"Slytherin! She's in Slytherin!!"
"Yes Harry," Hermione said, trying to sound comforting (although not really knowing how to be in this situation). "She's in Slytherin. I'm sure you should have seen it coming."
Harry, looking extremely disgruntled, flopped back into his chair by the Gryffindor Common room fireplace. "And why should I have seen it coming, Hermione?"
Hermione looked uncomfortable. Harry sounded accusing, as though he blamed Hermione for Lacci being a Slytherin. "Well, I mean, she was in Azkaban, and you remember what she was like on the train..."
Harry sighed. "I know. But I don't want to accept it. Lacci's a good person."
"Well," Ron conceded, "Being Slytherin doesn't nescissarily make her bad, does it? Rememeber what Hermione said, 'Not all Slytherins are bad.' Maybe she'll be the pick of the litter."
"Yes," harry admitted, "That's true. But what about what happened on the train? What if there's some part of her we don't know about, and the Sorting Hat saw it? I just don't want to accept that."
"Harry, don't forget. She was a criminal --we don't know why-- and she's probably still dangerous. I think she's proved that. We might have to go to Dumbledore--"
Harry turned and snapped on Hermione. "Go to Dumbledore? And tell him what, exactly? 'Excuse me Dumbedore, but my thirteen year old friend was sorted into Slytherin so I think there's something wrong with her, by the way she's been released from Azkaban and she tried to kill the Dursleys in their home and me on the train to Hogwarts.' Hermione, there's no point. Lacci could be cured, and we'd only be sending her back to the most awful place in the world."
Hermione slunk back into her seat a little. Harry normally didn't get so crabby, and this wasn't even something to lose one's temper about. "Harry-- are you afraid Lacci won't like you anymore because she's in Slytherin?"
Harry was silent for a moment.
"I'm afraid..." he began. "I'm afraid that being around these other Slytherins might bring out a part of Lacci that none of us like, possibly a more dangerous Lacci. Yes, I'm afraid that it'll turn her against me. And that's all I need, isn't it? One more enemy."
"Don't worry about that," Ron said soothingly, "You saw how she worshipped you. You're her idol, Harry. I don't think she can turn against you, regardless of what she did on the train."
"Of course, he's right you know," came a cheery voice as Fred appeared on the left side of Harry's chair.
"We trained her well. She knows The Ways, she's wouldn't turn back after all that." George appeared on the right side.
Harry swatted at Fred and George, but not in a mean way. "Do you have to get your noses in everything?"
"Yep. Nosey Extraordinaire!" Fred bowed, and George followed suit. They began dancing to their theme song, which was singing the words "fred and george and fred and george and" to the british national anthem.
***
The Slytherin common room was in the dungeons. It was fairly cold, and there were green and silver rugs on the damp stone floor. There were tapestries that seemed to loom on the cold stone walls. There were armchairs and sofas, all with clawed feet. The tables were stained black wood. There was a green fire in the fireplace, crackling brightly. Lacci ran up the girls' stairs (following the prefect's orders) and into the room labelled "First Years".
There were four four-poster beds in here. Lacci found her things on the farthest bed from the door. God was lying lazily across her pillows. She hugged him. "It's not as cold in this room as it is in the big room. Did you have a fun trip?" God nodded boredly, and turned his head to watch the other first year females enter the room.
First was a thin girl with white dreadlocks that came down to about her shoulders. Her two front dreadlocks were both purple. She was wearing very egyptian makeup.
"Haio, 'M Lacci De, who are you?" Lacci stuck out her hand. The girl looked at her, shrugged, and then said (in a deep, bored, surprisingly american voice), "My name is Lara. Lara Brunner." Lara went over to the bed next to Lacci's and sat down. There was a cage with a shiny black rat in it sitting on the bed. Lara let it out.
Next came a tall girl with freckles and shaggy brown hair. She had a face like a frying pan, and it looked as though whoever had built her used too many muscles in all the wrong places. She introduced herself as Leatha Knackerman. Lacci giggled.
"Knackerman?"
Leatha shot her a cold look. "Yes." Lacci shrugged it off.
The next two came together. They were both tall, and so thin they could have been anorexic. They had dirty brown hair, well defined jawbones and blue eyes. They looked exactly the same, except one's head was slightly longer than the other's. She spoke first.
"My name is Alison Debbink, and this is my twin, Amber."
Twins? Lacci thought of Fred and George. They had told her that they were unique. She shrugged, figuring the Weasley twins had lied. They often did. They took beds opposite each other, Amber closer to Lacci and Alison right next to the door.
Unpacking her books, Lacci noticed that Lara had quite a few extra books, most of them covered in runes and all of them old and frayed. She pointed to a small one, the leather cover dyed blood red and the gold grecian lettering fading. "Hey Lara.. what's this book?"
Lara gave a twisted smile. "A book my father gave me. It's got things in it you are too weak to understand."
"Oh," Lacci said, losing interest. "I thought it was something interesting. Because the cover says 'The Summoning and Banishing of the 6 Earthly Demons'." Lacci went back to putting her robes into drawers and setting her books out. Lara gave her a strange look and went back to her things.
