Hey, Harry Potter fandom. It's been a while and I wanted to upload something, so I put up some old work, the beginning of what was going to be a full story. Just a little something from my original headcanon world of next gen Harry Potter that I called Stars in the Sky, if anyone remembers. Anyway, enjoy reading!

"Oh, come on now, Lucy! We're going to be late!"

Lucy turned away from the shop window and yelled back, "Coming!"

She pulled her Hufflepuff scarf tighter around her neck and, taking one last glance at the necklace on display, ran towards her friends.

Hugo grabbed her arm as she slipped on a piece of ice. She steadied herself and smiled at him. Shaking his head, he chided, "You really ought to be more careful."

"I'm just not used to all this ice," she replied, shivering.

Hugo rolled his eyes and opened a side of his jacket. She smiled gratefully and stepped closer to him, allowing him to wrap it around her. She looked over at Louis, who walked on her other side and asked, "Is it always this cold?"

"No," Louis said, "It can be warm. You should know. We've been going to Hogwarts for six years."

"Yes, but I'm not here over the summer. Is it cold then, too?" Lucy asked, drawing her black and yellow hat over her ears. She regretted wearing a bun today; her neck was freezing.

"No, not necessarily," said Hugo.

"Hey!" Roxanne greeted as she bounded up to her friends outside of Dervish and Banges, shopping bags swinging at her side.

"Where have you been?"

Louis was glaring at Roxanne. Roxanne, who was tall enough to be at eye level with him, simply smiled and stuffed her hands in her pockets. Louis didn't leave it there though.

"Why weren't you with us? These two nerds dragged me to all these bookstores all day. If you had been with me, we could have tipped the scale and gone to Spintwitches or something!"

Roxanne just shrugged and went on walking with a secretive smile on her face. Lucy was curious, but she left the matter alone.

A sudden force pushed her off of her feet. She felt her and Hugo disconnect as she hit the snowy ground. Lucy sat up slowly and gently rubbed her head. Looking up, she saw that Hugo was already on his feet. He stood in front of her, blocking her view of whatever had knocked them over.

Hugo was yelling, "What was that for?!"

A cool and haughty voice replied, "That was for being the child of a blood traitor and Mudblood."

Oh... yeah. She knew who it was. Roxanne gasped and from Lucy's seat on the ground, she watched her face turn red with anger. Huffing in frustration, Lucy pushed herself off the ground. She walked over to Hugo and stood on the tips of her toes to see over the tall boy's shoulder. He was too tall, so, instead, Lucy tried looking over Louis's shoulder. She was correct in her assumptions.

"It's bad enough that we have a halfblood son of a blood traitor in Slytherin. Now we have his sister and her filthy family roaming the halls of Hogwarts? This is just disgusting."

"Avery, you make me sick!" Louis yelled. Lucy walked around him and stood at his side.

Carson Avery's dark eyes landed on her, and he grinned sinisterly. Smiling, he laughed, "Oh, look! It's the child of a blood traitor and a Muggle!" Lucy lifted her upper lip in a disgusted snarl. Speaking slowly as if to a dog, Carson commanded, "Down, girl. Down."

"You leave her alone!" exclaimed Roxanne. She took a step toward him. Avery and his cronies took an unconscious step away from the tall, intimidating athlete. Roxanne smirked.

Trying to cover up his falter, he sneered and said, "Like I'd listen to the daughter of a blood traitor. You're all filthy! You're the spawn of blood traitors!"

Lucy leaned over and whispered in Louis's ear, "What is a blood traitor anyway?"

Louis whispered back, "Purebloods who associate with Muggles and stuff."

Avery looked at her oddly. Lucy glared at him. After a moment of silent glaring, Hugo spoke up with a sort of tired voice, "Get out of here, Avery."

Avery hadn't looked away from Lucy. She took a tiny step behind Louis's arm and Avery seemed to realize he was staring at her. He snapped back to Hugo, "You can't speak to me that way, Filth."

Instead of turning red and flustered like his dad would, Hugo coolly replied, "Get a life, Avery, and stop butting into ours."

Glaring, Avery and his friends stomped away. Louis turned to Lucy and asked, "Are you okay?"

"What?" Lucy asked, confused, "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Louis looked at the receding figure of Avery and then back at her.

"Did something happen that you aren't telling us?"

Now Hugo and Roxanne were watching her, too, just as confused as she was. "Louis, what are you talking about?"

"Stay away from Avery, okay?"

"Louis, what are you talking about?"

He repeated with more force, "Just stay away from him."

Lucy took a step back and held her hands up in defense, "Okay, okay. I'll stay away from him. Jeez."

