Platform 9 and 3\4 bustled with countless Hogwarts students getting ready to return to the castle. Parents were seen fussing over their children, some hugging and kissing their children goodbye. Some Hogwarts students stood alone, carrying or levitating their luggage to the train. And in a certain train compartment sat three distinct Hogwarts students.
Harry shook his leg nervously, trying to look out for the faces of the Moon family. The palpable nervous atmosphere was also felt by Hermione and Ron, who were anxious to finally meet Harry's girlfriend.
And not too long, Harry saw the faces of Gordon, Lilian, and Lilith appearing out of the transparent wall. He watched as she gave her parents a wide and sweeping hug, her smile shining like a beacon. Gordon said something to Lilith, inaudible to Harry, but by the sudden cuff on his head delivered by Lilian, it might have been something ridiculous; Lilith smiled at her parents amusing behaviour and she let her dad levitate her luggage to the steps of the train. She disappeared from view as she entered the train and Harry decided to give his best friends a heads up.
"Looks like Lilith is coming, you two. I just saw her getting on the train."
They both adopted a steely look, as if they were going to go to war. This action both gladdened and amused him, for caring so much and for acting so silly about it.
It wasn't long before the door slid open to reveal the aforementioned girl, pulling a trunk along with a caged owl, "Hello Harry! And Ron and Hermione."
Harry got up and helped Lilith with lugging her luggage into the space above their compartment. Afterwards they sat together, right across from Ron and Hermione.
"So, how was your guys' Christmas break?"
Harry took the initiative and answered, "It was fine. Nothing really too fancy but we enjoyed the time we had together. We also went to St. Mungos, to visit Ron's dad."
"Oh yeah, I heard about your father. Hope he recovers well and fast." Ron gave a small nod and a thankful smile at Lilith's statement.
Just then, they suddenly braced themselves as the train lurched forward, signalling the start of their journey to Hogwarts. They took a few seconds to look out the window and see the vast landscape of forest passing by.
"How did you do with the rune assignment, Lilith?" Harry and Ron gave a look to each other. Leave it to Hermione to start with homework to break the ice.
"Oh, you mean using the new runes we learned on an object, yeah? I've got mine in my trunk; a fan that spins with magic instead of electricity. Hopefully the novelty of it scores me some bonus points." Hermione's face took on an intriguing light as she listened to Lilith's process of carving the runes on the electrical appliance without busting the fan into an unusable state. Harry and Ron tried to follow their conversation but quickly lost themselves in the jargon of rune schemes.
The door of their compartment then slid open, a loud thud! gaining the attention of the four Hogwarts students. The smug face of one Draco Malfoy and the absent-minded glares from his goons, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
The Malfoy scion took on a glare of arrogance as his eyes sweeped the inhabitants of the compartment, "Looks like the riff raffs are still bunching up together. Ah, and it looks like you've got a new addition to your little group, scarhead. Contrary to what you might think, two half-bloods don't make a pureblood."
Harry's ire started to rise at Draco's derogatory comment towards his girlfriend. He spared a glance at her and he saw Lilith only donning an aloof expression, a cold glint in her eyes that made him almost sorry for Draco at what he expected was gonna happen… Almost.
The raven haired girl stood up softly, made her way to stand in front of Draco - who was sweating a bit from the unadulterated air of rage he could feel from the girl - and she looked him dead in the eye…
As she kneed him in the groin.
Quicker than anyone would expect, she took her wand out and held the poor blonde's hair in a fist, aiming her wand at his tearstained face.
"Listen to me, and listen to me very well. The next time you try this stunt to any of us, you will be kissing the ground more times than you run your mouth. Now, since it's the first time we've had this conversation, I'll give you some mercy; leave and stay away from us. Oh, and you might want to ask your father why crossing the Moons is a bad, bad idea."
Lilith did not wait for a response and shoved the ferret towards his lackeys and closed the door, charming it to lock up tight. She then brushed her hands off and faced the Golden Trio with a big smile on her face.
"So, where were we?"
The nonplussed looks of Ron and Hermione did not subside throughout the rest of the ride, meanwhile, Harry was just smiling a big, toothy smile.
They arrived at Hogwarts grounds without any more interruption from anybody else, and they four took a cart all by themselves to the entrance of the castle. As they arrived and exited the cart, Lilith took a hold of Harry's sleeve and whispered in his ear, "Same room as usual tonight."
Harry gave a small nod and winked at her as he made his way back to his friends, who were waiting for him near the gate. The returning atmosphere of the castle gave him a bit of joy, which was overshadowed with the feeling of absolute dread, due to the fact that he not only had to deal with Umbridge, but also with Snape training him for occlumency.
He made a detour from the Gryffindor Common Room, giving a little wave at both Ron and Hermione, as he made his way to the usual classroom that he and Lilith would spend most nights together. He opened the door and gave a smile at Lilith, who sat atop one of the desks.
"Hello there handsome, come around here often?" Lilith's little quip made Harry snort with laughter and he wasted no time in decreasing the space between him and Lilith.
"Not really, but if you are then maybe I will too." He gave her a small peck on the cheek and she gave a blush and a lopsided smile. Lilith then proceeded to fish out her reduced briefcase out of her pocket and returned it to its original size.
Seeing this, Harry brought two chairs to their desks and sat down on one of them, "So, what's on today's agenda?"
Lilith gave a contemplative hum as she looked down on a piece of paper, "Hmm, well we already got evidence of her obtaining the blood quills illegally and using it on minors, plus her disposition gains her no sympathy from anybody, probably not even her allies, if she even has any. Which means it'll be easier to strike her down when we finally bring down the hammer of justice on her toad face!"
