"Excuse me, do you realize how much brooms cost, young lady?"
"A couple gallons a piece?" Lucy tried her best winning smile.
"A couple gallons? This is who I raised as my heir! A person who doesn't even understand the cost of a single broom?" Mr Ogden ranted in the manor.
Mrs Ogden rolled her eyes as she came up and fixed her husband's collar, "Your daughter is extremely intelligent, and she has an excellent head on her shoulders for finances. However, she was also sorted into Hufflepuff, house of loyalty and fair play. How is it fair play if some of the Quidditch teams are at a disadvantage because their players can't afford a nice broom and the school brooms are twenty years old? With Malfoy having bought all of Slytherin team brooms, something really should be done."
He turned on his heel, "You're only saying that because you played Quidditch in school!"
Lucy grinned, and skipped over to the couch where Sirius was lounging. Her work here was done.
Despite her father's grumbling, she was certain they'd work out some way to help with the situation.
This time around, when Draco had bragged about buying the entire Slytherin team Nimbus 2001, Harry had retorted by buying the Gryffindor team new brooms. While the boys' cock walks had leveled out Gryffindor and Slytherins teams, it left the other two teams at quite a disadvantage. Not to mention flying lessons throughout the year were held on horrible, ancient brooms that tended to fly sideways or hover to the left of where a person wanted it to.
"So we're buying the school all new brooms? I want one of those little plaques on each broom. Courtesy of the Black and Ogden families," Sirius chimed in.
"I think courtesy of the Wicholm, Black, Ogden families," Mrs Ogden countered, reminding them of her maiden name.
Mr Ogden threw up his hands, "I am surrounded by children obsessed with a silly, expensive sport."
Remus looked up from his book on the armchair by the fire, "Simply for records sake, I would like it to be known I am on Mr Ogden's side."
Christmas Day ~ Second year
Harry looked at Lucy. Lucy looked at Harry.
He scowled at her. She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Are you gonna open it?" He finally asked her.
"You aren't exactly opening your gift either," she retorted.
They frowned at each other.
"Come on, now, both of you! Open your gifts!" Sirius said from the couch above the two children who were sitting on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.
A Yule log burned in the fireplace and the air smelled of oranges and cinnamon. Mr and Mrs Ogden were curled up in the lovechair, smiling lightly. Every so often one of their movements would tickle the other, and they'd laugh as a pair. Married 15 years and still like schoolchildren during the holidays.
Remus and Sirius had taken up residence on the couch across from the tree in front of the grand front window.
As befitting their age, Harry and Lucy had taken up residence on the floor on either side of the tree. Lucy's parents had pushed her pile of presents towards her while Sirius had pushed Harry's toward him.
Then they had dwelled into the staring match of waiting to see who would open a gift first.
With a sigh, Lucy grabbed a gift from Harry's pile and handed it to him while grabbing one from her own pile.
"Alright, on the count of three," she commanded, neither of them wanting to be the center of attention, opening the first gift while everyone watched expectantly.
The adults shared amused glances at the fact Harry and Lucy opened gifts the same way. In fact, many of their mannerisms and characteristics were strangely similar, the adults were realizing. Right now, they both carefully opened their gift, barely ripping the paper with an awed expression on their faces.
Some effects from the Dursley's would probably always remain, such as the stupor at the thought of someone buying them presents.
"What do you two want to do now? We sadly have Harry for only the day. The custody hearing is set for the middle of February though, so that's progress at least," Sirius asked after they had gone through the pile of presents.
"Snowball fight!" Lucy cried, where she had noticed little flakes coming down.
Harry ran over to the window in excitement as well, "It's snowing!"
"Yes! Snowball fight! Come on Moony, you're going down!" Sirius crowed as he marched to the foyer.
Another holiday passed, this time with the addition of Harry. Once he had returned to the Sternwoods, the Ogden's had caught Lucy.
"There's something we wanted to talk about with you," Mrs Ogden said, as her hand softly tucked a piece of hair behind Lucy's ear.
"What's up?" Lucy asked, wondering if anything she had been getting up to had been discovered.
"We've been thinking about Sirius' comments on you being his adopted goddaughter and it's gotten us concerned about what would happen if we did die. Obviously you probably wouldn't be able to go with your father's brother since he is legally considered dead. As you know, your mother has no siblings and your grandparents have all passed," her father said.
"Right..." she agreed.
