A/N Reworked this chapter a bit; some slight changes. Lucky has had some limited exposure to sparring before this point; this was really supposed to be about her discomforts about growing up ultimately, so wanted to make sure it reflected that better. JCWriter

Chapter Fourteen

Weekend Diversions

As much as Lucky hated being 'volunteered' for anything, Lucky had so much back homework to do by the time the next Friday rolled around that she was glad for a valid excuse not to work on it. Five books stacked one on the other and a backpack full of scrolls in arm as she trudged the stairs, she was glad when she finally got to the painting of the Fat Lady.

"If at first you don't succeed, try following the rules," Lucky declared. With a subtle smirk, the Fat Lady let her pass. Lucky shook her head as she entered, muttering under her breath not for the first time about the 'stupid' password, and lugged the stuff up to her room, depositing them on top of her footlocker. As she stood rubbing her arms, she heard her name called and peered out to see Tim at the bottom of the steps.

"Professor Craw wanted me to remind you about sparring tonight," called up.

"I know, I know! I'll be up there after dinner," Lucky said, scowling over someone else being asked to remind her in the first place.

"You might want to go ahead and change out of your robes anyhow, you won't want to do forms in that," he suggested. "Nobody's likely to say anything at dinner about it."

Lucky went back inside and changed, hurrying down to catch up with her other housemates for dinner. It made her feel a better when quite a number of them including all the Weasleys at the table had changed to simple t-shirts and pants as well.

"It feels wrong participating in any activities considering how far behind I am," Connie admitted, picking at her meal.

"It's not just you. I don't know any single student that's keeping up with it," Reggie said. "It's insane, really. I hope they don't expect us to have decent marks in order to attend the Spectral Ball this year, or the only people going will be the ghosts."

"They'd better not, I already promised Sir Nicholas," Kay said.

"What? I'm surprised you're not going with Terrence," Tim said coyly.

"You know as well as I do it's practically tradition now for Nick to ask the girl prefect of Gryffindor to go. Besides it's an honor to go with a ghost, really, I can get a date anytime."

"Yeah, sure you could," Reggie snickered. Kay leaned over and whacked him on the back of the head.

"I don't see you with a date yet," Kay said.

"Give me time, give me time," Reggie said smoothly. "Maybe there'll be some likely girls to scope tonight at sparring."

"More than likely it'll mostly be boys like always," Tim said, turning around to look at some of the other tables. "Looks like Lena might be going, Connie."

"Too bad they don't mix years in the ring thing, I'd rather like to flatten her," Connie said. Lucky shook her head but didn't say anything.

"You're still mad at her?" Tim tsked.

"Aren't you?" Reggie challenged him.

"She's still family, after all," Tim said. "Although it's weird I haven't heard so much as a hello from her in the hall since she's been here. She talks to you though, doesn't she Lucky?"

"Sure, she studies with us a lot," Lucky said. "An' I think you guys should stop acting like jerks and treat her better than that. She don't need it from both sides."

"You just don't understand," Connie sighed at her.

"No, chica, you're the one that's not understanding this time," Lucky said, getting up. "She may be your sister, but she's my friend, and if you try to flatten her, I'm flattening you, and I won't need a wand to do it."

"That tough girl attitude doesn't work with me, anymore, Lucky Snape," Connie warned her. "You even think of laying a hand on me, I'll go straight to Craw about it, then we'll see who's so tough."

"Fine," Lucky said with a dangerous smile. "Just don't e'spect to make it there with all your teeth." Connie's face grew red as Lucky walked out of the hall.

"The nerve of her! Tim, why didn't you deduct points or something?"

"First off, it's not your place to say, Constance, and second, she wasn't the only one jawing a moment ago. In fact, you've been doing quite a lot of it since we got here, and I really think you ought to cool it," Tim said. "Especially tonight. You go in a ring like that and Craw will have you benched in no time."

"We'll see about that," Connie said, then quickly finished her meal.

Ambrose ran into the small gym room not long after Lucky came in. She was warily looking at the hands sticking out of the wall, debating whether or not to put her wand in.

