"Sirius Orion Black," Mrs. Ogden said from the doorway of the room, sounding absolutely furious.
Sirius and Lucy had the same reaction even though he was the one being scolded. Mothers have that effect. They both shrank down, shoulders tucking into their chest, eyes cast downward. The Blacks may claim that good breeding had eliminated blushing in their line, but the tips of Sirius' ears were suspiciously pinkish.
"All that time, years of you living here in secret. All that money and effort into a trial and you are going to throw it away to see a selfish child?" Mrs Ogden was ranting as she marched over to them.
Sirius' shoulders pressed in even further towards his chest.
"Do you never think, boy?" She finally asked him as she stood in front of them with her arms crossed over her chest.
Sirius mumbled something with his chin tucked into his chest.
Mrs Ogden shook her head, "What was that?"
"I said, something's wrong. Harry hasn't replied to a single letter, and I need to find out if he's OK," Sirius said.
"The child has survived this long without you. Would you throw away your chances of ever being able to care for him? There is a right way to do these things," Mrs Ogden said.
"Yeah? Well, then, what's the right way?" Sirius asked.
"We'll invite harry and his guardians over for supper. They can hardly ignore such an invite without seeming horribly rude," Mrs Ogden said blandly, daring Sirius to find a problem.
Sirius opened his mouth to point out a problem before pausing, his mouth gaping.
"Huh, yeah, I guess they are purebloods. That should work," Sirius' face went from mopey to happy-go-lucky in a split second. Mrs Ogden rolled her eyes as she turned away.
Blaise turned to Lucy, "And that is why that man went to Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. Nothing to do with being a light wizard, and everything to do with his pure brashness."
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A week later, Lucy was tugging on her dress, trying to get the crinoline to stop scratching her legs as she waited for the dinner guests to arrive. She wished there was a reason that Blaise and his mum could have been there, but that was stretching the already thin rules of propriety in wizarding society.
A large black dog that stood higher than her waist was beside her with a wrinkless red handkerchief tied around his neck for style.
He pushed up against her, and she smiled down at him.
"Sit, snuffles," Mrs Ogden said, shooting an amused look when the dog huffed.
Then a knock sounded at the door, and the household was sent into motion.
Mr and Mrs Ogden stood up while a house elf popped by the front door and opened the thick wooden defense. Sirius and Lucy leaned against each other as they listened to sounds of outerwear being collected and steps walking towards the sitting room.
"...lovely place you have," Mrs. Sternwood drew out the word lovely slowly.
"Yes, we are quite fond of it. It has been in my husband's family for ten generations," Mrs. Ogden replied.
"It is certainly an...antique," Mrs. Sternwood said.
"Quite," Darlene said.
"Oh, oh my!" Mrs Sternwood was nearly knocked over by the bundle of giant black dog coming over and sniffing her. The woman staggered backwards into her husband as the not entirely friendly dog pushed and sniffed at her.
"Sit!" Mr Ogden said with authority, shooting Lucy a glare. She spread her arms wide and sent him a wide eyed look with a shrug. It wasn't her fault that Sirius decided to interrogate the visitors.
"What a misbehaving animal, to treat a guest like that," Mr Ogden said, holding onto his wife's shoulder as she tried to adjust her elaborate updo.
Lucy and Harry were both out of their element as the adults bantered back and forth with each other. It was a proper pureblood conversation, but it was clear that neither party was truly complimenting each other with their words.
Lucy and Harry alternated between sending each other incredulous look and suspicious almost glares. They both had reasons for not trusting the other.
When dinner was finally finished and the adults were getting ready to retreat to a sitting room for a drink, Mrs. Ogden made her move.
"The children had better go to the playroom while we socialize," she announced.
"Yes, that would be for the best," Mrs. Sternwood actually agreed.
"This way," Lucy said as she led Harry into a small room that was officially called the playroom though it was rarely used as such.
Harry walked into the room, hands tucked into his pockets and shoulders slumped slightly forward. He walked to one of the shelves on the walls and examined the toy figurine of a train that sent rainbow colored bubbles into the air.
