Holiday Break had come to an end, and Lucy was forced to move back into the Hufflepuff dormitory— not that she minded; Hufflepuff was the most comfortable of the common rooms. Plus, Gryffindors were loud company compared to what she was used to.

At the risk of sounding like Hermione, Lucy was actually looking forward to attending classes again. She appreciated the distraction. This Christmas had been the best of her life, but the Mirror of Erised left a bitter taste in her mouth that hadn't quite faded.

Growing up at Wool's Orphanage was not easy, and as much as it pained her to admit, she was lonely. The other kids picked on her and alienated her merely for the fact that she was different. She tended to push those feelings down and instead chose to construct a world in her mind, one where she had the perfect parents and lived the perfect life. It was easy to lose herself in that world, easy to pretend like she knew her parents, but as the Mirror of Erised had shown her, all she had was her own mental image of them. She had no idea if they were dead or alive, or if they were together at all. Maybe her mum had dropped her on the doorstep and run away. Maybe they both decided she wasn't good enough and gave her back. Maybe they were both dead after all. The fact of the matter was, she truly had no idea what landed her at the orphanage. Dwelling on it wouldn't bring them back.

With all this in mind, Lucy decided it was time to let it go. She would always, somewhere in her chest, have an empty place, but there was absolutely nothing to do about it. Her parents were never going to show up and claim her, and she would likely remain at Wool's until she was of age to leave. She was trying to be okay with that. She wanted to put all that aside and focus on the life she had right now, not the one the Mirror taunted her with. What did that stupid mirror know, anyway?

Nothing. Death to the mirror!

Though it was sad, Lucy felt a little more at peace knowing the inevitability of being an orphan. She could focus on the things happening right in front of her. The more important things.

Namely, Professor Quirrell or Snape attempting to steal something of importance from a three-headed dog.

Her fellow Hufflepuffs returned to Hogwarts the day before term started, and Hannah came up with the idea that they could celebrate their own little holiday before the holidays ended. It'd been a joking suggestion, but Anthony, ever the drama queen, took it very seriously and stormed the kitchens to set up an evening get-together. It was to be an exclusive Hufflepuff-only event, not quite a party but not quite a normal occasion either. Students were encouraged to dress nicely.

Lucy was glad that Mrs. Cole thought to give her a black skirt. Otherwise, she'd be stuck with her worn and torn jeans and she doubted that fell under Anthony's dress code. She paired it with her Weasley sweater, which she'd come to adore as her favorite jumper. The fact that Mrs. Weasley thought to knit her a sweater meant a lot to her, and the strawberry shortcake had been delicious— Ron was a brilliant friend.

"Thanks a lot for this, Hannah," Ernie MacMillan said sarcastically, pulling a face as he tugged at the collar of his burgundy dress-shirt. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to pull this out at all, this year. I hate burgundy."

"It wouldn't kill you to look decent once in a while, Ernie," Susan rolled her eyes at the blonde boy. "I thought this was a great idea."

"Once in a while? What's that supposed to mean?" Ernie demanded.

"It means you put about as much effort into your appearance as a troll would," Hannah grinned.

Ernie gaped at the insult as everyone else burst out laughing. Lucy spoke to Ernie sometimes at meals, and he was quite arrogant— Susan and Hannah routinely had to bring him back down to earth.

"So, how was all your Christmases?" Susan asked the group before Ernie could further protest. It was a wise decision; once that boy started going off, it was hard to stop him. He was a bit like Malfoy in that respect.

"Mine was really good," Megan grinned, reaching for a pastry. "I'm fairly certain my little brother's a wizard, though. Finn shattered all our light bulbs, including the Christmas lights— Dad was livid; he and our neighbors have had the most passive aggressive decorating contest that London's ever seen. Mr. Flenderson took our place in the front page because of that. Dad says Finn's written out of his will."

"No way? I saw that in the newspaper," Justin Finch laughed. Poor Wayne and Ernie had no idea what they were talking about, since electricity wasn't much of a thing in the Wizarding world. "I can't wait to meet this Finn. Hope he'll be in Hufflepuff."

"Finn? Nah, he's a Gryffindor through and through."

"How embarrassing."

"Truly. So, Lucy, how was your Christmas at the castle?" Megan asked.

Lucy gave the group an extremely edited version of her holiday; she couldn't very well tell them about the mysterious arrival of the invisibility cloak or about the Mirror of Erised. With her fellow Hufflepuffs, she could at least pretend that she was a normal student not involved in life-threatening mysteries. She did, however, tell her friends about the intense snowball fight between herself, Harry, and the Weasleys, and also about spending the night in the Gryffindor tower.

