Youth Can Be So Cruel

Meegan flipped idly through her Defense Against the Dark Arts book. They were starting a new subject this week, one that Professor Snape seemed to be... excited about, if Professor Snape could ever be described as excited. He seemed less severe, though Meegan suspected it was from the aftermath of the Professor Lupin mess a few years back. Meegan agreed with Snape's methods--werewolves were filthy half-breeds, and had no excuse to be there, teaching at Hogwarts.

He had given the class a few minutes to read over the section in the book, but Meegan did not really feel like reading it, so she did not. Instead, she idly flipped through the book. She knew that Snape would kill any other student for it, but she was one of his favorites, and he rarely punished her for anything.

At the end of the time, Snape stalked to the front of the room, staring menacingly at the students.

"Time to test your reading skills," he said, the edge of his mouth curving up into a smirk. "I'm going to call on one student at a time. I am going to ask you a question from the reading. If you can correctly answer the question, you pass. If not..." he paused for dramatic effect, "five points are deducted from your house."

Lyall sat in the back of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, book on her desk and opened to the proper page, as had been assigned to the class, not that she really needed it to be open. The section was over werewolves. If there was a thing she didn't know about them, Lyall would be surprised. Seeing as she had transformed into one every full moon since she was 9, there shouldn't be a thing she didn't know.

Despite her being in his house, Snape had a particular dislike for Lyall, most likely because of his prejudice against werewolves. It wasn't even her fault, and she oftentimes found herself angry with the man.

She spent her time, while other students were reading from their books, observing them, looking at their faces for reactions to the information they were giong over. Most of them had their eyebrows furrowed together and frowning.

Lyall sighed to herself as Snape called the reading to a close and announced that he was going quiz people one by one on what they read. She had an odd feeling that he would ask her a difficult question, just because he would probably expect her to know the material forward and backward, and because Snape just wasn't a fair person.

Meegan watched the rest of the kids in her class squirm, knowing that they did not stand a chance. Snape terrorized the ones who squirm. Meegan almost thought herself like Snape in that way--both of them were easily able to pick up on the underdogs, the people who could be manipulated the easiest. Maybe that was why Snape liked her so much.

She watched him pick on a few of the Gryffindors in the class, asking them the hardest questions he could come up with. The little ones went first, the ones who he thought looked weak and vulnerable. He scared them to death, so the rest of the class would be terrified. It was a tactic he frequently used, which was quite effective.

Meegan's question came and went. It was a really easy question, something everyone knew, and she answered it correctly. Snape nodded, before moving on to one of the Slytherin girls sitting in the back of the room.

"What are all the qualities that differ between a werewolf and an animagus?" he asked. It was not a hard question, but it was difficult to get all of the reasons, since there were quite a few of them.

Lyall listened through the questions, frowning slightly. Snape was being somewhat ruthless with them. She frowned when it came to her turn. She wasn't really in the mood to answer any ridiculous question.

Leaning her chin on her hand and looking rather bored she prattled off her answer. "The main difference is that werewolves don't get a choice in changing and animagi pick when they change. Another difference is that a werewolf is only an animal once a month and animagus can be an animal any time, since they do not require a full moon to change. A third difference is that werewolves can turn other people into werewolves if they bite them. With an animagus, if you get bitten by one, nothing happens except you now have a bite mark on your skin. Anything I'm missing professor?"

Meegan watched as the girl answered, her voice blase and unconcerned, bordering on bored. She answered the question quite completely, Meegan noted, and matter-of-factly. A bit too much, actually. She did not cover the physical differences, but those were not things that Snape had asked for. If it were a Gryffindor, he would count it all wrong, but he would not take points from his own house.

Snape grimaced. "Your answer is technically correct, though not as complete as I would have liked. However, I suppose you pass." He said it as if he was giving her some great gift, and Meegan smirked. That was sure to make the girl mad, since she seemed to act like she knew quite a bit about the subject. That might serve to deflate her a bit, she supposed. The grimace on her face was oddly satisfying to Meegan. Watching Snape was like watching a master at work. Oddly satisfying, but a bit like watching a train wreck. Snape was not the train, though.

Snape moved on to some older Gryffindors, and Meegan zoned back out again. The class was almost over, and she already answered anyway.

Lyall fought the need to frown at Snape, and before he had the chance to move on to more students said, "Well, professor, it's was as complete as an answer could be to the way you worded the question. You asked for the qualities, not the traits. Had you wanted physical characteristics you would have said 'the differences between a werewolf and a wolf animagus', but you did not."

Then she shrugged and leaned back in her chair, unable to help the small feeling of smugness that washed over her. It wasn't often that she had a comeback like that for one of Snape's comments. And there was basically no way he could deny she was right either.