"Well, we've talked about it and we would like to make Remus your official godfather," her mother said.
Lucy's mouth dropped open.
"Remus?" She asked, "But...isn't Sirius the one who normally says about being my godfather?"
"Yes, I know Sirius jokes, but truthfully, we feel that Remus is much more stable. Sirius did still spend over five years in Azkaban. Plus, Remus is more like an adult. And he has come to love you like a niece over his years of tutoring you," her father said, correctly understanding that her confusion wasn't a lack of desire for her Remus to be her godfather, but not being sure if he would want to.
"I'd love that!" Lucy said once she had gotten over the shock, she stepped around the corner to wear Sirius and Remus were still sitting on the couch and threw herself at Remus.
The surprised werewolf caught her and hugged her back tightly as her parents came around and explained what they had been talking about.
"Don't worry, pup, you're still my unofficial goddaughter too. In fact, I'll probably make you my second heir, after Harry," Sirius said, ruffling her hair.
She grinned up at the two men who had become her uncles even more in this lifetime than they ever had her first go around, "I love you guys."
~~~time break~~~~~~~
Back at Hogwarts, Lucy used the first day back to destroy the diadem, while most of the students were talking about holiday gifts and catching up. She used a small glass vial containing one of the strongest venoms in the world, pure basilisk venom freely given.
Wandering through the rows of assorted trash and treasures, she went to the diadem and unstoppered the bottle.
When she poured the thick green substance onto the diadem, an unholy screaming filled the air as the Horcrux was destroyed. The blackened soul rose up in a featureless ghoul before disintegrating before her eyes.
She bared her teeth with a feral look of determination.
"One down, six to go," she told herself, already leaving the room.
While she felt better for having destroyed the Horcrux within easy reach, there had been no progress on destroying the diary. She still had no leads on who had it or what monster was being released on the students.
Deep bags under her eyes pointed to the constant anxiety and stress of trying to figure out who it could be. Unlike the first go around, no one she knew was acting suspiciously, how Ginny had. No random snapping, glaring, deep bags under eyes. In fact, people might think Lucy was the one being possessed with her own eye circles.
She headed to the training room to try to work enough energy out to sleep that night.
Inside the room, she found Fleecian waiting for her.
"Ready for more humiliation?" He taunted her.
"I feel that this is the day I do not end up humiliated," she said, trying not to remember the way he wiped the mats with her every time she trained with him. Despite the humiliation of losing so badly every time, she knew he was truly teaching her. Her hand to hand combat had been improving.
"Come, let's start," he said.
She moved through her stretches, then a series of slow motion moves.
He stepped back to watch her form as she lifted the wooden sword in her hands, flowing from a jab to a strike and back.
One of the keys she had learned was for the movements to be as fluid as possible, each leading into the other. A slow dance with a currently invisible partner.
Her mind drifted to a different place as she exercised. It was a wonderful benefit to the training. An opportunity for her to forget the stress and anxiety of Voldemort as she focused on movements that were physically demanding.
A strange scent caused her nose to crinkle as it drifted to her.
Rotten eggs.
Sulfur!
A demon!
She spun around to see one of the squid demons behind her, tentacles already reaching towards her.
Backing up, she realized she was almost against the wall of the training room. A desperate glance revealed no Fleecian or Carver or any other angels to be seen.
"Carver!" She called but no reply came. No sign the angel could even hear her.
The squid demon was sliding closer, the tentacles spreading out and squishing back in. Each movement revealing razor sharp claws hidden on the ends of the tentacles, suckers pulsing along the lengths.
At the bottom of the body, at the center of all the razor lined tentacles, a mouth lined with sharp teeth gaped at her, stretching wider as it got closer. The mouth stretched impossibly wide until it looked like the being could swallow her whole.
Her back hit the stone wall, no escape that she could see, "Fleecian!"
No answer again.
Then the squid demon was nearly within reach with its tentacles.
The realization hit her sharply.
No one was coming to save her this time.
Regardless of the reason for why they were not there, none of the angels were available to help.
Taking a deep breath, she gripped the wooden sword with two sweaty hands. It wasn't like this was the first time she had faced a terrifying creature on her own.
Gathering herself, she tried to think of everything she had learned about angel magic. Perhaps in a disguised blessing, she didn't have much time at all to consider as she swung the sword at the first tentacle to reach her.
A light filled the room.