When she revealed that last part, Hannah's jaw dropped in horror. "Holy Helga! That could have gotten you in so much trouble!"

Considering Dumbledore caught her after curfew in front of a forbidden mirror, she seriously doubted the severity of getting in trouble at Hogwarts.

"Wicked!" Megan gave her a high-five. "I've half a mind to stay at Hogwarts too, next year, if you're having this much fun."

Lucy decided it would be brilliant if Megan decided to stick around next year. Between classes and researching Nicholas Flamel, talking with Megan was shaping up to be one of the nicest parts of the year.

"You should, if there's nothing out to kill us," Lucy agreed.

Megan's eyebrows shot up as she gave Lucy a questioning look. "What on earth does that mean?"

Oops, Lucy forgot that they didn't know about the three-headed dog, or the reason behind Harry's bucking broom. They didn't have nearly as many dangerous excursions. Luckily, Hogwarts had already offered a publicly life-threatening event that she could share. "Uh, the troll in the dungeons?"

Megan nodded, rolling her eyes as she remembered the ruined Halloween feast. No, none of the Hufflepuffs were very impressed with Hogwarts's security system.

"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEONS!"

Megan and Lucy let out shrieks as Anthony jumped over the couch and landed between them, shouting in their ears. Simultaneously, each girl turned and gave him the deadliest glares they could muster.

Anthony gulped. "Thought you ought to know," he said wearily and then promptly slumped forward in a stellar act of fainting.

"Rickett, that's so insensitive," Daisy Locke pointed out, but she didn't sound particularly offended. In fact, the prefect was fighting a smile.

"It is kind of weird, isn't it? How Dumbledore made the Slytherins go to the dungeons even though there was a troll there," Cedric pointed out.

Damn. Lucy hadn't even considered that. No wonder Malfoy and those poor Slytherins looked so terrified; Dumbledore just about sent them to their deaths.

"Must have slipped the headmaster's mind," Daisy said skeptically.

"Nonsense!" Anthony objected. "Dumbles knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to kill all Slytherins!"

"Rightfully so, in my opinion," said Ernie.

Lucy looked around at Daisy to make sure the prefect hadn't heard. Daisy hated any form of house predjudice, but especially the kind the rest of the school seemed to hold against Slytherin.

"Ernie! That's so rude. They're not all bad," Megan frowned. Lucy agreed with her for the most part, but then again, Wayne made it his top priority to keep the muggleborn as far away from the Slytherins as possible, so Megan didn't have much experience to go off of.

Lucy respectfully did the opposite; she loved interacting with the Slytherins. Some, like Zabini and Greengrass, were very cool, and while Malfoy was a prat sometimes, he was generally fun to get a rise out of. Lucy and Malfoy ended up next to one another whenever their houses shared a class. She didn't understand why he insisted on sitting beside her, but didn't press too much into the issue. Apart from his cruel remark to her before Holiday break, they had more of a light spirited exchange of insults than anything serious.

"I'd rather hang around Slytherins than Gryffindors," Susan agreed. Most Hufflepuffs did; it was half and half, really, but Lucy's main group at least gave Slytherins the benefit of the doubt. "The Gryffindors are just so loud. Especially those Weasley twins."

Lucy winced; Susan broke rule number one, which was never mention the Weasley twins around Anthony. He and the twins had had a rivalry for their entire Hogwarts careers.

On cue, Anthony let out a ghoulish sounding groan and he began to retch. "Oh, gods, Susan! How could you mention such monsters in my presence on Huffleday!"

"Huffleday?" Lucy grinned. Man, she loved Anthony. It was a good thing he didn't have a twin— he was so chaotic that he was basically two Weasleys combined.

"January 2nd. Helga's birthday," Anthony said in a matter-of-daft tone.

"Is it really?"

Daisy rolled her eyes, "No, it's not. It is, however, about time we all should get to bed— classes start tomorrow, and we need to put on a brave face for our upcoming match against Gryffindor. Think you can handle that?"

"Sleeping? I dunno, guys, what do you think?" Ernie looked round at the rest of the first years, jokingly serious. "All in favor?"

Everyone raised their left hand.

"All opposed?"

Anthony raised his hand, but only to be cheeky.

"Motion passed. Huffle-huddle adjourned. Badgers, off to bed we go."

After Holiday Break, the Hogwarts professors deemed it necessary to whip the students back into the routine of things— and Lucy was glad for it. She was interested in the Nicholas Flamel mystery, certainly, but there were other things that the young girl wanted to prioritize; for one, she wanted to set aside some time to learn more magic.