The girl did not seem to be willing to let the issue go. Meegan was almost eager to see Snape's response to her nit-picky argument, based on word choice. However, to her surprise, he let it go, probably to save Slytherin some house points, and because it would be more fun to terrorize little Gryffindors who would not fight back.

Meegan looked at the girl, watching the expression on her face. It was smug, that was for sure, but it was more subdued, as if her victory was important to her for more reasons than she was letting on. Meegan's eyes narrowed as she took in the rest of her stance--she was leaned back in her chair, but she was not completely relaxed, some tension remaining. She seemed happy, but guarded.

What was that girl hiding? Meegan had always been a nosy child, likely to read too far into things, but managing to gain something from treading where she did not belong. She was going to fall into that pattern once again, hoping to gain something from it.

After all, everyone had secrets. All it took was that knowledge, and you had leverage.

Lyall lounged about for the remainder of the class, vaguely listen to the other students answer Snape's questions, a few Gryffindors stuttering under his gaze as he asked them. They were mostly all correct answers, even some of the ones Snape counted wrong, just because he wanted to be a git. Ly was thankful at times that she was in his house, or she had a feeling her house would be drowning in points loses.

When the bell finally rang to end the class, Ly couldn't have been more relieved. As much as she loved the subject, she couldn't stand the teacher this year. And that was nearly an understatement. She had a feeling Snape disliked her more than his supposed dislike of Harry Potter.

She walked silently through the throng of other fifth years as they chatted with their friends in the passing time.

Class ended, and the girl slipped away before Meegan could really do anything, to her disappointment. She would have to do her own digging around, then, it seemed.

And digging around, she did. She figured out the girl's name easily, since numerous people recognized the face. However, no one really seemed to know a lot about her, besides which classes she was in, which did not really help Meegan any, as they were mostly the required classes. The thing that really caught Meegan's attention, though, was the lack of people who were willing to call her their "friend." Some people did not know she existed, while others labeled her only an "acquaintance" or said they "just knew her."

To Meegan, this was a flashing arrow that she had hit the jackpot.

This was a girl she could handle. Yes, she did not take crap from Snape, but Snape had let her off easy on that one. Meegan was not going to give up until she saw her groveling on the ground before her.

This was going to be fun.

It was around dinner time, so Lyall made her way down the stairs to where the Great Hall was located. A lot of students were lingering around outside the doors, waiting for friends they didn't have classes with, or talking with friends they had walked there with, just not ready to eat yet.

Ly walked passed all of them and went inside, noticing there were a fair few students inside as well. She scanned her eyes along the Slytherin table, looking for an empty place to sit. She found one near the end just passed a group of first years. Lyall sat her bag on the seat next to her to discourage people from joining her. But it left the seat on her left open anyway, since she didn't have a bag to sit there.

She set her head on her hand, elbow rested on the table as she looked for something tasty to eat. She was a very picky eater.

When Meegan went to the Great Hall, the perfect opportunity to do some personal observation and research presented itself.

Lyall, the girl from earlier, was sitting all alone at the Slytherin table, slightly removed from a group of first years. She had her back on the seat to one side of her, but the seat on the other was completely open. Meegan smiled at the opportunity to do some snooping about, and slowly walked over to the left side of Lyall. She asked quietly if she could sit there, but rudely plopped down before the girl could respond. Meegan was so used to people saying yes to her that it was pretty much assumed, in her mind.

Meegan watched Lyall for a few minutes before finally saying something to her. "So, you're Lyall, right? I'm Meegan, and I get the feeling we are going to get to know each other very, very well." She put a positive spin on the words, making them sound friendly and enthusiastic, but there was still a bit of a cruel impertinence in her eyes which showed that she was up to no good.

Lyall looked over at the girl that had taken the empty seat next to her, facial expression displaying her disdain at having company. Then she turned away again, ignoring anything the girl did or said. If she wanted to talk to someone, she would talk to them. If they started the conversation with her, then it was in her right not to respond to them.

She continued eating, turning to her bag and reaching inside for a book she'd been reading for a while now. It made people easy to ignore if your mind was concentrated on something else. Lyall hoped the other girl would go away soon, but she hadn't yet.

The girl, Lyall, ignored her. The feigned smile slowly started to slip from Meegan's face. Not only did she hate being ignored, but Lyall clearly did not have any other friends who she could be falling back on. Shouldn't this girl be looking to make friends, and not giving the cold shoulder to the one girl who bothered to try and talk to her? Did she have some sort of social disease? If so, it would make Meegan's job that much easier. She only had to make Lyall see that, and oh how much fun she could have. Meegan tried to keep her grin inside her, but did not care if it slipped out. The girl did not seem to care that she was there, why would it matter?

