Through a pulsing red light, Montague loomed closer and closer, knife in hand. Lucy stumbled backward, but with each step it became more difficult to move. With each flash of light, he drew closer. She looked down— ink? It was growing higher and higher, up her legs, up to her waist, and Montague was still moving toward her. Her heart felt like it was going to explode.
Harry lay dead at her feet, snakes crawling out of his throat. Lucy blinked, and suddenly he was Anthony. Then Daisy. Montague stepped on Daisy's hand as he stopped in front of her.
He raised his arm up, poised to strike. His smile held traces of blood in it. "Mudbloods like you get what you deserve—"
"Again?" a high pitched voice laughed right in her ear.
A flash of green light erupted from somewhere in the darkness, striking Montague dead.
Lucy woke up as soon as soon as Montague's body hit the floor.
She blinked, staring at the ceiling. What? Was that even a nightmare? It started out roughly, but she'd declare that end almost a victory. An extremely sudden victory, but given the patterns of her usual dreams, she had to take what she could get.
Megan, Susan, and Hannah were all still sleeping soundly. Slowly, so as not to wake them up, she crept into the bathroom to get ready for the day. She dressed into her uniform and left the dormitory as quickly as possible.
She'd expected the awkwardness between herself and her fellow Hufflepuffs, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant. Last night the silence between them had been so heavy that Lucy gave up on reading altogether. She drew her curtains shut and went to sleep with Grayble, Ford, and Tom Marvotoad Riddle all laying beside her.
She held her toad in her hands as she walked, humming to herself. Tom Marvotoad was nearly as grouchy as her namesake; when Lucy passed another student, her toad would make a growling croak in their direction. It was loud and very unsettling. Lucy approved.
"Walking through the school, looking all cool, nobody's trying to kill me, and that's a victory," she sang, doing a little spin. The ghost of Ravenclaw House paused, stopping to stare at Lucy after she finished her tune. Lucy stared back at her with a pleasant smile on her face. "Good morning!"
The Gray Lady eyed her with mild disdain.
"Hufflepuffs," the ghost muttered at last, gliding away without another glance at her.
Lucy took that as a compliment.
Most of the Gryffindors hadn't arrived at the Great Hall yet, but the Hufflepuff and Slytherin tables were mostly filled. As she headed toward Anthony and the rest, Malfoy pretended to faint, dramatically falling into Blaise's side. Lucy stopped walking, turning to look at him. Her shoulders tensed, thinking of his words yesterday. When Malfoy crossed the line from teasing to bullying, she tended to forgive him.
Not this time. He must have forgotten that she, unlike Harry, didn't have any reservations about starting a fight with him in the middle of the Great Hall.
"Is there something you'd like to say, Malfoy?" she said, her tone laced with sickly sweetness. She stepped toward him with her hands clasped behind her back.
Blaise smirked behind his goblet. Malfoy straightened up, rolling his eyes at her. "Yes, actually. Why the hell did you keep sending awful items to my father?" He swung his legs over the bench so that he was facing her fully. He lowered his voice so that nobody, bar Blaise and Theodore, could hear him. "One of them was cursed," he hissed.
...Listen, she had to buy a shrunken head at some point.
She blinked at him. "I didn't send anything," she said, for deniability's sake. She leaned closer, smiling. "But if I did... well, it's the least I can do, isn't it? Short of ruining his life."
"Excuse me?" All traces of humor left Malfoy's face. "Who are you to threaten my father?" He looked very unpleasant just then, staring at her like she was nothing but a pile of mud.
Lucy also wasn't feeling very humorous. Putting aside all the hurt that came from the diary, everyone around her could have been hurt as well. Lucius Malfoy had smiled at her, knowing Lord Voldemort was sucking the life out of her, knowing that the Dark Lord might rise again. She was trying not to take it out on his son, but it was hard when his son was just as nasty as he was at times.
"Your father slipped me Lord Voldemort's diary," she said, still smiling. Malfoy's shoulders tensed. Blaise's eyebrows shot upward, and Theodore suddenly looked ill. "Now, I'm sure he was expecting my dear old Tom to kill me and be done with it— but he was actually rather fond of me. Fond enough, I think, that he didn't mind killing two of his fellow Slytherins."
Her eyes flickered to the empty place where Marcus Flint used to sit. Malfoy stared at her, stunned.
"But the point is, Malfoy, your father tried to use me. I don't like being used." Her smile dropped, and she pulled out her wand. She wasn't pointing it at him, but the implication was clear on who she'd like to be pointing it at. "Tell Lucius that the last person who burnt me ended up screaming at the floor at the hands of Lord Voldemort."
She didn't mean to, but green sparks shot out of her wand at the end of her sentence. Malfoy was so furious that he couldn't muster a reply. With one last smile, Lucy left him. Sort-of-friends or not she was not going to be stepped over this year. She was not going to allow her friends to be stepped over, either. Malfoy could hit her with as many below-the-belt remarks as he wanted, but if he thought she was going to sit back and take it, he was sorely mistaken.
She sat at the Hufflepuff table, taking her usual seat across from Anthony. The older boy pushed a plate of waffles her way. "Threatening Malfoy so early, I see?" he observed lightly, casting a glance at the whispering group of Slytherins.
She sent a tired smile toward him. It was nice to see Anthony in a setting where he hadn't just caught her writhing on the floor from a Dementor. "It's good to establish yourself early on," she informed him.
"I've never liked him," Cedric scoffed. "I don't know how anyone can stand him for that long, honestly— all he does is bully others." He shot a glare in Malfoy's direction. "I've already had to tell those two apes of his to leave the first years alone."
Heidi looked up from reading Maxine's palm to grin at him. "I've learned that a hex is as good a warning as any."
"You can't hex third years," Daisy reminded without looking up from her book.
"Why not? They're monsters, the lot of them. This one included." Anthony threw a piece of toast in Lucy's direction. She caught it and chucked it at his face. "Nice shot," he said in an impressed tone.
"Thanks," she grinned. "Now where's our schedules?"
Daisy closed her book. She picked up a stack of papers from the seat next to her and shuffled through them. "You're a bit earlier than the other third years, but here," she said, handing it over.
"Well aren't you a busy badger," Cedric remarked, peering over Lucy's shoulder.
Busy was a kind term. She had, of course, signed up for Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. That was where Harry and Ron stopped. She also thought Ancient Runes might be fun. The only class that she wasn't very excited about was Arithmancy. Arithmancy sounded interesting until she looked deeper into it; there'd be plenty of math, and while she wasn't bad at math, she was certainly out of practice. She'd only really taken it because Tom wanted her to. At least Harry was good at math...
"I've got to live up to my Heir status somehow," she replied without looking up.
Cedric snorted. "Fair, but I didn't take you as an Arithmancer."
She glanced at him and smirked. "I don't know what possessed me to take it," she snickered.
Cedric's smile immediately dropped, and he groaned, leaning back. "Please don't start with possession puns!"
