Lucy marched down the hallway, students leaning slightly away from her. She smiled up at them, and they cringed further back. As soon as she was out of sight, her smile slipped off her face to reveal the true glare.
Neville cringed behind her, his wrist captured in Lucy's python grip.
"Sorry," he whispered miserably.
She swung to the side and slid into an empty classroom; with a wave of her hand, the door shut and locked barely behind Hermione and Blaise. Another wave and a string of privacy charms were erected.
"OK, someone explain to me what happened in Lupin's class. Boggarts right?" Lucy said, without turning around. Instead, she marched to the chalkboard at the front of the class and wrote BOGGARTS in all capital letters. Beneath it she wrote Lupin and Neville.
"Won't bother asking how you know that but not what actually happened," Hermione muttered, before speaking up, "Well, Neville's boggart was a bit...uh...personal. Not really fair, everyone else was like Weasley's spiders, or clowns, the normal."
"I assume your biggest fear wasn't Professor Snape?" Lucy clarified.
Neville looked up from where he had sat miserably on the floor with his back against the wall, legs tucked into his chest and chin resting on his knees, "No, course not? Why would he be my biggest fear? I've been facing him for the last two years."
"Right, so what exactly happened to make everyone fear me again!" Lucy asked, perhaps bellowing slightly by the end.
"Such a temper," Blaise complained, sounding bored which really wasn't fair because all three of them had the class together. Only Lucy was out of the loop.
Lucy turned to Neville, "I'm not mad at you of course, you can't help your fears. But I do want to know what's going on."
"Oh sit down, I'd better tell it," Hermione said. "Professor Lupin had Parvati go first. Hers was just a mummy, Lupin had her dress it up like a ballerina. Not very scary all in all. We did several, probably about five before it was Neville's turn. It...well that is…"
Hermione visibly squared her shoulders, "Sorry to say, but it was me and Blaise."
Lucy's eyebrows furrowed, "Excuse me? Neville, your worst fear is Hermione and Blaise."
Blaise put a hand on her shoulder, "You should've let her finish. It wasn't us he was afraid of, but what we were saying. We were not saying polite things to our amico."
She noticed he had seemingly slipped into Italian without realizing, a tell of her old friend that he was more upset than he had been trained to reveal with his expressions.
"What were you saying?" she asked slowly.
Hermione shot an apologetic look at Neville, who waved a hand without lifting his head. Mumbled from his legs, he said, "I think I prefer it this way. Thanks for not talking about it behind my back."
"Of course not. We were saying really horrid stuff, like that we weren't actually friends with him at all, you made us. That he was worthless, that kind of stuff," Hermione said it all in a hurry.
"That's ridiculous! Neville, I never told them they had to be your friend, they just like you!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Wait, there's more, la mia migliore amica," Blaise said.
She paused, "Neville, did the boggart turn into me then?"
He nodded miserably, his entire countenance that of a kicked dog.
"But it wasn't you. It was like, your evil twin," Hermione said, "Your hair was black instead of white, blacker than Snape's. You looked like you hadn't slept in weeks, with black bags like bruises around your eyes. And your expression, it was mean, hateful really. You walked out with your shoulders back, chin raised arrogantly, and the first thing you said was, 'Kneel.'"
"Kneel? Kind of kinky huh?" She tried a joke to lighten the situation.
Blaise shook his head, "No, definitely not, because then you went on a slight evil tangent about making everyone, muggle, wizard, and magical being kneel before you in submission and loyalty. That was when Professor Lupin cut in. I think he was a little confused beforehand, and it all happened really quickly."
"OK," Lucy took a deep breath, "Thank you for telling me. Neville, don't worry about it. We can't help our worst fears. I will assure you though that I really am not turning into a dark lady. I appreciate the concern though."
Neville looked up shyly, "You really aren't mad?"
"Nah, it's not really any worse than what happened before, like with the chamber last year," Lucy shrugged.
Blaise stepped forward, "Neville, we are really your friends. Not just pretend."
Hermione sat down on the floor next to Neville and wrapped him in a hug, "And you're about as far from useless as they come. Think about how you've stood up to Professor Snape. You're only the second person I've ever met to hug him and live."
Neville straightened slightly, "Thanks guys."
"I'm just sorry your boggart was so personal while everyone else's was mild. Don't forget, we start step three of improving ourselves tomorrow with daily runs around the Great Lake," Lucy said to Neville.
