Chapter Ten: Crazy Train
It was now the first week of December, and the looming holiday had incited something of a cabin fever among the castle students. Even the tension that had been building all year among Harry, Ron, and Hermione, over some secret that Hermione had yet to reveal, seemed to be laid aside as the boys spent more time enjoying themselves in the snow outside, and visiting with Hagrid, while Hermione holed up in the library with schoolwork and whatever else it was they were up to.
Saturday dawned a bit gray and foreboding but it brought the promise of more snow, and Lucy took advantage of it to escape the tower, and the wizard chess tournament being held there. The sixth year boys, all having taken on Ron at some point, were all involved, as well as Hermione and Parvati, and plenty of the younger students. The seventh years had an App. Ed., or Apparator's Education, class that morning and wouldn't be able to start their matches till the afternoon. The whole sight made Lucy, who had never been able to sit through, let alone master, the game of chess in either its non-wizarding or wizarding forms, felt like she was about to break out in hives. She wished the players luck and hurried out of the common room.
Her first stop was the Hufflepuff common room. She waited for about ten minutes before someone emerged from the fireplace, and then asked if Parker was in. The girl showed her in and pointed up to the roof. Lucy climbed the spiral staircase and emerged in a world of vines and plants; the typical foliage certainly looked more magical when compared to the snowy world outside.
A loud rapping sound came from above her, and she saw Marguerite and Parker waving through the glass and smiling. It had snowed early, and as such, Professor Sprout had let first years out on the real roof a month sooner than normal to help clear off the snow. At this moment the two first years were on practically ancient brooms, with smaller brooms in their hands, sweeping last night's snow off the glass. Lucy headed toward the door to meet them as they flew down.
"Parker! What are you doing putting her to work? She's a Ravenclaw, she ought to be off writing a book somewhere."
"She begged me to let her help!" Poor Parker looked flustered and the girls shared a knowing look. It really was far too easy to get the small boy all worked up.
Marguerite giggled and nodded. "You have to try it Lucy, it's great. Besides, it has to be done, its downright spooky down there with all the snow blocking the view."
Lucy nodded. "Are you two close to done?"
"Yup. We were just touching up a few spots where it got icy. And we ought to stop anyway, looks like its going to snow more today."
"Well, want to go for a walk? I feel like I haven't had a chance to talk to you guys in ages."
"Sure. Give me a chance to put the brooms and stuff away, I'll meet you two by the fireplace." With that Parker took Marguerite's brooms and headed off to the tack shed on the far side of the roof. Lucy and Marguerite shrugged and headed down the stairs.
It was a pleasant day, despite the lack of sun, and the trio set out on a roundabout course, skirting the lake. Marguerite chatted on at first, filling in Lucy on the lack of success the Ravenclaw photographer was having in capturing the elusive tail.
"I swear, he must use a spell. Jeremy says one minute he's there, and then he's gone."
Parker had already been filled in on what was happening, but not many other Hogwarts students were being involved. It seemed the same paranoia that had seized Fudge had taken hold of the students that had been held captive; they didn't know whom to trust, so they kept quiet.
"Well, I wouldn't worry. We'll have evidence soon enough, and then hopefully Dumbledore will get rid of the creep."
They nodded and turned their attention back to the lake.
"So Parker, any word from home?"
"My brother and sister are back from the north. Lillian's on duty guarding the ministry, and Arthur won't say exactly where he's been reassigned. Mom's terrified, she thinks it's espionage. But she's happy all her babies will be home for Christmas."
"Really? They both got called back?"
"Mmmhmmm, the ministry isn't saying much in the papers, as you can see, but both Lil and Arthur's entire units got sent back. The force they have watching the island is at one tenth the strength it was at its height."
"Wow. So they either think the island isn't a threat."
"Or that it's a lost cause," Marguerite finished for her.
"Well," Lucy said lightly, seeing the fear creep into the younger students' faces, "I guess that means there will be more people at the Ministry's disposal to protect the people here, huh?"
They nodded, and she decided now was a good time to change the conversation.
"So, Marguerite, anything new and exciting in the world of Ravenclaw?"
The French girl giggled. "Hmm, let's see. They changed the entrance to the library study room after you all met there. I don't think the Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors bothered them, but most everyone was absolutely against letting any Slytherin know how to get in. That of course, got Tabitha in trouble."
"Who?"
"Tabitha Williams, she's a fifth year. Anyway, she's got a younger cousin in Slytherin, Lotte Dupree. And well, Tabby's a wiz at most all of her classes, and Lotte has a lot of trouble with Transfig. So Tabitha was tutoring Lotte in that room a couple times a week. I mean, it was better than bringing her to the common room, but when everyone else found out about it they wouldn't let her do it anymore. I guess Tabby picked her times carefully, no one had a clue it was going on. Tabby was awful upset over it too. And I was kind of thinking she was right."
"What did she say?"
"Well, Lotte's big brother is actually one of Lil's superiors, and he's one of the youngest to hold that position. Anyway, Tabitha is an only child, and she's always been fond of her big cousin, looked on him like a brother. So both girls have someone they care about in a position of danger all the time; and Tabby thought that if Ravenclaws were supposed to be so smart that they would see for themselves that now is the time for us to come together, and not let house separations pull us apart."
"She's right."
"Well, not many of the people in our house wanted to hear it. Although, Sergei, Aysha, and some of the others seemed to agree."
Parker nodded. "Makes sense, after all, once you realized that you were all being harassed no matter what house you were in, it seems silly to let house boundaries get in the way of more important things."
Lucy nodded, "So what did Tabby do?"
Marguerite shrugged, "She went on tutoring Lotte in a quiet corner of the library, which caused a little more fuss because now everyone saw a Ravenclaw and Slythering working together. They both rather like the arrangement now, but if it gets too distracting Lotte says they can always try studying in someone's common room."
She giggled and Lucy grinned. "Smart girl."
Parker nodded. "Sometimes I wonder about the founders, whether they were right to set it all up this way. I mean, sure, winning the house cup is a great incentive to work really hard for your house, but look at the problems it causes. The Quidditch players are still talking about all the injuries that happened last year, and a lot of that is due to teams desperate to win a cup for their house, and doing anything to do so."
Lucy nodded, "Maybe the system works well in peaceful times, but when more serious things start to build and that requires people thinking about the bigger picture, and not their house, it just sort of falls apart."