Anthony stared at Lucy with just as much disgust. He leaned forward with his forearms on the table and said, lowering his voice, "I hope you're not going to Lord it over our heads from now on, cub."
She let out a burst of surprised laughter as Cedric buried his face in his hands.
Heidi scowled. "I'm going to have to agree that this shit sucks."
"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just..." Lucy contorted her features to look as sad as possible. "I... well, I think I've got a problem, Heidi. I'm... I'm just Riddled with jokes."
Cedric lunged forward to grab Lucy, but she jumped away from the table, laughing wildly.
Anthony stood up, putting his hands on his hips with an outraged expression. "Lucy, come on, get out of Cedric's heir!"
"I suppose he does seem a bit petrified."
"It's at times like this when I wish I was still petrified," Daisy muttered. She let the book fall out of her hands. "Are you sure you've lost the ability completely, Lucy?"
"Basilisk's dead, so yeah, you're out of luck there," Lucy said in an apologetic tone. "But if you're really set on it, I'm sure Hogwarts has some other hidden chamber with a dangerous monster in it."
Daisy looked extremely tempted to go and search for one, but she settled for returning to her book. Lucy figured now was a good time to settle down and eat before Cedric actually did decide to murder her.
The rest of breakfast passed pleasantly, with only one wrestling match between Maxine and Anthony. Despite the boy's best efforts in weight lifting over the summer, she was still able to beat him in under two minutes. Lucy knew better than to think that Anthony was letting Maxine win. Anthony would never embarrass himself in such a way.
Anthony had just begun to convince Lucy to fight Maxine when Hermione, Ron, and Harry walked over. Good thing, too— Lucy had been very tempted.
"You've got Divination too, don't you, Lucy?" Hermione asked, peering over Lucy's shoulder at her schedule. "I thought so. We'd better go now; it'll take us ten minutes to get there and Divination's at the top of the North Tower."
That sounded like a lot of walking. Lucy pulled a face and followed her friends out of the Great Hall. She never pretended to be good with directions, and it was evident that her friends hadn't either.
"There's got to be a shortcut," Ron panted, almost collapsing into the wall they climbed up yet another huge staircase.
"There is," Lucy said, stepping toward the edge of the staircase. "Straight down! I've tried it before, and it's very fast."
Hermione tugged her away from the edge while Harry looked ill at the reminder. "I think it's this way," she muttered, pointing down an empty passage.
"Can't be. That's south. Look, you can see a bit of the lake outside the window... Do you reckon we should start over from the first level?"
Lucy was ready to jump out that window at the notion of climbing down all those staircases again. Luckily for her, and for her friends who would witness that, a short knight stumbled into a portrait in front of him, his pony trailing behind him.
"AHA!" The knight yelled upon noticing the four of them. "What villains are these, that trespass upon my private lands! Come to scorn at my fall, perchance? Draw you knaves, you dogs!" He drew his sword from its sheath and brandished it wildly, jumping all around.
Lucy drew her wand, stabbing at him with just as much violent force. "Who art thou calling a dog, you worm?" she demanded, taking a step forward.
The knight lunged at her, and fell face-first into the grass.
Harry moved closer to the portrait. He shot Lucy an amused look before addressing the knight. "She's only joking. Are you all right?"
"Get back, you scurvy braggart! Back, you rogue!"
She was absolutely ready to start dueling with a portrait, but it was getting a little sad now as he tried to push himself up, but only succeeded in getting his sword stuck in the grass. He gave up with a groan, flopping onto his back. Slowly, Lucy put her wand back in her pocket.
She decided she won this fight.
"Listen, we're looking for the North Tower," Harry said, "You don't know the way, do you?"
"A quest!" The knight jumped to his feet, beaming at them. "Come follow me, dear friends, and we shall find our goal, or else perish bravely in the charge?"
"Were you a Gryffindor, by any chance?" Lucy asked as he tried, and failed to get on his pony.
The knight turned and shot her a surprised look. "How did you know?!"
"Just a guess," she hummed. She wished all Gryffindors still acted like him; Hogwarts would be a lot more fun that way.
He was a brilliant guide. Even if he wasn't in a portrait, they could still follow the loud clanking of his armor. He interrupted plenty of pictures along the way, at one point interrupting a portrait of King Arthur himself. Needless to say, the king was not pleased with him.
At last, they arrived at the top of the North Tower. Lucy raced Harry the entire way. He caught onto what she was doing halfway through and sped up, and by the time they stopped outside the classroom, Ron and Hermione were only halfway up the tower.
"How... the hell... did you go so fast...?" Ron demanded, leaning against the wall. Hermione wasn't much better, but she was too proud to use the wall as a prop.
"Years of running from muggles adds up, dear boy," Lucy informed him in a wise tone. Harry nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately, I'm going to have to give this win to Harry."
"I had more room to run than you, I expect," he grinned.
Ron and Hermione shared a disturbed glance as Harry and Lucy high-fived each other.
The knight chortled from the portrait above them. "Farewell!" he cried, "Farewell, my comrades-in-arms!" He gestured to Lucy and added, "My worthy adversary!" She bowed deeply. "If you ever have need of noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!"
"FAREWELL!" Lucy called after him. He disappeared from view and a handkerchief fluttered to the grass inside the picture. She sighed happily. "Merlin, I've missed Hogwarts."
They climbed a ladder to get into the tower. Lucy stopped at the entrance, marveling at the classroom. This was what she expected a wizard classroom to look like when she was still ten years old. Tens of small, circular tables stood close to each other, with loads of fluffy armchairs surrounding the room. It was incredibly warm inside and smelled strongly of an old perfume Lucy would have attributed to Mrs. Cole's tastes.
Lucy claimed one of the huge armchairs immediately. Harry, Ron, and Hermione crammed into one of the round tables nearby.
"Welcome," a voice said from the shadows. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."
Professor Trelawney stepped into the light. Her round spectacles made her eyes look slightly buggy, and she looked over everyone with them. She seemed to be trying her best to make her gaze misty-eyed. "Sit, my children, sit," she said, as if the entire class wasn't sitting already.
"Welcome to Divination," she continued, sitting in the biggest armchair in front of the fire. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."
"You and me both," Lucy said, nodding at her. Trelawney seemed to appreciate her remark, but Ron aimed a kick at her chair.
"You all have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you... Books can take you only so far in this field..."
Ron and Harry sent smug glances in Hermione's direction. Rolling her eyes, Lucy kicked the back of their chairs. So she wasn't allowed to be a git, but they were? That was simply unacceptable.
"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearing, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, "It is a Gift granted to few. You, boy!" She pointed suddenly at Neville, who jerked back in his chair. "Is your grandmother well?"
"I think so?" Neville said uncertainly.
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear..."
"Sounds like a threat," Lucy muttered.
Hermione caught her eye and firmly shook her head. "We have to pay attention for the first ten minutes at least," she whispered harshly. Lucy sent a pleasant smile her way.
