Chapter Two: Slug Club

Lucy felt her stomach lurch as the car took an unnaturally tight turn causing her to crash into Ollie who was turning a shade of bright green that matched his eyes. He leaned on Lucy as the car made another turn, Grimalkin's paw reaching out of the carrier to claw his jacket. Lucy in turn found herself on Molly's shoulder, eyeballing Molly's owl Socrates who was glowering at her from his cage with his large dark eyes.

"Are we almost there?" Molly asked, looking at Ollie nervously, "I think Ollie's gonna puke."

There was a groan from Ollie who had now managed to open the window and hang his head out like a dog.

"Just another couple of minutes, hang in there Ollie." Audrey said from the front passenger seat. "If you're going to puke don't do it in the car."

He groaned again in response as Grimalkin turned his attention to Socrates who gave a hoot of indigence as Grimalkin's paw reached through the bars of his cage. Lucy reached over to rub Ollie's back like her mum did when she and Molly were not feeling well. It did not seem to have the same effect as Ollie just brought his knees to his chest and mumbled Quidditch rankings under his breath as a mantra.

Another sharp turn and the car stopped suddenly in front of Kings Cross station. Ollie shot out of the car like her had been shot out of a cannon and fell to his knees on the sidewalk shaking and trying to collect himself. Lucy could understand this odd behavior in a logical way, Ollie had never ridden in a car before. Lucy helped him to his feet after he had collected himself. The driver shook his head and loaded the trunks onto the carts he had gotten from the entrance, tipped his hat at her mum and climbed back into the car to drive away.

"This way children, we have twenty minutes to get you situated." Audrey called waving her daughters and Ollie after her as she walked into the station. Molly rushed to keep pace with her mum leaving Ollie and Lucy alone to talk.

"Remind me, what else did you sign up for besides Care of Magical Creatures?" Ollie asked, sticking a finger in Grimalkin's carrier as the cat licked his fingers as a sign of affection.

"I signed up for Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies."

"How many of those classes did you sign up for to please family members?" Ollie asked coyly.

"I thought Muggle Studies would make mum and Grandfather happy, Creatures was something I wanted to take, Ancient Runes would be easy, and Dad recommended Arithmancy. After fifth year we'll be dropping classes, so it'll only be kind of rough for a couple of years. Why would you ask that?"

Ollie shrugged, "You've always been a bit stiff with your cousins around. Like you're waiting for an opening to do something they never did."

Lucy snorted in an unladylike fashion. She liked to eavesdrop on family members; it was not a big deal if they all happened to be discussing personal successes at the time. Victoire had gotten all O's and two E's on her N.E.W.T.s. All O's except for one E on her O.W.L.s two years ago. Lucy knew she could do better than that. She intended to. "What did you sign up for this year?"

"Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. I almost took Divination, but…"

"I know what you're saying. I don't put much stock in fortune telling." The memory of Nicodemus Singleir telling her fortune a year ago flooded her mind. It was not really fortune telling, he was mostly speculating her personality by her outward appearances and her by the wood of her wand. Except when he read her palm, but that was normal fortune tellers and not, to Lucy's limited knowledge of the subject, very accurate.

They arrived at the wall separating platforms nine and ten. Audrey motioned Molly through first then sent Lucy and Ollie after her before following them through herself.

The platform was abuzz with activity as it always was on September first. Lucy saw Dominique adjusting her Captain's badge and talking with the other members of last year's Quidditch team. Dominique had gone through some radical physical changes over the summer after Victoire had began working for Gringotts a few weeks after she received her N.E.W.T.s. Dominique had cut her long strawberry blonde hair short and close to her skull in a boy cut. She had done it behind her parents back and unveiled it at the Burrow over dinner one evening and the blow up that followed was amazing. Aunt Fleur and Dominique began yelling in French at such a rapid pace that Louis stopped translating for his dad a few minutes in and promptly left the room to go hide somewhere until it was time to leave while Uncle Bill tried to calm them both down and get them both to start speaking English so he could understand them better. He ultimately failed in this goal and the rest of the evening was unusually quiet.

Ollie looked at Dominique and her Quidditch teammates for a moment with a faraway expression on his face. Lucy followed his gaze and decided he was thinking about Quidditch before grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the compartments so they could unload their things before the train left. Lucy and Ollie found Audrey and Molly loading Molly's trunk into a compartment. Audrey was stacking everything neatly with a flick of her wand. She observed the other two children with a smile. "Do you two want some help with those?"

