Their first flying lesson was together with the Gryffindors, and Draco was showing off his new and very expensive broom. Crucie had gotten Rabastan's old broom since the death eater couldn't risk flying anyway. It was a battered old model Clean Sweep 6, but knowing that her uncle Rabastan had flown on it in more than one death eater mission compensated all the lack of flashiness in sentimental value. She sneaked a peak at Neville Longbottom, who struggled with his broom and purposely didn't look in her direction. Madam Hooch gave them the basic instructions, and then they were to mount the brooms and carefully lift off, to about a meter above the ground. Crucie saw Neville's uncomfortable tension, and she just knew something was going to happen. And indeed, suddenly the boy's broom flew up in the air with him hanging only half on it. The thing wrestled like an animal trying to get free, and of course Neville didn't manage to get in control again. He fell, crying and moaning. Crucie wanted to see if he was okay, but since he seemed terrified of her before she decided it was a bad idea. Madam Hooch was annoyed but still helped Neville up, discovering his wrist was broken.

"I am going to escort Mr Longbottom to the infirmary, and I don't want any of you on your brooms while I'm gone! If I catch any of you flying you can forget attending this class for the rest of the year!"

Crucie watched them leave. She sat down on the grass and hoped no one would try to fly despite the warning. She suddenly heard.

"Hey, look at this! Isn't that little Longbottom's stone for stupids?"

Draco was holding a crystal ball Crucie recognized as a remembrall. It might be Neville's, she didn't know. She watched how her nephew taunted the Gryffindors on the other side of the grass field.

"Look what I have!"

He carelessly played with it, throwing it in the air and catching it again. Someone on the Gryffindor side of the grass yelled angrily.

"Give that back Draco!"

"Nah-ah!"

The Gryffindors had all gotten up now, and Crucie guessed there would be a fight. She was mistaken. Draco stepped on his flashy new broom and took off.

"If you want it, come and get it!"

She heard the Gryffindors say to one of their friends not to follow him, that it wasn't worth it, but the boy ignored them. Now Crucie could see it was the famous Harry Potter. He grabbed his broom and took off after Draco. They flew high, and suddenly Crucie saw that Draco was letting the Remembrall fall. It sent a surge of anger through her; there was no way in hell that the Potter child would catch it in time… Before she knew it she was on her broom and flew straight up.

"You are such an asshole, Draco."

The blonde turned his head and paled when he caught sight of his seething angry niece.

"You wouldn't dare to do that here, in public, on a broomstick."

"You dare me? Silly boy."

Crucie felt a great delight at the fearful expression on Draco's face, and it only grew when she sent her torture for the first time at him. It had been too long; she had started to forget how fun this was… He clenched his broomstick and screamed, while she scowled at him.

"Are you sorry, Draco?"

"AAAAAAAAAH!"

"Are you sorry?"

"YES! YES I'M SORRY PLEASE STOP AAAAARGH!"

Crucie didn't want to stop, the way the broom trembled as if it could feel her wrath too and the boy on it fought to keep control and not fall off it was too much fun…

"You will apologize to Neville."

"AAAAAH! OKAY OKAY AAAH! PLEASE STOP AAARGH! I DO ANYTHING! AAAAH!"

Crucie caught sight of the return of Madam Hooch, and Professor McGonagall, and decided to stop.

"Not a word about this."

Swiftly she flew down again. The advantages of a family broom were mostly that the broom automatically obeyed her, much better than a new one would. Despite that she decided that flying wasn't her thing; the idea of having to sit for a long time on a flying wooden stick kind of made her feel uncomfortable. Landing on the ground she saw Harry Potter had caught the Remembrall against all expectations, and she caught the surprised and confused look in her direction.

"Harry Potter, Crucio Black, come with me NOW!"

They walked next to each other behind McGonagall's flapping coats, but didn't look at each other. McGonagall talked to herself, muttering angry words.

"The insolence! The idea! No respect!"

Then she almost ran into professor Snape, who suddenly came out of the shadows like a ghost. Crucie wondered if that man had a psychic talent for being present when she screwed up. She also wondered why Draco –who had been on his broom as well after all- wasn't with them to take the punishment.

"Ah, Professor Snape, I was just looking for you! One of your students has been caught flying while explicitly forbidden, I suspect you can see to her punishment?"

Just one of his students? Urgh, even McGonagall favoured Draco… Crucie caught Snape's eyes, and immediately wished she had never even thought of stepping on that broom. Harry sent her an almost pitiful look while the Slytherin head of house pulled her with him to his office.

"I thought we were clear about this, Miss Black!"

"But… But…"

"No excuses! Or do you think Professor McGonagall's office is the only room in Hogwarts that has a window? I saw what you did there and so did a whole lot of others! I ask you to keep silent and you make a show of your talent in the middle of the Quidditch field! Are you stupid Miss Black? Retarded, backwards? Did you misunderstand me so badly?"