"Quiet please, girl," Trelawney said to Hermione, who looked ready to explode at Lucy. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," she looked toward Parvati Patil. "Beware a red-haired man."
Parvarti turned around and shot Ron a frightened look.
Lucy was very much enjoying this class.
"In the second term, we shall progress to the crystal ball— if we have finished with fire omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice. And around Easter, one of our numbers will leave us forever." Trelawney ignored the tense silence that followed and turned her attention to Lavender Brown. "I wonder, dear, if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?" Relieved, Lavender nodded and handed it to her. "Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading— it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October."
Lavender's shoulders began to tremble.
After vaguely threatening most of the Gryffindors, Trelawney ordered them into pairs for tea reading. Lucy found herself sitting across from Hermione with a very smug expression on her face as the bookworm tried her best to make sense of Lucy's tea.
All things considered, Lucy was a great partner for Divination. She stayed nice and quiet during the setup process while Ron was busy heckling Harry the entire time. She didn't interrupt Hermione, even when she picked up the cup with the wrong hand, not even when she stirred clockwise instead of counter-clockwise.
Hermione studied Lucy's cup first, furrowing her brow. She was trying very hard to analyze its shape.
"First impressions, Hermione," Lucy reminded her.
"My first impression is that it looks like a clump of wet tea leaves," Hermione said flatly.
"Well, they're spread around, aren't they? Separate it into bits."
"You're taking this a bit too seriously Luce," Ron snorted, watching as Harry tried making sense of his. "C'mon, Harry. Broaden your mind, will you? I'm falling asleep over here."
Harry scowled and kicked the leg of Ron's chair. "You've got a sort of cross... That could mean you're having 'trials and suffering'— sorry about that— but there's a thing that could be the sun... Hang on, that means 'great happiness'... So you're going to suffer but be very happy..."
"You need your Inner Eye tested, if you ask me."
Lucy kindly ignored the pair of them. She liked Divination; she was able to ignore the classroom fumes after awhile, and it was very warm in here, just like the Hufflepuff common room. She doubted they'd be complaining when the cold months of winter arrived.
"Well, I suppose this one could be considered a heart..." Hermione said, squinting her eyes closer to the cup. She checked her book. "And that means— marriage."
Harry ducked his head to hide his laughter as Lucy fixed Hermione with a very disgusted look.
"I'd rather you told me I was about to die," she said, shuddering. She took Hermione's cup and looked at it. She had a very good imagination, so it wasn't hard for her to come up with something right away. "There's a pair of scales here, I think, and right next to it is an airplane... Scales could mean a lawsuit, and aircraft means an unsuccessful project... I'd wager you're going to lose a case." She grinned and leaned back in her chair. "Hope you're not planning on going to court anytime soon, Hermione."
"And you called mine ridiculous," Hermione rolled her eyes.
"I'm never wrong, Hermione. You'll see!"
"If you're such a seer, why don't you keep going?"
Lucy sniffed, looking back into the cup. "Maybe I will! There's a sword there in the left corner, bad argument right there... and a castle over on the right. You'll have an argument over an unexpected fortune... Not your fortune, by the looks of it."
"Excellent work, my dear."
Lucy jumped at the sudden voice over her shoulder. She turned to see Professor Trelawney looming over her, her huge eyes shining brightly at the girl. "What's your name?"
"Lucy," she said, slowly leaning away.
"I couldn't have said it better myself, Lucy," Trelawney said, looking very pleased.
"This isn't fair— Lucy's always been good at lying," Ron muttered to Harry, who snorted.
Lucy whirled around to glare at them. She thought she'd done a brilliant reading. "You're just jealous, you two, that I have the sight while you two are as insightful as a pair of mole rats!"
Hermione snickered into her hands. Professor Trelawney was miffed on Lucy's behalf, and she took Lucy's own cup into her hands. "I'll read yours, my dear," Trelawney said, rotating it in the right direction. "The fox... You've had a betrayal in the past, I see, from one you held dear..."
Lucy's face dropped. Suddenly, reading tea leaves wasn't very fun anymore.
Herimone glared at Professor Trelawney as she continued speaking, "A pair of wands— there are dangers in the shadows, but also— the house. You have the taint of evil, Lucy, sticking to you like a shadow... And yet, it may work in your favor."
The taint of evil? Really? Could she go one year without someone telling her she was evil?! She threatened Malfoy's dad this morning, but the man deserved it! She leaned back in her chair, sulking.
"I think I'd rather be married," she said sourly.
Trelawney moved on to another student. Hermone leaned forward, seeming very annoyed. "Well, she would have known all of that already, wouldn't she?" Hermione scoffed. "All the professors would have heard all about the Chamber of Secrets. She'd have known the diary enchanted..." she trailed off, seeing Lucy's glare. She cleared her throat. "Well, you get my point."
"I think you're just sore that you can't read the future like any of your other books," Ron snickered. He had Harry's cup in his hand, and he held it out for her. "Here, you read Harry's— all I'm seeing is loads of dragon dung."
Professor Trelawney snatched the cup out of his hands in an instant, giving him a reproachful look. "Let me see that... " she stared into the teacup. "The falcon... my dear, you have a deadly enemy."
"It's me," Lucy said, pulling out her wand. She raised it. "You're dead, Potter—"
Hermione grabbed her arm and pulled it down. "Lucy, please... Everyone knows that, anyway. Everybody knows about Harry and You-Know-Who."
Lucy couldn't believe that Hermione was acting so snarky in front of a professor, but she was incredibly proud. For her part, Professor Trelawney ignored her as she continued reading Harry's cup.
"The club... an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..." Trelawney clicked her tongue. "The skull... danger in your path, my dear..." Lucy tried not to laugh; Trelawney could very well be predicting the future, because Harry was in danger just about every day of his life. Trelawney gave the cup a final turn, and then promptly screamed.
Neville yelped and slapped his cup out of fear. It smashed against the wall. Nobody paid him any mind except for Lucy, who laughed at him.
Professor Trelawney sank into an armchair, clutching her pearls. She closed her eyes tightly. "My dear boy— my poor dear boy— no, it is kinder not to say — no, don't ask me..."
"Give it to him straight, doc," Lucy said grimly. Everyone was crowding around Harry's teacup now.
"My dear... " Trelawney's eyes snapped open. "You have the grim!"
Harry, who had heard this from Lucy about twenty times over the summer, fought to keep from laughing. "The what?" he said innocently. He nudged Ron. "What's Lucy's dog doing in my cup?"
Lucy laughed, then frowned. She missed her dog. Hopefully, Mallory was feeding him like she asked her to... She tried to convince the woman to drop the dog off at Hogwarts but even Mallory wasn't that willing.
Ron did not share his humor in the slightest. His face had gone stark white.
Hermione leaned over Harry's teacup and said in an unimpressed voice, "I don't think it looks like a Grim."
Trelawney's eyes narrowed at the girl. "You'll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future."
