Lucy peeked around the door cautiously, a strange silence meeting her.
At the last minute, she ducked back at the unknown purple magic streak sent flying over her head while an orange one flew suspiciously close to her feet.
"Working together, huh?" she called cheerfully from behind the door.
"Lucy Ogden, if you do not open that door immediately, I will be telling your parents," Remus' voice called out.
As demanded, she immediately yanked the door open and stepped in.
"Pulling the parent card, cruel," she frowned at him, eyes taking in the room that had not been destroyed, but had been trashed. Empty bottles of firewhiskey throughout the room, little piles of trash, what looked like empty containers of muggle Chinese food.
As well as three glaring male wizards.
"Yes, well, we've bonded around our mutual sense of cruelty," Snape drawled.
She blinked once, "That's not exactly what I meant, but I guess I'll take it."
"This was cruel, pup," Sirius whined, but messed up her hair with his hand as he transformed out of the room and walked out.
"I suppose I have my own cruelty," Lucy shrugged.
Remus frowned down at her, "As your godfather, I really can't allow you to just go unchecked. I'm supposed to be the responsible one. Despite that, I'll let it slide this time. Never again."
She toed the ground with the tip of her shoe and put her hands behind her back, "I promise not to lock you in a room with your best friend and archenemy for two days and two nights again."
"Too specific. You've been spending way too much time with Sirius," Remus complained.
She grinned, "It's something at least."
Snape was the last one. He stopped in front of her and glared down at her. She blinked up at him. Finally he scoffed and walked out the door. Calling over his shoulder, he said, "I have simply decided you are insane. Nothing I do seems to phase you. And I have chosen to put my lot in with you? Perhaps I am the insane one. Remind Diggory and Russo of detention with me on Friday evening. Perhaps wear your Quidditch training robes. Something you can all move in."
Lucy stared after them, "Wait, you aren't going to tell me what happened?"
"No," the three called back.
"But, can you work together?" she asked them.
"I suppose," Snape drawled.
"Yes," Remus said simply.
Sirius nodded his head a few times before the three rounded a corner and disappeared from view.
"That was anticlimactic. What am I supposed to tell the others," she complained to herself before heading towards the Hufflepuff Common Room.
~time skip~
"You know," Lucy talked to herself, feeling the effects of the petrifying potion leaving her a bit earlier than whatever they did to make her lack of control over her body make her go crazier, as the oarless boat in the middle of the lake gently moved up and down with her, "when I said they could join forces against me if they had to, I did not really expect them to do so."
As the movement of her neck returned, she cracked it a bit.
"Of course, they must be aware this means war." (From a review by Yorae Rasante)
Lucy sloshed her way into the Great Hall and went over to Blaise, ignoring the pointing and laughing. She glared up at the Head Table. Remus was unabashedly laughing while Snape saluted her with his goblet.
"Hey, Ogden, still think I'm the most amazing-est, wonderful-est person you've ever met?" Flint called down the table.
"Shove off, Flint," she threw back at him as he and the Slytherin seventh years around him laughed.
Blaise hid a smirk behind his hand.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," she grumbled, stealing a sandwich off his plate.
"You brought this upon yourself," he laughed, no longer trying to hide his amusement.
"True, but still rude. It was necessary. What did they give me to act like that?" she grumbled around a mouthful of food. He grimaced at her lack of manners.
"You remind me of the youngest Weasley boy when you are like that. I can see his chewed food from across the room," he complained. She immediately swallowed, but waited expectantly.
"You'll have to ask them, but it seemed like a perfect example of the obsession potion we recently brewed in class. Like a low level low potion, but it doesn't cause love feelings. Just a deep infatuation," Blaise clarified.
She groaned and banged her head on the table, "So that wasn't a hallucination?"
"Nope, you definitely were obsessed with one Marcus Flint for a day," Blaise laughed.
"Well, I got another one of our puzzle pieces while I was under the influence," she said smugly.
