Not as long as some chapters, but not short either. We're almost to Hogwarts! Things in this timeline are really starting to change and the train ride certainly won't be the same.
The morning Lucy would head to Hogwarts, she woke up to Carver sitting in the chair by her bed. He was back to looking like the twenty/thirty year old businessman she had first met.
"Hey, kid," he said.
She stared at him, "Is something wrong?"
"Why would something be wrong?"
She noticed a wrinkle on his shoulder. She leaned over and smoothed it out, "You've been gone for two months. Normally you stop by once a week or so."
After "saving her life," Carver had been approved as an OK sort by her parents. He'd come by in his teenage body and do yard work for them. He'd often just stop by for supper. Her parents never asked too many questions about his past or family. Carver had once explained to her that he used a gentle form of the supernatural abilities that normally made angels invisible. Instead of being invisible, he was only barely on their consieouses. They wouldn't remember him enough to start being curious or asking questions.
"Well your mother makes the best homemade rolls, but I had business that I had to attend to," he replied stiffly.
"Guardian angels have more to do than just guard their person?"
He looked away, "There's always things to do."
She opened her mouth to ask more questions, but he cut her off, "I just popped in this morning to give you a gift. Starting at Hogwarts is a big deal in the lives of young witches and wizards after all."
"A gift? For me?" she wondered. Despite getting plenty of gifts from her parents over the years, she'd never quite accepted that people cared enough about her to get her gifts.
"I noticed that you did not get a familiar while you were school shopping in Diagon Alley."
She shrugged, "I wanted Harry to have the opportunity to bond with Hedwig, and I didn't see any other animals that looked interesting."
He reached in to his suit pocket and pulled out a squirming bundle, "Well we shall have to see if you find this animal suitable."
All of a sudden, Lucy could hear the furious whispers of someone. They sounded slightly muffled and very mad.
"Sssssstupid human! Wait until I get loossssse! I will bite you!"
Lucy turned to Carver in amazement, "That's a snake, isn't it?"
He smiled, "Good, I can tell that you aren't completely senseless. Is your Parseltongue ability working correctly?"
"I can understand the snake if that's what you mean! Why can I understand it?" she yelled.
"It! I am not an it! I am a female!" the snake whisper yelled at her.
Carver sighed, "I swear you never listen to me. Four years ago I had to remove several magical bindings from you. One of those was a binding of your Parseltongue abilitiy placed on you by Dumbledore."
Lucy shook her head, "But he told me that I lost that ability when the Horcrux in me was destroyed?"
"Dumbledore lied to you about many things. One day you will believe that. You first received the ability to speak to snakes because of the Horcrux; however, wizards don't randomly loose skills. Your very magical core was altered by the proximity to the Horcrux. Any abilities or talents that you received from that experience are yours to keep. It is not like your magical core was reverted back to a one year old when the Horcrux was removed," Carver explained as he handed the bundle to her.
Before she opened the cloth bag the snake was loosely held in, she decided it would be best to address it personally, "Hello, Miss Snake."
The bundle stopped moving, "You are a sssspeaker?"
Lucy nodded before she realized the snake wouldn't be able to see her, "Yessss."
"Well ssspeaker, thiss man kidnapped me and tossed me into this bag. You mussst sssave me!" the snake called.
Lucy rolled her eyes, "You are being dramatic. I know you understand human speech as well. Surely you heard of his plans to make you my familiar." The bundle twitched a little. Lucy could imagine the snake's tail flicking in agitation at being caught. "Would you like to be my familiar?"
"Perhapsss. I would like to ssee you before I agreed to anything."
Lucy untied the drawstring at the bag and opened it onto her bed. From the bag slithered out a long, thin snake. Lucy startled when she realized that the snake was actually blue.
"What kind of snake are you?" she asked.
The snake seemed the tense in indignation, "You are a Speaker, but you don't know the different types of sssnakes?"
Lucy apologized, "I'm very sorry. I haven't had many chances to study snakes and such. I will do better in the future if you become my familiar."