Lucy made a hissing noise. "Hear that? That's the sound of a sick burn, Hermione." She was the only one who remained at their own seat and she made herself comfortable in her chair.
Hermione turned around to glare at her. Before she could hex Lucy, Seamus also peered into Harry's cup, squinting his eyes at it. "It looks like a Grim if you do this, but it looks more like a donkey from here."
"When you've all finished deciding whether or not I'm going to die!" Harry snapped.
"I don't know, I'd like to discuss it a little bit more..." Lucy started. He picked the tea-bag out of his cup and flung it at her. Luckily, Trelawney was too busy fanning herself to notice Lucy getting hit in the face with a soggy tea-bag. She wiped at her forehead, scowling. "Fuck you too, Potter."
"No harsh language, please," Trelawney said in her mistiest voice yet, "I find it clouds my Inner Eye."
"Funny you should say that," Lucy said, "Because I've found that it opens my Inner Eye."
The professor stared at her long and hard, trying to gauge whether or not Lucy was lying. She hadn't yet discovered that there was no clear way to tell if Lucy was lying, and most professors had to rely on their instinct at this point. Finally, she looked away. "I think we will end the lesson here for today," she said. "Yes... please pack away your things..."
They left the classroom, and Hermione and Lucy were the only ones unaffected by the whole event. Even Harry was beginning to look somber now.
Lucy lay a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon, Harry you can't really believe her? The Grim looks exactly like a dog, and you know what a dog means?" Harry shook his head. "It means friend. So either you're going to die or find a friend, and between you and me, I think we've had enough near-death experiences to spare us for at least one year."
He cracked a smile. "Yeah, I suppose. Reckon you'll get rid of your 'taint of evil' anytime soon?"
"I dunno, maybe I'll bring it up with old Voldy the next time I see him." She made her voice a higher pitch and pretended she was addressing old Snake Face. "Hey, d'you think you could lay off the whole 'making Lucy look evil' thing for a few years?" She looked back to Harry and grinned. "I think he'll respond well."
"What do you think he'll respond with?" Harry asked. They started walking now, trailing behind the rest of the Gryffindors. Ron and Hermione stared warily at their casual display of poking fun at Lord Voldemort. "C'mon, give it your best impression."
"Old or young?"
"Both."
"I'll start with old." She stopped in her tracks and cleared her throat. She looked at Harry, paused, and then went up a few steps so that she was much taller than him. She clasped her hands behind her back and stared at him with disdain. "Leave my presence immediately, Rochester, and refrain from asking such foolish questions in the future." That was a phrase Voldy-Quirrell used on her many times.
Harry laughed and even Hermione was fighting a smile now. Ron was the only one who still thought Voldemort would appear at the mere mention of him.
"And the younger?"
Lucy took one step down and crossed her arms over her chest, raising her eyebrows with a sarcastic smile. She lowered her voice to a posh accent. "Yes, Lucy, of course I'll put aside all my plans because it makes you happy." She uncrossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Do you enjoy asking such pointless questions, or is today special?"
Harry was thoroughly impressed. He fell into step beside her as they headed down the stairs of the tower. "Voldemort had better hope you don't get your hands on polyjuice potion. That was brilliant."
"Ah, he'll be safe. The only one with hair is dead now."
"Will you stop joking about You-Know-Who?!" Ron burst out. He looked all around them like he expected Voldemort to step out from thin air.
Lucy decided to take pity on Ron for now. At least Harry was in higher spirits— and she loved any chance to flaunt her impressions. She'd only gotten to show Tom before. Now she could embody him in front of everyone and still make fun of him.
She parted with her friends after they reached the staircases. She had Arithmancy next. She hoped her impression of Tom would also leave her with his knowledge of the subject.
She had just approached the door, when suddenly Hermione burst out of the classroom, almost crashing into her. Lucy stared at her, stunned. There was no way. She said goodbye to Hermione ages ago; it was physically impossible for her to have reached the classroom before her.
Hermione seemed to freeze when she spotted Lucy standing there. She cleared her throat. "Hello, Lucy."
Lucy stayed quiet, still staring at her. "Hermione, that's some witchcraft shit. What, did McGonagall clone you or something?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione said, trying to step past her.
"Hah! She totally cloned you!" Lucy peered inside the classroom. "Where are the other ones? I'd love to attack Malfoy with a few of you—"
Hermione scowled and hurried away. Lucy was sure her friend was hiding something, and it probably had to do with her schedule. Ron showed it to her halfway through Divination and made fun of the way Hermione had three classes at once. With magic at hand, Lucy didn't doubt that she found a way to be in three places at once.
She was just happy that she didn't have to do the same.
Arithmancy was, in fact, very confusing, but Lucy was determined to get a grasp on it. She spotted complex equations written on the chalk board that Professor Vector was busy erasing from the last class. At least Harry was good at math; he could help her, and if that didn't work, she still had Riddle's Book. Tom was really into Arithmancy.
Ernie and Susan were the only other Hufflepuffs taking Arithmancy. Once again, they were paired up with the Slytherins. She was surprised to note that most of the Slytherins had elected to take the class; Blaise, Theodore, Goyle, Crabbe, Daphne, Tracy, Pansy, and unsurprisingly, Malfoy entered the room.
Lucy was sitting at the front. She glared at Malfoy, daring him to try and sit with her. He scowled and sat next to Pansy, much to her delight.
Professor Vector started off listing the magical properties of each number. Lucy scribbled down as many notes as she could, but she started to get lost when the woman went into the way multiples and dividends played into it. Even with the charts Professor Vector handed out, it was all very confusing. The only ones who seemed to be following along were Theodore, Malfoy, and Susan.
"Now," Professor Vector said, after she thoroughly confused them all with knowledge. "Before we delve further into the Agrippan Method, I'd like to ask some basic trivia. Most of numerological meanings have already been embedded in both wizarding, and yes, muggle culture. For example— what, might I ask, is the most balanced number?"
Malfoy's hand shot into the air.
"Mr. Malfoy?"
"Two," he said confidently.
"Excellent," Processor Vector appraised. "Two points to Slytherin. Yes, two is the most balanced number. As the muggle physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton once said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That logic can be applied to every aspect of magic. Next— which is regarded as the most sacred number?"
Again, Malfoy raised his hand. "Five," he said, almost lazily.
"Right again," Professor Vector grinned. "Of course, the sacrality of any number can range depending on your individual beliefs or religions, but magically speaking, the number five signifies important rituals. For example, the unbreakable vow takes five seconds to complete. Blood vows take five-hours to begin working. And finally— and this one is tricky— what is the most powerful number? Mr. Malfoy?"
"Three," he answered.
Professor Vector arched an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"
"There's three's everywhere. There are three deathly hallows, three branches of magic, three laws of vanishing..."
"A reasonable answer, but no, it is not." Malfoy leaned back in his chair, seeming disappointed.
Lucy was too busy scribbling down everything Professor Vector said to bother teasing him. "Seven," she said quietly, dipping her quill in ink.