"Hiya Lucky! Gosh, you eat fast!" he said, surrendering his wand. Reluctantly, Lucky did the same. "I hope you don't mind, I won't be able to meet at the library until after lunch tomorrow. Professor Scribe found out I couldn't do Quidditch and cornered me about joining the choir."

"You?" Lucky said in disbelief.

"Well, she needed more sopranos," Ambrose explained. "I don't suppose you sing?"

"Me? Gimme a break, Bill! What, they only got pansies in the choir,perdedores grandes. You really wanna be seen with them?"

"It's notthat bad," Ambrose said uncomfortably. "Dale Chance is even in the choir."

"You just made my point for me, chico," Lucky smirked, walking over to where Professor Andrew was handing out practice wands. "I thought you wanted to work on that history book project of yours."

"I have to do my real history assignment first," Ambrose admitted in a low voice, taking a wand.

"All right, everyone, let's line up for sparring forms!" Jennifer called from the front, giving them all a warm smile. "Seventh years in the front, then sixth and so on, first years in the back with Professor Andrew." There were only a small handful of first years, so Lucky found herself lined up next to Helena, who grinned at her quite grateful the two of them were there. The Coventry boys were both next to her, but they didn't pay attention to Lucky. Instead they were both eyeing Ambrose with frowns. On the other side of Ambrose, Connie was busy eyeing her sister. Lucky sighed, realizing it was probably going to be a long night. She turned around to see that, after a bit of jostling, Dale was right in front of her, with Laura and Lindsay glaring at him for having been nudged to make room. Dale turned around and winked at Lucky.

"Is there any club you aren't in?" Lucky asked him.

"Yeah, I had to drop journalism. Homework, you know," Dale explained. Laura jabbed him in the ribs to get him to turn around.

"All right, everyone," Jennifer said, trying to get their attention. "Since it's the first of the year we'll do a couple basic forms together, then the first years and first time members will go with Professor Andrew and we'll continue with something a bit more challenging. Stances for a basic box defense, come on, enough chatter, you'll have time for that later."

Lucky really wished they could skip that part and head on to the sparring ring, feeling quite awkward as she attempted to keep up with those in front of her. Things got a bit confusing after that for Lucky as she immediately lost track of what they were doing, and soon felt a pair of hands on her.

"Relax, Lucky, you seem to be over-correcting yourself," Andrew murmured to her, gently facing her in the direction of the other first and second years. "Don't try to keep up with the upper years, watch what we're doing back here."

Andrew moved on to Helena then, who grinned at him nervously. Lucky sighed, wishing they could just get to the fun part as everyone turned in the opposite direction and she copied them. It was then with some annoyance that she realized on the other side of her, Ambrose was having no trouble keeping up, careening his neck to try and see Jennifer while keeping up with their movements. Apparently, Andrew noticed it as well, for soon he was shifted closer to the front while Andrew worked with the newer students.

Jennifer gave Andrew a cursory glance and asked everyone to repeat it, a few soft moans heard through the other students.

Lucky, although she found she could copy the other younger students now, felt extremely conscientious about how awkward it felt. In fact, she didn't remember feeling quite so unsure about her physical condition during football over the summer; something was different about her now, and it wasn't only the style that was unfamiliar to her. As they turned around to finish the box, Lucky got a good look at herself in one of the wall mirrors and stopped short.

"Something wrong, Lucky?" Andrew asked softly.

"I don't wanna do this anymore. It's stupid," Lucky declared. "We all look like a buncha wusses, or somethin'."

"Don't worry about how it looks, you'll improve," Andrew murmured. "You'll be glad of them later on."

"Not likely,Mano," Lucky said flatly. "I don't see what this has to do with sparring, an' I'm not doin' this ballet de la Karate Kid stuff."

"Problem, Professor Andrew?"

Lucky looked up to see everyone was looking back curiously at her now, and Jennifer had a hand on her hip and an extremely disapproving look on her face.