"Someone aught to tell that to Cornelius Fudge."
Lucy and Parker turned toward Marguerite, "What?"
"Fudge, I mean, he's acting the exact same way. He's worried about strangers, foreigners, people who are different, and he's so busy trying to ferret us out and charge us with something that he's losing the opportunity to get help from other nations. I know that the French Minister is furious, and if it weren't for Professor Dumbledore, he would pull all support and close the magical border. And the Eastern Eurpean Ministry feels the same. They feel it would be dishonorable to desert the British Ministry in a time of crisis, but at the same time all of this finger pointing is making them angry. Very angry."
Lucy raised her eyebrow, "I thought there was just one Ministry of Magic?"
Marguerite shook her head, "No, not really. It's just that most of the world's most powerful wizards are in the service of the British Ministry, and there have been so many treaties and aid agreements over the centuries that England does as good as run the rest, they need it. Except for a few, France, for example, is still very strong on its own, and so are the Northeastern European nations, they have a sort of confederation under one minister. That's how the three largest schools got to be Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrongs."
"Really?"
Parker nodded, "I read about it in a History of Quidditch. The Triwizard Tournament used to really be used as a display of Ministry power; they put an enormous amount of pressure on the champions, and every tournament the tasks got harder and harder, just so the winning nation could say that their champion was that much better than the previous champion."
"Like the cold war."
The two first years looked at her, confused.
"Oh, nothing," Lucy waved her hand away, "Just that non-wizards did the same sort of thing during a power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, only they used chess."
Parker looked at Marguerite and shrugged, they didn't really understand the connection; after all, no one ever died playing chess. But they smiled and changed the conversation to the coming holidays; Lucy was, after all, new to this world, and she couldn't possibly be expected to understand everything.
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"Well you certainly look pleased with yourself," Seamus commented dryly at a grinning Lucy as they emerged from their last Potions exam before the break. "Did that well, did you?"
Lucy looked up at him, confused for a moment, before realization dawned on her face. "Oh, no, no no no I think I did my usual, but this was not exactly a bright shining moment as far as potions exams goes."
"Than what?"
Lucy grinned, "I figured it out."
Seamus sighed, he had learned to be patient, it often took Lucy several promptings to get the message out. "Figured what out?"
"Well I was trying to figure out the beginning steps for creating the boil curing potion with the limited set of ingredients and time. Now, the essential problem there was that you could use the first ingredient that activated the right part of the immune system to fight off the boils, but you couldn't then follow that with the ingredient that was essential to curing the boils once the immune system was activated; because you would have had to boil that at a higher temperature, and the higher temperature would have negated the effects of the first ingredient."
"Oh yeah, looks like you failed big time Luce."
"Quiet. What you had to find was a carrier, something that would enable the essential cure to work AFTER the modifier had prepped the immune system. That's why you HAD to use the oil of manticore, boil at the proper temperature to preserve the modifier, in this case it was the skunkweed extract, and add the salamander eyes only for the last five minutes. Once the potion was taken, the modifiers would give off enough heat as they worked to ignite the oil of manticore, which would burn and raise the temperature to the proper working level for the salamander eyes to cure the boils."
Seamus shook his head, "And this fits in how? And why are you not getting a good grade on the exam?"
"Well, first off, it means that Diego and I can't use a normal gating spell, one that goes to a location, we always knew that, since finding the school in the void is impossible; we have to use a modifier, like oil of manticore, or, in this case, a PERSON to PERSON gate. If I can gate to, for example, Professor de La Vega, I'll be able to get in. And Diego will be able to gate to me, than we can get out of an energy free environment because Diego will not be drawing energy from the void, but from the reserves on the other side."
"Uh huh, right. And the other part?"
"Oh, that," Lucy shrugged and held up a piece of paper, "I was so busy scribbling down notes on the gating spell that I only finished half of that last problem."
Seamus shook his head and headed back to the dormitory. "Sometimes I worry about you Luce.honestly!"
Lucy shrugged and turned the opposite direction to add her notes quickly to the book she was keeping in the workroom before lunch.
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"Lucy! Sparky boiled all the water out, again!"
Lucy had just entered the room to see Bet kneeling by the old cauldron where her egg was being kept. Lucy groaned and stalked over, picked up the cauldron, and marched through the bookcase into the girls toilet to refill it for the second time this week.
"I don't know how he does it, his temperature has already risen another five degree from last week- where are the gloves?"
Lynx ferreted out a pair of very thick gloves, courtesy of Hagrid, which had been kept in the BA room for the past month after Sparky's temperature rose ten degrees in three days and Lucy had to go to the hospital wing after he burned through her cloak. Her hands had been bandaged for two days and she had felt like a mummy. It took all her self control not to drop Sparky out of Gryffindor Tower for that, and Rasheph had done her the favor of taking notes for her until she got the dexterity of her fingers back.
She carefully placed the piece of pumice in the water, it was their third, which was reinforced with an anti-inflammatory charm so Sparks couldn't burn through it, or at least, that was the theory; the egg found ways of destroying everything. She then took Sparks from where he was smoldering on the stone floor and placed him back on the stone. When all was accomplished and nothing had started smoking, she sat back on her haunches with a sigh and shook her head.
"If I survive this assignment I'm not quite sure what I'll do to this thing whenever it does hatch. And I'm already prepared to kill Hagrid for giving him to me. Hermione's egg isn't this much work."
Rasheph nodded, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, mine is some sort of amphibian, the egg is soft and secretes slime, its disgusting. And don't get me started on the smell."
Bet nodded, "Mine just whines, this horrid, high pitched whine, and no matter where you put it, you can still hear it. I've got to keep in a jar with a silencing charm on it, but it has to be chilled down with ice once a week, and no matter of ear muffs can keep out the noise."
Lucy shook her head, "Yes, but at least neither of your eggs seems out to kill you. Sparky on the other hand."
"Just burned through his pumice." Lynx commented grimly. Lucy cursed and went to the shelf where a large block of pumice sat, and hacked off another piece.
"Now where did I drop the gloves?"
Lynx bent down in the corner to look, and went strangely quiet.
Bet raised her eyebrows, "Well, Lynx, are they back there?"
Two gloves were tossed toward her carelessly, but there wasn't a sound from Lynx.
Lucy fixed Sparky up, and moved the cauldron to try and see what Lynx was looking at.