Blaise's mouth dropped ever so slightly open, the only sign of his extreme shock that his mother's upbringing would allow, "The one connected to You-Know-Who?"
She nodded smugly.
"How-what-how exactly did you retrieve such an item during your escapades?" he demanded.
She stood up, sandwich in one hand, pulling him to his feet with her other hand, "Come on, better tell everyone at once."
They quickly gathered the group in the know, assembling in the Room of Requirements.
"Alex is in detention," Cedric apologized for his friend, settling next to Neville onto one of the couches the room provided . "He won't be able to make this impromptu meeting."
"Hermione can't come. The twins told me she fell asleep revising in the Gryffindor Common Room," Neville said.
Snape and Remus shared a look about Hermione that Lucy caught from where the two professors stood leaning against the wall behind the students' backs, Sirius curled up in dog form at Remus' feet. Her friends gathered here were in the know about the Horcruxes, but she wasn't forcing them to share any of their secrets.
"Right, well that's everyone so far," Lucy said, sitting cross legged beneath her favorite chalkboard, primed to draw out diagrams if anyone got confused.
Harry looked around, "Why did you tell so many people about what was going on? I thought Dumbledore and Voldemort usually kept their cards close to hand. Not that I mind! Just wondering."
Lucy said, "That's exactly why. They're able to control and manipulate because no one knows their entire plan. I don't want to be like them. I want you all to make your own choices. If I want you to make good choices, you need to be aware of what's going on. I trust all of you, and telling you what's going on is just one way I show that trust."
"So what is going on? Blaise said you were able to destroy another Horcrux?" Cedric asked.
She nodded, a wide grin spreading.
"She almost has Potter luck with her ability to use terrible situations for good," Remus muttered in the back of the room, and Snape and Sirius made noises of agreement.
"Alright, it all began at breakfast with the freaking obsession potion the present professors slipped into my pumpkin juice," she said.
"Guilty as charged," Remus joked, and Snape's face twisted into an almost grin that made all the students shiver in fear.
~~~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Huh, that tastes a bit weird," Lucy muttered, staring down into her goblet. A bit of a headache struck her head like stepping on a thorn, and her eyes slipped shut as she lifted a hand to her forehead.
"Are you alright?" Blaise asked.
But when she opened her eyes to reply, her eyes had glanced past him. In a flash, her world tilted on its axis.
The earth may spin around the sun, but she felt like her world spun around Marcus Flint.
"Alright now that I can see my most favorite person in the entire world," she said dreamily.
"Not usually how you refer to me, do you want something?" Blaise leaned forward to grab the sausages.
"Not you! Marcus Flint of course!" she exclaimed, loudly enough for several heads to turn toward her.
Blaise stilled all motions.
He turned and looked closely at her. She leaned to the side to peer around him. At the sound of his name, Flint had looked up, glaring at her, as she beamed back at him.
"Oh my Merlin, someone slipped you a love potion," Blaise breathed out.
"Marcus, can I hang out with you today?" she called out as Flint started to roll his eyes and look away.
"What! N-" Draco Malfoy had slapped a hand over his Quidditch captain's mouth. Marcus tried to shake the blonde boy's hand away, but Draco opened his eyes wide, and motioned around.
The Great Hall wasn't very full yet, and the spectacle had definitely garnered the attention of those gathered.
Flint looked first to his Head of House, who instead of coming to rescue the young Hufflepuff, looked entirely too amused. Despite the way he seemed pleased with the effects of the potion, his eyes held a certain glint of steel when he noticed Flint make eye contact with him.
Suddenly, Flint remembered the moment of shock a few days before when Crable had insulted Lucy in the hallway, and Snape had taken points away from Crable. To the Slytherins, that had been a clear sign of who Snape had decided to align with. Snape never took points from Slytherins, trying to balance out the bias from most of the other professors in the school.
Marcus swallowed once, glancing around the Great Hall.
Suddenly, he was aware of certain eyes glaring him down, watching to see how he was going to treat Lucy.