"Can't get enough of me at school?" he asked arrogantly as he raised his hand to touch a stuffed bear that blinked and tilted its head.
His mouth dropped open and movements stilled as he looked behind him at the lack of answers to see his godfather standing in the room.
"Wha-" slid from his mouth as he looked around in confusion, "How did you get here?"
"I walked through the door," Sirius said, "How did you get in here, the window?"
"No, I mean, what are you doing here? How do you even know the Ogdens?" Harry demanded.
Lucy went ahead and settled onto one of the couches in the room. Harry and Sirius seemed to take her lead as they too went over. In different circumstances, it would have been hilarious to see Sirius trying to fit his lanky body onto the child sized furniture, with his knees up against his chest.
"I think you owe an explanation first. What do you mean you were made to say that at the station?" Sirius asked.
Harry shrugged, "Exactly what I meant. Dumbledore said that you were still dangerous from so much time in Azkaban. He said you'd probably ask to meet up and stressed the importance that I turn down any such requests."
Sirius and Lucy shared a glance.
Harry noticed it, "What?"
"I expected Dumbledore might get involved. He tried to talk to me right after my trial, saying stuff about how everyone makes mistakes, but he wanted a second chance. I refused," Sirius said.
Harry didn't look convinced, so Lucy added, "By mistakes, Dumbledore knew that Sirius was innocent because he was the one to cast the fidelius charm, but didn't bother to do anything."
"He claimed that he just thought the Potters had changed their minds later and had Peter Pettigrew cast the spell with me as the Secret Keeper. Like that little rat could have actually performed such a powerful spell," Sirius' voice got rougher and more animalistic as he became angry.
"That's horrible," Harry said, eyes wide as the realisation that Dumbledore had let an innocent man rot in prison for so many years.
"You believe me? You're not one of those adoring followers of Dumbledore?" Sirius asked.
Harry nodded, "There's been a lot of things with Dumbledore that never quite added up. I'm actually just kind of glad that someone other than a Slytherin mentions that there are issues with the Headmaster. Most everyone else just talks about how amazing he is."
"He is amazing at magic, but he's got some very questionable morals everywhere else. At times, he can be outright cruel in his attempts to manipulate circumstances," Sirius said.
"Pathway to hell is paved with good intentions and all that," Lucy stated. Sirius seemed confused by the muggle phrase, but Harry nodded knowingly.
"Why didn't you take custody of me when you were declared innocent?" Harry asked.
Sirius' face fell, "I tried to. I'm still trying to. Dumbledore used the trial against me in that regard. He claimed that they had to check that Lily and James' will was the real one because if an innocent man could spend so many years in jail, then the will could be a fake. Without that will, there's nothing that declares that I have custody. We are distant cousins, but no more closely related than you and the Malfoys, so that's not a solid option either. Don't worry, though, the will can't be examined forever, and I know that I'm listed as next in line for custody of you."
Harry nodded, once.
"What's up with your guardians? Merlin, I haven't met a couple of more boring purebloods since Lucius Malfoy started dating Narcissus," Sirius said.
Harry scowled, "That's part of why I don't trust Dumbledore anymore. It all seemed like a miracle, Hagrid came and got me from the Dursleys' saying about magic and wizards. Then, I was dropped off with the Sternwoods. It was pretty obvious that they only took me in because of their reputation, getting to raise the Boy-Who-Lived. Plus, they were constantly talking about how the great Dumbledore chose them out of all the options the ministry gave him as a second chance to raise the Boy-Who-Lived. They don't have any kids, and they didn't know what to do with me, especially since I was raised by muggles and didn't know how to act. They started controlling my appearance to make sure I didn't embarrass them. If he's the one who placed me with both the Dursleys and the Sternwoods, I'm not really sure I can trust him with my safety."
Lucy's eyebrows were raised, "How did they control your appearance?"
