Dear Lucille:
I'm glad to hear you've been behaving at your new school. You seem to be maturing in a new environment.
By the time you've returned to Wool's, I will be gone. I cannot keep up with the work these days, so I will be moving back to Scotland. But I can answer your questions.
One other child at Wool's Orphanage has attended your prestigious school. His name was Tom Riddle. I could not forget him, because he was such an unruly child. He always talked back, and there was something wrong about him. I can't recall anyone named Quirrell ever visiting or living Wool's Orphanage. I took the liberty of checking through the records, too.
Although I will be gone when you get back, make sure you drop this old lady a line every once in awhile. It is a great pleasure to have a child succeed from Wool's Orphanage. From what I hear Tom Riddle wasted the opportunity he was given and worked in a shop until he died.
Well, that's all I can think of. I hope I could ease your mind.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Cole
Lucy read the letter a few times over before she was satisfied. She'd received it the night before, but she hadn't gotten a chance to read it since her dorm mates were getting ready for bed— and they really did get nosy about letters. She had to start hiding the ones she got from Nathan because they thought she had a secret muggle boyfriend. Nathan was definitely not her boyfriend and from what he told her, he was falling for that Emma girl at the orphanage.
Well, at least that was one question answered. Quirrell hadn't gone to Wool's Orphanage. Unfortunately, that raised another question— how had he known about the secret passageway? Mrs. Cole mentioned Tom Riddle, but she doubted he had anything to do with it. Sounded like a loser, honestly. She didn't pay that name much thought; if Mrs. Cole didn't like him and thought he was dark, it probably meant he was a normal boy.
She shook her head, smiling at the thought of that old bat. She and Mrs. Cole had a turbulent relationship over her lifespan, but she was glad the woman was retiring at last. She really was ancient.
The movement of her shaking her head made Grayble peak one eye open at her to give her a disapproving look. Every night, he would snuggle against her neck. Pulling him off in the morning was always a wretched task that made Lucy feel like an absolute monster. Luckily, it was Saturday morning, so she wouldn't have to go through that arduous task.
"Sorry, Graybie," Lucy smiled and ran her hand down his back.
He closed his eyes and purred, nuzzling in further.
She closed her eyes. For once, she felt utterly at peace in the world.
Then her door was literally broken down.
"WANDS DOWN! It's the Breakfast Aurors, here to make you answer for your crimes!" Anthony shouted, charging into the room like a mad bull. Megan ran in behind him, pushing a cart filled with plates of food.
Lucy jumped up and pulled the terrified Grayble close to her chest. She stared at Anthony in absolute horror. Her heart rate felt like it was going to stutter and fail with how fast it was going. "What, and I cannot stress this enough, the bloody HELL are you doing?!"
"Delivering the Princess some breakfast, of course!" Megan said happily. She bit off a piece of bacon and grinned at Lucy's still horrified face.
"You scared Grayble!" She accused. The cat in question let out a sad little mew for dramatic effect. "My little Graybie Baby! My precious little baby boy!"
"Listen, your cat's a bed, it doesn't have rights," Anthony informed. "Now, I'd love to banter, but time really is of the essence. We stole all this food from the Great Hall and its only a matter of time before McGonagall finds Sprout to let her in."
"Great, more detention," Lucy grumbled, but she reached for the pile of bacon anyway. To make it up to the traumatized Grayble, she crushed up a few pieces and held it in her palm for him to eat, since he was a spoiled lad who didn't trust plates. He would only eat food straight from her hand or else hunt it himself. Good thing he was a bed and didn't need to eat much...
"Soooo, what are your plans for the day?" Anthony asked casually. He was trying to compensate for the fact that he was sitting on her busted down door. Daisy would be absolutely furious later, and Lucy had a feeling she would know who the culprit was without having to ask.
"It was to lounge around and cuddle my cat, but now that I'm up, I reckon I better get some homework done," Lucy sighed. She eyed the pile of books by her bedside with revulsion. It towered so high that when she woke up, the first thing she saw was the title Transfigure Your Wardrobe sparkling at her. (She still had yet to try that out.)
"Ugh, me too," Megan groaned. She couldn't remain grumpy for long as she looked outside. "At least it's nice out! We could do it outside by the Black Lake."
