"Protego!"

"Again!"

Lucy lowered her wand, giving Riddle an irritated look. "Telling me to do it over and over again won't make it happen, you know."

For the past hour, they'd been in her empty dormitory trying to cast a shield charm. He was an impatient person by nature, and usually it worked out because she was a fast learner. But she'd been trying for ages, and all she could manage was a faint flicker of light before it died out.

They were both very, very frustrated.

"I don't understand what is so hard about this!" He said, running a hand through his hair. "You've managed expansion charms and dark magic— a simple shield charm should be nothing! Are you even trying?"

She glared at him. "Nooo, I thought we should waste both of our time for the next hour, just for the fun of it. Yes, I'm bloody trying, Riddle!"

His jaw set in anger and he pinched the bridge of his nose. She could tell he was trying his best not to completely explode on her, but she was getting irritated enough that she wished he'd just do it so she could have an excuse to yell back at him.

She was just as confused with herself. She knew spells that could boil a man's blood; if she wanted to, she understood how to use a soul gem. Why was a stupid shield so impossible to do?

He finished calming himself down and looked at her. "Let's think about this," he said in a level tone. It made her want to fight him. "When you're casting the spell, what are you thinking of?"

"I reckon I'm thinking of making a shield charm," she said sarcastically.

He narrowed his eyes at her tone. "But do you want to make the shield charm? Do you want to protect yourself? If a dark wizard burst through the door right now shouting a curse, would you want to defend yourself?"

She opened her mouth to say yes, of course, but the words didn't come out. Honestly, if someone tried to attack her, that wouldn't even occur to her. "I would curse him first," she admitted. Or talk her way out, if possible. She didn't want to be trapped behind a shield. She'd rather defeat her opponent rather than let them try and hit her, it was less boring that way.

"Offensive magic is certainly useful, but never undermine the importance of defense." Riddle clasped his hands behind his back and paced the room. Despite her frustration, she couldn't help but smile slightly as he entered what she liked to call 'lecture mode'. It was one of the few times she never interrupted him. "In a duel, it isn't just about defeating your opponent. If that were the case, duels would finish a lot more quickly. You must use your feet as well as your wand: if you don't have time to throw up a shield, dodge out of the way and counter. But my point here is that you must know how to deflect just as well as you can attack. Now, try it again."

She held up her wand to cast it, but the sound of someone passing in front of her door quickly made her hide her wand up her sleeve.

Daisy poked her head in and scanned over her room. "No Rickett," she muttered. She smiled at Lucy who was trying her best not to look suspicious. "Sorry, Lucy, have you seen Anthony?"

"He and Megan went out on a hero's quest," she said apologetically.

"That's why I'm looking for him... Watch out, I heard he was going to drag you into this scheme. If you don't want in, you'd better hide."

Riddle looked incredibly displeased with the interruption. Lucy smiled at Daisy and said, "Great, thanks. If he asks, I'm in Gryffindor tower."

Grabbing her bag, she left the dormitory. Riddle followed her. "You will learn the shield charm today," he said sternly.

He wasn't exaggerating when he said he thought someone had tried to kill her. Lucy still didn't know if she'd go as far as to say someone wanted her dead, but she could see how someone could dislike her enough to send Bludgers after her. It could be a number of people... any one of the Slytherins aside from the obvious few, perhaps even Borgin since she threatened to set him on fire... Maybe it was the Heir, whoever they were. Or maybe it was simply a prank gone wrong.

Either way, she was stuck learning a shield charm because of it.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm doing." She stepped out of the common room and navigated toward the staircases.

She wondered what Megan and Anthony were up to. Probably nothing good. She was in on most of the pranks last year, but since she decided to become a model student (under Riddle's influence), she regretfully couldn't partake in their pranks.

Riddle followed her, confused as to what she was doing. She travelled up the moving staircases, and she jumped over to another platform when they moved too slow for her liking. Really, why did they have to move, and seemingly at random?

"Don't fall off the staircases," He sighed. He didn't have enough energy to scold her for yet another dangerous thing. She did them so often that it was a fruitless effort.

"If they'd just—" she jumped to another section, gripping onto the railing. "—have them stay still instead of—" she jumped again. "—moving them around, I wouldn't have to do this." and with one last leap, she was at the seventh floor.

She turned around and smirked triumphantly at the moving staircases. "Lucy: 1. Staircases: 0."

"Yes, I'm very proud," he said sarcastically. "Will you tell me where we're going?"