As Lacci unpacked, something papery fell out of her pocket. She picked it up and stared at it. Her very own face, months and months ago, Grinned up at her. Lacci read the passage below it once more. Her grip tightened a little on the paper, and then relaxed. She put it back into her pocket and set 1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi on top of her other books.
***
The next day, Lacci awoke to being thrown off her bed. One of the twins was looking down at her. After a moment, Lacci reconized her as Amber. Amber kicked her lightly in the butt.
"For the fourth time, egt up! Do you want to be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
Lacci shot up off the floor and grabbed her books. She didn't want to miss any of her classes. "Lessgo," Lacci said hurriedly, and they rushed out the door, through the common room, and out the portrait hole ("fine, leave me open why don't you, so anyone can come in and look around!").
Amber and Lacci just barely made it to their class, after being directly wrongly twice by the local poltergiest, Peeves. Lacci sat down between Vladimir and the DeHaan girl. She relaxed, now that she knew she wasn't late.
After a few moments, whispers began to break out. Their teacher wasn't there yet. Kiwi turned fearfully to Lacci. "What if our teacher is dead?"
Vladimir scoffed. "If he was dead, they'd just find a relacement. Someone worthwhile, like Snape."
"Snape?" Lacci asked. She had heard Snape didn't like Harry, Ron and Hermione. Certainly Vladimir couldn't think someone like that would be worthwhile?
Finally, a girl appeared in the doorway. She appeared to be about 16 or 17 years old. She smiled. "I'm afraid your DADA teacher can't make it today. I'll be filling in for him. My name is Professor Ubel Severo En Haut Tendu Chiffon Feiticeira Madula Madona Onde Fullstendig Von Crackawitz, but you can call me Ubel. Any questions before we begin class? You're all new, and I see a few confused faces."
Lacci smiled. From what she had heard, a female had never taught DADA, much less a teenaged one. Vlad looked outraged. He put his hand up.
"Mister Malfoy, is it? I knew your father once, he looked just like you. What's your question?"
Vlad looked doubtful. "Well, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed that you're nothing but a 7th year. How can you teach us against the Dark Arts?"
Kiwi looked frightened for Vladimir's life, talking to a teacher like that, but Ubel just smiled. "I'm not a 7th year student, Vlad. I'm actually twice your parents' age. I used to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher long ago, and I taught it to them. When I was in my 7th year, a boy put a curse on me, as a joke. It was a curse to keep me looking as I do now for the rest of my life. The headmistress at the time offered to remove it, but I decided I'd rather look young and innocent all my life, instead of growing old and wrinkly, like he did."
A girl in the back raised her hand. "Yes, Waston?"
"Miss Ubel, people say that there's a curse on the Defense Agianst the Dark Arts job. Did you last only one year, like everyone else?"
Ubel shook her head. "I hadn't heard that. No, I taught for about 7 years before I got sick of the ridicule. That curse must be past my time. I'm been working as a substitute teacher ever since then."
Lacci rasied her hand. Ubel called on her. "Who was the boy?" Lacci asked.
Ubel laughed. "I daresay he's someone you've seen before. I wont tell you who he is, though. You'll have to ask him for yourself. Any more questions?"
There were no more questions. But Vlad leaned oer and whispered to Lacci out of the corner of his mouth, "She says she wont tell us who he is, but we've got to ask him ourselves. Hah."
The lesson turned out to be fairly productive, although Vladimir constantly bickered about the teacher and Kiwi kept worrying about doing things wrong. Lacci had come to like Ubel. She was nice and patient. Lacci was beaming with pride by the end of the period. She had earned Slytherin 20 points! When Ubel dismissed them, the class rushed out of the room and to their next classes. Lacci looked at her list.
"Our next class is History of Magic, with the Gryffindors. That figures." Vladimir had appeared behind Lacci, and was reading his list aloud. For the first time, he looked directly at her. "Well, let's go." He walked quickly down the hall. Lacci skipped to catch up.
***
Harry's schedule led him to Divination first. He and Ron found poufs next to the same table and sat down. Professor Trelawney appeared moments later, the red light of the covered lamps making her seem much younger than she actually was. She looked mournfully at Harry. "There is a phantom around you, my dear, I sense it. Do be careful."
She turned to the rest of the class. "For the next two weeks we will be learning about Angels and Time Management. Please turn to page 493. Oh, and Neville dear, you might want to use the Diffindo charm to unstick pages 493 and 494. They are covered in jam." Neville groaned loudly and Parvarti helped him unstick his book.
This class period seemed to be worse than the normal Divination classes. Trelawney Actually tripped over a sentence as she stared at Harry, and when she walked past him she'd whisper things like, "Beware the one that shadows you" and "there is a dark force after you". Harry nearly snapped at her when she asked him to pass out booklets 'because he might not be around long enough to do it later'. He was very relieved when he escaped. Next Gryffindor had Herbology with Ravenclaw, so he headed out to the greenhouses.