"I've got it, continue, Professor Craw," Andrew said with a smile but yanked Lucky away from the lineup and pulled her to the corner. "Look, Lucky, I know this isn't easy the first few years. In fact, we probably should have made more time to work on this over the summer," he admitted in a low voice, glancing back to see that Jennifer had sent a couple of the seventh years to the back to watch the others. "But you have got to learn it. This isn't something you're going to be able to opt out of."

"What? It's a stupid club, I don't have to be here…"

"Yes, you do," Andrew said firmly. "It may be an elective for some of the students here, but you cannot afford that luxury. You're a Snape now, and you must learn to defend yourself."

"I can already defend myself," Lucky snorted. "Why can't we just go right to sparring and forget this dumb block and stance stuff? I don't have to do some sissy dance to pull out a wand! There ain't no way I'm going to humiliate myself doing that crap, it's degrading! I worked too hard to create an image to stoop to that sorta lame ass shit."

"Sit in the corner," Andrew said, standing up straight when she sat down and folded her arms stubbornly. He was still attempting to figure out how to further handle the matter when he saw movement and did a double take when Severus strode in.

Jennifer was so surprised she forgot where she was in the routine, and cleared her throat, asking them to take their stances before turning her attention to Severus.

"Yes, Headmaster?" Jennifer asked, her expression changing even before he spoke.

"Might I borrow your club and some of your students for a moment? It won't take long, I have a meeting tonight."

"Of course, go right ahead," Jennifer said with a curled lip.

Severus glanced over the seventh year students with a speculative frown before he began pointing a few out and motioning them to step to the other side near where Andrew was watching intently and Lucky with open wariness. After a moment he made eye contact with Andrew who immediately walked over and stood with the group. After one more quick word with Jennifer, Severus had them line up in offensive stances while Jennifer arranged the rest of the students so they could see.

All at once the group began to move, falling back on their right heel with some silent signal that Lucky had failed to see, turning together almost completely synchronous to each other. Even in his dress robes, no one could mistake Severus' catlike grace and flowing movements, and Lucky couldn't help but be reluctantly impressed at his completing some of the more complex turns not having really dressed for the occasion. At one point the rhythm seemed to slow ever so slightly when even Andrew seemed a step off the pace, but the Headmaster seemed to sense it and corrected it, the group turning fluid once more.

On the back wall, some of the younger students nudged each other and grinned at Professor Craw, who was leaning against one of the mirrored walls with a wistful, dreamy smile on her face, while most of the sixth and seventh year students watched with careful and critical eyes. At last a complex spin and kneel finished the set, and the club broke into a loud roar of applause, Jennifer immediately joining in.

"Five points to the students who helped in the demonstration, Professor Craw," Severus said, adjusting his robes.

"Absolutely! Thank you for the demonstration, Headmaster," Jennifer said, walking back to her position.

"Quite all right. Demonstration is over; back to your positions now. All of you," he added, his eyes flicking over at Lucky. Reluctantly Lucky stood and found her place in the back line, well aware that Severus was still watching when Jennifer suggested they try the basic box defense again. Over halfway through, Severus slipped out the door, and Jennifer couldn't help share a private grin with Andrew before they broke into groups for sparring. Neither was surprised when Lucky dropped her wand less than ten seconds after entering the ring.

Lucky still felt a slight twinge in her back and a bruised pride when she settled at a table in the library the next day, hatching dark thoughts in her mind about how delightful it would be to see the gym blown up as well. She took care of her Arithmantics first, then set it aside for Potions. Now that it was mostly formulas, she was actually doing better than she had the year before so was a bit disappointed to find out they were going to have a frustratingly safe lab that week.

It was as she was finishing the first page that Helena arrived, looking unusually troubled as she sat down with her heavy Transfiguration book and folded her arms on it, leaning her head down on them.

"I heard there's this talent where you can put a book under your pillow at night, and wake up the next morning and you remember reading it," Lucky said casually. Helena grinned.

"I could use that talent right about now," Helena said, sitting up. "Where's Ambrose?"

"Choir," Lucky said, rolling her eyes. "He keeps that stuff up he's never gonna get his homework done."

"He's got to be doing better than I am," Helena sighed. "I swear, Lucky, I was half tempted to turn in my books for copying this weekend."

