May 4, 1994
Perhaps it wasn't the biggest of surprises when the Slytherin Quidditch team beat the Hufflepuff team, at least not the way Marcus Flint had been drilling Lucy's school team and the substitute Seeker Terrance Higgs ever since the Headmaster had declared Draco Malfoy's temporary suspension. No what was surprised Lucy Black, laughing at the dumb, corny, not even really funny joke Remus had told her— What do you call an alligator in a vest? He'd wondered, What, an investigator? She shot back sarcastically His name! —but the fact that she— that they, Remus had stumbled into her back as she stopped short, his hands on her hips and his nose scrapping the shell of her ear —found Marcus Flint and Oliver Wood in a tangled heap of limbs pressed against the wall of a corridor, the former still in his Quidditch robes.
And while even that wasn't so much of a surprise— all the Professors and their mothers knew the two boys liked each other —but rather what had surprised her was the fact that she had won the Flint-Wood betting pool she and the rest of the staff had up in the Professor's lounge. McGongall had won the last two— Marietta Edgecombe and Roger Davis and Warren Worthington and Rachel Beckings —and Sprout the one before that at the start of the year, leaving Lucy to believe that perhaps she truly was terrible at guessing.
Bill had always claimed she was horrible at it— between the answer she'd given for the Honeydukes Guess How Many Jelly Beans In the Jar contest and answers whenever Charlie or the other Weasley children excitedly asked Guess What it wasn't as if his claim was entirely baseless but—Who's bad at guessing Now Weasley, Lucy thought smugly.
Both boys pushed away from each other when Remus made a sputtering noise in the back of his throat,
"Professor!" Flint panicked, his eyes wide and his clothes ruffled, Wood, mutely, looked at Lucy and Remus harried. "We were—Wood and I—"
"We're snogging?" Lucy snickered. Remus' hands were still on her waist and she could feel the skin of his fingers dig into her clothing as he tried not to smile.
"No!" Flint spat, "I would never do something as dugisting as that," he denied, he looked over at the Gryffindor boy with an angry, heartbroken expression in his eyes, "Wood and I, we were fighting!"
"Flint said Puddlemore sucked," Wood said, his own brows creased, hurt. His voice lacked any conviction as he told Lucy and Remus the reason they'd been 'fighting'.
"Oh, because it looked like you were—"
"We weren't! I wouldn't! I'm not like that!" Flints cheeks were pink with indignation and his lips were pressed together and for a moment he reminded Lucy of herself, age thirteen and pacing the length of Bill and Charlie's room over one memorable Christmas vacation.
Bill, despite it being the middle of the night, had kicked Charlie out of bed and onto the couch when Lucy had shaken him awake, the ginger boy sat up in bed tried and only half alert but listening as Lucy ranted about how she'd had a dream of the Hufflepuff Prefect Jane and how just before she'd woken up dream-Jane had almost kissed her.
"—I'm not like that Bill," she said close to tears, "I'm not a freak!"
"No one's saying you are Lucy," Bill told her.
"But they will! Merlin!" Lucy hyperventilated as she sunk to the floor, hugging herself, all her life she'd been taught how proper purebloods acted, how they poured tea and sat and what they knew was and wasn't acceptable and sure Lucy knew it was all crap but something both worlds— her families and the real one —had showed her was that she— girls who liked girls, who dreamed of beautiful Prefects kissing them in the field just near the Forbidden forest —was a freak.
The world already hated her for things she couldn't help— her name, her brother, her cousin, all the things she was born into bearing —and Lucy, she couldn't, wouldn't be able to take it if it hated her for this too. She couldn't help this either, it had just happened.
She didn't want to like Jane, she swore it; she promised Bill, crying, her shoulders shaking. And Bill got up— his blanket falling half off the bed and onto the floor with him —got on the floor with her and took her into his arms; they were long and gangly, without a hint of muscle being attached to them, all pale freckled skin and bones.
"You're not a freak," Bill told her seriously, acceptingly, his eyes burned in a way which caused Lucy to look away, it was as if she were looking at the sun.
"But—"
"No," Bill told her, "I want anyone who has a problem with you liking Jane or any other girl for that matter to come deal with me, dare them to say some dumb shit after that," he muttered darkly.
"You don't think I'm freak?" Lucy wondered in a small voice.
"Not for liking girls no," Bill cracked a small grin as he looked at her, he nudged her with the honey elbow, "For not liking pumpkin? Sure."
"It's fucking gross Bill!" Lucy defended, a smile on her own face.
"You're a witch Lucy, everything is pumpkins!"
"Cause you white people like bland foods! You see something with no flavors and you're all like yes, this is what we'll base all out meals around!"
"Really?" Lucy wondered, "Cause I am." Flint blinked at Lucy. "When I was in school I was caught with the older Hufflepuff Prefect Jane." Flint contained to stare at Lucy as if she'd grown a second and third head. "Come on Mr. Flint let's take a walk."
Lucy stepped away from Remus— though not before giving his hand a gentle squeeze —and up to Marcus Flint, who nodded. Lucy lead him down the hall away from Remus and Oliver Wood and to her empty office— neither pureblood spoke as the walked the corridors —where she made sure to lock the door. Marcus took the stool directly in front of her desk and when she was situated in her seat Lucy took a deep breath through her nose and seriously told the Flint heir,
"You're not a freak."
Yes I am was his automatic reply.
"No you're not."
"Yes I am! I was—" Flint cut himself off, "I was kissing Oliver," he hissed.
"That doesn't make you a freak Marcus."
"No to my father that would make me an abomination, scum." To her mother, had Walburga Black been sane when Lucy had been caught with Jane and the letter had been sent home, Lucy was sure her mother would have had more than just a few choice words about who Lucy was found with.
"It makes you human, Marcus you were born liking boys the same was you were born being able to use magic." Marcus scoffed.
"Trust me I know, I was born broken," he said with the same bitter rage Lucy was not unknown to hearing.
"You're not—"
"Please don't tell me I'm not broken, Oliver's tried." So she didn't. Lucy leaned back in her chair.
"You don't have to worry about Remus or I writing home." No one had worried when they sent the letter to Grimmauld Place, no one feared the reaction of Walburga Black and no one feared what it might have cost Lucy had her mother been sane enough to comprehend the letter.
Lucy wasn't going to be like that; George and Ophelia, a letter home about a boy and a girl who had known one another since they were eight— to Molly and Arthur and Andromeda and Ted —was harmless. A letter to Sir Flint about his only child and a half blood boy?
Lucy shifted in her chair at the thought.
"I liked her eyes," Lucy said to Marcus who looked up at Lucy oddly, "Jane," she clarified, "I liked her eyes. Her smile too but her eyes? People say Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders and Merlin," Lucy sighed almost dramatically as she recalled the girl, "Jane looked like she knew every secret in this castle." She smiled at the memory of the other girl, Jane had been slightly older and a windshirl romance that had ended when Jane had been arrested and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.
"Your mother accepted that?" Marcus wondered.
"My mother was too insane to comprehend the letter that'd been sent home. The Weasleys did though, I'd been staying with them since the Christmas of my first year and well, Mr. Weasley sat me down and for a second I thought he was about to toss me out of the house."
"He didn't?" Marcus Flint wondered and Lucy understood why, Blood Traitor or not the Weasleys were pureblood— Arthur Weasleys own mother had been Cedrella Black —and had grown up in the same small world that told Marcus and Lucy they were wrong for wanting to kiss Jane or Marcus or someone else of the same gender.
"Nah, he gave me the same talk he'd given Bill, my best friend, his oldest." Lucy blushed at the memory of Mr. Weasley stumbling over what to say because she was with Jane neither could get pregnant and he wasn't quite sure how a sexual relationship between two girls went; he'd claimed to have a vague idea but made sure Lucy walked away knowing always receive what she'd gave and give what she'd received but never do anything that makes her uncomfortable.
All in all neither Mr. Weasley or Lucy could looked each other in the eye for the month that followed the talk.
"Oh."
"You don't need me to give you talk, do you?" Lucy asked. Marcus straightened up, his face red,
"Wh—no! Merlin no!" Flint shook his head fiercely, Lucy laughed loudly at the young man's reaction, the corners of her eyes crinkled against her grin.
"Okay—Hey," Lucy told him breathlessly, softly and in the same soft tone Mr. Weasley has used on her all those years ago, "I like both you and , I just want to make sure the two of you are being safe."
"We know the spells," Flint muttered embarrassed.
"Being safe in a relationship doesn't just mean knowing how to cast a safe sex spell, it means not feeling like you have to do something for your partner because they want you too, or because you're scared—"
"—Oliver's a good guy." Marcus cut her off, "A really," He stressed, "Good guy." Marcus looked at his chewed down fingers and picked at cuticles, "Better than I deserve."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it?" Flint shot back, "I'm an idiot, I can be downright cruel and I'm a freak."
