Lucia glared hopelessly across the room as Professor Slughorn swooned over Draco's "exceptional potion making skills." Draco held a smug smirk and looked at his fingernails in a bored manner before turning away and putting his potion sample in a tube with a flourish.
She was sickened by his egotistical tactics. Her own potion, which was a puke-ish green, reeked of old socks and quidditch gear.
"Miss. Sometimes, I see you have once again created an interesting, and most likely deadly, concoction. Would you please empty it before another incident like last year occurs?" Slughorn told her, referring to the explosion that shook nearly half of Hogwarts in her sixth year.
"Yes sir." She replied bitterly, casting a cleaning spell over the cauldron and muttering something along the lines of "damn measurements, can never seem to get them right," under her breath.
She spent the rest of the class writing a two foot paper on what exactly went wrong in her potion and why she was so consistently worthless in the class. She had gotten a little over eight inches when the class was dismissed.
After packing up her bag, Lucia stepped towards the door only to be intercepted by none other than Draco Malfoy.
"You're worthless at Potions." He told her, pulling at her singed sleeve.
She yanked the sleeve away from him, sticking her nose up so high it probably interrupted broom traffic. "I am, by no standards, worthless, simply uneducated and slightly challenged." She stepped past him and put her hand on the knob of the door.
"Whoever heard of a Ravenclaw failing a class?"
Her hand twitched, her eyes narrowed. She spun around, pushing herself forward with alarming speed until her chest was barely a centimeter away from his. "I have never, nor will I ever, fail a class. You'd best remember that."
"Touchy aren't we?" He commented, placing two fingers on her forehead and pushing her backwards. "Can't say as I blame you."
She scoffed, letting her arm that was not holding her bag, cross her chest. "I'm taking tutoring courses from my friend Berni."
"No wonder you aren't making any progress, that girl never does her work." He laughed.
"You know very little about her then. See to it that in the future you research your predisposed positions, alright?" She snapped before finally leaving the classroom.
Through the open door she heard him call "If you ever want to pass Potions, you might as well let me tutor you. I'm free when you are."
She stood still and cringed, letting her eyes close and her hand clench around the hem of her skirt. She silently repeated in her head 'Do not concede, do not give in,' before continuing down the now very empty hall.
Determined to not let her mind wander to Draco and his ever-tempting offer she instead began a rant inside her head about the importance of passing all of her classes.
Her study sessions with Bernice were, of course, fruitless. Instead of discussing the properties of a Swelling Solution they were far more keen on discussing the flaws with humanity, more specifically; teenage girls.
"I hate how little confidence our generation has. They all sit at their mirrors, preening away as if a guy really truly matters that much." Bernice exclaimed, snapping the textbook shut with a resounding "whap."
They were both seated on Lucia's bed. Lucia was sitting cross-legged with the book still open in her lap while Bernice was sprawled across it with her legs unceremoniously hanging off the edge.
"What bothers me more is the contrived 'I'm so ugly, tell me that I'm not ugly even though I am,' attitude that girls take on." Lucia said, imitating a child. "It's so overindulgent. If they really want true, meaningful compliments they have to be a true meaningful person."
"Sort of like my dislike of work; I only avoid it so I am not just another genius. I'm a slacker genius!" Bernice commented, throwing her hands in the air.
"I'm not really like that at all, in any situation." Lucia muttered, averting her eyes towards her toenails.
"That's bull shit." Bernice laughed, kicking her lightly.
"I don't feel like talking about it." Lucia muttered.
"Then don't, it's better for all of us."
Lucia's head snapped up with alarming speed as she looked at Bernice with an intense breed of glare.
"I only meant-" Bernice started
"I know what you meant and I feel slightly alienated right now." Lucia muttered, feeling it was better to tell her the truth than to beat around the bush.
"Touchy aren't we." Bernice commented, reminding Lucia of her altercation with Draco earlier that day.
"Yes. Very. Now if you don't mind I'm going to take a stroll around the grounds." Lucia uncrossed her legs and walked out of the room, carefully shutting the door behind her.