She walked down the corridor, stopping in front of a familiar troll tapestry. Riddle's eyes lit up at the sight. "You found it, too?" He mused.

Lucy wasn't even surprised at this point. Of course Tom Riddle knew about the secret room. "Yeah, last year. I thought there might be a troll behind it to fight, but unfortunately it was just some lame prefect's old room."

"What is with your desire to kill trolls?"

"I missed out on a valuable team bonding activity with the Gryffindors," she sighed. "I'm just trying to fill the void in my chest."

He nodded; she told him about how Hermione arrived at their trio. She was a valuable asset, even if Lucy hadn't gotten along with her at first. She had the most common sense... even if she liked setting people on fire.

She pulled out her wand and muttered, "Defodio." Tracing the runic symbol on the wall was easier than it had been last time, but she still took extra care not to carve outside the lines. Once she finished, the wall crumbled away.

She crawled through and of course, Riddle was much too proper to crawl with her. He disappeared into the diary as she made her way through the passageway. She was glad to see the hidden room. She hadn't been in there since last time, and now that she knew Tom used it, there was an added fondness to it all.

"So you used this room a lot?" Lucy wondered, placing her hand on the couch. A cloud of dust blew off it just from her touch alone.

"During my third and fourth year. Then I found a better room. But, this will do for now— perhaps later I'll show you the better one. It's ridiculously closeby."

"Hey, don't insult the room," she said defensively. Sure, it was dusty in here, but it was sort of charming.

"You won't be saying that once you see the other room," he smirked. Then he straightened up, back to business. "Now, try again."

Rolling her eyes, Lucy began again.

Lucy and Tom spent the next few days in the tapestry room, and to her surprise, they didn't try to kill each other even once. It was easier to focus when she didn't have to worry about anyone walking in and with his teaching, she managed to put up a strong shield around her that lasted long enough to protect her.

He moved on to other techniques aside from spell casting. He went over movement, counterattacks and how to react fluidly to any attacks. Obviously she wasn't an amazing duelist yet or anything, but at the very least she felt like she could take on another twelve-year-old. Who knows, maybe if she was really feeling it she'd take on a thirteen-year-old.

"What are the odds this doesn't turn out to be a huge joke?" Lucy said as they walked to the Great Hall. It was nearing eight o'clock in the evening, and most of the other students were headed to Dueling Club as well.

"As long as you get one hex in, I'll be satisfied," Tom shrugged.

"And if we're just going over the basics?"

"Do it anyway."

She snickered. Tom certainly loosened up since the beginning of summer; she was a terrible influence on him. She hoped that soon he would lose the prefect badge altogether.

The long dining tables had disappeared from the Great Hall to make more room, but Lucy still had to squeeze through the crowd to get to her friends. She slung an arm over Ron's shoulder, making him jump at her sudden presence.

"Oh, hey Lucy," Ron grinned.

"Hello, my favorite Weasley. Hello, my darling Hermione." Then she put a Malfoy-esque sneer on her face. "Hello, Potter."

"What's that for?" he complained.

"I dunno, it just seemed right," she shrugged.

Harry gave her a weird look. "Okay then..."

"I wonder who'll be teaching us," Hermione said. She stood on her tip-toes trying to see over a tall Ravenclaw's head. Luckily the person moved, otherwise Lucy was prepared to hex his knees.

"As long as it's not—" Harry began, then he groaned as their favorite Gilderoy Lockhart walked onto the stage, his purple robes billowing behind him. Lucy had to admit that he had good fashion sense. If she didn't prefer muggle clothes, she'd absolutely follow his style.

"Gather round, gather round!" Lockhart called.

"We are gathered!" Lucy called back and then ducked behind Ron when the professor looked in her direction. Hermione sighed, and Harry tried to hide a grin.

"Already heckling him, Luce? It's barely started," he chuckled.

"I can't stop myself," she sighed.

Lockhart recovered quickly, beaming at everyone in the crowd. "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions— for full details, see my published works."

"Dear Merlin," Tom muttered.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart continued.

"YEAH, GO SNAPE!" This time she didn't hide, and Snape's eyes fell over to her. She could see how much he loathed her in that moment. She beamed back at him. She had the sneaking suspicion that she'd get at least one detention out of tonight, if not more.

"Professor Snape has some fans in the audience, I see! I hope they won't mind if he joins me for a short demonstration. Never fear— you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him!"

"Oh, thank goodness," Lucy made a show of wiping her forehead in relief.

Ron looked at her with shock. "How are you already this hyper?"