Hermione and Blaise shared a look.
"Excuse us?" Blaise said.
"What, you thought we were just going to stop with getting Neville a new wand and facing his fear of Snape? No, we have tons of steps. Next one is Neville and I getting into shape so we're ready for dueling practice," Lucy said. "Are you guys gonna come along?"
"What time will you be running?" Blaise asked with suspicion.
"Probably around 5am so we have time to get ready for classes then," Lucy said.
"Nope," Blaise said.
"No way am I giving up my morning reading hour for running. I have homework and classes to revise for. Really no time," Hermione said quickly.
Lucy shrugged, "That's alright, we've got this Neville."
"Am I sure I want you to be my friend?" Neville said.
The three gaped at him.
Hermione finally said, "Neville, did you make a joke?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blaise and Hermione were sharing a textbook with their Charms essays on either side of the book as Lucy paced in front of them.
"Do you think the three of them are safe?" she asked the other two.
Blaise raised unamused eyebrows at her, "You said you performed a ritual that would prevent them from physically harming each other through magical or muggle means? How would they not be safe?"
"No, no, I think she has a point this time. Professor Snape can be wicked mean with his tongue, and we've already been discovering that Professor Lupin has a certain way with words himself," Hermione countered, trying to tuck an errant strand of hair behind her ear, revealing dark bags under her eyes.
Lucy hoped that Hermione would again drop some electives at the end of the year and return the blasted time turner.
"Something had to be done. They're some of the only three adults that I trust, and they hate each other," Lucy whined.
"Should we discuss the fact that one of the three she trusts lived at Azkaban for years and is now sneaking into the castle in the guise of a professor's support dog?" Hermione asked Blaise.
"No, I don't have the mental stability today to take any deep dives into Lucy's needed therapy," Blaise retorted.
"Fair," Hermione agreed.
The current pacing of Lucy had been brought on by her latest hairbrained idea which had been brought on by Peter Pettigrew's Halloween attack.
"If only Halloween had gone nicely for once in my entire life, then I wouldn't have had to take such drastic measures," Lucy said.
Pettigrew had slipped into the castle in animagus form, even though it was known he was a rat animagus. Dumbledore claimed he was unable to put anti-animagus wards around the school because of Professor McGonagall.
"Could've given her a sabbatical year," Blaise had muttered when they'd heard that excuse, Lucy sitting at the Slytherin house with him.
Coming in through some unknown hole, Pettigrew had first gone to Gryffindor tower, and slashed through the bedding on Harry's bed. The only saving grace had been that Harry had gone exploring the castle. In finally a good move, Dumbledore had apparently cast safety charms around Harry's room that had caused a flash in the Gryffindor tower and set off an alarm.
Turning back into a mouse, Pettigrew had stumbled out of the tower and headed straight toward Hufflepuff common room, revealing that he had seen Lucy during the capture. She'd been one of the last in the common room, playing Exploding Snap with Alex and a distracted Cedric who was revising for an upcoming test. At the sight of the rat darting through the common room on Halloween Night, Lucy had jumped up, fake wand in her right hand, dagger out in her left.
Pettigrew had started to change back into a human, a horrible snarl on his face, "You!"
"Disgusting rat," she'd snarled back.
Alex and Cedric had jumped up, but they were too slow to draw their wands and Pettigrew disarmed them with a wave of his wand.
"Who are you?" Cedric demanded
"Peter Pettigrew. Stay out of it boys, I'm just here for the girl," he'd told them.
Cedric started to take a step in front of her, "Definitely not going to stay out of you trying to hurt one of my friends."
Alex stepped up on the other side of Lucy, "Right! Hufflepuffs are always loyal, even against an e-e-escaped Death Eater."
Even though the situation was serious, Lucy couldn't help but feel her chest tighten slightly at her friends' reactions. It seemed wrong to her the disrespect Hufflepuffs often received. Loyalty led to a truer bravery than simply seeking out glory.
Perhaps the bigger issue had been Snape and Remus' reactions. Sirius had been predictable, charging straight towards Gryffindor tower and going crazy barking. He'd started to follow the scent toward Hufflepuff, with Remus (prefect that he'd been) realizing where Pettigrew was heading.
Snape had cast his own detection charms and was following a different set of hallways, towards the same location.
