When she woke up, Crucie felt as if she had been ran over by the Hogwarts Express. Twice. The light was too bright, everything hurt, and she had no idea where she was.

"Back in the land of the living?"

Crucie opened her eyes slightly, pinching them close immediately again.

"Argh, too bright."

Someone dimmed the light a bit, and now she could see a little better. The figure next to her bed was…

"Theo?"

"In person. I'm guarding your bed."

"That is so valiant knight of you."

"I know right! No, actually it's because I wanted to know first hand how much of the rumours are true."

Crucie cocked her head to the side, wincing at her aching neck.

"Of course. I almost thought you were actually being nice."

Theo let out a dramatic gasp.

"That wouldn't do for a Slytherin of my standing, now would it?"

"Right."

Despite everything, Crucie had to grin at Theo's behaviour.

"So. Rumours. You've been out for four days, and you've missed quite a lot. Sirius Black escaped, that hippogriff Malfoy kept jabbing about escaped; it's kind of obvious they escaped together actually, and the dementors are gone for good. Oh, and Lupin is not coming back for next year."

"Of course."

"Werewolf and all that. Apparently not all people are comfortable with it."

"I think he is least of all."

Theo snorted.

"Anyway, I'm rambling. Rumours. The stories go from you duelling Snape and you letting Sirius Black escape to you fighting a whole army of dementors on your own without a wand. Since you've been lying here being miserable for four days I suppose at least some of it is true."

"Only the last part. Although I did stun Snape… I hope he doesn't remember."

Theo's eyes widened.

"No shit. How'd you do that?"

"What, stun Snape? He wasn't paying attention to me; it was simple really. If I'm lucky he didn't even see it was me."

The young slytherin boy rolled his eyes.

"I meant the dementors. How did you do that!?"

Crucie's grin widened as she remembered.

"How do you think?"

"So… the curse… it works on dementors?"

"So it seems. Not too healthy to do when there's a hundred of them apparently, but it appeared pretty effective for as long as I could keep it up."

Theo stared at the girl in the bed with new respect. He had known Crucio Lestrange to be made of a tough wood ever since they were children and she tortured him out of his toys one by one, but looking at her now he decided she was more than a bully with an unfortunate talent. Crucio Lestrange was a true menace to society, and Theodore Nott wouldn't be a Slytherin if that didn't appeal to him.

"That is… creepy, Black. Seriously creepy. And pretty epic too."

Crucie laughed, and Theo asked.

"So, what are you doing over the summer?"

"Nothing special. Just hanging around on Knockturn probably. If you ever get enough of playing the rich landlord, come and find me at Borgin and Burke's. We can always use an extra hand at sorting out the potions library…"

"You know, if you ever get enough of playing the streetwise London Lady, there's always room in the Nott Mansion… not to mention that we have an army of masochistic house elves to cater to your needs..."

"Masochistic, you say? Watch out before I take you up on it…"

They both grinned at each other. It was doubtful that either would take on any of the offers, but that wasn't the point. It was simply another way to establish that they liked each other's company.

(Pagebreak)

On the train Crucie met Hermione. Or well, Hermione met her.

"I… I wanted to talk to you."

Crucie smiled.

"Sure, come in. I mean; it's empty anyway. Not too many people dare to share a compartment with me it seems."

Hermione looked a little uncertain, but eventually she came in and sat down next to Crucie. She looked like she wanted to say something.

"I… Well… how to say this…"

"Whatever it is, it can't be as bad as the time my uncle decided to give me The Talk. Get it over with."

"I've seen you curse the dementors, before I passed out. I guess I just wanted to say thanks."

Crucie smiled at her friend.

"That's no problem. It was a good experiment. Besides, no one touches my family."

"Your… family? You mean Sirius Black?"

Crucie blushed a bit at her lapse. She couldn't exactly say that Snape also counted as family, because he was Lucius' best friend, and she certainly didn't dare to tell Hermione that she considered her a sister of some sort. That would just be weird.

"Yeah. And my friends of course."

Hermione smiled, but Crucie could almost sense that there was something else the young witch wanted to tell her.

"You… you aren't as directly related to Sirius Black as you pretend, are you?"

At that, Crucie paled.

"What do you mean?"