"That's sort of reserved for fifth years and up," Anthony regretfully informed. "They get real cranky whenever first years take it up."
"Of course they do, grumpy teenagers," Megan grumbled.
"We could sit near Hagrid's house." Then Lucy remembered the dragon in his hut. His wooden hut. Had they settled that yet? It'd been a few days since she'd talked to Harry, she'd probably have to check up on that. "Never mind," she said quickly. "Great Hall it is. We can still see the sky... and there's food... and magical air conditioning..."
"Air conditioning?" Anthony screwed his face up in confusion while Megan laughed. "You know what, I don't want to know. Barbaric muggle contraptions."
"You're just mad you failed Muggle Studies mid-term exams," Megan poked her tongue out at him. "Even after I tutored you."
"Last time I get tutored by a first year, that's for sure!" Realizing what he just said, Anthony sighed. "Okay, I see now why I failed. That one's on me."
Lucy snickered at their banter. She set her empty plate on the cart then shoved the cart over to Anthony. "I'm going to get ready. Soooo, get out and take that with you. Oh, and fix our door."
"Well, isn't someone a Miss Bossy Pants," Anthony sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "You know what, I don't think I will."
She mocked his pose and tilted her head at him. "You know what, I think I'll tell Daisy what you've done if you don't."
He froze, debating whether or not he wanted that woman hunting him down, then glared at the girl. Slowly, he stood up and pulled the cart out of the room. "You're evil," he told her. "Evil and cruel."
"Yeah, yeah, see you later," she waved him off and headed into the bathroom, Grayble trailing behind her. "No, young lad. I need you to escort Ms. Jones to the Great Hall. She is a rather troublesome one."
Grayble tilted his head at her. She nodded back at him. Then, oddly enough, a determined gleam shone in the cat's eyes and he trotted over to Megan, nudging her with his head.
"Is he... herding me?" Megan said in disbelief. "Please tell me your cat is not herding me."
"I think he is, lass," Lucy said gravely. She started to close the bathroom door. "You'd better listen to him. He's a persistent one."
"Lucy, I don't think-"
She shut the door, cutting off any further arguments.
Megan huffed, looking down at the cat who kept bumping his head into her leg. He was getting more persistent with each bump. It was sort of concerning. "Alright, alright! Calm down there. I'm going. Blimey."
Breakfast was over, but there were plenty of students in the Great Hall anyway. By the time Lucy arrived, her friends were all at the Hufflepuff table, their homework spread out before them.
"This is the saddest scene I've ever laid my eyes upon," Lucy said, looking at all the books on the table. She suddenly wanted to do literally anything other than homework. "You know what, I take it back. Homework is rubbish, I quit magic forever, goodbye."
"Don't be so dramatic. It only gets worse from here," Cedric said with a smirk.
"Precisely the reason I should quit while I'm ahead." She turned to leave, but at that moment Professor Quirrell stepped into the Great Hall. His eyes connected with hers and before she could even think of anything, a hand wrapped around her forearm and pulled her to the table. Startled, she looked around to see Anthony glaring over at the professor suspiciously.
It was like a flip switched in Anthony's head, because suddenly he was looking at Lucy, just as cheerful as before. It didn't escape her notice. She resisted the urge to sigh. Hopefully, Anthony's suspicions of the professor would pass. Not that they were unfounded or anything- he was right to be concerned.
"Homework or not, House Bonding is very important, cub!" he insisted, slinging an arm around her shoulders. She cast him an amused look.
"I thought we were ducklings," Susan said dryly.
"Oh, you are. But cub rolls off the tongue so much better, wouldn't you agree?"
"If you're our mum, does that make Daisy our dad?" Megan asked innocently. Daisy hadn't been paying attention up to this point, but as soon as Megan spoke she looked up from her homework to glare at the girl. While they had been on better terms as of late, Anthony was still a right terror to be around.
"Daisy? No!" Anthony said, outraged. Daisy looked slightly offended before he continued, "My baby Seedric is obviously the only one suitable enough to be my husband!"
All the first years looked over to Cedric for confirmation. The boy sighed, looking like he was a hundred years old with the way his shoulders slumped. "The divorce papers are still processing," he said grimly.
Anthony laughed boisterously. He pulled away from Lucy to reach across the table and plant a loud, wet kiss on the boy's cheek. "You know you love me, dear!"