"What would you wanna do that for, when you're showin' em up in class doin' your own," Lucky asked.

"I'm under a lot of pressure," Helena said carefully.

"You want pressure? Try growing up in New York," Lucky said with a grin, starting on the next page. "They have something on you, or something?"

"Not exactly," Helena said. "Actually…actually, I'm a little worried about Ambrose," she admitted. Lucky looked up from her work with a frown. "They keep asking a lot of nosy questions and they're not too satisfied about me not knowing the answers to them."

"Like what?" Lucky frowned.

"Well, mostly they've been asking about how he snuck in last year," Helena admitted. "See, they think he had, well, staff help getting in, and that the board knows he probably did, only they can't prove it…"

"Hold it, hold it! You tell anybody about this? I mean like, staff?" Lucky asked.

"No, of course not! Are you crazy?" Helena hissed. "Slytherin don't rat on other Slytherin, Lucky."

"Well, if I were you, I'd go to somebody, Madame Brittle maybe, because it ain't their place to be accusing staff of anything," Lucky said.

"That's the thing, they aren't exactly…they want me to find out and prove it one way or the other," Helena whispered. Lucky stared at her.

"Well, tell them where to stuff it then. Or tell them the truth, that Ambrose don't talk about it," Lucky said.

"I did," Helena said. "But they still keep pestering me about it. They know we study together. Do you think he's covering for someone, Lucky?"

"It doesn't matter what I think," Lucky shrugged. "What matters is what you wanna do about this."

"Well, what would you do?" Helena asked. Lucky thought about it.

"I'd go to Professor Snape," Lucky admitted.

"Easy for you to say, he's relation for you," Helena muttered.

"You could go to Weasley, then."

"I can't, she's a Gryffindor!" Helena said. Lucky stared at her. Helena looked glum.

"Wanna switch houses?" Helena asked dryly.

"Let's see, Slytherin don't tell on Slytherin, so I could go over there and pummel them into the ground without them able to tell on me? It's got potential," Lucky admitted. Helena couldn't help but grin at that, chuckling softly and shaking her head.

"That would be fine until they pulled a wand, then what would you do?" Helena asked.

"Hey, that match last night was just a fluke. I wasn't ready," Lucky said defensively. Helena looked at her dubiously. "Look, whatever Bill did to get in last year, it's none of our business, and it's even less their business, since they're not even friends. Besides, we got more important things to worry about, like if it's possible to get through this year without failing every class."

"I think I'm passing Charms and Defense," Helena said brightly.

"I'm decent in Potions and Arithmantics," Lucky nodded. "Can't speak much for the others, though."

"Yeah, me either," Helena admitted. "I predict we're going to have one rough Christmas if this keeps up."

"Right, true," Lucky agreed.

"Hey, guys! Sorry I'm late," Ambrose said, hopping into the seat beside them and putting Hogwarts, a History down with a thud. "I went to talk to Janus Craw after practice about the book…"

"Shouldn't you be working on your actual homework, Bill?" Lucky frowned at him.

"Don't worry, I still have tomorrow to finish that," Ambrose reassured her.

"Your choice, it's your marks," Lucky shrugged.

"Anyhow, you didn't let me finish," Ambrose said impatiently, sitting down and leaning over the table. "I was telling him about having trouble researching some of the facts past when the Sentinels were alive, and I asked which ghost to go to next. And guess what? I got one better!" he said smugly. "Did you know there was a vampire in the castle?" Helena looked up with interest, while Lucky looked at him dubiously. "He comes in after dusk every night, apparently Uncle Snape called him in as a painting's expert."

"Francis Pyther," Helena said with a nod. "Very famous wizard painter. There's a couple of his in the Burrow that he gave my grandparents as gifts."

"Just what kind of vampire are we talkin' about here?" Lucky asked. Ambrose sighed at her with exasperation.

"What do you mean what kind?" he asked. "A vampire, vampire. Anyhow, he's about six hundred and he's painted a lot of the paintings in the school since then, so I can ask him about the stuff in here that doesn't sit right with me and see if I can find out the truth behind it. Janus is going to try and arrange for me to meet him tonight. You guys wanna go?"