"You know, I'm just trying to be friendly." The girl still ignored her, and Meegan hit her breaking point. She grabbed the girl's shoulder firmly, hoping to get her attention. "I don't take kindly to being ignored," she said, her tone still friendly, but venom lurking in her words. "Who exactly do you think you are?"

Lyall turned rather sharply when the girl grabbed her shoulder. "What do you want?" she said, voice low and moderately angry as she closed her book and set it on the table in front of her. "Because in case you haven't noticed, I'd rather spend my freetime in peace. Not being bothered by some person who obviously has no concern for anyone but herself."

Then she turned away again, picking her book back up, still hoping the girl would leave. Ly thought that it was obvious, now, that she wasn't welcome to be sitting where she was sitting and that Lyall would continue to ignore her, at least until her temper got the best of her like it did the moment before.

"What do you want?" Lyall said, finally reacting to Meegan. "Because in case you haven't noticed, I'd rather spend my freetime in peace. Not being bothered by some person who obviously has no concern for anyone but herself."

Meegan smiled to herself. She had finally gotten a reaction from the girl. That was all she really needed. That small reaction was the start of something big. First of all, Meegan did not particularly like being snapped at. Second of all, now that Meegan knew she could get a reaction from the girl, she was going to work hard to get another one.

Meegan hoped to keep her talking, but Lyall turned around, returning to her book and to giving Meegs the cold shoulder. This only served to annoy Meegan even more, and when the seat across from Lyall was open, she slunk over and sat down. She did the worst possible thing imaginable in the situation--which served her purposes perfectly. She grabbed Lyall's book, slamming it shut.

"I hope you remembered your page. Now, where were we? Oh yes, that's right. I really wish you would stop trying to ignore me. It really, really annoys me, actually. Neither of us wants for me to be annoyed with you, dear." Her tone was syrupy sweet, but with an edge. Dear was not a term of endearment for her, taking on almost a condescending tone. She did not like when people tried to play around with her. She liked to get her way.

Lyall was just getting to her favorite part in the book -she'd read it before- when suddenly it was yanked out of her hands. She looked up from where her eyes had remained on the table for a short second, glaring at the girl who had relocated in front of her. Ly bit back a growl, since that would only be counted as a reaction, and that was honestly the last thing she wanted to have happen. If she reacted more than she had already had then this girl would never go away and leave her alone.

"I hope you remembered your page. Now, where were we? Oh yes, that's right. I really wish you would stop trying to ignore me. It really, really annoys me, actually. Neither of us wants for me to be annoyed with you, dear," the girl said, tone faking pleasant.

Lyall tried not to say anything to that, she really did, but she couldn't help herself. "Would you like to know something?" she asked, tone neutral, not betraying her own annoyance. "I can't find myself to care, even just a little bit, if you get annoyed. You make it sound like I should be afraid or worried, when I don't actually give a damn. You couldn't do anything to me, even if you were upset at me, so why should I be worried? I have no friends you can turn against me, I don't care if I ever get any. I don't care about my grades, so you can't turn teachers against me, either. You can't do anything. So go ahead and be annoyed all you like."

Then, as calmly as she could, Lyall grabbed back her book and picked her bag up from its chair, standing as she did so. "Have a nice day," she said in a fake cheerfulness before she turned to walk out of the hall.

Lyall's tone was even as she snarkily responded to Meegan's threats, but Meegan did not care. She may not have gotten a visible reaction, but she could tell from the set of her face that she was more than annoyed. She was just very good at containing herself, Meegan noted--that might be something valuable to know for the future. Lyall stood up and walked away, but Meegan did not really mind. She got what she had come for. She had the chance to size up Lyall, which was all she really wanted.

Lyall seemed like an idea candidate for Meegan's usual treatment. She had no friends, none of the teachers definitely on her side, and absolutely everything to lose, whether she knew it or not. Meegan had noticed from watching that the people who seemed to care the least were the people who relied on single things the most. All Meegan had to do was figure out what that one thing was. It would be easy, really. She'd just do some minor surveillance, since Lyall did not have any friends to squeeze the information out of. It would be easy--way too easy.

She just had to flush out Lyall's biggest secret.

Everybody had one.

Meegan smiled to herself in anticipation.

Lyall spent the rest of her day still feeling annoyed. Her already short tolerance for idiots was expended and she found herself growing frustrated at her classmates as they sat around doing their homework that night, whining over how hard something was, when it was in fact simple and just a matter of applying some brainpower now and then for it.

She left the crowded common room and headed up to the dorms. She fell back on her bed, looking out the window, since the dorms were the one bit of the Slytherin common room that wasn't under the lake and they could actually see outside, or at least the older years could, not fourth and under.