***
Lacci sat through History of Magic, Herbology, and Transfiguration with the rest of the Slytherins. She became fairly good friends with Vladimir and Amber. At least, Slytherin definition of friends. They were certainly the most co-operative with her, but Vladimir had a superior air around him and made faces when Lacci said she didn't understand or when she just smiled boredly into space. Amber turned out to be extremely foul-mouthed, and insulted Lacci to her face. Lacci didn't mind either of these habits, but they certainly weren't as nice as Harry and Ron.
It was break, and Lacci excused herself from her new friends and ran to find the courtyard, where she was sure her Gryffindor friends were. As she was running over the bridge that was built over the small stream, she ran into someone and knocked them off the side. "WAAAAIII!!!" Lacci looked nervously over the edge of the bridge.
A boy with rosy cheeks and short brown hair looked up with a grimace on his face. "Oooowwww..." Lacci reached down in an offer to pull him up. The boy grasped her hand and shook it. "My name is Tentwol Wiggleby, what's yours? Pleased to meet yo-- ow my bum..."
"Lacci De Vrij," Lacci said promptly. The boy climbed out of the stream and got back in the bridge. "Well Lacci," he said with a soft smile, "It's a pleasure meeting you, even in such wet circumstances. Why were you running?"
Lacci cocked her head to the side slightly and then said, "I'm looking for Hayee Pohher, Ron Weazley and Hermione Granger. Have you seen them?"
Tentwol shook a pebble from his sleeve. "Actually yes, I have seen them. They were walking down the corridor you just came from, going... left, I believe." He looked her over. "You're that girl from the wizarding newspaper, aren't you? I'm sure I've seen your face before."
Lacci got slightly tense. She bit her lip and then stood up (she had been sitting on the side of the bridge). "Yes I gotta go catch up with them now bye bye." Lacci felt it was a slightly hurried reply, but h well. She gave Tentwol a quick smile and then turned on her heel and sped off the way she came.
Tentwol shrugged. "So you don't want to stay and chat, then?" He asked the empty space. Lacci was already gone down the corridor. He shrugged, sighed, and sat back down in the bridge.
***
"I wonder how Lacci's managing her first day of school? I mean, I hope she isn't have a nervous breakdown or anything. Slytherin is a tough house." Harry rearranged the books he was holding so he could stretch one arm and then the other.
Hermione shrugged. "How did you do on your first day? I'm sure she'll be fine. Who knows, she might even make friends in Slytherin. Like I said, they aren't all bad."
"What class have we got after break?" Ron interrupted.
Harry looked at his classes sheet, but Hermione was already responding. "Defense Against The Dark Arts. Now we can finally find out who the tea--" Hermione fell over.
Dumbfounded, Harry and Ron stopped and stared at her.
"Hermione," Ron said, sounding shocked, "You fell over."
"I know that," she snapped. "I was pushed. Help me up, will you?"
"Sorry Hermione, I didn't see where I-- Hermione! Hayee! Ron! Oh, I found you!" Lacci stood up and pulled Hermione to her feet. She gave Harry a hug. "I've had the most wonderful day, Hayee! Do I have any classes with you?"
Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. "Lacci," Harry said politely, pulling her arms off his neck, "You're a first year and I'm a fifth year. We don't have any classes together." Lacci looked disappointed. "But," Harry added, "We do have lunch after this next class. I'll ask McGonagall if you can sit with us."
This seemed to be good enough for Lacci. She nodded. She somehow felt she could manage not sitting with her Slytherin friends for a lunch period.
Lacci opened her mouth to say something, but forgot for a moment what she wanted to say. "Uuhhh--oh yes, Dark Arts teacher. There isn't one, he's not in today. There's a 6th year filling in."
Lacci recieved three equally confused looks. "6th year? Why a 6th year?"
She shrugged. "Says she's been a subbytute for years. But she's really fun."
Harry waved it off. "Well, we'll find out for ourselves soon enough."
Lacci nodded and, out of the corner of her eye, spotted God walking across the lawn. Lacci squinted to see where he was going. A tall black figure was standing at the opposite end of the feild. Lacci shook her head and focused in Harry. Anything God thought was important enough to go around doing was fine by Lacci. The cat never did much else. She looked back just to make sure she had actually seen him. There was no cat, and no figure in the distance. Must have imagined it then, she thought dismissively. She looked up at Harry and forgot all about everything but him.
***
Snape towered before his first years class. Lacci sat between Vladimir and Amber in the front row. Unlike everyone else, Lacci didn't look up at Snape. She instead stared at his feet. Lacci had learned, from her overall life experiance, that you never look your superiors in the eyes. And there was something about Snape; she felt uncomfortable looking at him at all. He reminded her of someone.
Snape seemed to notice this.
"Miss Vrij," he said irritably, "is there something wrong with your eyes? My feet can't possibly be more interesting than the lesson, can it?"
Lacci shook her head, still staring downwards. "I-I'm sorry Professor. I am paying attention, but I can't look at you."