"There's writing here, or at least, there was. It's been burned or something, I can't make it all out."
"Can you read it at all?"
"Just looks like initials..umm well, here's something, TOotP, anyone have any ideas about what a tootp is? There's a bunch of initials after it, I think, they've been scorched out."
They just looked at each other and shrugged. Lucy sighed and dusted herself off. "Maybe it was some strange, prefect thing. Anyway, come on, shielding first, then Bet work with Lynx and Rasheph with me."
They nodded and left the mysterious message in the floorboards to rest.
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"Lucy.."
"No."
"Lucy, please?"
"For the last time, no. I have to pack myself first."
Hermione growled and went to find someone else to help her pack. She was, as usual, taking home an enormous amount of books which refused to fit into her trunk.
Lucy was too excited about actually going home to want to take any amount of time to help her. The Circle had things for her to do, which was understandable since she had shirked any real responsibility since her arrival back at Hogwarts in September. They had, however, promised that she would be back at home for Christmas, which was all she wanted. Desolate and eerie as Espiritu was at the moment, it was home, and she didn't plan on being anywhere else for Christmas if she could help it.
She was flying to Seville to get her work order from the Guild Officer there. She would probably be sent to another school for a few days, maybe a week, but she was guaranteed her freedom by the 24th at the latest. It might mean gating to Espiritu, which she wasn't wild about, but if that was the only way, so be it.
"Anyone home?" There was a knock on the door Hermione had left open, and Lucy turned from the carnage around her bed to see Seamus grinning in the doorway. He shook his head as he picked his way across the floor.
"I don't understand girls. What's the big packing deal? You throw in a few robes, some socks and clean underwear, and toss your toothbrush on the top. How does that require all this?"
Lucy shook her head, "You are a simple, simple creature, aren't you?"
He shrugged. "So you're really going back, huh?"
"You think I would stay here of my own will?"
"Well, I mean, you came back, didn't you?"
"I came back to learn, not because I have any deep and abiding love for this place. It's dark, damp, cold, smells funny, and I haven't seen the sun in eight days. I want to go HOME."
"Ok, ok, point taken." Seamus looked around and noticed a small, smoking sealed cauldron on the floor.
"What is that?"
"Oh! Thanks, I almost forgot. Hagrid agreed to watch Sparks for me. I'm flying economy class, and he'll never get through security, let alone customs. I promised I'd bring him over this morning. I'd better do that now before he gets too busy."
She hopped clumsily out of her pile of clothes, books, and everything else she couldn't live without over the break, put on the gloves she had taken out of the BA room, and carefully started for the door.
Seams sighed and went back to finish his brief packing, leaving a small package neatly in the bottom of Lucy's trunk.
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"Out of the way! Out of the way! Lady with a baby!" Lucy made her way through halls bustling with students as they began to say goodbyes, dashed for last minute borrowed items that needed to be un-borrowed, and generally stood in her way. She finally managed to slip out a side door and make her way across the grounds, wishing fervently that she had remembered a scarf or a sweater of some sort. She knocked on Hagrid's door, only to here him answer, "I'm around back!"
"Oh, Lucy, right, right, bring the little angel over here."
"He's hardly an angel Hagrid. You're sure you don't mind?"
"Not at all, not at all. Wouldn't want anything to happen to him. Truth be told I think this feller got put in with my shipment as a mistake. Usually phoenixes are a bit touchy to put in a class rearing set, but he's a little bit smaller than most, must have been a runt. Cryin' shame too, phoenix usually don't lay more than three in their life, mother must have been a little disappointed."
"There's nothing wrong with Sparks," Lucy crossed her arms and pouted, not at all sure why she was defending the damn egg, but for some reason she didn't like Hagrid spitting on her charge.
"I didn' say there were, Lucy," Hagrid smiled a bit to himself. "Why don't you leave him next to the back door in that cauldron, snow should keep him from burning the hut down till I get all ye youngsters sended off."
Lucy raised her eyebrows, but said nothing and made sure she set the cauldron in a large drift.
"Merry Christmas Sparky old boy," she gave the cauldron a little pat and trotted back towards the main door of the castle instead of the way she came, taking advantage of the path already made in the snow.
When she re-entered the castle, there was pure bedlam, and in the center of it she saw the Lane brothers and Aysha, gathered around a large paper posted next to the doors to the Great Hall.
She spotted Svetlana Kornakovitch and tugged on her arm. "What's going on?"
Svetlana rolled her eyes toward the poster. "More nonsense from the Ministry's new Department of Interior Security. Basically they are instituting a new set of requirements for traveling in and out of the border. And they are making them effective as of yesterday."
"Which means?"
"We get to spend the entire train ride sequestered in the back couple of cars while they get our paperwork clear. Without it they won't let you through the barrier at Kings Cross."
"You've got to be kidding me?"
"Wish I was. That Fudge has finally lost it this time, if he spent half as much time checking his own people as he does the ones coming in, this whole problem would be nipped in the bud."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "I bet it takes forever for us to get back through in January as well."
"Looks like it."
"We ought to mutiny."
"If only we had the time. I've got to be at Heathrow in time to catch my plane, don't you?"
She nodded, "It was just a thought. I mean, how much more of this are we going to take?"
Svetlana shrugged, "You have to remember Lucy, this isn't exactly the kind of democracy you grew up in. I mean, we don't exactly have many rights in this system, but if we want to go to school here, we have to accept that that's the way things are."
Lucy pouted, "Well the way things are bites."
Svetlana chuckled and nodded, and Lucy followed her back to the common room to finish her packing.
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You could hear her swearing from the other end of the train. Seamus was tucked in with Dean and Toni Turner, the sixth year Ravenclaw he had been dating since the spring. They had finished a hand of exploding snap when a loud and vulgar oath echoed through the compartment. And since they were fairly close to the front of the train, and the international students were in the back cars, that was no small feat.
"I don't envy those Ministry chaps one bit. With the Lane brothers, those Russian Slytherins, and Lucy to deal with, they are going to wish they never started this." Dean opened a chocolate frog and meticulously bit its wiggling legs off.
Toni snorted in disgust. "You left out Aysha, she was fuming this morning when she found out. Absolutely livid. I felt bad for her, she and her family have had it rough. This used to be the place where she was easily accepted. Her parents are really frightened."
