::Disclaimer:: I don't own anything you recognize. Lucy and Margie are mine, though! (muahaha)

::AN:: Thanks for the awesome reviews for the last chapter! You guys are really great!

xkuroxshinobix: LOL, okay! I'm updating! Yay, I hope you like this chapter!

TheManWhoLetTheBoyLive: First of all, your nic is awesome! (lol) And, yeah, I know Pansy is gross, lol. Anywho, I hope you like this chapter!

msj: YAY, my faithful reviewer! I'm glad you like reading Lucy's perspective, because I like writing it (teehee). And, school always sucks, so no big deal, lol. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!

Tintalu: Yes, Hufflepuff. (lol) Thanks for the review! I hope you like this chapter, and I'm glad you liked the other stuff!

lark277: I'm glad you like it! Here's more! (lol) I hope you like this, too!

Thicketgirl: Your review made me laugh. I didn't really do that on purpose at first. You know, the whole "Lucy loves and hates her brother at the same time" thing. I just kind of based her actions toward her brother on how I act towards my brother and sister (teehee), and I guess it kind of grew on that. But, hahah, that's the only part Lucy's based on me… I don't think I'm that self-centered… ANYWAY, thanks for the review, and I hope you like this chapter, too! (lol)

Chapter Ten

I let out a low grunt when I felt a sudden pain in my side. I raised my head slowly, glaring in Margie's direction as I looked up. "Either I've suddenly contracted appendicitis or –"

"No, you're fine." She grinned and grabbed my arm. "But… you're coming with me."

I turned to Ginny. "What is she talking about? Do you know what she's doing?"

Ginny just giggled and shook her head. Honestly, that girl giggles a lot. It's funny – since it's, you know, contagious – but it's kind of weird.

"Bye Gin; bye Hermione." Margie nodded her head to them and grabbed hold of my upper arm.

Oh, ow. That's ATTACHED, you know! Geez! I scowled at Hermione to show my utter disbelief that I was being manhandled (practically) by Margie and she just smiled at me. "Okay, okay." I said, standing up and brushing "dust" off of my lap. (I say "dust" because really, there was no dust there. You know how that is.) I nodded to the Gryffindor table and said, "Right, toodles people, I must go off and do…" I looked at Margie out of the corner of my eye. "What is it that we're doing?"

"Killing Colin." She said simply.

I nodded and turned back to Ginny. "Right, right, right. We're killing –" Opening my mouth wide and whipping my head around to face Margie, I screeched, "We're what?"

"No time to waste." She said in a mock-sweet voice. "Let's go now."

"Bye." Harry Potter and Ron chorused in monotone voices. I wrinkled my brow at Ginny, who just shrugged and rolled her eyes.

"Yup, okay." I said. I shrugged at Margie and looped my arm through hers, dragging her slowly out of the Great Hall through semi-loud choruses of 'We're off to kill Colin, the wonderful Colin of Creevey!" and 'Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to kill Colin we go!'

By the time we got to the Entrance Hall, I was already shivering like a madwoman. "Margie, why are we killing Colin? What did he do?"

"We're not really going to kill him." She said, narrowing her eyes at me. "We're just going to duff him up a bit."

"How… manly…" I said just as we heard footsteps coming up closely behind us.

"Hey!" Ginny exclaimed just as she walked up next to Margie. "We decided to tag along with you guys. You know, since we don't have anything better to do."

"We?" I asked her, Margie and I exchanging a look.

"Yes… us." Hermione said, walking up beside Ginny and flashing Margie and I a grin.

"Oh, just you two, then?" I laughed. "This should be great. Colin's going to get supposedly-duffed up by four girls."

"And two boys." Hermione said, shaking her head and giving me a confused look.

"Er, what?" Margie echoed at the same time as me and we both looked around for a moment.

"Oh, hi Harry, Ron." Margie said when she looked past me for a second.

I glanced over to my left and jumped about four feet into the air (okay, no, not really). Harry Potter and Ron were walking right next to me, each with their own disgruntled expression on their faces. "Oh, hi." I said so quietly that I'm not even sure if they heard it or not, but they both nodded at me anyway, their faces unchanging.