Blaise, only a few seats down, had clearly paid attention in class, and knew that the recipient of an obsession potion was practically crushed when the infatuation shot them down. His dark eyes were narrowed tightly at Flint.
At the Gryffindor table, Potter's eyes were tight as he watched what was happening, not to mention the Weasley twins watching closely. Flint shivered, he'd seen the work of the twins before.
Hufflepuff table revealed Diggory, Russo, and most of their Quidditch team glaring down the Slytherin captain.
"Fine, whatever, just don't be annoying," he finally muttered, pulling away from Draco's hand.
"Oh my gosh, this is going to be so much fun! We can study in the library cause you have your NEWTS, and I'm sure you'll do great, but you can teach me all kinds of stuff. And then maybe we can go for a walk around the Lake. Or whatever you want to do really! I'll just follow. I won't be annoying or anything!" she said this all really fast while clapping her hands together, looking entirely unlike the normal Lucy.
Marcus felt a large calloused hand drop onto his shoulder, a bit too tightly to be comfortable, "Of course, Mr. Flint will keep all of his schedule to common areas today, right? I'm sure as a seventh year student, he has a lot to do in the library area and other popular places. Correct?"
Flint looked up at the Defense professor and spotted a similar hardness in the normally exceptionally mild mannered man. Something in those tawny eyes may scare him even more than Snape, and that was saying something.
He nodded his head quickly.
"Excellent, have fun Lucy," Professor Lupin said with a grin, laughing a bit as he walked away at the sight of Lucy vibrating in her seat like Colin Creevy on coffee, grinning away at the taller seventh year.
Thus followed one of the longest and strangest days of Marcus Flint's life. Between trying to keep Lucy away from him without being killed by one of her loyal friends to actually trying to catch up on his homework over the weekend, he felt exhausted by the time he dropped into a library chair before lunch.
"How long are you going to follow me around? Don't you have something to do?" he demanded.
"I'd follow you for the rest of my life," Lucy swore, "But I do have so many things to do. I need to complete an essay for Professor McGonagall, run with Neville, break into Bellatrix Black's Gringotts' vault, study the new Quidditch plays, create a new prank against Remus and Snape."
"Wait! What? Why would you want anything with Bellatrix Black?" Marcus interrupted her.
"I don't think you're supposed to ask about that, but I'll tell you anything you want," she smiled up at him, "She's hiding one of Voldemort's artifacts, and I need to destroy it."
He stared at her dumbfounded.
As the time passed, she started to fidget before crying, "I've made you mad, haven't I? I'm sorry! Please don't be mad!"
He shook his head quickly, "Shhh! Stop, stop! No crying! I'm not mad! Just stop crying before you get my entrails taken out!"
"Who is threatening to disembowel you! I'll remove their entrails first!" she declared, pulling a sword from seemingly nowhere.
Marcus scuttled backwards, his chair tipping backwards. He sprawled out on the floor, gasping as all the air in his lungs escaped at once. A startled yelp as Lucy dived toward him surprised himself that he still had enough oxygen to make noises, that sharpened sword pointed almost at him as she tried to stay close to him.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
He definitely saw heads peeking around the stacks of books, glaring eyes watching.
Using a locked elbow, he held the tiny white haired girl away from him, "No one is threatening me, and why in Merlin's saggy wizarding- uh- hat do you have a sword on you? Where did you keep it? Nevermind, that's not important."
He scowled.
This was why he tried to stick to just Quidditch and avoid anything political.
"OK, let's start at the beginning, because I think you'll tell me anything in this state. Let's clarify. Aunt Bella has an artifact of Voldemort's that you want to destroy. Clearly you aren't on Voldemort's side then?" he said.
"Aunt Bella?" even in her current state, Lucy hadn't missed that. Her voice didn't sound quite as suspicious as he was sure it would've without the potion in her system.
He cursed under his breath.