"I heard you in the Shrieking Shack. Ron was unconscious and Harry was far too shocked, but I've heard it. He called you Lestrange, and you responded to it. I looked the name up."

Crucie bit her lip. There was no escaping it now…

"Then you know. What are you going to do?"

Hermione shrugged.

"I don't know. Depends on what you have to say, I think."

"I have lost almost all my family. I can't lose the few people I have left as well. You don't know them as I do."

"I keep remembering the can of beans. And all those other things you told me… It just sounds so… human."

Hermione blushed. She had never really spent much thought on Death Eaters, but the times she had done so she had certainly not thought of them as people who could have kitchen accidents, a fondness of chocolate pie or children they had to give The Talk to. It was almost embarrassing to realize how much she had dehumanized them in her mind based on a few newspaper articles. Crucie appeared to read her thoughts.

"Exactly. They're just people too, you know. Very nice people at that."

"When you're a pureblood sycophant perhaps."

"Not really. Am I a sycophant? I mean, I'm a pureblood but I can't help that can I? I wouldn't trade my parents for anything in the world."

"Really?"

Crucie scowled at that. Hermione could be a little thick sometimes, despite her obvious brilliance.

"Is that so hard to imagine? They're my parents, and I love them like you love yours. I still miss them every day. You do love your parents, right?"

"I… I do. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be insulting. You're right, I don't know them. All I know is what the library had to say about them."

"Which was probably not too much and nothing very flattering."

"Sort of."

"Well, now you know my secrets."

"I doubt I know all of them."

"Lets hope so! Some things are too embarrassing to ever see the daylight again!"

"I bet you had a horrible nickname when you were little. Something like Crucipoopoo."

Crucie laughed at the almost-accurateness.

"It was Crucie-pie actually, and only my aunt ever called me that. I'm so happy Draco knows I have far too much blackmail on him to ever betray that."

Hermione chuckled.

"My uncle called me Hermypermy… and tell me, something worse than the bed watering?"

"Nicknames. More nicknames than you can imagine. I did think Baby Dray and Drakie-sweet were kind of adorable."

"For a baby yes… but his mother doesn't still…"

Crucie gave Hermione a significant look.

"You mean she STILL calls him Baby Dray?"

"Yup. Even in public."

Hermione laughed out loud.

"That is too funny. Next time that ass calls me Mudblood I know what to say back…"

Crucie sighed. It was nice to have a friend. Even though it was one she had to share with the Boy-Who-Lived and the red-haired bane of her existence. There was a bit of a silence, and Hermione gave her a pensive look.

"I don't understand you, Crucie. But I will keep your secret."

"In that case we definitely have to meet over the summer. My family may have their reserves towards your… kind, but I'm sure they'll love you as soon as they get to know you. At least, my uncle will. He's totally laid-back. Also, he will totally love your hair. He's got a thing for messy brown curls."

Hermione didn't know if what she had read about Rabastan Lestrange counted as "laid-back", but she was willing to take Crucie's word for it. Also, she didn't really want to know what kind of "thing" the youngest Lestrange male might have for her hair. That was just creepy.

"All right. Just owl me whenever you feel like it and then we can meet on Diagon Alley."

"I just feel that this summer is going to be So. Much. Fun."

They both laughed and the rest of the train ride went smoothly.

Hermione looked at her friend and realized she didn't care that the girl was the child of Death Eaters, that she loved to torture people, or that her political opinions were somewhat sociopathic… She could only ever look at her as a friend, as the girl who got ridiculously enthusiastic about muggle stuff, who translated lewd parselmouth expressions in class just to make her giggle, and who had braved a hundred dementors to keep her friends safe. Crucio Carina Lestrange was a Slytherin without a doubt, but something about her was so Gryffindor that Hermione felt she could trust her. She only hoped the promised meeting with the girl's family wouldn't prove to be a mistake…

(Author's Notes)

Yay, another story in the series is FINISHED!

The series ISN'T though...

Check out the next story:

"Cursing The Unforgiven"

In which there will be car theft, identity confusion, nefarious plotting, poetically justified revenge, a bloody temper, and other strange commodities...

Follow Crucie for her fourth year at Hogwarts, and Don't forget to REVIEW! PLEASE?!

Questions and comments to this chapter will still be answered, so fire away!