"So, we're going to kill Colin." Margie told them.

I frowned and tugged on her arm a bit. "But, why? You won't say why!"

"I know why." Margie told me. "And that's all that matters."

I glared at her for a few seconds before I shrugged. "So, where's this Colin-boy at? Isn't he in Gryffindor? Shouldn't he have been at lunch?"

"He's in the library, I'm pretty sure." Ginny chipped in.

"Right…" I furrowed my brow. "Which is why we're going outside…?"

"Oh no, no, no." Margie shook her head. "We aren't going outside."

"We were never going outside." I corrected her (and… myself? Gah, I don't know.)

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked suddenly as she ceased walking, a look of confusion on her face.

"Nothing." Margie shrugged. She stopped walking and after a few seconds, we all stood there staring at her. She's insane, really. I fully believe this.

Margie nodded to me. "Lucy, I need you to do something for me."

I looked at her suspiciously. "Not if it has anything to do with…"

"I need you to sit here with us and watch something happen."

"Exactly." Ginny nodded fervently.

I shook my head slowly. "Um… why?"

"Because…" Margie plopped down onto the floor behind a large pillar and patted the tile floor around her to signify for the rest of us to sit down. "I didn't really think I needed… so many people…" She shrugged. "But this is good."

I sat down across from her and narrowed my eyes. "What are we doing? Why are we sitting on the floor? Are you even aware that it's cold? No? Well, I'll tell you! It's cold. And –"

"Shhhh!" Ginny hushed me and scooted further behind the pillar along with Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione, and Margie. "Margie, tell them."

Margie nodded. "Ginny and I were walking out of Muggle Studies when we heard Blaise Zabini and Millicent Bulstrode walking by, okay?"

I nodded. "Oh, Millie? Yeah, I haven't seen her in years! How is she?"

"Um." Margie blinked at me. "Yeah, anyway. We heard them saying that a certain Slytherin boy would be dumping his girlfriend near this very spot today just after lunch. So… we wanted to see." She shrugged. "We'll kill Colin later."

I nodded. "Oh, okay. So, who's dumping who?"

"I don't know." Ginny shrugged. "I think maybe it's Malfoy dumping Parkinson."

Man, I hate it when people go by their last names. It took me awhile to even comprehend who she was talking about.

"Oh." I said, furrowing my brow. "So… Draco's going to ditch… um… what was her real name again?"

"Pansy-pug-face is what you so lovingly called her in Muggle Studies." Margie smiled smugly.

I nodded. "Right! So, Draco's going to… Hey." I paused. "Why are we watching this? I mean, isn't getting dumped all personal and everything?" I gasped suddenly. "Oh, what if she cries? I can't watch that! She'll start crying, and then I'll start crying and then –"

"Why do you care?" Ginny laughed. "She threatened to hex you."

"But she's still, like, human." I paused. "Well, okay, she may not look it but I'm sure that deep –very, very deep –down, she's-"

"Shhh!" Margie hissed. "They just walked out of the Great Hall! Lucy, get back!"

I craned my neck around for a moment, not making a move to do as Margie told me to. "What?" I whispered.

"Merlin! Someone grab her before they see her! Grab her! Grab HER!" Margie hissed loudly.

"Oomph!" I declared into the chest of whoever grabbed me. (Um, I do not know?)

"Shhh!" Someone from next to me (ish?) hissed loudly.

"They stopped walking. I can see them." Margie was whispering. "He let go of her hand."

I huffed into the chest of whoever grabbed me (Gah, I still don't know!) and realized that it was a boy. (No breasts, you know. Well there are "breasts." They're called pecks, though. I think.) Scrunching up my face, I tried to turn my head to the side so that my face wasn't squashed against Ron's (I have deduced that it is Ron.) chest so uncomfortably.

No, it didn't work. All I ended up doing was letting out a small squeak of a sound and putting my hand on Ron's shoulder, trying not to slide onto the floor and have my face fall in his lap. (See, that? That would be even more uncomfortable, you understand.)

