Wednesday 1ST September, 2021
Lucy hadn't bothered acknowledging her parents this time as the Hogwarts Express departed, choosing to ignore them smiling idiotically whilst trying to catch sight of her at one of the windows as they waved warmly, which she hadn't been stood at.
Pretty harsh, wasn't it?
In all honesty, Lucy hated her parents. Her Dad spent his life speculating about restrictions for this and that, what should be legal in wizarding Britain and hardly consenting to anything. Her Mum, Audrey, worked in a Muggle bank (being a Muggle) and seemed forever imprisoned there when she and Molly came home for holidays. Well, Lucy only came back during the summer holidays. Molly always implored her each year to join them for Christmas but in truth, Lucy wasn't interested in an all-but-jolly seasonal catch-up with her family.
Molly was her older sister by just under five years. Despite the fact that all the qualities her sister embodied made Lucy want to throw up half the time, she also couldn't stop a thin, winding stream of love slip between the icy drafts of her heart; for Molly was caring, kind, trusting and naïve. She had nurtured Lucy's bad temper ever since they were little and was the only one who could get through to Lucy in the midst of a murderous dispute.
Lucy would never admit it openly to anyone, but she missed seeing her sister around Hogwarts. For the first two years of Hogwarts she did see Molly during her older sister's Sixth and Seventh Years, rushing around with her head in books and her short, curly ginger hair untidy constantly. It came as no shock that Molly had been Sorted into Hufflepuff and certainly no surprise to anyone that Lucy was placed in Slytherin. Privately, Lucy had treasured the occasional glimpses of her sister between lessons and the warm, loving smile Molly had always welcomed her into the Great Hall with for breakfast and dinner. It was no secret the rest of the family found her hard to get on with, being conniving and aggressive to the point she wasn't able to have a normal conversation. She loathed the two cousins she had arrived at Hogwarts with, Louis and Roxanne; a mystery since they had never outrightly done anything to her to make her so hateful towards them.
In Lucy and the school population's opinion, Louis wasn't just a Hufflepuff; he was the embodiment of a 'Puff, meaning he was meek, bleak and weak. He was completely spineless, a trait Lucy hated above all things and perhaps her only saving grace. Her cousin James had bet fifteen Sickles on Lucy to be Sorted into Gryffindor in the beginning purely based on her blinding courage; however, more accurately it was her 'blinding cunning rather than genuine courage. All the same she appreciated James' untiring humour.
Roxanne was a Gryffindor, and Lucy had constantly found her wand aimed at her cousin over the course of the three years they had been attending Hogwarts. Roxanne always jumped to Louis' defence when Lucy and her friends tormented him, no matter where this bullying occurred (which baffled Lucy, since Rox seemed to appear from nowhere each time) and this meant both girls ended up in the Headmistress's office, not to mention the Hospital Wing. They got on so badly, to the point they were seated at opposite ends of the table at the Burrow whenever both attended.
Lucy was not like a Weasley; she was mean, spiteful and venomous. Worse, she was proud of it. She also wasn't the only one of her cousins to be Sorted into Slytherin.
Fred was first, which was not so much a surprise as just awkward for everyone, given his namesake, Dominique was next and quite opposite to Lucy, there wasn't a cruel bone in her body; she was simply fun-loving and playful to a true Slytherin's 'any means to an end'nature. Dom was zealous and loved an argument, too.
Lucy was third, and fourth was a person the entire family would have bet all their Galleons on to go into either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff; Hugo.
That's right. Shy, quiet Hugo was more suspected to be mild than calculating, always following in Lily's shadow and never thinking for himself. The different selection of House clearly gave him something to think about; he wasn't by any means malicious like Lucy and certainly not a high-flying social butterfly like Dom. Neither was Hugo a shady existence like Fred, living in the shadows.
Hugo Weasley was very into human nature and the speculation of it, so he was quite a curious and questioning type of Slytherin. He simply was a student of that House, though where the traits of it began and ended in him, no one knew. He was just Hugo, and had a vast mixture of friends across all Houses. He wasn't even particularly ambitious or determined. To this day Lucy couldn't guess at why he shared her House at all.
With a sharp mental shake, Lucy arrived back to reality wondering how on earth her mind had ventured first to her bitter attitude towards her parents, then to Molly and her grim relationship with Roxanne and Louis before finally travelling over to the other Slytherins' of her family. Lucy shook herself again, surprised she even spared anyone but a certain someone another thought.
