A/N/Disclaimer: ‘Tis I, Salienne, who hath written this chapter. Part 2 in the rather dull, not-at-all-adventurous adventures of Mediocre Mary. Tell Kirie and me what you all think!

Chapter 2

Mary woke up with everyone else at the tolling of the bells, and still groggy, she almost burrowed further into her pillow and went back to sleep. But then she remembered. She was at Hogwarts! She was a witch! And today was her first day of classes.

Grinning from ear to ear, the innocently delighted Mary sat up, eager to see what the day would bring. There had been some strange incidents the previous day, true, but she was sure that sort of thing didn’t happen all the time. It was just a bad first day. Yes, today would be better. Mum had always taught her to look on the bright side of things.

Mary dressed into her new, black robes quickly, and she tried to make conversation with the other girls in her dorm, Angela Twitter, Casey McForester, and Karen Foley, but they wanted nothing to do with her. Although they seemed like nice girls, they snubbed her entirely when she tried to make conversation and did nothing but call her a “Sue,” whatever that was, before leaving the room.

Mary had heard a wide variety of insults before, but this “Sue” thing was something new.

Somewhat put-off, she tried to put this off as just a bad first morning (They’d like her when they got to know her!), told herself things would get better, and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast with a smile on her face.

When she got there, the four tables were about half-full with chatting, laughing, and munching students. There was a wide array of almost every type of breakfast food imaginable on the platters in the middle of the tables, and the scrambled eggs and pancakes looked especially appealing to Mary, who loved to eat.

She loved to talk and make new friends, too, even if she was a bit shy.

But when she stepped into the Great Hall, a hush fell over the enormous room. And it wasn’t a good hush, either. Everyone was staring at her with… with hatred, with malice. Mary simply couldn’t understand! What had she done?

Wait! Maybe there was someone behind her! With a fresh bit of hope, she turned her head… and saw nothing. Just an empty hallway, with some students on their way to eat in the background. Chewing her bottom lip nervously, she turned back to the room, and pretending that she didn’t notice the looks and whispers and even jeers surrounding her, she made her way over to her table. Somewhat secluded but still near the others, she seated herself and began to help herself to some pancakes with maple syrup. Oh, she couldn’t wait for someone to talk to her! She loved chatting with new people and making new friends, and surely the other kids around her loved to do the same.

In the meanwhile, though, she glanced over her schedule. She had Transfiguration first with the Ravenclaws, and then History of Magic with the Gryffindors. Both sounded really interesting to Mary, who’d never learned about any of this before. She wondered if she’d do well this year. She’d never been a particularly good student, though she’d never been that bad either.

“What, planning to sneak into third year classes, Sue?” a voice said from behind her. Startled, Mary jumped in her seat and turned around to see who’d spoken. There was a somewhat tall, fairly lanky boy there with messy, jet-black hair and green eyes. He would have looked pretty nice, had it not been for the expression of complete loathing present on his face.

“I’m sorry?” Mary said, trying her best to smile and remain calm and content while her eyebrows came together in a most perplexed expression.

“You heard me,” the older boy snapped. “You’re going to try to see where your schedule and mine fit together, and then you’re going to try to switch into my classes and somehow get seated right next to me, aren’t you?”

Mary blinked, and pushed a strand of hair out of her face. It was becoming very hard to keep smiling like her mother had taught her (even if her smile was a most plain sort of smile, neither glowering nor glowing), and there was now a frown on her face. “But I don’t even know how I could do that-“

“So you admit it! You were thinking about it!”

Poor Mary shook her head. “No! I don’t know the first thing about magic! I was just going to go to my classes and see… what it was like. I swear, I wasn’t going to switch or… anything.” Mary looked down at the ground before back up at the strange boy. He wasn’t saying anything, only glaring. “A-are you in third year? You mentioned third year and I-“

“Don’t play stupid, Sue,” he snapped. “You know I’m Harry Potter and that I killed Lord Voldemort and you’re here to stop him with me after a whole bunch of angst or become my girlfriend or betray me to him or something like that! You know you are! Don’t lie!”

Mary’s eyes widened. Her Gram and Gramps had told her about this Harry Potter, but they’d done so only a little while ago. It hadn’t even occurred to her that he’d be in school with her now! But what was this strange relationship he thought she was going to have with him? She didn’t even know him! And she certainly wouldn’t be any good in trying to save anyone from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (Her grandparents had told her about him, too, although he was still so unreal in her mind that hearing his name didn’t really strike that much fear in Mary). She didn’t even know a single spell, yet! As for betraying him… she certainly wasn’t the betraying type, and was actually quite trustworthy, though she had been known to let a secret or two slip.

Around the Great Hall, silence reigned once more. All eyes were on Harry and Mary. The fact that she could gain their attention like this… it was even further proof to each and every one of them that this girl was inescapably a Mary Sue.

“I-I swear I’m just here to go to school!” she said, staring wide-eyed at Harry. She didn’t understand what he was talking about!

He looked her up and down and said, “Sure, Sue, sure,” before walking over to his table, where Ron and Hermione already sat. Applause followed this from most everywhere but the Slytherin table, where even they could not bring themselves to cheer for Harry Potter. Malfoy himself was especially torn, but in the end, his hatred for the Gryffindor seeker won out over his hatred for the “special” mudblood.

Mary was blushing furiously when she went back to her pancakes, but she just wasn’t hungry anymore. After having a few more bites of food and trying to say “Hi” to three of the Hufflepuff students who came after the Harry fiasco, she got up quietly and left the Great Hall. Hopefully, her first class, Transfiguration, would be better. Now, all she needed to do was find the classroom…

Sadly enough, it was to be a task easier said than done.