The piece of paper slipped away from her grasp and returned to its spot in her briefcase, "For now, we just need to keep watch on her activities and see if she's done anything else we can nail her down for. As well as keeping track of who she gets for detention and how many are suffering from her insidious actions."
Harry gave a nod, "So, just the usual recon then?"
A chirpy grin made its way to Lilith's face, "That's right! The schedule I made should still be usable."
Harry grimaced at the reminder of Snape's lessons, which he should probably let Lilith know.
"Err… actually, we might need to change the timetable a bit. I have remedial lessons with Snape."
A tilt of a head and a confused frown was on Lilith's face at his statement, "Wait, you've got remedial lessons? With Snape?"
It was no secret that Snape had it out for Harry, especially to those close to him, so he expected this reaction, "Well, I say remedial lessons, but its really to teach me occulumency."
"Occlumency." Lilith corrected him absentmindedly, "And wait, Snape is teaching you occlumency? How'd that happen?"
Harry then relayed the information Snape had revealed to him back at Grimmauld Place, by the end of it, Lilith had adopted a small frown.
"Well if Dumbledore gave his confidence, it should be fine, but you should know that teaching occlumency means he'll be in your head, meaning he'll see your memories. So having someone who you trust explicitly teaching you is a better way to learn occlumency."
Harry glowered a bit, "Well that only includes you, Hermione, and Ron. So I don't really have a choice in the matter."
Lilith gave a cough, which got Harry's attention, and she donned a proud smile, "Well actually, I can teach you."
"Wait, you know occlumency?" Lilith gave a thumbs up and a coy wink at Harry.
"Well duh! Have to keep this noggin' safe from prying eyes. Dad taught me before I started to learn the ropes. Though it will be a new experience for both of us since I haven't taught anyone occlumency yet, but I'm sure we'll manage."
Elated and relieved that he could finally escape the hands of Snape, Harry couldn't help but give her a hug full of gratitude, "Thank God. I'd rather not be with Snape more than necessary."
Lilith patted him in the back, "Yeah well, you'll still have to find a way to deter him from teaching you."
Harry's elation deflated at that reminder.
Lilith continued speaking, "You're going to need to either make him unable to teach you or give him a reason why he can't teach you."
"That isn't going to be easy. I mean, Dumbledore's the whole reason why Snape even is trying to help me. It's probably gonna be difficult to make him hate me so much that he'd disobey the headmaster's orders." Harry said, sulking at the unfairness of it all.
An apologetic shrug was the only thing Lilith could offer, "Maybe you'll find a way, he always seems one rise of a blood pressure away from a heart attack everytime he speaks to you."
'Yeah, like it'd be that simple' Harry mentally said sarcastically.
'Huh, so it was that simple."
The Boy-who-lived walked along the corridor, treading his way back to the Gryffindor Common Room.
Earlier, Harry had come to Snape's office at the time he had said to arrive. Nerves had told him to expect the worst, especially if it had to do anything with Snape, and with the onslaught that Snape called "Occlumency lessons," also known as shouting "Clear your head!" at him repeatedly and using legilimens and bashing his head in, it was a correct assumption to have had.
Thankfully, Malfoy had walked in, probably wanting to rant about Lilith's show of bringing a peg down or two, and as Snape had exited to possibly placate the young pureblood, he saw the pensieve in Snape's office. That was when he had the idea to anger Snape enough for him to kick him out and never want to deal with him ever again.
One memory viewing show later, he was thoroughly kicked out of the potioneer's office.
Although, seeing his father act like a bully had been sobering. Sirius had always told stories of the numerous pranks he and the Marauders had done, but it was always from their viewpoint. After being the victim of Dudley's idea of "pranks," he was repelled by anything that would bring harm to anyone for the humour of others. At times, he had agreed with Hermione's opinions of some the Weasley Twin's pranks, some being indecent and crude.
Shaking his head, Harry rid the thoughts plaguing his mind and placed them for later contemplation. For now, he'll have to tell Lilith the good news tomorrow.
As he entered the Gryffindor Common Room, he spotted Neville writing alone on one of the desks. Remembering his promise to himself at St. Mungos, he made his way and sat down right across from him. This surprised the shy boy.
"Err… Hello, Harry?" Neville said, his tone of rising at the end out of anxiety. Harry just gave him a smile and took out a piece of parchment, an inkpot, and a quill.
"Hello, Neville. Just wanted to keep you company. I'm planning some stuff for us to do in the D.A. so don't mind me." With that said, Harry started to jot down some thoughts and ideas he had for the upcoming D.A. meeting, Neville took a bit to return to his homework, but nevertheless continued. The space was filled with nothing but the sounds of scratching of quills and the cackling of fire.
Some time passed before the two boys finally put away their stuff and made their way up to their room and as they entered the silent dorm room, Neville decided to speak up.
"Harry…" The aforementioned boy waited for Neville to continue, as he seemed to have struggled to come up with the words he wanted to relay to him, but after a deep breath Neville said, "Thank you."
Harry smiled, "No problem."
And despite the short exchange of words, Harry knew that their bond had deepened. And hopefully, he showed Neville that he had friends to keep him afloat.
In a remote location, a man shadowed in darkness sat alone, a glass of wine in his hand. The man moved to take a sip, when another, stockier man approached him from behind.
"Boss, a letter."
"Leave it."
The man left the letter on the table beside where his boss sat.
The lone man waited, and as the door gave an audible click! he reached for the letter and opened a nearby lamp. He took the paper knife beside the letter and ripped the seal cleanly; he then unfolded it and silently read its contents.
"Interesting…"
A/N: Yes, I am still alive! Leave a review, the scent attracts the endangered author species!