A golden Lion for Lena.
When morning came I found myself achey and sore from tossing and turning in an unfamiliar bed. As I grabbed my towel to shower I felt the knots that had formed in my hair overnight, knowing this would take at least half a bottle of potion to sort.
After showering and potioning my hair I applied a little eyeliner and mascara, making my eyes look even bigger than usual and smiled happily at myself in the mirror. I couldn't lie I looked breath-taking and as I tucked in my jumper and shirt to my skirt, I realised I really did look much older than my 17 years. I left a few buttons of my shirt open at the neck and tied my tie loosely around my neck so it hung lower than the open buttons. I'd do. And as I reached the common room I realised I looked a little better than I'd just do when I saw Fred and George's eyes bulge and Angelina and I laughed, "It as if they don't know girls exist, seriously. Angelina rolled her eyes and took my arm; we skipped happily to breakfast where we piled our plated high with toast and eggs. As we sat and drank copious amounts of pumpkin juice we laughed watching Hermione edge around the boys who were attempting to sell first year's nose-bleed nougat.
"They just will not listen! I could give them detention but it won't make any difference! It's gotten ridiculous. And Ron wont' say anything because he's the one bloody buying it." Hermione hardly ever swore so Angelina and I shared a look, yikes. "They might get bored." It was a pointless comment as we all knew that wouldn't be happening any time soon. They'd be telling jokes and pulling pranks till they turned in the grave.
Severus and I shared the same morning routine as usual, he picked up his goblet and tapped his fingers against the goblet, I returned the gesture and we looked away from each other, never once returning one another's gaze. Hermione sat and read the prophet while I'd been cornered by Ginny. Although Angelina had told her last night what had happened on Monday, she wanted to make sure I was okay for herself. "I'm fine Ginny, really. I'll be okay." She ate quietly and I listened as Angelina ran through the plans for Friday night. "If Harry can't play I'm going to need to factor in his movements around the pitch." My mind wandered and I began thinking about the way Sev had held me only a few days before. We hadn't seen each other yesterday apart from at meal times and we hadn't spoken. I was missing the contact and although homework and detention had kept me busy my mind wandered helplessly to the feel of his touch. My eyes had strayed, and I watched as a tiny dark brown owl flew down through the open window, so much later than the others had been.
The tiny owl flew down and nestled itself between my pumpkin juice and my plate. "Hey Iris! What do you have here?" She nipped at my fingers as I removed the letters from her leg. I shuffled through the letters and took a deep breath, laying them on my lap. Ginny looked over to them and I pushed them a little more towards me. Feeding Iris the bacon rinds from George's plate I stroked her head mindlessly opening the letter from Dad.
Lena, I am so proud of you! I wish I could come and see you but I'm still under house arrest. I've put a little gift inside the envelope, I hope you like it! We found it in one of the boxes in the attic and I thought it would be appropriate. It belonged to Lily but Albus gave it to me when she passed hoping I could give it to your mother.
Look after yourself and be careful!
Love always Snuffles.
I tipped the envelope and out fell a little golden Gryffindor lion on a chain. I laughed a little. "Where's Harry Hermione? I should show him this," I stuffed everything back into my bag, holding the letters in one hand, and the lion pendant in the other, "In the Library with Ron." I yelled that id meet Angelina down in the dungeons and flew up the stairs to the library.
Ron and Harry were sat around on of the tables in a corner of the library and I dropped the pile of toast id brought with me on the table. They looked up from their dream diaries and smiled, each taking a slice of toast. "Thanks Lena." I smiled and led the pendant down in front of Harry. He traced the shape with his finger. "From Dad. It was your Mum's Harry. She left it for my Mum." He smiled. " I'm glad you've got it Lena." He stood and took the pendant from the table. He pushed my hair over one shoulder and hung the thin gold chain around my neck, his fingers lingered as he clasped it tightly. I was relieved. I knew Harry didn't really have anything from his parents and there was a part of me that thought that he might want it. "Thanks Harry." I slipped the golden lion under my shirt and took Harrys dream diary. It looked as if, like me, he dreamt of death nightly. "Divination?" Ron nodded slowly adding 'in skates chased by spider' to the Tuesday night slot. I laughed but got a steely look from the librarian. "What have you got first Lena?" Harry had helped himself to another slice of toast and I took the other two letters from the table, sliding my finger under the seal. "Potions." I smiled at Harry suggestively and he winked back. No doubt he'd want to know all about it on the way to detention that night. I pulled the letter out and looked over it cautiously, not recognising the handwriting.
Your father told me the news, congratulations Lena! I knew you could do it.
I'm sorry about Monday, I shouldn't have allowed myself to do it and I only hope you can forgive me.
Stay safe
Remus.