Professor Vector looked at her with surprise. "Why is that, Ms. Rochester?"
"What?" Lucy looked up at the professor. She had ink smudged on her nose from how closely she was taking notes.
"You said seven, and you would be correct."
She frowned. "I did?"
"Humility is not a necessary trait in Arithmancy, Rochester," Vector informed her. Lucy was incredibly confused, but she couldn't do anything about it as Vector turned to the chalk-board. "We'll go over the properties of seven later in the year, perhaps even next year. For now, take seven points to Hufflepuff."
She nodded, utterly lost. She supposed she couldn't complain, if it earned her house points.
Now that her bag was weighed with Arithmancy homework, Lucy felt like her confused mind deserved a break, and so she took her lunch outside of the castle. She didn't venture far. She went to one of the exits and sat on the great, stone step, watching the dark clouds pass over the gray sky.
She spotted a dementor in the distance. She couldn't help but shiver; it was too far away for her to feel any of its effects, but the reminder was enough to send a chill up her spine. At times, it felt like Montauge's attack was millions of years ago— it was hard to believe that it happened only a few months ago. That everything happened only a few months ago.
From afar, the dementors looked sort of whimsical. She was too far away to see their rotting hands or hear their rattling breath. From here, they were kind of beautiful.
She stayed there on the steps, eating her sandwich and watching the dementors. After she finished eating, she entertained herself by conjuring small, blue butterflies that fluttered around each other. She was just about to send them after a Dementor when her wand stopped working completely. The butterflies froze and then disappeared.
Lucy scowled, shaking her wand gently. It'd been acting strange recently, either refusing to work or casting a completely different, entirely useless spell. She pointed her wand at her shoe and said, "Duro." Nothing happened. She turned her wand over, inspecting for any traces of damage. There wasn't so much as a scratch on it. "Duro," she said again, and still nothing. "What the hell," she complained.
She set her wand on the steps next to her. She could write to Ollivander if it kept working up. She remembered something the man said about her wand, that if she stopped working hard then it would refuse her. She hoped that wasn't happening... She was studying magic all summer in Diagon Alley. If her wand refused her, then who was she?
She kept watching the dementors, less enthusiastically than before. She didn't know how much time passed before an airy voice spoke up behind her.
"They're quite beautiful, aren't they?"
Lucy looked up to see Ginny's friend in Ravenclaw staring past her, gazing at the dementors. She grinned. "Hi, Luna. Want to join me?" she asked, patting the spot beside her.
Luna sat down. "Hello, Lucy," she greeted. She had a bag of walnuts in her hands, but she wasn't eating them. She'd crack them open and put the shells in a separate bag. She handed Lucy a walnut. Lucy cracked it open, too, and put the shell in the purple bag between them.
After a few minutes of this, Lucy spoke up. "You're really cool, Luna."
"I'm glad you think so," Luna said brightly.
"What are the walnuts for?"
"I'm using the shells to attract Moonflies," she explained, crinkling her nose as she struggled to open one. "They're rather selfish creatures; they'll only say hello if you offer them shells on the full moon. But I haven't got any seashells. I hope these will do."
Lucy believed her. Why wouldn't she? Luna was smart, and very nice. "What do they look like?" Lucy wondered.
"I've never seen them— they're quite sneaky— but if they like the shells, they'll leave a nice little gift in its place. My father got a toothpick last month." Luna described it in such a way that Lucy would have thought receiving a toothpick as a gift was a great honor— and she was ready to believe it was.
Lucy peeled the walnuts with more enthusiasm. "What do you reckon they'll leave this time?"
Lunchtime passed pleasantly with Luna Lovegood. She listened as Luna described all sorts of creatures. Most of them were invisible, and all of them were things that Lucy had never heard of, but she listened with rapt attention. The Blibbering Humdinger was attracted to laughter, particularly the kind at another person's expense. The Helliopath was responsible for a good amount of field fires, and Nargles tended to invade hanging mistletoes.
Nothing could have been more disappointing than the sound of the bell, signaling the end of lunch. Luna stood to her feet, brushing dust off her knees.
"You can keep the insides," she told Lucy, looking very pleased with her shells.
"Really? Thanks!" Lucy held the bag of walnuts like it was a chest of gold. She walked with Luna into the school and smiled at her. It was nice sometimes to be around a person who didn't take anything too seriously. "We'll have to do this again, Luna. I like you."
Luna seemed surprised at the notion, but she smiled widely. "I like you too, Lucy. Would you like to set out the shells with me on the next full moon?"
What was this, Christmas?! "Yes!" Lucy burst out. "I would love to!"
She was imagining their outing the entire way to Care of Magical Creatures. She met up with Ron, Hermione, and Harry on the way to Hagrid's hut; she spotted them approaching and stopped to let them catch up. Ron and Hermione walked with Harry between them. They refused to look at one another.
"Who died?" Lucy asked, looking between Ron and Hermione.
"Ron thinks I'm going to die and Hermione doesn't," Harry explained. Ron glared at him.
"Fun," she grinned. She went to Hermione's other side and nudged her friend gently. "Want to work on Arithmancy homework later? I'm sort of lost..."
At least she managed to brighten one of the two up. Ron sulked the entire way down to Hagrid's Hut as Hermione excitedly explained everything she understood from Arithmancy. Harry tried to goad Ron into a conversation about Quidditch, but he was less willing.
She groaned when she spotted Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle already down at Hagrid's hut. Of course they were taking Care of Magical Creatures. She supposed Malfoy was eager to hassle Hagrid on his first day as a teacher. She wasn't trying to get any detentions— she felt like she was on thin ice, after nearly bringing Voldemort to life last year— but she wasn't sure if she could get through this lesson without brawling with Malfoy.
Hagrid waited at the door of their hut. Lucy waved madly at him, and chuckling, he waved back at her. "All righ', Lucy?"
"Yes, now that I'm at the best class of the day!" she pointed at him with both hands and winked.
Hagrid scratched the back of his neck sheepishly but he had a wide grin on his face. "C'mon now, get a move on," he called as the rest of the class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"
Hagrid led them around the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Lucy hoped they'd venture inside, but after five moments they stopped in front of a paddock. "Everyone gather 'round the fence here," Hagrid called. "That's it— make sure yeh can see— now, firs' thing yeh'll want to do is open your books?"
The class shared uncertain looks. Malfoy rolled his eyes. "How?" he demanded.
"Eh?"
"How do we open our books?" he repeated. He took out his book. Like Lucy's, and many others, it was tied shut with a rope.
Hagrid registered all of their trapped books. "Hasn'— hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" he asked, crestfallen.
"I have!" Lucy said, jumping and raising her hand in the air. Malfoy glared over at her, while Hagrid looked relieved.
"Will yeh show everyone, then?"
At once, Lucy grabbed her tightly-bound monster book, threw it to the ground, and yelled, "STUPEFY!" The book stopped struggling. The ropes fell apart and it fell open limply.