They nodded and Audrey piled the trunks neatly with a smooth swish and flick of her wand. Each movement had a purpose and none was wasted. Gramps said her had taught her mum how to duel, and it showed with each confident flick and slash of her wand. Lucy wanted to be that graceful with her own wandwork someday. In that moment, she realized she wanted to learn how to duel. She would have to ask Gramps about teaching her something over break.

Until then, there may be books in the library to quench her interest.

Lucy was caught off guard as her mum swooped down to kiss her on the cheek and pull her into a warm hug. "Please, stay out of trouble this year. I'm not sure how much longer I can talk your father out of homeschooling you if you keep getting into life threatening situations." Lucy chuckled nervously. She never meant to risk her life at all. She picked up Grimalkin's carrier and attempted to appease her spoiled cat.

Audrey turned her attention to Molly kissing her on the cheek and pulling her into a hug as well. "Enjoy your classes this year alright?" Molly nodded and said her goodbye before jumping onto the train.

Ollie looked at Lucy's mum with a wide smile and a glimmer in his eye, "So do I get a hug to?"

"Yes you do," Ollie's grin widened as Audrey hugged him tightly and kissed his forehead. "Behave, stay out of trouble and it was a pleasure having you stay with us."

"Thank you for having me over. I had a wonderful time." He let Lucy step onto the train first and followed behind her. Lucy, Molly and Ollie waved at Audrey as the train began to move away from the platform and towards Lucy's third year of school.

The crowd began to disperse to find empty compartments and Molly bid Ollie and Lucy goodbye as she went to the prefects' carriage to get her patrol schedule. Ollie and Lucy began the long walk to look for Lute and Aubrey so they could all get a compartment together. They had not seen Aubrey all summer and were eager to catch up with him.

The thin dark haired figure saw them and broke into a jog and stopped before they crashed into each other and then flung her arms around their necks. It was Lute. "Aubrey snagged a compartment at the other end of the train, I figured I'd better find you guys or you might never find us."

"Hello to you too Lute." Lucy mumbled as Lute led them down the train. They walked and talked for about five minutes before a familiar voice caught their attention.

"Hey in here!" A voice called from the compartment they had just walked past, causing Lucy to walk quickly into the compartment to take one of the empty seats with Ollie and Lute following behind her.

The boy who had claimed the compartment for them suddenly found himself being hugged and greeted warmly.

Aubrey Addison was a small, shy twelve year old with a vicious appetite for reading that rivaled Lucy's own. His slightly too large robes seemed to swallow his tiny frame, combined with his large doe eyes gave the impression of being helpless and younger than he actually was. Aubrey's friends knew that both of those assumptions were not the case. Aubrey was gutsy, intelligent and loyal. They valued him and the companionship he offered.

The small boy offered a warm bright smile and promptly closed the book he had been reading to focus his attention to his friends. He looked very excited about something and kept playing with the clasp of his bag, appearing to be repressing the impulse to bounce up and down like an excited child.

"I have a surprise!"

Lucy thought she had a vague idea what the surprise was already but held her tongue so Aubrey could have his moment.

"I think I know what it is, but I have no idea what it looks like, so it's still a surprise." Lute crossed her legs primly as she sat down and straightened her skirt as Lucy sat down next to her and Ollie took the empty seat next to Aubrey and tried to subtly remove the bag from Aubrey's possession to he could take a peek at the surprise inside. Aubrey was far too clever for Ollie's attempts and moved the bag to his other side and clutched it tightly in a white knuckled grip and a mischievous smile.

"I did some thinking, and I think the whole point of being a secret organization, is to not to be recognized as a member of said secret organization. So, instead of the Grim itself, I went ahead and had my cousin make these." Aubrey finally reached into his bag and pulled out a small dark piece of metal and held it out in the open palm of his hand. The other three leaned forward for a better look.

It was a small piece of dark grey metal that bore a strong resemblance to a very fluffy cat in a sitting position with its paws crossed delicately in front of it. The thing that caught Lucy's attention to the piece was the detailing. Especially the big green eyes that seemed disturbingly lifelike, and eerily like her own Grimalkin's.

"Aubrey, these are great." Ollie spoke first as Aubrey handed it to him for a better look and pulled two more out of his bag for Lute and Lucy.

"It looks just like Grimalkin," Lucy said as she showed it to Grimalkin for his approval. "What do you think precious?"