Dean and Seamus looked up, "Why?"
"The paperwork", Toni scooped up a handful of Bertie Bott's and began to pick though for a safe looking one. At the boys blank stares she shook her head. "You know, that idea of a Muggle History course being made mandatory before graduation isn't really such a bad idea. When Aysha's parents were growing up, and even when Aysha was young, they had to carry identification papers everywhere. South Africa systematically separated the races. You were identified as black or white or Indian or a mix. And you were treated accordingly. Before apartheid was ended Aysha had never left Soweto. Her extended family had been sent away to a homeland before she was born and it was just her and her parents in a tiny little house. Aysha getting her letter and getting a way out of there was like a miracle. Now Aysha has to carry papers again. She told me her parents are thinking about Beauxbatons very seriously. It means that much to them."
Dean looked at Toni curiously. "How do you know about all of this?"
Toni shrugged, "I guess my elementary school felt current events were very important. My parents went to hear Nelson Mandela speak once. Being Muggle born does give you a window into the real world, I'll say that for it."
Seamus and Dean looked at each other, but said nothing. Besides the sounds of an angry latina coming from the back car, it was quiet all the way to London.
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They had searched her bags. It was a complete violation of her privacy. Fortunately, the important things, her mirrors, her ring, the amulet, looked like harmless baubles, and were passed over. But that didn't mean she didn't take every opportunity to harass the ministry officials for this incredible waste of her time. Every second that the fat balding man in front of her spent filling out documents, in triplicate, which were an average of three feet long, he spent in what onlookers could only imagine was the depths of deepest despair. When he finally sighed, stamped Lucy's documents, and sent her down the car to the next official she needed to see, those waiting behind her breathed a sigh of relief. At least she had been able to avoid physical violence- during some of the questioning one of the Slytherins had been pushed to the end of his rope and snapped the official's quill in half. Since Dmitri was a strong lad, the students were afraid he might do the same to the ministry chap, but Sasha managed to get him through the rest of the interview with no further incident.
As she waited, trunk standing upended next to her, to be questioned or searched or whatever the ministry had in store for her in the next car, Warren Lane, who had finished his immigration process, approached her.
Running a hand through his hair and giving her a sympathetic grin, he offered her a chocolate frog. Lucy accepted but didn't eat it, waiting for Warren to say whatever it was he was pbviously not wanting to say.
"You know, Lucy, it's not that we don't appreciate you fighting the good fight and all of that, but, well."
"You'd rather I did it with my mouth shut?" Lucy eyed him carefully.
"It's just that you might not exactly be helping yourself this way."
Lucy gave him a penetrating stare, "What do you mean, Lane?"
The tall Aussie sighed and pulled a small envelope out of his bag.
"We got some of the photos developed. And while we still can't pin it on this fellow, at least not yet, but we will."
"Oh just spit it out!"
"There were a lot of you. Of you being followed to the same hall. On several occasions, see, your clothes are different."
Lucy was speechless as she watched herself carefully make her way down one of the hallways on her route to get to Asriel's workroom. Sure enough, just far enough behind her not to make him noticeable, and probably silent as the snow, was the stranger from Halloween.
At seeing Lucy, usually incredibly and loudly verbal, struck dumb, Warren felt a brotherly need to soften the blow. He clapped her on the shoulder awkwardly, and smiled.
"Look, its really nothing we didn't know before, right? I, we, just thought that since he seems to be following you often, maybe you should try not to give them any more reasons to give you a second glance, hmmm?"
Lucy gave him a rueful smile, "You know fitting in isn't my strong point Warren."
The tall boy laughed, "Like any of us is a master. It was just a thought."
They were just trying to help, she reminded herself. "Thanks Lane, really, but if Harriet Beecher Stowe, or Thomas Payne, or Emma Goldman had just shut up and done what was best for themselves, I wouldn't be who I am today. Besides, they expect me to be a wild, uncontrollable heathen; I don't want to disappoint them."
Warren didn't have a chance to respond, since at that point the line moved and Lucy had to start arranging her multitude of brightly colored documents for the grim looking woman waiting to steer her on to the next part of the process.
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It was, needless to say, a long, tense train ride. After she had made her way through the incredibly long, inefficient, unnecessary process she had slumped down in a crowded compartment with Marguerite, Lorenzo, Audrey and Karen Su, and Wesley Lane. Fortunately, although they were still confined to the special cars, the little witch with the food cart seemed very capable of passing that border, and Lorenzo had treated their whole compartment to chocolate frogs and the like.
It was a tight squeeze though. As it was Lucy and Marguerite were sitting on the floor, and everyone was either on top of or in between baggage. But chocolate can indeed cure almost everything, and Lucy found herself quite capable of dozing off after a frog or three.
Upon their arrival at King's Cross another group of Ministry men met them at the door to their cars, and things were checked in triplicate before the students were allowed to take their luggage and exit through the barrier. By then, just about everyone else on the train had already left.
Lucy was just about to look around for a cart when Marguerite squealed next to her, making her jump. No sooner had she turned around then she saw the blond child streak across the platform and hurl herself at a young man with curly blond hair and her eyes. Lucy took this to be the much talked of Andre, and pushed the cart over with Marguerite's trunk hauled on top of her own.
".So Mama sent me instead. She said that by the time you get settled in they will be back from the meeting and THEN we will discuss vacation."
Marguerite was bouncing with excitement, and Lucy was taken aback at how much younger she looked now. The French first year had only ever seemed small, innocent, and vulnerable on that first train ride. Almost as soon as she had entered the castle what Lucy could only assume was training and diplomatic instinct took over, making the eleven year old seem more like she was thirty. But now, safely back with her older brother again, the walls dropped and Marguerite Ducasse had a chance to be a child again. Lucy was glad for her.
"We're going to grandmother's chalet for the holidays! Mama and Papa will still have to work in London, but they can apparate there, naturally, so they didn't see any reason to keep Andre and I cooped up in the townhouse! Isn't it great?"
Lucy grinned, "Sounds wonderful. I'm sure you'll have a great time."
After she was introduced quickly to the devastatingly handsome Andre Ducasse and Marguerite's trunk was squared away, Lucy gave the girl a hug and waved her off. She then headed out into King's Cross and towards the nearest rest room. Once safely inside she opened her trunk and slowly and reverently unfolded several pristine white garments from where they had lain untouched all year. It was time to go home.