Hagrid's smile faded. "That's... Not how yer supposed ter open them..."
"You have to stroke them," Wayne spoke up. He was the only one who had his book open at this point and he seemed bored at the entire conversation. Hagrid brightened up again, and he awarded Wayne ten points to Hufflepuff. Lucy would have given him a high-five if they were still friends.
"How, how silly we've all been," Malfoy sneered at Wayne, "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!"
"I— I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Lucy and Hermione.
"Oh, tremendously funny!" Malfoy scoffed. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"
"I'll be the one to rip your hands off if you keep it up, Malfoy," Lucy warned, taking a step toward him.
Hermione grabbed her arm tightly. "You can't cause a scene in his first lesson," she whispered. Lucy glared, but relented. But boy, would it feel good to slap the smug look off Draco Malfoy's face.
"Righ' then," Hagrid lost his enthusiasm. "So— so yeh've got yer books an'... an'... now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on..." He walked into the forest, leaving their sight.
"God, this place is going to the dogs," Malfoy scoffed to Blaise, who also looked unimpressed with their monster books. Lucy could agree that maybe giving them biting books without any information on how to control them was a bit irresponsible, but there was no excuse for trying to throw off Hagrid's lesson.
There was only one person allowed to heckle teachers in Lucy Rochester's presence, and that was herself.
"That oaf teaching classes," Malfoy continued, "My father'll have a fit when I tell him—"
"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry snapped.
Malfoy smirked. "Careful, Potter, there's a Dementor behind you—"
Before Lucy could jump on him for that one, Lavender Brown let out an excited squeal, pointing at the end of the paddock. Lucy followed her gaze, and she was genuinely impressed at the sight. Dozens of feathered horse-like creatures trotted toward them. They had the heads of eagles with sleek, speckled gray feathers and bright orange eyes. More impressive were their talons, which each were half a foot long. Hagrid had them on a chained leash.
"Get up there!" Hagrid ordered, herding the creatures toward them. He tied them to the fence and stepped back, looking more happy than before. "Hippogriffs! Beau'iful, aren' they?"
"So beautiful," Lucy agreed fervently. The only reason she wasn't getting closer was on the off chance she'd ruin Hagrid's lesson.
"So, if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer..."
Lucy stepped forward right away. Sighing, her friends followed her.
"Now, firs' things teh gotta know abou' Hippogriffs is, they're proud. Easily offended, Hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."
Lucy turned around and stared pointedly at Malfoy. He didn't seem to be listening at all. "Did you hear that, Malfoy?" she said, enunciating each word. "Don't insult the Hippogriffs. You will die. If you don't die, I will kill you."
"Mind yourself, will you?" Malfoy snapped.
"Out of everyone here, you're the only one who's enough of an idiot to do it," Lucy said, shrugging. She ignored his offended look and turned back to the Hippogriffs.
"Yeh always wait fer the Hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid continued. "It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, and yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt. Right— who wants ter go first?"
Lucy's hand shot into the air. Hagrid was pleased, but rightfully cautious when it came to Lucy. He chuckled, "Calm down a bit firs', Lucy, an' then we'll get yeh over here."
"I am calm!" she said, bouncing up and down. "I am very calm, Professor Hagrid!"
"I'll go," Harry said, realizing that perhaps an excitable Lucy should not be anywhere near razor sharp talons.
"Both of yeh can," Hagrid decided. "Harry, let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak. Lucy, here's Bluetail. Yeh first, Lucy."
He unchained the one Lucy was meant to approach, and she stepped into the paddock. Compared to Buckbeak, Bluetail was a good deal smaller and true to his name, his tail had a blue tint to it. Lucy stepped forward slowly. If she was mauled by such a beautiful creature, she wouldn't mind, but for the sake of Hagrid's lesson she'd try to prevent that.
Bluetail stared warily at Lucy. "Righ' now, bow deeply," Hagrid said, sounding nervous.
Lucy bowed as deeply and politely as she could muster. When she stood up, Bluetail clicked his beak and bowed just as, if not more deeply. She just had to get shown up by a Hippogriff. He leaned his head closer to hear and without thinking, she reached forward to pat him on the beak.
"There yeh go, Lucy!" Hagrid clapped his hands together. "Here, you can feed him." He went over to the fence and grabbed a bucket. He went back to Lucy and handed it to her. She pulled out a bloodied piece of steak and held it to Bluetail, who nibbled at it.
Enthused by her success, Hagrid turned to Harry. "Now, make eye contact with Buckbeak, Harry.. Tha's it... Tha's it, Harry... now, bow."
Harry gave a short bow, not nearly as deep as Lucy's had been. He looked up at the Hippogriff, but Buckbeap stared haughtily down at him, unmoving. Hagrid made a worried noise. "Right, back away, now, Harry... Easy does it—"
Suddenly, Buckbeak bent down and gave a deep bow. Hagrid stopped and beamed wider than before. "Well done, Harry! Right, give him a pat, go on!"
Harry wasn't as enthusiastic as Hagrid, but he reached forward and pat Buckbeak's nose several times. He closed his eyes, enjoying it. The entire class— except for Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle— burst into applause. Even Blaise looked interested now.
"Righ' then, Harry, I reckon he migh' let yeh ride him!"
"Do it," Lucy said immediately. "Harry, do it! It'll be so cool! If you don't do it then you're a Slytherin." She heard Theodore make an offended noise and she turned to grin at him. "No offense, Nott."
"An extreme amount taken, Rochester!"
"Wel, I can't be a Slytherin," Harry muttered, and carefully, he climbed onto Buckbeak's back. Without any warning, Buckbeak took off. He made a round around the paddock, and it wasn't very long, but Lucy was thoroughly impressed by the time Harry landed. As cool as it looked, she'd rather stay firmly planted on the ground.
"Good work, Harry!" Hagrid called as Harry stumbled off the Hippogriff. "Okay, who else wants a go?"
The rest of the class cautiously entered the paddock, as Harry and Lucy backed away to the fence. Lucy sat on the top of it. Harry followed suit and then tried to push her forward as a joke. Except he actually managed to catch her off balance, and she fell on her side into the dirt. She rolled onto her back and glared at him.
"What the fuck, Harry," she sighed.
"Should have held on tighter," Harry shrugged.
Scowling, she grabbed his ankle and tugged him off as well. He landed next to her and didn't bother getting back up. The pair of them sat against the fence as the rest of the class had their fun.
Lucy watched intently as Malfoy approached Buckbeak. She already knew he chose that one because Harry had ridden it, and he didn't want to be shown up. If anyone was going to mess up with the Hippogriffs it was going to be him and his idiot friends. She was relieved when Buckbeak bowed back to him.
"This is very easy," Malfoy drawled, patting Buckbeak's nose. "I knew it must have been, if Potter could do it... I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" He gave Buckbeak a firmer pat. "Are you, you great ugly brute?"