It wasn't often that a Ravenclaw broke a rule, in fact most of them were so anal retentive they would never dream of doing such a preposterous thing. Lucia Sometimes, on the other hand, often found herself sneaking out of the dormitory past dark and stumbling across the halls to the kitchens.
On this very night she found herself not only stumbling, but tripping down the stairs. She thought that perhaps she hadn't made very much noise until she heard footsteps approaching. In her mind, the only logical thing to do was book it down the stairs and get as far away from those footsteps as possible.
She barely paid any attention to where she was going, and when she found herself in the cold, musty dungeons she could only let out a relieved sigh that misted in front of her.
Her eyes were unaccustomed to the dark, and when she saw the blaze of a cigarette only yards away from her, she couldn't help but gravitate towards its source.
Draco Malfoy stood there, in the corner with a fag between his lips. He open is mouth and let the smoke out below his tongue before tapping off the ash.
"Funny, I always thought of you as a cigar guy." Lucia commented, approaching the light like a moth.
"I always thought of you as a good girl." He threw back, holding out the cigarette like an offering.
"You'd be surprised." Lucia took the cigarette and placed it between her lips, letting her eyes close before taking a long drag. "Fuck, I haven't tasted smoke in a long time." She let the smoke slither out of her lips in thin wisps as she handed the fag back to Draco.
"I bummed it off Goyle, figured I might as well after a day like today."
"Day like what?"
"I don't know, it just seemed hard even though it wasn't."
"And a cigarette helps?"
"And a cigarette helps."
"I can't blame you at all. Last year was a hard year, I wanted to light up all the time. You know?" Lucia confided, rubbing her chilled arms.
"You don't know hard." He sent Lucia a sharp look before inhaling deeply and leaning against the wall.
"So… do you do this often?"
"This meaning?"
"Stay up late, smoking."
He chuckled lightly, "Not nearly enough. But yes, sometimes I don't smoke though. Figure it isn't good for my stamina."
"Would you mind if I joined you some nights?" Lucia asked, plucking some courage.
"No, I wouldn't mind. Smoking alone is always… unpleasant."
"Well I better head to bed then. It looks like our fags almost out." She started to turn away.
"Do you think you'll take up my offer for tutoring? In potions I mean." Draco asked, grabbing her arm lightly and turning her around.
"Yes. I think I'll take you up on that offer."
A smile spread across his thin lips, making Lucia want to smile back. Instead she just lightly shook off his hand and began ascending the staircase. Her toes were starting to go numb from the cold and her hands rubbed all over herself to try to revive the heat she felt from the cigarette and Draco.
When Lucia reached the common room, she couldn't help but notice a lumpy figure, curled up on the couch. At first, Lucia decided to ignore it; she was tired and couldn't be bothered by some chit, sleeping in the common room. As she approached the stairs, she realized that that lump was most likely going to get in some deep trouble they were to be found by the head of house.
She approached the hidden sack of flesh, trying to wake it as gently as possible without frightening them. Her fingers rested on, what she assumed to be, their shoulders. The palm of her hand lowered until she had a light grip on what was now definitely their shoulder. She lowered her head until she knew the form could hear her, but no one else could and whispered a quiet "Hullo."
The form shifted, sending the blanket in disarray as the form of Peyton Puncible: Bernice's "baby" sister revealed itself.
'Lucia, how nice to see you." She muttered, turning over and looking at Lucia with a light smile, only to grimace and bury her head into the blanket again.
"Why are you up so late?" Lucia enquired, looking around for signs of homework or studying. There was none, there was only a bottle of what used to be firewhiskey.
"I just couldn't sleep is all." Peyton moaned, pushing off the blanket and sitting up slowly.
Lucia held up the bottle and raised an eyebrow. "Well this will certainly put you to sleep."
"Oh come on, it's not like you've never gotten drunk before." Peyton barked playfully.
"Those were probably the most disgusting, shameful nights of my life." Lucia sighed, exasperated. "Look, if I could have gone back and changed those nights, I would have."
"What if we need something like this, something to put us to sleep because nothing else works?" Peyton asked, clinging to the answer.