"You are not a freak," Lucy told him once more, there was in edge in her voice that left no room for Marcus Flint to argue. He smiled wryly at the Quidditch instructor,
"Maybe one day I'll believe that ma'am."
"I'll be here waiting for with your told you so," she told him earnestly.
March 6, 1994
Hagrid's home, the two room wooden box that far too small for the large man and far too big for anyone to ever properly fit someone hadn't changed since Lucy had graduated. Of course the mustard yellow throw pillow on his proportionally sized armchair was new and the framed pictures of dangerous creatures magically stuck to the wall were all new as well but the scratched up table and giant wooden dining chairs and the rock cakes Hagrid still served to company were all the same.
Hagrid, Lucy and Remus sat around the formers dining table, old legal books from the Hogwarts library were piled in the corner of the room and the Hippogriff Buckbeak laid on Hagrids bed as the old dog fang rested at Lucy's feet under the table, making at the rock cake Lucy had discreetly passed him.
"I—Er, once found Lucy and her group of misfits tryin' to sneak into the forest one nigh," Hagrid told Remus fondly, Lucy looked at Hagrid wondering which time he was talking about, he had spent a quarter of his time chasing Charlie, Mia And Barnaby— and her and Bill by extension —away from the forest.
"Why were you trying to sneak into the forest?" Remus wondered.
"Dunno," Lucy shrugged, she looked at Hagrid, "Which time was this?"
"How often did you sneak into the forest?" Remus asked, he leaned against his forearms which rested flat against the table,
"More than they should've," Hagrid teased and Lucy smiled innocently, "When that boy, what's his name," Hagrid snapped his fingers, "Benji?"
"Ben?"
"Yeah, when he said he wanted to 'unt yer."
"What?" Remus wheezed. Lucy understood the cause for laughter, he had met Ben Cooper only a few months prior and even at twenty Ben Cooper still looked ready to cry at whatever the world would throw at him.
"He wasn't going to hunt us," Lucy said, she looked at Remus from the corner of her eyes, "There's this muggle game called manhunt, it's like tag but at night, and Ben had the idea at lunch so we all made plans to sneaks out after curfew."
"Alright, yeah I can't quite see Ben harming anyone." Lucy's smile faulted at the memory of her sixth year when Ben, possessed, had injured both Charlie and Mia enough to land them in the hospital wing. "
"Bucky wouldn' 'arm anyone," Hagrid muttered over the rim of teacup, the Hippogriff in question shifted on the bed in the room behind them, "'E's a good bird, great Hippogriff."
"I'm sure he is Hagrid but you know how the court is," Lucy said sympathetically. Wizengamot, despite having Dumbledore as Head Warlock of the court, was still incredibly susceptible to bribery and intimidation and if the witch or wizard pulling the strings knew which court members to go after— Devon, Harper, Whitehall, and greedy, weak willed, spineless, justices like them —they could control just how a case would end up.
It was, without a doubt, was Lucius Malfoy had done to condemn the Hippogriff Buckbeak to death.
"Bastards!" Hagrids flat hand hit the table with a loud bang, Lucy jumped in her seat.
"I'm sure there's something we can do," Remus said, concern flashing through his eyes, but Hagrid nodded.
"Hermione and— Er —Meiri, and that— uh —boy of hers Theo, they've— Er —been down here almost everyday helpin' me look through books," Hargrid set his cup of tea on the table and rubbed his hands flat over the messy lions nest of hair on top of his head, "But we can't find nothing."
I could help, Lucy thought, Realistically I could solve this problem with a snap of my fingers.
But you won't, the voice of her mother sneered knowingly in rebuttal , You won't risk it. Lucy stood up, Remus and Hagrid looked at her, both of startled by the sudden movement.
"I need to go," Lucy said, "I forgot— you just reminded me —I promised Meiri that I would help her with Potions work." It was a plausible excuse, if there was a single person in all of Hogwarts worse at Potions then Neville Longbottom it was Meiri Prewett.
While her Potions never quite managed to boil through her cauldrons as they usually did to one young Mr. Longbottom, Meiri Prewetts potions always did seem to leave someone— usually Hannah Abbot who constantly go paired up with her —in the hospital wing.
"Oh, well good luck I've heard Hermione tryin' to 'plain it to Meiri." Apparently, after having her hair set on fire and nearly poisoned a total of three times, the bushy haired girl had refused to help Meiri with her Potions work anymore. Remus rose to his feet.
"I should be going to Hagrid, I need to grade papers. Thank you though, for having us." Hagrid got to his feet like the gracious host he was and lead Lucy and Remus to the uneven wooden door, Fang stood between Hagrids feet and Lucy scratched the English mastiffs head.
"Bye bye baby," Lucy cooed before looking at Hagrid, "Thanks for the tea."
"Come 'round soon," Hagrid said and Lucy, with a forced smile, nodded. Remus places his hand on the small of her back as they walked back up the trail to the school.
"So?" Remus wondered in a low voice as they walked away from Hagrid's hut, "What's the real reason you rushed out because I know you don't have any plans to help Meiri with her work."
Lucy had made a point to tell Remus that Meiri had told her Theo Nott was helping Daphne Greengrass with her Charms work so she would be spending the whole day with Ron, Harry and Hermione, not at all bothered if Theo was tutoring a girl he thought was pretty.
Lucy stopped walking, the pair of them were still at the base of the stoney hill but far enough from the hut where she didn't have to whisper.
"I could help Hagrid, help his Hippogriff," Lucy answered, guilt gnawed at the bottom of her heart.
"That's great, why didn't you saw anyt—you aren't going to are you?" Lucy shook her head,
"I can't."
"But you just said—"
"I can tell Lucius to back off and leave the Hippogriff alone but he'd hate me." Remus' brows came together,
"But you hate him why do you care if he hates you?"
"Cause he's scared of me," Lucy told him, "I can get more out of him if he's scared. The moment he hates me, when he rather face me then do whatever I want that's when I've lost him."
"Why is he scared of you?" Remus wondered.
Headmaster Dumbledore had allowed sixteen year olds Lucy and Bill off of school grounds in order to attend Walburga Blacks funeral. Bill in the same shabby hand-me-down robes his father had worn to his uncle's funeral, and Lucy in a plan, but beautiful long sleeved black dress that's neckline was a turtleneck and skirt ended just below her knees, hiding all of her scars, stood outside the second floor bathroom at the overflowing Black Manor.
Walburga Black was not beloved but she was a Black and therefore her funeral would be as big as her father's, or her uncles or aunts or any other Black that died before her.
While the Black manor— the house her cousins had grown up in, the one that held all the Black family galas Lucy had been too young to attend before they stopped and which cellar floor was still stained brown with the blood of unnamed war victims —hadn't been in the Black family's possession nearly as long as Grimmauld Place had, it did however hold the Black family cemetery just a little more than two miles away from the house.
"I don't want to do this Bill," Lucy told him, "Cissy, she wants me to give the eulogy? I can't to that—what am I supposed to say, I'm sorry my mums dead she was great and I'll miss her but not really because she was a horribly, mad, abusive woman who not only didn't have a loving bone in her body but constantly tried to murder me?" Lucy hissed.
Her mother had been dead a week and her cousin had given her no notice on the eulogy, apparently as her daughter it should have been expected.
Bill placed both his hands on her shoulders reassuringly.
"Then don't give the eulogy," he said.
"But she was my mother Bill—"
"Exactly, it's your mother's funeral meaning you don't have to a damn thing you don't want to," he told her.
"I don't?" Bill shook his head,
"You don't even have to be here if you don't want too." And it was as if a lightbulb went off above her head.
"Let's go back to the school then, Dirk from Ravenclaw is supposed to be throwing a party and I wanna smashed." Bill grinned brilliantly at her, he clapped her on the back as the pair of them moved away from the bathroom and down the hall to the staircase.
"If you pass out I'm drawing on you in marker," Bill said.
"That's only if you don't pass out before me." Bill, despite the fact he didn't look it, was a lightweight while Lucy, all nearly ten stones soaking wet, could easily drink Barnaby Lee under the table. Though when she crashed she crashed hard.
The pair of them snickered only to run into an older man, his nose was sharp and his cheekbones were high while his eyebrows had been plucked thin. He looked at Bill in distaste, as if he'd just smelled rotten eggs.
"Sir Rowle," Lucy nodded. Next to her Bill nodded his head and extended a pleasant Hello.
"Lady Black," He didn't address Bill verbally, though he did sneer in his direction. "I'm so sorry for your loss. You mother was a wonderful woman." Lucy, glared at the older man placed a firm hand on Bills back.
"Thank you Sir Rowel, I'm sure your words would mean a lot to my mother," the older man's eyes narrowed at the meaning of her words; Your condolence means jack shit "Though I do think you forgot to address my best friend Bill Weasley. He's here because I personally asked him to be. One might think it odd that you might be so cold towards the good friend of the grieving orphaned daughter to the woman who's funeral you're attending," Lucy told him icily.
