"Oh, Neville!" she shouted, running down the platform to hug him. If she had been listening, she would have heard her dad say, "Have you ever heard her yell that loud before?"
In the embrace with her friend, she saw Draco stroll leisurely onto the platform with his mother and father, all three of them platinum blond and stern. Frances especially did not like the look of his father, and knew that if she went over there to greet Draco she would not be well received. His hateful beliefs had to come from someone. She met his eyes and gave him a little smile, the corner of his mouth perked up as a greeting, but that was all.
Neville pulled away from her as his grandmother said in an austere voice, "You must be Frances, I'm Ms. Longbottom."
Frances' own parents came up behind her and said, "This is Neville! And his lovely grandmum!" They both exchanged handshakes with Ms. Longbottom, her father putting on the charm. He practiced the art of making a good first impression.
As Frances and Neville boarded the train together, he laughed, "I think my grandmum wants to have your parents over for dinner."
The two of them found a compartment with Hermione, Seamus, Dean, and the Weasley first year. Hermione was loudly hypothesizing where Harry and Ron could be, since she hadn't been able to track them down either on the platform or the train.
"Honestly, Hermione. They're probably just in a compartment that you forgot to check, I'm sure you'll see them when we get off. Just enjoy the train ride," Seamus chided in his brogue.
Hermione huffed and shook her head, "Honestly, Seamus . They could be dead! I haven't heard a word from Harry all summer, and Ron is just awful at sending an owl. You're sure Ron came with you to the station, Ginny?"
Ginny looked confidently at Hermione, "Like I told you, they probably just wandered away on the platform and got on a compartment at the end of the train or something. I wouldn't be so worried."
Hermione looked devastated no one shared her concern, so pulled out a book and proceeded to read a few pages and then snap it shut in frustration, looking out the window as if she could see the two of them out in the countryside.
A bit later, Draco pulled open the compartment door and said haughtily (so haughtily that Frances expected he was putting on a little bit of a show) "Don't you want to come sit with your house, Frances?"
"Ugh, fine," she said sarcastically, smiling at Draco. "Help me get my trunk down," she said to no one in particular. Neville immediately shot up to tug it off of the rack above the seats. Frances braced herself for Draco to say something mean to him, but was spectacularly relieved when he controlled himself. Draco stood in the doorway as she tried to walk out and said to Hermione, who was pointedly ignoring him, "What are you reading, mudblood?"
There was nothing Frances could do but roll her brown eyes and push him out of the doorway, shutting the compartment door behind them.
"What'd you do that for?" he asked incredulously.
"For using that word."
He took the other handle of the trunk without asking and picked up the back end, the two of them shuffling down the hall as he groaned, "I didn't call you that!"
"It doesn't matter who you call it, it's a terrible word."
he groaned, dropping his end of the trunk barely a few meters into their trek, "Why is this so heavy?"
Suddenly, with a moment of inspiration, she gasped, "We're wizards!"
"Good catching on."
"No, we're wizards, why would be ever bother carrying anything?" She pulled her wand out and said authoritatively, " Wingardium Leviosa. " The trunk rose into the air and in front of the pair, floating in front of them as they walked down the train.
"Thanks for not coming over to say hello to me while I was with my parents," Draco said in a rare moment of sheepishness.
She chuckled, "Yeah, well I figured they wouldn't take to me too well."
"They wouldn't have."
"At least I know you've taken to me."
He turned to her, brows furrowed. "Why do you think that?" he asked defensively.
Frances laughed, black hair falling away from her face as she tilted her head back, "Oh come on, Draco. I know you wouldn't have come looking for me if you weren't terribly bored with the rest of them. Pansy and Crabbe can be so amenable, and we both know Goyle is hard to have fun with unless there's someone around to bully."
"Did you ever consider that I got you so that Goyle and I would have someone to make fun of?"
Frances shoved Draco to the side with her shoulder playfully, "No, you wouldn't be looking so pleased to see me right now."
She didn't look to see Draco blush next to her.
Without Hermione to worry, the rest of the ride was a lot more relaxed than the first part had been. Pansy shared with Frances a nail polish that would change colors to match the outfit of the wearer. "My mum got it for me in Diagon Alley, isn't it brilliant?"