"Spells and charms. If I frown too much in public, they'd send a cheering charm at me so the proper grin would spread across my face. If they wanted me to act upset about the Dursleys, they'd send a sadness charm. They were constantly controlling my emotions to make sure I would act the way they wanted. After a while, I learned that it was easier to just act the way I was expected to. Then I got to school, and everyone still acted me to be an arrogant, stuck up savior."
"That's terrible! Is it legal?" Lucy said.
Sirius shrugged, "Technically it is. My mother used to send mild stinging hexes at me if I spoke out of turn at dinner parties. A lot of the old families still use similar methods."
Harry turned questioning eyes at her, "You didn't See that?"
Lucy scowled at him, "My abilities aren't a wishing well. I can't control everything I see."
Silence descended on the room as all three of them sat in silence.
"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed and the other two jumped, "I didn't even think to introduce you to Lucy though I'm sure you guys know each other from school. Harry, this is my adopted goddaughter, Lucy. You clearly already know about her being a Seer. It was one of her visions that told her I was innocent, then she set about getting me released. You guys are probably friends at school, right?"
Both of them sent fake grins his way, not wanting to disappoint the man who was sending them a giant grin.
"Yeah, of course we're friends," Lucy said.
"Yep, best mates," Harry said.
Sirius grinned, "That is such a relief."
They grinned at him, and he pulled them both in for a group hug. Over the top of his head, they sent each other glare that assured the conversation was not over.
"So, why didn't you reply to any of my owls then?" Sirius asked.
Harry's eyebrows furrowed, "What owls?"
"I've sent you tons of letters. You've never replied," Sirius explained.
Harry shook his head, "I haven't gotten any letters from you."
"Those horrible Sternwoods. Have they been stealing your mail too?" Sirius asked.
For a second, Harry looked concerned, but Lucy shook her head.
"Owls are too smart. They're meant to deliver to the owner of the letter, not the parents. Harry would definitely at least have noticed if something like that was happening," she said.
Sirius replied, "I don't know pup, some of those words can be really sneaky."
"Well, it's not just Sirius. I haven't received mail from anyone. The Sternwoods are super mad because they think I don't have any friends at Hogwarts," Harry added.
"Hmm, that wouldn't make sense if they were the ones stealing the letters. Sirius, could you check if there's any sort of mail intercepting charms on Harry?" Lucy suggested.
Sirius shrugged, "Moony would probably do better at something like that, let me get him."
Once the man had left the room, Harry turned on Lucy, "I deserve some answers."
She looked down at her fingernails, "Oh yeah, why do you deserve them?"
"Please? You think you can somehow just take down Voldemort as a first year while claiming to be a Seer and then can just avoid me?" Harry said.
She shrugged one shoulder, "Yeah?"
The red cheeks suggested the boy might lose his temper, "Well you can't! What is even going on?"
Lucy felt slightly sorry for the boy. She remembered how mad she had been when everyone was keeping secrets from her during fifth year.
"Listen, I can't reveal too much because I can't risk my secrets getting spread around. It would be really bad if everyone found this stuff out," she looked down her nose in a fair imitation of the scowl Professor McGonagall was famous for giving before assigning detentions. Once he had verbally promised not to tell anyone, she continued.
"It seems like my Seer abilities are partially focused on the fight between you and Voldemort. I keep getting visions of the past as well as visions of what may happen in the future. Like I said, I saw a bunch of the stuff that happened between you two, and I decided that I couldn't risk him defeating you. So I decided that I had to intervene. That's what happened with the mirror and all," she said.
Any more of Harry's questions were cut off by the return of Remus and Sirius.
"Hi, Harry. My name is Remus Lupin. I was another of your dad's friends," Remus told the boy as he entered.
"OK," Harry stared back at him without the slightest change in expression, and a bit of Remus' grin fell.
"Well, Sirius said that I needed to check you for any mail interception charms. I'll...uhm...just do that now," Remus said before waving his wand.
He frowned as the spell lit up yellow upon hitting Harry, implying that someone was intercepting his mail.
"Hmm, I should be able to reverse it so we can know for sure who's intercepting your mail," he mumbled before waving his wand again.
Lucy took careful note of what he was doing in the hopes of learning the revealing charms herself.