The snake seemed to be considering, "I supposed it could be interesting to be your familiar. I am a type of magical Blue Pit Viper. I am a relative of rattlesnake or copperhead originally from South America."
"Will you grow much more?" Lucy asked.
The snake snorted, "My skill is not in crushing like those vapid pythons or anacondas. I use poison as my defense. I will probably get to around four feet long."
Lucy turned to Carver, "Does she have a name?"
"Yes," he grabbed another package, "Here is a box with all the equipment for her. Included in there is a package of frozen mice. They have a statsis charm on them to keep them frozen. Her name is Akia."
Lucy carefully jumped out of bed without startling Akia and grabbed Carver in a hug. "Thank you so much! I don't even know what to say. I didn't think I'd have a pet after-"
Carver awkwardly wrapped an arm around her, "Well, you can show your appreciation by taking care of her. There are not as many magical snakes around as there used to be, and I would hate to see another one lost."
Lucy stumbled out of the floo entrance and swept her gaze over the train station. Behind her, her mother stepped out of the floo with a great deal more dignity, not a speck of ash on her. Her father followed last, struggling with her large and bulky trunk.
Lucy spun in circles, trying to take in all the sights. The train station with the magnificent gold and red train bustled with activity. This time around she spared a glance at the train. Why was it only red and gold? Where was the fairness in only representing one house?
As she watched other pureblood and halfblood families step out of the floo gates while muggleborns appeared through the wall on the left, she wondered why the Weasley's hadn't just taken the floo route. Their house was connected to it, and it was rather strange of them not to. She sighed as she realized it was probably a ploy of Dumbledore's to make sure she was friends with them.
Determined not to let the past mistakes of others bother her on this glorious day, she spun to her father. The day she was able to return to her first home, to Hogwarts, had to be the best day in her life.
"Thanks for carrying the trunk through the floo, but I guess I should take it to get on the train," she mumbled as she reached for the handle.
"Not so fast young lady, we purposely came early so we wouldn't have to rush our goodbyes," her mother scolded her.
"But mum, I promised Blaise that I would say us seats," she whined.
"No buts," her mother said as she wrapped her only daughter in a hug. Lucy made a face and pretended to be embarrassed but she was sure to give her mother an extra tight squeeze before she left for school. Lucy still wasn't completely used to having caring parents, but she was going to miss them during her several months at school. As she gave her father a hug, she realized that she might finally have a reason not to stay at Hogwarts during the holidays.
After saying goodbye many times, and saying love you even more, and promising to wear skirts more than she wore pants, she gave her parents a final wave and finally climbed onto the train.
She quickly found Blaise in a compartment by himself. He laughed when he saw her struggling with the trunk that was almost longer than she was tall, but he still stood up to give her a hand. Between the two of them, they stowed the trunk away and settled down for the ride. She checked on Akia by acting like she was adjusting her clothing.
"Honestly, your family is entirely too emotional for a true pureblood family," he drawled.
She grinned and rolled her eyes, "Clearly we're starting a new trend for pureblood families."
"Pureblood traditions are not trends, they have literally been in place for generations," he complained.
"Definitely time to change stuff up," she offered.
She laughed when Blaise brooded. Since they were close to the end of the back of train, were the lavatories and the small compartment for staff was, they were one of the first that the trolley lady stopped for. Once Lucy had bought Blaise a large amount of toffees as a peace treaty, an excited buzz filled their compartment.
Lucy couldn't believe that after all her waiting she was finally on her way back to Hogwarts. She could finally start really changing things!
A while later, the quiet was abruptly broken. Their compartment door was tugged open and a sniffling sound could be heard. Blaise and Lucy exchanged glances before edging their way closer to the door. On the other side Lucy spotted Neville Longbottom, round cheeked and slightly chubby again, crying. She would never forget that he'd lost his toad on the original trip to Hogwarts, but she was slightly surprised that it was him and not Hermione going around knocking on doors. She realized that his compartment must be close, and he just hadn't reached Hermione yet.
