At a certain point, a lack of oxygen causes tightness in the chest, vertigo, blackening around the edges of vision, and sometimes even vomiting. A lack of oxygen can be caused by heavy running.
Lucy leaned further over as she threw up in the trash can, trying to keep her hair back while also holding onto the can for support.
Her legs were shaking: sweat pooling in the middle of her low back.
"Professor, I think Lucy is dying," Alex called.
"Vomiting is not fatal, typically. She merely wishes she was dying," Snape sneered the words, his body language belying the bite of his words as he lounged against the door jamb. Lucy had been shocked to see him standing in the front of the classroom without his normal teaching robes when she arrived for her detention with Alex and Cedric. Of course, he was still wearing his all black outfit, black trousers with a black button up, but it was still so weird.
He lacked his normal volume, appearing instead as he had when he revealed his forearm, too tall, too thin, like a stick that could snap at any point. Also liable to take out multiple people during the snap.
Course, his surprising flexibility and stamina had also been revealed in this detention as he put the three teenagers through a training course of sorts.
"There is a muggle habit in the game of Basketball where the coach will throw a ball at a player's face over and over again until the player can automatically catch the ball every time it is thrown at them. If they do not catch the ball, it smacks their face, potentially breaking a nose. The coaches discovered that the threat of bodily harm was a strong motivator for the players to learn to catch the ball," Snape drawled from the front of the room.
"That's what you're trying to do to us?" Cedric gasped out.
Lucy had been proud of herself for starting to exercise, but she had quickly discovered that a few days of light jogging around the lake had not prepared herself for the misery that was Snape-led training.
"In the future, you will immediately raise your wands in an unknown situation. Never again will you be disarmed without at least putting up a fight," Snape snapped.
The dummys he had animated with magic around the room continued to throw curses at Lucy, Cedric, and Alex from where the three were running through an obstacle course. Not only did the fake people throw curses, but the room itself had clearly been designed to harm them.
"Is this how you show you care? No wonder you're in your thirties and single!" she yelled at him.
He simply smirked at her, "Better move faster or your robes will catch on fire again."
She squeaked slightly as another burst of fire shot up from a vent in the floor very near her own legs. Despite the exhaustion, shaking of her legs, and vomit flavor still coating her mouth, she forced herself to move faster.
She ducked behind a boulder next to Cedric.
He was actually probably fairing the best of the three, though his hair was clearly not purposely tousled.
"He's going to kill us," Cedric muttered to her.
"Like you have any room to speak. Alex and I are going to be the first to die, while you've actually been doing alright-ish," she complained.
He smirked at her before jumping up and running to a desk that Snape had left in the middle of the course. In moments such as this, Lucy was reminded that Cedric had been rightfully chosen to represent Hogwarts in the Triwizard tournament.
Lucy cursed under her breath before standing just enough to peek over the boulder. She flinched in sympathy at the sight of Alex being chased by a large lizard that seemed to be spraying some sort of poison from its mouth.
Suddenly, she felt herself freeze, even as her eyes took in everything else in the course freezing as well.
"It has been exactly one hour. Ogden has thrown up, Russo has numerous injuries, and Diggory is missing one eyebrow," Snape said slowly.
Lucy and Alex turned their eyes towards Cedric who was trying desperately to look at his own forehead. Sure enough, in only a few moments' span, Cedric had indeed lost an eyebrow. There was no blood, so Lucy suspected it had been magicked away.
"Pitiful," Snape's voice was positively gleeful. "Detention until I feel that you all have achieved even the slightest level of competence."
Lucy groaned.
Just add that to her duties.
Classes and schoolwork, angel magic and fight training with Carver and the angels, detention training with Snape, Quidditch, writing letters to her parents, and socializing with her friends.
Already, deep bags had engraved themselves under her eyes from her routine training with Carver in the evenings after her roommates had fallen asleep, the only time she had found to be able to sneak away from everyone else.
"Next week, are you going to tell us what to do to avoid dying?" Alex complained.
Snape glared down at him, "I can't teach you anything until you learn how to run and dodge. Manage that simple task and then we will work on furthering your skills."
Lucy groaned again when she felt her muscles cramping while sitting down next to Hermione at the Gryffindor table.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, not looking up from her pile of homework spread out on the table.
"I could ask you the same thing," Lucy snapped, laying her head down on her crossed forearms.
Hermione did glance up then, hair wild, eyes tired, "What are you talking about?"
"You're going to kill yourself trying to take so many classes," Lucy said softly.