Her current curriculum was no doubt interesting, but it moved a bit too slowly for her taste. As exampled on the Hogwarts Express, Lucy found she had a talent in spell-work and the more practical side of magic. The theory side bored her, though she knew it was necessary.

She spent an hour patrolling the castle in search of an empty classroom she could use. It was important to get one far enough away from any professors' offices or Filch's usual patrol route. For the most part, she was disappointed. Nothing looked very promising, until she stumbled across something strange— in the seventh floor corridor, there was a tapestry of a troll. Upon pulling it back she saw a crack in the stone.

"That's weird," Lucy remarked to herself. Not so much the fact that there was a crack in the stone, but that it was in such a peculiar shape. It looked like more of a rune than anything— a damaged rune, but a rune nonetheless.

Running her hand along it, she could vaguely make out its intended shape. She decided to go out on a limb and try something. Pulling out her wand, she put the tip to the crack and said clearly, "Defodio."

The stone crumbled to the floor as Lucy began carving. She was very careful not to go out of the lines even a little bit— she often took small breaks to make sure she didn't squiggle, until finally, she was done. It was only when Lucy stepped back to examine her work that the rune began glowing a bright green; the entire wall behind the tapestry began to crumble to the floor, but strangely there was no debris. She jumped back as a crawlspace formed.

Lucy didn't spend too much time staring, she was simply too excited. "Wicked!" She laughed delightedly and without hesitating ducked down and made her way through.

The passageway was too small for her to stand up in, and so she had to crawl through. It took her about two minutes of this before she reached a nice sized room. It looked almost like a common room, but a bit too small to merit that title. There was a comfy looking deep green couch and an armchair facing a fireplace, as well as a grandfather clock in the corner. There were bookshelves, too, but to her dismay they were all empty. It looked like the last person to find this place— or make it— had either cleared it out or didn't get the chance to fill it.

Lucy spotted a door-frame just across from the tunnel. It led her to another room that was completely unfurnished. This led the girl to believe that this was a project some student or professor started, but never managed to finish. Either way, Lucy thought it was absolutely perfect for what she needed: a place to practice spells where no one could disturb her.

Of course, while it was empty it was utterly useless, and so she began to make a mental list of everything she would need to make it usable for her purposes. Books, certainly. But there was the matter of Lucy not having any money or any means to get money, and the librarian only allowed you to check out so many books at a time. Maybe a spell to make a copy of a book? It was illegal, but Lucy didn't particularly care. If Dumbledore didn't expel Lucy and Harry for breaking curfew and repeatedly visiting a forbidden mirror, she doubted she'd get expelled for what was the Wizarding equivalent of pirating.

She hoped Percy knew a duplication spell; she really didn't want to have to ask Hermione, who she knew would only ask questions that Lucy didn't care to answer yet. She trusted her friends but for the time being, she wanted to keep this room private.

Another matter was actually practicing spells. She would need objects to practice on— luckily Lucy was admittedly very good at transfiguration. But she still had a lot more to learn before she could transfigure everyday objects. Perhaps conjuration was something to ask Professor Flitwick about...

Now that she had a sufficient to-do list, she felt ready to leave. Glancing at the grandfather clock, she saw that it was nearly curfew anyway, and she doubted any Professor would be too forgiving on a school night. Lucy took one more quick scan around the room before leaving the way she came, crawling through the tunnel.

She resurfaced from the troll tapestry and realized just how close it was to the Gryffindor tower. Harry was walking through the corridors and froze upon seeing the blonde girl appear from behind the tapestry, dirt coating her knees from crawling and a bit of residual stone on her robes from when she carved the runic symbol.

Harry stared at his friend like he was questioning her sanity.

"Um, hello, Lucy," he said slowly, eyeing her uniform.

"Evening, Harry," Lucy replied cheerfully.

Maybe, just maybe if she pretending nothing was amiss, he wouldn't bother asking.

Unfortunately that never seems to work with the nosiest boy in the universe.

"Care to explain just what exactly you were doing?"

"...troll hunting," Lucy suggested.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure."

Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. Well now she had defend her stupid lie now that he was sassing her. "How dare you! I felt super left out when you and Ron decided to take on a mountain troll without me. Just so you know, there are no trolls behind this tapestry, which is extremely deceptive if you ask me. It's false advertising! I demand Dumbledore removes it from this academy immediately! It sits here, insulting me, making me look like a fool."

Harry kept staring at her, then back to the tapestry, and back to Lucy. He said nothing for a good five seconds. Finally he sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow, maybe when you're acting like a sane human being." With that, he turned around and headed back the way he came.

