Chapter Three: Well It's Been A Long, Been A Long, Been A Long, Been A Long
Day
Lavender's prediction, if that's what it was, and she liked to think so, came true sure enough. With Ron and Seamus as the new beaters, Harry the seeker, and Dean returning as a chaser, there was talk of nothing but quidditch among the sixth years at the Gryffindor table. The team was rounded out with new chasers Ginny Weasley and Ethan Underwood, with fourth year Emily Orestia as keeper. Harry couldn't stop talking about their great chances, it was the best pool of players they had put together since Wood left, and if the team wasn't as plagued with injuries as they had been in the past year, they'd have this set of players and alternates through next year as well.
"The only real concern is Ginny."
"What?" Scoffed Hermione, "You don't think she can handle it? She's been playing with her brothers since she could hang on to a broom, she's great."
"Not that," Harry shook his head, "I'm worried that the minute one of those Slytherin mammoths sends a Bludger her way Ron is gonna forget all about the game, knock the poor bastard off his broom, and beat him to a bloody pulp."
"You think he has that little self control?"
Lucy snorted. "I sure as hell do. He almost hit ME last year and I hadn't done anything nearly that bad."
Hermione gave her a look, and glanced down the table, where Ron was drawing plays on the table with Dean and Seamus.
Lucy shrugged. "Listen Hermione, he's got a temper to match mine, and that's what I'd do. Slytherins better play smart."
"What about the other houses?"
"I seriously doubt they would put Ginny in enough danger to cause Ron to go off. People only get seriously hurt when play gets dirty, I mean isn't that what happened to us last year?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "We'll try and see how he handles the scrimmages in practice. We just have to get him used to the idea of someone intentionally trying to knock Ginny off her broom, and hopefully he'll be able to see the difference between a normal play and, well, something that's not."
Hermione nodded. "Well, if I know Ginny, she'll be the one to knock it through his skull first. It's one thing to be the protective older brother, but she has six of those, and its another thing to try and keep her from having fun. Getting on the team meant so much to her."
"It'll be an interesting season, that's for sure."
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"I didn't mean to yell at you earlier."
"You didn't. And you were just nervous anyhow."
"Still, I mean, it was your decision and-"
"Look, it all turned out for the best, didn't it. I get to go through the year in peace, and you get to fly around in the air and hit large heavy balls at peoples' heads. It's a regular happy ever after."
"Right." Seamus sat down in the chair with a sigh. Lucy was still bothered by her interview with Dumbledore, he could tell. Even if her face wasn't giving it away, his heightened empathetic sense could feel the anxiety rolling off her. It made his head itch. He didn't want to complain, although Lucy was responsible for his empathy channel being open. Maybe that was why he wanted her to rethink the idea of teaching other Hogwarts students ; she'd offered to 'fix' him, but he never regretted his decision to keep his new gift, and he though others would act the same way. Then again, not everyone felt the same way he did about Lucy.
"What is it Lucy?"
"Huh?"
"You're making my head hurt, so something's wrong, I'm shielded as tight as I know how."
"Oh hell." Lucy paused a moment, getting a wrinkle in the middle of her forehead, and them suddenly he felt her blink out of his mind.
"Better?"
"Much, thanks."
"You didn't work on your shielding over the summer, did you?"
"As a matter of fact, I did. My grandmother was more than happy to help."
"Well then you were just being lazy, I never got through to you last year unless I tried or was really really scared."
"Yeah, I remember that. So what is it?"
"I was thinking about the professor."
"Oh." He didn't say anything, just watched her closely. He knew what professor she meant, her mentor, Professor Antolin de La Vega, her guardian, who had disappeared into the void between the gates along with the rest of her school the previous winter.
Lucy saw the worry on his face and forced a smile. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I was just trying to think what he would have to say about all this… and I'm starting to forget things. I didn't want to forget."
"Forget things?"
"How his voice sounded when he was cross, the wrinkles on his face, his nose…"
Seamus made to get up, but Lucy held up her hand. "Don't, I'm, I'm just going to go to bed. I'll be myself again in the morning." And she hurried up the stairs to the sixth year girls' room before he could say another word.
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True to her word, Lucy appeared happy and healthy the next morning at breakfast. Truthfully, however, she had slept anything but well. Part of that was homesickness, and the other part was the lingering doubt she still had about whether or not she was doing the right thing. She didn't tell Seamus or Hermione, however, fearing they might continue to try and convince her. So she tried to put the events of yesterday behind her, and attempted to eat her breakfast without shouting at someone to shut up about the god damn quidditch. She had a feeling that it might not be well received.
Care of Magical Creatures was their first class that morning. The Gryffindors and Slytherins marched out to the area behind Hagrid's, to find the enormous groundskeeper hovering over a box of hay, with several brightly colored objects in it. As they moved closer, they realized what they were, eggs.
"Come roun', come roun', everyone get a nice good look there. Aren't they jus beautiful? "
Hermione raised her eyebrow. "Hagrid, um, where exactly did you get the eggs?"
Hagrid grinned. "Don' worry about that Hermione, got 'em wholesale, markdown in Diagon Ally bout a week ago. They're yer assignments this year."
"What!"
Hagrid dismissed Neville's squeak and spoke up, addressing the whole class.