"I can't afford to go anywhere until I have this homework done," Helena said somberly. "Besides, won't you get in trouble?"

"I won't stay out past curfew or anything, and it's for a school project…"

"It isn't. This is something you took on yourself to do. I bet you don't have a single professor that knows about it," Helena said knowingly.

"Well…Professor Scribe knows, sort of. At least…she did comment on me about marking up my book and I told her it was for research," Ambrose admitted. "And she said she'd be interested in seeing whatever it was I was researching that I felt the need to mark up my book for, so you see, I'm practically almost duty bound to finish it now."

"That's some logic you have there, chico," Lucky said expressionlessly.

"So are you going?"

"Somebody's gotta go and keep you out of trouble," Lucky decided.

"You're going to end up losing your houses more points," Helena warned them.

"What do we care? Our house aren't behind us any more than yours is behind you," Lucky said.

"We'll go right after dinner," Ambrose grinned. "I need to go pull out some research material for the years I'm missing."

"So how just how many classes are you failing because of this project of yours?" Helena frowned at him scolding. Ambrose looked at her in confusion.

"I wouldn't fail a class for anything," Ambrose said. "Are you kidding? My Mum would kill me!" Lucky and Helena gazed at each other thoughtfully as he got up, then suddenly had a renewed interest in finishing their work.

Before they knew it, it was dinner time, and without so much as a passing remark in the conversations of the Gryffindors around her, Lucky piled her food together in her normal fashion and got out of there as quickly as possible, a bit surprised when Helena came out a few minutes later.

"Thought you weren't going?" Lucky asked, and Helena simply shrugged.

"Changed my mind," she said.

"This don't have anything to do with what we talked about today, does it?" Lucky frowned. Helena shook her head. Just then, Ambrose came out, grinning at them when he saw them standing there, a book bag over his shoulder. "So, where we goin', Bill?"

"Not sure yet, Janus said to meet him in the stairwell," Ambrose said, and Lucky gestured for him to lead on.

"I've never met a vampire before," Helena admitted in a low voice. "You?"

"Nah, but I've seen a lot a people who've wanted to be, back home," Lucky admitted.

"Why would anybody want to be?" Helena asked curiously. Lucky shrugged at her.

"I think it's cool," Ambrose said with a grin. Helena and Lucky looked at each other ruefully.

"Why are we following an eight year old again?" Helena sighed.

"'Cuz he's the one who knows where the bloodsucker is," Lucky reminded her. "Anyone bring any garlic?"

"Oh, Lucky, I'm pretty sure that's just a Muggle tale," Helena chided her.

"Then how come I never heard of an Italian vampire?" Lucky asked. She got hushed then as they approached the stairwell and Ambrose cautiously went up a few steps. He must have seen something then, because he started taking the stairs faster after that, the two girls following close behind.

Finally they saw the incorporeal form of Janus Craw standing on one of the landings, scrutinizing the girls with his arms folded.

"They helping you with this project too?" he asked Ambrose suspiciously.

"Nah, they just were wondering what a real vampire looks like," Ambrose grinned.

"And after you meet him, you'll still be wondering," Janus said flatly. "Follow."

Eagerly Ambrose did as he was told with Helena and Lucky walking a bit more cautious towards the rear. They entered a narrow corridor, and Lucky wondered if they weren't somewhere near some of the staffs private rooms. Suddenly, Janus turned and walked through a pair of metal reinforced doors and left the three of them staring at it.

"Hope he didn't expect us to do that," Helena said. But a moment later they heard a clang and one of the doors opened, and the three of them saw a slender, dark-haired man with skin so pale it was almost grey, blinking in surprise.

"You wanted to see me?" Francis asked, glancing over each one before his eyes settled on Ambrose. "You seem a bit young to be a student…"
"Ambrose Bailey sir," Ambrose said with a warm smile and holding out his hand. Francis Pyther's eyes widened and he opened the door for them.