Who happened to be missing, it appeared. Lucy stood up from the soft seating of the train directly next to the sliding door and pulled it open, at the same moment craning her neck out. She looked up and down the slim corridor, which had only a handful of lingering students left; mostly First Years who didn't know where to sit. Not that Lucy was going to welcome them into her compartment with arms wide-open, no sir.
Being in the twenty-first century was something of nuisance when one was also magical and had to give all technology up for the sake of education, Lucy thought irritably again as she slammed the door shut on it's runner and flopped back in her seat. She couldn't listen to her iPod, couldn't play games on her iPhone. Previous to today she had agreed with him that they would meet in this compartment as usual.
Him being, of course, one of her best friend's and partner-in-crime, Cygnus.
That would be Cygnus Malfoy, to be exact.
Who had known she would be the perfect accomplice to Scorpius' younger brother's evil antics? Lucy sat back and let her mind mull over the amusing fact that, despite his good nature, Scorpius had been ridiculed for quite some time during his First Year for crimes very much not his fault. Even the gravity given to him by his House selection, Gryffindor, still did not sway many for a long time. Now he was popular, charming and swathed in attention. Especially from the ladies.
Lucy didn't think much of Scorpius, but his younger brother by a year, Cygnus, was a different story. She and he had hit it off immediately by pulling Merlin-awful pranks on even Peeves, who was no easy target. They had had their disputes early on when new to Slytherin but now they were close friends, alongside (unfortunately) Bradley Goyle. Lucy considered him a twig-thin dimwit with troll brains, but Cygnus liked him. They were heading into their Fourth Year of Hogwarts-
-And speaking of actually heading anywhere, where was Cygnus? They had done this journey together each time except the first train ride.
Standing huffily, Lucy slid the door open once more and stepped into the corridor, scowling at the First Years' who hesitated a moment before piling into her vacant compartment in a rush. She moved along the thin space, wobbling a bit thanks to the inconsistent smoothness of the train and peering quickly into each compartment briefly. By now she would have been sat with Cygnus and Bradders (a nickname for Bradley he despised, and she continued to call him with glee) already, discussing devilish tricks to open the new term with. As she continued further up the train, their usual compartment being near the back end of the train, Lucy had the building feeling that she might not find him if he didn't want to be found. For the life of her she couldn't figure out why he would message her on social media to confirm the same time, same compartment if he wasn't going to keep to the plan; it was unusual for him. This was aggravating Lucy more and more with each Cygnus-less compartment she peeked into and often came across unwanted sights (the faces of her cousins, of course) and even an ungainly eyeful of Dominique snogging a guy in Ravenclaw robes (already?)
Fast running out of patience and cousins, Lucy was almost at the very front of the train when she heard a familiar voice, her cousin Lily's. She had a soft and almost loving voice just like Molly, as if talking too boldly would shatter the air. It sounded like she was trying and failing to talk around laughing – again very much a happy noise. Sickening, naturally. Lucy was about to pass the said compartment when another very familiar voice met her ears, stopping her dead in her tracks.
"Lily – stop laughing, I'm serious – Lily-"
Male rumbling, laughing. It was so familiar to Lucy she felt her heart constrict around the sound. It was normally always accompanied by her unkind cackle. Why would he be here, at the other end of the train? With her cousin? She wasn't sure they had even met properly before, if at all. Why-?
"I can't help it. You appear out of nowhere asking for a book I've no idea how you would know I have. Not to worry though, it's lost in my trunk at the moment but tomorrow I can give it to you at breakfast, is that alright?"
Lily's voice was so kind. It made Lucy shudder with gross over-niceness. What Lily had said made her even more suspicious of him. What book would her cousin have that she wouldn't have to lend him? There was a moment's silence where Lucy wondered if she might have imagined the whole thing-
"No!" I mean yes - yes, thank you. That would be great…" Cygnus' voice disappeared also momentarily and then suddenly the compartment door was sliding back with a clacking noise. "Umm, thanks - I mean thank you, again, Lily." Lucy watched as her best friend stepped backwards out of the compartment and closed the door, and seemingly satisfied that the occupant wasn't looking after him, continued to stare through the window for a smidgen of time before realising he wasn't alone. Cygnus jumped theatrically.
"Lucy! What in Merlin-" he began suspiciously, his usual dark imposing features settling at home on his pale, pointed face within seconds. Lucy glowered at him, rooted to the spot as she cut him off.