Frances was enamored with it, and they took turns painting each other's fingernails while Draco and Goyle griped about 'girl stuff.' Frances couldn't help but notice that Crabbe looked like he wanted to try it. When Draco, Goyle, and Pansy were occupied buying pastries from the trolley, Frances said, "Give me your hand."
Crabbe gave it to her obediently, and she painted his pinky-nail. His face was warped in delight as it matched his dark blue, striped shirt.
Soon the compartment became focused on changing into their robes. Several times during the summer, Frances had put them on, feeling a sense of comfort in their familiar weight.
"Are those new, Draco?" Pansy asked, a little flirtatiously.
Draco looked amused, if not a little offended, "Of course they're new, you know my father would never let me walk around in last year's robes."
"Weird, didn't you have those shoes last year?" Frances asked, looking down at the shiny black oxfords Draco had put on for their arrival. Even Goyle snickered, although he stopped as soon as Draco gave him a withering glare. He looked upset, and Frances had a feeling he would be writing to his mother for a new pair.
As they boarded the carriages to the castle, Pansy asked quietly, "Why do you always have to make Draco mad like that?"
"I know you think he's cute and all, Pans, but he can be a bit of a prat sometimes. It's good to pull him back to earth."
Pansy had told Frances about her feelings for Draco the previous year, and after much persuading, Frances convinced her that she had no intention to interfere on Pansy's pursuit. Draco wasn't really her type.
As per Pansy's request, Frances would often study alone so her friend would have easy access to Draco. Frances would have preferred to study with both of them, but she was paralyzed by her fear of losing her only female friend at the school. Luckily for her, she was very used to existing alone.
On days when Pansy commandeered Draco, Frances would bury herself deep in the library. She had very little luck in transfiguration still, despite McGonagall's consistent effort in enriching her student. This was the only subject she really worried about. Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts were practically second nature to her, and the rest of the subjects required a fair amount of work, but an amount to which she was certainly able to commit. Her friends often bemoaned her ability to study for hours on end. Frances had no idea to explain to them that staying still and quiet had been well-practiced in her primary school years.
Sometimes Neville would study with her in between the stacks, however he had a bad habit of spacing out and watching the books float into their place on the shelves.
As the events of that year dragged one though, he appeared there less and less, too afraid of being killed by whatever stalked the halls of Hogwarts.
"I don't see why you're so worried," Frances said to him, late one night in November, a few days after Colin Creevey had been petrified, " I'mthe one that should be concerned. I'm the muggleborn."
"Yeah, I don't know why you aren't terrified. The only thing that I think could protect you is that you're a Slytherin."
Frances shook her head, turning a page in a random book she'd pulled of a shelf a few shelves down. It was called Legilimency and Occlumency: More Than Mind Reading. "I don't know about that, everyone knows Salazar Slytherin hated muggleborns, why would his heir feel any different?"
"Well then even more reason for you to be staying out of the halls."
Frances rolled her eyes and put her hand on Neville's arm, squeezing reassuringly, "Look, I don't want to spend this whole year worrying about things I can do very little to help. Worrying just means you suffer twice."
He gave an unconvinced smile, but asked, "Where'd you get that from?"
"Read it in a book somewhere."
Neville nodded and looked uncomfortable. "Do you want to leave?" she asked him. He nodded again. "Okay, I can walk you to your common room, I just want to check out this book."
"No, I want to walk you to your house. You're the one in danger anyway."
They walked into the dungeons together, Neville holding her books for her. She'd told him she could carry them herself, but he hadn't let her. He was visibly shaking, the dungeon was a scary place even without such an unspeakable terror roaming the halls. When they'd gotten to the empty stone wall that concealed the entrance, Frances whispered, "I suppose you're going to sprint to the Fat Lady now?"
"Bloody hell, do I wish I could apparate," he muttered in an almost angry voice.
She smiled, "Godspeed."
Neville took off up the stairs, disappearing out of view quickly. "Parsimonious," Frances ordered the wall, and it split open and let her pass. Her friends were sitting around one of the corner tables, all studying.
Well, studying was a poor word for it. Draco and Crabbe were both attempting to write the History of Magic essay that Professor Binns had assigned weeks ago. Everyone in the class had entirely forgotten about it. The only people that Frances knew had it done were herself, Hermione (naturally), and Pansy (who was always the most awake in that class, somehow).