"I'm so sorry! Nobody told me you had been admitted to Hogwarts already! Please come in," Francis said, opening the door wide. "You are the student doing the research on discrepancies on Hogwarts, a History?"

"That's me," Ambrose agreed. "And these are my friends, Lena and Lucky."

"Mr. Francis Pyther," he said cordially, showing them in. Lucky only took a few steps in before she started gazing at all the paintings in the room, realizing as she gawked at them that quite a few were gawking back at her.

"Miercoles!" Lucky murmured in awe. "So this is where all the missing paintings have gone?"

"No, no, just some we're simply attempting to protect from the painting sickness," Francis explained briefly.

"Ya, the whole thing reminds me of like a computer virus or somethin'," Lucky admitted.

"What's that?" Helena asked her.

"Well…it could be a lot of things, really," Lucky said, not quite sure she could explain. "Some are made to breach a system, some are made to shut it down or steal information, or sometimes it's caused by bad code or a glitch. Who knows?"

"Considering I don't even know what you're talking about, who knows is a good question," Helena agreed.

"Tell me more about this project of yours, Ambrose," Francis said.

"Well, it started pretty much on the first day of school, when we were reading the back history on the founders and their apprentices," Ambrose explained, handing him the book and his notes so far. Francis pulled up a stool and sat down to look at it. "It confused me, because I've heard Corey and his friends talking about the Sentinels and some of the stuff they did when they were in school, and none of it seemed to match. Not to mention as far as this book is concerned, the Chamber of Secrets is just a legend!"

"Yes, most of this book was written some time before all of that came out," Francis admitted, glancing over all the marked pages. "Years of research went to making this, you know…most of these stories were spread out in tomes and tomes of material, it was quite an astounding compilation."

"I agree, it is amazing," Ambrose agreed. Lucky gave them a look indicating she was less than impressed. "But all they did for this edition was stick in an afterward of the last thirty years, and didn't fix anything! And even the last thirty years has stuff in it I'm not sure is quite right either. Anyhow, it drives me absolutely batty taking tests and knowing I have to answer wrong on some of this stuff…er, no offense…"

"None taken," Francis said, picking through the book with amusement.

"So do you want to know where you're at?" Ambrose asked.

"I'm in here?" Francis said with surprise. "I didn't know she had put me in."

"Sure, I have it marked, it's in one of the appendixes under 'famous alumni during the Renaissance period,'" Ambrose said, flipping back to the appendix and thumbing through several pages of it until he pointed to one of the entries. "'Francis Marion Pyther, 1452-1475 - present, Son of Michael Marion Pyther (wizard painter) and Matilda Bertran Pyther (witch philosopher.) House: Hufflepuff. Classical artist, best known for his works in oil within Hogwarts itself. Vampiric, currently lives in Hogsmeade.' Well, for one thing, we do know you don't live in Hogsmeade anymore," Ambrose mused, adding another chalk mark to the entry.

"Well, if you are going to get that specific, Ambrose, had I any say in the matter I would have it specify that I simply graduated from Hufflepuff," Francis said. "But I was sorted into Gryffindor." All three of them stared at him in surprise.

"You were sorted into another house?" Helena said. "But how did you end up a Hufflepuff then?"

"Well, I rather didn't get along with my house, you see, and it got to the point…to make a long story short," Francis said, thinking back a moment as he handed Ambrose back the book. "I was easily startled as a boy, and back then, Gryffindors tended to be…well, brutes, actually," Francis admitted. "Sons of knights and that sort of thing, with codes of honor that best suited their temperament, using it as an excuse to pick fights. Back then, dueling often involved being mounted on a flying mount, and if you ask me, Quidditch is tame compared to some of the goings on back then. No one was really quite sure what I was doing there, a poor son of struggling painter of no noble birth who fainted at the sheer sight of blood. Headmaster Muldoon thought it was perhaps a sign of the changing times and simply accepted it at face value, but I'm afraid the intellectual revolution the Professor so plainly saw coming was one the Gryffindors of that day and age planned to fight, and I quickly found myself the target." Francis frowned a moment, shaking his head. "Actually, I'd rather not get into just how bad it got. Other houses called me the 'Fulbert of Gryffindor,' which was most decidedly uncomplimentary. The Professors all kept telling me to make the best of it, until one day they caught me unawares in the hall and charmed my shadow, turning it into a slathering monster. In terror I ran from it, forgetting how easy it would have been for me just to step in a closet or something and get rid of it…I was afraid of the dark back then as well," he admitted bitterly. "I let the thing chase me all the way up the Astrology Tower…and right off the edge of it. Had their not been an animagus professor who could turn into a roc nearby at the time, I'd have died for sure."