"The Sternwoods will probably be mad that you know about the interception but don't-" the rest of Sirius' talking was cut off as a small house elf appeared instead of Harry's guardians.
Lucy groaned in her head.
"Is that one your house elves?" Remus asked.
Harry shook his head negative.
"Harry Potter sir! You is truly a great wizard to notice," Dobby cried, dressed again in his dirty and tattered pillowcase.
"Who are you?" Harry demanded.
"Me is Dobby. Mr Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts," the house elf replied, his great eyes shimmering that the wizard would even ask his name.
"Not go back to Hogwarts? Why would I not?" Harry asked, hands clenching and unclenching by his side.
"Evil wizards have bad plans," Dobby said before hitting his head on the radiator. "Bad Dobby!"
Lucy reached the small elf first, grabbing onto him and holding, but he used elf magic to pop out of her arms into a spot nearby. Remus was the one to remember magic and freeze the creature.
The luminous eyes darted around the room, not expecting this turn.
"I'm going to unfreeze just your mouth so you can answer us. No funny business," Remus instructed.
With a wave, the tightness in the self's mouth disappeared.
Harry asked first, "Why wouldn't I return to Hogwarts?"
"Return to friends who don't even write Harry Potter?" the elf retorted.
"So you are stealing my mail!" He cried.
"Dobby had to sir, Harry Potter must get into so much trouble that he is not allowed to return to Hogwarts," Dobby said.
"For now, return Harry's mail. I'm going to release the charm on you if you promise to return to the letters," Remus said, waiting until Dobby nodded before canceling the charm with a wave of his wand.
As soon as he was free, Dobby snapped his fingers and disappeared. No package of letters appeared in his place.
"Where did he go?" Sirius voiced what they were all thinking as the four watched the spot the elf had been.
"In trouble?" Harry muttered to himself before his green eyes spread wide behind his glasses, "the adults!"
Lucy and Harry didn't hesitate to run toward the downstairs, Remus following their heels after ordering Sirius to turn back into a dog.
At the door to the sitting room, Dobby stood. He frowned when he saw Harry.
"Dobby is sorry Harry Potter," he said.
"Shhhh, shhh," Harry cried as he dove towards Dobby, attempting to grab him.
Dobby slipped out of the way at the last second, and Harry skidded to a stop in front of the opening to the room. Lucy heard the pause of conversation as the adults must have turned towards Harry. Even from her distance, Lucy could tell how Dobby made the next several events appear as though Harry was doing them.
A toy ball seemed to appear as Harry's shoulder hit the hardwoods. It shot straight out as though from his hands into the sitting room where it hit the tea tray. This made the delicate China practically explode. All manner of sweet desserts and hot liquids shot around the room.
Mrs Sternwood stumbled out of the sitting room, covered in champagne. Mrs Ogden followed behind, towels flowing from her wand.
Mrs sternwood stomped over to Harry and grabbed his upper arm in a tight grip.
"Boy!" She yelled. Lucy and Harry both flinched. All Lucy could remember was the puce face of Uncle Vernon as spittle flew into her face from his angry shouting. She didn't doubt that Harry was probably remembering the same thing.
"How dare you - embarrass - problem child," her talking didn't make much sense as she shook his arm and tried to wring out her hair. The fancy updo was completely deflated and tendrils sneaked down her neck like sodden ferrets.
"Really, Mrs Sternwood, it's not a problem at all," Mrs Ogden said smoothly.
"We will be leaving now," Mr Sternwood replied, completely ignoring Lucy's mother.
The three Ogdens waved from the doorway as the other three filed out.
"Have a great evening," Mr Ogden called.
Sirius transformed back and Remus came down the stairs. All five watched mutely from the doorway.
"That poor boy," Mrs Ogden shook her head in displeasure.
Mr Ogden turned toward Sirius, "I will check in on the issue with the Potter's will. Perhaps we will be able to speed up this custody hearing."
"I can't believe Dumbledore retaliated by blocking you from receiving custody of Harry. You've already been declared innocent," Remus' mouth was twisted down.