Snape looked slightly offended. "Certainly I'm not that hideous of a sight. Look up please, so I know you are paying attention."
Lacci tense her neck a little. "I'm not allowed," she said desperately, hoping he would understand. "Not allowed."
Snape sighed exasperatingly. He normally didn't have this much trouble with students of his own house. "I'm sorry Miss Vrij, but you're going to have to look up. You are granted permission to look up."
Lacci bit her lip and lifted her head up. Her gaze locked with Snape's, and she bit harder. Now he looked even more like someone she knew. She didn't want to look at him. It hurt.
By now the entire class was watching her in interest. Snape was extremely annoyed by the performance, but let it go. "Now, if you would all pay attention to the board again..." Lacci kept her head up, her teeth firmly fastened to her bottom lip, which was slightly swollen.
***
McGonagall had agreed to let Lacci sit at the Gryffindor table, and all was joyious. Lacci told her friends she wouldn't be sitting with them ("yeah" "whatever" "ok then") and had found the Gryffindor table almost immediately afterwards. One or two Gryffindors seemed uncomfortable having Lacci at their table, but made no comment.
"Lacci," Harry said conversationally, "How's your first day been? Any trouble at all?"
Lacci thought about the Potions lesson, and decided not to mention it. "Well, I did get up late. Amber had to kick me awake, and then we were almost late for Defense Against The Dark Arts."
Harry was fairly surprised. He was secretly hoping that Lacci had been horribly put down by the Slytherins and that she would be resorted into Gryffindor, or even Hufflepuff. Now that he thought about it, she was extremely Hufflepufflish. He didn't want to think about the reasons why she might have been sorted into Slytherin.
"You forgot this," a drawling voice said behind Harry. He turned around and came face to face with Draco, who looked xtremely strange. Shorter, for one. But Draco wasn't looking at Harry, he was holing a piece of paper out to Lacci. Harry looked to Ron and Hermione, who shrugged. Lacci hadn't become friends with Draco Malfoy, had she?
Lacci's face lit up. "Dankeshin! Oooo, I want you to meet my other friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione." She pointed to her Gryffindors, who seemed completely puzzled. "Vlad?" Hermione asked.
Vladimir shot a disgusted glace towards the Gryffindors. He smirked a little when his eyes fell on Harry. "Harry Potter, the good little Gryffindor," he murmured, loud enough only for Harry to hear. "Goodbye for now then, enjoy your Gryffindor lunch, Vrij." Vlad stalked smoothly off to the Slytherin table, where the people he sat down by were already snickering.
Ron stared at Lacci. "Vlad??" He asked incredulously.
"Didn't you see him get sorted?" Lacci asked. They all shook their heads. They had been so busy conversing Lacci that they hadn't paid attention to the rest of the first years. "Vladimir Malfoy. He's one of my new friends. Isn't he nice? He returned my drawing!"
Harry raised his eyebrows. He hadn't known Malfoy had a little brother, and Lacci being friends with him wasn't something Harry had been counting on. "Very... nice, Lacci."
***
Harry returned to his common room later that night. Fred and George, who had been watching during lunch, popped up repeatedly by Harry to ask him questions about Baby Malfoy.
"It he really friends with Lacci?"
"Do you think he's as bad at Draco?"
"I wonder if Lacci will grab something out of his dormitory for us?"
"Hey Harry, is he _really_ Draco's brother, or do you think it's just Draco, after using Youth Elixir?"
"Go away," Harry told them. Not wanting to be bothered any longer, he and Ron hurried up to their dorm.
"She's friends with a Malfoy," Harry said blanky, sitting on his bed 2 minutes later.
"That she is," Ron admitted. "What're you going to do about it?"
"I don't know," replied Harry. "He knows me, his brother told him about me. He said to me 'Harry Potter, the good little Gryffindor.' I hope Lacci doesn't go off telling him everything about me. Do you think she knows better?"
Ron shrugged. "You can hope."
***
Lara picked up Lacci's drawing. "What's it of?" She asked. Lacci finished pouring herself a glass of water and stepped over to Lara.
It was drawn out of crayon, and was moving, just like a normal photograph. It was all in one color-- red. The type of crayons that draw moving pictures are extremely expensive and not many people could afford them. Lacci had only the one crayon-- the rest of her set was somewhere she dared not go ever again. Lacci pointed to the large dark red thing that was slinking through the garden. "That's God," she said. Then she pointed to the figure next to him, which was dancing around the flowers. "And that's me." Then she pointed to the character who was sitting under a giant mushroom. "And that's Hayee." Lacci walked back over to her bed and sat down.
Lara watched the picture for a moment, as the figures moved around on it. Then she said, "Lacci? Why's Harry's head on the ground next to him? And what's with the drawing of yourself?"
Lacci sidled over to Lara and looked down at the picture. There was a loud clunk and a splash as her water hit the floor.
Oooo, the suspense. Ok, not much suspense, but it's suspenseful in my head, nbecause there are four new chapters written down in my head. I'm been waking up with inspirations for my fic at 7 am, and hopefully my chapters will come faster. Review me.
