The first thing Lucy wanted to find out was how exactly Hagrid managed to get his hands on a dragon. Sure, he said he won it in a match with a stranger, but what stranger just casually has a dragon on hand to give away at the drop of a hat? She wished the Gryffindors would think more about the peripheral problems. Of course, just because she wanted to know who gave the gamekeeper the dragon didn't mean she was able to find out— as much as she loathe to admit it, she was only a first year after all, and she didn't exactly have the resources nor the investigative skills to ask around the pub.
She'd have to let that matter rest for now. Maybe she'd bring it up with Quirrell.
Quirrell was a lot less insufferable than Lucy thought he'd be. The muttering to himself was off-putting, not to mention the strange muffled hissing she heard alongside it, but aside from that, the lessons were proving to be legitimately useful. She was concerned about the tasks the knowledge was centered around— why would she need to know how to brew antidotes for poison? — but at the end of the day, her marks in her classes were increasing. She'd always gotten A's and E's, but lately she was pulling O after O. Even in Potions class.
Hermione was rightfully suspicious, but she refused to believe that Quirrell actually evil and teaching Lucy evil lessons. Even though she wasn't secretive about her lessons at all. So at the end of the day, Lucy was winning.
"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed one morning at breakfast, looking wistfully up at the clear ceiling. This morning, the weather was exceptionally nice, and the blue sky sparkled down upon them.
Lucy looked up from her stack of pancakes to shoot him a flat look. No amount of nice weather would prevent her from bugging the Gryffindors. "Nobody asked you to hide a dragon from the general public. You could just, you know, ignore it. Hagrid sort of brought it on himself."
"Of course we can't ignore it!" He said with an outraged expression. He looked genuinely disbelieving at the idea that they could simply let Hagrid solve his own problems instead of rushing in to save the day.
"Gryffindors," she muttered with a shake of her head.
Harry looked up from his pumpkin juice to give Lucy an apologetic smile. Up until this point, he was scribbling away on a last minute Charms essay. "Sorry, Luce. Hagrid's our friend. We sort of do have to. You don't, if you don't want to..."
"Well if you're all doing it, then I have to do it, otherwise I'll feel bad," she huffed.
"Knew you'd say that," Harry grinned.
Lucy pulled a face before returning her attention to her breakfast. Harry was right; it didn't matter how unnecessary or dangerous their plans were, she would always help them out if they asked her to. Even if they didn't ask her to, she cared for her friends and wanted to keep them safe. Especially when Harry was involved— she wanted to protect that boy.
"The boy kills one dark lord, and he thinks he owns the place," Lucy said to Neville from across the way.
Neville stared back at her, unsure whether or not to defend Harry. In the end he decided to take it as a joke and he laughed weakly.
She grinned. Making people uncomfortable was so much fun.
"If you're done being jealous of me, I've got a letter to read," Harry said smugly as he reached for a folded note in the talons of a particularly large barge owl.
"I am not jealous, you git—"
But whatever argument she was about to spark was interrupted; Harry's eyes widened as he shoved the note over to Hermione and Ron. "It's hatching!" he hissed, "We've got to go down and watch it—"
"No we don't," Hermione said sharply. "I know we have to help Hagrid, but Lucy's got a point. We shouldn't draw unnecessary attention to ourselves. Besides— Exams are coming up and we're not missing Herbology."
"Hermione, come on, it's a dragon!" Ron groaned, "How many times do you reckon we'll be able to see a dragon hatch?"
"Well your brother does work with dragons, Ron, so it's not as unlikely as you'd think," Harry conceded. He still looked tempted to skip Herbology anyway, but whenever Lucy and Hermione agreed on something, the argument was already over.
Ron frowned, still not convinced. "Like my mum would ever let me. Hermione, come on—"
Hermione glared back at him. "We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing—"
"Shut up!" Harry whispered.
Lucy turned round to ask him what the heck he was thinking, speaking to Hermione with that tone, but she soon realized why he was acting so harshly. Malfoy had been passing by their table, stopping dead in his tracks with his to listen. A wide grin spread across the blonde's face and he continued on his way. There was a slight swagger to his walk that Lucy didn't like one bit.
Harry looked over at her, concern written all over his face. "Is there any point in asking you to keep him quiet?"
"He doesn't listen to me any more than he'd listen to you," she sighed. She glanced at the students exiting the Great Hall. "C'mon, let's get to class. During break you lot can head to Hagrid's, while I try and think of a way to keep Malfoy's mouth shut."
Harry and Ron were grumpy about it, but they agreed to attend class, much to Lucy's relief. Skipping was fun and everything but she really didn't need the extra work load, or the extra detention, right now. In fact, during break she was planning on heading down to Quirrell's office to tell him about the dragon.
Now, before anyone accuses her of being a traitor, she had perfectly sound logic. First off, the chance of Hagrid actually getting away with keeping a dragon on Hogwart's grounds was slim to none. That was just common sense. Harry and the rest could meddle all they wanted, but there was no way this operation was going to pass by smoothly.