Lucy watched the other version of herself be dragged away by those guardians and just felt sadness. She was just trying to make things better, but she didn't seem to be succeeding.
"Why did Harry throw that ball into the sitting room?" Mrs Ogden asked.
"We didn't tell you!" Lucy gasped as she realized that her parents had been with the Sternwoods instead of listening to everything Harry had told them. Quickly, her and Sirius relayed the information that Harry had shared with them, including parts that Remus hadn't heard.
"It must be an old pureblood family to have a house elf. I guess the elf must have heard something about the plot and decided to try to save Harry himself," Sirius said as they headed towards the kitchen for an after dinner dessert.
Lucy hopped up on the granite countertop and pulled away giggling as her father poked her in the ribs in a mock scolding. Her mother shook her head fondly but allowed herself to be pulled onto Mr Ogden's lap. Remus and Sirius both settled on the tall kitchen stools. Even in the midst of the serious information, Lucy took a second to grin at the affection that her parents still showed each other after so many years of marriage.
Remus grabbed the ice cream that the house elves had left on the counter with a freezing charm on it for the family to enjoy and scooped it into dessert dishes.
"Shame they left before I could offer them the post socializing dessert," Mrs Ogden commented.
The others didn't seem too upset as Remus scooped extra large servings of the homemade treat.
Sirius even verbalized that as he said, "More for us then."
All in all, Lucy decided it ended up being a pleasant evening.
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Dear Lucy,
The first phase of your plan worked. Gran didn't even question if it was an accident when I said that I broke my dad's wand. I felt really bad, but I really want to do better next term. She was so mad though that it was pretty scary. I hope this is worth it.
Thanks for the spider plant! I've never heard of them before but I'm really excited to try growing one. How did you hear about the muggle plant and do you have access to any more? Maybe I could do an entire muggle section in my greenhouse.
How's your summer going?
Thanks,
Neville
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Dear Blaise,
I am being held hostage at Sirius' family house as we attempt to make it hospitable. I can't believe that Dumbledore brought up the Black Family home at the custody hearing. Of course the house isn't hospitable; it's been empty for 10 years.
Of course, it would be easier if Sirius just bought a new house or apartment, but the court demanded an address then, and G Place was the only one he currently owned. Well, I think the Black family owned other buildings that he inherited, but he hasn't taken the time to go to Gringotts and go through what he has. Afterall, his parents passed away while he was in jail, so he technically became Head of the Black family then, but he couldn't go check into that.
I just remembered how many household charms your mum has taught you for when you have company over.
I'm coming to get you.
Now.
Love,
Lucy
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Blaise sneered at the tea pot that was growling back at him. As the pot jumped and tried to bite his face, Blaise swung the feather duster like a bat. The pot hit the ground with a clatter, but Lucy was disappointed to see that it didn't break. With a slight shake, the pot straightened itself out and scuttled into a dark cupboard like a giant spider.
With a shudder, Blaise turned towards Lucy, "I cannot believe that you convinced my mother to make me do this."
Lucy shrugged at him, eyes twinkling, "My mum actually convinced for the same reason that I'm here. Something about making sure we aren't spoiled and know how to do manual labor. Character building or whatever."
Blaise rolled his eyes, "Have you ever met my mother? The only hard work she does is in bed, so I'm not sure why she would think that a Zabini needs to know how to do any other form of manual labor."
"Gross, Blaise," Lucy gagged and tossed a throw pillow at her friend who was laughing until the pillow hit him with a cloud of ancient dust that sent him into a coughing fit. She started laughing as she saw how dirty the Italian's face had become.
He tossed a pillow back at her, and a pillow fight began.
Sirius open the door and cleared his throat. The two preteens froze, turning guilty looks at the older man.
"Now, I sent you two to clean this sitting room filled with antique china. Is this any way to treat Black family antiques?" he asked them with hands on his hips.
Silently, they both shook their heads, faces toward the ground in shame.
"Ha, no, I'm kidding, this is exactly the right way to treat my mother's china!" he called as he grabbed several pillows and started attacking the kids, clouds of dust rising everywhere.