"Now, its part a yer curriculum that the sixth an seventh year Magical Creatures students have a bit more involvement. Dese eggs are all different, and about all I can tell you is that none of 'em are water animals. It's gonna be yer job ta take care of that egg, keep it in the right sort a conditions till it hatches, be there for the hatching, and take care a the infant till the end of the year. Now step up an I'll distribute 'em."
The students warily formed a line as Hagrid bent over the clutch of eggs, whispering to some of them, and patting them, finding it awfully difficult to let them go. Hermione received a spherical egg, light green with dark green spots. Harry's was white and ovular, but tiny, smaller than a golfball. Ron's, on the other hand, was enourmous, it took both hands to carry; a long egg that looked like an enormous version of an Everyflavor bean, and bright pink, which made Draco Malfoy, with his medium round blue egg snicker and Ron's ears turn pink, but he couldn't slug him because of the egg in his hands. Lavender received an average size but extremely heavy purple egg, with a wink from Hagrid, and Parvati received a black egg that Lucy though looked very much like a small American football without the laces. When she stepped up Hagrid thought a moment, then reached down and handed her an egg roughly twice the size of a normal chicken egg, but this one was bright red, so red that in the sun it was a bit difficult to look at.
"Careful with this one," Hagrid said as he gingerly picked it up and placed it in her hands.
Lucy would have dropped it if he hadn't covered her hands with his. The egg was very, very hot.
"Careful, Lucy." He gave her a steadying look. "Got it now?" Lucy nodded, and Hagrid released her. She immediately sat down and held the egg using the corner of her robes.
Once all the eggs had been distributed Hagrid turned back to the class. "All right now, use yer books to identify what kind a egg you have, ye won't be able to care for it properly until you do. Help each other, come ask me if yer really stuck. By the end of the class ye should all have met with me to make sure yer right. I'll keep the eggs this week, an a week from today ye should have made arrangements for how yer gonna keep yer egg. We'll talk more about that next class. Well, go to it!"
Lucy made her way over to Seamus, who was staring blankly at his yellow egg, which was vibrating so fast it made a humming sound. Seamus had it carefully on the ground next to him. "It tickles."
"At least it doesn't burn."
Lucy carefully held her egg in her wrapped hand and with the other opened the book Hermione had picked up for her in Diagon Ally this summer, their Care of Magical Creatures text, "What to Expect When You're Expecting… a Brandlysnoot: A Comprehensive Guide to Magical Childcare for All Species." Comprehensive was right, the book was huge, she didn't know where to begin.
By the time the end of class came they had settled it that Harry's egg, which he had lost twice during the class, was a Pixie Dragon, something which apparently was like a tiny, scaled, salamander.
"At least its not a Ridgeback," Harry sighed, "Although I've rather had enough of dragons, if you know what I mean."
"It's not a true dragon anyway," Hermione was absorbed in a passage in the text, "that's a misnomer, you can't keep dragons here, this thing is more like an enchanted lizard, it says here-"
"That's enough Hermione, really," Harry rolled his eyes and rolled his egg around in his palm.
"At least it should be pretty easy to care for Harry," Lucy pointed to a paragraph further down in the passage, "It says here all you really need to do is keep it out of bright light, they're nocturnal and prolonged exposure to-"
"I said enough! I'm not a complete moron, you know!"
With that he jumped up and stalked off to Hagrid to check that his egg really was going to turn into a Pixie Dragon.
"What's that all about?" Lucy looked to Hermione for some help. This didn't seem like Harry, he was usually calm.
Hermione sighed and flipped through the book, staring at her egg, "Oh, a bunch of things. The O.W.L.S. came in months ago you know, and well, he did fine but…"
"What?"
"Well, if you can believe it, Ron got one more than he did."
"What?" Lucy looked over to where Ron and Dean were discussing their eggs.
Hermione nodded. "I mean, it's great for Ron, and Harry really isn't that upset, he's not the jealous type, I think it's just kinda strange for him to be in Ron's shoes for once, if you know what Imean."
Lucy nodded. "Is that all?"
Hermione shrugged, "Well, there's the whole Azkaban thing on top of it…"
Lucy gave her a blank look, she knew what Azkaban was, the energy wasteland around the place was legendary, no school could operate withing 100 miles of it, but she had no idea anything had changed, "What about Azkaban?"
Hermione's head came up. "You didn't know?"
"Know what?"
Hermione shoved her hair back roughly with one hand. "Oh, gosh, well, you know, back in our fourth year, Harry said that Dumbledore told Fudge that they needed to take Azkaban out of the control of the dementors, that it would be too easy for the Dark Lord to turn them to his side. Fudge thought it was ridiculous, because he's a twit."
Lucy didn't say anything.
"Well, after last year, when they realized the Dark Lord had already begun to look for…other forms of power, stealing ancient books, trying to tap into the power of the western circle, Fudge decided that they better take steps to secure Azkaban."
"And…"
"And he was turned away."
"Huh?"
"He was turned back, the dementors wouldn't let him in, wouldn't let him anywhere near the prison. It was as if he wasn't there. And the Ministry realized that they were too late, that the dementors were no longer working for their side anymore. They've been piling up agents and aurors and all the defense the Ministry can support outside Azkaban all summer, trying to find a way to break in, to wear the dementors down, but, I mean, there really isn't a way to go about that."