"Yes Harry," Hermione said, trying to sound comforting (although not really knowing how to be in this situation). "She's in Slytherin. I'm sure you should have seen it coming."
Harry, looking extremely disgruntled, flopped back into his chair by the Gryffindor Common room fireplace. "And why should I have seen it coming, Hermione?"
Hermione looked uncomfortable. Harry sounded accusing, as though he blamed Hermione for Lacci being a Slytherin. "Well, I mean, she was in Azkaban, and you remember what she was like on the train..."
Harry sighed. "I know. But I don't want to accept it. Lacci's a good person."
"Well," Ron conceded, "Being Slytherin doesn't nescissarily make her bad, does it? Rememeber what Hermione said, 'Not all Slytherins are bad.' Maybe she'll be the pick of the litter."
"Yes," harry admitted, "That's true. But what about what happened on the train? What if there's some part of her we don't know about, and the Sorting Hat saw it? I just don't want to accept that."
"Harry, don't forget. She was a criminal --we don't know why-- and she's probably still dangerous. I think she's proved that. We might have to go to Dumbledore--"
Harry turned and snapped on Hermione. "Go to Dumbledore? And tell him what, exactly? 'Excuse me Dumbedore, but my thirteen year old friend was sorted into Slytherin so I think there's something wrong with her, by the way she's been released from Azkaban and she tried to kill the Dursleys in their home and me on the train to Hogwarts.' Hermione, there's no point. Lacci could be cured, and we'd only be sending her back to the most awful place in the world."
Hermione slunk back into her seat a little. Harry normally didn't get so crabby, and this wasn't even something to lose one's temper about. "Harry-- are you afraid Lacci won't like you anymore because she's in Slytherin?"
Harry was silent for a moment.
"I'm afraid..." he began. "I'm afraid that being around these other Slytherins might bring out a part of Lacci that none of us like, possibly a more dangerous Lacci. Yes, I'm afraid that it'll turn her against me. And that's all I need, isn't it? One more enemy."
"Don't worry about that," Ron said soothingly, "You saw how she worshipped you. You're her idol, Harry. I don't think she can turn against you, regardless of what she did on the train."
"Of course, he's right you know," came a cheery voice as Fred appeared on the left side of Harry's chair.
"We trained her well. She knows The Ways, she's wouldn't turn back after all that." George appeared on the right side.
Harry swatted at Fred and George, but not in a mean way. "Do you have to get your noses in everything?"
"Yep. Nosey Extraordinaire!" Fred bowed, and George followed suit. They began dancing to their theme song, which was singing the words "fred and george and fred and george and" to the british national anthem.
***
The Slytherin common room was in the dungeons. It was fairly cold, and there were green and silver rugs on the damp stone floor. There were tapestries that seemed to loom on the cold stone walls. There were armchairs and sofas, all with clawed feet. The tables were stained black wood. There was a green fire in the fireplace, crackling brightly. Lacci ran up the girls' stairs (following the prefect's orders) and into the room labelled "First Years".
There were four four-poster beds in here. Lacci found her things on the farthest bed from the door. God was lying lazily across her pillows. She hugged him. "It's not as cold in this room as it is in the big room. Did you have a fun trip?" God nodded boredly, and turned his head to watch the other first year females enter the room.
First was a thin girl with white dreadlocks that came down to about her shoulders. Her two front dreadlocks were both purple. She was wearing very egyptian makeup.
"Haio, 'M Lacci De, who are you?" Lacci stuck out her hand. The girl looked at her, shrugged, and then said (in a deep, bored, surprisingly american voice), "My name is Lara. Lara Brunner." Lara went over to the bed next to Lacci's and sat down. There was a cage with a shiny black rat in it sitting on the bed. Lara let it out.
Next came a tall girl with freckles and shaggy brown hair. She had a face like a frying pan, and it looked as though whoever had built her used too many muscles in all the wrong places. She introduced herself as Leatha Knackerman. Lacci giggled.
"Knackerman?"
Leatha shot her a cold look. "Yes." Lacci shrugged it off.
The next two came together. They were both tall, and so thin they could have been anorexic. They had dirty brown hair, well defined jawbones and blue eyes. They looked exactly the same, except one's head was slightly longer than the other's. She spoke first.
"My name is Alison Debbink, and this is my twin, Amber."
Twins? Lacci thought of Fred and George. They had told her that they were unique. She shrugged, figuring the Weasley twins had lied. They often did. They took beds opposite each other, Amber closer to Lacci and Alison right next to the door.
Unpacking her books, Lacci noticed that Lara had quite a few extra books, most of them covered in runes and all of them old and frayed. She pointed to a small one, the leather cover dyed blood red and the gold grecian lettering fading. "Hey Lara.. what's this book?"
Lara gave a twisted smile. "A book my father gave me. It's got things in it you are too weak to understand."
"Oh," Lacci said, losing interest. "I thought it was something interesting. Because the cover says 'The Summoning and Banishing of the 6 Earthly Demons'." Lacci went back to putting her robes into drawers and setting her books out. Lara gave her a strange look and went back to her things.
