Author's Note: New readers may disregard this if they please but this story has been edited from the original story (Misadventures of the Hufflepuff Malfoy). Lucy and Mara are still the same lovable characters, and the story follows the same plot as before, but I felt that quite a few things needed changed, so I've spent the three month hiatus I took for this story fixing it. I hope you like the changes :)

AU where Draco Malfoy has a older sister who was sorted into Hufflepuff. Otherwise canon except for where I decided other happenings were necessary. Since I don't think I explicitly state it in this story, Lucy and Mara are fourth years right now.

Chapter 1

Lucy Malfoy skipped merrily to the Quidditch pitch, her bright blond ponytail swishing with every step. Her best friend, Mara Chastaine, having none of her skipping business, walked behind her, taking long, graceful strides to keep up with her over-exuberant friend.

"It's the first game of the year Mara, aren't you excited?"

"If Slytherin wasn't playing. They're sore losers." Herself a Slytherin, she wasn't a fan of anything that made the common room unbearable.

"Are you saying that you think Gryffindor will win?"

"With your brother as my house's seeker, yes. He'll probably spend the entire time flirting with Potter."

Lucy laughed. "He begged daddy to help him get onto the team, he'll be so disappointed if darling Draco loses his first match." She was rooting for Gryffindor, naturally.

"He's more likely to catch a Bludger than the Snitch." Mara said, looking forlornly at the stairs up to where she knew Lucy wanted to sit. "You want to sit at the top, don't you?"

"As close to the Gryffindor goal posts as possible."

"You don't even want to watch the game. You want to watch Oliver."

Mara was right, Lucy was definitely more interested in her boyfriend than the actual game. "Yeah… so? It's not that many stairs." She fiddled with the red and gold scarf she was wearing.

"If I pass out you're carrying me."

"So we can both break our necks when I fall trying?"

"Serves you right. Besides, your body will cushion my fall." Mara shrugged and started up the stairs, Lucy bounding ahead of her.

By the time they reached the top, Lucy was exhausted and Mara hadn't even broken a sweat.

"How are you not tired?" Lucy panted, collapsing into a seat as the match began.

"Because I didn't run up ten flights of stairs." Mara replied, sitting with poise beside her.

"I only ran up three."

"You are such a Hufflepuff."

"You're stating the obvious Mara." Despite her family's best efforts to bully the school into switching her to Slytherin, a badger she stayed. Not that she was complaining.

Mara gave her a look, dark irises reflecting the gray sky. Lucy didn't respond, and they watched the match for a while.

"I think that Bludger is out to get the Gryffindor seeker." Mara commented after a few moments.

Lucy glanced over to see that Harry was definitely being targeted by one of the Bludgers, despite the best efforts of the Weasley twins. "Ollie's calling a time out, they'll get it sorted out."

"Ollie. Seriously?" Mara looked at her like it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

"I think it's cute." She replied with a tinge of magenta in her cheeks, returning her gaze to the field. The players were returning to the field, and it seemed as though the twins were leaving Harry to deal with the Bludger on his own.

"See, there you go, Draco's flirting with Potter." Mara said darkly. Draco was just sitting on his broom, no doubt throwing taunts.

She leaned forward in her seat. "I think the snitch is by his ear." There was definitely something gold glinting by her brother's head, and unless he got his ears pierced recently…

"He's got a better chance than Harry, I think that Bludger just broke his arm." Mara was trying to contain her glee. Watching Bludgers hurt people was her favorite part of the game, she had even tried out to be a Beater the last couple of years. "Nope, Potter's got it." She groaned.

"Daddy will be so disappointed." Lucy giggled with glee, but her smile faded as she watched Harry fall to the ground. "Oh, I hope he's okay."

"Not after Lockhart's done with him." Mara muttered, watching her least favorite professor lean over Harry. A few minutes later he was being walked off the field, no doubt to the hospital wing with worse injuries than before. "Remind me to take out a life insurance policy on Potter, it'll be the best investment I'll ever make."

"Mara!"

"Admit it, it's a good idea."

Actually, it was a good idea, but Lucy wasn't about to admit that. Students started leaving the stands, bustling with excitement, and Lucy and Mara joined them.

"Can we go to your common room?" Mara asked as Lucy looked despondently at the stairs. "You're not allowed to complain about the stairs after insisting we sit at the top."

"I'm not complaining, I'm just – wishing there was an easier way to get to the ground."

"It's called an elevator, but wizards don't have them." Being Muggle-born, Mara was always marveling at how wizards did things the 'difficult' way. "Well, come on."

Lucy was sure that Mara had explained elevators before, but she just couldn't remember. "Is that the box that holds people and moves up and down stairs?"

"There is hope for you."

Lucy sat surrounded by plants in the Hufflepuff common room, humming as she worked on her Muggle Studies homework. Picking up a purple every flavored bean, she eyed it carefully. Grape, or eggplant? She bit it in half. Plum. This was not any way to live. She put a handful into her mouth, not noticing the colors. By her logic, the good flavors had to outweigh the bad.