Grimalkin opened and eye and made a noise of approval.

"Some secret organization we are, four kids and cat." Lute stated as she pinned the cat badge to her cloak. "I was always under the impression that secret organizations fought some type of evil. So what kind of evil are we fighting? What is our primary objective?"

There was a pregnant pause inside the compartment at Lute's observation. It was broken by Lucy who had been considering this very question most of the summer. It was a simple answer; at least it seemed such in her mind.

"Easy, we protect Albus."

The compartment remained silent, before Ollie broke the silence with a resounding, "What?"

"There are people after Albus; they think he has a great destiny remember? I don't think Sullivan can protect Albus and James on his own. We'll just keep an eye out for anything suspicious and dangerous to him and anyone else. I'm not asking you to stalk my cousins that would be creepy, just keep an eye open for anything weird."

"So we are stalking your cousins." Lute smiled widely, as Lucy shifted uncomfortably suddenly realizing that that was exactly how it sounded out loud.

"Well," Lucy shrugged as her face and ears turned a bright pink color as she looked at the ceiling. "It's not actually stalking per say, we all share most, if not all, of our classes with them."

"Lu, I was joking."

Lucy's face began to turn back to its natural pale shade that bore an uncanny resemblance to paper. "Right, I knew that."

As her friends exchanged knowing grins there was a knock on the compartment door, before it slid open to reveal a second year. "Is there a Lucy Weasley in this compartment?"

"Right here," Lucy held her hand out to the messenger who immediately deposited a parchment scroll in her hands.

"Professor Slughorn wanted me to give this to you." The boy said nervously before scampering out of the compartment and closing the door behind him.

There was a great commotion contained within a tiny space as Lucy's friends crowded around her to read the parchment.

"Someone's going to Slug Club," Ollie sang as he ruffled Lucy's hair affectionately.


Lucy double checked the scroll to be sure she was in the right compartment before sliding the door open slowly and peering through the crack. Professor Slughorn looked up from where he was attempting to engage a blond boy in conversation. The boy looked like he had no idea why he was here and was trying quite hard to be sociable and suppress the obvious urge to run far away from Professor Slughorn.

Slughorn finally turned to find Lucy peering shyly through the crack in the compartment door and broke into a wide smile and motioned her inside. "Ah, Lucy please have a seat."

The thought of leaving excusing herself and going back to her own compartment were very strong, but she fought through the urge and stepped inside. Her Uncle Harry had called Slughorn a collector; she had nothing to fear from collectors.

"Good afternoon Professor," Lucy said as she took a quick look around the mostly empty compartment. There were two boys who had already arrived.

The tall blond boy sitting by the window was a boy in Lucy's year named Ian Fairbairn. He looked at Lucy and smiled in an awkward attempt at politeness before turning his attention to the fast moving world on the other side of the glass. He seemed to want out of the compartment one way or another. Lucy took the empty seat next to him, if Ian found a way out that did not end in insulting Slughorn she would gladly follow suit.

Ian looked at Lucy out of the corner of his eye while Lucy looked at the other people in the compartment.

Another boy looked about seventeen and seemed very comfortable in this setting, like he expected to be invited in since he got on the train. He was a large broad shouldered fellow with an aesthetically pleasing face with a cocky, crooked smile and carefully parted brown hair. Lucy stared at him in thought. He looked familiar somehow, but Lucy knew that she had never seen him before, unless she had seen him in passing at school.

"What are you staring at, Weasley?"

"I'm trying to remember where I've seen you before." Lucy answered flatly.

The boy's cocky smile widened as he held is hand out across the aisle. "Name's Gabriel Haight, it may be my father you are thinking about."

"Alexander Haight of the Goblin Liason Office?"

Ian's eyes flew open, "He crushed a rising Goblin rebellion seven years ago. It's considered one of the most effective handlings of a goblin uprising in history." Lucy and Gabriel just stared at Ian. "I like to read." Ian smiled awkwardly.

Gabriel smiled, his dark hair falling in front of his eyes before he brushed it away. "Reading is good for people who wish to educate themselves." Gabriel stood and stretched before turning his attentions to Professor Slughorn. "I'm sorry I can't stay Professor, but I have Headboy duties you know."

"It's alright Gabriel; stop by my office when you get the chance." Professor Slughorn smiled and as the compartment closed behind Gabriel Haight the Professor turned his attentions to the remaining two students. "So, Ian how is your father's work going since he discovered that old wizarding tomb in Egypt this summer, his name is going in the history books for that discovery."

