Lessons, or

A Blossom As White As Lily Flower

Chapter 22

Lucia enjoyed the holiday festivities after all, once the prefects consented to release their Houses, and later some of the Hufflepuffs came up to her and apologized, which really did seem to soothe over much of the hurt feelings. "I'm not a Malfoy," she said again. "Please, you've got to believe me. I've never even met my father. If a boggart came at me, it would probably take his shape."

Sometimes pure honesty about things people don't normally tell others can be as disarming as "Expelliarmus." They believed her, and sometimes after that, on the few occasions when she needed it, the Hufflepuffs came to her defense as readily as the Slytherins.

Astoria, the next day, gave her a dressing-down, which she rather deserved. "What kind of unity do you think it's going to make in this school when you just let people be cruel and unjust to you? That's what caused half our problems, I'll have you know, people sitting back and refusing to address small behaviors until they became so big they almost destroyed us! There's such a thing as taking self-denial and patience too far. We're not going to let this place become like it was when Draco ruled Slytherin—"

Graham Pritchard put his hand on Astoria's arm. "Alright, Astoria, I think she gets the point. You get the point, don't you, Lucia?"

"Yes," she said, shame-faced. "I do."

Later she found Ginny, doing homework at the Gryffindor table. Some of the Gryffindors gave her dark looks for approaching their table, but they didn't dare say anything.

"Ginny," Lucia said somewhat nervously, "I—thank you—for—"

The girl with long, rich red hair looked up at her, disconcertingly straight-forward. "Why are you scared of me?"

"Well—you know. You're a Weasley. One of the greatest wizarding families."

Ginny laughed. "Do you know anything about my family? We're about the least intimidating family in England. The most batty, maybe."

"Until you get threatened. And—and my family sort of led the—the persecution against you."

"I thought you always said you weren't a Malfoy."

"I'm not. Not really. Not in my mind, where it counts, you know."

"Well, then, I don't see what the problem is."

Lucia stood still for a moment. She dared to sit down beside Ginny. "Ginny—can I ask you—why did you come back to school? You didn't have to."

Ginny grimaced. "My parents made me. 'You are going to get your N.E.W.T.s properly, young lady!' Because I'll be the first Weasley since Percy to do so, and the only girl. It's hardly fair, but there's not much fair about being the only girl and the youngest. 'Stay in the Room of Requirement' indeed!" she muttered, which Lucia didn't understand. "Anyway, it was better than watching Mum cry about Fred and George stalk about always looking for something and never knowing what it is and Percy trying pathetically to be helpful and Ron and Hermione sitting about all dazed and mooning over each other and Harry—" She stopped, suddenly aware that her eyes were swimming with tears. "Why am I telling you this?" She glared at Lucia's pale, pointed face and her wide, brilliant, understanding eyes. "Luna told me I would end up telling you things without meaning it. She said you had a power like that. I didn't believe her, but then, one doesn't believe half the things Luna says. Which is unfortunate, because sometimes they're important." She snapped her mouth shut. "There I go again."

"I'll…let you do homework, then."

"Thanks. Oh, Lucia?"

"Yes?"

"Maybe you'd like to see the Gryffindor common room sometime?"

Lucia gaped at her. A Gryffindor inviting a Slytherin to her common room? "Er, yes. Yes, I would."

"Alright, then."

Head whirling, she went back to her own common room for history lessons.

McGonagall and Sinistra had together devised a very creative discipline for Della Howard and Albert Richard. It would have been a punishment indeed back in Draco's day, and the two Gryffindors evidently felt it was a severe and fearsome one. They had been sentenced to taking history lessons with the Slytherins in the Slytherin common room.

A month ago, Lucia had gotten thoroughly tired of Professor Binns turning her beloved history into a dry desert and of her fellow Slytherins complaining about how boring and stupid history was. So she gathered the First and Second Years while they were struggling over their homework and began to tell them the stories behind the series of dates they were forced to hammer into their heads. Over the last month, many of the older Slytherins had gathered to listen to the tales that had always come to them out of bone-dry lectures, and Professor Binns couldn't understand why the Slytherin students were suddenly doing so well in history. He even consulted with Professor Sinistra about whether they might be cheating.

"Which," Sinistra said to McGonagall, "says something, I think. When you're afraid students are cheating because they're actually doing well and enjoying their subject—maybe there's something wrong with your teaching. Much as I like dear old Binns, I'm afraid very few students have ever excelled in history here."

Della Howard and Albert Richard followed Professor Sinistra down into the Slytherin dungeon with trepidation. Perhaps they thought snakes were kept as pets and allowed to roam loose in the dormitories, or perhaps they thought all the Slytherins would be hard at work over Dark incantations in the light of a green fire. Instead they found a group of very normal-looking students who stared at them in a not-too-friendly manner but shuffled politely aside to make room and then ignored them. Even the fire was an ordinary yellow.

"So, the first legends of vampires in Romania are really nasty and gruesome," Lucia said. "Are you sure you want to hear them?"

The students—including the Gryffindors—all nodded eagerly, except for a couple of First-Year girls, who edged close together and held hands.

Really, Lucia thought impatiently, only Professor Binns could make vampires boring.

Della and Albert returned to their own part of the castle in a kind of haze of Romanian vampires (deliciously shivery) and homemade cauldron cakes (one of the Slytherin First Years most unexpectedly had a Muggle baker for a father, and how he'd learned to bake such authentic wizard pastries no one knew) and a total upset of all their ideas about Slytherins.