"Oh, yeah. She's crying. He's done it. She's officially dumped." Ginny said from some direction I couldn't really place.

"Well, he hugged her, so maybe she's not dumped." Margie whispered. "Maybe he just told her he cheated on her or something."

"Ugh, that is so disgusting. I can't believe he would do that." Hermione said in a low voice.

"He's a Malfoy." Ron replied and I make a grunting noise, trying my hardest to spit out "Ohmigod, I'm a Malfoy, too!" but it came out more like "Ohmgah, Mmm aff doo."

And that's when I realized that I wasn't squished against Ron's chest. (Oh no, no. Not Ron!) I was squashed against Harry Potter's. (OHMIGOD! They are so lucky that Draco didn't see us! Seriously!) For some reason, I felt my face get a little warm and I got a sudden about-to-vomit sensation in my stomach. It must be from being so close to Harry Potter. Draco's hatred towards him must be rubbing off on me.

"Well, she's still crying." Margie was saying. "And… she's walking away."

"And…" Ginny added. "He's not following her. He's going back to the Great Hall."

I sighed into Harry Potter's chest. (What else was I supposed to do?) "Oh, that is so sad." I said, but it came out more like, "Oh, da oh add."

"Yeah." Margie laughed. "Right. Pansy will get over it in a few days. She just needs to go find a new guy to cling to and it'll be all set."

"Oh." I breathed into Harry Potter's chest. "So, are they both gone? Is it safe to be let loose yet? My neck is starting to hurt just a little." I managed to say sort-of clearly and immediately felt a small weight being lifted off of my back. (Oh, that would be Harry Potter's hand, everyone. Excuse me while I go jump into the lake to cleanse myself!)

I sat up semi-straight (it was a little difficult, considering the really weird position that my legs had been twisted in) and tried to push myself up with my arms, but I ended up touching The Boy Who Smelled A Lot Like A…Boy's thigh. "Oh, sorry." I mumbled, trying to scoot away from him.

"Did you see that black stuff on her cheeks?" Ron was asking Ginny, Hermione, and Margie. "What was that?"

I looked up at Harry's face as I backed away and gave a small smile. "You smell like a boy." I informed him, then turned to Margie. "Hey, do you think we should go find Pansy-pug-fa… I mean, Pansy?"

"No." Margie said, giving me a funny look. Just as Hermione quietly informed Ron, "It was mascara."

"Which direction did she go in?" I asked her.

"She went that way." Hermione pointed to a set of stairs. "But the staircases have already changed. You couldn't find her even if you wanted to."

I shrugged. "Okay, then." Standing up and brushing the dust (real dust this time, ew!) off of my robes, I turned to Margie. "So, a whole free period. What do you people do around here for a whole free period?"

"We study." Hermione said as she stood up along with the others. Study? Study? Is she insane? I get enough of class in… class!

I blinked at her and turned to Ginny. "I ask again! What do you people do around here for a –"

"Colin! We kill Colin!" Margie exclaimed, rushing past me and running in another direction.

I paused and stared after her for a moment until her footsteps completely died away. "Yeah…" I said slowly, turning back to Ginny and Hermione. "I have no idea where she's run off to, so I'm just going to go back to my common room, then."

"Oh, hey, you didn't already to the Muggle Studies homework, did you?" Ginny asked me.

I blinked again. "Homework? We had homework? Where was I? Was I conscious?"

"No." She shook her head and laughed. "It's, um, a foot of parchment on telephones, just so you know, then."

I nodded. "Right, telephones." I wrinkled my brow. "A foot long? Are you serious? What's to write about telephones? They were invented, like, way after floo powder and they work really weirdly. That's all!"

"Well, yeah." Ginny shrugged. "But you just have to say that in twelve inches of space." She grinned. "Think… big handwriting."

I nodded. "Yeah, like I said… They were invented way after floo powder." I counted the words on my fingers. "That's already seven words. Plus my name… middle name for good measure… Maybe my mom's maiden name to add some flavor… And, whoop, there you go! That's almost ten inches!" I smiled to Hermione and Ron (but not to The Boy Who… I don't know what he did, but he's stupid!), turning on my heel and walking a few steps towards the stairs that I knew led towards the Hufflepuff dormitories. "Bye!" I called behind me as I jumped up the stairs.