"Yeah, Rodolphus and Rabastation are first cousins with my father, but they treated each other more as extended brothers. They didn't have any other family. I was always to call them Uncle Rodolphus, Uncle Rabastation, and Aunt Bella," Marcus said shortly.
"Wow, you're so connected to everyone!" Lucy said, smiling up at him.
"Something like that," he muttered, thinking fast.
If he went through with this, he would be throwing in his lot with this girl in front of him. Was he ready for that?
What the heck did he have to lose anymore? Even Snape had thrown in his lot with this crazy girl who hadn't even been able to avoid a common obsession potion.
"Hopefully I don't regret this," he muttered to himself, before casting a privacy spell, "Do you have a way out of the castle?"
He feared her neck would snap with the force of her nodding.
"Ok, let's go. We have only a tiny bit of time before someone will notice, and I get turned into Professor Lupin's new Defense dummy," he said.
He managed to not fall out of his chair this time when she again pulled a foot long sword from seemingly nowhere. With a slight side step, she smiled up at him, "Alright, we're invisible now."
"We are not. I can literally see you," he said.
"Of course you can see me, silly. For as amazing and intelligent as you, that was so silly. We're both invisible to everyone else, not each other. Then I might lose you and you wouldn't be invisible," she said, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him behind her.
He started to protest before realizing no one in the library was looking at them at all. When a student at another table looked up, they looked right through Marcus like he wasn't even there.
"You might actually be right," he said slowly.
"Course I am, I normally am, though not as often as you're right," she said, leading him to a secret passageway. They went out to the Whomping WIllow with no one noticing them. Using a hidden knot in the wood, she made the tree freeze just as Marcus was certain she had walked them right into their deaths.
"Will I still be invisible if you die?" he asked her, expecting her to simply say no.
Instead, she paused and seemed to think before shrugging, "I don't know. Never asked."
He groaned.
"Keep the third year alive, got it," he muttered to himself, "Or risk being invisible for the rest of your life."
Down through the tunnel until they popped up into a room with dirty floorboards, boarded up windows, and deep gouges everywhere.
"Is this the Shrieking Shack?" he asked.
"Yep! We're away from Hogwarts? Where to now?" she asked.
"Gringotts," he said, "But it'll take-"
Being sucked through a straw was incredibly disconcerting, especially with no warning.
"Did you just side-along-apparate me?!" he demanded furiously.
"Yep!"
"You-you- you're thirteen!" Marcus wanted this day to be done like three hours ago.
"Yep!"
"Merlin's left... eyeball!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air and pacing in a circle, "Whatever, whatever, everything is fine. Come on, this works out better than I could've hoped for. We have to hurry."
"What're we doing at Gringotts?" Lucy asked, smiling up at Marcus again.
Leading a brisk pace down the Alley to the bank, he set more privacy charms around them, "Remember how I say the Lestranges and my dad were each other's only family? When the Lestranges were thrown in prison, they assigned my dad as their financial go between person. Executor of wills or whatever. Made more sense to them for him to be investing in stock and whatnot than just have the money sit in the bank. That means Dad had access to their accounts."
"Are we gonna get your dad?" Lucy asked innocently.
"My dad is in St Mungos and can't leave. Now that I'm seventeen, he abdicated his headship to me. Now I'm Head of the Flint family. All of dad's responsibilities passed to me with the full knowledge and acceptance of my uncles. Though I'm sure I'll lose it after this," Flint muttered.
"Didn't your uncles break out of jail with the rat?" Lucy asked.
"Yes, but they haven't taken my access off the accounts yet. I'll just go in and retrieve whatever it is you want and give it to you," Flint finally explained.
Lucy looked up at him with wide glowing eyes. She sniffled once.
"What, what's wrong?" he asked in concern.
She threw himself at her, wrapping him up in a giant hug, "You're just the most amazingest, wonderfulest person ever! You would just give me what I want from your aunt?"
"Get off me!" he pried the third year off of him, "Just remember this in the future. I know you'll remember all this after that potion wears off, and you better remember what I'm doing for you! If my uncles find out what I did, and they go after me, you are going to make it better."