As Lacci unpacked, something papery fell out of her pocket. She picked it up and stared at it. Her very own face, months and months ago, Grinned up at her. Lacci read the passage below it once more. Her grip tightened a little on the paper, and then relaxed. She put it back into her pocket and set 1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi on top of her other books.
***
The next day, Lacci awoke to being thrown off her bed. One of the twins was looking down at her. After a moment, Lacci reconized her as Amber. Amber kicked her lightly in the butt.
"For the fourth time, egt up! Do you want to be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
Lacci shot up off the floor and grabbed her books. She didn't want to miss any of her classes. "Lessgo," Lacci said hurriedly, and they rushed out the door, through the common room, and out the portrait hole ("fine, leave me open why don't you, so anyone can come in and look around!").
Amber and Lacci just barely made it to their class, after being directly wrongly twice by the local poltergiest, Peeves. Lacci sat down between Vladimir and the DeHaan girl. She relaxed, now that she knew she wasn't late.
After a few moments, whispers began to break out. Their teacher wasn't there yet. Kiwi turned fearfully to Lacci. "What if our teacher is dead?"
Vladimir scoffed. "If he was dead, they'd just find a relacement. Someone worthwhile, like Snape."
"Snape?" Lacci asked. She had heard Snape didn't like Harry, Ron and Hermione. Certainly Vladimir couldn't think someone like that would be worthwhile?
Finally, a girl appeared in the doorway. She appeared to be about 16 or 17 years old. She smiled. "I'm afraid your DADA teacher can't make it today. I'll be filling in for him. My name is Professor Ubel Severo En Haut Tendu Chiffon Feiticeira Madula Madona Onde Fullstendig Von Crackawitz, but you can call me Ubel. Any questions before we begin class? You're all new, and I see a few confused faces."
Lacci smiled. From what she had heard, a female had never taught DADA, much less a teenaged one. Vlad looked outraged. He put his hand up.
"Mister Malfoy, is it? I knew your father once, he looked just like you. What's your question?"
Vlad looked doubtful. "Well, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed that you're nothing but a 7th year. How can you teach us against the Dark Arts?"
Kiwi looked frightened for Vladimir's life, talking to a teacher like that, but Ubel just smiled. "I'm not a 7th year student, Vlad. I'm actually twice your parents' age. I used to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher long ago, and I taught it to them. When I was in my 7th year, a boy put a curse on me, as a joke. It was a curse to keep me looking as I do now for the rest of my life. The headmistress at the time offered to remove it, but I decided I'd rather look young and innocent all my life, instead of growing old and wrinkly, like he did."
A girl in the back raised her hand. "Yes, Waston?"
"Miss Ubel, people say that there's a curse on the Defense Agianst the Dark Arts job. Did you last only one year, like everyone else?"
Ubel shook her head. "I hadn't heard that. No, I taught for about 7 years before I got sick of the ridicule. That curse must be past my time. I'm been working as a substitute teacher ever since then."
Lacci rasied her hand. Ubel called on her. "Who was the boy?" Lacci asked.
Ubel laughed. "I daresay he's someone you've seen before. I wont tell you who he is, though. You'll have to ask him for yourself. Any more questions?"
There were no more questions. But Vlad leaned oer and whispered to Lacci out of the corner of his mouth, "She says she wont tell us who he is, but we've got to ask him ourselves. Hah."
The lesson turned out to be fairly productive, although Vladimir constantly bickered about the teacher and Kiwi kept worrying about doing things wrong. Lacci had come to like Ubel. She was nice and patient. Lacci was beaming with pride by the end of the period. She had earned Slytherin 20 points! When Ubel dismissed them, the class rushed out of the room and to their next classes. Lacci looked at her list.
"Our next class is History of Magic, with the Gryffindors. That figures." Vladimir had appeared behind Lacci, and was reading his list aloud. For the first time, he looked directly at her. "Well, let's go." He walked quickly down the hall. Lacci skipped to catch up.
***
Harry's schedule led him to Divination first. He and Ron found poufs next to the same table and sat down. Professor Trelawney appeared moments later, the red light of the covered lamps making her seem much younger than she actually was. She looked mournfully at Harry. "There is a phantom around you, my dear, I sense it. Do be careful."
She turned to the rest of the class. "For the next two weeks we will be learning about Angels and Time Management. Please turn to page 493. Oh, and Neville dear, you might want to use the Diffindo charm to unstick pages 493 and 494. They are covered in jam." Neville groaned loudly and Parvarti helped him unstick his book.
This class period seemed to be worse than the normal Divination classes. Trelawney Actually tripped over a sentence as she stared at Harry, and when she walked past him she'd whisper things like, "Beware the one that shadows you" and "there is a dark force after you". Harry nearly snapped at her when she asked him to pass out booklets 'because he might not be around long enough to do it later'. He was very relieved when he escaped. Next Gryffindor had Herbology with Ravenclaw, so he headed out to the greenhouses.