"I could ask you the same thing, Cygnus!" she hissed at him, brows furrowed as she took a good look at him; he was still in Muggle clothing. That is, as adventurous as she had seen Cygnus's style get; he never wore any colours other than white, grey and black. He was glaring back at her, a faint pink blush heatedly creeping onto his cheeks. As if his hand had been caught in the biscuit tub.
"It's none of your business." Cygnus brushed off smoothly as he fluidly pulled his jacket better on-to his shoulders and done the zip half-way up. He shoved past her and moved in the direction she had come without another word or backward glance. Lucy quickly glanced into the compartment; Lily was alone. At least for now, Lucy thought as the vaguely familiar voices of Lily's friends could be heard on-coming. Lucy span round and followed Cygnus past the small crowd of Third Years', ignoring Hugo amongst them as caught up with her best friend, fervently continuing where they had left off.
"I think you're hiding something," Lucy jibed at him as she pushed a nervous-looking kid out the way and practically squashed him against the wall as she carried on up the train. "Since when do you read? What is this, double lives you're leading now? If you need a book just take one of m-"
"Lucy, just let it go." Cygnus growled as he peered into the compartments as they passed. Advancing upon one, Cygnus recoiled with a sickened expression on his face which turned quickly into a sheepish grin. "Wish I was older. Maybe then your cousin would give me a look-in." he sniggered wistfully. Lucy swiped at him and without looking behind him, he avoided her easily and carried on.
"Trust me, she's not all she's cracked up to be. She's a slag, end of. Her sister is probably still a virgin." Lucy scoffed, thinking of Victoire, Dom's older sister. She had been a Ravenclaw during her Hogwarts days and in a long-term relationship with Uncle Harry's godson Teddy Lupin for as long as Lucy could remember. A disgusting vision of Dom and Cygnus entwined made Lucy want to wretch.
"Here we are…" Cygnus paused to slide a door open, and bearing upon the youngsters inside, took less than twenty seconds to empty the compartment of them. Lucy blocked their path, making their getaways even more difficult as they bumped into her and on cue, she pushed them away from her; it was up to the kid's momentum whether they fell over or fell far enough to bounce against the opposite wall. "Take a seat, Miss Weasley." Cygnus held the door for her as the last kid scurried off, and she entered.
"So how was your summer?" Cygnus trawled without interest, to which Lucy took a side-long glance at him and, ignoring his question, repeated herself.
"Why was you with Lily?" she demanded icily.
Her question was met with steely eyes and a severe line for a mouth. "Have you ever noticed how rude you come across, Lucy?" Cygnus asked unkindly, this only serving to fuel her suspicion, let alone growing anger.
"You would be surprised as me if it was the other way round," Lucy pointed out a little shrilly, and this caused Cygnus to cock his eyebrow at her in confusion, so she continued. "Imagine coming across me and Scorpius having a cosy little chat all by ourselves at the opposite end of the train from where we had agreed to meet-"
Cygnus let out a spiteful hoot of laughter. "Sorry mother, next time I'll check it's okay with you to take five minutes of my own time to-"
"-To what, exactly? Ask somebody you probably haven't met for a book? Come off it, Cygnus. I've not seen you pick up a book willingly since I've known you-"
"Perhaps a chat with my brother wouldn't go amiss on you," Cygnus surmised with a smirk, eyes glinting with humour. "He could teach you a thing or two about knowing when to quit-"
"What book?" Lucy demanded hotly.
"I beg your pardon?" Cygnus retorted, but there, she had it. Clearly he was stalling for time; you could hardly mishear two words like that in such close quarters. She knew that hesitation of his anytime, anywhere.
Lucy was beginning to have a very ugly feeling settle in the pit of her stomach and clot around her heart in a sticky, clumpy mess. The feeling was unpleasant and unnatural. Of course she was used to this bickering back and forth. Cygnus was not the sort to lie, but there was definitley something he wasn't telling her. He didn't have secrets, he wasn't really the type of person to have them.
She was his best friend. If he wasn't telling her, then it was somewhat important to him surely.
But what? All this because of a book? Lucy speculated why being a secret book-lover could be embarrassing for Cygnus and decided perhaps yes, it could be a tad bit damaging to his menacing reputation at Hogwarts. Feeling a bit lighter, Lucy decided to cut loose this silliness.
"Next time I get on this train and I can't find you, see if I don't go looking for your brother." she chuckled, and Cygnus shook his head bemusedly, a smirk playing on his mouth, his grey eyes staring ahead out of the window at nothing.
Fin.