"Let's get back to the carriages," Hugo said. They all followed him back to where the carriages usually bring them back to the castle. They rode in silence up to the castle.

"So you're telling me that you don't have dates to the Yule Ball?" Gianni Zabini looked between his two friends in disbelief.

Carson rubbed the back of his neck and answered, "Well, they are so hard to find and-"

"How did you have a date for the Halloween dance, but not for the Yule Ball?!" Gianni exclaimed, cutting him off.

"Girls are just too fickle," Marcus Travers replied, crossing his arms.

Gianni exclaimed in disbelief, "Carson, don't you have a girlfriend?!"

"Shhh!" Carson looked around warily to make sure none of the other people sitting in the Three Broomsticks heard his friend's outburst. Turning back to Gianni, he whispered, "That is just a title for our parents. She can go with whoever she wants. I don't care."

"You don't care about what?"

The three boys looked at the short-haired girl who had just taken a seat next to Gianni. She was beautiful with olive skin, dark eyes, and an upturned nose. She quirked a black eyebrow at the trio and slid her slanted eyes over each of them looking for an answer.

Carson replied, "Whether or not you have a date to the Yule Ball."

"Oh, ha, ha," the girl deadpanned, giving him a withering look, "Carson Avery, you better take me to the Yule Ball or, so help me, I will-"

"What?" Carson taunted, smirking, "You'll do what, Cerise?"

"Don't sass me, Carson," Cerise said, smiling and shaking a finger in his face, "If you had let me finish, you would know that I will cut off your nose, stuff it with Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and stick it to the end of Messua Thomas's braid."

Carson raised an eyebrow at her. She smirked as they stared in silence. Madame Rosmerta walked up to the table and asked them how they were faring.

Flashing her a charming smile, Carson replied, "I'd be faring much better if you'd share a drink with me."

Rosmerta glared at him and said, "Cheeky boy."

"You know what's cheeky-"

"Thank you, Carson!" Cerise exclaimed, cutting him off, "For that wonderful visual. No, thank you, Madame Rosmerta, we're fine." The last was directed at the waitress. Nodding to Cerise and glaring at Carson, Rosmerta walked over to the next table.

Cerise glared at Carson. He just smiled. Taking a sip of his butterbeer, he said, "That was an awfully in-depth threat you gave earlier, Reese."

"I had to get my point across," she shrugged, taking a sip out of Marcus' butterbeer straw. Marcus turned a bright red at the thought of sharing a butterbeer with a pretty girl. He looked bewildered at Cerise and then to Gianni for assistance in the foreign situation and then back to Cerise.

Rolling his eyes at her, Carson reprimanded, "Reese, you know better than to pick on Marcus. He can't handle it."

"Handle what?" Marcus asked, looking over at Carson now.

Cerise answered for him, "Flirting."

Marcus looked shocked from Cerise to Carson and then back to Cerise. She had sat back down and faced away from him a bit. Stuttering in the slightest, he echoed, "Fl-flirting?"

"Say, Marcus?" Cerise asked, "You wouldn't mind taking me to the Yule Ball, would you?"

"T-take you? To the Yule Ball?" Marcus stuttered in shock.

"Well, yes," Cerise said, "Since Carson, my boyfriend," she glared at Carson, "won't take me, it couldn't do any harm if you did."

"Uh..."

"Great! I'll tell what tie to wear when I get my dress," Cerise exclaimed, jumping up from her seat. Leaning over the table again to kiss him on the cheek, she said, "You are the very best, Marcus. Bye, boys!" She flounced out of the Three Broomsticks without another word.

The three boys stared at the door she had just exited out of in silence. Gianni and Carson looked back at Marcus. Gianni had a wicked smirk on his face.

Marcus muttered, "What just happened?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Gianni said, grinning like a shark, "You just got a date to the Yule Ball with the hottest girl in Slytherin."

Carson argued, "Cerise is not the-"

"Think about it," Gianni persisted, cutting him off.

"Okay, so maybe she is," Carson said, "but she isn't all that great."

"Sure," Gianni said, rolling his eyes. Gianni looked past Carson's head and out of the window to the jewelry shop across the street. He smiled evilly.

Carson knit his eyebrows together in confusion. He turned around to see what Gianni was looking at and saw a blonde Hufflepuff peering into the jewelry shop window. When she looked up to answer someone, Carson saw her face. It was Lucy Weasley, and where there was one Weasley, a few more were sure to follow.

Carson and Gianni grinned at each other and left the Three Broomsticks, Marcus trailing behind. They watched as Roxanne ran out of that very same jewelry store, straight past them, to join Hugo, Lucy, and Louis.

Please review, even if you have nothing to say. Maybe just a smiley face or frowny face. And I can take flames.