Cedric scowled and pushed him away, wiping furiously at his cheek. "That's gross on so many levels!"
"Why, 'cause he's a boy?" Daisy said in a low voice. The look she was giving Cedric was slightly dangerous.
Still, he was unaffected. He tossed her an unimpressed glare. "No, because it's Anthony! Would you really want Rickett's wet old lady lips on your cheek?"
"Fair point," she shuddered.
"Okay, how DARE you! My lips are perfectly sculpted for any forms of kissing!" Anthony said, clearly outraged.
"It doesn't matter how perfectly sculpted your lips are. Keep it to yourself," Megan advised.
"I wouldn't mind," Ross Meadowes said in passing, waggling his eyebrows at Anthony.
The latter swooned, laying a hand over his heart. "Oh, Ross, don't tease me!"
Lucy shook her head with a smile. Once again, her friends were utterly amazing. All thoughts of Quirrell faded to the back of her mind as Cedric reached forward to attempt to strangle Anthony, and she settled into the conversation, feeling utterly at peace.
"You want me to what at what time of night?!"
Lucy stared at Harry, Ron and Hermione with a look of pure horror on her face. Oh, God no. Couldn't she have one normal day? With no creepy professors or vaguely life threatening quests? This was a Saturday, for God's sake. She should be curled away in bed petting her Grayble, but no, here she was in an empty corridor with three insane Gryffindors who wanted her to help smuggle a dragon.
"Come on, Lucy, we need all the help we can get," Harry pleaded desperately.
"Oh, I'm definitely helping, don't even worry about it, Harry," she assured him. She then took a deep breath in. "I'm not sure how much more detention I can fit in my very busy schedule, what with Snape's brainwashing sessions and everything."
"Oh, Lucy, can you quit that for a second?" Hermione said impatiently. "I can't wait until this year is over- when you'll finally see Quirrell is innocent, that is."
Lucy didn't take the bait. There was no point in arguing. Admittedly she didn't have much evidence other than her word, and she could see it from their point of view. After all, this was a school for magic; any advanced professor could easily mind control a first year like herself. She had to focus on the task at hand. Which was smuggling a dragon.
"Shady garlic business aside, let's lay out a plan here," she said, not missing their relieved look at the change in subject. Ooh, the words I Told You So would be SO nice, but now was not the time. "So, what have we got?"
"An invisibility cloak," Harry said.
"Great. What else?"
"Ah, nothing. I was thinking we'd just... figure it out," he admitted.
Lucy stared at him. Nothing of importance came to mind, so she slowly nodded. "Okay... I see..." She thought very hard for some kind of alternative route but for the life of her she had nothing. Maybe a Ravenclaw or Slytherin would be better suited for this, but the only Slytherin she could think of was Malfoy- and he was the one trying to sabotage them. "Alright, that's good enough for me. See you tonight. Should I wear something warm?"
"Nah, we're likely to get hot carrying Norbert the whole way," Ron reasoned. "It's been so nice out today, I reckon it'll be fine."
As it turned out, it was not fine. Lucy, in nothing but her yellow sweater from Mrs. Cole and pajama pants, hugged her arms desperately as the cold night air seeped straight to her bones. She felt her nose run slightly, and she sniffled as she made her way down to Hagrid's hut. In her backpack she had packed a spellbook in case they ran into any trouble, but that was it as far as backup plans went. She was a little late to the party; Hagrid had already gone back inside, and the other three were struggling to lift the crate up.
"Ron, sometimes I think you're trying to kill me," she said through chattering teeth, rubbing her hands together for at least the illusion of warmth.
"You caught me," Ron said, just as unhappily. His hand slipped out from under the crate. He barely managed to catch it, and from inside Norbert made an unhappy growl. "Agh— come over here and help!"
Grumbling, Lucy obeyed. She ignored the stinging in her hands as best she could. Between the four of them, the job wasn't quite as hard. But they were still hauling a dragon across school grounds and up a giant tower.
About halfway up the hill from Hagrid's house, Lucy realized something. "Ugh! We're so stupid!" she groaned. "Here- hold this."
She let go of the crate and pulled out her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa," she said clearly. To her relief, the crate hovered above the Gryffindors' hands.