Lucy nodded, her face a little pale. "And Harry…"
"Oh, well, we're all worried. But I mean, Snuffles is there, he hasn't been cleared yet though, he's working under some sort of disguise, and so is Professor Lupin, you met him, didn't you, yes I thought so, and the rest of the order, anyway he hasn't heard from them in a while and he's starting to get nervous."
"Oh, well, trust me I know all about that."
Hermione nodded, "I forgot, yeah, you probably do. Well, that's the story with Harry, and with Dumbledore for that matter. Have you noticed he's a little bit-"
"Tense, yeah I have. And that explains a lot actually."
"Good, now, about your egg…"
"It's burning a hole through my robes, what's to know?"
"Hmm, red, hot….. got it! It's a phoenix!"
"A WHAT?"
"A phoenix. When it is full grown it will periodically burst into flames and be reborn from the ashes. Of course, they still have to reproduce by egg, or there wouldn't be any more phoenixes. Ouch, the egg will increase in temperature by ten degrees a month until the whole things bursts into flame and the chick, which develops inside an inner shell, is all that remains."
Hermione gave her a look and turned the book so she could see. "You are most definitely NOT keeping that thing in the closet."
Lucy groaned. "Gee, thanks a metric ton Hagrid, give me the fire trap baby. What's yours Hermione?"
"Um, I'm pretty sure it's a gryphon of some sort."
"Aren't they really big?"
"Mmmhmmm, although, their eggs start out small and grow to be a little bigger than a quaffle. Yikes, looks like I can't keep it in the closet either."
"Well, the amazing expanding gryphon and my toasty little friend will just have to find a place of their own."
Hermione sighed, "I guess so, but somewhere we can keep an eye on them, I don't want yours consuming mine in its fireball."
"Fireball, you didn't say it was a fireball."
"It's a phoenix Lucy…"
"Yeah, but I thought a little puff and some smoke, and you're saying-"
"All right! Come on, bring 'em back now! You'll get lots a time with the little suckers later, one at a time now…"
Hermione got up and returned her gryphon to Hagrid before Lucy could pester her any further. Lucy sighed and got in line.
**So what did you get?**
She almost jumped, then she realized the voice in her head was Seamus. He was fuzzy, but much better than he had been before the summer.
**A phoenix. Leave it to me to get the only egg that could kill me before, during, and after it hatches.**
**Consider yourself lucky. I got a bandersnatch.**
**What's that?**
**Apparently it's a highly unpleasant little thing that looks like a purple monkey and bites the very first thing it lays eyes one.**
**Which is going to be you.**
**IF it survives to hatch. The damn thing never stops vibrating, it just rattles out of whatever I put it in. I never thought I'd be in danger of failing Care of Magical Creatures.**
Lucy turned around to grin at him, when she was stopped by a Slytherin standing right behind her, giving her the strangest look she had ever seen.
"Well what is it?" Lucy said as she handed her egg to Hagrid and stepped away.
"Who were you talking to?" The girl stared at her intensely.
"What?"
But by then Pansy had gone through and was pulling the girl away with the rest of the Slytherin girls towards the castle, leaving Lucy speechless.
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"And you really think she heard you?"
"Yes! She asked me who I was talking to, and I wasn't saying anything out loud, I was talking to you."
"Could she hear me?"
"I don't know, maybe not, maybe you aren't strong enough yet to… I was broadsending. You weren't, you don't know how, you just send to me, but I was lazy and I was just broadsending, not thinking anyone else could hear. But she can, I'm telling you, that Slytherin girl can Hear!"
"Calm down, will you? Or do you want the whole world to know?"
Lucy groaned and flopped down on the nearest couch.
"Well I didn't see that one coming."
"Me neither. Listen, it could be a fluke, a strange coincidence, or something. Don't go doing anything rash until you know for sure, ok?"
"Me? Do something rash? When have I ever done something rash?"
Seamus just looked at her and raised one eyebrow.
"Ok, fine, fine, fine, nothing rash. But, um, we're gonna have to suspend the practice sessions until I can make sure no one else is spying on us. Ok?"
"Fine by me, quidditch is taking up most of my time anyway. And speaking of quiddtch…"
"Go, go, go. Have fun getting pelted by nasty little balls, I will stay behind and deal with the crisis at hand."
"Right. Have a good afternoon Lucy."
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Clip, clip, clip.
Lucy stopped, nothing, she started walking again.
Clip, clip, clip.
This had been the third time, now she was certain of it, someone was behind her. And seeing as she was in a passage well off the regular route of any classroom, that someone was probably following HER.
She took the nearest entrance off the tunnel, not the one she usually took, and it dumped her out on the second floor, in a narrow hallway just off the main. Before whomever it was could exit, she darted around the corner and pressed her back against the wall.
After a few seconds a tall lanky boy who was all elbows and knees came around the same corner.
"Ha!"
"Ahhh!"
"What are you doing?" In unison.
"What am I doing? YOU were following ME!"
"Well, of you knew, why didn't you say something?"
"Oh yes, just turn and confront a strange stalker, quite possibly armed, so he could kill me and leave my body in a passage no one uses since the twins are gone, leaving me to rot there for several weeks until the stench attracts Mrs. Norris. Not the way I wanna go out, thank you very much. Open confrontation in a well it, open hall, much better."
The boy looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "They told me you were nuts, but I didn't expect-"
"Who?"
"What?"
"Who told you?"
"No one."