***
Lacci sat through History of Magic, Herbology, and Transfiguration with the rest of the Slytherins. She became fairly good friends with Vladimir and Amber. At least, Slytherin definition of friends. They were certainly the most co-operative with her, but Vladimir had a superior air around him and made faces when Lacci said she didn't understand or when she just smiled boredly into space. Amber turned out to be extremely foul-mouthed, and insulted Lacci to her face. Lacci didn't mind either of these habits, but they certainly weren't as nice as Harry and Ron.
It was break, and Lacci excused herself from her new friends and ran to find the courtyard, where she was sure her Gryffindor friends were. As she was running over the bridge that was built over the small stream, she ran into someone and knocked them off the side. "WAAAAIII!!!" Lacci looked nervously over the edge of the bridge.
A boy with rosy cheeks and short brown hair looked up with a grimace on his face. "Oooowwww..." Lacci reached down in an offer to pull him up. The boy grasped her hand and shook it. "My name is Tentwol Wiggleby, what's yours? Pleased to meet yo-- ow my bum..."
"Lacci De Vrij," Lacci said promptly. The boy climbed out of the stream and got back in the bridge. "Well Lacci," he said with a soft smile, "It's a pleasure meeting you, even in such wet circumstances. Why were you running?"
Lacci cocked her head to the side slightly and then said, "I'm looking for Hayee Pohher, Ron Weazley and Hermione Granger. Have you seen them?"
Tentwol shook a pebble from his sleeve. "Actually yes, I have seen them. They were walking down the corridor you just came from, going... left, I believe." He looked her over. "You're that girl from the wizarding newspaper, aren't you? I'm sure I've seen your face before."
Lacci got slightly tense. She bit her lip and then stood up (she had been sitting on the side of the bridge). "Yes I gotta go catch up with them now bye bye." Lacci felt it was a slightly hurried reply, but h well. She gave Tentwol a quick smile and then turned on her heel and sped off the way she came.
Tentwol shrugged. "So you don't want to stay and chat, then?" He asked the empty space. Lacci was already gone down the corridor. He shrugged, sighed, and sat back down in the bridge.
***
"I wonder how Lacci's managing her first day of school? I mean, I hope she isn't have a nervous breakdown or anything. Slytherin is a tough house." Harry rearranged the books he was holding so he could stretch one arm and then the other.
Hermione shrugged. "How did you do on your first day? I'm sure she'll be fine. Who knows, she might even make friends in Slytherin. Like I said, they aren't all bad."
"What class have we got after break?" Ron interrupted.
Harry looked at his classes sheet, but Hermione was already responding. "Defense Against The Dark Arts. Now we can finally find out who the tea--" Hermione fell over.
Dumbfounded, Harry and Ron stopped and stared at her.
"Hermione," Ron said, sounding shocked, "You fell over."
"I know that," she snapped. "I was pushed. Help me up, will you?"
"Sorry Hermione, I didn't see where I-- Hermione! Hayee! Ron! Oh, I found you!" Lacci stood up and pulled Hermione to her feet. She gave Harry a hug. "I've had the most wonderful day, Hayee! Do I have any classes with you?"
Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. "Lacci," Harry said politely, pulling her arms off his neck, "You're a first year and I'm a fifth year. We don't have any classes together." Lacci looked disappointed. "But," Harry added, "We do have lunch after this next class. I'll ask McGonagall if you can sit with us."
This seemed to be good enough for Lacci. She nodded. She somehow felt she could manage not sitting with her Slytherin friends for a lunch period.
Lacci opened her mouth to say something, but forgot for a moment what she wanted to say. "Uuhhh--oh yes, Dark Arts teacher. There isn't one, he's not in today. There's a 6th year filling in."
Lacci recieved three equally confused looks. "6th year? Why a 6th year?"
She shrugged. "Says she's been a subbytute for years. But she's really fun."
Harry waved it off. "Well, we'll find out for ourselves soon enough."
Lacci nodded and, out of the corner of her eye, spotted God walking across the lawn. Lacci squinted to see where he was going. A tall black figure was standing at the opposite end of the feild. Lacci shook her head and focused in Harry. Anything God thought was important enough to go around doing was fine by Lacci. The cat never did much else. She looked back just to make sure she had actually seen him. There was no cat, and no figure in the distance. Must have imagined it then, she thought dismissively. She looked up at Harry and forgot all about everything but him.
***
Snape towered before his first years class. Lacci sat between Vladimir and Amber in the front row. Unlike everyone else, Lacci didn't look up at Snape. She instead stared at his feet. Lacci had learned, from her overall life experiance, that you never look your superiors in the eyes. And there was something about Snape; she felt uncomfortable looking at him at all. He reminded her of someone.
Snape seemed to notice this.
"Miss Vrij," he said irritably, "is there something wrong with your eyes? My feet can't possibly be more interesting than the lesson, can it?"
Lacci shook her head, still staring downwards. "I-I'm sorry Professor. I am paying attention, but I can't look at you."
Snape looked slightly offended. "Certainly I'm not that hideous of a sight. Look up please, so I know you are paying attention."