"There's no potion. Why would anyone need a potion to love you when you're just naturally so amazing?" she claimed.
He shook his head, "Gosh, that's horrible. I prefer someone who tells it straight, not some druggie who only thinks I'm amazing. Why would anyone want to use an obsession potion on someone else?"
At the bank, Marcus commanded Lucy to remove the invisibility from himself after she explained the goblet that he was to retrieve from the bank. Lucy fidgeted outside the bank, thinking about nothing but Marcus as he was gone.
"You're back!" she jumped up, but he avoided her hug.
"Here," he shoved the goblet at her, his hands trembling slightly. He had never felt something so dark. He worried he wouldn't be able to give it up if he held it much longer, dark tendrils reaching toward his mind simply from holding the cup, without even drinking from it. Even though he worried slightly what his family would do, he knew he had made the right decision.
Lucy took the cup gingerly into her own hands, "I'm going to apparate us this time."
Despite the warning, the experience didn't really feel any better. Marcus was slightly less shocked this time though.
Reaching into a pocket, she pulled some small vial out that Flint squinted out. Uncapping it, she poured the contents over the goblet that started to splutter. Black smoke so dark it seemed to absorb the light around it poured out of the goblet as it melted down into a golden, misshapen ball.
Marcus shivered, stepping back and wrapping his arms loosely around himself.
Fixing his gaze out over the lake, he took a minute to gather his thoughts, Lucy staring adoringly up at him the entire time.
"I don't want to know what that was, or what's going on," he said finally.
She nodded happily.
"But remember what I did today," he added.
She nodded again.
"I don't want to follow Dumbledore. He let my mother down. Helped put in the laws that sent her to Azkaban. The blood ritual wasn't bad. She was just trying to save my dad. Wizards don't have a cure for AIDS any more than the foolish muggles. But I also don't want to serve Voldemort. I've seen what following Voldemort did to my aunt and uncles. I don't want that either. There's madness with that man, probably from all the dark magic. Plus, how he treats muggleborns isn't right. They aren't stealing magic. I guess what I'm saying is I don't want to be part of any of it. I just want to play Quidditch," he said.
Lucy felt something inside of her that was shocked at how much Marcus had said, "I think that's the most you've ever said to me."
He scowled at her, "Don't expect it again."
"Right, course not," she agreed rapidly.
He sighed, "You better remember all this tomorrow. Hey, what's going on over there?"
Lucy turned to look and felt her heart skip a beat even through the fog around her brain. Malloy was laying on the ground, blood seeping out of the cut on his arm from Buckbeak.
Flint ran over, Lucy following at his heels.
"Hey, what're you doing to my seeker?" He bellowed as they got closer.
"An accident," Hagrid was saying, "Prideful animal."
"He needs the hospital wing!" Flint yelled.
"Righ', righ', up we go," Lucy watched as Hagrid again carried Draco off to the Hospital Wing. She felt a bit sick to her stomach. She hadn't even thought about Buckbeak. But it all was through that haze that commanded her to just think about Flint.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Skip~~~~~~~~~~
"Then I had lunch and followed around Marcus Flint like a puppy for several hours, making a complete fool of myself which I'm sure I'll hear about for years to come. Eventually, either the next stage of the prank kicked in or they got bored, regardless of which, I woke up in the middle of the Great Lake without a wand and on an oarless canoe. I thought it would drift back, but eventually I gave up and jumped in to swim back. It's cold! It's November! I could have died," she glared at the professors in the back.
"We had monitoring charms on you, don't be dramatic," Snape snapped.
Neville's mouth was hanging open. Harry turned to Cedric, "Is it always this hard trying to keep her alive?"
"Harder," Cedric groaned.
"That actually went wonderfully," Blaise mused, "Was that the easiest Horcrux to destroy?"