"Hello, can we help you?" she asked him gently. She remembered the great man he had become by the end of the war with Voldemort, but she hoped that he could become that person again without having to go through all that.
He blushed and tried to talk, but his words weren't clear for several minutes because of his crying. Lucy waited patiently.
"I l-l-lost my toad, and I-I just g-g-got it as a gift from my uncle, and he'll be s-s-so displeased if I can't find it," he finally stuttered out before breaking into tears again.
Lucy felt a new sympathy for Neville, this toad was from the same uncle who had dropped him out of a window for no reason except to try to 'scare some magic into him' (Which of course was impossible anyway. Neville either had magic or he didn't. If he hadn't had magic, he simply would have been a flattened pancake; his uncle's actions wouldn't have awakened some latent magic). She shuddered as she wondered what his punishment would be for losing a gift from that uncle.
"Have you checked the loo? Toads like cool, dark, damp places, and I think the loo covers every one of those," offered Blaise.
"That's brilliant!" exclaimed Lucy, "c'mon Neville."
She practically dragged Neville to the loo, Blaise following at a more sedate pace.
"You check the boys; I'll check the girls," she said.
As she walked into the girl's loo, she noticed with vague annoyance that the girl's lavatory smelt better than the boys, as always. She found the toad in the second stall. As the toad looked emotionlessly at her, Lucy made a face at it. There was no way she was going to reach into a toilet to rescue a toad.
She walked back into the hallway to find the boys waiting for her. Neville looked hopeful for a moment before seeing her empty hands.
"I need your help. I found the toad," she said.
Neville cheered while Blaise watched her carefully.
"If you found it, why don't you have it?" he asked.
"Because nothing is going to make me reach into a toilet, not even your toad, no offense Neville."
Neville shrugged, already looking much happier, "I understand that, but what should we do. I can't imagine any other girl would want to go toilet diving."
Lucy snorted, "That's why I'm going to hold the door open while you two go in and rescue the toad, but first-"
Lucy stopped a passing seventh year and asked him to transform a quill she had into a cage.
"Perfect! Once you guys catch the toad, we'll put him in here," she explained.
Blaise glared at her behind Neville, but she ignored him to return Neville's almost blinding smile.
The rescue of the toad went smoothly, and the three first years were soon on their way back to their respective compartments.
Lucy and Blaise had just started a game of Wizard's Chess when they heard the screaming. It was a mix of angry shouting and terrified screams. They both jumped up and rushed into the hallway.
Lucy saw the problem immediately. Neville had apparently been playing too much attention to his frog and he'd run into a group of students, spilling a potion the one had been holding all over himself. The potion seemed to be burning Neville; he was the one shrieking in pain.
Instead of helping him, the other group of students seemed to be angry and panicked.
Lucy rushed forward and tried to determine what was on Neville. Sadly, she was no Hermione, and she had absolutely no idea what the strange teal colored potion could be.
"Oh bollocks," she muttered. She decided to try using a cutting spell to cut the contaminated robes off Neville. She figured that would at least stop the spread of the burns. She said the words of the spell clearly, hoping it would work in her new body and wouldn't kill Neville on accident.
Luckily her spell worked perfectly and a long cut appeared down the side of his clothes. She tore away the clothing, but the potion had already leached through to his skin.
'Think, Lucy, you have to think!' she commanded herself. Suddenly she remembered something Hermione had told her in a previous life.
"Does anyone have pixie sticks?" she yelled. The crowd that had grown quiet stared at her with looks of confusion.
"Now!" she growled. Luckily that was enough to break a sixth year out of her stupor, and she rushed forward with a handful of the sugary candy. Lucy ripped open the packets and hoped that this would work. She wasn't sure what exactly the potion was, but she remembered Hermione telling her that sugar was a good counter reactant to most of the corrosive poisons.