Although, while looking outside Lyall frowned. The full moon was coming up soon. That much was pretty obvious from the moon was nearly full now. She sighed to herself. Full moons were the worst time ever.

Meegan started off where she always started off her investigations. Some would consider what she was about to do creepy, but Meegan never really had any qualms against it. She was always a morally gray kind of person--to her, nothing short of murder was really wrong, and she had absolutely no problem with invading other people's privacy and personal space.

Thus, she was going to snoop around in her room.

It was easy to figure out which room was hers--all she had to do was ask around a bit, and since they were both Slytherin girls, it was a piece of cake to get in and out without arousing much suspicion. The fact that it was night, when everyone (including Lyall) was asleep helped a lot with secrecy. Some people would have problems with her sneaking around after dark, but it never bothered Meegan.

However, her usually foolproof plan failed her. There was nothing there that really made her suspicious. There were some notes on werewolves which had some highlighting in odd spots, but it was nothing that gave Meegan clues about any sort of secret Lyall might have had.

Meegan would really have to buckle down on this one and do her proper research.

The next day after classes were over Lyall resigned herself to go and get her Wolfsbane set up and all that other stuff, as the full moon was very very soon, and it had to be done beforehand, or things would get messy, and then everything would be screwed to hell and back. So after classes she made her way down to the potions classroom.

Meegan was getting frustrated.

Lyall never talked to anyone. She had no friends, and it was nearly impossible to get any information about her. It was almost like she was not really there, less important than the ghosts. It was clear, however, that that was the way that Lyall wanted it. Everyone seemed to be happy with the arrangement but Meegan, although this lack of human contact was the thing that motivated her to pursue Lyall so avidly. She was like a shark--once she smelled blood, got a whiff of a potential weakness, she was obsessed.

Thus, when Lyall left her room after classes, she was stunned. Lyall rarely went out, and this might be then perfect chance to figure something out.

So, she did something even creepier than searching Lyall's room.

She began to follow her.

It was something she was very good at--she had had plenty of practice, certainly.

Lyall walked down the corridor to the classroom, where the door was already slightly ajar, she pushed it open more and walked in the room, noting that Professor Slughorn was at the front of the room. She walked up to him, biting her lip just a little. This never got less awkward, no matter how many times it happened. It had been just as awkward with Snape.

"Erm....professor," she said to get his attention. "The full moon is soon so I was wondering about the er..." Ly stopped for a moment, paranoid that she'd be overheard as she usually was paranoid. "About the um...Wolfsbane potion..."

Slughorn looked at her and said, "Ah, yes. It will be ready by tomorrow, Miss Damen. No need to worry about it at all."

She nodded at him, with a faked smile. "Right, thanks, professor." Then she turned to leave the room, having handled what she had set out to handle.

Meegs followed Lyall. It was odd--she seemed to be staying in the dungeons, headed toward the potions room. Meegan had head that Lyall was about average in potions, so clearly she would not need tutoring, or remedial potions, especially with Slughorn as the new potions teacher. He was much easier on the students than Snape ever was.

Meegan was careful to keep a sizable distance between her and Lyall, so that she did not get caught. Lyall looked as if she was doing something suspicious, the look on her face more and more awkward as she got closer to her destination.

"Erm....professor, the full moon is soon so I was wondering about the er..." Meegan froze, everything starting to fall together. "About the um...Wolfsbane potion..."

The rest of the conversation was completely lost on Meegan. She got what she needed. She carefully moved so that she would not be seen as Lyall rushed out.

Lyall was a werewolf. That was her secret. That was why she did not have any friends.

Meegs grinned, a malicious anticipation that would make anyone's blood run cold visible in her expression.

Lyall made her way back to the common room almost right away. She had nothing better to do and wandering the halls would only serve to make her look suspicious. Plus, she had some homework she had just remembered that she needed to take care of before the next day.

Meegan had the information now, and she was never very patient. However, she managed to convince herself to sit on it a while before revealing her hand. It seemed silly to do otherwise--if she revealed to Lyall right away that she knew she was a werewolf, what did she have to gain from it? Also, it was really close to the full moon, and Meegan, for some odd reason, felt that it would be better to wait until that was over before doing anything she couldn't take back.

Meegs was a huntress, moving slowly and deliberately above all else, and she did not want to rush this. She felt that this would be one of the more entertaining cases--she had everything she needed, except for a goal. She needed to figure out what she was going to get out of this. It seemed to be a special case, and making Lyall miserable did not seem like enough when she had this caliber of life-changing information. There was so much she could do with this, so many things she could use this as blackmail for. It hardly seemed right to waste such good material.

Once Lyall was gone, she ambled back to the common room, pondering this predicament.