"For fuck's sake!" Lucy shouted. With a flash of gray, Malfoy was suddenly screaming, writhing on the grass as Buckbeak slashed him with one of his talons. Hagrid was busy wrestling Buckbeak away from him and Lucy marched forward, grabbing Malfoy's shoulders and tugging him to his feet. "What did I just tell you! Less than ten minutes ago! What did I tell you, Malfoy!?"
She pulled him further out of the way of Buckbeak, and he allowed her to do so, but he was still clutching his arm and panicking.
"I'm dying!" Malfoy screeched. He did have a concerning amount of blood pouring down his arm, but Lucy was finding it hard to muster any sympathy for him. "I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!"
"Yer not dying!" Hagrid said. His face had gone very white. "Lucy— get 'im to the hospital wing—"
She would rather have a go with Buckbeak, if she was being honest.
She bit back another insult at Malfoy and tugged him from the paddock. Buckbeak must have stepped on him, too, because he was limping. After a few moments of him not keeping up with her, she pulled a face and tugged his good arm around her shoulders. She glanced at him, daring him to protest. He wisely didn't.
"Bloody oaf, what does he think he's doing, showing those things to students..." Malfoy hissed as she marched him up the hill toward the castle.
"If you weren't bleeding right now, I'd curse you," Lucy snapped. "But my patience is wearing as it is, so do shut up."
She dragged him into the castle. She'd long since memorized the path to the hospital wing, but it didn't make it any less unpleasant to have to look at those plain, white walls again. Madam Pomfrey was quick to bustle over to them.
"What happened?" she said immediately. She guided Malfoy over to a hospital bed and had him sit in it as she pulled off his outer robe.
"Hagrid's class, he couldn't follow simple instructions," Lucy said, hardly containing her anger.
She specifically told Malfoy not to insult the Hippogriffs. There was no excuse for what happened other than his own idiocy, and now Hagrid's first class was ruined. Hagrid had been expelled for no reason and now when he was teaching the subject he was most passionate about, that was ruined, too. She couldn't stand Draco Malfoy. She was such an idiot for thinking she could be friends with him last year.
Madam Pomfrey fixed Malfoy's arm without any trouble. She bandaged it, but Malfoy still complained that it hurt. The matron frowned. "I suppose I could keep you overnight, if it hurts that much. I'll get you a potion, Mr. Malfoy."
The matron left to the storage room. Lucy immediately poked Malfoy in the arm. He hissed, tugging his arm away.
"Does it hurt?" she asked, poking it again.
"Yes!" he scowled.
"Cool." She turned to leave, but Madam Pomfrey returned and pointed a finger at her.
"Not so fast, Rochester. I've been meaning to give you an examination, too. I was going to send for you after dinner this week."
"Me? Why!" Lucy complained. "You saw me last night, I was—"
"About to keel over," Madam Pomfrey said firmly. She shoved a potion into Malfoy's free hand. She looked at Lucy and pointed to a few beds down. Begrudgingly, Lucy went over and sat there. "The Headmaster's asked me to check on you. You were in possession of very dark magic last year—"
"I would argue that very dark magic was in possession of me," Lucy interrupted.
Madam Pomfrey narrowed her eyes. "In any case, there's still the circumstances of your... Well, you know." Lucy's mind flashed to the other major injury that night, and she winced. "Left untreated as long as it was, there can be very severe aftereffects, even months after."
Malfoy shot a confused look their way, one that Lucy kindly ignored. The events surrounding Lucy, Montague, Flint, and Pucey were not well known around Hogwarts like the fight with the Basilisk had been, and she liked it that way.
She stayed quiet and pouted as Madam Pomfrey drew a vial of Lucy's blood. Then the woman handed her a tube of cream. "For your eye," the matron said after Lucy stared quizzically at it. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she warned, in case the girl was thinking of making a run for it. She went into her small lab to test the blood, leaving Lucy and Malfoy alone.
Sighing, Lucy squeezed some of the cream out and applied it to her eye.
"Who did that?" Malfoy said, trying to be nosy.
"None of your business."
"I'm only asking."
"Because you want to know. You don't really care." She laughed at Malfoy's sulking expression. "You don't give a rat's arse about what happens in muggle orphanages."
"And I suppose you care about what happens in pureblood manors?" Malfoy countered.
She tilted her head. "Fair point. Well, for your information, Malfoy, I got into a fight with four muggles. Are you satisfied? Do you feel better now?"
Malfoy's eyes narrowed. "Why are you being like this, Rochester?" he snapped. "You've been a toad all day long. Threatening my father, threatening me in that oaf's class— what the hell's your problem with me? We were alright last year."
"Yeah, well, things change."
"What changed?" he demanded.
Lucy looked away from him, glaring at the floor. She was just so angry with him. She had been ever since— well, ever since last night. That dementor had made her see terrible things. Relive terrible things. The same with Harry, and yet... Malfoy just laughed at them. He mocked them.
"It seems to me, Draco, that every time you see a weak point in me, you use it against me at some point," she said calmly. In first year, he'd used her orphan status against her. Second year, he used Hermione against her. Now he used the memory of something very terrible against her. "I wanted to be your friend. Really, I did... But you just say such awful things, all the time. It's like you can't help yourself. The minute anyone argues with you, you lose your mind."
"And you're perfect too, aren't you, Rochester?" Malfoy snapped, pink-faced. "The last time I checked, two Slytherins are dead and it isn't because of me."
"And do you think I wanted that?" she burst out, and when she turned to face him, she was humiliated to feel the hint of tears at the corners of her eyes. "Even after what they did to me— I didn't want, I didn't..." Angrily, she turned away from him. Her shoulders slumped. "I didn't want that." Tom didn't even ask me. He didn't even listen to me. He did all that...
Malfoy was quiet for a minute. She didn't dare turn to look at him. She focused on steadying her breathing because if she lost it in front of Malfoy, she might as well stay in her dormitory for the rest of the year.
"The Cruciatus, then?" he asked, a nervous note to his voice. "You said it burnt on the train. Was that...?"
Wordlessly, Lucy nodded.
Malfoy was quiet for another minute. And then, "I'm sorry."
Her head snapped over to him. She could hardly believe her ears. "What?"
He wasn't looking at her. "I'm sorry," he repeated stiffly, like each word pained him. "I shouldn't have said that. I won't say it again."
Lucy nodded. Another minute passed. And then, "I'm sorry," she muttered.
"What?" this time it was Malfoy's turn to look at her with surprise.
It took physical effort to repeat herself, but she did anyway. "I'm sorry for threatening you this morning," she said, refusing to look at him. She paused. "And this afternoon. And every time I've done it, really. I'm mad at your father, I shouldn't have taken it out on you."
It was Malfoy's turn to nod, but he had a hint of smugness on his face as he did it. She resisted the urge to take back her apology, and she ignored him until Madam Pomfrey came back. The matron looked between them with a curious expression. "You're all cleared, but I'd like you to return next month," Madam Pomfrey told her.
