By the Grace of Her Humanity
Ch.5: Old Blood, New Blood, Spilt Blood…and Kittens?
"No, Cloud! Don't kill!" Lucy screeched frantically, stooping quickly. Cloud swiped his paw again just as she came to the rescue, claws scraping the back of her hand. Lucy stood as quickly as she had gotten down, Loki with his heart hammering clutched tightly in her grasp. Cloud leapt up at her once more, but the girl backed away, retreating to her bed. The kitten pouted, contemplating them before following. He hit a force field and went flying backward with a yowl of protest.
"Hey, no force fields!" Pippin exclaimed, picking the kitten up with his brow drawn into a tight frown. He didn't meet Lucy's eyes as he inspected the kitten for damage.
"He's ok," he finally said, looking up. His eyes lowered, and Lucy saw one of his rare, genuine scowls of disapproval as he glared at Loki, who was still held rather tightly in her left hand. Cloud sneezed irritatedly.
"So...," Pippin said slowly, "when we were by the stream..."
"Yep," Lucy chirped curtly, her voice an odd octave higher that nearly made it crack.
"So you lied."
"...Yeah, I guess I did fudge a bit," Lucy admitted hesitantly. She and Pippin stared at each other a bit, she biting her lip.
"Are you going to turn him in?" Pippin inquired softly. His eyes were bugged slightly, and wary. Lucy shook her head no, her hair swaying with the motion, and felt the coiled tension of Loki subside. She reached up to plant him on her shoulder, where he peered out, leering at Cloud.
"No," she added firmly in further response to Pippin's question for good measure.
"Why?" Pippin pressed. Lucy shrugged, carefully, and sighed.
"Who would I hand him over to? S.W.O.R.D.?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D.," Pippin supplied, continuing. "The X-Men. Our people. Yours. The demons. His people, whoever he's hurt. Someone, anyone. The world he wanted to burn wants to see him burn. Your own mother might snap his little neck if she knew."
He shrugged as if that solved it all.
Lucy scooted back across her bed until her back touched her room wall. "No. Do you know what people would do to him? What they do to Mutants and aliens alike? What they would do to us? To me? To every creature that doesn't fit nicely into their little boxes? No, I won't do it. He doesn't deserve that."
Pippin plopped down, battling anger as he picked at a single loose thread on his pants. "I'm not so sure I agree with you," he said quietly. "Besides his being a criminal?...My Aunt Cory got killed up in New York by his army when they invaded. And Disley, you remember Disley? She was down in New Mexico and..."
"Stop it, just stop it!" Lucy hissed. "That doesn't make it right! We have to be like the flower that gives its fragrance even to the hand that crushes it!"
"How can you offer forgiveness when he hasn't done anything to you or your family?"
"Because...because not forgiving someone is stupid! It's like-like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die! And it doesn't make anything any better. It just hurts more people!"
There came a knock at the door, and her brother Cameron's voice filtered through asking if she were all right. She shot Pippin a fleeting pleading glance, hoping he would lie for her.
He did.
"We're just playing," he called out cheerfully. There was pause, and, assured by Pippin's cheerful familiar voice, Cameron left.
Once it had been quiet for some time, Pippin spoke.
"I lied for you once, just now, because you asked me to. But I can't do this again. I can't pretend this isn't happening. If you get caught..."
Lucy swallowed, turning her head. "We understand."
Pippin made an angry noise in his throat. Of course you do."
He stood. "Bye." He walked rather calmly to her door, and then was gone.
"Don't come back 'til you're sorry," Lucy said bitterly, but softly. She sighed and dropped her head into her hands. After a moment of silence, a few very tiny shoulder-pats, Lucy sat up; her head resting against the wall, eyes closed, and said, "Maybe we could change his memory? Just a bit? It'd be like it never happened-perfect forgiveness."
A nervous shifting of feet tickled her shoulder. She threw up her hands. "You're right, I'm screwed. We're screwed."
"Not necessarily," came the reply.
"Well, I don't have anywhere else to go," she snapped hopelessly, "And nowhere to leave you that's safe."