The answer was simple: Dueling Club. How couldn't she be energized in an activity dedicated to fighting people?

Snape looked very sour up on the stage, even more so with her interruptions. Lucy smiled to herself. Hopefully he'd be so angry as to severely curse Lockhart. Or maybe Lockhart would manage to land a hex on Snape. How embarrassing would that be, to get hexed by Gilderoy Lockhart?

"As you can see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart said. Snape's form was correct, but the other man looked like he was holding a dead flower, and poorly at that. "Now, on the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"Pity," Lucy and Tom said at the same time.

She glared at him, "Get your own lines."

"Don't be predictable," he shrugged.

All of a sudden, the professors each raised their wands above their head and pointed them at each other. Snape called, "Expelliarmus!" and with a jet of red light, he blew Lockhart into the air, off the stage, and right into the wall. He landed in a crumpled heap on the ground.

The Slytherins burst into cheers. So did Lucy, but Hermione elbowed her shortly after she started. "Lucy, please. Do you think he's okay?" she said worriedly.

"Who cares?" Ron, Harry, Lucy, and Tom all chorused.

"Wow, birds of a feather, am I right?" Lucy said this to Tom, but since she was the only one who could see him, she actually said this to Lavender Brown. Suffice to say the girl was very confused and she moved closer to the stage to get away from her.

"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart stumbled back to the stage. "That was a Disarming Charm. As you see, I've lost my wand— ah, thank you, Miss Brown— yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy. However, I felt like it would be instructive to let them see..."

"Can you do it again?" Lucy suggested.

Snape looked ready to kill her on the spot. Lockhart cleared his throat, "Another time, Lucy, another time... I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me—"

Lucy wasn't in the least bit surprised when Snape headed toward her friends first. "Time to split up the dream team, I think," he sneered, eyeing the four of them.

"Dream team? I reckon I'll use that from now on, thanks," she grinned.

Snape glared at her. "If you're so eager, Rochester, why don't you partner with Adrian Pucey?"

She raised her eyebrows. "You know Pucey's a fourth year, right Professor?"

"Is that a problem?" he said mockingly.

"No, I was just wondering if you wanted me to humiliate your house, is all." Lucy gave him a sinister smile. He scoffed and continued setting them up in pairs.

To no one's surprise, Harry was partnered up with Malfoy. She stood next to Harry, across from Pucey. The fourth year wasn't at all worried, and he laughed with Flint about how he was going to make quick work of her. Tom watched intently from the side-lines.

"When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents— only to disarm them, we don't want any accidents...

Yeah, there was no chance of that happening. She knew by the mocking smile on Pucey's face that he wasn't planning on it, either.

"One... two—"

Pucey had started on two.

He sent a suspicious black jet toward her, and remembering Tom's instructions, she cried, "Protego!" She didn't have time to feel satisfied watching the curse bounce off her shield. She was going to play nice, but if he wanted to fight dirty, she was more than willing.

"Obscuro," she said, and a blindfold wrapped around Pucey's head. While he was stumbling around blind, she decided to take a page out of Snape's book. "Expelliarmus!" She said with all her might. He flew through the air and crashed into the wall next to Tom.

Pucey was out cold. Tom smirked, looking down at the Slytherin boy. "Nice one," he complimented.

"Thanks," She grinned. She could revive the boy, but she really didn't want to. She sat back and watched everyone else; the entire hall was filled with chaos. Curses flew in every direction and Lucy leaned against the wall with Tom, watching it all.

"D'you reckon I should wake him?" Lucy spared Pucey a glance.

"No, it's funnier if you don't," Tom said.

He had a point.

Snape was the one to fix the chaos. "Finite Incantatem!" He shouted, and at once all the students who had been cursed were reverted back to normal. Except for Pucey, he was out cold.

The only one who hadn't gotten the hint was Millicent Bulstrode. She had Hermione in a headlock, pulling at her hair. Lucy narrowed her eyes and jerked her wand to the right. Bulstrode stumbled in the direction of her wand and Hermione took the chance to escape. Tom taught her that there didn't have to be a spell for everything; sometimes magic would respond to your pure will.

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," Lockhart said warily. "Let's have a volunteer pair— Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you-"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Snape said with a twisted smile. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox."

She was sorely tempted to hex Snape as well, but something told her that'd be pushing her luck.

"How about Malfoy and Potter?"

Oh, this was going to be good. Lucy made her way closer to the front of the crowd, standing a few feet behind Harry as he and Malfoy faced each other in the center of the hall. If it came down to it, she wasn't above helping her friend cheat in order to win.

