Lucretia was eating the spaghetti on her plate; the long, wavy, red haired girl was sitting on her right. On her left, there was Riddle who did an unexpected change with Malfoy, who was now sitting in front of Riddle.
Lucretia frowned as she saw Martha Chastain was eyeing up someone. She followed Martha's blue eyes and found out that it was Abraxas Malfoy. She frowned as she turned to Martha "Do you like Malfoy?" she asked but Martha put her hand on Lucretia's mouth.
"Hush up, you can't ask things like that out loud!" she hissed it out and pulled her hand back.
"So you do?" Lucretia asked, lower this time. Martha nodded "He's ugly."
"No one asked your opinion, Miss Pessimistic." Martha muttered "And I don't think you'll ever like someone."
"I don't think I will, either." Lucretia said "Liking someone sounds so boring."
"You're odd."
"Thanks."
"But don't tell this to anyone." Martha said.
Lucretia shrugged "What do I earn by telling this? Nothing. So I won't. It'll be a waste of time, probably."
Martha eyed her for a while "You act colder this year."
"I'm always cold." Lucretia responded "Have you ever seen me being friendly?"
"No," Martha answered her "But this year, you're extra cold."
Lucretia shrugged again and finished the spaghetti "Strange. Actually I'm happy, you know? I have had the best summer I have ever had."
Martha raised an eyebrow "Is it something about your family?" she asked.
"Maybe it is, maybe not." Lucretia said, then stopped "Wait, I don't think it will make any difference if I tell you this."
"Tell me what?"
"I've run away from home."
"You did what?!" Martha said, loudly.
"You have no right to judge me, red-head." Lucretia said "Stay with my parents for a week and you'll become a psychopath. My dad shouts in Japanese and my mom shouts in English all the time. You have no idea what I've been through."
"Okay, calm down." Martha said, she realised that she had touched a sore point "To be honest, your mother and father seem so lovely."
Lucretia 'hmph'ed "Things are not what they seem."
Professor Maki, Defence against the Dark Arts professor, entered the classroom and told them what they would learn that year. And he told that there would be a duelling competition, too. But he didn't give the details and started the lesson. They started with non-verbal spells. It was easy, at least for Lucretia. And she was sure that it was easy for Riddle, too.
The whole lesson, they tried to cast the shield charm non-verbal. Only Lucretia, Riddle and a Ravenclaw managed to do it. And they both got ten points.
Lucretia's last two classes were both Transfiguration. They were working in front of mirrors, they were supposed to be changing the colour of their own eyebrows. It was hard, though, even Riddle couldn't do that in their first lesson. But by the end of the second one, both Lucretia and Riddle had done it. Lucretia had purple eyebrows whereas Riddle had red.
Professor Dumbledore gave them ten points, and then wanted them to change their eyebrows colours back to normal. That time, they both did it more easily than their first tries. And that was how the first day of their sixth year passed. After the dinner, Lucretia was sitting on her place, reading a book by the fireplace. But she really wished that the first years wouldn't make that much noise.
After half past ten, the common room became empty and Lucretia was able to read her book properly. But she was muttering a song while she was reading.
Sono yume wa kokoro no ibasho
Inochi yori koware yasuki mono
Nando demo sutete wa mitsuke
Yasuraka ni saa nemure
"Speaking Japanese, aren't we?"
She leaped up as she heard him "Just… don't sneak up on me, okay?" she muttered "Besides, aren't you supposed to leave me alone?"
"Why do you love being alone that much?" Riddle asked her.
"Gee, I wonder why." Lucretia said, sarcastically "You're a fine one to talk."
He grinned.
"Anyway, I want to read my book."
"Is that a polite way to say go away?" he asked. Lucretia nodded, shooting him a fake smile. Riddle rolled his eyes. He had no idea why he was showing that much tolerance to her.
She read until it was twelve. She yawned before she stood up, then she went to the dormitories. Again, everyone was asleep. She quickly wore her kimono and fell into a dreamless sleep.