When they'd come to a face off in front of the Hufflepuff common room, Sirius had immediately turned snarling towards Snape.
"Here to let your friend out of the castle?" Remus had asked Snape.
"He's hardly a friend of mine, but I can't remember you being apart from him," Snape replied.
Through the open doorway, Lucy called, "Professors, is this really the time for this?"
Pettigrew had paled when he heard Remus and Snape. With a snarl, he shook once and descended back into a rat. Lucy had sent spell after spell at him, but his small form had dodged them all.
"Ogden, detention. We will be working on your aim. Diggory, Russo, detention until you immediately pull your wand in dangerous situations," Snape snarled as he and Remus got stuck in the doorway as they both tried to charge in at the same time. By the time he was all the way into the room, having pushed Remus back out of the doorway, Pettigrew had escaped.
"She's not going to any detentions with you!" Remus had said.
Snape spun on his heel. He tried to peer down at Remus to intimidate him as he was used to doing with the professors, but he seemed to realize at the last second that Remus was about the same height as him. They glared into each other's eyes, Sirius stalking around Remus' legs and glaring up at Snape.
"You have no say in this matter, Lupin," Snape practically hissed, his voice dropping into a deep whisper as it often did when he was most furious.
"Like I'd trust her with you after this. How did Pettigrew get into this castle in the first place?"
"We share no common allegiance! You probably let him in. You or that blasted Black brat," Snape retorted.
"No common allegiance?" Remus snorted.
"Uhm actually-" Lucy tried to interject, but Remus kept going.
"It's not exactly a secret where your true loyalty lies," Remus finished.
Snape smiled cruelly, "Always revealing your ignorance, Lupin. I have no master."
With jerky movements, he had pushed his sleeve up to his shoulder, showing off blindingly white skin, but no dark mark. Lupin's jaw had nearly dropped in surprise.
"Uhm, professors, shouldn't we try to capture Pettigrew before he completely escapes or tell Professor Dumbledore, or something?" Alex cut in, exasperatedly.
"Stay here," Remus had commanded the students and Sirius while Snape had already headed out.
"What do they think we're gonna do, chase after him ourselves?" Lucy snorted to herself, but Alex and Cedric shared glances, "Hey! I'm not gonna go after him, I just want him to leave me alone."
"Why does he want you?" Alex asked.
"Probably because I was the one to capture him and turn him into the ministry," Lucy said, picking up Cedric and Alex's wands and handing them to the boys.
The two boys stared at her.
"Oh, yeah, if that's all," Alex said in a strangled voice.
After that evening, Lucy had decided she needed to figure something out between Snape, Sirius, and Remus. They didn't need to like each other; she knew they had a lot of years of bad blood between them, but they were all on the same side and they needed to at least be able to work together instead of hindering each other.
"It's not like you hadn't been planning this for a while. You asked the twins and I to make Polyjuice potion the first week of school, and you had bought the ingredients over the summer," Hermione's voice snapped Lucy from her thoughts and brought her back to the library.
"I like to be prepared, but I had hoped it wouldn't come to this," Lucy complained as Neville came up to the group and slid into his seat.
"Come to what? Sorry, Professor Sprout had me helping her transplant Devil's Snare," he apologized.
Blaise lazily flicked a page in the book, "Lucy locked Professor Snape and Professor Lupin in a classroom together for the weekend."
Neville paused, "Excuse me?"
"Oh, you heard him correctly," Hermione said, "Now she needs to go tell Dumbledore they'll both be gone without raising suspicions."
Lucy considered it a point in Neville's favor that he accepted all the news with only the slightest paling.
"And how does she plan on accomplishing that?" he asked, voice almost completely normal.
"I had Hermione and the Weasley twins brew me Polyjuice. Earlier, I pretended to be Professor Snape and gave Flint a letter to deliver to Professor Dumbledore. It just says that he'll be at a potions conference for the weekend. My final step will be approaching Dumbledore as Professor Lupin and telling him that I'll be visiting a friend in London for the weekend," Lucy said.
"OK, I can see why you are concerned," Neville said.
"I'm not concerned. Everything is going to work out perfectly," Lucy defended herself.
"You've nearly walked a hole in the carpet from your incessant pacing," Blaise complained.
Lucy stuck her tongue out at him and checked the time, "Alright it's supper time. Time for step three of the bat and the wolf."