Crucie could sink into the floor…

"Well?"

"Draco wanted to destroy Neville's Remembrall. I saw him drop it and I was so pissed and so I made him pay."

"You defended Neville Longbottom?"

Crucie raised and eyebrow at Snape's utterly surprised face.

"Yeah, so?"

"Oh, nothing. Just very un-Slytherin of you. I hate taking points from my own house but unfortunately… 20 points from Slytherin, because of your stupid and unthinking bravery, and 5 more because you were disobeying Madam Hooch. I fear you will never learn otherwise. You will take detention with me for two nights and write 6 inches on why one should be careful with what he shows of himself to others, by tomorrow."

Crucie left the office particularly down. She went to the library, and immediately regretted it. Everyone stared, and many whispering students went silent when she passed them. Indignantly she exclaimed.

"Dammit! What are you all looking at!?"

"SILENCE in the library, Miss Black!"

The librarian scolded her, and feeling embarrassed Crucie disappeared between the racks of books. She had tears in her eyes and didn't watch whom she bumped into.

"Ow!"

"Oh my! Sorry…"

She looked up and in the eyes of a girl with bushy brown hair, who had previously had her hands full of books. Crucie immediately helped gathering them from the floor, while apologizing. The girl interjected.

"Don't apologize, it was my fault too, I didn't look where I was going."

Crucie handed her the last book.

"Here. I should get going now."

"Wait! Thanks for helping me! Aren't you the Black girl?"

"Yes. Is it so weird that I help someone?"

"No, it's just…"

"I'm a Slytherin, you're a Gryffindor, and so we should hate each other?"

The girl blushed.

"It's prejudice, I know… Sorry. I'm Hermione Granger."

She stuck out her hand, carefully balancing the books she was holding. Crucie uncertainly shook it.

"Crucio Black."

Hermione looked a bit uncomfortable…

"Do… err… You want to sit with me? I mean, have you seen where McGonagall took Harry? Did she punish you too?"

Crucie shook her head.

"She first delivered me to Snape, and now I have to write 6 inches on some pathetic subject, sit out two detention classes and he took some points too. I bet Draco didn't get punished… I didn't see where she took Harry."

Hermione nodded.

"Malfoy's an ass. But I thought you Slytherins where all sticking together you know, and hating… well…people like me?"

Hermione looks almost ashamed now, and it amused Crucie greatly.

"Draco is family, kind of… and you know… you don't choose your family. He's annoyed me since he was only a toddler. I like most of my family… just not him."

Hermione chuckled at that. Trying to picture Draco Malfoy as something small and cute and perhaps even likeable was close to impossible.

"I just can't imagine that prick as a baby…"

Crucie remembered the blonde baby on the photograph and smiled.

"He was cute…. And annoying."

They both laughed. Now the ice was broken, Hermione dared to ask after Crucie's name.

"No, seriously… Crucio? Is that seriously your real name?"

"Please call me Crucie. Just like your family, you don't choose your name. Mom chose it because apparently giving birth to me was the most painful thing she ever did. Or so I'm told. Maybe she just wanted to spite ministry officials."

"Oh. I see. Hermione isn't the most common name either. It was weirder back in Muggle School than here though."

Hermione clearly made that remark without thinking it through, because the moment she had said that she suddenly looked badly at ease. Crucie asked with wide eyes,

"You've been to a muggle school?"

Immediately Hermione straightened her back, as if she was preparing for nasty comments.

"I have. I'm muggleborn."

Crucie looked surprised, and then strangely excited. She had never really spoken to one of the people Rabastan referred to as "muggleborns" when polite, "mudbloods" when among friends and "filth" when drunk… and she couldn't help her curiosity. She really wondered if all the muttered threats and curses at the address of that mysterious subclass of wizardry were there for a reason…

"That is so… Awesome! You're the first muggleborn witch I've ever met! I mean, you know, properly met. I've seen them before, I'm not that much of a hermit."

Hermione was clearly confused.

"You are the weirdest Slytherin I've ever met."

Crucie looked a little apprehensive at that comment.

"I'm… I'm sorry. Is it impolite to inquire after it?"

"No, just that most Slytherins don't really like muggleborns. Aren't the Blacks…"

The words Death Eaters hung unspoken between them. Crucie shrugged. Uncle Lucius had preached to her about the importance of blood purity when she was younger, but Uncle Rabastan always told her Lucius was an arrogant piece of ass and she shouldn't take him too seriously. Actually, the opinions of most of her family members got systematically undermined by other family members, which was slightly confusing at times.

"Well… it's true that my family wasn't really a fan of muggles, but… see, my mom used to call my dad an idiot, and my dad used to call my mother crazy, so neither of them is a good reference. And let's not even mention my uncle. I love him but I'm not sure someone who doesn't know how to open a can of beans without blowing up the kitchen counts as a political role model. So, I've decided to make up my own mind."