As Draco furiously scribbled, Pansy kept asking him questions and fussing over him. Goyle was bemusedly snickering, Draco shooting him nasty looks with each laugh.
"How's everyone doing?" Frances asked, sitting down at the table.
Goyle turned his head in her direction and said jovially, "Well Draco is doing his best to avoid the female gaze. If I were you, Draco, I would be enjoying it a lot more."
"Well unlike you, Goyle, I'm constantly getting female attention." Pansy laughed loudly at Draco's barb.
Frances smiled sweetly and teased, "When you say female attention, do you mean from your dear Narcissa?" Crabbe and Goyle both cracked wide smiles, Crabbe clapping Frances on the back and Goyle slapping her hand from across the table.
Draco suddenly started stacking his books and parchment. "I'm going to the dormitory," he muttered, stomping off to the rooms in his brand new shoes.
"Why'd you have to say that?" Pansy asked, deeply offended.
"Ugh, come on, Pans. I think subtlety might be a better tactic with him," Frances replied in her attempt at a comforting voice.
"Whatever," she said, packing her things like Draco had and going up to the girls dormitories.
Frances threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly, "Everyone is so touchy these days, you'd think they were the ones being hunted down by Salazar, not me."
The whole of Slytherin house had started joking that Salazar Slytherin himself was the one petrifying all the muggleborns in the school, so when she said that, Crabbe and Goyle laughed, the latter a little meaner than the former.
"If only old Salazar were a better hunter," Goyle replied coldly, his smile morphing to a look of disgust in an instant.
"Piss off," Frances said irritably, pointing her wand at him and muttering, " Epoximise."
Goyle's expression turned to that of horror once he realized that his butt was entirely adhered to the heavy wooden chair he was sitting at. Goyle tried to stand but ended up keeling over onto the floor, attracting the attention of a group of fifth years. They all laughed maniacally at him.
"Undo it!" he roared.
"Actually, Goyle, I have a bit of reading to do." Frances stepped over him on her way up to the dormitory, carrying the book from the library with her. She collapsed onto the four poster bed that was adjacent to Pansy's. She looked annoyed to see her friend, but she still asked, "Why do you look so happy?"
"I just hexed Goyle. He's writhing around the common room right now. I'd suggest running down there if you want a laugh."
Pansy went down and returned a few minutes later grinning, "Oh my god, the prefects are trying to Diffindo his trousers from the upholstery, they're practically torn to shreds. I totally forgive you."
A few weeks later, Frances and Neville were bent over books in the library when Draco came rushing in, taking the seat next to Neville and across from Frances. "I'm being driven insane, I think Pansy means to smother me," he moaned, pressing his head into his hands.
Neville shot her a confused look, putting his quill down. "What, no hello?" Frances asked disdainfully.
Draco cracked his fingers so one eye was visible. "Hi, Frances," he said with gritted teeth.
"What about Neville?"
He said the same to Neville, although somehow with even more venom. "I'm just going to study here. I told her I was going to the old Alchemy classroom on the fourth floor to study."
"But there was no alchemy classroom on that floor," Neville interjected.
"Exactly," replied Draco, looking satisfied with his ingenuity, "I expect she'll keep running around the upstairs for hours. Bloody brilliant, right?"
"More like cruel," Frances admonished, furrowing her brow at him. She knew Neville agreed, but he just awkwardly turned his gaze in the direction of his books.
"I can see how you'd think that, but you haven't seen the note she slipped me in class." Draco rummaged through his bag, pulling out a piece of parchment adorned with doodles of flowers and hearts that rustled and spun in an invisible breeze.
Dear Draco,
Roses are red
Violets are blue
There is no doubt in my heart
My life is better with you.
XOXO
Pansy
"Seems a touch heavy-handed," Frances said, sliding the note over to Neville, who read it and laughed nervously.
"She's going to murder me and stuff me in her wardrobe, right?" Draco looked back and forth for reassurance from both Frances and Neville. They both shrugged, not entirely sure how to comfort him. Frances dug around in her bag until she found a miraculously intact sugar quill, and gave it to Draco. He sucked on it anxiously as he wrote his charms essay.