"I was invited here personally—"
"By my cousin's husband yes, not by a Black." Bills cheek lost mass as he bit the inside of it in order not to laugh, Lucy's eyes burned almost violently as she looked up at the older man who glared down at her before turning to Bill.
"Hello."
"Hi." Sir Rowel growled in the back of his throat.
"Speaking of, you wouldn't happen to know where my cousin and her husband are, would you Sir Rowel?"
"Last I checked they were still in the library Lady Black," Rowel managed behind clenched teeth.
"Thank you Sir Rowel, I hope you enjoy the wine, I hear its imported," Lucy told him. The older man didn't reply as he stalked around Lucy and Bill, steam practically bowling out of his ears. Bill turned to Lucy.
"You didn't have to do that," he told her with a grin.
"Course I did, you're my best friend. Let some stuffy old timer say something about it, I'll cry and they'll look like the monster that made Lady Black cry at her mother's funeral."
"I think you're supposed to cry at funerals," Bill told her fondly.
"Nah, not at these elitist funerals," Lucy said. When her uncle had died in her second year and her aunt the year after that she had learned at the behest of her cousin Narcissa that this was the equivalent of a thunderdome and the first to show actual human emotion lost. "Now come on let's find Cissy and get lost."
It took nearly ten minutes to walk from the foyer to the large Black manor library and when they got to the large oak doors Sirs Goyle and Crabbe stood at them, waiting.
"Sir Goyle? Sir Crabbe? Is everything alright?" Lucy came up behind them asking, both men jumped, and like Rowel looked distastefully at Bill Weasley.
"Yes Lady Black," Crabbe said, "Lucius just asked for a moment with his wife."
"It appears that your cousin was upset at the sudden loss of your mother," Goyle added, his smile was viscous. It reminded Lucy of a rabid wolf looming over its prey, blood thirsty and looking for its pound of flesh.
Lucy didn't like it, she didn't like how he smiled when talking about her cousins— who though she wasn't close too, was still her cousin and Blacks stick together —emotional state.
"If you anything Sir Goyle then you'd know my mother was dying the moment my brother was reported dead." And just as she said that a cry— her cousin Narcissa —echoed from behind the library doors. Lucy, with her wand free of her hair, pushed past both surprised males and threw open the door.
Standing over her cousin, who laid half on the ground with a hand pressed to her cheek, was Lucius Malfoy.
"Confringo!" Lucius dove out of the way of Lucy's spell and the bookcase behind him exploded. Bill with his own wand out turned his back to Lucy and looked at both Goyle and Crabbe, both of whom had their own wands out.
"Bombarda!" Malfoy once more rolled out of the way as he struggled to pull his wand from his robes, Narcissa scrambled to the far off couch away from the fighting a small trickle of blood ran down her nose.
"Diffendio!" A long bloody cut that when he moved opened enough to show bone, appeared across Lucius malfoy's leg from his kneecap to his calf. He screamed in agony. He got his wand from his pocket.
"Ava—"
"Expillarmus!" His wand landed in Lucy's hand and she stalked closer to her in-law who lay helplessly on the floor as blood pooled around him. She turned, with wild eyes, to Crabb and Goyle, the ladder who stood without a wand, "The funeral is over!" Lucy shouted at them, "Tell everyone to get out! Now!"
Bill, once Goyle stumbled back, the shoulder of his robes in Crabbe hand, tossed the older wizard his wand. And then they were gone, rushing down the hall. Bill turned to Narcissa who didn't rebuke his kind, soft spoken offer to heal her nose or bruised cheek.
Lucy looked down at Lucius and grabbed him by the lapels of his robes, he screamed in pain as he moved, "You are never going to touch my cousin again because if you do, I'm going to make what Bellatrix did to the Longbottoms look like child's play, is that clear?"
Blacks stick together above all else, it's why blood traitors were treated as harshly as they were, they violated the first rule they'd been taught, even before all their pureblood is better bullshit. Blacks stick together above all else, Lucy had never wanted to be a Black— she still didn't —but she was and though Narcissa was technically a Malfoy she'd been born a Black and for that Lucy would defend her.
Lucius nodded. Lucy threw him to the ground and turned to her cousin.
"Are you alright?" She wondered as she took the seat next to Narcissa. Bill didn't look back at Lucius nor did he look at Lucy oddly or fearfully but rather with a small smile.
"I—yes I'm fine."
"Is this the first time?" Lucy wondered and Narcissa nodded.
"I can kill him, if you'd like. Bill can take you upstairs to Draco and Ophelia and no one would be the wiser, we'll say he slipped and fell." Narcissa looked at Lucy with a kindness she had never before seen on her face.
"He's my sons father." Before this perhaps Narcissa would have claimed to love him. Lucy nodded accordingly and rose to her feet, Bill did as well.
"Well have tea over Christmas holiday?" Lucy said rather then asked, "You'll let me know how you are."
"Thank you."
"Blacks stick together," Lucy said.
"Above all else."
"I didn't kill him," Lucy said to Remus who looked shocked at the answer.
"What?"
"The day of my mothers funeral he hit my cousin Narcissa, I could have killed him and he knows it— it's why he walks with that stupid cane of his, the healers could never quite fix his kneecap —and he knows that I'd have no qualms about doing so."
"You were sixteen when your mother died."
"I was sixteen when I threatened to throw Ben off the Astronomy tower." Lucy was sixteen when she started to lose it, when the title of Lady Black was thrust upon her and her knees buckled under the weight she didn't want and the dark shadow of her family caught her by the ankle.
I'm a monster, Lucy thought solemnly. Remus, as if able to read her mind, grabbed her and intertwined their fingers together. He didn't look disgusted at her or frightened or anything of the such. No Remus looked at her with such care and raw emotions in her eyes that Lucy felt her heart beat painfully in her chest.
I love you.
….
Later that night Ophelia, Tahani, Harry, Hermione and Theo, along with all the Weasley children sat around Lucy's office. Percy and Hermione debated magical law in the corner, Ophelia ever so often chiming in while Ron, Harry, Ginny and Tahani sat on the floor playing exploding snap laughing when one of the others cards exploded and shit talking each other before that. The twins and Theo sat with Meiri as she poured over her Potions notes, the three of them trying to help her— one of the twins every so often would take Meiris second hand Potions textbook and hit himself in the face with it —and Lucy sat back in her desk chair watching them, smiling.
She could picture Bill and Charlie and Mia and Dora being in the room with her— they, and Remus who truly did have to grade tests —were all that were missing from the picture in front of her.
Lucy looked at the picture of hers and Bills graduation, the framed picture a six year old Ginny had painted for her as a gift sat on the corner of her desk, Dora, with bright pink hair tackled Bill and Lucy shouted had been hugging each other with one arm, Barnaby, Mia and Charlie quickly joined in on the dog pile while Penny and Rowan laugh in the background. The camera Mrs. Weasley has been holding shook with laughed as the teens on the floor in front of her rolled around on the grass.
Life was good, it wasn't perfect but it was good.
May 7, 1994
In Lucy's humble option the first Saturday of May had started off quite enough, metaphorically of course because it was the first day of the season that was warm enough to allow the students to take a dip in the Black lake without having to go to Madam Pomfrey with a case of hypothermia and frostbite meaning that the castle was buzzing with excitement and anticipation for warmer weather.
At least most of the castle had caught hay fever. Percy Weasley sat in Lucy office, the pair of them eating cookies and tea as they talked. Percy was terrified of being stuck in his family's shadow, of being poor and a nobody for the rest of his life and Lucy understood to an extent.
While Lucy didn't get why Percy was scared to be known as Percy Weasley for the rest of his life— Lucy would take being poor and a redhead over all the riches in her vault and what she'd been through any day —she did sympathize with him. She knew what being trapped in your family's shadow did, how suffocating it was and though their circumstances were not the same she understood Percy's fear to an extent.
"Just remember you parents love you Percy," Lucy told him, "Alright? The twins too, they're obnoxious little shits but they love you."
"I know," Percy said, "I'm just—I know what people think of father and the family and what if they don't give me a chance to prove I'm my own person?"
"Then fuck them and prove them wrong. If they won't give you a chance to prove your Percy Weasley smartest boy in all of Hogwarts then make them," Lucy told him and Percy bashfully smiled at Lucy and ducked his head.
Her office door burst open and dragging in a reluctant looking Theo Nott an enraged Meiri Prewett stormed in. She looked at her cousin, "I need to talk to Lucy Percy, get out."
Both Lucy and Percy's jaws fell open because Meiri had always been the child who remembered her p's and q's, even when he didn't.
"What?" Percy floundered.