Her first hour was Transfiguration, second and third were Charms. She had a free hour before lunch and she was heading to the library. But she stopped when she heard some kind of voice. It was like, someone was hissing something, saying some Latin words that she did not understand. She shook herself and quickened her steps. Five minutes later, she was inside the library. She took out a book from her bag and as always, she started to read it. A few moments, a boy from Ravenclaw sat next to her.
"Hi," he said as he smiled to her. He had dark hair with blue eyes, she didn't know his name.
"Hi," Lucretia said, her voice colder than his.
"Um… I just wanted to… meet you, you know. I'm Nathaniel Chang."
"Lucretia Himura."
His face dropped when he saw that she was acting so coldly towards him "Yeah, um… Nice to meet you."
"Uh-huh." she muttered as they shook hands and Chang left. She heaved a sigh and continued to read her book. When the bell rang, she went to the Great Hall for lunch. Martha was waiting for her. They are their lunch silently but Martha, unfortunately, broke it "Why is Nathaniel looking at you?"
"Is he?" she asked as she yawned "I don't know. He came and said that he wanted to meet me in the library. I've just learned his name."
Martha facepalmed herself "Lucretia, you are crazy." she said "The most handsome boy in our year comes and talks to you and you say that you've just learned his name?"
"Yeah."
"For Merlin's sake, there are many, many girls that wants to be in your place! He talked to you!"
Lucretia pointed her face "Do I look like I care?" she asked "He can go and talk to the others, doesn't matter for me. I just want no one to mess with me."
Martha muttered something as Lucretia's family owl came flying. She frowned "Did someone die?"
"Why would someone die?" Martha asked.
"My parents did send me a latter." she said as she took the envelope, opened it and took out the parchment "Sorry, my dad did send me a latter." she corrected herself because it was written with kanji.
Lucretia Katsumi Himura,
So you have totally forgot us? You haven't sent a letter since July. But that was not what I wanted to say.
If you hate us that much, and don't want to see us again, then don't come home. Never. You're no longer welcomed there. We don't want you home not in Christmas, Eastern or whatever.
I hope that makes you learn my and your mother's importance to you, in a hard way.
Bolin Himura
She just… couldn't believe her eyes. She never thought they would go that far. Martha frowned when she saw her slanting, brown eyes were wide "What does it say?"
"No… Nothing." Lucretia said as she puckered the parchment up and put it in her pocket.
"Aren't you gonna answer it?"
"No."
Martha frowned at her for a few more seconds, then turned to her plate.
In Divination, they were writing, or in Lucretia's case making up, dreams again. When they have written four dreams, Professor Brooks said it was enough for that lesson. So Lucretia took out and empty parchment and started to write how much she hated her family, put her emotions into words, of course she was writing with kanji. But this time, that didn't work. She wanted to punch something. Or to curse someone. She clenched her fist as Riddle looked at her with questioning eyes.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked.
"None of your business, Riddle." she snapped at him as she pointed her wand to the parchment and burned it. She spent the rest of the class her head on the table. When the bell rang, she was the first one to go out. She met with Martha on her way to the dungeons. Their last two classes were both Potions, without no brake between them.
When they entered the class, Martha made a sweet sound and sniffed the air. They sat and waited for the other students and Professor Slughorn to come. But everyone who entered the class was sniffing the air as Martha did. Lucretia frowned. Is something wrong with my nose?
But soon, she noticed that she was not the only one who was not sniffing the air like a psychopath. Riddle was the one. He was just sitting there, his eyes as cold as ice. It was like, he knew why he couldn't or didn't smell the thing that everyone seemed to smell. A few minutes later, Slughorn came and smiled when he saw most of the class was sniffing the air.
"Good afternoon." he said "I suppose you all know what we are going to prepare today."
Riddle's hand flew into the air "Is it Amortentia, sir?"