So bright it nearly blinded Lucy, it took her a second to realize that it had come from her own sword.
Another second to spot the tentacle laying on the floor.
Sounds seemed to come back to her all at once as the squid demon roared, the sound an echoing monstrosity in the cavernous space.
She swung again.
Another light.
The squid demon lay in two pieces before her before fading away.
She sagged in relief even as the angels blinked back into existence around the room. In front of her, she spotted Carver being held back by his arms by two other angels.
"Lucy!" He yelled when he realized she could see him.
"I did it! I used angel magic again, Carver!" She yelled back to him.
The angels released him, and he ran over to her, his hands cupping the sides of her face, worried eyes looking over her.
Behind him, she spotted Fleecian's amused expression. Realizing Lucy's eyes were looking over his shoulders, Carver whirled around at the other angel.
"She could have died!" he yelled at him.
Lucy blinked at the anger he was demonstrating.
"Then, she would have died, and you would have been reassigned. This training was going no where. She needed something to force her hand, and you would never have done what I just did," Fleecian retorted.
"No, I wouldn't have, because it's dangerous! We had no way of knowing if she would have been able to defend herself!" Carver yelled.
Though it was reassuring that Carver was not in on the plot, she blocked out their argument as she considered what she had just done.
Suddenly, Lucy understood the difference between her magic and the magic of the angels. It was not like trying to pull the magic up from within her core; instead, it was like trying to condense the very light around her. Taking what was everywhere in tiny amounts, and pushing it together until there was enough to cut the demon.
"I understand now! It is nothing like the human's magic! It doesn't come from me, it is just the light all around me," she said.
The angels paused to consider her, even Carver's face turning more thoughtful than angry.
"Yes, little one, that is true. I have never thought of it I that manner though," Fleecian agreed.
"I still don't approve of the method you chose. We could have put her against a demon without making her think we had abandoned her," Carver said.
Fleecian rolled his eyes, "She would have known that you would save her. Clearly the girl needed true fear to figure out how to use the magic."
Lucy glared at him, "You would've saved me if I hadn't worked the magic right?"
He shook his head with a wide grin, "No."
She scoffed, "Rude angels. Thought you guys were supposed to be...well…angelic."
"I meant what I said. If you hadn't performed magic, you would have died and Montecarver would've been reassigned. I would have saved the Council many a debate on whether or not you deserve to live. Regardless you have now shown you can be taught angel magic and it was not a one time occurrence. We knew that, but now you believe it as well," he continued.
Training became a bit smoother after that. She couldn't always get her sword to light up enough to cut, but she at least understood what she was trying to do. Over time, her sword lit up more often than it didn't.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Break~~~~~~~~~
"Come on, Lucy, you've got to eat something to breakfast," Hermione urged Lucy in a way so similar to the original timeline that it made her smile for a minute despite her nerves.
"You probably won't even play; I don't know why you're so nervous," Blaise rolled his eyes as he checked his hair in a passing window. Hermione scowled at the boy and tugged on his sleeve.
"I just have a feeling about this match," Lucy muttered, taking a bit from the buttered toast.
"A feeling, she says," Blaise complained. "It's not like this is even a Slytherin match, you don't have to worry about dirty plays. It's just Ravenclaw."
Hermione raised her eyebrows at him, "The fact that you all so casually admit your cheating is astounding."
Blaise paused to spell Lucy's jumper warm even in the February breeze, and the small girl gave him a bright smile before heading into the locker rooms to put on her Quidditch clothes. Hermione gave him a small smile, and he frowned at her.
"Girl would freeze to death without us, I swear. She has no fat to keep warm as she's flying around in the sky," Blaise complained.
Hermione nodded emphatically as the pair headed towards the Hufflepuff stands. They'd decided long ago that that was the best place for them to cheer during the game. Neither of them enjoyed Quidditch much, though Blaise wasn't afraid of flying like Hermione. As such, most people had realized the pair would be cheering for their Hufflepuff friend, not their respective house teams. Hufflepuff had loyally accepted the pair with only five or so suspicious glances per game. Pretty good in their eyes. No one even tried to curse them.
Hermione spread out a blanket she had brought along, gamely spreading a corner over the blonde Ravenclaw first year who sat next to her.
"I reckon she probably will play anyway," Blaise whispered to Hermione.
"Cedric does have quite a few Wrackspurts around him this game," the blonde said in a whispery voice.