Lacci tense her neck a little. "I'm not allowed," she said desperately, hoping he would understand. "Not allowed."
Snape sighed exasperatingly. He normally didn't have this much trouble with students of his own house. "I'm sorry Miss Vrij, but you're going to have to look up. You are granted permission to look up."
Lacci bit her lip and lifted her head up. Her gaze locked with Snape's, and she bit harder. Now he looked even more like someone she knew. She didn't want to look at him. It hurt.
By now the entire class was watching her in interest. Snape was extremely annoyed by the performance, but let it go. "Now, if you would all pay attention to the board again..." Lacci kept her head up, her teeth firmly fastened to her bottom lip, which was slightly swollen.
***
McGonagall had agreed to let Lacci sit at the Gryffindor table, and all was joyious. Lacci told her friends she wouldn't be sitting with them ("yeah" "whatever" "ok then") and had found the Gryffindor table almost immediately afterwards. One or two Gryffindors seemed uncomfortable having Lacci at their table, but made no comment.
"Lacci," Harry said conversationally, "How's your first day been? Any trouble at all?"
Lacci thought about the Potions lesson, and decided not to mention it. "Well, I did get up late. Amber had to kick me awake, and then we were almost late for Defense Against The Dark Arts."
Harry was fairly surprised. He was secretly hoping that Lacci had been horribly put down by the Slytherins and that she would be resorted into Gryffindor, or even Hufflepuff. Now that he thought about it, she was extremely Hufflepufflish. He didn't want to think about the reasons why she might have been sorted into Slytherin.
"You forgot this," a drawling voice said behind Harry. He turned around and came face to face with Draco, who looked xtremely strange. Shorter, for one. But Draco wasn't looking at Harry, he was holing a piece of paper out to Lacci. Harry looked to Ron and Hermione, who shrugged. Lacci hadn't become friends with Draco Malfoy, had she?
Lacci's face lit up. "Dankeshin! Oooo, I want you to meet my other friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione." She pointed to her Gryffindors, who seemed completely puzzled. "Vlad?" Hermione asked.
Vladimir shot a disgusted glace towards the Gryffindors. He smirked a little when his eyes fell on Harry. "Harry Potter, the good little Gryffindor," he murmured, loud enough only for Harry to hear. "Goodbye for now then, enjoy your Gryffindor lunch, Vrij." Vlad stalked smoothly off to the Slytherin table, where the people he sat down by were already snickering.
Ron stared at Lacci. "Vlad??" He asked incredulously.
"Didn't you see him get sorted?" Lacci asked. They all shook their heads. They had been so busy conversing Lacci that they hadn't paid attention to the rest of the first years. "Vladimir Malfoy. He's one of my new friends. Isn't he nice? He returned my drawing!"
Harry raised his eyebrows. He hadn't known Malfoy had a little brother, and Lacci being friends with him wasn't something Harry had been counting on. "Very... nice, Lacci."
***
Harry returned to his common room later that night. Fred and George, who had been watching during lunch, popped up repeatedly by Harry to ask him questions about Baby Malfoy.
"It he really friends with Lacci?"
"Do you think he's as bad at Draco?"
"I wonder if Lacci will grab something out of his dormitory for us?"
"Hey Harry, is he _really_ Draco's brother, or do you think it's just Draco, after using Youth Elixir?"
"Go away," Harry told them. Not wanting to be bothered any longer, he and Ron hurried up to their dorm.
"She's friends with a Malfoy," Harry said blanky, sitting on his bed 2 minutes later.
"That she is," Ron admitted. "What're you going to do about it?"
"I don't know," replied Harry. "He knows me, his brother told him about me. He said to me 'Harry Potter, the good little Gryffindor.' I hope Lacci doesn't go off telling him everything about me. Do you think she knows better?"
Ron shrugged. "You can hope."
***
Lara picked up Lacci's drawing. "What's it of?" She asked. Lacci finished pouring herself a glass of water and stepped over to Lara.
It was drawn out of crayon, and was moving, just like a normal photograph. It was all in one color-- red. The type of crayons that draw moving pictures are extremely expensive and not many people could afford them. Lacci had only the one crayon-- the rest of her set was somewhere she dared not go ever again. Lacci pointed to the large dark red thing that was slinking through the garden. "That's God," she said. Then she pointed to the figure next to him, which was dancing around the flowers. "And that's me." Then she pointed to the character who was sitting under a giant mushroom. "And that's Hayee." Lacci walked back over to her bed and sat down.
Lara watched the picture for a moment, as the figures moved around on it. Then she said, "Lacci? Why's Harry's head on the ground next to him? And what's with the drawing of yourself?"
Lacci sidled over to Lara and looked down at the picture. There was a loud clunk and a splash as her water hit the floor.
Oooo, the suspense. Ok, not much suspense, but it's suspenseful in my head, nbecause there are four new chapters written down in my head. I'm been waking up with inspirations for my fic at 7 am, and hopefully my chapters will come faster. Review me.