"Now, Harry," Lockhart said, patting him on the shoulder, "When Draco points his wand at you, you do this."

He raised his wand and tried moving it around, but he dropped it. Lucy sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Wonderful.

Lockhart paid his blunder no mind. "Just do what I did, Harry!"

"What, drop my wand?" Harry said incredulously.

"Three- two- one— go!"

Malfoy raised his wand and shouted a spell that Lucy had never heard of. "Serpensortia!"

"Oh no," Tom muttered as a long, black snake shot out of the end of Malfoy's wand.

It wasn't a common grass snake or anything, no, this thing was huge. The crowd screamed as it slithered toward Harry and stopped in front of him, poised to the duel— Lucy hurried to his side, holding her wand at the ready. He gave her a relieved look.

"Don't bother, Rochester," Snape said lazily. "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me!"

Those were quite possibly the two worst words to ever come out of Lockhart's mouth. Every time he said them, something terrible happened, and this time was no different. He clumsily waved his wand at the snake and instead of vanishing, it flew a few yards back and landed with a painful smack against the ground. The snake had been suspicious before, but now it was infuriated as it slithered toward Justin, venom dripping from its fangs.

Harry grabbed Lucy's hand in case she had to curse it, and they headed toward the snake. "Leave him alone!" He shouted.

To Lucy's surprise, the snake relaxed at once, turning its eyes to Harry as though it expected something. It was a bit anticlimactic, really. She laughed, nudging him with her elbow. "I didn't know you were a snake whisperer, Harry."

He shrugged, "I didn't think it'd work, really."

They turned to face Justin. He looked all sorts of upset as he stared back at the two. "What do you think you're playing at?!" He demanded.

"What do you mean?" Lucy rolled her eyes. "You should be thanking him."

This only made him pale further, and he stormed out of the Great Hall. Megan shot her a fearful look and followed him.

She hadn't the faintest clue what was happening. Harry stopped the snake, what was so bad about that? If anything Justin should be pissed at Malfoy for summoning it in the first place, or even Lockhart for sending it toward him.

Snape waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a puff of smoke. He gave Lucy a grave sort of look, like she had just confirmed his worst fears. The rest of the crowd muttered and backed away from them. Lucy couldn't help but feel as if she had done something terribly, terribly wrong.

Hermione lightly grabbed Lucy's arm as Ron grabbed Harry's robes. They tugged the two out of the hall. The crowd parted to let them leave. But Lucy wasn't so easily intimidated. "What's your lot's problems?" she demanded with a roll of her eyes. "If you've got something to say, then say it!"

At least ten people flinched, Hannah and Susan included.

"Lucy, I'd leave it alone," Tom said quietly. He stood right at her back as though ushering her out of the hall.

She gave him a nervous look, but she listened to him and followed Ron and Hermione. The air was painfully tense. No one said a word until they were at the empty Gryffindor Common room, where Ron shoved the two onto the couch.

"You're Parselmouths! Why didn't you tell us?" He demanded.

"Sorry, we're what?"

"A Parselmouth," he repeated, looking at them with a mixture of shock and awe. "You can talk to snakes!"

Lucy was terribly confused. She definitely could not talk to snakes and she knew this for a fact. At the Orphanage, she'd throw them at Jennifer and her crew when they chased her, and if the snakes' unintelligible hissing was anything to go by, she could not speak their language.

Harry, however, nodded his head. "I know. I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it... I accidentally set a boa constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once— long story—" he added, seeing Lucy's questioning look. "But it was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to. That was before I knew I was a wizard."

"A boa constrictor told you it'd never seen Brazil?" Ron said faintly. He looked at her nervously. "What about you?"

"No, never before now," she frowned. "Normally when snakes talk to me, it's a lot of angry hissing."

"It doesn't work like that. You'd have to have heard them," Ron argued. "You're a Parselmouth, too."

"See? I bet loads of people can do it," Harry said, shrugging.

"Oh, no they can't," Ron shook his head. "It's not a very common gift. Harry, Lucy, this is bad."

"Why's it bad?" She demanded. "Harry wasn't doing anything wrong— he told the snake to back off."

"It didn't look like it. We heard you guys speaking Parseltongue- snake language- you could have been saying anything. No wonder Justin panicked. Harry sounded like he was egging the snake on or something, and Lucy looked like she was egging Harry on."

Ah. So Lucy was the double bad guy in this situation. Great.