"Meeeeeaaaaayeeeooow," Cloud wailed petulantly. Lucy set Loki down and picked Cloud up. Cloud purred at her and hissed at Loki. Lucy set Cloud down in her lap and took firm hold of his head. She peered into the kitten's eyes.
"He's a friend, not food," she said firmly. Cloud seemed to pout. He eyed Loki, then stretched his neck out to sniff him. Suddenly his pink tongue darted out and licked him in a straight line from head to toe so hard that he stumbled backward.
"Cloud!" Lucy exclaimed. Cloud batted his heavily lidded eyes at her sheepishly, yawned so widely that all of his fine teeth were exposed, dipped his head, and offered his paw to the former prince he had sent tumbling as if in a peace offering, or to help him stand. Loki stared leerily at the extended paw. Cloud huffed, bent down, and, by his teeth, gripped the back of the tiny clothes on the tiny man before him, righting him. He then proceeded to pull him closer and begin to groom him. Of course, fervent protests went up, and ample swears in what Lucy presumed was Old Norse.
She sat back on her hands and laughed openly, if only for a moment forgetting about their troubles.
...xxx...
Cloud's Night-Transformations were always fascinating. Lucy lay on her side with her right arm cradling her head, her gaze trained on her kitten, who sat in the middle of the floor with the moonlight streaming through the window illuminating his fluffy white coat. The black at his tail-tip spread like a wave, rippling over his form as it changed, as he grew larger and more muscular, his soft eyes glinting and turning from their soft baby blue to a sea green. Soon a small and young but powerful-looking black panther with a white-tipped tail occupied the same space. Night-Cloud gazed at Lucy, who stretched out her hand to pet his head.
"Your kitten?" Loki inquired cynically. Lucy continued to stroke the purring adolescent panther.
"Yep. He's a Night Transformer." Lucy tipped Night-Cloud's head up by the chin, scratching underneath. A collar with a pentacle became visible, light from the window glancing off of it.
Cloud purred rumblingly. His great eyes opened, and he stared directly at Loki and huffed. His long white whiskers twitched.
"He won't hurt you now, you know," Lucy remarked.
"How reassuring," the prince said sourly as he was nuzzled by said "he". Cloud gave a wide yawn with long, pink, curled tongue included, and then he jumped onto the bed, sailing clear of Lucy and landing just short of Loki, who he picked up by the shirt and deposited on his pillow before curling up with the tiny man between his paws.
"Aww, look, he's going to groom you," Lucy cooed. She sat up and giggled as Cloud began to do so with gusto. "You should feel honored—he usually doesn't take to just anyone...Kind of like you."
Loki snorted. "My gratitude is immense."
Lucy rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth to retort, but a soft knock at the door made her close it quickly. She looked at Night-Cloud, and in an unspoken request, the feline leapt lightly to the floor by her side as she pulled her robe on and put Loki in the pocket. Lucy crept to the door, making sure the chain was secure before she opened it. Sebastian's eyes met hers, glittering from the dark.
"I'm leaving," he whispered before she could say anything.
"Wah?" She said rather inelegantly, then, "¿Por qué? ¿Qué pasó contigo, Ĵajn?"
He sighed softly, ruffling his hair. She opened the door completely.
"Nothing happened to me. I...I just...I need to go."
Lucy closed her door and stepped out into the corridor, pulling her robe tighter around her with her arms encircling herself.
"You know it's not safe."
He held his hands up to keep her from continuing. "I'm going to make a Jump from the indoor garden to Aunt Cecilia and Uncle Kiku's."
Lucy narrowed her eyes slightly. "Care to explain?"
Sebastian cringed. "No. I'll come back. Eventually."
Lucy tipped her head to the side. "You fought with Da, didn't you? I can see it in your eyes."
"Maybe. Maybe not," he said quickly. "Don't tell them you've seen me."
"You know he knows when I lie. He's a Legilemense."
"I thought he taught you to shield yourself?"
"But I'm not good enough at it to hide that. He'd know I knew something and then he'd be twice as mad."
Silence fell between them. Lucy lunged forward and hugged her brother. "I love you," she whispered. Sebastian held her close. "Love you too."
"Do you have your Safe-Keep?"
"Yes."
Silence again.