"A roc?" Lucky asked.

"Giant sort of eagle, they're extinct now," Helena explained.

"Anyhow, that was the final straw for old Muldoon, and he moved me to Hufflepuff the moment he heard the whole story of what happened. I was a lot happier there," Francis admitted. "But I've never forgotten the utter disappointment in Muldoon's face when he had to move me. I'm not really even sure whether it was directed at me personally or Gryffindor house, but it's one of those moments in my life where I wondered what things would have been like had I stayed. Perhaps I would have developed some mettle, and not blundered into that pack of vampires when I was touring Europe to learn painting techniques."

"Yeah, but then that'd mean you'd be dead from old age centuries ago, though," Ambrose said, "and then I wouldn't be here hoping you'll help me with this!"

"Very well, Ambrose, so long as it's all right with the Headmaster and it doesn't interfere with your other studies," Pyther said. Ambrose grimaced.

"I have to get permission from the Headmaster?" Ambrose asked.

"Ambrose, I'm willing to help, but I'm certainly not sticking my neck out for it," Pyther said.

"Vampire sticking his neck out for it. Funny," Lucky said. Helena rolled her eyes.

"I may even be able to suggest some ghosts to go over the three hundred years you don't have covered," Pyther mused, glancing towards the wall. "Or even a painting or two."

"Did you paint many of the ones in here?" Helena asked.

"Oh, quite a few of them," Francis admitted with a smile.

"I like these pictures of Jackie and the Professor," Lucky said with a grin. "They act a lot like they do at home sometimes when they think nobody's watchin'."

"Jackie?" Francis asked.

"Sorry, Professor Craw, I meant," Lucky said. Francis frowned at her in confusion. "I still call her Jackie at home because that's the name I knew her by in New York before they took me in."

"You're Fortuna Snape?" Francis asked in alarm.

"Call me Lucky! Nobody calls me that but the Professor," Lucky said defensively.

"Well, it was nice meeting all of you children, so sorry you have to rush off," Francis said abruptly, getting up and quickly nudging them towards the door. "Very nice of you to call, but I really have a lot to do here, you know, school business and all that. Don't forget to get permission next time, Ambrose, and um…come alone," he added as he shoved them out the door and shut it. The three of them stared at the door, hearing the clang of a lock behind them.

"What in the blazes was all of that about?" Helena asked. Lucky sniffed at herself experimentally, then shrugged. "Are all vampires that weird?"

"You know, I almost forgot he was supposed to be a vampire," Lucky said. "He's just so…artistic," she said, not being able to come up with an English word that fit what she wanted to say.

"Never mind that, how am I going to get permission from Snape to work on this?" Ambrose asked. "Lucky, do you think…"
"Oh, no, I'm not gonna do your con job for you," Lucky said. "If I were you, I'd go to Scribe first with what you got so far and hope she thinks its worth doing, cuz he ain't gonna listen unless it's some sort of official project."

"I can't see him letting you do it if you run behind on your homework either," Helena put in as they walked down the corridor. "But honestly, I don't think you can keep up with it, not for very long. Maybe you should just hold off on it."

"No, that'd just drive me nuts," Ambrose said.

"I think you're almost there already," Helena teased. "All right, Ambrose. But maybe we should clean up your notes and things…maybe if she sees what you have so far, she'll be more open to the idea."

"Great, let's get to work on it tomorrow then," Ambrose said, sounding a bit more hopeful. Lucky sighed and followed them down the stairs, more certain than ever she wasn't going to get her homework done by the time the weekend was over.