Lucy held her breath as she watched Neville's chest. She finally breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the unknown substance stop smoking and dissolving flesh. Despite the fact it wasn't causing more damage, the poison had already done a good deal of damage. The acrid smell of rotting flesh filled the small hallway. Lucy vaguely heard the sounds of several people puking as she stood up. She pointed at a group of seventh years.
"Get help, as fast as possible!" she ordered.
Then she turned on the group responsible and almost felt herself faint. Standing there, as pale as Nearly Headless Nick, was Harry. It wasn't the Harry that she had once been. Up close, she could see even more differences from this new Harry and the Harry she had once been. For example, this Harry had a slight layer of meat to him whereas she had been only skin and bones from the Dursley's starvation. She shoved her shock aside before marching up to him.
She poked him in the chest, hard. She felt a sick pleasure in seeing him stumble back even though he was a good bit taller than her.
"What on earth were you thinking? You could have killed Neville!" she accused him.
His face twisted from shock to defiance, "It wasn't my fault! Stupid wasn't looking where he was going and he fell into me."
She felt disgust well inside her, how could this be the same person. She felt her hands clench and unclench and she had to take a moment before she could talk.
"What were you even doing with such a dangerous substance?" she finally demanded.
"That's what we'd all like to know," a calm voice said behind her.
She whirled around to find Dumbledore there looking as disappointed as ever. She leaned around him to see Madam Pomfrey waving her wand over Neville.
"If all of you students would please return to your compartments," Dumbledore ordered. Lucy threw a glare at Harry before grabbing Trevor (who was safe in his cage, if a little shook up). As she headed to her compartment she saw Dumbledore lead Harry and his friends into a compartment.
As the adrenaline drained from her, she felt an overwhelming depression come over her. It seemed like every time she tried to change the future for good it just made a bigger mess of things. Could she really risk changing even more events and risking something truly terrible happening?
Blaise had followed her back to the compartment, and he didn't say anything, but he did give her a reassuring hug. She gladly leaned into it wishing she didn't have to think about anything.
She wasn't surprised when Malfoy rushed in just moments later followed by Crabbe and Goyle, his two grunts.
"People are calling you a hero, like some kind of bloody Gryffindor!" he snarled.
She was so tired…"Did you smell the hallway on your way here?"
Draco wrinkled his nose, "Yes in fact, it was thoroughly disgusting."
"That was the smell of Neville's flesh dissolving," she said blankly.
She wouldn't have believed it possible for the Malfoy heir to get any paler, but he managed several shades lighter.
He quickly composed himself, "Longbottom's never seemed particularly impressive, but he is a true pureblood and his family is quite wealthy. I suppose he could make a good ally, though I will certainly be stopping any rumors that you're a Gryffindor. I refuse to be allies with such beasts."
Lucy hid a smile. Draco was really a big softie.
"Yeah, I think we're friends too," she said.
"I did not say that! I said allies," he exclaimed.
The rest of the train ride went smoothly though some of the excitement had left the students. After a nap, Lucy felt better. She even felt well enough to tease Malfoy about the two bodyguards his parents insisted went everywhere with him.
"Will they be going to the loo with you?" she teased. Draco's ears turned the slightest bit pink, a sure sign he was getting angry. He glared between the bodyguards and Lucy.
Finally the announcer warned they were getting close to Hogwarts. Lucy went to the bathroom to change as the boy's used the compartment. Though she was worried about Neville, she felt her excitement start to grow. She was finally going back to Hogwarts, back to her home.
When the train finally started to apply its brakes she was sitting in a compartment filled with very different people then her first time around. She shared an incredulous look with Blaise when Draco made Crabbe and Goyle carry his extra candy.
As she filed off the train and headed towards the boats with the other first years, she smiled broader then she had in years. Just hearing Hagrid yelling "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!" really made her realize that going back in time was the right thing for her to have done. Yes, she was going to make mistakes, but everyone did, it's part of being human. More importantly, everyone deserved a second chance. And she intended to make hers count.