"Bullshit."
"Excuse me?"
Lucy shook her head, sighed, and leaned against the wall.
"Well, spit it out."
"Spit?"
"Not literally, you twit. Just tell me why you were following me."
"I was hoping you could help me."
"Do you always stalk people you intend to ask for favors?"
"Yes. I mean no, I mean… nevermind."
He turned to back away.
Lucy groaned. "Wait! I'm sorry, I have kinda a short fuse, I didn't mean to snap. Just, you go and talk and I'll keep my trap shut."
The boy nodded.
"Well, see, I have this problem, and I didn't want to tell anyone, but then I thought you might be able to help me with it."
Lucy nodded.
"See, I heard this two first years talking, about you actually, and then I asked some of the kids in my potions class if they had heard anything about you, and one said he just remembers when you showed up last year, and that he had heard about what you tried to do to Snape." He paused and grinned, "When I heard that I knew you must be all right."
Lucy grinned, "Well, don't look for a repeat performance, I paid dearly for that incident."
"Was it worth it?"
"Every damned minute."
The boy chuckled. Lucy smiled, "You mind if I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"What is this problem you think I can help you with."
"Well, to see it you're gonna have to hit me."
"What?"
"Go ahead, just, step on my foot, pull me hair, that sort of thing."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"All right." Lucy didn't know what was about to happen, but she clamped down a tight shield around herself, and stepped on the boy's foot, hard.
"Keep going."
She pulled on his hair and yanked his ear.
"Keep going. It has to hurt more."
She kept stomping on his feet and pinching him, pulling hair and ears, until finally she slapped him open palm across his face.
That was when the helmet from the suit of armor standing against the hall flew off its place and clattered to the floor, spears launched themselves against the ceiling, paintings clattered off their hooks, and a sword started spinning around, flying up and down the hall, heading right towards Lucy.
Who stopped it with her mind three feet away, where it hung suspended in the air until she turned it so it was presenting the hilt, grasped it, and lowered it to her side. Then she turned to the boy.
"Well, I'd say that's one hell of a little problem you have there- by the way, what is your name?"
"Lynx, Lynx Brimstead. So, do you, um, know how to fix this?"
Lucy flinched at the word 'fix'.
"Well, do you want it to go away, or do you want to control it."
"You can control that?"
"Sure you can, how do you think the sword stopped?"
"Good point. So, will you help me?"
Lucy sighed and ran her finger through her hair. It wasn't like she could just say no. But, then again, this sort of thing might not even be allowed…. she needed to talk to someone.
"Give me 24 hours, and I'll get back to you."
"Fair enough."
"Oh, and Lynx, don't get angry before then."
"I'll try not to."
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She needed to check something first. She didn't head back to her room, instead she made toward the library. She needed a quiet thinking space.
She settled herself in a comfortable chair buried deep in the back of the stacks, with a volume of "Magical Freaks and Wizarding Anomalies" spread out on her lap. The chapters were full of tails of wizards who could speak without their tongue, or who had purple blood, or who for no reason at all just had singing voices that sounded exactly like the bells at St. Paul's, but nothing about strange wizards who had demonstrated western capabilities. That left her with two scenarios. Either there had never been such cases, or those people had never come forward. Given the society around here, she was banking on the second.
The tiny lettering and faint print made her head feel heavy, and she found herself not fighting it as she began to nod off. A little nap would be good right now, she shut her eyes and settled back…
But sleep was not what she got. She opened her eyes to find herself in a prison cell, looking out on a desolate landscape, listening to moans all around her… Azkaban, she was in Azkaban….wake up Lucy, you're dreaming….. but she didn't wake up. Usually, if she knew she was dreaming, she could snap out of it, but this time she couldn't, which meant that this wasn't her dream. This was somebody else's. Someone in this library was projecting, and she was trapped here until they woke up.
No way. She had things to do. She had gotten sucked into one of Diego's nightmares before, all she had to do was find the dreamer. Shouldn't be too hard, not many children in Azkaban. Now that she knew she was in a dream, she wasn't trapped by the paralysis that makes most dreamers feel like they aren't in control. She stepped out of her cell, past the Dementor standing there, and began to walk down the cell block. She was focusing on the fear, acute and concentrated, that had to be where the kid was. She came to a cell with a Dementor inside, approaching a boy about her age, with black hair and an Indian coloring, who was sitting with his back against the wall, shielding a prone figure.
"Leave him alone! Just leave him alone!" He was shouting at the Dementor. He didn't see her, but that was about to change. She reached out with her arm and hit him, mentally as well as physically. He turned to her in shock.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
"Resheph Radu."
"Lucy Montero, encantada, but you need to wake up now."
"What?"
"You're asleep, Resheph, and you're dreaming, and you may not know it, but you're projecting, and I'm kind of stuck in here with you. But I'd like to go home now, so in order to do that, you need to wake up."
"How?"
"Try opening your eyes."
The boy blinked.
"Not those eyes. Oh lord, all right, calm down and just, well, feel for a minute. This place doesn't feel like the real world, you need to find your way back to the real world. Think about how the chair you're sitting in is touching the bottom of you're legs, try to feel that pressure, or the pressure on your back, that's real. Can you feel it?"
"I think so."
"Now open your eyes."
Suddenly Azkaban was gone. She was back in her chair, the book had fallen to the floor. She stood up and cracked her neck, then went looking for Resheph Radu.
