September 1992, 2nd year

One morning during their third week at Hogwarts, a barn owl delivered a letter to Lynea.

"Is it your grand-aunt?" Draco asked immediately.

"Yes," Lynea said, reading through her letter. "She has apparently scheduled a meeting with Headmaster Dumbledore on the first Saturday in October." Lynea looked up and at Harry. "She took Snape's letter as a sign that you have made your decision."

"But I haven't," Harry said.

Lynea raised her eyebrows. "Is it truly so difficult? Or would you rather someone else to take you in? That might be more difficult to pull off, but I think Naenia could persuade Dumbledore eventually."

Harry shook his head. "That's not it. I just …" He shrugged. "I don't know."

Lynea sighed. "You have until October to figure it out. In the meantime, I have scheduled a tutoring session with Neville for this Sunday morning, anyone want to join?"

"I do," Daphne said immediately.

"Me too," Blaise said.

"We have Quidditch practice on Sunday morning," Harry said, gesturing to himself and Draco. "Can't you put it to the afternoon instead?"

Lynea's gaze flickered over to Draco. "Hermione is going to be there as well. But she and Neville are both busy in the afternoon with their own tutoring session."

"Then we can study together in the afternoon," Draco said. "I don't need any help in Potions, anyway."

"But I do!" Harry exclaimed.

Lynea laughed. "I can take notes for you, Harry. Or better yet – I'll make Neville write two sets of notes, that way he might even remember it faster."

"Alright," Draco said. "Vincent, Gregory, finish up. It's time to go to class."

The two boys grunted in affirmation and quickly shovelled the last of their breakfast into their mouths.

"Urgh," Harry groaned. "I wish I could just skip Lockhart's classes altogether."

"Aww," Draco cooed. "Are you not happy that Lockhart loves you so much, he absolutely has to let you help him re-enact all his favourite scenes from his own books?"

"Don't rub it in, Draco," Harry grumbled, grabbing his bag and getting up with the others.

"Oh, I would simply love to be in your shoes." Pansy fluttered her eyes at him. "Butter him up and then ask for an autograph or two."

"Did you already sell the ones you got in Diagon Alley?" Lynea asked curiously as they left the Great Hall.

Pansy's face lit up. "I did! And they sold like hotcakes."

"I wonder whether we could give him a permission slip for the Restricted Section of the library without him noticing," Theodore mused.

Blaise snorted. "Certainly. But Madam Pince won't be persuaded of its authenticity so easily. I don't think she would let a permanent permission pass through – not when we're still only in second year."

"Too bad Lockhart will be gone by the time we're old enough," Lynea said. "But at the rate we're going, the next Defence Against the Dark Arts professors won't be any better. We might get the permission as easily as with Lockhart."

"Come, now," Tracey said. "If his claims are true, the man is actually a fairly seasoned wizard."

Lynea raised an eyebrow. "Do you believe they are true?"

Tracey shrugged. "There is no evidence against it, is there?"

"There is no evidence for it, either."

"It could be both," Daphne mused. "From the way he writes, it certainly does sound like real events he witnessed."

"He could just be claiming someone else's achievements," Lynea pointed out.

"And what about eyewitnesses?" Tracey asked.

Lynea shrugged. "Memory spells?"

Draco snorted. "You don't believe he could actually pull those off, do you? Those are highly complicated spells."

Lynea laughed. "You're right. There's no way he could perform a proper memory alteration spell."

"He could," Gregory grunted. "It's written in Magical Me."

They all looked at Gregory in surprise.

"Oh!" Pansy clapped her hands. "You were the fourth student! I've been wondering who it might have been."

"What?" Lynea asked. "What fourth student?"

"From the quiz. Don't you remember? Lockhart gave us a quiz in his first lesson and I know Daphne, Tracey and I got most of his questions right, but I just couldn't figure out who the fourth person was." Pansy turned to Gregory. "But I remember now, I've seen Greg reading his books on occasion."

"You did?" Draco asked, then turned to Gregory. "You read Lockhart's books?"

