name bore a bit of a negative reputation in general amongst the public. It was no different here, and Tilda wasn't exactly surprised to figure that out. She loved her family – that was all that mattered. But she did wish to build a good reputation for herself. This would be how she would do it! She would show them that she could be proper [at least in public] and proud to wear her last name.

It was under these pretenses that she found herself walking through the halls, secretly hoping people would see she got Gryffindor prefect – not to flaunt it because she saw herself superior to others, but because she wanted people to know a MacFusty was able to be a prefect again. She would be extremely careful not to let her superiors or classmates down. Tilda was pulled out of her thoughts from an eruption of laughter to the right. A group of students (all from different houses) were snickering and looking at her. Her confidence faltered a bit, but she caught the gaze of one and held it blatantly until someone spoke. "Did they really make you a prefect?!" one girl half shrieked, half laughed. "Honestly, another MacFusty? My parents were right, I should have gone to Beauxbatons."

Tilda's cheeks flushed pink, an eyebrow raised. "Pardon me?" she said through gritted teeth. She mustn't lose her temper this early on. It didn't help that another student piped up, sniggering, "Do you really think you have any sort of power over us? Your family is a joke! Honestly, Miss MacFusty, you might as well quit while your ahead!"

Tilda's back straightened, and she clenched her jaw, her hands now curled into fists. She knew they were trying to goad her, and she expected retaliation, just not so early! If only they could see her throw a knife at an apple on top of their head from 20 feet away, they wouldn't be laughing.... She had to think of some way to respond. She would never quit - ever.

  

[Ellory Pendergast]

Ellory was making her way down the stairs when she overheard the snide comments and saw what was going on. It was wtf-ness that she felt before sympathy towards the younger prefect. Wtf-ness because a MacFusty had been the Head Girl only a year or so ago, so it was really kind of stupid that those students were making a big deal about it now? But then, some students just enjoyed being unreasonably cruel.

“Is there anything wrong?” she called out, upon reaching the scene. She stood next to Miss MacFusty and gave the bullies a cordial, but serious smile. They clearly didn’t respect her fellow prefect, but they would know better to make snide comments about her, a Pendergast. The sister of the Head Girl herself.

“Nothing, Miss Pendergast,” said one of them, between immature giggles that were followed with her friends’ ones. “Good,” said Ellory. With that, she took hold of Miss MacFusty’s arm and lead her on, as if that was what she was planning on doing in the first place.

“Next time, I would take points,” Ellory commented quietly once they were a bit away from the bullies and gave the younger prefect a small, friendly smile.

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

Tilda almost jumped when she heard another voice approach. Both relief and shame flooded through her as she watched Miss Pendergast talk to the other students. Relief, because it meant that this embarrassment could stop – shame that she'd not been brave enough to stand up for herself. She was a Gryffindor, for Merlin's sake! And a MacFusty! Ma would be so disappointed in her if she were here right now.

Thankfully, Miss Pendergast was nice, though Tilda never really knew much about the other prefect's personality until she herself became a prefect. She returned the other girl's smile with a much weaker one, her cheeks still flushed. "Thank you, Miss Pendergast," she said, a nervous laugh escaping her lips. She should have thought about taking points from those students! "Ah–ah'll do baetter next time, Ah knoe Ah will..."

A part of her was also telling herself that she should be used to this kind of talk behind her back by now – she was a MacFusty, and her family always got lip from the upper crust of society. She shouldn't be surprised that that refused to halt just because she was a prefect. After a while, Tilda spoke again, "Yoeur lucky...Ah'll bet ye doen't have people talking t'you that way. Disresepctin' ye liek tha' ."

  

[Ellory Pendergast]

It was true that with her being a Pendergast a half-Lestrange she was generally more respected than most people, but still. Ellory had heard her own share of mean comments as well. “I wouldn’t say that,” she commented. “You could be my Uncle Lucius Lestrange and I’m sure they’d find a reason to make fun of you. It’s the curse of us prefects, I suppose.”

At least nobody had attempted to turn her into a llama or something.

“You will get used to it with time!” she continued. “And you’ll find that being a prefect can be rather enjoyable. Hogwarts is so beautiful during the night. It’s like corridors sing. Well, some of the ghosts, to be precise. You will see for yourself soon. I’m sure we’ll get to patrol together!”

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

"Ye'd think they'd knoe better, with us bein' able to dock points an' all." Tilda thought aloud, though the events previously had just proven that the fact that she could dock points wasn't a worry to those students. She just needed to build up a new reputation as a person of authority within the student body. The school board chose her for a reason, and Merlin she'd show that they didn't make a mistake in doing so.