Harry stared at her as if she was Albert Einstein in the flesh. "Lucy," he said breathlessly. "You're a genius."
She shrugged off his praise. "If I was a genius, I'd have thought of this about thirty yards ago. Now let's go, before the spell wears off."
The rest of the journey passed with higher spirits. Now that they didn't have to lug the crate manually, they were able to move more quietly. She was still wary of Malfoy, and she kept an eye out for him. Truthfully, she was hoping he would show up so she would have an excuse to hit him with a hex or two. Those books she'd bought at Diagon Alley had yet to come out of her wand. She would have to fix that, preferably soon or at Wool's Orphanage.
They at last reached the corridor underneath the Astronomy Tower. She frowned at the sight of the familiar entrance. She couldn't wait for the day she wouldn't have to take Astronomy class...
A movement ahead of the four almost made them jump out of their skin. The invisibility cloak didn't quite cover them all. Looking around at each other nervously, Lucy suddenly sighed then made the elective decision to sit atop the crate. It sunk a little with the added weight, but thankfully stayed afloat.
A bright light made her wince, but the sight she saw all but made up for it. Professor McGonagall dressed in a bathrobe and hairnet marched forward, pulling Malfoy by his ear.
"Are professors allowed to grab students' ears here?" Hermione whispered to her. Definitely not the matter at hand, but she had a valid point.
"They always did at Wool's," Lucy whispered back. Hermione shot her a horrified look which she could only shrug at. She'd better not mention the cane they often used on their knuckles.
"Detention!" McGonagall shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you—"
Was she really that mad? Lucy'd been caught wandering at night plenty of times- often after detention- and she usually got a warning or another detention.
"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming— he's got a dragon!"
Oh. Right, well that was a better reason. From McGonagall's point of view, Malfoy was wandering and lying to her.
"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on- I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"
Travelling up the Astronomy Tower had them all in even higher spirits, if that was possible. Especially for Lucy, who had yet to get off the crate. Ron glared enviously as she sat, legs swinging off the crate as they had to walk up the countless stairs.
"Remind me why we brought you," he muttered.
"Moral support, dashing good looks. You name it, really," she grinned.
Ron couldn't help grinning back. "Oh, right."
Lucy could not have been happier to see Charlie Weasley's friends arrive to take that horrid dragon off their hands. If there was one thing she learned from this experience, it was that she was not cut out for Care of Magical Creatures. Grayble was an exception, because he was a sort of subcategory of a cat.
She watched Charlie's friends fly away with a feeling of deep satisfaction in her core. Although she now had to walk down a bunch of stairs, she could at least feel satisfied both with the fact that they had gotten rid of the dragon and that Malfoy had detention. Her good mood was only soiled when halfway down the many, many stairs, she realized that they had forgotten the invisibility cloak.
"You go on ahead," Lucy groaned, giving the stairs a long suffering look. She didn't want to, but Harry looked so tired that she figured she might as well. "I'll get it. Don't wait up, I'll be a few minutes."
"I will buy you so many licorice wands for this," Harry said seriously, laying his hands on her shoulders. "You're the best."
"Yeah, yeah, quit tempting me with your Boy-Who-Lived powers," She muttered, but she couldn't resist smiling at him.
She had an odd feeling that something wasn't right, so she hurried in her trip back up the stairs. Luckily, the cloak didn't stay invisible when not in use, so she found it glimmering in the moonlight easily. She stuffed it in her backpack so as not to get it confiscated if they got caught. Staring at the stairs, she really didn't want to have to make that trip.
"I wonder," she muttered, pulling out her wand. She pointed it at her backpack and uttered the levitating charm. Sure enough, it floated into the air. She then cast the lightening charm McGonagall had taught her back at Diagon Alley on herself and then awkwardly lay on her backpack, using it more as a kicking board than anything.
But it worked.
She looked like an idiot, but it worked.
"I am the greatest wizard who has ever lived," she said aloud. Her heart swelled at her brilliance, and she allowed herself a moment of arrogance. "Voldymort who? Lucy Rochester's in town, buddy, and she's on a floating backpack. Bet you didn't think of that one, did you, Moldevort?"