"I respect your decision but that does not mean I'm not hurt!" Lucy called after him. Harry didn't answer, too confused to say anything.

As she made her way back to the Hufflepuff common room, she thought long and hard about how absolutely bonkers her excuse to Harry was, and it was a wonder they were still friends despite her stupidity.

Then again, Harry was the one who actually fought a troll, so she supposed he didn't have that much of an intellectual high ground.

...Yeah. Magic was wild.

Even if Lucy spent all her free time working on her Practice Room, she would still get nothing done. The impending Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor match had the entire school in a frenzy; Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff both wouldn't win no matter what, but depending on the match, either Gryffindor or Slytherin would win the Quidditch Cup. So even though it was technically Badgers vs Lions, it was, again, the Gryffindors and Slytherins who were at each other's throats.

"This is pathetic!" Daisy said viciously, glaring at a pair of furious fourth year Gryffindors.

"What's pathetic?" Cedric asked. "Let me guess, Anthony?"

Anthony, who had just been in the midst of finishing his Arithmancy worksheet, gave Cedric a very affronted look. "Excuse you, Seedric Diggity, I have been perfectly behaved all morning."

"Yeah, okay, and I caught Snape singing Christmas carols through the corridors this morning," Cedric rolled his eyes. Lucy choked on her coffee at the mental image.

"Rickett has been behaving," Daisy said regretably. Rickett had eased off on the teasing with the wagon-load of homework the teachers were giving the fourth years.

Hearing this praise of his character, Anthony beamed at Daisy who steadfastly ignored him. "It's the Frater twins!" She continued, " I just stopped those bastards from teasing Tracy Davis. Honestly, I'm sick the idiotic feud between Slytherin and Gryffindor." She turned to face the Hufflepuff first years and said sharply, "If I ever hear of any of you participating in house discrimination, I shall be supremely displeased and you don't want to know what the consequences will be."

Lucy didn't doubt that for a second. Daisy was as scary as Professor Snape when she wanted to be. Fortunately, Lucy was pretty good about being nice to the Slytherins— excluding Malfoy, of course (though even that wasn't mean-spirited). She was even nice to Parkinson.

Megan grinned evilly, "Ernie said he wants all Slytherins dead!" She sang.

Ernie gave her a foul hand gesture, meriting a harsh glare from Wayne who promptly sent a mild stinging hex at him. "Ouch, what the hell, Wayne!" Ernie yelped.

"Language," Anthony scolded absentmindedly as he turned a page in his workbook.

"You said what now, Ernest?" Daisy uttered dangerously.

Ernie threw up his hands in defense. "Oy, it wasn't like that!"

"He's right," Susan said. Ernie gave her a grateful smile, which turned into fear when he saw the evil glint in her eye. "What he really said was that Dumbledore would be right in killing all the Slytherins, if he so chooses to do so."

"Susan, what the hell!" Ernie yelped at the same time as Daisy yelled,

"You said WHAT?"

As much as Lucy would have loved to watch the prefect lecture Ernie until his ears bled, she noticed Ron waving her over urgently from the Gryffindor table. Shooting Megan an apologetic look, she headed over to her lion friends. Megan didn't mind too horribly but Lucy liked spending breakfast with her own house if she could help it. It certainly was a little harder being close friends with other houses— but it was worth it.

"Where's the fire?" Lucy questioned as she noticed the trio's panicked faces. She slid into the seat beside Harry.

"Snape's refereeing!" Ron hissed, shooting the head of house a not-so-subtle glare.

"Oh, is that all?" They really needed to get over their theory about Snape. Lucy of all people knew how mean the man was— he was just as, if not worse, to her than he was to Harry— but that didn't mean he was a murderer. He'd been working at the school for decades, for God's sake!

Hermione shot her an incredulous look. "Do you have any idea what this means?"

Lucy was unmoved. "That Hufflepuff might finally win a match against your stupidly good seeker?"

"Well, no, that could never happen, even with Snape's interference," Hermione shook her head. Lucy's jaw dropped at the sheer sass the 'goodie-two-shows' just smeared on her. Before she could protest, Hermione continued. "We've already agreed that he's trying to steal Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone—"

"We've bloody agreed what now—"

"Immortality and wealth stone," Ron interjected quickly.

"Yes, that," Hermione said impatiently, like Lucy should have already gotten with the program, an assumption that she plainly didn't understand. She couldn't just spend every waking moment with the Gryffindors— she had a little something called House Loyalty. "Anyway, I was wondering if you could get your housemates to keep an eye on Snape this match, just to make sure he doesn't try anything."