Lavender's prediction, if that's what it was, and she liked to think so, came true sure enough. With Ron and Seamus as the new beaters, Harry the seeker, and Dean returning as a chaser, there was talk of nothing but quidditch among the sixth years at the Gryffindor table. The team was rounded out with new chasers Ginny Weasley and Ethan Underwood, with fourth year Emily Orestia as keeper. Harry couldn't stop talking about their great chances, it was the best pool of players they had put together since Wood left, and if the team wasn't as plagued with injuries as they had been in the past year, they'd have this set of players and alternates through next year as well.
"The only real concern is Ginny."
"What?" Scoffed Hermione, "You don't think she can handle it? She's been playing with her brothers since she could hang on to a broom, she's great."
"Not that," Harry shook his head, "I'm worried that the minute one of those Slytherin mammoths sends a Bludger her way Ron is gonna forget all about the game, knock the poor bastard off his broom, and beat him to a bloody pulp."
"You think he has that little self control?"
Lucy snorted. "I sure as hell do. He almost hit ME last year and I hadn't done anything nearly that bad."
Hermione gave her a look, and glanced down the table, where Ron was drawing plays on the table with Dean and Seamus.
Lucy shrugged. "Listen Hermione, he's got a temper to match mine, and that's what I'd do. Slytherins better play smart."
"What about the other houses?"
"I seriously doubt they would put Ginny in enough danger to cause Ron to go off. People only get seriously hurt when play gets dirty, I mean isn't that what happened to us last year?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "We'll try and see how he handles the scrimmages in practice. We just have to get him used to the idea of someone intentionally trying to knock Ginny off her broom, and hopefully he'll be able to see the difference between a normal play and, well, something that's not."
Hermione nodded. "Well, if I know Ginny, she'll be the one to knock it through his skull first. It's one thing to be the protective older brother, but she has six of those, and its another thing to try and keep her from having fun. Getting on the team meant so much to her."
"It'll be an interesting season, that's for sure."
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"I didn't mean to yell at you earlier."
"You didn't. And you were just nervous anyhow."
"Still, I mean, it was your decision and-"
"Look, it all turned out for the best, didn't it. I get to go through the year in peace, and you get to fly around in the air and hit large heavy balls at peoples' heads. It's a regular happy ever after."
"Right." Seamus sat down in the chair with a sigh. Lucy was still bothered by her interview with Dumbledore, he could tell. Even if her face wasn't giving it away, his heightened empathetic sense could feel the anxiety rolling off her. It made his head itch. He didn't want to complain, although Lucy was responsible for his empathy channel being open. Maybe that was why he wanted her to rethink the idea of teaching other Hogwarts students ; she'd offered to 'fix' him, but he never regretted his decision to keep his new gift, and he though others would act the same way. Then again, not everyone felt the same way he did about Lucy.
"What is it Lucy?"
"Huh?"
"You're making my head hurt, so something's wrong, I'm shielded as tight as I know how."
"Oh hell." Lucy paused a moment, getting a wrinkle in the middle of her forehead, and them suddenly he felt her blink out of his mind.
"Better?"
"Much, thanks."
"You didn't work on your shielding over the summer, did you?"
"As a matter of fact, I did. My grandmother was more than happy to help."
"Well then you were just being lazy, I never got through to you last year unless I tried or was really really scared."
"Yeah, I remember that. So what is it?"
"I was thinking about the professor."
"Oh." He didn't say anything, just watched her closely. He knew what professor she meant, her mentor, Professor Antolin de La Vega, her guardian, who had disappeared into the void between the gates along with the rest of her school the previous winter.
Lucy saw the worry on his face and forced a smile. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I was just trying to think what he would have to say about all this… and I'm starting to forget things. I didn't want to forget."
"Forget things?"
"How his voice sounded when he was cross, the wrinkles on his face, his nose…"
Seamus made to get up, but Lucy held up her hand. "Don't, I'm, I'm just going to go to bed. I'll be myself again in the morning." And she hurried up the stairs to the sixth year girls' room before he could say another word.
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True to her word, Lucy appeared happy and healthy the next morning at breakfast. Truthfully, however, she had slept anything but well. Part of that was homesickness, and the other part was the lingering doubt she still had about whether or not she was doing the right thing. She didn't tell Seamus or Hermione, however, fearing they might continue to try and convince her. So she tried to put the events of yesterday behind her, and attempted to eat her breakfast without shouting at someone to shut up about the god damn quidditch. She had a feeling that it might not be well received.
Care of Magical Creatures was their first class that morning. The Gryffindors and Slytherins marched out to the area behind Hagrid's, to find the enormous groundskeeper hovering over a box of hay, with several brightly colored objects in it. As they moved closer, they realized what they were, eggs.
"Come roun', come roun', everyone get a nice good look there. Aren't they jus beautiful? "
Hermione raised her eyebrow. "Hagrid, um, where exactly did you get the eggs?"
Hagrid grinned. "Don' worry about that Hermione, got 'em wholesale, markdown in Diagon Ally bout a week ago. They're yer assignments this year."
"What!"
Hagrid dismissed Neville's squeak and spoke up, addressing the whole class.