"Drop it Meiri Madam Lucy's talking to your cousin, it's okay," Theo muttered tugging on Meiris friendship bracelet. He wore a matching one on his opposite arm.
"No!" Meiri shouted, her lips tightly drawn together, "It's not okay—Percy get out! This is serious!" Percy looked fleetingly at Lucy who nodded at him to leave, and then concernedly at his cousin and her friend before he rose to his feet and left.
"Alright what's the matter?" Lucy asked.
"It's nothing—"
"Theos father is hurting him!" Meiri cut Theo off with a dark look. "Stop saying it's nothing Theo! It's not nothing, he's hurting you!" Meiri turned to Lucy she grabbed Theos arm— she was careful with him though, Lucy noted, that Meiri touched Theo like he was made of glass— "He has the same scar you have under your collar bone." Meiri lifted up Theos long sleeve and showed Lucy, whose blood turned to both a boiling fire and bone chilling ice.
Exactly like the scar under her own collarbone was one on Theo Notts right arm, starching from the outer side of wrist bone to his elbow.
Lucy wondered if it was possible for human beings to breathe fire because as she tried to regine in her fast beating heart and her racing blood thirsty thoughts she could have sworn she had become one of the dragons Charlie and Mia always so fondly spoke about.
Lucy looked at Theo, she wasn't just a Meiris pseudo-older sister, she was technically a professor and she was sure there were rules that disallowed her from storming away from her desk and dueling Sir Nott wherever she found him. "I need to hear it from you Theo, I can only help you if I hear it from you."
"Why?" He asked, What can you do, he hadn't said it but Lucy had heard it.
"I can get you away from your father."
"How can you do that?" Murder was always an option, but Lucy didn't tell him that, if someone had offered to murder mother at thirteen, even in spite of the almost behedding and constant murder attempts she would had hesitated. Because Walburga Black was as much her mother as Edward Nott was Theo's father.
Instead she straightened up in her seat, "I'm a Black and when we want something nothing stops us."
"And what happens to me if I do tell you?" He turned to Meiri almost angrily, "What happens to me then? I'm put in an orphanage?"
"No, Theodore," Lucy got the boy to look at her, "I swear to you if you tell me the truth about your father I won't let anything happen to you. I'll make sure it's all okay."
"And if you can't and my father finds out what happens to me then?"
"Nothing because I would duel your father myself before I allowed him to get near you again."
"Why? Just cause I'm Meiris friend?"
"Because you're a kid and no one deserves to go through what you have." What we have. Theo was quiet for a moment, a crease formed between his eyebrows and he frowned, and then he reaches over and takes Meiris hand in his.
"It all started when he murdered my mother, I was five…"
…
Lucy, after telling Theo and Meiri they could stay in her room and pick through her board games and kitchen cupboards until she came back, had gone to Dumbledore and called a staff meeting. All the professors, from Snape to Hagrid to Babbling who so rarely left her office, littered the Headmasters office.
Dumbledore sat in his desk chair, his half moon glasses twinkled in under the candle light and in the seat next to him Professor McGonagalls knuckles turned white as Lucy recounted what Theo Nott had told her— how when his mother had gotten sick when he was five and his father, while he watched from the corner of the room, held a pillow over Monica Notts face and ever since then he'd turned his rage onto the Theo, beating and cursing him whenever he felt fit —Professor Spouts fingers pressed against her lips.
"And what would you like me to do?" Dumbledore asked evenly as Lucy finished.
"Get him away from his father!" She exclaimed.
"And do what with the boy, you said yourself he won't go to an orphanage," Dumbledore replied.
"Headmaster, Albus," McGongall said, "Surely there must be something we can do? If Edgar Nott did murder his wife—"
"—There's no proof—"
"—Mr. Nott claims to have seen it!" Flitwitck exclaimed his own high pitched voice full of indignation. Flitwick, like the other Professors took notice to the students that excelled in his class and right after Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, Theo Nott was a wiz at Charms.
"Eight years ago when he was five, those memories wouldn't hold up in court and you know it Filius." And there was no law against abusing children if an obscurus did not result and even then when one did the parent or guardian— if not a muggle, which they more often than not were —were tried for creating and harboring a dangerous creature and unleashing it onto the public, but not for the crimes against the child.
"So what?" Lucy snarled, "We do nothing?"
"We can do nothing."
"Your the high fucking Warlock!" Lucy shouted at him and the other professors jumped, Dumbledore however did not. He folded his hands in his lap and blinked at her.
"And because of that I am confined within the limits of the law."
"Or perhaps you just don't give a shit." Dumbledore's eyes darkened as Lucy stood in front of him righteously, Sprout and Burbage both made gasping sounds as Hagrid roared to defend the Headmaster. Remus made a choking sound behind her and Flitwick squeaked and nearly toppled off his stool.
"Ms. Black!" McGongall hissed. The only who who did not react where Snape and Siniestria, both of whom stood against the back wall.
"Is that how you feel?" Dumbledore stood from his chair and though Lucy felt a bolt of fear shoot through her body she didn't show it. She did however hold her head up higher. She was a Black and Blacks don't show fear in the face of advisory.
They crush it.
"Barnaby Lee, Muerla Snyde, myself, Harry Potter, Tahani Al Jamil, Theo Nott, I'm sensing a pattern Headmaster. You're supposed to care for the wellbeing of the students and what? That stops the minute they get on the express to go home?" Dumbledore sat on the corner of the desk as everyone in the room watched him.
"What would you have me do Ms. Black kidnap children from their homes when I see fit and hide them away until the school year starts?"
"Yes! Your the greatest wizard of our time, or was that just a nice piece of propaganda the ministry predated around during the war—"
"—Lucy—" Remus hissed, but she paid him no mind,
"—Don't worry kids you're safe because we have Dumbledore on our side," she sneered. "Thank god Harry Potter came around and saved us cause I don't see how you could have if you can't save the children you're entrusted with protecting."
"If that's how you feel figure something out," Dumbledore told her.
"Don't worry, I will," And then, in a very Snape like fashion she spun on her heel and stormed out of the Headmaster's office, her robes billowing behind her as her mind raged.
"Hey! He—Lucretia!" Lucy, two corridors away from the Headmaster's Office stopped and turned to the portrait of a breezy lake and saw her great-great grandfather Phineas Nigellus, panting in the picture.
"What?" She growled out at her ancestor, he had been long dead by the time she'd been born but after Sirius had left and before Regulus had died Regulus used to have the previous Hogwarts Headmaster check in on the young girl, afterwards he had stopped visiting his portraits at Grimmauld Place.
"Talking to Dumbledore like that, it took guts and last time I checked you weren't a Gryffindor."
"No I just seem only one out of the two of us who gives a damn about these students."
"So what are you going to do hm? Kidnap the Nott boy and hide him from his father?" Phineas Black wondered more amused then he should have been.
"If I have too," Lucy told him seriously and her great-great grandfathers eyebrows shot up. The sound of rushing footsteps had both Lucy and Phineas turning. At the mouth of the corridor was Remus Lupin, slightly disheveled.
"Come to yell at me?" Lucy asked prickly. She wouldn't fault Remus if he defended Dumbledore instead of her— Dumbledore had given him a job when no one else would, a second chance to see Harry Potter and all she was, was the woman he was sleeping with—it would hurt and her heart would be crushed but she could fault him no more than she could fault Hagrid.
"No," Remus shook his head as he approached her, "I just figured two heads are better than one." Phineas cleared his throat and Remus looked at the familiar portrait. "Mr— Headmaster Black—three heads are better than two?" Phineas Black made humoring sound but didn't expand after that.
Lucy smiled at Remus and her great-great grandfather muttered angrily in purple framed the portrait. "Well then let's get a move on then," and the pair of them, with Phineas Nigellus Black trailing behind them, hoping from portrait to portrait, snidely commenting on the fact that she was holding hands with this boy— Remus blushed deeply as Phineas Black called him boy, a sly smile played on his lips —walked off towards Lucy's office.
Theo and Meiri, sitting on the floor of Lucy's room looked up at Remus and Lucy, away from their game of monopoly— Arthur Weasley had given Lucy the muggle game one long ago Christmas, grinning and though she reared played it she refused to throw it out or give it away —neither, if either third year noticed, of them commented on how Lucy's hand was still very much tucked into Remus' when they opened her door.
"How'd it go, what did Headmaster Dumbledore say?" Meiri worried. Lucy looked at Theo,
"You won't be going back to your father's."
"Is he going to be arrested then?" Theo wondered and Lucy left Remus' side and sat on the floor between the two thirteen year old, Remus sat on the edge of her bed.
"No, the Headmaster pointed out that aside from your memories there is no proof of what your father did—"
"But memories are admissible!" Theo argued.
"No those of a five year old, but Theo I assure you—" Lucy placed a gentle hand over the boys and smiled reassuringly at him, "You won't be going back to your father's nor to an orphanage."