I put the letter safely into my bag so that the boys couldn't read it and opened the next, only briefing recognising the handwriting. A small smile played across my face and I pulled the letter from the envelope gently.
Midnight, Friday, by the lake.
I smiled and Harry looked at me wearily. "Better get going I guess. Don't want to be late for Snape do I." I hugged them both as they left for the divination tower, eating the least few slices of toast, and I walked away in the opposite direction, towards the dungeons.
When I arrived, Angelina, Fred, George and Charlotte were stood outside waiting. Angelina took the lion between her fingers and said how pretty it was, yet the boys weren't looking at the lion but the open neck of my shirt. "For Merlin's sake. It's as if you've never seen a breast before!" I pulled the neck of my shirt together and when the door to the dungeon opened , passed quietly through into the room, standing at a table with Fred, George and Angelina. As I took a cauldron from beneath the desk and placed in upon it, I realised a small little white blossom was on my desk. Angelina nudged me and we watched as the blossom grew large before the bud burst open revealing large soft pink petals. The peony floated above the desk and from it came streams of glittering perfume that wrapped themselves through my curls, leaving the sweet peony scent in my hair. I smiled and guided the blossom back down to my desk, pushing it away from the cauldron so that it wouldn't be damaged. "Who?" Angelina whispered and I shrugged innocently chancing a glance at my potions master. He clocked my gaze and the corners of his mouth rose. "Miss Black, admirers are not for the classroom. I'd prefer if you left your love life outside my classroom door." I nodded at him but as I took my seat I smiled knowingly.
Again we sat through the NEWT lecture, but unlike any of the other teachers, Sev did not promise any extra study support or assistance. He flicked his wand to the board and a recipe for an invisibility spell appeared on the board. As we gathered ingredients and began work Sev walked around the classroom giving the occasional comment or judgement, 'too brown,' 'too thin' 'too thick.' By the time he reached our table we'd all finished and were slowly beginning to tidy away. I stood colleting the last of the dragon toenails from my desk when Sev looked into my cauldron.
"Hmm. Not bad for your first lesson Miss Black. Perfect green colour and the exact consistency described on the board. 10 points to Gryffindor." He continued to walk around the classroom but all the students had stopped now and some were whispering behind covered mouths. "Did I do something wrong?" I whispered to Angelina and she came to stand beside me turning from the rest of the class. Sev paid no attention to the fact that his class had suddenly become comatose and continued to observe everyone's different potions. "He doesn't give out points on the first lesson but to Slytherins." My mouth made an O shape without me even realising I was doing it and I shut my mouth quickly. So much for no special attention.
When the lesson ended and we'd all vialled and given in our potions, everyone gathered around the door waiting to be dismissed. "Not yet. I was very disappointed with most of your performances today, it showed a lack of confidence and concentration on most of your parts. However, by observing you as you worked and looking now at the finished product, I think it safe to say only one of you managed to complete the process to a NEWT standard. Miss Black, your potion, as a reward for working so hard." He handed me the tiny vial and walked away, motioning with his hand for dismissal and the door swung open by itself. "Well done Lena!" Many of the Gryffindors congratulated me on the way out and I smiled timidly, not used to all the attention.
"Why don't you give it to daddy Black? Might help him escape a few more Dementors I suppose. I presume that's something even a whore like you would prefer not to kiss." Ambrose's words stung and I turned quickly on my heel, my wand flying to my hand defensively. "Jealous Ambrose, that I have a father to send it too? And you're wrong about the Dementor. I'd kiss a million Dementors before I kissed you scum." I turned on my heel and sauntered off to break with Angelina and Charlotte. We sat beside the lake and ate the apples we picked from one of the tree's in Sprouts garden. They were large and red and the sweet apples nectar, mixed with brilliant sunshine made our heads spin after two long hours spent in the dungeons.
"Ambrose is a git Lena. You're the only one to ever stand up to him and he hates it. Usually the Slytherins obey his every word and the Gryffindors keep quiet just in case with his Dad and all, so you've blown him out the water so far." Charlotte led on her stomach beside me and I allowed my hands to fly through my curls, untangling the knots that had made their way into my long locks after being tied up in the dungeons. "I know, just some of the stuff he says?" I knelt up on my elbows and glanced out across the lake. Some of the first years had had their first flying lesson and Madame Hooch had allowed them to stay up on the brooms over break. She watched happily on the ground below, obviously delighted with the numbers that had taken to it quickly this year. "It can't exactly be easy having Voldemort round at the weekends can it. I mean, you can't excuse him for it, but he's only ever really known the death eaters and that isn't exactly the best crowd to grow up in is it." I nodded my head at Angelina's comment. Growing up with death eaters wouldn't be easy no. An image of Sev's arm floated in my mind. He never spoke about it and I wasn't quite sure that it was open for discussion. Sure we talked about his missions for the Order but we never actually discussed the fact that essentially he was a death eater.