Secondly, she wanted to ensure that Quirrell would trust her. Just because he was teaching her new magic didn't mean that he wouldn't cast the killing curse on her should he find out she was lying to him. She wouldn't tell Snape about the dragon— the man was helping her but she knew he would sniff out any reason to expel Harry, and aiding and abetting a dragon smuggler might very well push him over the edge— but she felt like Quirrell wouldn't go to such lengths.
"Well don't you look deep in thought," Hannah commented to Lucy halfway through class. "You know, you've been more mysterious than usual lately. What dark secret are you hiding now?"
Lucy tilted her head, squinting her eyes at the girl. "Wait, what?"
"You know, your dark secret," she repeated, as though it was obvious. "You've had detentions like every week— what did you even do to get those, anyway? And Quirrell's held you back after class every day. And Snape doesn't pick on you anymore."
Damn these Hufflepuffs and their observation skills. Wasn't that supposed to be a Ravenclaw thing?
"That doesn't mean I have a dark secret," Lucy laughed. Even though she literally had a dark secret. "If you really want to know why Quirrell's kept me behind, you could just ask."
"Okay. Why the hell does he keep you behind?"
"It's a secret."
"Ugh!" Hannah stepped away from the plant and looked at Susan with pleading eyes. "Susan, Lucy's being mean again!"
Lucy's jaw dropped as Susan turned to glare at her. "I am not being mean!" She protested, "I'm an innocent little Hufflepuff with a deep, dark secret that Hannah Abbott must never know about. That's all."
"I'll throw these worms at you, Lucy. I mean it," Susan warned.
"Please don't," Megan groaned. Looking over at her, Lucy saw that her friend was several paces away from their table, a disgusted look on her face as Wayne handled the worms. She looked up at the sky and threw her hands out, exasperated. "God, I hate Herbology! Why are we even forced to learn about magical plants? When will this help us in life? Can't we learn how to, oh, I don't know, pay wizard taxes? Do tax collectors come 'round and take coins? Why does wizard money have so many coins? Why do plants try and kill you? Why do wizards still even need to hide?! What is this life we live in!"
"Megan, worms are gone now."
"Oh, cool!" Megan stopped cursing at the heavens and smiled brightly, as though she hadn't just put everyone through an existential crisis.
"Wizard... taxes... so many coins..." Ernie said, his face pale. "Oh, Merlin..."
"There, there, Ernie," Justin patted his friend on the back. "Don't listen to the nasty muggleborn."
"You're muggleborn too!"
"Psh. No I'm not; only muggleborns are afraid of worms, you know. It's how they tell them apart."
"Oh, you aren't afraid of worms, are you?" Megan scowled and, forgetting her fear of worms, she opened the container of worms and hurled a handful at Justin's chest. Only her aim was off a bit, and they hit him square in the face.
"OH, GROSS!" Justin shouted. He shook his head wildly causing a few to fly off and land in Ernie's precious hair.
This caused Ernie to shriek in terror too, and as he frantically tried to hit the worms off of him, his elbow jutted out and knocked over his own container, sending the poor worms spilling all over the table.
Unfortunately, this was just enough chaos to invoke Professor Sprout's attention. Now, their head of house was very kind, but she also had a firm personality, especially when it came to her greenhouse. The woman hustled over to them, waving her wand to rescue the worms before they got crushed. "You five!" She said in a scolding voice, "Detention!"
The Hufflepuffs looked at each other, confused. There were seven of them.
"Um, that's fair, but which five, Professor?" Megan asked. She was impressively unconcerned with receiving her first detention, even as the Gryffindors were staring at them too.
Professor Sprout sighed, "You, Justin, Ernie, Wayne, and Lucille."
"What have I been doing, Professor?" Lucy gaped. She'd been watching the scene in amusement and had laughed at them, but she was on the sidelines with Hannah and Susan.
"Forgive my assumptions, Lucy, but whenever there's trouble, historically you've always played a role in it," Professor Sprout said dryly.
"I already have detention on Friday with Professor Snape," she protested. "Can't you just tell him to keep me twice as long and we'll call it fair?"
"You can't negotiate your own detention, Lucy."
Sprout was quiet for a few moments before deciding, "But admittedly, that is a good idea. A point to Hufflepuff for initiative."
"What!" Hermione exclaimed in the background.
Lucy held back a laugh, figuring that Sprout wouldn't appreciate it.
Well, that settled it. Hufflepuff was officially the most fun Hogwarts House of them all.
As Sprout walked away, holding the containers of worms close to her chest, Lucy turned to face the four troublemakers with a glare.
"You think you can get me more detention? You've just started a war, my friends."
With that, she took off her gloves and headed over to the Gryffindor side of the greenhouse.
"Lucy? What does that mean?" Ernie called after her.
She paid him no mind, standing next to Harry who gave her an amused grin.
"Lucy? Lucy! What does that mean?!"
Justin looked at his friend solemnly. "I think we'd better watch our backs for awhile, Ernest."
Megan eyed the evil grin on Lucy's face warily.
"Yeah, I think that's a good decision."