Hermione glared at her, hair standing up while the girl herself stiffened, " I'm fine! Professor McGonagall trusted me; she believes in me. I can't disappoint anyone. I just have to get through the midterms before a break."
"No one would be disappointed in you if you dropped a few classes," Lucy said.
"I'm fine, Lucy Ogden, and don't concern yourself with my business when you clearly can't even take care of yourself," Hermione snapped as she scooped up her papers and stalked away, looking like a tired, smaller version of Snape at that moment.
Lucy sighed as she watched her friend walk away. Hopefully Hermione learned soon instead of at the end of the year as in the first timeline.
"S'not just you,"
"She's been snapping-"
"-at us too," the twins said, both frowning as they moved down next Lucy on the bench.
"Sorry, George, Fred. She's overworking herself. I think she'll learn by the end of the year, boys," Lucy said, "Anyway, how's our business been?"
"Excellent really," George said, perking up.
"We've gotten a 300% increase from our startup costs," Fred added.
She rolled her eyes, "What startup costs?"
They grinned at each other and shrugged, "Regardless, business is booming. Glad you brought it up, I have here the restocking order in my pocket, even updated it to include the Slytherin desires."
Fred started pulling several things out of his pockets, looking a bit similar to Hagrid as he deposited a handful of snails, three dung bombs, a women's decorative hairpiece, and three chocolate chip cookies onto the Gryffindor table before finally extracting a slightly wet piece of parchment.
Lucy used just her fingertips to gingerly separate the piece of parchment, "Why is it wet?"
"Don't worry about that," Fred waved a hand, "That's all the products that the Slytherins want."
"And that's what we need restocked. Plus we had a custom order for a gift for a birthday. A muggle ice cream cake?" George added, sounding dubious.
Lucy pulled out a pen and added a note to the bottom of the parchment, "What should it say?"
"Happy Birthday Ben," George intoned carefully.
"Right, I'll have all this to you by Wednesday at the latest. Probably the last shop restock before the holiday, huh?" she said.
"Yeah, that sounds good," Fred agreed.
"We'll pass the info on to Malfoy," George said.
"Thanks guys," Lucy said before standing up, her plate empty and stomach full, the snarkiness of Hermione already almost forgotten.
"Ogden, I wanted to talk to you," Harry grabbed her arm as she went by, turning around to walk out of the room with her. He grabbed a piece of sausage off Colin's plate, "Thanks Creevy."
"S-s-sure thing, Harry," Colin called after him. Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Poor boy, he might never realize that you aren't that amazing," she said.
Harry smirked, "What do you mean? I am that amazing. Boy-Who-Lived, quidditch seeker, etc."
"Did you just say etc?" Lucy asked, "That's not how that works."
"Sorry that I have too many titles to announce."
"If anyone has too many titles to announce at once, it's Albus freaking Dumbledore," Lucy said.
"Why thank you, my dear," an old voice said, and Lucy's head jerked up, Harry having nearly the same reaction.
They hadn't been paying attention as they walked, and they had gone straight past Dumbledore on his way into the Great Hall. Lucy blushed deeply, her eyes automatically going downward even though she had been assured that he couldn't read her mind.
Harry foolishly met the headmaster's eyes, and Lucy reminded herself that she still needed to tell Harry about Dumbledore and Voldemort's abilities to read minds.
"Harry, my boy, I was hoping to talk to you," Dumbledore's eye twinkle was in full effect, "I just wanted to discuss your winter plans. You know the Sternwoods certainly miss you."
"Yeah, uhm I'm sure they do. I'll actually be visiting them over the summer," Harry said, running a hand through his hair.
"You know who else misses him? I'm sure it's Sirius, his GODFATHER who's waited so long to have custody of him," Lucy threw into the conversation.
As Dumbledore turned towards her, Harry frowned at her, shaking his head minutely.
"I'm sure young Mr. Black does miss Harry. I wasn't trying to say he didn't. I just wanted to remind Harry that he has many people who care for him," Dumbledore said, a bit of that twinkle dimming as he glanced over at Lucy.
"Right, I'll remember that, Professor Dumbledore. Lucy, actually, I wanted to talk to you about the Transfiguration essay. Do you have a minute?" Harry said, grabbing Lucy's arm and leading her away.
"Harry, my boy, don't forget those you are in debt to," Professor Dumbledore called as the two third years walked away.
Harry smacked the back of Lucy's head once they were out of sight.