My mind was brought too much brighter things however when Fred and George joined us. They'd obviously been taste testing their own products and Fred had large grey hair sprouting from his nostrils and ears, while George's nose did not appear to want to stop bleeding. "Why don't you eat the purple end!?" I rushed to help George and passed him the handkerchief that I kept in my skirt pocket. He took it and held it to his nose but it was soaked within minutes and we removed it, Angelina then used her own handkerchief, but it was quickly sodden. "We've lost them all. Umbridge must have nicked our stash when she took George's bag this morning. And he ate the orange end he found in his pocket to display it to some second years. " George's bag had been confiscated before breakfast; Umbridge had said she needed to investigate the peculiar behaviour of the two young boys, and there was no guarantee when they'd get the bag back.
"Dean! Seamus!" I called the boys over knowing they'd bought the nougat from the boys before dinner the night before, only hoping they had them on them. "Please tell me you have some nose bleed nougat. George has got a gusher and we don't have a purple stopper, he's going to pass out in a minute!" They both riffled through their bags, Dean finally finding a single sweet at the bottom of his bag. "Thanks Dean! We owe you one!" I kissed him on the cheek and ran back to the group who had sat George down on the ground. He was milky white and his robes were coated in drying and dripping blood. I shoved the purple end into his mouth and the bleeding stopped immediately. I grabbed a bottle of water from my bag and he drank it thirstily, spitting out the first few mouthfuls to get rid of the blood in his mouth. "Thanks Lena!" I smiled at him sympathetically and rubbed his arm gently. "You'd better take him to the hospital wing Fred, we'll tell Sprout where you are." Fred wrapped an arm around his brother and began to walk slowly up the slope to the castle, "And Fred?!' he turned back to be questioningly 'see if Madam Pomfrey can so anything about that hair." He saluted and continued to carry his brother towards the grand doors.
The rest of the day passed quietly. The boys returned at lunch and joined us down by the lake where we'd made ourselves a little picnic with pumpkin pasties and cauldron cakes that we'd brought down from the hall.
Last period however, meant 2 hours of Umbridge. Her classroom was stifling and she refused to open any windows. The air dried my throat and soon I was gasping for air. We spent the two hours copying out noted from the book and Umbridge watched on from her throne, she had enchanted a fan to flutter itself, cooling her, the constant beating of the wooden folds excruciatingly irritating. When the two hours ended we all trampled down to the lake and stripping off our socks and jumpers, paddled in the cool water. The September sunshine would not last for much longer and we wanted to make good use of it. Angelina and I splashed water at the twins who returned the favour and soon the four of us were soaked. Laughing we threw ourselves down on the grass to dry and lay there for another hour before running up into the castle just in time for dinner.
Before detention I asked Harry to come up to owlery with me to give my replies to Iris and on the journey he couldn't help but ask me how my day had been, an agenda obvious in the tone of his voice. I took the peony blossom from my bag. Lee had made me a small box to put it in and it rested in the small paper chamber. I passed it to Harry who shrugged. "It manifested itself on my desk in potions this morning." He raised an eyebrow, "Snape's a smooth git, I'll give him that." I sighed and put the peony back into my bag.
The owlery remained dark even though its walls were lined with windows and we lit a candle carefully as I tied my replies to Iris's leg. I put Dad's and Remus at the bottom with one for Sev at the top. "Him first Iris alright. You know where he is. Then Dad, then Remus. They'll be at home." She brushed her head against my hand and flew out of the window in a flap of her tiny wings leaving Harry and I to walk to Umbridge's. We could put it off no longer.
Detention was the same as the nights before, long and painful. But this time neither Harry nor I spoke to the old hag, apart from the civil greetings she expected. On our way back to the common room we ran into Ron and I walked on, it looked as if the boys had their own little problems to deal with and I didn't need to play witness to them. I showered quickly and lay in bed looking at the scar that hit the light of the candle I was using to write the essay Sev and Sprout had set us earlier in the day. The pain soared through my veins and I led the finished essays under my bed and blowing out the candle thought about how far Iris had gotten on her delivery.
It was a simple; I'll be there, for Severus and a thank you to Dad. But my letter had been a little longer to Remus. Hermione was sure the mail was being watched so I'd had to keep it short and sweet to dad and Sev, no names, but it was different with Remus. There was nothing to say I wasn't free to talk to my father's old best friend, and in fact, in his absence it would seem the perfectly normal thing to do.
I'm sorry too, I think I've led you astray and it isn't fair of me.
Let's speak no more of it and act as if it never happened.
I'll be fine, stop worrying. Lena x