"Uhm...excuse me, but who are you?" Hermione asked.
"Luna Lovegood. Lucy said I could find you two here, and I could sit with you during the game," she said, turning around to smile slightly past Blaise's shoulder.
"Right, well, I guess if Lucy sent you our way," Blaise said, "Wrackspurts though?"
"Nasty little things. Ahh look, Cedric needs more turnips. Help to send them on their way next time," Luna said, looking over Hermione's shoulder this time, the opposite way as the field.
Indeed, Cedric had fallen about fifteen feet after a bludger hit him on his way after the snitch, only ten or so minutes into the game. From his pale face and tight grip on his wrist, he wouldn't be finishing out the game. Blaise and Hermione didn't even look surprised when Lucy jumped off the bench and flew into the game.
"Ravenclaw has a reserve seeker too, right?" Hermione asked, looking through a set of binoculars.
Blaise nodded and pointed towards the Ravenclaw bench, "Cho Chang. She should be a starter next year, the Ravenclaw seeker is a seventh year."
"It'll be interesting to see how Lucy does against her. Doesn't look like Lucy is having any issues against this seeker," Hermione said.
"To be fair, Cedric is a decent player himself. He didn't have any issues against Draco," Blaise said.
"Course not. Malfoy just bought his way onto the team, didn't he?" Susan Bones added in.
"True. Wonder how he'll do against Potter in the Gryffindor match next. I'd love to see Lucy go up against Malfoy and Potter. That would be an interesting game," Blaise said.
"I'd like to see Cedric, Lucy, Malfoy, Potter all go against each other," Zacharious Smith added in.
"I just hope she catches the snitch without getting hurt!" Hermione said.
Lucy did succeed in avoiding any injuries when she caught the snitch about ten minutes later, right by the Ravenclaw Keeper's ear, scaring the poor fifth year half to death when the tiny, white haired second year barreled at her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You're probably wondering why I've gathered you here today," Lucy said to the boys standing around her.
"It had better be a good reason, or I'll be filing a formal complaint with Blaise," Draco drawled as he picked a piece of lint on his starched robes.
"No formal complaints from us, but we could start the formal prank process. Unless this was a setup for us to get the Slytherin prince. Might want to give us more of a warning next time," the Weasley twin who spoke leered at Draco who did a decent job of looking nonchalant, perhaps just a shade paler. The Weasley twins were infamous for the pranking.
"No pranking, thank you. This is a neutral meeting. A bit of a business proposition if you will," Lucy said.
Raised eyebrows met her gaze.
"I've recently discovered that there is a large audience for black market items. You twins have been selling your own joke items to Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, but I want to expand it. I have a way to routinely bring in a much wider variety of stock, in fact, almost anything wanted," Lucy said.
The twins turned their speculative gazes at each other while Draco simply continued to gaze at Lucy.
"If you can bring-"
"-the items in-"
"-what do you need us for?"
"Just to warn us-"
"-you'll be stealing-"
"-our business?"
Draco tried to follow the twins with his head like a ping pong match, but Lucy didn't even bother. Instead, she just focused on the words they were saying.
"I said proposition, not warning. Listen, I don't have time to run an underground black market. We'll need marketing, follow up to ensure people are paying, careful records. I just have too much on my plate. But you guys are all entrepreneurs to the max. This stuff is second nature for you. Even you, Draco. Malfoys are always about bringing in an extra gallon. In fact, you used to be more worried about profits than blood supremacy," Lucy said with a pointed glance at the blonde.
"You want me to work with Weasleys?" Draco sneered the name.
"Yes, actually. The three of you have more of a mind for business than anyone else in this school. You won't have any issues working together. Plus, this way you can reach the largest population of the school possible. The twins have almost no reach in Slytherin and only limited connections in Ravenclaw. Working together, there's not a population we can't reach. I've already got one connection among the teachers," Lucy explained further.
She pulled a giant lime green binder from her school bag and tossed it onto the table with a thump. Flipping through it, she explained.
"One section for inventory. We need a spell to make that self updating. One section for pending sales. One section for past sales. Two sections for other stuff as we discover we need it."
"What're you thinking for profit shares?" Draco tried for nonchalance, but he was pretty clearly interested.
"70/30," she offered.
Malfoy actually snorted while the twins rolled their eyes.
"No way boss," Fred said mockingly.