She grinned. The combination was sweet.

Dipping her quill in ink, which was being held by a friendly vine, she stopped to contemplate the question, absentmindedly dropping a few more candy beans onto her tongue. She puckered as she bit down, this bunch was bitter. She took a gulp of her pumpkin juice to wash the taste from her mouth, deciding she was done with studying for the afternoon. Perhaps she would go bother Mara.

"Lumos." She whispered, holding her wand ahead of her like a torch as she made her way through the dungeons, hoping for no spiders or anything of the sort this time.

"What are you doing here?"

She turned to smile at her little brother. "Hello to you too, Draco." She would have preferred a spider.

"You didn't answer my question."

"You didn't say hello."

"Hello Lucretia."

She grinned and hugged him. "Hello baby brother."

He pulled himself out of her embrace. "What are you doing down here?"

"Looking for Mara."

"Who?"

"You know who she is."

"The annoying one with black hair?"

"You mean the awesome one with black hair?"

He gave her an irritated look, which she ignored.

"Do you know where she is?"

"Is it my job to keep tabs on your friends?"

"It is actually. You are the official person with knowledge of where my friends are."

"Wonderful."

"So where's Mara?"

"Taking a nap on her homework last I saw."

She patted his head. "Good boy. Now was that so hard?"

"Excruciating. I like to imagine my sister keeps better company, but you keep disappointing me."

"Crabbe and Goyle aren't exactly winners either, honey." She could never understand why someone as intelligent as her brother ran around with such a thickheaded crowd.

He gave her a signature glare. "I could tell father about you running around with Mudbloods."

"Daddy knows, sweetheart. But I bet he doesn't know about Potter grabbing the snitch when it was right beside you. He'll be so disappointed." Lucy surprised herself with how nasty she could get sometimes. She decided that she needed to tone it down as bested, her brother stormed away.

"Maaarrrrrrraaaaaaa." She whispered into her friend's ear.

Mara bolted awake, parchment fluttering from her face to the ground.

"Draco –" Lucy read from her friend's cheek, the ink had transferred from the parchment. Mara's hand flew up to cover it before she could finish reading.

"My brother is a troll you know." Lucy said, raising her wand to her friend's face. "Move your hand."

Mara complied.

"Scourgify." The ink disappeared, leaving Mara's skin clear.

"I'm blackmailing him." Mara defended, checking her cheek in a mirror.

"What are you trying to get him to do?"

"I haven't fully decided on my demands."

"What did you catch him doing?"

"Lots of things. And I have photographs."

"I'm sure it's nothing as bad as I've seen at home."

"Like what?"

"Just ordinary Malfoy behavior." She rolled her eyes.

"I'm jealous."

"Of my blackmail material?"

"Of your family. You're really lucky, you know."

"Oh yes, the great Malfoy family. You can take my place anytime you want."

"Can I?"

"I'm sure Mum would prefer any Slytherin to her Hufflepuff daughter."

Mara offered her a chocolate frog.

"Allergic, remember?"

"Well how else am I going to take your place?"

"I was kidding."

"Tease."

"Let's go do something." Lucy changed the subject.

Mara looked around at the mess around her. "As soon as I finish my potions homework."

"How much do you have left?"

"What's a Gryffindor doing in here?" Lucy felt a hand on the back of her neck, gripping at her – Oliver's – scarf.

"I'm a Hufflepuff actually." She said, pulling away and turning to face him.

"Get out."

"She's with me." Mara said, pulling off the angry Malfoy stare better than Lucy ever could.

He was unfazed. "She needs to leave."

"I'm not hurting anything."

"You're not a Slytherin."

"I'm a Malfoy though." Her family name was useful, on occasion.

His whole demeanor changed. "My apologies miss."

"You better apologize." Mara spat.

The brute clenched his fists but didn't retaliate. "I had no idea."

"Perhaps you should be a little more polite then?" Mara growled. Sometimes Lucy thought she'd rather face a rabid werewolf than an angry Mara.

"I'll try." Clenching his teeth, he walked away.

"My housemates are idiots." Mara said, looking down at her book.

"Just … most of them. So what assignment are you working on?"

"It's an essay comparing the pros and cons of adding an extra eel spleen to the recipe for Champion's Cross."

"Oh I remember that essay! Adding the extra spleen makes the potion more potent, but increases the risk of brain damage. I ended up writing in favor of removing the spleens from the recipe altogether, substituting pickled pixie heartstrings and -" She wavered under the force of Mara's glare. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm terrible at Charms."

"And Muggle studies." Mara loved to poke fun at how clueless she was in that class.

"And History of Magic. We're both good at Herbology though."

"I do have a soft spot for deadly plants." Mara replied. She was still upset over the confiscation of her Devil's Snare seedlings last year. "But anyway, do you think Snape remembers you writing that essay?"

"I'm sure, but you're a Slytherin, so I'm sure you could get away with it."

"I could turn in a page full of scribbles and still do better than any Gryffindor." Sadly, she was right.

I hope you enjoyed! Please be sure to review and tell me what you think! :)

-Zen