"You keep saying that but if I'm not going home then where will I be going?" The young boy wondered.
"I don't know, but nothing, come hell or high water, is going to allow me to let you go back to your father, Alright." Theo was quiet for a moment and he stared at the metal pieces on the board— the wheelbarrow and the dog —and then with a wave of relief in his eyes he smiled at Lucy.
It wasn't a large grin or anything of the sort but it was a smile nonetheless.
"Thank you," he told her softly and Lucy shrugged,
"You deserve it Theo. Now the two of clean up the mess and get to dinner, no one needs you guys wasting away."
"But I haven't kicked Theos arse!" Meiri pouted and Lucy giggled, and Theo blindly pointed out she was losing.
"I could still win, with a little resonance and hard work—"
"Hufflepuff," Theo interjected fondly and Meiri stuck her tongue out at Theo; Lucy looked back at Remus who watched them fondly from his spot on her bed as he leaned against the ball of his palm.
"Very eloquent Prewett." Meiri went to flip Theo off when Lucy caught her hand,
"How about we don't flip people off in front of professors?"
"Yes mum," Meiri grumbled as Theo collected the colorful money and deeds and she started picking the hotels and houses off the board.
…
Later that night— or early the next morning however you would classify two thirty in the am —after monopoly had been put back in her closet Lucy and Remus and the of her great-great grandfather, along with Professors Sprout and Flitwick, sat around the tiny table in Lucy's room.
Plates of half eaten food sat idly as the table as Lucy's quill tapped the parchment in her hands. While each of the four Professors had of course agreed to draft a rough draft a law that would create protections for children against their parents— which was no immediate help as the court was known to drag its feet, despite the money Lucy would pump into the cause —none of them had any long term solutions to save Theo Nott from his father and Tahani Al Jamil from her parents.
"I could kill him," Lucy mused openly, half serious as she focused on the empty Theo Nott column of her parchment.
"You're not serious are you?" Sprout wondered. Lucy shrugged rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"Maybe."
"We'll save that one for last," Remus had told Lucy, a small half of a smile on his lips, before Flitwick reasoned that perhaps the Headmaster had been onto something and that they should just kidnap the children who needed it; he had called it a necessary evil.
"Is that really an option though?" Sprout asked Flitwick who shrugged.
"You stopped going home when you entered Hogwarts," Phineas Nigellus said to Lucy, drawing all the eyes in the room to the empty portrait frame that hung over the fireplace. "Why?"
"The Weasleys took me in, Mrs. and Mr. Weasley found out about my mother and refused to—oh." Phineas looked at Lucy knowingly.
"What?" Remus rubbed his eyes.
"Would it be ethical?" Sprout asked. "For students to live with a professor?"
"Pomona we're considering kidnapping and murder, ethics went out the window around midnight," Flitwick said to Sprout, whos face twitched because he wasn't wrong.
"But my apartment has one bedroom."
"Are you the heiress to the Noble and Most ancient house of Black or are you not? Don't tell me you sold all the Black family properties."
"No," Lucy shook her head and bit her thumb nail.
Remus shifted in his seat as he reached out for his glass of water, "Alright, so we have the means to hide Theo and Tahani but how are we're getting them."
"You're a Black," Phineas Nigellus said to Lucy flippantly, "Tell Cantankerous' son you're taking his child and throw a pouch of money at the man—the Notts were never truly ones for family loyalty."
"So were accoutering Mr. Nott then?" Sprout didn't sound as opposed to the idea as she probably should. "What do we do in Miss. Al Jamils case? Her parents are muggleborns."
"Don't send her home?" Lucy suggested, "I mean I'll ask Tahani what she wants of course but if you parents don't allow her back and make her suppress her magic kidnapping her will be better than anything the ministry will do."
The Ministry would obligate her parents and kill her if she were to turn into an obscurus.
"So were doing it the Black way then?" Remus asked bleary eyed and teasingly.
"Guess so."
"I probably shouldn't be condoning this," Sprout said to the table.
"Are you going to object?" Lucy asked the older Professor.
"No."
"Are you going to inform Headmaster Dumbeldore?" Flitwick implored.
"No."
"Then," Lucy said standing up, "I do believe we're done here for the night."
May 8, 1994
Panting both Remus and Lucy— both naked, sweaty and covered in each others fluids —laid next to one another in Remus' bed. Lucy's thighs quivered as she moved to curled herself around Remus' body, his arm slipped under her head and his hand pressed flat against her back.
Tenderly Lucy kissed the underside of his jaw. The candlelight in the room burned from the wall mounted candelabras, immunating half of his face.
I love him, Lucy thought with such emotion her chest threatened to burst, I love him. There had been Jane and Adien since Lucy had first discovered she liked people romantically but she'd never loved either of them. Jane had been a schoolyard love affair and Adien had been someone to fuck when she got stressed, to fight and argue with and then ignore until she'd needed another release, but Remus?
Lucy traces the outline of his face under the light; Remus she loved. Remus who she could listen to all day— no matter if he talked about Redcaps or if there truly were a difference between light and dark magic —Remus who Lucy could sit in silence with and be happy with. Remus whos kisses sent jolts of lighting through her veins and who made her feel like she was flying by just looking at her with a smile on his face.
Remus who she didn't deserve; who despite knowing the monster she, was stayed with her when she cried, who kissed her forehead and held her hand when she was nervous, who looked past her family name at her. Lucy was in love with that Remus Lupin, not just the werewolf he simply thought he was—because she loved him in spite of his lycanthropy too.
She loved him.
Remus turned to Lucy, "What's going on in that head of yours?" He wondered. Lucy met his eyes,
"Nothing." Remus pinched her hip— "Liar" —and though Lucy yelped she didn't try to escape from his arms.
"Alright," Lucy giggled, she leaned over his chest and his nose grazed her own, she took in a deep breath; "I—" Lucy cut herself off when she saw the panic in his eyes, his hand freeze on her hips and the color start to drain from his face. "—Can go for another round," she told him instead.
Remus smiled uneasily at her and pressed a kiss against her lips, he rolled over on top of her.
Lucy was in love with Remus Lupin, who didn't love her back. Not that she could fault him.
May 11, 1994
That second Wednesday of May, Theo Nott and Tahani Al Jamil sat in Lucy's office before their morning classes. Tahani held her book bag in her lap, her ting arms wound around the leather, while Theos rested at his feet.
Lucy, in her flying robes, children across her cluttered desk. "I need to ask the two of you something, now feel free to say no or to tell me to get lost but the other Professors and I talked about both your home situations and we've come to an answer on what to do."
Tahani held her head higher while Theo didn't move a muscle. "What did you come up with?" He wondered.
"That the two of you can stay with me," Lucy said students lo9ked at Lucy with big eyes; Tahanis jaw fell open and Lucy grimaced. "It's just I care about you both and you'd both be safe with me but if you think it's too weird—"
"No!" Tahani said jerking forward in her seat, "No, it's—I like the idea." Thank looked at her hands and fiddled with her thumbs.
"You would take me—us in?" Theo asked skeptically.
"Of course," Lucy replied.
"Why?" He wondered.
"Because you both deserve a safe home that neglect or abuse you and I can offer you both that."
"So it's not because you pity us?" Theo wondered and Lucy smiled at the young boy,
"My mother constantly tried to kill me, Theo I don't pity you or Tahani, I emphasize with you."
"Alright," Theo said on the subject and though he didn't physically smile Lucy could see his dark eyes sparkling.
"But what about our parents? Mine won't notice I'm gone but I'm sure yours will," Thank said looking at Theo. Both kids looked at Lucy who leaned back in her seat.
"Don't worry about them, I'll be going to be taking care of them on Saturday."
"My father's not a man to be bullied," Theo said and Lucy smirked because that's exactly the kind of man Sir Nott was; a coward who tormented, belittled and abused those weaker than him.
"Trust me Theo, Everything will be okay," Because I'll make it okay.
May 14, 1994
Regardless of the fact that the Nott family Estate was in no way comparable to the Black or Malfoy Manors it wasn't a small house— though it in no way could be counted as a mansion—that sat in the middle of fifteen acres of grassy lands. Lucy could see, as she flew up to the Nott Estate the Aethonan farm that the Notts owns; while the Scamander family was known for breeding and farming Hippogriffs the Notts were known for— and made their Fortune off of —breeding, selling and racing Aethonans, the only breed of winged horse that were native to the United Knigdoms.
Gracefully Lucy landed on the ground just outside the iron gate that lead up to the front door. Magically the iron gate opened and with her broom in her hand and a heavy sack of galleons tied to her waist Lucy walked up to the grand front door.
An elf was there waiting for her when she climbed the last marble step. Like Kreature and every other elf Lucy had met this one's ears shot out from the side of its head, it's eyes were watery and the tea cozy it wore was dirty and stained, but it smiled brightly at Lucy.