"You want us to do all the work and you get all the profit?" George continued.
"I'm doing plenty of work myself. I'll be buying and bringing in all the inventory. I'll be working with teachers and some students to keep all this out of trouble. I hired y'all and am starting this business," Lucy argued.
"55/45. You still get the lion's share, or badgers share if you will, but we each get 15%," Malfoy countered.
She sighed, "You're really just working as glorified cashiers."
"Take it or leave it Ogden," Fred offered.
"Fine, deal," she said and the four shook on it.
On the way back to the dorms, Carver quietly asked her, "And how are you bringing black market items like muggle hair dye into the school?"
"Remember that meeting I had with the Ogden family house elves? Students aren't allowed personal elves, but remember how easily Dobby got into Hogwarts the first time around? We're just taking advantage of that. They'll be bringing in the items for me," Lucy said.
"Lot of work you'll actually be doing for this business venture where you get 55% of profits."
She shrugged, "Creator's share. Don't complain, we need the gallons."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This spring term was going well, and she was so focused on her homework and angel training that she had almost put the missing diary out of her mind.
Almost that it is, until the next attack.
"Stupid, I should have been working on this mystery more," she muttered to herself, running through the hallways after the other students.
It was a weird feeling to not be the one to find the victim this time.
Instead, she'd gotten an in-depth look at how all of the students seemed to move to the areas wherever something interesting happened.
A fourth year Hufflepuff had run down the stairwell yelling that there had been another attack. All of the students moving through the school had followed him back, a few students branching off to spread the news to other parts of the school instead of doing the smart thing of going to their dorms.
Lucy had allowed herself to be swept along with the others to the previously forbidden third floor corridor where the Fat Friar was petrified, water from the bathroom sinks flooding the small hallway.
"It got a ghost!" One of the students yelled, and mutterings spread throughout the crowd.
"Let us through, let us through," Professor Flitwick's voice sounded as he and Professor Sprout worked their way to the front of the crowd.
"Oh my," Professor Sprout's hand went to her mouth.
"Prefects, take the students back to their dorms," Professor Flitwick said.
This time, since she hadn't been on the scene at the finding, Lucy was sent back to her dorms with the other students.
Still, as she was walking away, she saw the Headmaster and other professors arrive.
After that, things changed a bit around Hogwarts. It was the same as the first time around, students expected to travel with their other housemates, but this time, Lucy wasn't in the same House as her friends.
Besides the occasional wave in the hallways, classes shared, and meetings in the library, she was separated from them. No late night conversations. No sitting with them at meals.
It felt much lonelier than her previous lifetime when she was able to spend the evenings in the common room with Ron and Hermione and attend all of her classes together with them.
It didn't help matters that the other Hufflepuff second years were more scared of her than ever, leaving a circle of emptiness near her when they traveled in their group to classes.
Zacharious Smith and a few of his buddies would occasionally antagonize her.
"Haven't caught enough muggleborns yet?" He'd ask her.
"Hermione is a muggle born," she glared at him.
"Like raising a pig for slaughter. Thought you could fool us just by hanging around a single muggleborn. Not like you spend time with a single muggleborn in your own house, too busy playing with that Slytherin," he'd replied on that particular day.
Not to mention she felt like she was growing weaker as the term carried on.
Suddenly, any training she could be completing with the angels was also put on hold. She could talk with Carver in her dorm after the other girls had fallen asleep, but this time she didn't want to risk getting caught alone after curfew in the school. Dumbledore didn't know her much, and she didn't want to risk drawing extra attention to herself.
Not to mention they'd probably think it was her if she did something like that.
Over the final weeks of the term, Lucy felt like she truly might go insane.
With only a couple of weeks left in the spring term, another attack happened.
Down the walkways to the edge of the Great Lake, Lucy followed the other students.
Where she spotted a small body lying there beside the lake.
"What was he doing out here alone?" Professor McGonagall demanded of the students already out there.
"Ma'am, he just needed a bit of break... we thought it was safe outside the school, thought the monster was inside. He just ran out...to take a picture. I was waiting by the door. I turned to say hello...and when...I...turned back, I saw him on the ground," Ginny Weasley's voice broke several times over her crying.
As Lucy grew closer it felt like a fist was squeezing her chest.
The small body, close to her own size really, was Colin Creevy. Which was bad enough, but suddenly it wasn't Collin petrified, but it was Collin laid on the tables after the Great Battle.