"I don't see why it's such a big deal," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "What does it matter what language I spoke as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"

Hermione leaned forward. Even though they were alone in the common room, she lowered her voice. "It matters because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."

Lucy and Harry exchanged a deeply horrified look.

"Exactly," Ron said. "And now the whole school's going to think you lot are his great-great-great-great-grandkids or something."

"But I'm not!" Harry was beginning to look panicked. Any other time, Lucy would have comforted him, but she was beginning to feel scared herself. Snape and Dumbledore already thought she was the root of all evil— now that the entire school saw her speak Parseltongue, what was to say they wouldn't get it over with and expel her?

"I've got to talk to Justin," she realized. Hopefully if she explained everything, he wouldn't spread the word that Harry egged on the snake around the school...

"Please do," he said hopefully.

She left the common room, heart hammering in her chest. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she go a few months without something insane happening? Not only was she not a normal witch, she wasn't a normal Parseltongue, either.

"Lucy, hold on—" Tom hurried to stand in front of her, blocking her path. He looked down at her, clearly unsure of what to do at the upset look on her face. "Is it true what you said, you've never been able to speak to snakes before?"

"Yes," she said desperately. "You have to believe me, I've never done that before—"

"Of course I believe you." Relief washed over her like a tidal wave. Ron didn't look like he believed her, and she couldn't express how much of a weight it was for at least one person to trust her judgement. She would swear on Harry's life that this was a new development.

"I just don't understand how— Dumbledore's going to hate me—"

"Dumbeldore cannot prove anything," Tom interrupted. He spoke in a soothing voice, "Just because you can speak Parseltongue doesn't mean you're guilty of anything. It's made out to be an incredibly rare ability, but there are more scattered around the world than you would expect. I know of four in Europe alone, aside from Potter."

Oh, thank God. The way Ron said it, it sounded like only the evilest of wizards could speak Parseltongue. But there was one thing she still wanted to know."How come I can speak it now, and I couldn't before?"

Tom hesitated. "I'm not sure," he said carefully. "But I wouldn't worry about it too much— Parseltongue is a prestigious ability, one you should be grateful to have."

Lucy suddenly felt sort of bad for making a fuss about it. Tom was a proud Slytherin, and she knew he'd like to speak Parseltongue as well. She offered him a weak smile. "Yeah, I suppose," she said.

She began the regretful journey back to the Hufflepuff common room. She didn't know what to expect. Most likely an angry Justin and Ernie. Lots of whispers, certainly. She steeled herself before she knocked the pattern on the Hufflepuff entrance, and she stepped through cautiously.

"THERE'S MY LITTLE SNAKE!"

Anthony lunged at her, taking her face into his hands. "Did you set a snake on Flint? Please tell me you set a snake on Flint!"

"I— what?" She said, muffled because her cheeks were being squished together.

"Leave her alone, Rickett," Daisy said, rolling her eyes. She pulled the older boy away and gave Lucy a concerned look. "Are you alright? Zacharias Smith's been telling everyone who'll listen that you're the Heir of Slytherin."

Lucy groaned, putting her hands over her face. "Why am I the Heir of Slytherin? Why not Harry?" she demanded.

"Don't worry, Ernie seems to think that Harry's the Heir and he's turned you over to the dark side," Cedric said helpfully, making Lucy groan. Anthony and Daisy both smacked him upside the head. He rubbed his head, scowling. "Well, you wanted to know!"

"Let me guess. They're all huddled in Justin's dorm right now?" Lucy said sarcastically.

"Er— yes," Daisy admitted. "If you want to talk to them, I won't stop you— but I'll warn you that they're very convinced."

She figured they would be. With one last sigh, she headed to the boys' dorm. The door was locked, and even when she knocked there was no answer. This was utterly ridiculous. She knew they were in there, and they wouldn't at the very least reply?

She grit her teeth. Fine. If they wanted to act like gits about it. Waving her wand, she unlocked the door and walked in. Her friends were all huddled in a group, whispering to each other, and once she'd entered they jumped apart as if they had been burnt.

Ernie looked at her, outraged as he threw an arm over Justin and Megan. "If you've come to finish them off, we won't let you!"

"I've— what? I haven't come to finish them off!" Lucy said exasperatedly. "We've been friends since first year, why would I want to petrify you?"

"Maybe last year you didn't want to," Justin said, shrinking further behind Ernie. "But— but with Potter's influence, you've changed!"