"I don't know, Hermione," Lucy began skeptically, and Hermione shot her such a peevish look that the blonde quickly backtracked. "I'm just saying, won't they find it suspicious that I randomly ask them to watch Snape? It's a bizarre thing to ask when you've got no context." She resisted the urge to add that even with context it seemed far-fetched.

Harry finally tore his eyes away from his barely touched breakfast and shot his friend a 'seriously?' kind of look. "Lucy. There is not a thing you could do that would make anyone question your sanity even more than they already have. That's actually a mildly weird thing to ask considering everything else you've done."

"Oh yeah, Potter? Like what?" Lucy demanded.

Harry pushed his plate back so he could rest his chin on hs arm, raising his eyebrows at her. "Oh, let me think— in Defense Against The Dark Arts you told Quirrell that his stutter makes him look suspicious and accused him of keeping a dark secret, and he almost started crying. If we want to get really weird we can talk about how you turned Malfoy's shoe into stone in Potions class, which you don't even have with us."

"First off all, that was a very valid observation on my part and secondly, you have no proof that it was me who turned poor Draco's shoe into stone."

"Other than the fact that we saw you and Snape gave you a detention for it?" Ron grinned.

"Which is your thirteenth detention— yes, I've been keeping track," Hermione added.

Lucy sighed in defeat. In her defense, she finished her classwork in charms early and left with permission, so she wasn't exactly skiving.

And Quirrell's reaction had been very off-putting. There was a split second before he started his waterworks that she noticed a horrible, dark gleam in the man's eyes. It could have been her imagination, but something in her gut told her that Quirrell was not as helpless as he pretended to be. If he was so nervous, what business did he have uttering a (counter)jinx at Harry's broom? It made no sense.

"Anyway, Lucy, will you please just tell your friends to keep an eye on Snape?" Hermione pleaded. She looked so worried for Harry's safety that she had to give in.

"Yeah, I will," Lucy sighed. Hermione beamed at her. She quickly added, "but this doesn't mean I think Snape's the culprit— I'll be watching Quirrell."

"Quirrell can't even talk about pixies without whimpering, there's no way he's after the stone," Ron snorted.

"We'll see," Lucy said evasively. There was point in arguing; admittedly, neither suspect had done anything especially incriminating— there was always the possibility that an unknown third party had set the jinx on Harry, and both Quirrell and Snaps simply muttered the counter curse.

Nevertheless, she resolved to scrounge up some more evidence against Quirrell. Maybe hold off on the accusations and start playing it more like a Slytherin.

"Snape's going to kill me for sure," Harry groaned, pushing his plate away from him. He lay his head down face-first into the table, where he remained.

Lucy tore her thoughts away from Quirrell to narrow her eyes at her friend. "He won't. I'll sit in the professor's section if I have to." Hermione shot her a scandalized look, which she ignored. "And if you won't eat breakfast, then I won't eat breakfast," she added.

Harry sat up quickly and leveled Lucy with a glare. "You are not skipping a meal!" He said firmly.

"Neither are you!"

"I have someone trying to kill me, what's your excuse?"

"The fact that I care about my best friend and don't want him to pass out on his broomstick, fifty feet in the air!" Lucy pulled Harry's discarded plate back to its original position, and she gave him a sad look. "Please, Harry?"

The stubborn gleam in his eyes faded away at Lucy's genuine concern. He vaguely suspected she was being sneaky, but the sad face was too hard to say no to. Sighing, Harry picked a sausage and bit into it.

Hermione and Ron gaped— someone had actually managed to break through the celestial stubbornness of Harry Potter.

Lucy grinned wolfishly at the pair when she was sure Harry wasn't looking.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Harry asked as he moved on to his toast.

The blonde smirked, shaking her head. "I already had a bacon sandwich ages ago."

"Then what was that threat about not eating?!"

"Manipulation, my friend," she said cheerfully, "but the well-meaning kind."

Harry frowned and pushed his now empty plate away from him. "I hate you," he told her in a matter of factly way. She patted him on the head.

"I know. Try not to die— I'm gonna go find some seats. And stare at Snape. Like a creep."

With that, Lucy headed back to the Hufflepuff table. Her friends greeted her happily, but that happiness soon turned into confusion when she begrudgingly did what Hermione requested.

"Soooo... would it be too much trouble to ask all you lovely people if you could stare at one Severus Snape for the entirety of the Quidditch match?" She asked, smiling at her friends awkwardly.

Anthony gave Lucy such a horrified look that you'd think she had asked him if he would murder his own mother.

"You want us to what, you absolute monster?"