Taller then now, but still shorter than the average man.
Blonde hair combed neatly after death.
Unseeing blue eyes closed whereas this time they were frozen open in horror.
Her breathing picked up, and she was able to recognize the signs of what Snape had called an anxiety attack. Her leg started bouncing, her chest moving quicker than ever but never feeling like enough air was coming in.
Students started to disperse back to the school, but she felt like the crowd was pressing in on her even as it thinned.
Looking around desperately for a friend, she noticed Cedric off to the side.
She ran up to him and tugged on his sleeve.
Cedric looked down at her before swiftly kneeling, "Lucy, are you alright?"
She leaned closer to him, "I think I'm having another one of those panic attacks."
He glanced up at Alex, and they nodded together.
"Come'on," he urged her as the two fourth years stood on either side of her and they went back towards the school.
The two boys ushered the second year into the kitchens where Cedric and Lucy were given mugs of the warmed vanilla spiced milk (Alex asked for hot chocolate).
Another elf brought over a fluffy blanket and spread it over Lucy, patting her knee gently, "Missy musn't worry so much. Master Dumbley will fix the problem."
She sat on the bench of the kitchen Hufflepuff table and shivered, her white hair plastered against her scalp from the light drizzle outside.
Cedric and Alex sat opposite her on the Gryffindor bench.
"Lucy, what happened?" Alex asked gently.
Her eyes stared emptily into the mug, "When I saw him, I knew he was just petrified but suddenly it was like I saw him dead. He was so young, but so still. Someone had closed his eyes. But when I looked back, they were frozen open like that. I felt like they were judging me for not saving him."
Alex and Cedric exchanged a look. The way she was talking, they didn't think she was realizing how much she was revealing. At least part of her mind was still trapped in that panic attack.
"Ok, we're all OK. He's only petrified like you said. Madam Pomfrey and Professor Sprout will have him fixed up in no time. No one's dead," Cedric said, moving to the other bench and laying a hand on her shoulder.
"Right," she said softly, not arguing that one day it could be true. That one day they'd all be dead. That in another timeline she had seen Colin dead. She'd seen Cedric die, right in front of her. Not because he did anything wrong, but because Voldemort couldn't even be bothered with the boy.
The trio sat there for a couple more minutes until Lucy's breathing evened out.
Alex stood up, "Come'on then kiddies, we'd better get back with the rest before they think we're the next victims."
Cedric punched him lightly in the shoulder, "Not a good joke."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After classes, Lucy went to their normal table in the library and saw Hermione waiting for her. Blaise entered the library doors as she sat down.
"That's four attacks now," Hermione hissed at them.
"Malfoy was just bragging in the common room how his dad was going to get Dumbledore removed as Headmaster," Blaise said.
"That's terrible!" Hermione said at the same time Lucy said, "Good!"
"Lucy, how can you say that? He's supposed to be one of the greatest wizards of all time. Who will defend us if he's gone?" Hermione said.
"Hermione," Lucy said Hermione's name the same way Hermione had said hers, "We don't even know what's attacking the students. What if it's something that Dumbledore has no experience with, but Professor Sprout defeats it in one clip of her shears. Dumbledore isn't all knowing; he can't defend us from everything."
"And he's rotten," Blaise complained, Lucy nodded along.
"Well everyone says Professor Dumbeldoreis the leader of the Light. How could he be on the light's side if he was rotten?" Hermione countered
"Light doesn't mean good and dark doesn't mean evil," Blaise said quietly.
"Anyways, we need to figure out what's attacking the students. And I have an idea of a group we can ask after the most recent attack," Lucy interrupted.
"A group?" Blaise and Hermione asked together.
She led the way back to the lake, though she went to the opposite side of where Colin had been found, to the dock where the first year boats came ashore.
"Who's out here?" Blaise asked.
Before any answer came, Hermione asked, "Uhm, Lucy, what're you doing?"
Lucy was stripping off her outer robes and shoes, before plaiting her white hair pack into a braid.
"Blaise, can you transfigure my clothes into a bathing suit?" She asked instead of replying.
"Why do you want a bathing suit?" Blaise asked as he crossed his arms, subtly refusing to do any magic until the girl explained herself.
She huffed at him and crossed her own arms, "I'm just gonna go ask the mermaids if they've seen anything!"
"Just ask the mermaids?!"