The three of them studied late into the night, Draco being surprisingly civil with Neville. In fact, they studied so well together that they went to the same table every night in the library from then on. Neville told her that even when she wasn't there, Draco would still come to the table and study. Supposedly the conversation wasn't awful, as they both supported Puddlemere United so they had much to talk about in the way of quidditch. Neville was still frightened of him though.
As the attacks worsened, Draco and Frances would often walk Neville back to the Fat Lady when they had finished studying and then walk down to the dungeons together.
"Have you heard that Snape put me up to duel Potter?" asked Draco on one such night, as they walked down the moving staircases from the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.
"I have actually, you told me this morning… and this afternoon. And at dinner."
He appeared to wrack his mind to remember the previous discussions, "Well in any case, I expect you'll come."
"I expect I will. I hope you're practicing for it."
He snorted, "Why would I need to practice, it's not like he's particularly good at magic."
"Sure, but Granger is, and she has to be helping him train. I hate to say it, Draco, but I don't think you'd win in a fight against her."
Peeves suddenly rocketed down the corridor above them, snatching Frances' book on legilimency from her hands and throwing it twenty paces in front of them. He then barrelled off in the opposite direction. Draco rushed ahead and picked up the book, saying, "Why are you reading about this?"
"Well it's interesting, isn't it? I'd like to teach myself it."
He handed it back to her, smiling a little, "That'll be a tall order, it's difficult magic."
"Well, that's why it'll be interesting."
That Christmas, her parents had relented to let her stay at the school. She'd managed to completely avoid telling them about the attacks, otherwise she would've been taken back home permanently. Draco had also begged his parents to let him stay at the castle. They agreed reluctantly, Narcissa almost not letting it happen.
Early Christmas morning, Frances walked downstairs to find Draco waiting for her with a wrapped parcel. "What's this?" she asked, plopping down next to him on the leather couch by the fire.
"Well I figured I'd give you your gift now so you would have longer to enjoy it." He put it in her lap and she tore into in happily. She pulled out two thin silver rings.
"What is it?"
He took one of them from her hand and slipped it on. He then nodded towards the one still in her lap, urging her to wear it. She put it on as well. "Whenever a wearer is in trouble, or upset, it'll get hot. That way if one of us needs help, we'll know it."
A small smile creeped onto Frances' face.
"What?" he demanded.
"Well, I know why you are giving me this alone. It's a pretty friendly gift."
He blushed and said, "Piss off. Where's my gift?"
"Charming." Frances rolled her eyes and pulled out a small green vial from her pajama pants. "It's an infatuation reversal potion. I found the recipe in the library and I spent all week brewing it in a broom closet. I figured you could slip it into Pansy's drink during supper."
Draco looked as if he was going to cry, and suddenly pulled her into a hug. "Oh thank god. You're saving my life."
As he released her, she said, "That might be an exaggeration. Pansy's just a little infatuated."
He took the bottle out of her hand, "You're only seeing it that way because she's your friend."
"Isn't she your friend too?"
"How can she be? She doesn't care about me, she just cares about dating me."
Frances didn't know what to say to this, so she was very quiet for a time. "Who is your friend then?"
"Well you, obviously. And…um." He looked around the room, as if someone were there to jog his memory. "Well it's kind of embarrassing, but Longbottom isn't half bad."
She suppressed a laugh, "Well if you think you could be friends with him, maybe you should try to get him to be less terrified of you."
"I hate to break it to you, Frances, but he's not frightened of me. He's embarrassed of me, and of you for that matter."
"What the hell are you talking about?" she demanded.
"Well the best I can figure it, is that he doesn't want his Gryffindor chums to know he's friends with Slytherins like us. I mean, you on your own are probably fine. But we're too good of friends for you not to be a blight on his record. He's like everyone else, just wants Potter to be his friend."
If Frances weren't so enraged by what Draco said, she would've laughed about how he managed to bring every conversation back to Harry, but she wasn't calm. She was angry. If Neville had stayed for Christmas, she would've marched right up to the Fat Lady and yelled outside the common room until he came out.
Without this option however, she settled for storming out into the dungeon yelling, "I'm going for a bloody walk!" She walked into the hallway with such anger and speed that a passing house elf yelped. Under other circumstances she would've apologized, but this day she just marched past.