The resulting pillow fight resulted in two inches of dust covering the ground, twenty broken plates, eight broken tea cups, and a shattered china cupboard door.
Remus ended up having to come in behind the three and using a charm to spell away the dust.
He shook his head, "I am surrounded by children."
Lucy reflected that the event was fairly typical for how her summer had been going so far. The Sternwoods had refused to come to any further dinner invitations, citing that Harry was grounded for his previous actions.
With only about a week left of school, they'd finally received a letter from Harry. Apparently Ron had come to break him out, thinking that the Sternwoods were grounding him for some reason. The pair had made it back to the Weasley home and had gotten into tons of trouble, but Mrs Weasley had convinced the Sternwoods to allow Harry to spend the rest of the summer with them.
Harry had been able to use their family owl to send the letter and apparently Dobby hadn't caught on yet. Harry reflected that the elf must have been really busy back at his own home.
Sirius had turned his attention towards getting custody of Harry, but it was slow going. At the trial, Dumbledore tried to discredit Sirius by mentioning the fact that the man didn't have a suitable home for a preteen boy.
Lucy had literally facepalmed that Sirius didn't consider that the court would look into what kind of housing he could offer, so now they had spent the last month attempting to turn Grimmauld Place into a respectable home to live in.
Unlike the first time around, there was not yet a war going on and Sirius was not in hiding. This allowed them to bring in a variety of wizarding contractors to perform work including cutting out the wall that Sirius' mother's portrait was hung on. He may not have been able to undo the permanent sticking charm, but the contractors could just cut out the entire wall it was stuck to.
Other parts of the house, like the sitting room with the china cupboard, just needed cleaned out with all dangerous objects (like the biting tea pot) removed. That was the part that Sirius, Remus, Blaise, and Lucy were trying to accomplish. Lucy's parents would stop by too with some powerful cleaning charms, but their work kept them busy during days.
Lucy left the boys and headed towards a bedroom that had already been cleaned out.
"Carver," she called softly and the angel silently appeared in the room. Lucy smiled at him.
"Yes?" he asked, looking serious.
Her grin turned to a frown as she noticed something silver dripping on his sleeve.
"What is that?" she asked, stepping closer and tugging at the sleeve.
He jerked away from her and pulled the sleeve up. She hissed softly as she took in the jagged cut on his arm, silver blood leaking out.
"My apologies, I had not realized that I was cut," he apologized. Smoothly, he pulled his sword from his sheath and arched it over the cut. A glow filled the room as the skin of his arm knit back together.
"What happened? How did you get hurt?" Lucy demanded, she had never seen the fierce angel injured before.
"I was away, helping to defeat some demons. One of them must have landed a blow to me. It is healed now," he said.
"I didn't realize angels could be hurt," Lucy said as she gently grasped his arm and examined the spot on his arm. Only a slight silver mark showed where the wound had been but even it was quickly fading away.
"Of course, just as the demons can be injured, so can the angels. We have silver blood instead of red though," Carver replied.
"Does that mean you can be killed then?" Lucy asked, her eyes widening in horror.
"In a way. It is not like a human. I would be sent back to Heaven until such time as my form was regenerated enough to return to the physical world. The time frame varies depending on what the death blow was. The demons are truly destroyed, though they reproduce quickly, so there is no shortage of demons. Fallen angels are returned to Hell until their bodies regenerate enough to return," he explained.
"What happens to the person the angel is meant to be protecting if their guardian angel dies?" Lucy asked.
He looked over her shoulder, "Normally, if the angel is defeated, the subject would die as well. After all, most would not be able to see the demon attacking them and would be left defenseless. I believe humans account such things to heart attacks and other spontaneous deaths."
"Oh, so you have been busy this summer?" she asked, trying not to sound like a petulant child.
He nodded, "Very much so. The demons are stirring, though I cannot be sure why. We are kept constantly busy trying to defeat them."
"Could we practice more often then? It just seems then like being able to defend myself would be more important than ever," Lucy said.