"There are mermaids!?"
She rolled her eyes at them.
"Mermaids can be very dangerous!" Blaise said.
"That's right, they're considered dark creatures like sirens and werewolves!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Forget if they're light or dark, sometimes they eat humans!" Blaise rubbed a hand through his dark hair in frustration, messing up the part.
"It'll be fine, I'm pretty positive these ones were told not to eat the students," Lucy said, and she waved at her bathing suit. Blaise sighed but waved his wand and she was suddenly dressed in a long sleeve wetsuit.
"That should help keep you warmer than a regular bathing suit. It is April after all," he scolded her.
Hermione whirled around on him, hands on her hips, "Why are you encouraging her! Didn't you just say the mermaids might eat her!"
He glared back at her, "You and I both know she's gonna do it anyway! I might as well send her with as much protection as I can. She'd probably have transfigured a bathing suit that kept her robe's cotton nature and weighed her down!"
Their arguing voices grew distant as Lucy cast a bubble headed charm on herself. The other two students sent her a mix of jealous and scandalized looks that she could accurately perform such a charm but it was one she'd been practicing independently since first year. She'd been creating a list in her journal of spells that would be useful in the largest number of situations and writing them down for when she had an opportunity alone to practice. This one was useful all the time. Scuba diving, gas situations, if she had to travel to the moon, etc.
She waved her wand to accio a piece of parchment and self inking quill.
In the library, a fifth year student glared as a quil she had found lying in the hallways was summoned away. Classic magic school, use stuff when you find it, but the original owners have a tendency to eventually summon back their possessions. So much simpler in a muggle school where finders meant keepers.
Lucy wrote out, "I'll set a timer with my wand for 45 minutes. Hermione, set one for an hour. If I'm not back by the end of the hour, fetch Snape."
The two groaned, but Blaise was the one to ask what they were both thinking, "Why is it always him? Can't you trust any other teachers in this school?"
She shook her head.
"See you soon!" The quill wrote before she walked off the dock feet first into the murky waters.
The pair shared a glance.
"She doesn't know how to do a dive, does she?" Hermione asked.
Blaise shook his head, "Probably not or she would've gone for the more dramatic exit off the dock."
Hermione huffed, "Well at least we know something she doesn't. I'm never teaching her, even if she asks."
Down in the water, Lucy was mostly protected from the cold by the wetsuit. She smiled to herself as she swam deeper. A swish of her wand brought a glowing orb to follow her down as visibility grew ever fainter.
Like last time she dived down, the occasional creature would come up to bother her, but she had learned better spells to deter them than her 14 year old self. Auror training had been good for something after all.
Down and down she went.
Down to where the sun's light couldn't pierce.
To where a city rose up from the lake's bottom.
Buildings, different from the topside, but clearly houses. Piles of mud formed into half circles, small openings for doorways.
As she got closer, a trio of mermaids bearing spears swam towards her.
They gestured her towards the surface, waving the spears at her.
"Hold on!" She held up her hands in a placating manner, "I just need to know if you've heard anything about a monster."
The mermaids exchanged glances.
After a pause, one swam slightly in front of the others.
"Is there a monster?" Lucy asked.
The mermaid nodded once.
"Have you seen any attacks?" she asked.
The mermaids looked at each other. One of them waved its spear at her again, but she put her shoulders back and refused to be intimidated.
The one that had swam forward turned around suddenly and started to swim away. Before it had gotten far, it turned back around with an impatient look at Lucy.
"Do you want me to follow you?" she asked.
The raised eyebrows seemed to say obviously even as the mermaid rolled her eyes and turned towards the unknown destination. Lucy followed along, lagging a bit behind the powerful tail of the mermaid.
Swimming upwards, towards the side of the lake closest to the Forbidden Forest, the pair went. Lucy noticed that the other mermaids were following behind them.
Soon, the water grass grew thick as sunlight began piercing the water. The mermaid stopped suddenly in front of Lucy but waved her on.
Lucy sighed but continued forward. A few steps more before her feet touched something slimy. With a slight shriek, her cheeks warmed as she realized she had simply touched the thick mud of the bottom.
Walking forward, she realized she was in a swampy part of the lake.
Arms appeared before her and she gave another shriek, backpeddling sharply before realizing the arms weren't moving.
She peeked ahead as she started to move forward slowly.
"A mermaid?" she asked herself as the frozen body came fully into view.