On the way to supper, she slipped into a small alcove and dropped a single Remus hair into the small vial of polyjuice. Grimacing at the taste, she downed the entire vial in one shot.
Her features started to transform, pigment adding itself to her hair as it shrunk back into her head. The more startling change was herself shooting upright, all of her features becoming broader. Even her hands went from delicate fingers to the wide, large palm of an adult man with callouses instead of an adolescent girl.
Stepping back into the hallway, she waved at her three friends, "Nice evening eh. On your way to supper?"
"Yes, Professor Lupin," Hermione said.
Blaise grinned, "That's creepy."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. I'll see you at class tomorrow; I must get to the table before Professor Vector takes all of the mashed potatoes," she said in Professor Lupin's voice.
Walking into the Great Hall, she walked confidently up to her normal spot. During the meal, she ate a few of the foods she normally saw Remus eating, trying to avoid as much small talk as possible. About ten minutes before the end of the meal, she went down to Professor Dumbledore.
"Sir?" Professor Lupin's voice said politely.
"Remus, my dear boy, how can I help you?" Dumbledore's eyes only flicked at her once before looking back at the paper's in his hands.
"You had mentioned at the start of the year that we are allowed to take so many personal days on the weekends. I received a message this morning that a friend from Canada I had worked with logging will be in London on holiday. Is it alright if I head to London for the weekend to visit?" she asked.
"Yes, yes, of course, of course. Enjoy the weekend, my boy," Dumbledore said.
She smiled, success.
Before going to bed, she stopped at the classroom. As she had hoped with the sleeping potions she gave them, the three were just waking up. She'd already cast the spell on Sirius to force him out of his animagus form, despite not wanting to reveal his secrets to Snape if he didn't want them revealed.
Snape came awake instantly ready, hand drawing his wand almost before his eyes opened. The glare he sent at Lucy was truly one of his more impressive ones.
"Impetuous brat! What is this?" he snarled at her, immediately blaming her.
She pouted, "Why do you go straight to blaming me?"
"Because it was you, wasn't it?" he snapped.
"Well, yes, but you didn't have to think it was me right away. You could've thought I was rescuing you," she complained.
Remus made an angry noise behind her, "Lucy Ogden, what have you done?"
She stepped back into the doorway of the classroom as all three sat up rubbing their heads slightly.
"This is ridiculous. I know you three have bad blood. I know what happened when you were teenagers. Here's the thing, you're all on the same side now. None of you want to serve Voldemort or Dumbledore. You are three of the only adults helping me. I can't have you guys constantly fighting like this. Listen, I respect you three so much, but this can't continue," she said.
Sirius started to say, "I could never work with Snivellus."
She silenced him, "I know this probably wasn't the right way to do this, but it was the only plan I could come up with. And knowing your history, drastic measures might be the only thing that would work. I have performed a blood ritual, you cannot hurt each other while you are within this room."
"A blood ritual, you foolish child! If Dumbledore finds out, he will throw you into Azkaban," Professor Snape's voice was abnormally loud.
She shrugged, "I had to be sure you couldn't hurt each other. Besides, I used my own blood. It's not even dark magic. Not my fault the ministry outlawed all blood magic. Regardless, that ward is around this room. I provided a large supply of my family's finest firewhiskey, thought it might help, and my family house elves will supply hot meals and snacks. I've provided excuses for your absences, Snape and Remus, so no one will be coming to look for you. This door will be locked from tonight, through Sunday evenings. The house elves will also provide clean clothes and bedding. Listen, you don't need to be best friends. You just need to be able to work together. Maybe you can unite around a common enemy."
"Like yourself currently?" Remus asked sarcastically, but she nodded all the same.
"If that's what it takes, so be it," she took a deep breath, "I'm so sorry. Listen, Snape was abused as a child by his father, then you marauders bullied him. You still call him Snivellus, that's horrible. Remus, you were so afraid of losing your only friends that you let James and Sirius do anything they wanted. That wasn't very brave of you. Of course, you also had to deal with the pain and ostracizing nature of being a werewolf. Sirius, you were abused by your parents. Your own mother cast the cruciatus on you trying to turn you into the perfect Black heir, but you bullied others in school. None of you are perfect. You've all done bad things. You have all been outcasts within the wizarding community for one reason or another. I'll be back Sunday evening. Sorry to reveal your secrets, but figure this out! You have two days."