Eventually, he let her go, and she watched him disappear down the hall.
...xxx...
Things continued to get tense. The magical community had gone so underground that not even the muggle-born families usually knew where their relative went, and when they did, a Memory Swipe and Alter was in place in case of any tampering to have the information divulged. An older Muggle-born or a Half-blood, or someone that lived among Muggles continuously, someone that knew how to blend in, would take them for their things. Katia lent her service to the Professor Xavier she always spoke of, putting a Fidelius Charm on his school with the help of her husband, magical siblings (minus Evie and including Rose) and Professors McGonagall and Flitwkck. She also set up a few other protections, and a Caterwaul Charm, and only vaguely referred to the Secret Keeper as a "helpful magical you know well". Both of her parents still had positions at Hogwarts: Severus Snape as Headmaster and Katia Snape as a professor.
Lucy continued her studying, all of a year and a half until she got her Letter via her father. She stared at it, the yellowish parchment pale against the spread of her bed. She touched it faintly as if afraid that it might not be really.
"I'm really going. Even with things the way they are."
"But of course," Loki supplied soothingly.
Her trunk was packed, her Birch wand somewhere by her side being inspected by Loki. Cloud prowled about restlessly. Lucy didn't know what to expect: she was the youngest, one of the only girls, daughter to the man that turned the tide of the war and the woman instrumental to his sanity that also played a major part in his acquittal. And, of course, she was a Snape, which came with both good and bad connotations and associations. Besides that, there came the realization that...The Potters; The Weasleys; The Malfoys; The Scamanders; The Thomases; The Longbottoms: She would be going to school with them. Well, some of them. Her older siblings had gone before their time, having been born before the Boom Generation. The rest of them were all a part of the Boom Generation that had grown up in relative peace after The Two Wars.
Pippin had gotten over his initial anger and frustration, and Sebastian had come back a week after he had left, but she could tell neither issue had settled. Now she was just ready to go to leave with her brothers. Sighing, she closed her book, a yawn following, and clapped the lights off. Cloud settled in on the floor by her bed, his eyes glowing at her in the dark.
...xxx...
By the Goddess, how could a train ride last so terribly long? Now that they had made it across the great lake and entered, the Sorting had begun.
"Azarov, Ismenia."
"SLYTHERIN!"
Two Blacks were called, Sirith and Silas, and were a Gryffindor and Slytherin, respectively. Twins split just as her two oldest siblings had been.
"Borgin, Elizabeth."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Davidson, Kai."
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Fujioka, Kiku."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Gupta, Chirag."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Halding, Gemmina."
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Long, Su Li."
The cry of "RAVENCLAW!" was almost as instantaneous as with the other girl.
"Longbottom, Beatrice." A minute or two passed, then, "HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Malfoy, Pippin."
"RAVENCLAW!" screamed the Hat after a moment of consideration. It had shocked many when Draco had suffered the death of his new wife Astoria Greengrass. There had not been much stir when he had met and fallen in love with Kat Baker, who accepted both the flawed man and his little son both since both women came from equally "pure" families, although Kat's had been as full of Ravenclaws as it was of Slytherins.
Lucy didn't pay much attention once her friend had been sorted into his mother's house, chatting with her peers until a name after Nott, Sterling ("SLYTHERIN") caught her attention.
"Potter, James."
Something accompanied this one, something wistful in the older witches and wizards. Her father stiffened, she noticed.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
She saw her father's eyes narrow, and her mother's hand fly to his arm in warning.
Lucy returned to waiting rather impatiently for her turn. She eyed her parents at the head of the room. Her mother beamed gently at her, while her father offered a rare half-smile free of a smirk. Her eyes wandered around the room absentmindedly until her name was called after "Scamander, Lyra", another Ravenclaw. A hush fell as soon as the surname was uttered. "Snape, Lucietta."
She moved forward and sat.
Lucy squirmed underneath the Sorting Hat, her head held high as she gazed out unabashedly at the crowded Great Hall. The Hat whispered in her ear, 'Mm, another Snape.'
She straightened. 'Yes?' She responded mentally.