It was now the first week of December, and the looming holiday had incited something of a cabin fever among the castle students. Even the tension that had been building all year among Harry, Ron, and Hermione, over some secret that Hermione had yet to reveal, seemed to be laid aside as the boys spent more time enjoying themselves in the snow outside, and visiting with Hagrid, while Hermione holed up in the library with schoolwork and whatever else it was they were up to.
Saturday dawned a bit gray and foreboding but it brought the promise of more snow, and Lucy took advantage of it to escape the tower, and the wizard chess tournament being held there. The sixth year boys, all having taken on Ron at some point, were all involved, as well as Hermione and Parvati, and plenty of the younger students. The seventh years had an App. Ed., or Apparator's Education, class that morning and wouldn't be able to start their matches till the afternoon. The whole sight made Lucy, who had never been able to sit through, let alone master, the game of chess in either its non-wizarding or wizarding forms, felt like she was about to break out in hives. She wished the players luck and hurried out of the common room.
Her first stop was the Hufflepuff common room. She waited for about ten minutes before someone emerged from the fireplace, and then asked if Parker was in. The girl showed her in and pointed up to the roof. Lucy climbed the spiral staircase and emerged in a world of vines and plants; the typical foliage certainly looked more magical when compared to the snowy world outside.
A loud rapping sound came from above her, and she saw Marguerite and Parker waving through the glass and smiling. It had snowed early, and as such, Professor Sprout had let first years out on the real roof a month sooner than normal to help clear off the snow. At this moment the two first years were on practically ancient brooms, with smaller brooms in their hands, sweeping last night's snow off the glass. Lucy headed toward the door to meet them as they flew down.
"Parker! What are you doing putting her to work? She's a Ravenclaw, she ought to be off writing a book somewhere."
"She begged me to let her help!" Poor Parker looked flustered and the girls shared a knowing look. It really was far too easy to get the small boy all worked up.
Marguerite giggled and nodded. "You have to try it Lucy, it's great. Besides, it has to be done, its downright spooky down there with all the snow blocking the view."
Lucy nodded. "Are you two close to done?"
"Yup. We were just touching up a few spots where it got icy. And we ought to stop anyway, looks like its going to snow more today."
"Well, want to go for a walk? I feel like I haven't had a chance to talk to you guys in ages."
"Sure. Give me a chance to put the brooms and stuff away, I'll meet you two by the fireplace." With that Parker took Marguerite's brooms and headed off to the tack shed on the far side of the roof. Lucy and Marguerite shrugged and headed down the stairs.
It was a pleasant day, despite the lack of sun, and the trio set out on a roundabout course, skirting the lake. Marguerite chatted on at first, filling in Lucy on the lack of success the Ravenclaw photographer was having in capturing the elusive tail.
"I swear, he must use a spell. Jeremy says one minute he's there, and then he's gone."
Parker had already been filled in on what was happening, but not many other Hogwarts students were being involved. It seemed the same paranoia that had seized Fudge had taken hold of the students that had been held captive; they didn't know whom to trust, so they kept quiet.
"Well, I wouldn't worry. We'll have evidence soon enough, and then hopefully Dumbledore will get rid of the creep."
They nodded and turned their attention back to the lake.
"So Parker, any word from home?"
"My brother and sister are back from the north. Lillian's on duty guarding the ministry, and Arthur won't say exactly where he's been reassigned. Mom's terrified, she thinks it's espionage. But she's happy all her babies will be home for Christmas."
"Really? They both got called back?"
"Mmmhmmm, the ministry isn't saying much in the papers, as you can see, but both Lil and Arthur's entire units got sent back. The force they have watching the island is at one tenth the strength it was at its height."
"Wow. So they either think the island isn't a threat."
"Or that it's a lost cause," Marguerite finished for her.
"Well," Lucy said lightly, seeing the fear creep into the younger students' faces, "I guess that means there will be more people at the Ministry's disposal to protect the people here, huh?"
They nodded, and she decided now was a good time to change the conversation.
"So, Marguerite, anything new and exciting in the world of Ravenclaw?"
The French girl giggled. "Hmm, let's see. They changed the entrance to the library study room after you all met there. I don't think the Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors bothered them, but most everyone was absolutely against letting any Slytherin know how to get in. That of course, got Tabitha in trouble."
"Who?"
"Tabitha Williams, she's a fifth year. Anyway, she's got a younger cousin in Slytherin, Lotte Dupree. And well, Tabby's a wiz at most all of her classes, and Lotte has a lot of trouble with Transfig. So Tabitha was tutoring Lotte in that room a couple times a week. I mean, it was better than bringing her to the common room, but when everyone else found out about it they wouldn't let her do it anymore. I guess Tabby picked her times carefully, no one had a clue it was going on. Tabby was awful upset over it too. And I was kind of thinking she was right."
"What did she say?"
"Well, Lotte's big brother is actually one of Lil's superiors, and he's one of the youngest to hold that position. Anyway, Tabitha is an only child, and she's always been fond of her big cousin, looked on him like a brother. So both girls have someone they care about in a position of danger all the time; and Tabby thought that if Ravenclaws were supposed to be so smart that they would see for themselves that now is the time for us to come together, and not let house separations pull us apart."
"She's right."
"Well, not many of the people in our house wanted to hear it. Although, Sergei, Aysha, and some of the others seemed to agree."
Parker nodded. "Makes sense, after all, once you realized that you were all being harassed no matter what house you were in, it seems silly to let house boundaries get in the way of more important things."
Lucy nodded, "So what did Tabby do?"
Marguerite shrugged, "She went on tutoring Lotte in a quiet corner of the library, which caused a little more fuss because now everyone saw a Ravenclaw and Slythering working together. They both rather like the arrangement now, but if it gets too distracting Lotte says they can always try studying in someone's common room."
She giggled and Lucy grinned. "Smart girl."
Parker nodded. "Sometimes I wonder about the founders, whether they were right to set it all up this way. I mean, sure, winning the house cup is a great incentive to work really hard for your house, but look at the problems it causes. The Quidditch players are still talking about all the injuries that happened last year, and a lot of that is due to teams desperate to win a cup for their house, and doing anything to do so."
Lucy nodded, "Maybe the system works well in peaceful times, but when more serious things start to build and that requires people thinking about the bigger picture, and not their house, it just sort of falls apart."