"Now, its part a yer curriculum that the sixth an seventh year Magical Creatures students have a bit more involvement. Dese eggs are all different, and about all I can tell you is that none of 'em are water animals. It's gonna be yer job ta take care of that egg, keep it in the right sort a conditions till it hatches, be there for the hatching, and take care a the infant till the end of the year. Now step up an I'll distribute 'em."
The students warily formed a line as Hagrid bent over the clutch of eggs, whispering to some of them, and patting them, finding it awfully difficult to let them go. Hermione received a spherical egg, light green with dark green spots. Harry's was white and ovular, but tiny, smaller than a golfball. Ron's, on the other hand, was enourmous, it took both hands to carry; a long egg that looked like an enormous version of an Everyflavor bean, and bright pink, which made Draco Malfoy, with his medium round blue egg snicker and Ron's ears turn pink, but he couldn't slug him because of the egg in his hands. Lavender received an average size but extremely heavy purple egg, with a wink from Hagrid, and Parvati received a black egg that Lucy though looked very much like a small American football without the laces. When she stepped up Hagrid thought a moment, then reached down and handed her an egg roughly twice the size of a normal chicken egg, but this one was bright red, so red that in the sun it was a bit difficult to look at.
"Careful with this one," Hagrid said as he gingerly picked it up and placed it in her hands.
Lucy would have dropped it if he hadn't covered her hands with his. The egg was very, very hot.
"Careful, Lucy." He gave her a steadying look. "Got it now?" Lucy nodded, and Hagrid released her. She immediately sat down and held the egg using the corner of her robes.
Once all the eggs had been distributed Hagrid turned back to the class. "All right now, use yer books to identify what kind a egg you have, ye won't be able to care for it properly until you do. Help each other, come ask me if yer really stuck. By the end of the class ye should all have met with me to make sure yer right. I'll keep the eggs this week, an a week from today ye should have made arrangements for how yer gonna keep yer egg. We'll talk more about that next class. Well, go to it!"
Lucy made her way over to Seamus, who was staring blankly at his yellow egg, which was vibrating so fast it made a humming sound. Seamus had it carefully on the ground next to him. "It tickles."
"At least it doesn't burn."
Lucy carefully held her egg in her wrapped hand and with the other opened the book Hermione had picked up for her in Diagon Ally this summer, their Care of Magical Creatures text, "What to Expect When You're Expecting… a Brandlysnoot: A Comprehensive Guide to Magical Childcare for All Species." Comprehensive was right, the book was huge, she didn't know where to begin.
By the time the end of class came they had settled it that Harry's egg, which he had lost twice during the class, was a Pixie Dragon, something which apparently was like a tiny, scaled, salamander.
"At least its not a Ridgeback," Harry sighed, "Although I've rather had enough of dragons, if you know what I mean."
"It's not a true dragon anyway," Hermione was absorbed in a passage in the text, "that's a misnomer, you can't keep dragons here, this thing is more like an enchanted lizard, it says here-"
"That's enough Hermione, really," Harry rolled his eyes and rolled his egg around in his palm.
"At least it should be pretty easy to care for Harry," Lucy pointed to a paragraph further down in the passage, "It says here all you really need to do is keep it out of bright light, they're nocturnal and prolonged exposure to-"
"I said enough! I'm not a complete moron, you know!"
With that he jumped up and stalked off to Hagrid to check that his egg really was going to turn into a Pixie Dragon.
"What's that all about?" Lucy looked to Hermione for some help. This didn't seem like Harry, he was usually calm.
Hermione sighed and flipped through the book, staring at her egg, "Oh, a bunch of things. The O.W.L.S. came in months ago you know, and well, he did fine but…"
"What?"
"Well, if you can believe it, Ron got one more than he did."
"What?" Lucy looked over to where Ron and Dean were discussing their eggs.
Hermione nodded. "I mean, it's great for Ron, and Harry really isn't that upset, he's not the jealous type, I think it's just kinda strange for him to be in Ron's shoes for once, if you know what Imean."
Lucy nodded. "Is that all?"
Hermione shrugged, "Well, there's the whole Azkaban thing on top of it…"
Lucy gave her a blank look, she knew what Azkaban was, the energy wasteland around the place was legendary, no school could operate withing 100 miles of it, but she had no idea anything had changed, "What about Azkaban?"
Hermione's head came up. "You didn't know?"
"Know what?"
Hermione shoved her hair back roughly with one hand. "Oh, gosh, well, you know, back in our fourth year, Harry said that Dumbledore told Fudge that they needed to take Azkaban out of the control of the dementors, that it would be too easy for the Dark Lord to turn them to his side. Fudge thought it was ridiculous, because he's a twit."
Lucy didn't say anything.
"Well, after last year, when they realized the Dark Lord had already begun to look for…other forms of power, stealing ancient books, trying to tap into the power of the western circle, Fudge decided that they better take steps to secure Azkaban."
"And…"
"And he was turned away."
"Huh?"
"He was turned back, the dementors wouldn't let him in, wouldn't let him anywhere near the prison. It was as if he wasn't there. And the Ministry realized that they were too late, that the dementors were no longer working for their side anymore. They've been piling up agents and aurors and all the defense the Ministry can support outside Azkaban all summer, trying to find a way to break in, to wear the dementors down, but, I mean, there really isn't a way to go about that."