"Lady Black," The elf squeaked, "Master Nott is in the sitting room. Would you like Cookie to take your broom Lady Black?"
"No thank you Cookie, if you could just show me where Sir Nott is that would be most helpful," Lucy told the elf.
"Cookie lives to be most helpful Lady Black!" The elf hopped. The elf lead Lucy into the Nott Estate and the first thing she noticed that on the front wall of the foyer was a large portrait of Sir Nott— just Sir Nott —looking darkly down upon those who came into Estate.
This is the first thing Theo sees when he comes home, Lucy thought grimly as the elf Cookie lead her away from the foyer and to the sitting room. The blinds were open and drinking whiskey from a beautiful glass tumbler on the couch was Sir Nott. Above the fireplace was a portrait—like the one the Headmaster had of Phineas Nigellus —of Cantankerous Nott, the previous Sir Nott, drinking and chatting with another painting of a Nott Lucy couldn't quite place.
Motzart played lowly in the background off the gramophone. "Master Nott Cookie has brought Lady Black as yous escoect Master!" The elf squeaked.
Nott did not verbally acknowledge the elf, though it did dispense with a pop as he stood.
"Lady Black," The man smiled wryly at Lucy, "Two calls from the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black in under a year." Lucy blinked at him, Nott eyed the money pouch on her waist and grinned widely at her, teeth, gums and all and Lucy felt her stomach twist at the sight, "Sit, please. Can you offer you anything to drink?"
"No, I don't plan on being here long enough," Lucy said taking the seat across from Sir Nott. She placed her broom of the sea green cushions behind her.
"Then what do you plan on being her for?" Lucy took the money from her waist and placed it on the coffee table between them.
"I want guardianship of your son. In there is one million galleons." Lucy pulled out a roll of parchment from her robes and set that on the table as well.
Nott looked at her in disbelief.
"He's my heir!" The pairing of Cantankerous Nott cried from his place above the fireplace. Lucy shrugged uncaringly.
"It wouldn't be a blood adoption, he would still be the Nott heir," Lucy told both Notts.
"He's my son—" Sir Nott said over his father's protests.
"Who you've used diffendo against so please do my a favor and drop the caring father act will you Sir Nott." Red crept up the man's neck and across his face.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sir Nott growled out through clenched teeth and Lucy could see the vengeful fire light in his eyes. Theo, if she didn't get him out, would surely and dearly pay for opening his mouth.
"I'm sure you don't, Sir Nott but then again I'm also sure you know nothing about suffocating your wife Monica." Sir Nott froze for a second before jumping to his feet, looking over Lucy who only turned her head a fraction of the way up to meet the mans furious gaze.
Unlike what she thought it may have, it did not in fact remind Lucy of the look her mother used to get in her eyes before flying into a rage and nearly killing her. No her mother's rage had burned bright and hot, dying out as quickly as it had started, the fire in Sir Nott burned low and constant, he was dangerous.
"Get out!"
"Sign me over Theo." Lucy got to her feet.
"Or what?" Sir Nott sneered, "I have the high ground Black, I'm keeping the boy!" Something bristled within Lucy— under the rage she felt by standing in Sir Notts very presence —at the lack of the title she so hated.
"Then I'll go to Dumbledore," Lucy said skillfully lying, "I'll take Theo with me and when his memories of you murdering your wife are shown to the court you'll be thrown into Azkaban for life and then I'll go through with a blood adoption and your son will be Theodore Black, your money will be added to the Black vault and your line will die with you." Sir Nott sucked in a sharp breath as he looked at the money and the parchment on the table.
"You're truly Pollux's grandchild, aren't you?" Cantankerous Nott grumbled from the portrait. Pollux Black, who had died shortly after her mother had announced being pregnant with her had been her mother's father and a dear friend to Cantankerous Nott. Pollux had nearly given Sir Nott her mother's hand before his brother's son, her father, had been given it.
"Yes," Lucy said shortly to the painting, "I am."
"Give her the boy Edgar," Cantankerous said and Sir Notts head shot up in protest.
"Father!"
"Notts survive that is our motto, how are we to survive if we die out? Give her the boy." Sir Nott glared at Lucy but listened to his father's advice and snatched up the patch meant on the table.
"He'll do nothing but disappoint you," Nott said as he summoned an inked quill.
"I doubt that," Lucy said steely. Nott signed in named and initialed in the proper places before throwing the guardianship papers at her.
"Do, do me a favor Lady Black," Sir Nott spit, "And don't darken my stoop with your presence again." Lucy placed the papers in her robes and grabbed her broom, never turning her back on the man.
"Don't worry Edgar," She sneered And Sir Notts shoulders stiffened, "I won't."
May 15, 1994
If Lucy was going to home two teenagers during the summer and over holidays she wouldn't be able to stay in her flat anymore, no matter how much she loved it, so the Goblins at Gringotts Bank, at the behest of Lucy when she had been at her vault the day before, had sent her a files and pictures of all thirty two properties that the Black family— Lucy alone —held. And Remus, at her early morning request sat in bed with her going over each property.
Five properties weren't in the United Kingdom; there were villas in Spain, France and Italy, a castle in Germany and a home in Korea. A little over half of the remaining twenty seven properties were either storefronts or warehouses which left twelve—as Lucy had set the file of her childhood home on fire —of the remaining properties left.
She had quickly discarded the Black Manor file and the Castel Black files as well; Castel Black having been taken from a muggle king in what was now northern England in the early eleventh century.
"What about this one?" Remus suggested, he showed Lucy— who was reading about the manor that was named after her great-great grand aunt Elladora —a file that read Shell Cottage.
"My uncle Alphard lived there," Lucy said and Remus frowned, without a doubt having heard about her uncle from him.
"I thought he gave everything to Sirius?" A muscle in Lucy's cheek clenched at the sound of his name.
"Most of everything, he him his London flat and all his gold but left his home to Regulus. Reggie said he'd been left it as an early wedding present."
"Is it nice?" Remus wondered and Lucy nodded.
"I can't remember Alphard much, he died when I was six, but from what I do remember that man didn't settle for anything less than amazing." Whether it'd been clothes or food or the men her mother always begrudgingly introduced as his friend, Alphard Black always had the best.
"Why not live there?" Lucy shook her head and placed both Shell cottage and Elladora Estate in the discard pile.
"I can't live somewhere my brother was supposed to, it'd be like I was—I don't know, taking it from him." Remus didn't argue with Lucy and instead pecked her cheek before he picked up two more folders from the dwindling pile and handed one to Lucy.
Constellation Commorancy Lucy read as she opened up the file. She looked at the first picture and frowned as she'd never seen the house before in her life. It was beautiful; the home was overlooking a lake and was surrounded by trees, it was large— the file stated it was three floors and had several bedrooms and half a dozen bathrooms —and was miles away from any muggle.
"What's with that look?" Remus mused.
"I—I've either been too or at least heard of almost every file we've come across except for this one."
"Your family owns a lot of property, its natural for you not to know all of them."
"But it's not," Lucy told him, "When I was a small child, before everything—" Before Regulus died and my mother lost it "—I was expected to know every name on my family tree, every Constellation and every property and artifact my family owned. Anything less warranted a lashing." Remus' face twisted painfully and sypathicslly he reached out and took Lucy's hand in his.
Lucy, with a half smile, looked at Remus before flipping through the history of the lake house before freezing. Sirius— the first, not him or her great-great uncle but the first Sirius in the long lines of Blacks —had commissioned the house to be built. I have heard of this property.
Lucy knew enough about Sirius the first to know why; it was the same reason he had never married or had children. Sirius the first had loved a woman he'd met at Hogwarts, they had both been Slytherins and they had both been purebloods. He'd been the youngest of his generation of Blacks, his older brother Phineas Nigellus had taken on the position of Potions Professor in his last year. He had also been the most foolhardy, or at least that's what Lucy's mother used to claim.
Sirius the first and the woman he loved planned their whole lives together, from the wedding they'd have right after graduation, to the job at the ministry his father would get him and the house— the beautiful lake house named Constellation Commorancy —they'd live in to the dozens of children they'd have and name.
And then she died; she'd been attacked by muggles over their Christmas break in London, she and friends had snuck out of the Leaky Cauldron to rebelliously wander around muggle London only to be brutally murdered.
Sirius the first had gotten his revenge, the courts hadn't thought to seek justice on the grieving you man and he had sworn never to marry because he still loved the woman he had buried and to prove so he had commissioned the house they had planned to live in with enough room for all the children they had planned to have.
It was a heartbreaking story Lucy had thought romantic. At the time Regulus had declared that's what he would do if Claudia were to untimely pass, and argumentatively he used to say it was stupid, to put your life on hold like that after somone you loved died was ridiculous; he claimed you had to live for those you loved, despite that fact that they may not be.