"Someone aught to tell that to Cornelius Fudge."
Lucy and Parker turned toward Marguerite, "What?"
"Fudge, I mean, he's acting the exact same way. He's worried about strangers, foreigners, people who are different, and he's so busy trying to ferret us out and charge us with something that he's losing the opportunity to get help from other nations. I know that the French Minister is furious, and if it weren't for Professor Dumbledore, he would pull all support and close the magical border. And the Eastern Eurpean Ministry feels the same. They feel it would be dishonorable to desert the British Ministry in a time of crisis, but at the same time all of this finger pointing is making them angry. Very angry."
Lucy raised her eyebrow, "I thought there was just one Ministry of Magic?"
Marguerite shook her head, "No, not really. It's just that most of the world's most powerful wizards are in the service of the British Ministry, and there have been so many treaties and aid agreements over the centuries that England does as good as run the rest, they need it. Except for a few, France, for example, is still very strong on its own, and so are the Northeastern European nations, they have a sort of confederation under one minister. That's how the three largest schools got to be Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrongs."
"Really?"
Parker nodded, "I read about it in a History of Quidditch. The Triwizard Tournament used to really be used as a display of Ministry power; they put an enormous amount of pressure on the champions, and every tournament the tasks got harder and harder, just so the winning nation could say that their champion was that much better than the previous champion."
"Like the cold war."
The two first years looked at her, confused.
"Oh, nothing," Lucy waved her hand away, "Just that non-wizards did the same sort of thing during a power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, only they used chess."
Parker looked at Marguerite and shrugged, they didn't really understand the connection; after all, no one ever died playing chess. But they smiled and changed the conversation to the coming holidays; Lucy was, after all, new to this world, and she couldn't possibly be expected to understand everything.
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"Well you certainly look pleased with yourself," Seamus commented dryly at a grinning Lucy as they emerged from their last Potions exam before the break. "Did that well, did you?"
Lucy looked up at him, confused for a moment, before realization dawned on her face. "Oh, no, no no no I think I did my usual, but this was not exactly a bright shining moment as far as potions exams goes."
"Than what?"
Lucy grinned, "I figured it out."
Seamus sighed, he had learned to be patient, it often took Lucy several promptings to get the message out. "Figured what out?"
"Well I was trying to figure out the beginning steps for creating the boil curing potion with the limited set of ingredients and time. Now, the essential problem there was that you could use the first ingredient that activated the right part of the immune system to fight off the boils, but you couldn't then follow that with the ingredient that was essential to curing the boils once the immune system was activated; because you would have had to boil that at a higher temperature, and the higher temperature would have negated the effects of the first ingredient."
"Oh yeah, looks like you failed big time Luce."
"Quiet. What you had to find was a carrier, something that would enable the essential cure to work AFTER the modifier had prepped the immune system. That's why you HAD to use the oil of manticore, boil at the proper temperature to preserve the modifier, in this case it was the skunkweed extract, and add the salamander eyes only for the last five minutes. Once the potion was taken, the modifiers would give off enough heat as they worked to ignite the oil of manticore, which would burn and raise the temperature to the proper working level for the salamander eyes to cure the boils."
Seamus shook his head, "And this fits in how? And why are you not getting a good grade on the exam?"
"Well, first off, it means that Diego and I can't use a normal gating spell, one that goes to a location, we always knew that, since finding the school in the void is impossible; we have to use a modifier, like oil of manticore, or, in this case, a PERSON to PERSON gate. If I can gate to, for example, Professor de La Vega, I'll be able to get in. And Diego will be able to gate to me, than we can get out of an energy free environment because Diego will not be drawing energy from the void, but from the reserves on the other side."
"Uh huh, right. And the other part?"
"Oh, that," Lucy shrugged and held up a piece of paper, "I was so busy scribbling down notes on the gating spell that I only finished half of that last problem."
Seamus shook his head and headed back to the dormitory. "Sometimes I worry about you Luce.honestly!"
Lucy shrugged and turned the opposite direction to add her notes quickly to the book she was keeping in the workroom before lunch.
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"Lucy! Sparky boiled all the water out, again!"
Lucy had just entered the room to see Bet kneeling by the old cauldron where her egg was being kept. Lucy groaned and stalked over, picked up the cauldron, and marched through the bookcase into the girls toilet to refill it for the second time this week.
"I don't know how he does it, his temperature has already risen another five degree from last week- where are the gloves?"
Lynx ferreted out a pair of very thick gloves, courtesy of Hagrid, which had been kept in the BA room for the past month after Sparky's temperature rose ten degrees in three days and Lucy had to go to the hospital wing after he burned through her cloak. Her hands had been bandaged for two days and she had felt like a mummy. It took all her self control not to drop Sparky out of Gryffindor Tower for that, and Rasheph had done her the favor of taking notes for her until she got the dexterity of her fingers back.
She carefully placed the piece of pumice in the water, it was their third, which was reinforced with an anti-inflammatory charm so Sparks couldn't burn through it, or at least, that was the theory; the egg found ways of destroying everything. She then took Sparks from where he was smoldering on the stone floor and placed him back on the stone. When all was accomplished and nothing had started smoking, she sat back on her haunches with a sigh and shook her head.
"If I survive this assignment I'm not quite sure what I'll do to this thing whenever it does hatch. And I'm already prepared to kill Hagrid for giving him to me. Hermione's egg isn't this much work."
Rasheph nodded, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, mine is some sort of amphibian, the egg is soft and secretes slime, its disgusting. And don't get me started on the smell."
Bet nodded, "Mine just whines, this horrid, high pitched whine, and no matter where you put it, you can still hear it. I've got to keep in a jar with a silencing charm on it, but it has to be chilled down with ice once a week, and no matter of ear muffs can keep out the noise."
Lucy shook her head, "Yes, but at least neither of your eggs seems out to kill you. Sparky on the other hand."
"Just burned through his pumice." Lynx commented grimly. Lucy cursed and went to the shelf where a large block of pumice sat, and hacked off another piece.
"Now where did I drop the gloves?"
Lynx bent down in the corner to look, and went strangely quiet.
Bet raised her eyebrows, "Well, Lynx, are they back there?"
Two gloves were tossed toward her carelessly, but there wasn't a sound from Lynx.
Lucy fixed Sparky up, and moved the cauldron to try and see what Lynx was looking at.