He frowned at her, "I cannot be negligent in my duties, Lucy Ogden. If one of my brothers call for aid, I must assist them."
She blushed, "That's not what I meant! I know you are busy, not just ignoring me, but I did think we were going to be spending a lot of time practicing this summer."
The frown loosened slightly on his mouth, "You are correct; your training is surely important. I apologize. We will work steadily during the school year. Have you been practicing the moves that I told you to?"
She nodded quickly.
"Good, that will make further defense lessons easier if you have mastered the basics," Carver said.
Footsteps outside the room caused Carver to vanish and Lucy to turn towards the door as Blaise opened it.
"Did I hear voices in here?" he asked.
She smiled sheepishly, "Just talking to myself. A bit of a vision and sometimes saying stuff out loud helps me to think through it."
He looked around the room as though double checking that no one else was in there, before turning to her.
"Ahh, well come on, Remus said he would make us some hot chocolate," Blaise said.
After work, Mrs Ogden arrived at the house to take the kids to get their school supplies. Lucy smiled and stopped to say hello to Tom on their way through the Leaky Cauldron.
"'Ello Miss Ogden," he called, holding out a slice of treacle tart, "Any time for dessert?"
Lucy sent adoring eyes at her favorite dessert, but Blaise tugged her along. She smiled apologetically, "Sorry, can't! We have to meet our friend inside the Alley, and she's probably already waiting for us."
Through the brick passageway into the bustling alley.
A true grin spread across Lucy's face as she took in the relaxed atmosphere of the alley. Vendors were hacking prices for beetle's eyes and wand holsters alike. The alley was filled with groups of children walking around with parents, probably there for school supplies.
Spotting a familiar bushy head, Lucy grabbed Blaise's hand and dragged him over to their Gryffindor friend. Hermione's hair momentarily blinded Lucy as her taller friend grabbed her in a monster bear hug.
"I've missed you guys!" Hermione said as she released Lucy and tried to grab Blaise in a hug. Blaise allowed it, but snorted as a stray curl went up his nose.
"I missed you too. How was your summer vacation?" Lucy asked.
"Excellent!" Hermione launched into a description of her travels with her parents, and Lucy listened as the group headed over to the apothecary. After stops there, the pet shop (for extra food for Lucy's snake), and the stationary shop, it was time to head to the bookstore.
Blaise's nose wrinkled in distaste as he took in the line flowing out of the door and down the alley, "What has the book shop so busy?"
Hermione gasped and pointed at the window, "That sign says that Gilderoy Lockhart will be holding a book signing. He's our new defense professor!"
Lucy couldn't help the snort that came from her mouth at her friends excitement, but it luckily went unnoticed as the Grangers took in the long line and decided to head elsewhere as their daughter waited with the Ogdens and Blaise.
It didn't take them too long to get to the front of the line, and they were entering the shop right as the showdown between the Weasley and Malfoy heads had started.
"Is that the Weasley's dad?" Blaise's mouth quirked as he took in the display.
"Oh my! What if they damage the books?" Hermione's hands covered her mouth, and she let out a horrified squeak as they knocked over an entire bookcase. The store owner seemed to share her sentiments as he stalked over to the fighting pair.
Lucy used the fight to her advantage to position herself right next to Ginny Weasley as the fight came to an end. She watched carefully, but Lucius Malfoy never came over their way, and he certainly didn't place a small black diary in Ginny's cauldron.
A vision perusal of the cauldron found it to be empty of the horcruxes. Lucy groaned in her head, but moved back over to her friends.
Of course things wouldn't be easy.
"Where did you go?" Blaise hissed out of the corner of his mouth as she stepped next to him.
"Just trying to get a better view," she sent him a quick grin, and he bought it with an eye roll.
At the front of the line, Lockhart was looking highly surprised by the event, and Harry used the opportunity to slip away. As he snuck past her, he gave her a head nod that she returned.
Hermione gave her a questioning look, but she was distracted by being told that they were next. The excited witch sat her large stack of books onto the table and started talking before Lockhart had even sat back down.