"Potter's influen— Justin, I heard Harry, he was telling the snake to leave you alone. Didn't you notice how it stopped to look at him?"

Megan suddenly glared at her, tears in her eyes. "Is that why you laughed with him, then?" she demanded. "If your friend had just been attacked, your first thought was to laugh at the snake with him?"

Lucy stared at her with shock. First of all, Justin hadn't been attacked. Secondly, of course she laughed when Harry managed to get a giant snake to roll over like a dog. "You too, Megan?" she said with a hint of hurt in her tone.

Tom's presence was cold at her back.

"You've lied to us before," Megan reminded angrily, "Loads of times. You lied about being an orphan— you had all these elaborate stories about your parents— and you didn't even apologize for it."

"Well, I'm sorry if I didn't want to tell you lot about the filthy Muggle Orphanage I grew up in," Lucy said icily. "It was such a fun time, guess I should have poured my heart out every time you asked about my family."

Megan turned pink, but she pressed on. "That's not the only time! You lied about Quirrell, too. You'd been working with him all year, working with You-Know-Who..."

Hannah nodded in agreement. Her cheeks were red and splotchy from the confrontation, but she charged forward anyway. "We all saw him jump to your defense," she said in a high-pitched voice. "When we were joking with you— he looked ready to kill us on the spot!"

"If you were only spying on him, why would he act so fondly toward you?" Susan added in a harsh tone. The normally quiet girl now looked to be the angriest one in the room. "After all that talk of Voldemort killing my family, you'd work for him? I guess you got a taste for the Dark Arts, did you? Now you and Harry Potter are teaming up against all the Muggleborns."

"Especially with your filthy Muggle Orphanage," Wayne added quietly. "Orphanage wasn't a good enough word? You had to add Muggle in, on top of that?"

With each word they threw her way, Lucy felt a sharp pain in her chest, one she hadn't felt since she grew up at the Orphanage. For a moment it was like she was in Wool's courtyard, laying with her knees scraped on the sidewalk as the other children whispered at her. Although her face betrayed no emotion, her hands shook behind her back.

"I see," she said tonelessly. "Thank you for telling me your true feelings. I won't bother you again."

Her legs felt like lead as she walked back to her dormitory. Daisy gave her a worried look, and Lucy sent a smile her way. It seemed to reassure the prefect and stopped her from asking any questions.

Once she reached her dorm, she closed and locked the door behind her. Then she sat on her bed, staring at the floor.

"Lucy?" Tom looked at her cautiously.

"...Yes, Tom?" She said in a pleasant tone. Nothing is wrong, nothing is wrong, nothing is wrong.

This only served to put him more on edge. "Are— are you alright?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because..."

"Because they're right, aren't they?" Her voice wavered slightly. "I am rotten, aren't I? I get myself into these situations, it's not any of their faults. I was the one who made Quirrell suspicious enough to corner me. I was the one who offered to help him— he tried to kill Harry, but I let him teach me spells instead of getting rid of him, like I should have. Snape gave me a portkey and I lost it." She started talking faster and her heart felt like it was going to explode out of her chest. "I'm the one who didn't hate him even after I found out he was helping Voldemort, like any normal person would have— I reckon I'm the only idiot on this planet to cry when he died!"

To her horror, she felt tears trickling down her cheeks and angrily, she wiped them away. She couldn't cry in front of Tom, no way. It was bad enough to cry in front of Harry, crying in front of Tom Riddle was unthinkable. But Quirrell's burning, mutilated face appeared in her mind again and she let out a shuddering breath, her shoulders shaking.

Tom's eyes widened. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights but somehow, he sat next to her and leaned his face closer to hers. "Lucy, they're not right," he said harshly. "You're not evil, no one is evil. They're seeing things in black and white."

"I am! Quirrell was going to take the stone, and I didn't even try and stop him!" She choked, wiping at her eyes again. The tears kept coming and along with feeling terrible, she was embarrassed out of her mind.

"You were eleven," he insisted. "You were eleven and he had Lord Voldemort himself on his side. These idiots have no right to accuse you of such things—" His gaze darkened, and he rested a hand on her shoulder. "They have no right to make you cry."

She suddenly felt very, very tired.

"It's been a long day," Tom said evenly. He blurred in and out of focus, and a fog slowly crept over her mind. "We'll sort it out in the morning, Lucy. Trust me."

With every word he said, she felt herself relax further. She nodded dimly, and suddenly she was under the covers, staring at the empty dormitory. She held the diary in her arms like it was a teddy bear.

"Everything is going to be fine."