"There's writing here, or at least, there was. It's been burned or something, I can't make it all out."
"Can you read it at all?"
"Just looks like initials..umm well, here's something, TOotP, anyone have any ideas about what a tootp is? There's a bunch of initials after it, I think, they've been scorched out."
They just looked at each other and shrugged. Lucy sighed and dusted herself off. "Maybe it was some strange, prefect thing. Anyway, come on, shielding first, then Bet work with Lynx and Rasheph with me."
They nodded and left the mysterious message in the floorboards to rest.
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"Lucy.."
"No."
"Lucy, please?"
"For the last time, no. I have to pack myself first."
Hermione growled and went to find someone else to help her pack. She was, as usual, taking home an enormous amount of books which refused to fit into her trunk.
Lucy was too excited about actually going home to want to take any amount of time to help her. The Circle had things for her to do, which was understandable since she had shirked any real responsibility since her arrival back at Hogwarts in September. They had, however, promised that she would be back at home for Christmas, which was all she wanted. Desolate and eerie as Espiritu was at the moment, it was home, and she didn't plan on being anywhere else for Christmas if she could help it.
She was flying to Seville to get her work order from the Guild Officer there. She would probably be sent to another school for a few days, maybe a week, but she was guaranteed her freedom by the 24th at the latest. It might mean gating to Espiritu, which she wasn't wild about, but if that was the only way, so be it.
"Anyone home?" There was a knock on the door Hermione had left open, and Lucy turned from the carnage around her bed to see Seamus grinning in the doorway. He shook his head as he picked his way across the floor.
"I don't understand girls. What's the big packing deal? You throw in a few robes, some socks and clean underwear, and toss your toothbrush on the top. How does that require all this?"
Lucy shook her head, "You are a simple, simple creature, aren't you?"
He shrugged. "So you're really going back, huh?"
"You think I would stay here of my own will?"
"Well, I mean, you came back, didn't you?"
"I came back to learn, not because I have any deep and abiding love for this place. It's dark, damp, cold, smells funny, and I haven't seen the sun in eight days. I want to go HOME."
"Ok, ok, point taken." Seamus looked around and noticed a small, smoking sealed cauldron on the floor.
"What is that?"
"Oh! Thanks, I almost forgot. Hagrid agreed to watch Sparks for me. I'm flying economy class, and he'll never get through security, let alone customs. I promised I'd bring him over this morning. I'd better do that now before he gets too busy."
She hopped clumsily out of her pile of clothes, books, and everything else she couldn't live without over the break, put on the gloves she had taken out of the BA room, and carefully started for the door.
Seams sighed and went back to finish his brief packing, leaving a small package neatly in the bottom of Lucy's trunk.
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"Out of the way! Out of the way! Lady with a baby!" Lucy made her way through halls bustling with students as they began to say goodbyes, dashed for last minute borrowed items that needed to be un-borrowed, and generally stood in her way. She finally managed to slip out a side door and make her way across the grounds, wishing fervently that she had remembered a scarf or a sweater of some sort. She knocked on Hagrid's door, only to here him answer, "I'm around back!"
"Oh, Lucy, right, right, bring the little angel over here."
"He's hardly an angel Hagrid. You're sure you don't mind?"
"Not at all, not at all. Wouldn't want anything to happen to him. Truth be told I think this feller got put in with my shipment as a mistake. Usually phoenixes are a bit touchy to put in a class rearing set, but he's a little bit smaller than most, must have been a runt. Cryin' shame too, phoenix usually don't lay more than three in their life, mother must have been a little disappointed."
"There's nothing wrong with Sparks," Lucy crossed her arms and pouted, not at all sure why she was defending the damn egg, but for some reason she didn't like Hagrid spitting on her charge.
"I didn' say there were, Lucy," Hagrid smiled a bit to himself. "Why don't you leave him next to the back door in that cauldron, snow should keep him from burning the hut down till I get all ye youngsters sended off."
Lucy raised her eyebrows, but said nothing and made sure she set the cauldron in a large drift.
"Merry Christmas Sparky old boy," she gave the cauldron a little pat and trotted back towards the main door of the castle instead of the way she came, taking advantage of the path already made in the snow.
When she re-entered the castle, there was pure bedlam, and in the center of it she saw the Lane brothers and Aysha, gathered around a large paper posted next to the doors to the Great Hall.
She spotted Svetlana Kornakovitch and tugged on her arm. "What's going on?"
Svetlana rolled her eyes toward the poster. "More nonsense from the Ministry's new Department of Interior Security. Basically they are instituting a new set of requirements for traveling in and out of the border. And they are making them effective as of yesterday."
"Which means?"
"We get to spend the entire train ride sequestered in the back couple of cars while they get our paperwork clear. Without it they won't let you through the barrier at Kings Cross."
"You've got to be kidding me?"
"Wish I was. That Fudge has finally lost it this time, if he spent half as much time checking his own people as he does the ones coming in, this whole problem would be nipped in the bud."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "I bet it takes forever for us to get back through in January as well."
"Looks like it."
"We ought to mutiny."
"If only we had the time. I've got to be at Heathrow in time to catch my plane, don't you?"
She nodded, "It was just a thought. I mean, how much more of this are we going to take?"
Svetlana shrugged, "You have to remember Lucy, this isn't exactly the kind of democracy you grew up in. I mean, we don't exactly have many rights in this system, but if we want to go to school here, we have to accept that that's the way things are."
Lucy pouted, "Well the way things are bites."
Svetlana chuckled and nodded, and Lucy followed her back to the common room to finish her packing.
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You could hear her swearing from the other end of the train. Seamus was tucked in with Dean and Toni Turner, the sixth year Ravenclaw he had been dating since the spring. They had finished a hand of exploding snap when a loud and vulgar oath echoed through the compartment. And since they were fairly close to the front of the train, and the international students were in the back cars, that was no small feat.
"I don't envy those Ministry chaps one bit. With the Lane brothers, those Russian Slytherins, and Lucy to deal with, they are going to wish they never started this." Dean opened a chocolate frog and meticulously bit its wiggling legs off.
Toni snorted in disgust. "You left out Aysha, she was fuming this morning when she found out. Absolutely livid. I felt bad for her, she and her family have had it rough. This used to be the place where she was easily accepted. Her parents are really frightened."
Dean and Seamus looked up, "Why?"
