letters from a delinquent

Her brother and his girlfriend had asked for an owl home explaining how all was going as soon as possible, which Henri understood as 'whenever' really. They basically wanted to know she was alive and wasn't surrounded by squares. Not to say they didn't love her- no, her brother did care, and Zanna considered a close friend. The fact of the matter was, they were irresponsible young people who lived together. She had been a bit if a nuisance after she had been kicked out of Salem's, seeing as they had far less alone time together. They were probably to busy celebrating an empty apartment to really start to worry.

Her letter wasn't too long. It pretty much stated that she was here, settled, and excited to cause some trouble, to which they would half-heartedly suggest she not get into too much trouble. (They didn't mind, but another expulsion might mean she would never leave the apartment.) She also included the next date she would be available to come home to visit, and finished the letter with a plea for a care package of junk food and cigarettes, as well as a brief question to Zanna about her thoughts on belly rings.

Zanna plodded up the owlery steps, passing by these strange students with their thick accents. Eyes followed her, because she was recognized as one of the two new transfer students- in her opinion, she was the much cooler one, but she supposed that didn't mean much here. The school seemed overwhelmingly well behaved, which was a bit of a pity, but a relief too. It would add more to the shock factor once she started messing things up.

Once she arrived at the Owlery, she glanced around, glad she hadn't brought Gooper, her pet mouse, with her. She crossed her arms as her mouth screwed up in minor irritations- birds bugged her. "Who's up for a trip to the states?"

Which headmaster (it had to be a man) had decided a bathroom was the most appropriate place for prefect meetings anyway?

She had just finished tying the final note around the final owl's claw - it was unlikely any message would go astray within Hogwarts - when an awful, nasally voice cut through the comparative silence of the tower.

Liesl already knew who it was. The headmaster hadn't said the American Girl was a troublemaker, but he had said to "make sure she settles in" which was a special feature none of the other transfer students got.

As her own owl took off, she turned to face Henrietta.

"They're usually more amicable if you bring a bit of food," she said. "Here, owl treats. There's a shop in Hogsmeade that sells them."

She proffered her open bag of treats.

Someone came to her rescue. It seemed Henri could come to expect that while she was still considered a fresh new face at the school-castle. Most badasses hated to be helped, but Henri liked to consider herself not your average badass. She loved to exploit the uses of others.

And, frankly, she could be a bit lazy at times.

"Good ol' bribery. I would've gotten there soon enough," she responded, reaching into the bag and fishing out a few. She glanced around, warily eyeing the larger, more intense looking owls, before approaching one of the pocket-sized ones and holding out a treat. It pecked it from her hand and she moved it to the sill, beginning to tie the letter to the owl's leg. "Thanks," she responded to the girl. "I'm Henri Finch."

"Mmmm, I know who you are."

Liesl usually tried to make people feel insignificant by talking down at them. They either weren't purebloods, or weren't Slytherins or when all else failed, they weren't Dolohovs, but she knew Americans didn't think like that. Their wizarding community had been taken in by the love and freedom rhetoric along with the muggles.

Instead, she decided to try being unimpressed with everything, for a change.

"I'm Liesl Dolohov," she introduced herself. "The Head Girl. Has anyone explained to you about the prefect system yet? I expect where you're from they have class presidents or some such thing."

Henri's countenance was unchanged, but the demon inside her licked its lips with pleasure at being recognized. Maybe a glimmer of that sparkled in her dark pools of brown as they turned to really settle on the figure of this intruding rescuer. "I hadn't realized I was already so popular," Henri responded.

The girl introduced herself, seemingly proud of the title that Henri would guess was mostly arbitrary. "I'm Henrietta Finch, but I suppose you know that."

Henri knew a bit about the prefects, but hadn't really bothered to absorb the information. The girl was right about the class presidents though. "Yeah, we did. It was very democratic over there. I heard we have no say over who rules us here. See, that doesn't settle right with me. Give students the opportunity to pick the most popular - now, that's the way it should be."

Democratic, ha! Girl obviously didn't understand how proper democracies worked. Sure, they told you you had a say, but really it was all about who had the biggest pull behind the scenes. No wonder she was a - Liesl eyed Henrietta's new robes - Ravenclaw. They were all such idealists.

"Oh, don't get the wrong idea," she said. "I'm sure prefecture is just as much of a popularity contest as your presidency is. We just have to be popular with different people... which makes me wonder how awful the other candidates were for me to end up with this."

She flicked the badge on her lapel so it gleamed in the dappled light.

"But do you really think your old school would let just anyone become class president even if they were the most popular? I expect there are a lot of rules about who's allowed to enter," she probed.

"Popularity amongst the professors is more oligarchical than anything," Henri pointed out. Sure, the girl rarely applied herself in school, but she had learned a thing or two so she had at least some weight. Of course, she said this lightly - she really did not care to seriously argue the ethics of student politics with the one student with the most power to give her hell during the school year.

Her questions told Henri that she really thought the role mattered. That was where the two girls had their differences of opinion. But, hey, if everyone thought like their Head Girl, than they gave her some level of power she really never had in the first place. Henri could use all the power she could borrow.

Still, she still was a smart ass. So she couldn't help but say, "Oh they did. See, they let us pick whoever we wanted, and were completely honest about the fact that the position was really just a title." She shrugged. "Do they come right out and tell you guys, or assume you already know that?"

She'd been hoping to hit a nerve, but Henrietta seemed oblivious and Liesl's probing went unremarked. Instead, the conversation veered off in the direction of power and whether anybody had any.

"Oh, they assume we know," Liesl replied.

If Shacklebolt was right, it was tempting to just leave it at that and let Henrietta find out in her own time what prefects could and couldn't do. But there was no guarantee she'd be there to see that, and it was just too tempting.

"We get a handbook as well, of course."

The girl could banter! Hooray! Huzzah! Henri was having some fun. As the girl spoke, Henri pulled out a nail file and pushed herself onto the sink, sitting on it's edge and crossing her legs, carefully beginning to file one of her nails. "That's sweet of them, giving you guys the benefit of the doubt. Our teachers thought we were too stupid to get there on or own. Or they just cut the sh!t and told us. Who knows why they do what they do."

Henri's eyes flicked up, and she couldn't force out all of the sarcasm. Most of it was gone, but there was enough in her sincere-looking expression for a clever girl like this one to pick up on. "Oh, a handbook? I bet that makes it much more official."

Liesl met the other girl's eyes. They were of a height, which only served to make her wish she was wearing taller shoes. Shoes she'd deliberately changed just to get up to the Owlery. The stairs were often slippery and not just because of the ice.

"It officially says we're not allowed to give one-another detentions," she said with a straight face.