000000000000000000000000000000

"So, how did the murder go?" I asked Margie as she flopped down onto her bed, gazing up at her ceiling.

"Huh?" She slowly turned her head towards me. "Oh? The…? Oh, yeah! Oh, he's still among the living."

"Drat!" I said sarcastically, snapping my fingers.

"Hey, I saw Pansy on my way out of the library." She said, propping her elbow up so that she was (almost) sitting up.

I looked up from the letter that Draco shoved in my face on my way to the common room before he stalked off, completely ignoring me otherwise. "Yeah? Did you talk to her?" I asked her.

"Of course not!" Margie shot me a dirty look. "Anyway, she wasn't crying anymore. I passed her while she was talking to Blaise Zabini, so it looks like she's completely over your brother."

I shrugged. "Okay."

"Hey, what are you reading?" She asked me.

I looked back down at the letter. "Just… a letter. It's from my dad."

"Oh." She looked at me for a moment before opening her mouth and closing it (a bit like a goldfish, really). "Is it okay if I ask you…?" She trailed off.

I frowned at her. "Sure. Ask me anything, I don't care."

"Okay." She said hesitantly, sitting up in bed and looking around, even though there wasn't anyone else in the dorm room as they were all outside or in the common room. "Your dad…?"

I nodded. "My dad…?"

"Is in Azkaban." She said finally.

Oh, yeah. That.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I know."

"He's in Azkaban because…" She took a deep breath. "He's a Death Eater."

I nodded, looking down at my lap. "I know."

"So… you're okay with that?" She asked. "You're okay with your dad being a murder – I mean, a Death Eater?"

I began folding the letter so that I could place it back inside the envelope, shrugging. "No…"

"Listen, Lucy." She said in a sort-of-hushed voice. "I've only known you for about a day. But you don't seem like the Death Eater type. I don't know, maybe it's all an act or something, but –"

I looked back up from the envelope. "Look, I just don't think about it. Or… talk about it. I even made a point to ignore my mom when she explained the whole thing to me this summer."

She frowned. "Why not?"

"Because…" I shoved the envelope under my pillow. "No one likes my dad. So I don't talk about him. My dad isn't very nice to muggleborns or half-bloods or anyone he has a problem with. So I don't think about him." I shrugged. "But he's still my dad."

"So… how long have you known that your dad's a Death Eater?" She asked.

I hugged one of my pillows. "Um… Well, technically… forever. But I only really understood what was going on when I was about… seven...?"

She nodded. "I guess I get that. It's like when people's families have weird habits. The kids don't usually realize that their families are any different until they start school or something."

I shrugged. "Well, it's not like my family's different from other people's. I mean, we still act the same at home…" I smiled as I twisted the corner of the pillowcase. "Except my mom likes my brother better, and my dad doesn't really get along with him."

"Ah, you're a daddy's girl." She giggled.

I shook my head. "Not anymore." Shrugging, I stood up. "Okay, it's off to Arithmancy, yeah?"

000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands."

Ginny and Margie each exchanged a look as we made our way down to the Quidditch pitch. "They are so immature." Ginny rolled her eyes.

I skipped alongside Colin, our arms looped together. "If you're happy and you know it and you really wanna show it, if you're happy and you know it clap your hands!"

"What comes next?" I asked him, trying not to explode with laughter like I had been for the past twenty minutes.

"Stomp your feet." He said. "Although it might be a bit hard to stomp your feet while you're walking."

"Oh, thank Merlin." Ginny breathed and grabbed my other elbow, pulling me away from Colin. "Come on, Lucy. You get to watch Quidditch tryouts with us."

"Oh, who cares?" Margie rolled her eyes. "It's for Gryffindor. I'm telling you, Gin, Hufflepuff is going to win that cup this year if I have to join Quidditch myself."