With a wave of her focus, the three were released. She shut the door before they could do anything to her. As soon as she did, the magic settled into place, locking the door until Sunday evening.
Omake: The Removing of Lockhart
Lucy refused to allow Lockhart to either stay at Hogwarts or maintain his current reputation. She wanted him destroyed.
So, she had set the Twins on him.
She walked in front of a large chalkboard, tapping a ruler on her hand, "OK, boys, this is our game plan."
"You sure, boss?" George asked.
"Seems almost cruel," Fred said.
"We're fine with it,"
"But we thought"
"You liked the nicer pranks,"
"Like Hermione." Fred finished.
"Not for this one. He's evil. Plus, he won't leave Harry alone. It's creepy. I've had to run interference all year long. Do you know how hard it is to get Lockhart to assign detentions at the same time Harry's there? I've started just walking with Harry, and pretending Lockhart had assigned me a detention and forgot about it," she complained.
The twins faces hardened, "Oh is he that sort? No one messes with children around us."
She shrugged, "I don't know what his fixation is on Harry, but I'm not taking any chances."
George saluted her, "Righto boss, we're on it."
She handed over a large sack of gold, and they grinned at her.
"You know you don't have to pay us? If there's even a hint that he's creeping after children, we'll do it for free," Fred said.
"Consider it an investment in your future joke shop," she said.
Thus began the process of driving one Gilderoy Lockhart insane.
The twins set straight to work. To be fair, as with the pixies, Lockhart did a decent job of making himself seem incompetant. The twins simply exasperated it.
They used the map to sneak into his personal quarters and move stuff, take stuff, hide stuff. Lockhart started going to classes looking less than perfect simply because he had no other choice. He'd be missing a tie or one sock.
There were other aspects too. The twins would constantly cast charms on him, making him trip.
Lucy added in her own parts.
She waited until one or two in the morning, when he was in a deep sleep, before releasing all of her angel magic, the light coming off her blinding, especially straight from sleep. Lockhart would sit straight up in his bed.
"Who...what-wh-what are you?" he stammered.
"I know what you've done, Gilderoy. You will pay for your sins," she intoned in a deep voice, making sure to use a slight charm to change her voice and another to appear taller.
"Please, please," he cried.
She'd disappear then, doing this at least once a week, though always a different night of the week. Sometimes she'd just stand quietly glowing in hallways with only Lockhart. Twice she convinced Carver to just reveal himself to Lockhart but no one else.
"Can't you see the angel! He's right there! He said he's going to get me!" Lockhart yelled the first time when none of the students reacted to Carver appearing in the front of the class next to Lockhart.
Lockhart continued to look less and less perfect, deep bags under his eyes. He started to flinch and jumped at every little sound.
"Are you alright?" McGonagall asked in concern during the second time Carver showed himself to just Lockhart. It was during supper in the Great Hall, as Lockhart paled, looking whiter than a ghost, shaking his head rapidly, and pushing away from the teacher's table.
He went over to Dumbledore and fell to his knees, "Please, please, I'm being haunted. I confess. I didn't really do any of the things in the books. I just stole other's memories. I admit to it all. I'll do anything. Just make it stop, please."
Dumbledore's eyes still had a bit of twinkle, "Professor Lockhart are you certain of what you're saying? Those are quite serious claims, you will be in a lot of trouble."
"Yes, yes! I stole it all. Please just make it stop!"
Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore had ended up leading the professor away two weeks before the end of school. It had been the talk of the school for a while, the professor who had gone insane after stealing from so many others' work.
"Maybe it was the muggle Carmen or something," Lucy had overheard Ron say through a mouthful of food as she sat next to Hermione.
"You mean karma?" Harry clarified.
"Yeah, that whole tit for tat? Like you do something bad, then something bad happens to you. Seriously, everyone knows ghosts don't actually haunt individual people. What would they do when the person dies?" Ron scoffed, shoving more food into his mouth.
Lucy gave herself a satisfied smirk. Another job well done.
Author's note:
And a job well done to myself for publishing every Friday for at least three weeks. We'll see how long it lasts, haha.
Please give your ideas of what happens in the room over the weekend in a review as well as any constructive criticism.
Sneak peek for next chapter: Buckbeak is threatened.