Now that her bragging to thin air was out of the way, she began the fun process of floating down the stairs. It got a bit dodgy toward the end when her feet left the stairs and started hurtling down at a faster speed. Sure enough, she couldn't stop herself, and when she reached the end she flew— more like crashed— into none other than dear old Filch. The man let out a startled yell and fell flat on his face.
Her friends stared at her like she was an insane person. She smiled, but it came out as more of a wince. She laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of her neck. "Uh... my bad?"
The walk to Professor McGonagall's office was tenser than it had to be. Filch had somehow managed to hit his nose on the floor- she had no idea how that happened... none at all- so he was nursing a slightly bleeding nose, all the while Lucy had her backpack on her back. Due to the weightless charm, she was kind of bouncing her way through the halls, walking more like she was on the moon than anything.
The only one who found humor in this was Harry. He kept biting his lip to keep from laughing. Inspired by this, she bounced a little higher every time until Filch had to grab her ankle and drag her to the ground.
Harry couldn't take it anymore; he let out a burst of laughter. He clamped a hand over his mouth when Filch turned to glare at him but it was like a dam had broke. Ron burst into hysterics, which in turn made Lucy laugh, which made Harry laugh all over again. The only one who had any sense was Hermione. She looked at the three of them, aghast.
"You're not going to be laughing when you're expelled from this school!" Filch hissed. He managed to sober Ron and Harry up, but Lucy, who had far more experience getting in trouble, was unconvinced.
"If I'm expelled, I'm taking your cat with me," she told him in a matter of factly way.
It was a good thing they had arrived at McGonagall's office, otherwise Filch might have strangled her.
Lucy knocked on the door in a nice little pattern. She opened it without waiting for an answer, bouncing into the room. Unfortunately McGonagall wasn't inside to listen to her beautiful knock. Tragic, really.
McGonagall appeared a few minutes later, towing Neville behind her.
"Harry!" Neville gasped. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag—"
Harry shook his head fiercely. The motion did not go unnoticed by McGonagall. She suddenly towered over the lot of them. Her gaze lingered on Lucy, whose feet were lightly touching the floor as the backpack on her back tugged her upwards. She stared back at the professor innocently.
"I would never have believed it of any of you," Professor McGonagall looked at the Gryffindors pointedly when she said this, indicating that she, indeed, expected this of Lucy. "Mr. Filch says you were up in the Astronomy Tower. And you broke his nose! It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."
"Well, you see, Professor, it happened like this—" Lucy began, ready to give some absolutely nonsense response.
"NOT YOU!"
She winced and resisted the urge to rub her ears at the loud noise. Yeesh, that lady could yell...
"I think I've got a good idea of what's going on. It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"
"Not really, Professor," Lucy replied once she saw the hurt look in Neville's eye. She ignored the warning looks her friends shot her way. "It was a one-off joke to Malfoy that he took seriously."
"Ms. Rochester, you'll excuse me if I don't believe a bloody word you say!" McGonagall yelled so harshly that Lucy winced. She began to feel the prickling of fear inside her, but she shoved it aside. McGonagall was just tired, that's all. "I'm disgusted. Five students out of bed in one night! You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr. Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this."
Harry hung his head in shame.
Lucy tried her best to look as ashamed when McGonagall's gaze flickered over to her. "You, Ms. Rochester, I have no idea what's gotten into you recently! Detentions every week, late for lessons, late homework, it's like you want to face expulsion!"
Now the shame was real. She looked to the side, suddenly wishing she could tell Professor McGonagall everything, that she wasn't getting detention on purpose.
"Fifty points from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor."
Harry's jaw dropped, aghast. Honestly, Lucy couldn't care less about the stupid points- the disappointed look in Professor McGonagall's eye was worse than any kind of curse she could've put upon them.
"Fifty?" Harry gasped.
"Fifty points each!"
"Professor, please, you can't-"
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students." Her gaze flickered to Lucy. "All my students."
Their shoulders slumped, the five of them made their way back to their respective dormitories. It was like her levitation charm sensed that Lucy wasn't feeling very light and joyful at the moment, as she lowered back to the ground.
She exhaled through her nose once she reached the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. She had to remember her main objective. Once she reached the end of the year, and Quirrell was exposed, everything would go back to normal. McGonagall would forgive her, and she wouldn't be such a troublesome student. It would all work out eventually.
But right now, it certainly didn't feel like it.