"This one," Lucy said to Remus, showing him the file, "I need you help me fix this one up."
May 20, 1994
Lucy could feel the excitement as she stood on the pitch awaking both the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams. The crowd of students buzzed excitedly in the stands awaiting the final match of the season. Three quarters of the crowd were wearing scarlet rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the Gryffindor lion upon them, or brandishing banners with slogans like "GO GRYFFINDOR!" and "LIONS FOR THE CUP." Behind the Slytherin goal posts, however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of Slytherin glittered on their flags, and Snape sitting in the very front row, wearing green like everyone else, wore a very grim smile.
"And here are the Gryffindors!" yelled Lee Jordan, as the Gryffindor team walked into the pitch, "Potter, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, Weasley, Weasley, and Wood. Widely acknowledged as the best team Hogwarts has seen in a good few years —" Lee's comments were drowned by a tide of 'boos' from the Slytherin end.
"And here come the Slytherin team, led by Captain Flint. He's made some changes in the lineup and seems to be going for size rather than skill —" More boos from the Slytherin crowd. Lucy, frowned up at the commenters box because while Remus had said the same thing that morning at breakfast after seeing the nearly comply seventh year team lineup, Lucy, who had watched the practices disagreed.
The players Flint had chosen were big, yes, but they were also good.
When both teams met in the middle Lucy stepped up between them. "Captains, shake hands!"
Flint and Wood approached each other and grasped each other's hand very tightly; it looked as though each was trying to break the other's fingers.
"Mount your brooms!" said Lucy, and once each player had she sounded off, "Three... two... one..." The sound of her whistle was lost in the roar from the crowd as fourteen brooms rose into the air. Draco Malfoy tailed Harry Potter as the dark haired boy searched for the snitch.
"And it's Gryffindor in possession, Alicia Spinner of Gryffindor with the Quaffle, heading straight for the Slytherin goal posts, looking good, Alicia! Argh, no — Quaffle intercepted by Warrington, Warrington of Slytherin tearing UP the field — WHAM! — nice Bludger work there by George Weasley, Warrington drops the Quaffle, it's caught by — Johnson, Gryffindor back in possession, come on, Angelina — nice swerve around Montague — duck, Angelina, that's a Bludger! – SHE SCORES! TEN-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!"
Angelina Johnson punched the air as she soared around the end of the field; the sea of scarlet below was screaming its delight
"OUCH!"
Angelina was nearly thrown from her broom as Marcus Flint went smashing into her.
"Sorry!" said Flint as the crowd below booed. "Sorry, didn't see her!"
A moment later, Fred Weasley chucked his Beater's club at the back of Flint's head. Flint's nose smashed into the handle of his broom and began to bleed.
"That's enough!" shrieked Lucy as she zoomed between then. "Penalty shot to Gryffindor for an unprovoked attack on their Chaser! Penalty shot to Slytherin for deliberate damage to their Chaser!"
"Come off it Lucy!" howled Fred, but Lucy blew her whistle and Alicia flew forward to take the penalty.
"Come on, Alicia!" yelled Lee into the silence that had descended on the crowd. "YES! SHE'S BEATEN THE KEEPER! TWENTY-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!"
Lucy watched as Flint, still bleeding freely, fly forward to take the Slytherin penalty. Wood was hovering in front of the Gryffindor goal posts, his jaw clenched.
"'Course, Wood's a superb Keeper!" Lee Jordan told the crowd as Flint waited for Madam Hooch's whistle. "Superb! Very difficult to pass — very difficult indeed — YES! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! HE'S SAVED IT!"
"Gryffindor in possession, no, Slytherin in possession — no! Gryffindor back in possession and it's Katie Bell, Katie Bell for Gryffindor with the Quaffle, she's streaking up the field — THAT WAS DELIBERATE!"
Montague, a Slytherin Chaser, had swerved in front of Katie, and instead of seizing the Quaffle had grabbed her head. Katie cart-wheeled in the air but managed to stay on her broom, but dropped the Quaffle. Lucy's whistle rang out again as she soared over to Montague and began shouting at him. A minute later, Katie had put another penalty past the Slytherin Seeker, Lucy turned to Flint who hovered in the air near her.
"Control your players Mr. Flint!"
"Sure thing Madam Black!" Flint replied though he didn't sound sincere.
"THIRTY-ZERO! TAKE THAT, YOU DIRTY, CHEATING —"
"Jordan, if you can't commentate in an unbiased way —"
"I'm telling it like it is, Professor!" Harry Potter took off towards the Slytherin end of the pitch; though as Lucy looked towards where the younger boy had shot off to and did not see the Snitch herself, when one of the Bludgers came streaking past Harry's right ear, hit by the gigantic Slytherin Beater, Derrick only for the second Bludger grazed Harry's elbow. The other Beater, Bole, was closing in.
Bole and Derrick zooming toward Harry, clubs raised only to collided with a sickening crunch as Harry turned up at the last moment.
"Ha haaa!" yelled Lee Jordan as the Slytherin Beaters lurched away from each other, clutching their heads. "Too bad, boys! You'll need to get up earlier than that to beat a Firebolt! And it's Gryffindor in possession again, as Johnson takes the Quaffle — Flint alongside her — poke him in the eye, Angelina! — it was a joke, Professor, it was a joke — oh no — Flint in possession, Flint flying toward the Gryffindor goal posts, come on now, Wood, save —!"
But Flint had scored; there was an eruption of cheers from the Slytherin end, and Lee swore so badly that Professor McGonagall tried to tug the magical megaphone away from him. "Sorry, Professor, sorry! Won't happen again! So, Gryffindor in the lead, thirty points to ten, and Gryffindor in possession —"
It was turning into one of the dirtiest games Lucy had ever seen played on the Hogwarts pitch. Enraged that Gryffindor had taken such an early lead, the Slytherins were rapidly resorting to any means to take the Quaffle. Bole hit Alicia with his club and tried to say he'd thought she was a Bludger. George Weasley elbowed Bole in the face in retaliation. Lucy, after yelling at both captains once more, awarded both teams penalties, and Wood pulled off another spectacular save, making the score forty-ten to Gryffindor.
Malfoy was still keeping close to Harry as he soared over the match, looking around for the Snitch once Gryffindor was fifty points ahead. Katie Bell, a Chaser scored. Fifty-ten. Fred and George swooped around her, clubs raised, in case any of the Slytherins were thinking of revenge. Bole and Derrick took advantage of Fred's and George's absence to aim both Bludgers at Wood; they caught him in the stomach, one after the other, and he rolled over in the air, clutching his broom, completely winded.
Lucy besides herself, turned to both boys, "YOU DO NOT ATTACK THE KEEPER UNLESS THE QUAFFLE IS WITHIN THE SCORING AREA!" she shrieked at Bole and Derrick. "Gryffindor penalty!" And Angelina scored. Sixty-ten. Moments later, Fred Weasley pelted a Bludger at Warrington, knocking the Quaffle out of his hands; Alicia seized it and put it through the Slytherin goal — seventy-ten. The Gryffindor crowd below was screaming itself hoarse — Gryffindor was sixty points in the lead,
Harry, soaring up in the air, lurched forward. Lucy looked on at the Seekers horrified, Draco Malfoy had thrown himself forward, grabbed hold of the Firebolt's tail, and was pulling it back.
Blagging, as it was called was an illegal move diffuse to pull of. "Penalty! Penalty to Gryffindor! I've never seen such tactics." Lucy yelled truthfully. In all her years as a Seeker— while at school and Professionally —she had never seen a player blag because it was incredibly dangerous to both parties
"YOU CHEATING SCUM!" Lee Jordan was howling into the megaphone, dancing out of Professor McGonagall's reach. "YOU FILTHY, CHEATING B —" Professor McGonagall didn't even bother to tell him off. She was actually shaking her finger in Malfoy's direction, her hat had fallen off, and she too was shouting furiously. Alicia took Gryffindor's penalty, but she was so angry she missed by several feet. The Gryffindor team was losing concentration and the Slytherins, delighted by Malfoy's foul on Harry, were being spurred on to greater heights.
"Slytherin in possession, Slytherin heading for goal — Montague scores —" Lee groaned. "Seventy-twenty to Gryffindor..."
"Angelina Johnson gets the Quaffle for Gryffindor, come on, Angelina, COME ON!"
Every single Slytherin player apart from Malfoy was streaking up the pitch toward Angelina, including the Slytherin Keeper — they were all going to block her — Harry wheeled the Firebolt around, bent so low he was lying flat along the handle, and kicked it forward. Like a bullet, he shot toward the Slytherins.
They scattered as the Firebolt zoomed toward them; Angelina's way was clear. The young boys play as it wasn't illegal and truthfully the looks on Boyle and Derriks face nearly caused the pureblood witch to topple off her broom in a fit giggles.