'The blood of the Ancient House of Prince has changed into a newly formed one. Your Mother is an Original, and through your great-grandfather you and yours have untapped potential...your sister sought to tap into that, to prove herself and prove all of them wrong...do you have such aspirations?'
Lucy considered. She knew very well that her sister had been the first of their family sorted, and a Slytherin-Ravenclaw Hat Stall that ended up in Slytherin at that, although her twin Nicodemus had shocked everyone by being a Gryffindor, and the oddball of the family. Cameron, sly and calculating as he was, was an instant Slytherin. She felt the Hat follow these thoughts. Lucy cringed suddenly. Her stomach turned at the thought of being put in Nicodemus' House.
'Not Gryffindor, eh?' The Hat chuckled wryly. She shook her head furiously. "No," she said aloud. "And not Hufflepuff, if you'd be so kind. I'm sure they're nice, but I wouldn't fit in with them."
She heard the room at large mutter at that.
'You're an artist, I see. 'Imaginative, witty, sassy, and eccentric; creative, intuitive, ingenious, and wise, though you still strive to be as wise as you can be, and to use that wisdom.'
Lucy waited. 'You have much patience and acceptance, and despite your curiosity, you practice caution and discretion.'
She felt a squirm in her pocket. She knew what this was all adding up to. She felt the Hat tense, and then thought of Sebastian.
'You have bravery and courage...but since you have already denied these as your highest values and aspirations, and are not as ambitious and calculating as your siblings or the shoulder advisor in your pocket...I know where to put you.'
Lucy startled. How could the Hat know about her ambitions friend? Before she could ask, the Hat proclaimed loudly, "RAVENCLAW!" and was removed from her head. She stood shakily, glancing back at it momentarily, the material immobile as it seemingly gazed directly back at her. Then she turned her attention to the High Table to gaze upon her parents, her mother smiling encouragingly and her father nodding at her in acknowledgement; she shared a look with her tall, proud, brother in Slytherin, and her sister, the Dark Arts professor. Once she had done all of this, head still high, she made her way to her House.
She sat between her youngest elder brother, Sebastian, and the oldest Scamander, Lyra, who had been sorted just before her and whose younger twin brothers were much too young to attend that year with her. She cast her eyes over the other tables, finding Pippin nearby , across the table and two people down, and smiling once she had caught his eye, with Su Li and Kiku to his right. After that, not many people were left.
"Thomas, Hugo."
The Hat had barely touched the boy's head before it proclaimed passionately that he belonged to Gryffindor. All three Weasleys called, Louis, Molly, and Redd, were all Gryffindors, as per usual. The list ended with Zorne, Havilah, a Hufflepuff.
Headmaster Snape gave his usual to-the-point speech that ended with the start of the feast. Lucy managed to sneak a few pieces of non-messy food underneath the table to a very hungry and very thankful Loki that had been starved for hours. Lucy withdrew her hand, and both she and Sebastian's heads shot up along with those of Pippin and Katarina when someone said, "Hey, Snape, Malfoy."
Su Li nodded at the younger sibling in each set of two siblings and then jerked her head at the Gryffindor table. "Potter and Black are staring at you."
Lucy lifted her head and craned her neck ever so slightly. Pippin peered around her. A boy with brown eyes and messy black hair stared back, his glasses glinting, an olive-skinned girl with lush black locks and hazel eyes at his side doing the same. Their eyes narrowed, and then their heads went together, whereupon they clearly commenced whispering to each other while never taking their eyes away. Su Li gave them another cue, and Lucy and Pippin reluctantly stopped inspecting their two observers to find that the other Black had been staring, too, and then they glanced at the Slytherin table. At said other table, Silas appeared to alternate from giving them a calculating assessment to doing the same to their siblings, Pricilla Zabini hissing into his ear; Tobias, Scorpius, and Cameron in Slytherin, and Katarina and Sebastian in Ravenclaw. Cameron seemed on-guard as he did his own assessment of the young Black, grandson of Sirius, who could be a snake in his own nest. And then there was that Potter boy and the other Black in Gryffindor with the Weasley clan, who would undoubtedly meet up and ally with them.
Lucy sighed. The old family rivalries appeared to be rearing their ugly heads.