Lucy nodded, her face a little pale. "And Harry…"
"Oh, well, we're all worried. But I mean, Snuffles is there, he hasn't been cleared yet though, he's working under some sort of disguise, and so is Professor Lupin, you met him, didn't you, yes I thought so, and the rest of the order, anyway he hasn't heard from them in a while and he's starting to get nervous."
"Oh, well, trust me I know all about that."
Hermione nodded, "I forgot, yeah, you probably do. Well, that's the story with Harry, and with Dumbledore for that matter. Have you noticed he's a little bit-"
"Tense, yeah I have. And that explains a lot actually."
"Good, now, about your egg…"
"It's burning a hole through my robes, what's to know?"
"Hmm, red, hot….. got it! It's a phoenix!"
"A WHAT?"
"A phoenix. When it is full grown it will periodically burst into flames and be reborn from the ashes. Of course, they still have to reproduce by egg, or there wouldn't be any more phoenixes. Ouch, the egg will increase in temperature by ten degrees a month until the whole things bursts into flame and the chick, which develops inside an inner shell, is all that remains."
Hermione gave her a look and turned the book so she could see. "You are most definitely NOT keeping that thing in the closet."
Lucy groaned. "Gee, thanks a metric ton Hagrid, give me the fire trap baby. What's yours Hermione?"
"Um, I'm pretty sure it's a gryphon of some sort."
"Aren't they really big?"
"Mmmhmmm, although, their eggs start out small and grow to be a little bigger than a quaffle. Yikes, looks like I can't keep it in the closet either."
"Well, the amazing expanding gryphon and my toasty little friend will just have to find a place of their own."
Hermione sighed, "I guess so, but somewhere we can keep an eye on them, I don't want yours consuming mine in its fireball."
"Fireball, you didn't say it was a fireball."
"It's a phoenix Lucy…"
"Yeah, but I thought a little puff and some smoke, and you're saying-"
"All right! Come on, bring 'em back now! You'll get lots a time with the little suckers later, one at a time now…"
Hermione got up and returned her gryphon to Hagrid before Lucy could pester her any further. Lucy sighed and got in line.
**So what did you get?**
She almost jumped, then she realized the voice in her head was Seamus. He was fuzzy, but much better than he had been before the summer.
**A phoenix. Leave it to me to get the only egg that could kill me before, during, and after it hatches.**
**Consider yourself lucky. I got a bandersnatch.**
**What's that?**
**Apparently it's a highly unpleasant little thing that looks like a purple monkey and bites the very first thing it lays eyes one.**
**Which is going to be you.**
**IF it survives to hatch. The damn thing never stops vibrating, it just rattles out of whatever I put it in. I never thought I'd be in danger of failing Care of Magical Creatures.**
Lucy turned around to grin at him, when she was stopped by a Slytherin standing right behind her, giving her the strangest look she had ever seen.
"Well what is it?" Lucy said as she handed her egg to Hagrid and stepped away.
"Who were you talking to?" The girl stared at her intensely.
"What?"
But by then Pansy had gone through and was pulling the girl away with the rest of the Slytherin girls towards the castle, leaving Lucy speechless.
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"And you really think she heard you?"
"Yes! She asked me who I was talking to, and I wasn't saying anything out loud, I was talking to you."
"Could she hear me?"
"I don't know, maybe not, maybe you aren't strong enough yet to… I was broadsending. You weren't, you don't know how, you just send to me, but I was lazy and I was just broadsending, not thinking anyone else could hear. But she can, I'm telling you, that Slytherin girl can Hear!"
"Calm down, will you? Or do you want the whole world to know?"
Lucy groaned and flopped down on the nearest couch.
"Well I didn't see that one coming."
"Me neither. Listen, it could be a fluke, a strange coincidence, or something. Don't go doing anything rash until you know for sure, ok?"
"Me? Do something rash? When have I ever done something rash?"
Seamus just looked at her and raised one eyebrow.
"Ok, fine, fine, fine, nothing rash. But, um, we're gonna have to suspend the practice sessions until I can make sure no one else is spying on us. Ok?"
"Fine by me, quidditch is taking up most of my time anyway. And speaking of quiddtch…"
"Go, go, go. Have fun getting pelted by nasty little balls, I will stay behind and deal with the crisis at hand."
"Right. Have a good afternoon Lucy."
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Clip, clip, clip.
Lucy stopped, nothing, she started walking again.
Clip, clip, clip.
This had been the third time, now she was certain of it, someone was behind her. And seeing as she was in a passage well off the regular route of any classroom, that someone was probably following HER.
She took the nearest entrance off the tunnel, not the one she usually took, and it dumped her out on the second floor, in a narrow hallway just off the main. Before whomever it was could exit, she darted around the corner and pressed her back against the wall.
After a few seconds a tall lanky boy who was all elbows and knees came around the same corner.
"Ha!"
"Ahhh!"
"What are you doing?" In unison.
"What am I doing? YOU were following ME!"
"Well, of you knew, why didn't you say something?"
"Oh yes, just turn and confront a strange stalker, quite possibly armed, so he could kill me and leave my body in a passage no one uses since the twins are gone, leaving me to rot there for several weeks until the stench attracts Mrs. Norris. Not the way I wanna go out, thank you very much. Open confrontation in a well it, open hall, much better."
The boy looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "They told me you were nuts, but I didn't expect-"
"Who?"
"What?"
"Who told you?"
"No one."
"Bullshit."
"Excuse me?"