She ducked her head in pain, "Hey! What was that for?"
Harry raised his eyebrows, "Do you really even have to ask? What were you thinking! You are the last person that should be antagonizing Professor Dumbledore."
Tucking her chin in defiantly, she glared at the stone floor, "I just can't help it sometimes."
Harry stopped and looked at her, "What did he do to you?"
"Besides everything he's done to you? Isn't that enough?" she spat out.
Harry shook his head, "This seems deeper somehow, a fear deep enough to cause panic attacks when you're alone with him, to cause you to lash out in ways that you only do with your worst enemies, like Voldemort."
She looked away then, recognizing the truth in his words and the care in his eyes, "I'll tell you another time, in a place that doesn't have so many ears and eyes."
Harry's eyes stayed on her, burning a hole even with her looking away. In this timeline, she had finally realized why so many people were constantly harping on those green eyes. There was a piercing quality to them, while Harry was no Legilimens, there was something that demanded the truth.
Finally, he nodded, eyes darting instead of the empty portrait frames down the hallway slightly.
"So what's going on?" she asked him instead.
"Buckbeak has been ordered to be executed. In the spring. Can you do anything to appeal it? Don't your parents have lots of expensive solicitors on their payroll? Don't you?" he asked her.
"No more than your godfather," she replied, poking him once in his stomach, still her face stayed thoughtful, "I don't know, I'll ask over the holiday. They'd be going up against Malfoy's lawyers though, and they truly do have an obscene amount of money. At best, our lawyers would probably be about the same quality.
Harry groaned and ran a hand through his black hair. Lucy reached up and tried to smooth a piece that was sticking straight up. He swatted her hand away and ducked, the piece waving at her in the air as though condescendingly.
"I'm worried about Hagrid, him getting fired. Or even just the blow to his pride," Harry admitted, distracting her from his hair.
She nodded, "Me too, we'll see what we can do. Maybe between the Ogden and Black lawyers we can pull something off?"
"Speaking of holidays," Harry added, "Sirius said he and I will be back at your parents house?"
"Yeah, he's lived with us up until getting custody of you."
Harry suddenly looked guilty, and she said, "No, don't worry about it! He would've done literally anything to get you, and my parents have just decided to adopt you like they did with Sirius and Remus anyway."
"Adopt me?" Harry looked startled.
She laughed at him, "Not legally or anything. They're just used to me bringing home strays. Now Sirius has started it too."
"I'm not some stray dog!"
"No, you're more like a malnourished kitten," she laughed, dancing away from another jab from Harry. "See you over the holiday, kitten!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christmas dawned cold, but snowless. Lucy did not let the frigid temperatures bother her, sitting again under the Christmas tree by Harry with the rest of her family gathered around them.
"Smile!" Mrs Ogden encouraged them, trying to snap a picture with the camera she had purchased during the school year.
Harry glanced at Lucy out of the corner of his eye, while she did the same with him. As one, they each plastered a fake grin onto their faces before the flash of the camera. At this point, it wasn't even having to be around each other so much as having to smile on demand for a camera. Again, after the Dursley's, even years later, neither was used to their closest family wanting them to be in all the pictures.
The morning passed quickly in a hazy time of gluttonous amounts of sweets, playing with new toys and gizmos (including an assortment of very basic versions of Fred and George's prank items. The influx of money from the black market was only helping those two to be able to afford potions ingredients sooner).
"So someone may need to use our safe houses again?" Mr Ogden's voice was loud from the amount of spirits he had been drinking.
Mrs Ogden looked concerned, "Children, could you fetch wood from the woods for our evening fire? The firebox is looking a bit low."
Lucy considered arguing, and a glance at Harry revealed that he was thinking the same thing. Then Remus caught their eye, and they understood his look. If they started talking, Lucy's parents might realize how much more they had going on. Better to leave the conversation to Remus, who was less likely to blurt out delicate information.
With a huff, Lucy turned and headed to the door, Harry following silently indignant.
Outside, it had not warmed up any, and Lucy cast the blue flame charm that Hermione was so fond of as they went further into the woods, each finding only a small amount of wood closer to the house.
Harry glared at her, "Still not fair that there's no trace on your bracelet."
"Some of us are simply better than others," she gloated, stacking extra wood into Harry's arms.
"Carry your own wood," he paused, frowning, "Is that thing just for light or something?"
"No, it puts off heat too," Lucy frowned.
"But isn't it getting colder?" Harry said, the visible breath. Lucy shivered, rubbing her free hand along her arm.