A wave moved the grass enough so that more limbs came into view.
"Several mermaids," she muttered to herself, "Wait, not quite mermaids."
She went closer to the first body she had come upon, "Just children really. Smaller than even me."
The bodies were petrified, but she hoped they weren't dead.
Swimming back to the other mermaids, she said, "Thank you for showing me. I'll make sure they get help."
The mermaid dipped her head, wide eyes staring into Lucy's.
"So this animal went into the swamp?" she asked the mermaid.
The trio all dipped their heads this time.
"Does it go into deep water?" Lucy asked. They shook their heads in a negative way.
"OK, I'll be on my way to go kill it now," she said a bit awkwardly as she left the mermaids and returned to where Hermione and Blaise were waiting for her.
She grabbed the rough wood of the dock and pulled herself up while using the tip of her fake wand to pop the bubble headed charm.
"The mermaids knew something alright," she told them, her teeth starting to chatter a bit even as Hermione lit her famous bluebell flames. "The monster has been turning mermaid children to stone as well!"
"That's horrible! Do you think Dumbledore knows?" Hermione asked.
"I doubt it. We have to find a way for Madam Pomfrey to find out, so she can rescue them as well," Lucy said.
"The monster went all the way down to their city? Did any of the other mermaids see it?" Blaise asked in excitement.
Lucy shook her head, "No it didn't go down deep. It got the children in a swamp."
"Remember the water pipes at the attacks in the castle? What if it's traveling in the pipes!" Hermione said.
Lucy started to shake her head before realizing that the monster clearly wasn't a snake so she wouldn't have necessarily heard it in the pipes. Obviously animals other than just snakes could use the sewer pipes if they were big enough for the Basilisk to have used in a previous timeline. It had probably been Riddle's idea all along to use the sewer pipes. He probably thought of the same idea again, just a different animal.
"Of course! How could I have been so stupid to have missed the water and the sewer pipes?! So it's some sort of water loving animal that's traveling through the school's sewer pipes," Lucy said.
"Well, where do the sewer pipes lead?" a new voice chimed in, causing the three to jump in guilty apprehension.
The apprehension changed as Harry came into view.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione demanded.
"I could ask you the same thing, Granger," Harry retorted.
"No one invited Dumbledore's prince to this party," Blaise said.
Lucy rolled her eyes, "No need for name calling, but seriously Harry, what are you doing here?"
"I saw you guys sneak out of the castle, and I had a feeling you were about to solve the mystery. Lucy always seems to be one step ahead on these things. I'm not getting left behind!" he said.
"Why? So you can get more fangirls?" Blaise asked.
"No, because you guys are the same age as me. You don't know what you're doing any more than me. It'll be safer if we work together," he said, "Besides, I have an invisibility cloak."
"Do you really?" Blaise suddenly looked a bit jealous.
"Yes, and we need to get under it before anyone else spots us and takes us back into the castle," Harry said.
The four children got under the cloak even as Lucy and Hermione protested, for different reasons.
"Shut up, Ogden, Sirius would never forgive me if I let you die. I may be his godson, but I already know how much he cares for you. I just got him back. You're not getting rid of me," Harry muttered as he whispered in Lucy's ear, his foot accidentally (or not) stepping on hers.
"So where do the pipes lead?" Lucy asked.
"I couldn't tell you where every pipe leads, but a few of the pipes drain into the lake. Only the ones with grey water, like from sinks, according to Hogwarts A History," Hermione answered.
"One of them is not far from here," Blaise said.
"OK, let's go see if we can find a way into the plumbing of Hogwarts," Lucy said.
Author's note:
I'd like to finish up the second year arc because I'm excited for third year! Plus, I took forever with publishing chapters recently, so here's a prize of what I believe to be the longest chapter yet in the story.
Two quick questions for you:
Do you like long chapters? Would you prefer one long chapter like this or for me to post half of it this week and half next week? One long sporadic update or frequent shorter updates?
I started writing this story when I was about 12. I started publishing it on ffn about two years later. You can do the math on how old I am now ;) I will never personally take it down because I don't think that's fair to all of you readers. I went back about five years ago and did a bunch of editing, but I would love to make the beginning more cohesive with my current writing style. If I posted this story again in an edited format, would any of yall be interested in a link if I moved it to Archive of our Own? I don't even have an account there, but I've been told that website is more user friendly in today's world.