"Probably a tie with the diadem, but pretty easy yeah! We will have to have a plan in place to protect Flint. If Bellatrix finds out, which would be easy enough to do by just asking the goblins who's had access, she's going to try to kill him," she said.
"I'll talk to your parents about the Ogden safe houses. I'll just say there was a teenager who went against Dumbledore and Voldemort to help you out, and he might need access to one of them in the future," Remus offered.
"Ok, what do we still have to destroy?"
They looked back at the chalkboard. Crossed out were the diary, diadem, necklace, and goblet. Still on the list was listed simply ring. She had added Nagini to its own list labeled unknown. Hypocrisy clawed at her chest at the hidden knowledge of Harry's own horcrux. She still held out hope that she would find some sort of angel magic to remove it and save him, even if she hadn't found anything yet.
"Nagini is his pet snake?" Lupin asked.
She nodded, "Yes. I don't know if he's made her into a horcrux yet or not. Better safe than sorry, I think."
Snape agreed, "If there is any possibility of him returning, it can't be allowed."
"For now, I think it's time for everyone to return to their dorms. It is almost curfew, and tomorrow is Monday," Remus announced.
With groans and stretching, the assorted crew stood up and disbursed to their common areas.
Lucy sat down in an armchair in the nearly empty Hufflepuff common room while Cedric settled into a chair next to her, Alex's essay spread out on the coffee table in front of them, Alex himself kneeling on the floor writing away.
"Too worked up to sleep?" she asked sympathetically.
Cedric nodded, "You can't drop that kind of knowledge on a man and expect him to be able to just go to sleep."
"Don't catch me up now, I'm on a roll," Alex said, quil scratching quickly testifying to his words.
"Wanna play a game of chess?" she suggested. The older boy agreed easily and summoned his Wizard's chess pieces.
An air of peace settled over Lucy as she thought through the moves, laughing quietly at comments Cedric or Alex would throw out.
"Alright, I'm off to bed," Alex said, scooping up his papers and heading up to the dorm.
"Checkmate," Cedric announced, grinning. Lucy groaned good naturedly. "Shouldn't you be good at games like this or games of chance with your particular skills?"
Lucy looked around the common but spotted what Cedric had already noticed. The common room was empty. A quick glance at the wall clock revealed it was after midnight.
"Nah, it doesn't work like that. I can't pick and choose what to see," she said.
Cedric offered her a hand, pulling her up from the armchair with ease before stretching quickly.
"You've gotten taller," Lucy observed, realizing suddenly that Cedric nearly towered over her now.
"Had a bit of a growth spurt over the summer," Cedric grinned down at her, and Lucy nearly flinched, noting the differences that marked this Cedric as so much more similar to the one who died than previous years. Up close, she couldn't help but see how young he still was.
"Lucy, are you alright?" he took a step closer.
"Of course, I am, why would you ask that?" she whispered.
"Sometimes when you look at me, it's as though you see a ghost. What could be in my future to cause that?" for some reason, he was whispering too.
"It's not your future," she declared, "I see plenty of what could happen. Things are already changing so fast."
"That didn't answer my question," he was still whispering.
He looked down into her eyes, light blue meeting dark blue, and it felt like she might stop breathing. This boy was turning into a man, but she didn't know if she would ever see that final transformation. If he died again, with how strongly it had affected her the first time around with him as nearly a stranger, could she handle it this time with how good of a friend he was now?
She took a step away, "Good night then."
Cedric was quiet for a minute, but she had turned away towards the dorm already so she couldn't see his expression.
"Good night Lucy."
Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that things were different. She was different, and Cedric was different. He wasn't going to die again.
She headed into her dorm room, feeling very small and helpless when faced with the future.
Could she really make the differences she wanted to?
Were her actions enough?
Omake:
Monday morning, Cedric was up early reviewing for an exam in the common room when he heard someone coming out of the girl's dormitory. He gave Lucy a brief smile when he saw it was her before turning back to his book. Then he paused, and his eyes shot back up to Lucy.
"What're you wearing?" he asked with suspicion clouding his voice.