Lucia was silent for a moment and stared at the fire that flickered so much like Draco's cigarette. "We all have skeletons in our closet, Pey. We all have things we want to forget and push away into that part of ourselves that no one else will mess with." She grasped Peyton's hand. "We can't do that anymore; we have to face those skeletons head on."
"What are your skeletons?" Peyton asked, her eyes wide.
"I'll tell you when you're older." Lucia said, standing up.
"I'm old enough now!" Peyton stomped her foot only to receive a sharp 'shhhh' from Lucia.
"Take that bottle and make sure the head doesn't find it. Go to your room and sleep the night through. You are so lucky I am not going to tell your sister about this." Lucia lectured, before entering her own room.
Everyone was asleep, Lucia could tell because of their light snoring. Peyton's question rang in her head: "What are your skeletons?"
If only she knew what kind of skeletons haunted her. There were the ones from the night of the final battle, where Bernice cowered under Lestrange's maniac gaze. Lucia was so drunk she had no idea what to do, so she stumbled away hoping she wouldn't die like she had just seen so many do.
She remembered Bernice yelling for help as she stumbled away, but it wasn't just yelling, Bernice was screaming. Bernice was screaming Lucia's name over and over again.
Lucia could not sleep that night. The sound of the wind outside kept her awake, along with the sounds inside her head. She watched her friends wake up and called out Bernice's name in a hoarse whisper.
"Yes love?" Bernice asked, with a sweet smile.
"I'm not feeling too wonderful, could you maybe bring me some porridge from the great hall?" Lucia asked.
"Of course, love." Bernice caressed her face in a friendly way and walked off.
Lucia laid in bed for around twenty minutes, contemplating getting up and going to class. She did not want to go, but she knew she was going to, it was just a matter of time. Bernice had still yet to come back from the great hall, and Lucia's stomach was growling in anger at her.
"Oh do shut up." She snapped, after the third loud growl.
"Talking to yourself, I see. Must not be feeling well at all." Bernice mocked, setting down the porridge beside Lucia.
Lucia immediately set to devouring the soupy mess.
"You know, I really do love you, Bernie. You mean a lot to me and I know sometimes it seems-" Lucia was cut off.
"No Lucia, I know how much you love me. That's all under the rug and done with. Bad times bring out the worst in people, but they still aren't bad people."
"Do you suppose Draco isn't a bad person?" Lucia asked, hoping Bernice wouldn't catch on to her fancy.
"I suppose he is, but then again I hear he's a real bad boy in bed." Bernice let out a bark of laughter before standing up. "Shall I tell Slughorn that you'll be late?"
"Don't bother, I'll be on time." Lucia smiled at Bernice.
"Best hurry up then, class starts in fifteen." Bernice left Lucia alone with her thoughts.
After getting dressed, Lucia marched down the steps of the Ravenclaw tower and into the dungeons where she would face the possibly not-bad Draco Malfoy.
Her confidence was shaken when she opened the door and she saw him turn to look at her with blatant smugness.
"You are late, Sometimes." Slughorn commented, not looking up from the board.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't feel quite right this morning and got a slow start." Lucia replied, her tired eyes wide.
"Well, sit down." Slughorn commanded.
Lucia complied and sat near Bernice before turning slightly to get a better view of Draco.
"are you feeling better, love?" Bernice asked, shaking Lucia from her trance.
"No, of course not. I had to attend class, I would never catch up if I didn't." Bernice agreed and then looked back up at the board.
After nearly twenty minutes of listening to Slughorn explain the importance of Bestingler root, Lucia was rudely interrupted by a paper plane flying into her head. She unfolded it, being careful to make sure she read everything written on it after discovering the author.
It read:
'Tonight, before dinner. We'll start easy, then it will get harder.
Draco.'
Lucia almost let the smile she had on the inside burst through her chest. She wanted to yell out "Of course, I would adore to start out easy, even in first year, if it means spending time with you," Of course, she didn't. No girl so trained in control would.
As she scribbled down her curt reply of: 'That would be helpful, I thank you for your kindness.' Lucia couldn't help but let out a small smile every now and then. No one seemed to notice and it was almost like they were her own private joke. Falling for Draco Malfoy was her own private joke, and my was it starting to get funny.