Lucy had heard about that, Gavin Fairbairn was a noted magical historian who specialized in ancient wizarding history as an archeologist and anthropologist. His most recent discovery was possibly one of the top five historical discoveries currently in wizarding history. Lucy's mum and Gramps had been over the moon when some of the information out of that tomb was released to the public; it has confirmed a couple of theories of theirs' and brutally murdered a few more. Gavin Fairbairn had discovered the tomb by taking a wrong turn on a map and falling down a large sand dune and falling into the burial chamber. Despite the fact it took him twelve hours to be found, Gavin Fairbairn said to interviewers that it was worth the concussion.

Ian straightened in his chair, "His work is going very well sir. Dad's already planning another expedition out to check for more artifacts and information about the behavior of this branch of our world."

"I'm looking forward to reading more about those adventures; it is a fascinating branch of study." Slughorn smiled broadly before turning his attentions to Lucy. "How was your summer Lucy, I imagine you did a lot of reading." This earned a chuckle from Ian who as a fellow third year student was well aware of Lucy's penchant for reading her textbooks before the start of term.

"Yes sir, my mum and grandfather runs a book shop and I help out occasionally if I want to get out of the house." Lucy's tone and voice took a stiff formal tone, the same tone she often used when talking to authority figures. "Neither one of them cares if I read when I'm watching the counter."

The conversation with Professor Slughorn then turned to her Uncle Harry and how he was doing. Lucy answered his questions honestly with a smile and interest until Slughorn let them both go back to their compartments, telling them both to stop by his office anytime. Lucy had a feeling he liked both her and Ian.


The only bit of the sorting Lucy paid attention too was the sorting of her cousin, Edmund Garland who had gone to Hufflepuff after the Sorting hat sat on his head for half of a minute. Well, at least she would have a contact in Hufflepuff who would be able to watch Albus on his home territory. Edmund was very much like his parents, he was clever, street smart, and loyal to people he liked. If Lucy ever needed an inside favor in pursuit of her mission to protect Albus, Edmund would be the first person she would ask.

The rest of the sorting was relatively uneventful and Lucy whispered with her friends as the tables went up in ferocious shouts and roars of elation as they each received their newest members. Lucy stopped whispering with her friends as her cousin Roxanne's name was called. The hat sat on her head for five seconds before proclaiming her a Gryffindor and the table went up in a rumbling roar of shouts of glee and applause.

Lucy stood and ruffled Roxanne's hair as she walked by to take an empty seat next to her brother Fred, who had possessed the foresight to save her a seat next to him and James.

After Roxanne was sorted the hat was carried back to the Headmistress' office, Headmistress McGonagall began to speak to the students.

"May I have your attention please, I would first of all like to welcome back returning students and welcome all of our first years to Hogwarts. Before the feast this evening, I would like to go over a few start of term announcements, such as the Forbidden Forest being, as implied, forbidden. Our caretaker, Mr. Filch would like me to mention that the list of items banned from Hogwarts is one his office door. To save you a trip, this list includes all items from the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes." There was a collective groan from the student body, James and Fred moved their heads close together as if sharing a devious plot, which they most likely were. "I would also like to introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, I expect all of you," She focused her gaze at the part of the Gryffindor table where Fred and James were sitting. Both of the immediately straightened and folded their hands on the table in front of them as they tried to look like perfect angels sent from above. "To be on your best behavior and leave Professor Rothschild with the best possible impression of our school."

A large redheaded man rose from his seat at the staff table with a friendly smile and a wave. James became rigid in his seat before whispering, "He's one of dad's Aurors, what's he doing here?"

"If he's teaching defense, what exactly is Sullivan going to be teaching?" Ollie asked, leaning over closer to his friends.

"Also, I expect a warm welcome back for Professor Sullivan who will be taking over Muggle Studies with Professor Newton's retirement to spend more time with his twice great grandchildren."

"Does that answer your question?" Lucy was unable to help herself.

"Wow," Ollie mumbled. Lute, Aubrey and Lucy nodded in agreement. "How old was Professor Newton?"

They shrugged and joined in the clapping for Sullivan and Rothschild.


Author's Note: He's ba-ack.

I think Ollie's in the beginning stages of his first crush. Oh hormones, fun, fun, fun. I'm sure we all remember that with complete fondness. *Sarcasm*