"SHE SCORES! SHE SCORES! Gryffindor leads by eighty Points to twenty!" Harry, who had almost pelted headlong into the stands, skidded to a halt in midair, reversed, and zoomed back into the middle of the field.
And then Malfoy dove, a look of triumph on his face, there, a few feet above the grass below, was a tiny, golden glimmer. Harry urged the Firebolt downward, but Malfoy was miles ahead, he was gaining on Malfoy — Harry flattened himself to the broom handle as Bole sent a Bludger at him — he was at Malfoy's ankles — he was level — Lucy looked on in anticipation.
Harry threw himself forward, took both hands off his broom. He knocked Malfoy's arm out of the way and then loudly explained "YES!"
Harry Potter pulled out of his dive, his hand in the air, and the stadium exploded. Harry soared above the crowd, an odd ringing in his ears. The tiny golden ball was held tight in his fist, beating its wings hopelessly against his fingers.
Then Wood, speeding toward the younger boy, half-blinded by tears; seized Harry around the neck and sobbed unrestrainedly into his shoulder. Harry felt two large thumps as Fred and George hit them; then Angelina's, Alicia's, and Katie's voices, "We've won the Cup! We've won the Cup!" Tangled together in a many-armed hug, the Gryffindor team sank, yelling hoarsely, back to earth as Lucy flew to the teachers box to retrieve the Quidditch cup.
She didn't bother to look at the Headmaster, though she shared a brilliant grin with Remus Lupin. As Lucy turned to the pitch where a sea of red and goal swarmed the team she caught sight of the Slytherin team trudging back to the locker rooms, Marcus Flint lingered at the door of the locker room and smiled fondly back at Wood before dispersing from sight.
Wave upon wave of crimson supporters was pouring over the barriers onto the field. Hands were raining down on their backs. The rest of the Gryffindor team were hoisted onto the shoulders of the crowd.
"Yeh beat 'em, Harry, yeh beat 'em! Wait till I tell Buckbeak!" Hagrid told Harry thunderously.
There was Percy, jumping up and down like a maniac, all dignity forgotten and Professor McGonagall was sobbing harder even than Wood, wiping her eyes with an enormous Gryffindor flag.
Lucy, as she handed the cup to Wood, who kissed it and hugged it tightly to his chest before passing it to a jumping Harry Potter, was pulled into a tight hug by the Quidditch Captian.
"I won Ms!" He exclaimed, tears running down his face.
"I know Mr. Wood, you deserve it! Though you might want to wipe your eyes, there's someone I want you to meet!" Lucy said over the loud crowd. Oliver Wood, confused, listened as Lucy lead him into the stands where an older man with a large handlebar mustache sat.
"Oliver Wood I want you to meet Robert Oberstine, he's the Puddlemere United scout." Robert stood and Oliver looked at the man speechless.
"It's nice to meet you son, I hear you want to play for the team…"
May 22, 1994
From the moment Lucy had walked into Remus Lupin's office the Defense Professors lips had been pressed against her own, his hands wandered under her shirt as her own were planted on each side of his face, his teeth pulled at her bottom lip and her faintest tracked higher and higher until they were knitted in his hair, pulling at his roots.
Every time Lucy tugged at his hair Remus Lupin kissed her harder.
Lucy was shoved up against the closed office door as Remus pressed his knee between her legs, Lucy rolled her hips against his thigh and a moan vibrated loudly from the back of her throat as she did so. Remus pulled at her bra, ripping the white lace accidentally, not even flinching at the sound of torn fabric, his thumb and forefinger caught Lucy's nipple and pinched it almost painfully.
Lucy arched her back and Remus' teeth, as his lips trailed along her skin, scraped along the side of her neck as he continued to fondle her breast; Lucy's breathing was ragged as Remus pressed against her harder, before he lead her— he walked backwards as he lead Lucy —to his desk. He kissed her once more, harder then the last time.
Roughly, as the backs of his tights hit the edge of his desk, Remus detached his lips from Lucy's and spun them so that he were behind her; her arms braced her as he rutted against her; she could feel his swollen cock through his pants, pressed up against the curve of her ass.
She wanted him, something inside her craved him like this, rough and unforgiving. A part of her, one she'd never cared to admit she ever listened too, a voice that didn't sound like her mother but like the usual voice that talked her into bad decisions wanted Remus Lupin to leave his mark on her just as the rest of the world had.
Remus kissed the crook of Lucy's neck, bitting it but not— never —breaking the skin, and she nearly screamed; though she did let out a stream of pleasurable whimpers as Remus' hands slipped back under her shirt only to slide out once more.
"No—" she whimpered, her eyes closed as she molded herself against him, she could feel all of him against her, "—Please." Her lip quivered
"Pants down now," Remus said hotly against her ear; Lucy could feel him working his own belt buckle and towing it hazardous to the ground before retching his pants and boxers down. Lucy did the same, her robe pants pooled around her calves as Remus once more bent her over, Lucy braced herself against her forearms. His fingers clutched the skin of her waist, his fingers bit into her skin and slammed himself inside of her.
Lucy wasn't quite sure if she moaned or yelled, only that she saw white.
Roughly Remus worked himself against Lucy's hips, grunting as he did so. Lucy rested her forehead against her balled up fists, her bottom lip caught in between her teeth. One of Remus' hands tracked locker, past her navel and, as he contained to slam in and out of her, fumble until he found her clit.
One of Lucy's hands moved from the wooden desk, to under the collar of her shirt as she started to play with her breast the way Remus had. She envisioned her hands to be his own.
Lucy jolted forward as Remus touched the bundle of nervous, her breath caught in her throat as the werewolf pressed against it harshly rubbing it.
A hot iron coil tightened in the pit of Lucy's belly as the toes in her shoes started to curl and her nails scratched against the wood of Remus' desk.
"Oh Merlin!" She panted, fire flooded her veins as her pleasure reached high, and higher and—Lucy pushed back against Remus as she tumbled over the edge of ecstasy, Remus following shortly after.
They stayed like that, Remus half slumped over a heavily breathing Lucy who laid against the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors desk. Slowly Lucy moved so that though her pants were around her ankles she was sitting on Remus' desk. She could feel their fluids sliding out of her and onto the desk.
Remus leaned on one hand and pressed his forehead to Lucy's.
"I'm sorry," Remus muttered, "I didn't ask permission, I was rough—" Lucy pecked his lips reassuringly.
"There's an eclipse in a few days," he told her.
"I know." Softly he pecked her lips,
"Again, sorry."
"Make it up to me in the shower?" Lucy grinned mischievously, Remus grinned roguishly at her. He toed off his shoes and pants and tried to pick Lucy up romantically as couples did in books and movies only to drop her back onto the desk. Lucy giggled into his shoulder, she slid off the desk and kissed his chin.
"Just lead the way you dork."
"Whatever you say love."
May 26, 1994
Despite the wolfsbane potion he'd been taking Remus Lupin had broken his leg, shattered his right elbow, hand and collarbone and nearly torn out his own throat due to the eclipse that had happened the night before. Lucy nearly asleep sat in the uncomfortable Hospital wing chair next to his bedside, his good hand in her own.
No matter how many times Madam Pomfrey had tried to urge her back to bed Lucy couldn't leave him to wake up alone in the Hospital Wing alone. Next to the picked out plate of food Sprout had brought her sat a pile of papers Lucy had graded on Remus' behalf sat piled on the wheely table behind her and the flowers and add-libs Penny and Tonks had sent him as get well gifts after hearing about an upcoming eclipse.
Remus shifted with a painful groan and Lucy jerked forward, awake.
"Hey, hey, hey," Lucy cooed soothingly, her thumb rubbing reassuring circles on his arm.
"What—" He rasped, "—happened."
"Don't speak okay, you hurt yourself really bad last night," Lucy said, "Madam Pomfrey says it'll be a few days before you move, let alone speak."
"—Classes—"
"—Stop speaking!" Lucy scolded. "I spoke to McGonagall already, we'll both be substituting for you so don't worry alright? Just rest."
"Why are you here?" Lucy frowned hurt.
"I care about you, you moron" She said woundedly. "And what part of you nearly tore your own throat are isn't getting in your head?" The corners of Remus' lip twitched.
"You need sleep," he said.
"And you need to zip it before Pomfrey comes out and beats you to death," Lucy said fondly. Remus tried to smile at that only to grimace due to the pain. He settled more deeply into the Hospital cot and looked at Lucy, their fingers entertained like the vines of ivy that lined sections of the Castle walls and looked at her.
"Care about you too," he said softly before he shut his eyes once more, falling into a deep sleep, leaving Lucy to grin stupidly in her seat as she gazed down at him.
I love you.
a/n: FIRST OFF, HEY PEOPLE HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! Second, only one more chapter until POA is over (but i am writing for while series so technically its 48 more chapters to go) so make sure to leave me comments, to favorite and follow and I hope you guys enjoyed!