She was going to walk into the bitter cold and snow outside, but realized she only had on one of the jumpers that Draco had given her at the beginning of the year. On the sixth floor she found a room that seemed to be solely for the storage of broken desks and chairs. She found herself casting Reducto over and over again, disintegrating the contents of the room one by one. It managed to succeed in calming her down. While she was still angry, she could at least breathe and swallow normally, and her grip on her wand relaxed.
She was halfway through disintegrating the room when she heard a familiar cold, nasally voice. "You're not the student I would expect to find destroying school property."
Frances stood up, brushing dust from her trousers. "Professor Snape." She suddenly realized she'd been crying, and wiped the tears with her sleeve. Snape seemed to notice this but made no mention.
"Yes, Miss Tacet. I hadn't thought to find you here, but it's just as well that I did. I've been noting your talent in my class, and I think that you would do well if I put you in a more demanding class. I saw that you brewed a infatuation reversal potion for Mr. Malfoy when I was looking in the East tower corridor broom closet. That potion is incredibly advanced, and from what I saw, you brewed it correctly. I've already petitioned Dumbledore to let you take the fifth year Potions class next year, but that will require advanced lessons this year to fill in some gaps."
"The fifth year course, Professor? I'm not sure I could keep up." Frances was very confused, she knew she had skill in potions, but a two year jump seemed like too much.
He pursed his lips, "I'm sure with diligent work, you will be more than prepared for it, Miss Tacet. Do you accept?"
She nodded nervously, not sure if she really had an option.
"Good. We will start with private tutoring after the winter holiday." He began to turn to walk back in the corridor, when he turned and asked, "Have you considered teaching Potions before?"
"Yes, sir."
He nodded approvingly and glided out the door.
Eventually she found her way back to the common room, after an afternoon spent eating and reading quietly in the Great Hall. At one point Crabbe and Goyle rushed in, grabbed armfuls of pastries and rushed out, laughing madly. Crabbe smiled at her dumbly as they passed, mouth full of biscuits.
She spent a long time there, watching as her peers wandered in and out. Some professors were there too. Hagrid and Professor Flitwick were enjoying an animated discussion, about what Frances couldn't discern, although Flitwick seemed to be rolling his eyes a lot. At one point Dumbledore walked in and slipped a few treacle tarts in his long velvet sleeve. He noticed her watching and gave her a sly smile, and with a flick of his wand, a tart appeared in front of her, it tasted much better than others she had had before.
Frances went back to the common room very late that night, hoping that Draco would not still be down there when she returned. Of course, because she had terrible luck, he was waiting on the same couch as he had been earlier that day.
All the anger she had been feeling earlier that day came back, and she did her best not to stomp her feet as she went to her dormitory. "Frances, can you please come here?" he asked. She stopped in her tracks, but did not turn around or move backwards. "Please?" he asked again.
This made her turn and walk reluctantly to the couch opposite him. She sat down heavily.
"First, I'm sorry for what I said early. I was right, but I probably shouldn't have said it anyway."
"Some apology," she snorted.
Draco rolled his eyes and groaned, "Can you just cut me a break for one time? You're way too hard on me and it's Christmas!"
Frances said nothing but nodded with a sour expression on her face.
"Anyway," he continued, "Crabbe and Goyle have been acting really weird today." He went on to explain that he'd had a long conversation with them in the common room where they had been very reluctant to bash Potter, and then they'd both rushed out, panicked. "And then they came back in thirty minutes later saying they passed out in a broom closet! Can you believe how truly idiotic they are? Sometimes I question whether either of them are actually wizards or if they were just sent here to torment me with their idiocy."
The tale had lightened her mood a little bit, and she told him about the amount of food she'd seen them taking out of the Great Hall that afternoon. They played chess late into the night, until the fire burned to embers and the kappas, usually attracted by the common room's glow, had drifted away to the surface of the lake.
NOTES:
Thanks for reading! I was really trying to publish this like a week after the first chapter but I got really excited so I just went for it.
Also, a disclaimer, this fic's events will pretty closely follow the books. Some things from the movies will be included, but they will for the most part be pretty limited.
The first three books will probably be gone through relatively fast. I don't have a lot of desire to put Frances in every scene that the trio is in because I don't want to make it some weird Mary Sue situation. By the time Goblet of Fire events roll around, there will start being some romance ;), and Order of the Phoenix will also be when Frances' involvement in the main storyline starts happening.
As always, feel free to leave a review or a comment!