"Why don't you?" I asked her and she gave me a reproachful glare, as though I should have known the answer already.

Um, no, Marge. Care to fill me in?

"Come on! Hermione's over there, too, so we won't be all alone!" Ginny cheered ecstatically.

I guess not.

"Hi!" Hermione greeted us as we settled onto the bleachers next to her.

"I still don't see why we have to be here." Margie whined for the millionth time. "I am not a Gryffindor, you know."

"Here, here!" I cheered quietly as I sat down on the bench in front of them. See? It's only been a few days, and I'm already showing some awesome Hufflepuff-pride. Go me!

Ginny shrugged. "Well, I have to be here. Even if I'm not doing anything." She turned to Hermione. "Where'd Ron and Harry?"

Hermione shrugged. "They went to go help some of the people trying out. They should be back, though. They're not choosing who will make the team and who won't."

"If you're happy and you know it stomp your feet." I mumbled as I tuned out Margie, Ginny, and Hermione arguing over whether or not Quidditch was an entirely important sport and if Hogwarts should really spend so much time focusing on it instead of studies. (Hermione and Margie seemed to be on the same side until Margie made that comment about how she thought it was kind of funny in her second year when Harry shot a Patronus at me. I mean, Malfoy. I mean, Draco. See what I mean? Confusing!)

I was about to turn around and ask them just what the hell they were talking about, when I heard Ron's loud voice as he came towards us.

"COLIN CREEVEY!" He boomed. "Will you please remove your brother from my sight before I disfigure his face permanently and –"

"Hey!" Some short kid was whining behind Ron and Harry Potter as they all stood before us.

"Oh." I said to the short blonde boy. "Short stack!" I grinned. "It's Dennis, right? I remember you!"

"You yelled at me." He snapped in my direction.

"I was delirious." I shrugged. "It's those carriages. I mean, I'm sure I'm not the only person in the history of Hogwarts to get –"

"Actually," Hermione began. "In Hogwarts, A History –"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Colin, tell your brother that he can't pick fights with Abigail Hark during Quidditch tryouts."

"Dennis, you can't pick fights with Abigail Hark during Quidditch tryouts." Colin said boredly.

"Who's Abigail Hark?" Ginny furrowed her eyebrow in thought.

"First year." Harry answered her.

"Aw." I said to Dennis. "Sounds like the little man has a wittle cwush on Abigail."

He blinked at me. "I'm going back to the common room." He said flatly and stalked off in mere seconds.

"Oh, I'm good." I complimented myself as I reached down to sift through my bag.

"Hey, Lucy, I think you're onto something…" Colin started until he was cut off by Ron.

"What was that?" He scoffed at me.

I looked up at him from my peaceful (ish) little bench and squinted at the sunlight behind him. "I solved your Dennis problem. He's gone now. And he's not even mad at anyone but me."

"That was very nice of you." Margie patted my shoulder.

"Oh, I try." I said as I turned back to my bag. "Hey, Margie, have you seen my Transfiguration book? I didn't have it last class and McGonagall said she'd take points if I didn't have it by Monday."

"Haven't seen it." Margie shrugged and started in on a quiet conversation with Colin. I swear, they're awfully chummy for "friends."

"Did you leave it in the library?" Hermione asked me, taking a small glance inside my bag as well.

"Hah!" Ginny laughed. "Lucy in the library… you're funny, Hermione."

I shrugged and hoisted my bag over my shoulder as I stood up. "I'll go look for it."

"You need help?" Margie called after me.

I waved my hand carelessly as I skipped down the steps and onto the field. I do not need a chaperone! Seriously. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna get lost or anything.

Fifteen minutes later, I was lost.

"Crap." I said to a wall just before I kicked it.

Oh, ow. Smart move, Lucy. Now I can't feel my toes.

"Lost?" I heard someone call behind me.

::AN:: Who could it be? Draco? Ginny? Margie? Justin? Dennis? Harry? Snape? You-Know-Who? (Um, no, it's not You-Know-Who, lol.) Anywho, please review! I hope you like this chappie, and chapter eleven should be coming up soon! (yay!)