"The paperwork", Toni scooped up a handful of Bertie Bott's and began to pick though for a safe looking one. At the boys blank stares she shook her head. "You know, that idea of a Muggle History course being made mandatory before graduation isn't really such a bad idea. When Aysha's parents were growing up, and even when Aysha was young, they had to carry identification papers everywhere. South Africa systematically separated the races. You were identified as black or white or Indian or a mix. And you were treated accordingly. Before apartheid was ended Aysha had never left Soweto. Her extended family had been sent away to a homeland before she was born and it was just her and her parents in a tiny little house. Aysha getting her letter and getting a way out of there was like a miracle. Now Aysha has to carry papers again. She told me her parents are thinking about Beauxbatons very seriously. It means that much to them."
Dean looked at Toni curiously. "How do you know about all of this?"
Toni shrugged, "I guess my elementary school felt current events were very important. My parents went to hear Nelson Mandela speak once. Being Muggle born does give you a window into the real world, I'll say that for it."
Seamus and Dean looked at each other, but said nothing. Besides the sounds of an angry latina coming from the back car, it was quiet all the way to London.
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They had searched her bags. It was a complete violation of her privacy. Fortunately, the important things, her mirrors, her ring, the amulet, looked like harmless baubles, and were passed over. But that didn't mean she didn't take every opportunity to harass the ministry officials for this incredible waste of her time. Every second that the fat balding man in front of her spent filling out documents, in triplicate, which were an average of three feet long, he spent in what onlookers could only imagine was the depths of deepest despair. When he finally sighed, stamped Lucy's documents, and sent her down the car to the next official she needed to see, those waiting behind her breathed a sigh of relief. At least she had been able to avoid physical violence- during some of the questioning one of the Slytherins had been pushed to the end of his rope and snapped the official's quill in half. Since Dmitri was a strong lad, the students were afraid he might do the same to the ministry chap, but Sasha managed to get him through the rest of the interview with no further incident.
As she waited, trunk standing upended next to her, to be questioned or searched or whatever the ministry had in store for her in the next car, Warren Lane, who had finished his immigration process, approached her.
Running a hand through his hair and giving her a sympathetic grin, he offered her a chocolate frog. Lucy accepted but didn't eat it, waiting for Warren to say whatever it was he was pbviously not wanting to say.
"You know, Lucy, it's not that we don't appreciate you fighting the good fight and all of that, but, well."
"You'd rather I did it with my mouth shut?" Lucy eyed him carefully.
"It's just that you might not exactly be helping yourself this way."
Lucy gave him a penetrating stare, "What do you mean, Lane?"
The tall Aussie sighed and pulled a small envelope out of his bag.
"We got some of the photos developed. And while we still can't pin it on this fellow, at least not yet, but we will."
"Oh just spit it out!"
"There were a lot of you. Of you being followed to the same hall. On several occasions, see, your clothes are different."
Lucy was speechless as she watched herself carefully make her way down one of the hallways on her route to get to Asriel's workroom. Sure enough, just far enough behind her not to make him noticeable, and probably silent as the snow, was the stranger from Halloween.
At seeing Lucy, usually incredibly and loudly verbal, struck dumb, Warren felt a brotherly need to soften the blow. He clapped her on the shoulder awkwardly, and smiled.
"Look, its really nothing we didn't know before, right? I, we, just thought that since he seems to be following you often, maybe you should try not to give them any more reasons to give you a second glance, hmmm?"
Lucy gave him a rueful smile, "You know fitting in isn't my strong point Warren."
The tall boy laughed, "Like any of us is a master. It was just a thought."
They were just trying to help, she reminded herself. "Thanks Lane, really, but if Harriet Beecher Stowe, or Thomas Payne, or Emma Goldman had just shut up and done what was best for themselves, I wouldn't be who I am today. Besides, they expect me to be a wild, uncontrollable heathen; I don't want to disappoint them."
Warren didn't have a chance to respond, since at that point the line moved and Lucy had to start arranging her multitude of brightly colored documents for the grim looking woman waiting to steer her on to the next part of the process.
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It was, needless to say, a long, tense train ride. After she had made her way through the incredibly long, inefficient, unnecessary process she had slumped down in a crowded compartment with Marguerite, Lorenzo, Audrey and Karen Su, and Wesley Lane. Fortunately, although they were still confined to the special cars, the little witch with the food cart seemed very capable of passing that border, and Lorenzo had treated their whole compartment to chocolate frogs and the like.
It was a tight squeeze though. As it was Lucy and Marguerite were sitting on the floor, and everyone was either on top of or in between baggage. But chocolate can indeed cure almost everything, and Lucy found herself quite capable of dozing off after a frog or three.
Upon their arrival at King's Cross another group of Ministry men met them at the door to their cars, and things were checked in triplicate before the students were allowed to take their luggage and exit through the barrier. By then, just about everyone else on the train had already left.
Lucy was just about to look around for a cart when Marguerite squealed next to her, making her jump. No sooner had she turned around then she saw the blond child streak across the platform and hurl herself at a young man with curly blond hair and her eyes. Lucy took this to be the much talked of Andre, and pushed the cart over with Marguerite's trunk hauled on top of her own.
".So Mama sent me instead. She said that by the time you get settled in they will be back from the meeting and THEN we will discuss vacation."
Marguerite was bouncing with excitement, and Lucy was taken aback at how much younger she looked now. The French first year had only ever seemed small, innocent, and vulnerable on that first train ride. Almost as soon as she had entered the castle what Lucy could only assume was training and diplomatic instinct took over, making the eleven year old seem more like she was thirty. But now, safely back with her older brother again, the walls dropped and Marguerite Ducasse had a chance to be a child again. Lucy was glad for her.
"We're going to grandmother's chalet for the holidays! Mama and Papa will still have to work in London, but they can apparate there, naturally, so they didn't see any reason to keep Andre and I cooped up in the townhouse! Isn't it great?"
Lucy grinned, "Sounds wonderful. I'm sure you'll have a great time."
After she was introduced quickly to the devastatingly handsome Andre Ducasse and Marguerite's trunk was squared away, Lucy gave the girl a hug and waved her off. She then headed out into King's Cross and towards the nearest rest room. Once safely inside she opened her trunk and slowly and reverently unfolded several pristine white garments from where they had lain untouched all year. It was time to go home.