Lucy shook her head, sighed, and leaned against the wall.
"Well, spit it out."
"Spit?"
"Not literally, you twit. Just tell me why you were following me."
"I was hoping you could help me."
"Do you always stalk people you intend to ask for favors?"
"Yes. I mean no, I mean… nevermind."
He turned to back away.
Lucy groaned. "Wait! I'm sorry, I have kinda a short fuse, I didn't mean to snap. Just, you go and talk and I'll keep my trap shut."
The boy nodded.
"Well, see, I have this problem, and I didn't want to tell anyone, but then I thought you might be able to help me with it."
Lucy nodded.
"See, I heard this two first years talking, about you actually, and then I asked some of the kids in my potions class if they had heard anything about you, and one said he just remembers when you showed up last year, and that he had heard about what you tried to do to Snape." He paused and grinned, "When I heard that I knew you must be all right."
Lucy grinned, "Well, don't look for a repeat performance, I paid dearly for that incident."
"Was it worth it?"
"Every damned minute."
The boy chuckled. Lucy smiled, "You mind if I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"What is this problem you think I can help you with."
"Well, to see it you're gonna have to hit me."
"What?"
"Go ahead, just, step on my foot, pull me hair, that sort of thing."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"All right." Lucy didn't know what was about to happen, but she clamped down a tight shield around herself, and stepped on the boy's foot, hard.
"Keep going."
She pulled on his hair and yanked his ear.
"Keep going. It has to hurt more."
She kept stomping on his feet and pinching him, pulling hair and ears, until finally she slapped him open palm across his face.
That was when the helmet from the suit of armor standing against the hall flew off its place and clattered to the floor, spears launched themselves against the ceiling, paintings clattered off their hooks, and a sword started spinning around, flying up and down the hall, heading right towards Lucy.
Who stopped it with her mind three feet away, where it hung suspended in the air until she turned it so it was presenting the hilt, grasped it, and lowered it to her side. Then she turned to the boy.
"Well, I'd say that's one hell of a little problem you have there- by the way, what is your name?"
"Lynx, Lynx Brimstead. So, do you, um, know how to fix this?"
Lucy flinched at the word 'fix'.
"Well, do you want it to go away, or do you want to control it."
"You can control that?"
"Sure you can, how do you think the sword stopped?"
"Good point. So, will you help me?"
Lucy sighed and ran her finger through her hair. It wasn't like she could just say no. But, then again, this sort of thing might not even be allowed…. she needed to talk to someone.
"Give me 24 hours, and I'll get back to you."
"Fair enough."
"Oh, and Lynx, don't get angry before then."
"I'll try not to."
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She needed to check something first. She didn't head back to her room, instead she made toward the library. She needed a quiet thinking space.
She settled herself in a comfortable chair buried deep in the back of the stacks, with a volume of "Magical Freaks and Wizarding Anomalies" spread out on her lap. The chapters were full of tails of wizards who could speak without their tongue, or who had purple blood, or who for no reason at all just had singing voices that sounded exactly like the bells at St. Paul's, but nothing about strange wizards who had demonstrated western capabilities. That left her with two scenarios. Either there had never been such cases, or those people had never come forward. Given the society around here, she was banking on the second.
The tiny lettering and faint print made her head feel heavy, and she found herself not fighting it as she began to nod off. A little nap would be good right now, she shut her eyes and settled back…
But sleep was not what she got. She opened her eyes to find herself in a prison cell, looking out on a desolate landscape, listening to moans all around her… Azkaban, she was in Azkaban….wake up Lucy, you're dreaming….. but she didn't wake up. Usually, if she knew she was dreaming, she could snap out of it, but this time she couldn't, which meant that this wasn't her dream. This was somebody else's. Someone in this library was projecting, and she was trapped here until they woke up.
No way. She had things to do. She had gotten sucked into one of Diego's nightmares before, all she had to do was find the dreamer. Shouldn't be too hard, not many children in Azkaban. Now that she knew she was in a dream, she wasn't trapped by the paralysis that makes most dreamers feel like they aren't in control. She stepped out of her cell, past the Dementor standing there, and began to walk down the cell block. She was focusing on the fear, acute and concentrated, that had to be where the kid was. She came to a cell with a Dementor inside, approaching a boy about her age, with black hair and an Indian coloring, who was sitting with his back against the wall, shielding a prone figure.
"Leave him alone! Just leave him alone!" He was shouting at the Dementor. He didn't see her, but that was about to change. She reached out with her arm and hit him, mentally as well as physically. He turned to her in shock.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
"Resheph Radu."
"Lucy Montero, encantada, but you need to wake up now."
"What?"
"You're asleep, Resheph, and you're dreaming, and you may not know it, but you're projecting, and I'm kind of stuck in here with you. But I'd like to go home now, so in order to do that, you need to wake up."
"How?"
"Try opening your eyes."
The boy blinked.
"Not those eyes. Oh lord, all right, calm down and just, well, feel for a minute. This place doesn't feel like the real world, you need to find your way back to the real world. Think about how the chair you're sitting in is touching the bottom of you're legs, try to feel that pressure, or the pressure on your back, that's real. Can you feel it?"
"I think so."
"Now open your eyes."
Suddenly Azkaban was gone. She was back in her chair, the book had fallen to the floor. She stood up and cracked her neck, then went looking for Resheph Radu.