Lucy nodded and stood to her feet. She met Malfoy's gaze. "I know you don't like Hagrid and hate Harry and all that— but please don't get Hagrid into trouble," she begged. Malfoy opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off. "I'm not saying you can't play up your injury! I know you! But just don't run to your father with this, please. Let Hagrid have this one thing. It'd make you the nicest Slytherin in the school."
Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Merlin, fine, if it's that big of a deal, I won't tell my father. But you'd better hope he doesn't find out on his own— he's friends with Professor Snape, you know."
Well, then there was no way Lucius Malfoy wouldn't find out. Lucy cursed loudly.
"That's it! Out of here!" Madam Pomfrey ushered her toward the exit. "Honestly, the language on you... I'll be writing Ms. Alpin about this!"
"Where do you think I learned it?" Lucy demanded.
Madam Pomfrey closed the door in her face.
Lucy found Ron, Harry, and Hermione all huddled glumly together at dinnertime. None of them were eating, and their moods only seemed to worsen when Lucy approached them.
"Well, don't look so excited to see me," she said sarcastically. She dropped into the spot beside Ron. "Malfoy's fine, by the way."
"Pity," Harry muttered.
"And he promised he wouldn't tell his father," Lucy continued, casually reaching for a tangerine. Harry's head snapped up. He gaped at her.
"How the heck did you blackmail him that quickly?" he demanded.
She shot him an offended look. "I did not blackmail him! I just asked nicely."
"After you threatened him all day?" Hermione clearly didn't believe her either. "You've been at each others' throats since yesterday."
"Well, we've got it all sorted out. He gave his word he wasn't going to tell his father."
"We should tell Hagrid the good news!" Ron exclaimed. In the blink of an eye, the three of them were all smiles again. He looked toward the teachers' table and let out a groan. "He's not there— d'you think he's shut himself in his hut again?"
"Most definitely," Lucy nodded. She was frowning, too. Hagrid had a bad habit of locking himself in his house whenever something bad was happening. She did the same sometimes, but it never ended well. "Shall we head down after dinner?"
"I don't know," Hermione said slowly. She glanced at the ceiling of the Great Hall, which was fastly approaching dusk, and then back to Harry. Lucy suddenly remembered that Sirius Black was meant to be after Harry.
"Harry killed a Basilisk, he'll be fine," Lucy dismissed.
"And I'm allowed to walk across the grounds," Harry added, before Hermione could dispute that argument. "Sirius Black hasn't gotten past the Dementors yet, has he?"
"And Harry did, in fact, kill a Basilisk, in case you forgot," Lucy finished.
Just like that, it was settled. After dinner, they gathered their things and headed straight to Hagrid's hut.
Lucy wasn't surprised to see him sitting at his table in his undershirt, drinking from a tankard as big as a bucket. He'd been drinking a lot already. She wrinkled her nose at the scent; it reminded her of Mrs Cole's office.
"'Spect it's a record," he said thickly. "Don' reckon they've ever had a teacher who lasted on'y a day before."
"You haven't been fired, Hagrid!" Hermione gasped.
"Not yet," Hagrid said miserably. "But's only a matter o' time, i'n't, after Malfoy... Went an' saw him a few minutes ago, an' he's sayin' it's still agony... covered in bandages, moanin'..."
Lucy snorted. Clearly, Malfoy was taking advantage of her blessing to let him play up his injury. "He's fine, Hagrid, I saw him right after it happened," she reminded him. "He's only milking it to seem cool."
"Whining like a ghoul doesn't seem very cool, if you ask me," Ron muttered. She'd have to agree with him.
"School gov'nors have bin told, o' course," Hagrid went on miserably. "They reckon I started too big. Shoulda left Hippogriffs fer later... one flobberworms or summat... jus' thought it'd make a good firs' lesson's... all my fault..."
"It's all Malfoy's fault!" Hermione insisted.
"We're witnesses," Harry added. "You said Hippogriffs attack if you insult them. Lucy repeated that to Malfoy, loudly. It's Malfoy's problem he wasn't listening. We'll tell Dumbledore what really happened."
"Yeah, don't worry, Hagrid, we'll back you up," Ron said firmly. "And Lucy has some news too."
Hagrid looked toward her. Lucy grinned. "Malfoy promised he wasn't going to tell his father. I expect Lucius will hear from Professor Snape or one of the governors, but maybe he won't be as much of a prick about it, since his son didn't complain to him..."
Tears worked their way out of the corners of Hagrid's eyes, and in one sudden movement, he grabbed Harry, Lucy, and Ron and pulled them into a bear hug. Laughing, Lucy wrenched one of her arms free to hug him back.
"I think you've had enough to drink, Hagrid." Hermione picked the tankard up from the table and went outside to empty it.
"Maybe she's right," Hagrid said, releasing the three of them. Lucy lunged at him to give him another hug. What? Hagrid's hugs were awesome. He chuckled, patting her back with one of his huge hand. "One moment, Lucy, if yeh don't mind..." He stood and followed Hermione outside. A second later, there was a loud splash.
"What's he done?" Harry asked as Hermione entered again.
"Stuck his head in the water barrel," Hermione sighed. She set the tankard in its proper place.
Hagrid came back, wrenching the water out of his beard. He wiped at his eyes. "That's better," he muttered, shaking his head. Water sprayed out of his hair, soaking all of them. In turn, Lucy shook her head and sent more water flying at Harry, who shoved her. "Listen, it was good of yeh ter come an' see me, I really—" he stopped suddenly, staring at Harry as if he'd seen a ghost.
"WHAT D'YEH THINK YOU'RE DOIN', EH?" he roared so loudly that Lucy yelped and almost fell over. "YEH'RE NOT TO GO WANDERIN' AROUND AFTER DARK, HARRY! AN, YOU TWO! LETTIN' HIM!"
"Two?" Lucy demanded.
"There's no use in pretending you're anyone's impulse control, Luce," Ron muttered.
Hagrid grabbed Harry's arm and marched him out the door. "C'mon!" he said angrily. "I'm takin' yer all back up ter school an' don' let me catch yeh walkin' down ter see me after dark again. I'm not worth that!"
"Yes you are!" Lucy yelled back at him, just as loudly.
He gave her a shocked look.
She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I just care about you, Hagrid."
"I care about yeh lot too, but don' risk your lives!" Hagrid snapped.
Hagrid escorted them all the way to the staircases. After one last lecture, he left them. Lucy bid her friends a goodnight and then made her way back to the Hufflepuff common room. It was approaching curfew, but she wasn't tired in the slightest.
Walking through the corridors without worrying about whether or not someone was waiting to kill her was more invigorating than Lucy thought it was going to be. She was really jazzed, honestly, at the newfound freedom, and she didn't want to go to bed yet.
"A little exploring never hurt anyone, did it?" she mused, stepping onto one of the staircases. She started exploring one of the many corridors she would wander through that night, and even as her eyelids would begin to droop, she couldn't help but smile.
At Hogwarts, she decided, the air didn't feel so heavy.