Hermione appeared both confused and slightly amused at Crucie's commentary. That family did sound interesting… Suddenly it hit the girl that Crucie had used past tense when speaking of her parents.

"Are both your parents…?"

"They're gone. I don't like talking about them. I live with my uncle now."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

"It's okay. Could you tell me a bit about the Muggle world? I've lived in London for quite a few years already and I've never learned anything about them, bad huh?"

And so Hermione did, dumbstruck as she was. Crucie was all ears…Hermione explained how muggles ate the same things, how they felt the same emotions and how they reproduced in the same manner, surprised at how little the Slytherin girl actually knew of the people she had been learned to hate.

"So… they have no magic, but further they are all the same?"

Crucie recalled Draco saying to Theodore that Mudbloods actually have mud instead of blood in their veins. She had always wondered if it could be true, but in retrospect it was probably another made-up thing Draco had thought out to impress his friends. She decided not to mention it.

"Their lives are very different, and yet the same yes. Everything we have magic for, they have something called 'technology' for instead. Technology doesn't come naturally to them, they have to construct it from other materials."

"Do you have any muggle things, technology things, I mean? I would love to see how they work…"

Hermione smiled at Crucie's enthusiasm.

"I'm afraid not, within the domain of Hogwarts only things that run on magic actually work. But if you really want to see a piece of muggle tech, did you know Muggles constructed the Hogwarts Express? Later it was enchanted to run on magic, but back in the days it ran on coal."

"Wow… That sounds pretty awesome… so, you can enchant muggle technology to work on magic?"

"I suppose the train proves that…"

"That actually means we could bring muggle stuff in here and enchant it so it stays working! Imagine that!"

Hermione nodded.

"It's been done before so… but I suppose it would be very complicated magic…"

"Nah, I think it can't be much different from creating a cursed object."

Hermione's eyes widened at Crucie's careless remark.

"You know how to…"

The girl noticed her lapse and bit her lip.

"Well… friends of my uncle taught me a few things… It's really useful, you know! You can latch practically every spell with an object, not just dark spells… I've never done it myself because I didn't have a wand, but I know the procedure by heart."

Hermione looked inquiringly at Crucie. The girl was not much taller than her, with dark eyes, dark black curls, a sharp but proportionated nose and a wide grin. She didn't look particularly dangerous when she was smiling, but if even a bit of the stories about her were true… Crucie hadn't noticed Hermione's observation, and simply continued babbling.

"Maybe we could do an experiment together, see if we can get a simple muggle object to function!"

"Maybe…"

Crucie's smile faltered a bit when she caught Hermione's distant look.

"Unless… well, I understand it you know… not wanting to be seen with me and stuff…"

Hermione remembered how Draco had called her a mudblood and insulted her with his group, and realized that it both came down to family. They had insulted her because her family was muggle, but if she denied someone friendship because their family was dark she was no better.

"No, of course not. I don't care about being seen with you. You seem nice. I… I don't want to insult you though, but… did you really use an unforgivable on Draco, back in flying class?"

"I didn't even have my wand with me, I left it in my room to make sure it wouldn't break if I fell on it, I'm clumsy like that. He just panicked and started screaming, the guy has a ridiculous fear of heights. I mean, people are so gullible, and with my name I just was a really good scapegoat."

Hermione looked relieved.

"Duh, yeah, actually that sounds so much more logical. I'm glad to have that cleared up. So, what do you say, we do some research tomorrow, after class?"

"I have detention tomorrow, too, but… perhaps the day after? We have potions together, we can wait for each other."

"Sure!"

Crucie walked away, feeling both happy and a bit sad. She had possibly made her first friend… but she had had to lie for it.

(Author's Notes)

Another IMPORTANT NOTICE (to avoid confusion)

Yay! I know this is a bit of an improbable turn in the story, at first sight... but actually it's not. At this point it's not known yet, (so slight but unimportant spoiler), but Crucie spent quite a bit of her childhood hanging around in Borgin and Burke's on Knockturn Alley, because Rabastan didn't really have the time to entertain her all day long. Most of the dark arts things -besides the cruciatus curse- she knows about were taught to her by Mr Burke. From him she also got a bit of a fascination with enchanted and cursed objects, and the collecting of them. Therefor her interest in enchanted muggle things is truly "scientific" if you can call it that.

Maybe she comes over as a little naive... I hope it's not too bad, I'm not trying to make her seem innocent or dumb in any way. As I stated before, I just don't think she's got such definite opinions on purebloods/muggleborns as her family.

As always, critics, comments and Mary-Sue warnings are always welcome! Every chapter I'm biting my nails, hoping for good reviews and bracing myself for the critics ;) nevertheless, without critics I can't get better! PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!