"I'm a huge fan. I can't wait to read all of the books. I'll be a second year at Hogwarts, and I just heard your announcement that you'll be the professor. What good luck for me really, I'm just so excited Professor Lockhart, I'm sure you'll be able to teach so much to us!" she said all of this very quickly without taking a breath.
In his defense, Lockhart must get that quite a lot from fangirls because he didn't seem particularly bemused.
He simply sent her one of his patented grins, and said, "I'm quite excited myself, young lady."
Lucy and Blaise had already paid for their items and were waiting by the door when Hermione finally made her way out after talking with Lockhart for several minutes until the line forced her to move on.
"Don't you guys want your books signed too?" she asked them.
They both snorted.
"Hardly. That man has more of an ego than my mother, and I just can't handle that," Blaise said.
Despite her earlier excitement at getting her books signed, Hermione seemed pensive after that.
When the group stopped to get ice cream, Lucy found her opportunity to corner Hermione.
"Whatcha thinking?" she asked the taller girl.
"Just about something Lockhart said. He said that he's never had to get help during his adventures, but Charlie said that for wyverns, you have to call in a specialist to remove the remains because the blood will set anything else on fire, and only the specialists have the right types of gloves," Hermione said. "And Lockhart had started talking about his adventure against the wyvern which is in the eighth chapter of Marauding with Monsters. He said he wanted to give us a sneak peek of what we'd be buying, but that doesn't make any sense. He couldn't have known he was going to go up against a wyvern, and where would he get such specialized gloves?"
It took a minute for Lucy to understand, but when she did, her eyebrows raised, "Charlie? Do you mean Charlie Weasley?"
There was definitely a blush spreading across Hermione's face.
"Oh did I not mention that I'd been owling Charlie ever since the Norbert incident? He knows so much about magical animals, it is very informational," Hermione squeaked out before trying to change the topic.
Lucy couldn't help but laugh to herself at the fact that Hermione had apparently been hounding Charlie Weasley by owl for months. She did think it was awfully nice of him to be willing to put up with a first year sending letters that had to be just filled with questions about magical animals, but remembering what she could about Charlie, he was probably thrilled to have an opportunity to talk about the beasts he loved so much.
Plus, if he helped Hermione to realize Lockhart was a fraud earlier, all the better in Lucy's opinion!
Soon, all the shopping was done. Hermione left with her parents, and Blaise prepared to floo home from the Cauldron after the three friends had exchanged their goodbyes and promises to meet on the Express in five days.
Back home, Lucy packed up her few new robes with most of her old school uniform.
Her mother caught the scowl she sent her clothes and gave her a smile, "Don't worry, you'll probably grow taller by next year and actually need longer robes."
Lucy huffed air out of her nose and returned to packing her trunk.
In all, she decided that it had been a good vacation. The events with Harry had helped her to understand him slightly better, though she just hoped that Sirius would get custody of Harry. Other than that, she wasn't sure yet how she could help with the situation with the Sternwoods.
She hadn't progressed as far as she would have liked in her physical training with Carver, but at least he assured her that she had improved slightly. It was just so different from anything else she had ever done that it was completely new.
In the good news, the physical conditioning like running and other exercises were finally starting to be easier, eight months later.
Lucy settled down in the living room to play a quick match of wizard chess with Sirius before heading to bed. Her parents were sitting together on the couch, reading. Remus was sitting in the plush armchair, also reading.
"Ready for another year at Hogwarts, pup?" Sirius asked her.
She paused to really think about that. Last year had seemed like a trial run, just trying to get used to the changes.
This year, Lucy knew she had to get serious. There were multiple horcruxes in the school that needed to be removed that year. Many things were shifting and changing, and she knew that the diary would be at the school, but not who it would be.
Plus, she had angel magic to learn and potential demons to deal with.
Harry was being forced to act like a stuck up jerk by Dumbledore, and she needed to find a way to help him.
And she had actual school work to do and Quidditch matches.
Was she ready for all of that?
She smiled and nodded her head, "Yep!"