"Muggle exercise clothes," Lucy said innocently.
"What're you doing?"
"Going for a run with Neville?" Lucy said.
"Are you asking me or telling me?"
"Telling, just not sure if you liked the answer," Lucy said.
Cedric grinned, "I don't mind you spending time with your little boyfriend. But where are you running? And why are you running? And why are you wearing that?"
"Makes it easier to run in. And we're trying to get in shape. Personally, it'll help with Quidditch, and I thought less people might tease Neville if he got into better shape," she explained her thinking.
Cedric perked up, "Help with Quidditch?"
"Yeah, like with any sport, cross training is helpful. Better shape you're in, better you'll perform," she said.
Cedric stood up and tucked his book into his bag, "Hold on a second, let me grab Alex and change. If it'll help with Quidditch, I'm in."
Cedric and Alex met Lucy in the hallway as she headed towards the Great Lake. Neville falling into step besides them. Alex was grumbling as Lucy pulled her hair into a high ponytail.
"Why are we awake at this hour?" he asked.
"Cross training for Quidditch, I already said that," Cedric said.
"We're going for a run," Lucy said.
"Why couldn't it wait until a normal hour?" Alex whined.
"A lot of reasons. One, it's cooler in the mornings. Two, if we don't do it now, we'll get distracted and we might not do it at all," Lucy was saying, when she was interrupted.
"Whatdoya mean it'll help with Quidditch," Oliver Wood's voice cut in suddenly. She turned her head, white ponytail swinging in the air, to see Oliver Wood sitting on the right side of the giant wooden doors to the Great Hall. Marcus Flint was sneering at the other seventh year from his own spot sitting on the left side of the door.
"Well, the better shape a person is in, the better they'll be able to play," Lucy offered, "Uhm, what're you two doing?"
"Nothing!" they barked at the same time.
The assorted group gave them varying looks of suspicion and disbelief.
"Right...guess we'll just leave you to your nothing, then. It's only another hour before breakfast. Come on guys," Lucy said, turning forward again as the group started back towards the lake.
"Wait! If it'll help with Quidditch, I should probably try it too. S'long as you don't mind?" Oliver said, standing up.
"Oh no you don't. No one is getting a leg up around here on Quidditch," Marcus Flint snapped, standing up and joining the group. Wood and Flint stood on opposite sides of the group glaring at each other. Alex was still glaring at nothing in specific. Neville was fidgeting nervously standing between all the older boys, the only one who didn't even play Quidditch.
Lucy shared a look with Cedric, each rolling their eyes at the others' behavior.
Two hours later, Blaise took a deep breathe of his coffee's steam, the aroma alone waking him up slightly. He finally glanced over at Lucy, who had already been waiting for him when he came to breakfast.
"Why were you up so early?" he asked suspiciously.
"I went on that run like I said I was going to. You should come along tomorrow," she said.
"Oh yeah, with Neville?" he clarified.
"Yeah, and Cedric, Alex, Oliver Wood, and Marcus Flint," she added.
He raised a single eyebrow at her, "Don't you think you should include more Ravenclaws? You've forgotten an entire house."
"I haven't forgotten them; I just don't know very many. And it wasn't meant to be a show of interhouse unity. Everyone but Neville just invited themselves along," Lucy grumbled, then she perked up.
She swung herself off the bench, and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, "Hey Luna! What're you doing tomorrow at 5 am?"
Luna blinked, looking slightly past Lucy's shoulder, "Good morning, Lucy. I normally try to put in some time looking for Hinklepuffs in the mornings or sketching out animals I've spotted."
"Perfect, perfect. Want to go on a morning jog? It's like a sped up version of an animal spotting hunt. Plus, if you're in better shape, you'll have better chances of catching your animals," Lucy said.
Luna hummed, "I am willing to try it."
"Great, see you then! We'll meet at the entrance," she said as she went back to Blaise.
He shook his head, "I'll simply say fair enough. No gloating."
She grinned up at him.