Lucretia's eyes widened when she heard that. Merlin…
"Definitely." Slughorn said "But I must warn you, I want none of you to take this potion out of this class. We don't want any love accidents, don't we?" he said as he laughed "Okay, the ingredients are prepared with your cauldrons."
Lucretia swiftly took out her Advanced Potions-Making and found Amortentia. It took her forty-five minutes to finish. She raised her hand and Slughorn came to her "I think I've done it, sir."
Slughorn looked at the potion carefully "I think so, Miss Himura." he said and looked at her, a smile on his seal-like face "Ten points to Slytherin."
She shot him a fake smile "Sir, now that I've finished the potion, may I leave early?"
He nodded. She thanked him and put her belongings in her bag and turned to Martha "See you in the common room."
She nodded as she carefully added some ingredients to her potion. Lucretia headed to the door but before she got out, a boom was heard. She heard Slughorn heaving a sigh "Mr Finnigan, what did you blow up this time?" Lucretia rolled her eyes and got out. Michael Finnigan was famous for blowing things up since his first year.
When she entered an empty dungeon, she threw the letter her father sent to the floor and blew it up. She was crying. She sobbed and fell to the ground. First the damn letter, then the Amortentia… That was too much, even for her.
She has never tried to smell Amortentia but she honestly didn't thought that she would not smell anything. She sobbed as she buried her head to her knees.
Her mother and father, they were under the effect of Amortentia the night her mother fell pregnant.
She always found it selfish, the thing they have done.
It was their last day at Hogwarts and they were playing truth or dare in Slytherin Common Room. And both her mother and father were asked to drink Amortentia from their hands. So her mother drank from her father's and her father drank form her mother's hands. Their friends wanted them to do it because they thought it would be fun since her mother and father hated each other.
But, they did drink too much Amortentia that its effect lasted till next morning. And at night, thinking that they were in love with each other, they had sex. And unfortunately, her mother fell pregnant.
When they mentioned that to their families, they were both very angry with their children. They were both very noble families. Blacks and Himuras… In Japan, Himuras were like Blacks. And they knew that the baby would be a disgrace to both families. So, even if none of them wanted that, Alexia Black and Bolin Himura got married.
That was why Lucretia was that cold.
Maybe if she had seen her parents loving each other, she might knew what love was but only thing she saw was them, quarrelling all the time. And she knew that both her mother and father were cheating each other. Last summer, she decided that she couldn't stand them anymore so she ran away, taking her part from the will and buying a small house in Little Hangleton.
But she never thought that they would simply tell her not to come back again. Even if she hated them, that hurt her.
She sobbed again. I didn't wanted to be an emotionless bitch. No one asked me.
Damn, I even don't have a real friend. I have never found someone attractive… I'm incapable of feeling nice things.
She didn't noticed that her sobs were so loud that Tom Riddle heard them on his was to common room and stopped to look what was going on. But the only thing he found was a girl, sitting on the floor, her head buried to her knees. She sobbed again. His eyes widened when he realised that it was Lucretia.
He kneeled next to her "What do you think you are doing, crying like a baby in the middle of a dungeon?" he asked, his voice cold. But he didn't get the reaction he was waiting for. Instead of snapping at him, she sobbed again. Riddle frowned but he really wasn't expecting her to hug him. He stood there, frozen "What's wrong with you?"
"I… I smell nothing from Amortentia." Lucretia said quietly. Riddle's eyes widened.
"You know what that means, don't you?" he said. She nodded.
"It's not something I found out knew, you know, my mom falling pregnant while she was under the effect of Amortentia." she said "I know it since I was eleven or something. But after the letter they sent, this was too much."
"What letter?"
"I blew it up. But if I didn't, you wouldn't understand it either. It was Japanese." she said and sobbed "They simply told me not to come back home again."
Riddle kept silent, not knowing what to say.
"So this means that I am not able to love someone, like never?" she asked. He nodded "Good. I hate love, you know?" she muttered "Love… What a disgusting and miserable word…"
Riddle's eyes widened, once again. She's like me.