The perks did sound quite enjoyable. Tilda had always wanted to roam the castle halls at night, and she had to admit, this was as good a time as any. "Do they really?" she mused, smiling. "Ah always though' it was in my dreams that they sung!" The ghosts of Hogwarts were always quite friendly in their own peculiar ways, but Tilda found some of them were a tad more guarded when students were milling about the halls. And patrolling with Miss Pendergast would definitely be an upside! "Did you have any difficulties your first time as a prefect?"

  

[Ellory Pendergast]

“Some better than others,” Ellory replied with a nod. There was the ghost of a lady who clearly wanted to be an opera singer when she was alive. It was rather unfortunate that she didn’t have the talent for it. But Ellory didn’t have the heart to tell her so. The woman was already dead, it would be cruel to tell her that she was a terrible singer!

She nodded at Miss MacFusty’s question. “I wasn’t even sure why they had picked me, in all honesty,” she confessed to the girl. “So I didn’t feel very… authoritative for the first few weeks. I felt bad taking points. I probably allowed students to get away with things I wouldn’t now. Nothing big, of course.”

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

It was frankly a relief to Tilda that Miss Pendergast had had difficulties adjusting to her position when she was a new prefect. Tilda always saw Miss Pendergast as very put together and elegant, in all aspects of life – her family, her grades, her friends – and she was nice to boot! But hearing this made the prefect realize things weren't always what they seemed like from the outside.

"Of course," Tilda echoed absentmindedly. Miss Pendergast brought up a very good question – why had they chosen her? "T'be honest, Ah doen't think I knoe why they chose me, just yet. I'm a MacFusty – we're not exactly the cream o' the crop in high society." At least in terms of their reputation. "Ah just hope Ah doen't make them regret they've chosen' me."

  

[Ellory Pendergast]

Considering that there had been a Trelawney Head Boy, a MacFusty being chosen as a prefect was not such a big deal. And there had been a MacFusty Head Girl too, hadn’t it?

“Clearly, you have potential if Headmaster Black was not completely opposed to!” Ellory said encouragingly. It was mostly the Heads that picked prefects, but surely the headmaster would put his foot down if someone completely unsuitable was proposed. “Your desire to do well is enough of a proof for it. I am sure that you’ll do great, and if you do have any problems, then I suppose you will have me as your mentor!”

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

Miss Pendergast was right again. Clearly she had potential if Headmaster Black let her get past on the list to be prefects. Her name was pretty well recognized, it wasn't as if it was a normal name after all – if it were just written down people could link her to her paternal side of the family. The prospect of having Ellory as her mentor was quite relieving. The Head Girl seemed to have a lot of faith in her, and if she had faith, then so could Tilda. And her family was so proud of her – even if she failed they'd still love her, but the prospect of failing petrified the young Gryffindor to the core. "That's true," But then she thought of something that kind of scared her even more than the prospect of dealing with students who didn't believe in her. "...wha' about Peeves?" Her voice was tentative. "How d'you deal with 'im?"

  

[Ellory Pendergast]

Oh, Peeves. The poltergeist was one of the few things that Ellory wouldn’t really miss after she graduated. Him and potion assignments.

“You don’t, really,” Ellory replied with a smile. Trying to deal with him was just a waste of time and energy. If he put his mind to something, then he could accomplish it. “Getting the Bloody Baron to stop him often helps. But he’s the Slytherin prefects’ area of expertise, really.” She couldn’t remember ever talking to the Slytherin ghost. In fairness, he kind of unnerved her. There were ghosts with far worse death scars than him, but at least their attitude made you look past them.

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

"Oh," Tilda was slightly disheartened. She thought at least being a prefect meant you had some sort of power over him. She hated getting soaked with water in the mornings. It made her horribly late to class, and even though some teachers were quick to understand with Peeves, Tilda had looked forward to the soakless mornings. She sighed. "Well, at least there might be some hope, if we could get the Bloody Baron." she said, though she knew the Slytherin Prefects would have better luck with that than she would.

@Ellory Pendergast

  

[Ellory Pendergast]

"The Bloody Baron is probably the reason Hogwarts hasn't blown up by now," Ellory commented with a light-hearted sigh. Every time Peeves did something extremely big, the Baron was the one who put him back to his place. Nobody, not even the Headmaster, seemed to have as much power over him. Not that Black deserved the poltergeist's respect.

"Better not worry about him now, lest he thinks we crave his company and dumps a cauldron of pumpkin juice on us! I was heading to a Transfiguration club meeting, you could join me, if you'd like?"

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

Miss Pendergast had a point. The castle was still standing, that certainly should be a good sign. And Tilda didn't fancy having a vat of pumpkin juice poured on her. She made a face before laughing heartily. "I'd love to!" she replied, feeling quite grateful that the other prefect had helped her out earlier. She would be sure to ask Miss Pendergast for more advice in the coming future.