Perfect World

Chapter 5

By the time Lula managed to escape from Isobel, it was late. She had only managed to do so when Muriel came looking for her. She had quickly used her friend's concern as a way to escape, telling Isobel in no certain terms that she would see her again. Muriel was raving with excitement when they reached their dorm room.

"Isobel MacDougal is talking to you! You! A muggle-born!" It was insulting, really, but Lula held her tongue and gritted her teeth. She knew Muriel was excited, was all. She'd never had an issue with Lula's blood status before. She knew that Muriel hadn't meant it to sound as it had.

"Yeah, I guess-" Muriel looked at her dumbfounded.

"You guess? This is monumental!" Again with the backhanded assessments.

"You know, I promised Daffy I'd meet up with her before dinner, so I'll see you later." Lula fled like a bat out of hell. Quietly slipping past the students still in the common rooms, and ran off to find Daffy. She wouldn't be able to sit with her at dinner, as the school rules required you to sit with your house, but she could talk to her about Fred and Isobel with no judgment.

Lula ran straight to the Ravenclaw commons room and stopped the first female she saw, asking them to fetch her friend. It only took a few minutes before Daffi walked with Lula down the hall, silently listening to her talk.

"What do you think?" Lula finally asked.

"Well, it's good you and the twins are working things out. I, personally, think they're still idiots, but I can't dictate who or who you don't hang out with. Plus, I agree that this whole thing was getting out of hand." Daffy had always been the more rational one of Lula's friends. "I guess we'll see at dinner, huh? Let's head down there together right now. Maybe we'll see Eveline."

So the girls walked and talked about lighter topics the rest of the way to the great hall. This time, Lula let Daffy talk. She listened to her friend recount her classes without her best friend in them and how she would have to try and remember to be civil tomorrow to the twins in Transfiguration. She had a blast in potions with the Hufflepuffs. Daffy, Lula quickly realized, was quite popular as most quidditch players were. Quidditch was much like football, not everyone could play it, and even if you didn't like the game or know the players, you couldn't really help but be swept away in all the excitement.

As part of the art club, Lula was in charge of the photography sections and took pictures for the Hogwarts yearbook. She was allowed special permission to be on the sidelines with the other team members to take photographs, permission she had to go straight to Headmaster Dumbledore to obtain. He was an odd man but allowed her to do as she pleased as he found great enthusiasm in it as well.

She had heard of schools with newspaper clubs. She had been sorely disappointed to learn there wasn't a newspaper club or even just a plain photography club at Hogwarts and had broached the idea of a newspaper club to Professor Burbage, who ran the art club with her love for writing. Professor Burbage said she never had enough people interested in a newspaper club as most students lived to read The Daily Prophet. No one else had even shown an interest in photography outside of herself. She had been the only photographer in the past three years she attended Hogwarts.

Others wrote, of course. Lula absolutely adored a first-year girl in the art club who talked about Nargles and other creatures that many called her crazy over. Lula, however, believed that if it can't be disproved, then it could exist. She had to open herself up to many things after coming to Hogwarts. The girl had learned that things she read about that people had told her were fake did indeed exist. Like Unicorns, Mermaids, and ghosts. Even if not exactly as she had read them as it had still amazed her.

Still, the thought of not having a place to publish their works was a little disheartening. So Lula tended to collect her photos into numerous photo albums sent to her by her mom. After she filled one, she sent it to her mother, who, in turn, sent her a new album and set the other one on her already overflowing bookshelf.