"It is," she said slowly, turning slightly so that her back was against Harry's back. She raised her flames higher, trying to look deeper into the woods while Harry's hand went to his own wand.
"What do you think it is? Not dementors, right?" Harry asked, mirroring her own concern.
"I don't think so, but definitely something magical," she said.
Materializing from between the trees, Lucy caught a man walking toward them. He was dressed in black jeans, with a light blue henley top and a grey zip jumper overtop. Thick black boots covered his feet.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Harry whirled around to look where Lucy was, but his eyes passed over the man without any acknowledgement.
The man smirked at her, and Lucy suddenly realized the thick black boots she had first noticed were making no noise in the forest. No stomping, no cracking of sticks or leaves.
Her wand lowered slightly while her hand went toward her sword.
"Little angel-let, lost alone in the woods," the stranger's voice crooned at her, stepping within ten feet of her and Harry.
Lucy shoved Harry behind her suddenly.
"I don't see anything," Harry said. She grabbed his pair skin and focused on him seeing.
When he started, she knew that she had succeeded.
"Lucy, who is that? Why couldn't I see him before?" Harry demanded.
"Angel-let, playing with things you don't know about," the man laughed.
"What kind of demon are you?" Lucy demanded, ignoring Harry for now.
"Demon? Child, I command the demons, I am not one of them," he said.
Lucy was confused what he meant, but before she could ask further questions, a giant broadsword had appeared in the man's hand, and he was swinging it. Harry dove to one side while Lucy went to the other, drawing her own sword.
"Carver! I could use some help!" she called.
"What are you talking about?" Harry yelled.
Concentrating, her sword lit up with the fire of angels, but she had to let go of Harry.
"He's gone!" Harry called. Lucy cursed under her breath. Without her touching him and focusing, he wouldn't be able to see the not-man.
She moved to stand in front of him again, "Not gone, just invisible to you."
"But you can see him?" Harry asked.
The man laughed, "Don't worry, I'm not after the boy. I've been sent to kill only you. But let him join this conversation."
Lucy knew he had made himself visible to Harry when Harry said, "I can see him again!"
When he stepped closer, Lucy swung her sword, a flaming arch through the sky, but he calmly used his broadsword to block her swing before flinging it from her grasp. The force he put behind each swing left Lucy's arms aching from even trying to block.
Pulling out her dagger from her boot, she stayed in front of Harry, determined to at least protect him.
The man smiled at her and power started to roll off of him, blackness, shadows where Carver produced white light.
Suddenly, she understood.
"You're a fallen angel!"
He nodded once, looking pleased, "Indeed angel-let, an angel more than you yourself. Though now I serve darkness rather than the light."
Lucy cursed at herself again. She felt his power and remembered the force behind his sword. This fallen angel had started a fight that Lucy couldn't hope to win. If dealing with Voldemort had taught her anything, it was when she was outclassed.
Raising the dagger again, she mused that fighting Voldemort had also taught her to fight until the last minute in case backup arrived.
"You would fight me with a dagger?" he laughed at her, "I can feel your fear and your defiance. How pleasant I imagine you will taste."
"You're going to eat me?" Lucy felt disgusted at that.
The man shrugged, "Cannibalism belongs to the fallen, and so to me. The meat of angels contains a certain magic just like your potion ingredients. More power for me once I kill you."
She shivered in disgust, shoving Harry further back.
"You promise not to harm Harry? You're just here for me?" she demanded.
He laughed, "You want the word of a fallen angel?"
Harry tried to shove his way forward, nearly succeeding, "Lucy, what's going on?"
She dove at the man with her dagger before she could answer Harry, trying for the element of surprise.
It worked slightly, for it did put her within reach of the fallen angel. Instead of cutting him though, one long fingered hand reached out and grabbed her wrist before she could stab him. The fingers clenched tighter and tighter until her hand dropped the dagger. Still, the man's grip didn't loosen at all.
Squeezing tighter, Lucy felt the bones of her wrist grind together and then a snap as something cracked.
She ground her own teeth together but couldn't completely stop the slight groan that left her lips.
"You are weak! Why would anyone have given such a small slip of a girl angel powers is beyond me. There have been mighty warriors, strong and powerful already, who were better deserving of such a blessing. Still, we will remove you now, shall we?" the man said, raising Lucy with every word until she was dangling by her broken wrist, all of the weight of her body pulling on it.
She glared at the creature through watery eyes, tears she couldn't stop running down her face.