Strange Ties--Percy Jackson/Harry Potter

Chapter Twenty One

ps: short chapter sorry

Valerie

To say the next day at Hogwarts was anarchy was an understatement. Valerie woke up with a jolt, almost hitting her head with the headboard. She was sure it was Luna Lovegood's scream that woke her up. She could hear girls fighting downstairs in the common room. Before she went down she put on a hoodie and the first shoes she could find.
"I can't believe them!" One girl said. At this point, all the ravenclaw girls were huddled in a circle holding a paper in their hands.
"This is so dehumanizing!" Luna Lovegood sneered.
"What's going on?" Valerie asked, more confused than ever.
"This!" handed her the paper. It was some sort of list with the names of the girls at Hogwarts; Valerie's eyes widened when she saw the title, 'You've been ranked.' The list had every single name of the girls ranked from most attractive to least.
"We reckon the guys did this," Mandy said.
"Obviously..." She said as she scanned the list.

"I swear I will kill whoever did this!" Mandy said as she stormed out of the room, the rest of the girls following right behind her. The Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs were already outside. A bunch of copies of the list were on the floor, on the walls, and all around the hallways. Everywhere Valerie looked the list was there. Most of the girls were fighting or grabbing more copies. She even saw two girls on the floor trying to rip each other's hair out. But her heart dropped when she saw Maddison crying on the floor.

"Maddy, what's wrong?" she asked.
"I'm number 42" she sobbed between tears, "The boys... they think Im a 42!"
Before she could say anything Jenny Brown screamed, "42?! You think 42 is bad, I'm a 61!"
"Jenny piss off, you're not helping," Sadie Miller said. Valerie realized that the whole place began to seem crowded.
"I'm just saying if anyone should be crying it should be me!" Jenny argued.
"Well maybe if you were nicer you would be ranked higher"
"Shut up, you are number 55!"
"At least its higher than you!"
"Right well if it was up to me I would've put you last!"
And that was the last thing Valerie heard before Sadie punched her in the nose. She looked back at Maddison who had stopped crying.
"Never mind, now that I think about it it's not that bad" she murmured.
She said something else but Valerie couldn't hear between the chaos around her. "Why are they fighting between each other, shouldn't we be mad at the guys?"

Behind her, the doors of the main office slammed open.
"Silence!" Professor McGonagall screamed, her wand flaring balls of fire to the ceiling. In a moment the whole place went quiet. "Now can somebody tell me what is going on here?" She asked as calmly as she could.
One of the girls passed her a copy of the list. After a moment of seeing it she gave it back. "Everyone resume your schedules as normal. We will get to the bottom of this later." She assured them before she stormed off. Valerie wasn't too sure the professor actually cared, nor that she would do something about it.

The girls went back to their dorms to get ready, since most of them were still in their sleepwear. Once Valerie was done she met up with Audrey in the dining hall to get breakfast. Because of what happened in the morning, the hall was quieter than normal. The sound of forks hitting the plates and the occasional laughs coming from the Slytherin table was all that filled the room. She tried to look for Percy but he was nowhere to be found. In fact the last time she saw him was about a week ago, when he walked into Hogwarts with blood everywhere. She knew Percy wasn't a murderer, but she had to admit the evidence was beginning to pile up.

Lost in thought, she felt two figures appear on each side of her. "Who do you think wrote it?"
She didn't have to turn her head to know it was the Weasley twins. "I don't know. But you guys most definitely do"
Fred shook his head, but at the same time George nodded, which resulted in Fred kicking him under the seat. "We know nothing about everything"
Valerie rolled her eyes, "Fine don't tell me. But I will find out who wrote it, and they will regret it."
"But you shouldn't be mad. You got second place! Just below Ellie Green" George said.
"It's not about that! It's wrong. It's immature, foolish and offensive. It's treating girls like they are nothing but entertainment, there for them to enjoy or insult as they wish, and not real people with feelings. It's objectifying!"
Valerie didn't wait for them to answer, she left the dining hall determined to find out who did it. So she went to the only person she thought would tell her.

The first time she knocked on Percy's door there was no answer. Nor the second time. When she knocked for the fourth time she realized he was either gone or wanted to be left alone. Nevertheless, she tried knocking again "Percy it's Valerie I need to ask you something" she murmured.