Gregory shrugged. "They are entertaining."

Lynea leaned around Draco to look at Gregory. "But you don't believe he really did all of it, do you?"

Gregory shrugged again. "Probably not."

"Ah, lovely," came Professor Lockhart's voice from behind them. "You are all here already. Harry, I once again require your assistance today. I hope you are up for some action, I have something very special prepared for today."

Harry hung his head in defeat and trudged into the classroom after Lockhart. Draco barely hid his gleeful smirk as he and the others followed.

The lesson wasn't any more exciting than Lockhart's other ones had been so far. He read them some passages from his book Voyages with Vampires and had Harry play the poor vampire that ended up being unable to eat anything but lettuce (if the story was to be believed).

"Maybe we should ask Professor Snape for permission to practice duelling again," Draco asked when they were heading to their next class. "I'm sure we can find some books on spells we are supposed to cover in second year in the library."

"I believe we already learned most of them," Lynea said. "But we can certainly do some research and let everyone come up with spells they want to learn. You don't have Quidditch practice on Fridays, do you?"

"But it's Friday, Lynea!" Draco whined. "Friday afternoons are meant to be for enjoyment, to recover from a whole week of school."

"Learning new spells is fun," Lynea replied in amusement. "Especially when we get to use them on each other."

"You don't have to attend, if you are so set against it," Pansy said with a grin. "You'll just have to live with missing out on a great opportunity, then."

Draco sighed dramatically. "Fine, Friday it is. You are all spoilsports."

o

"You know what I've noticed?" Daphne said towards the end of their tutoring session with Neville and Hermione on Sunday. "We have a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor in our group, but no Hufflepuff."

Blaise snorted. "Neville's basically a Hufflepuff."

"Don't be mean," Lynea said.

"But it's true …" Neville said quietly.

"Neville!" Lynea admonished quietly. She shook her head and turned back to Blaise, her expression turning mischievous. "Besides, by that logic we would need to add a Gryffindor to our group."

Blaise's face contorted. "Alright, I take it back. Neville is very much a Gryffindor, no doubt about it."

"So we still need a Hufflepuff," Daphne said.

Lynea shuffled her notes into her bag. "Any suggestions?"

"No one of value in our year," Blaise said. "According to Theo, at least."

"I heard Finch-Fletchley isn't half bad," Daphne said.

"Muggleborn," Blaise shot back.

"Ah," Daphne said. "That's unfortunate."

Lynea glanced at Hermione, who was still scribbling furiously on her parchment and not paying attention to them. When the three Slytherins and Neville left for a late lunch, she was still working on whatever it was she was doing. Lynea wondered whether she would still be at it when they returned to the library later.

The moment Lynea, Daphne and Blaise stepped into the common room, though, to put some of their books away and retrieve some others, as well as Draco and Harry, that thought was quickly forgotten. There was a small crowd gathered around three students that turned out to be Harry facing off against Adrian Pucey with Draco looking like he was trying to shield Harry from the older student.

"What's going on?" Lynea asked Pansy.

Pansy didn't even take her eyes off of Harry and the other two. "Didn't you say you wanted to talk to the upper years about the Granger situation?"

"I did," Lynea said.

"Well, now's your chance. Pucey hexed that tiny Gryffindor that's always following Harry for intruding on their Quidditch practice and Harry's not at all happy about that. From what I heard, they nearly had a public fight on the Quidditch Pit."

Just then Warrington, who was in the same year as Pucey, noticed Lynea and called out to her, "Fawley, get your little halfblood under control."

"I will not," Lynea said icily. "Because as I see it, he is in the right. Montague, call your classmate off."

A large boy shouldered his way through the crowd. "Adrian," he barked. "Stand down!"

Pucey shot a glare at Montague, but relaxed his stance and took a step back all the same.

Montague fixed Lynea with a stare. "Now explain."

Lynea stepped into the circle, next to Harry and Draco. "Would someone mind telling me what happened, first?"

Pucey narrowed his eyes. "Some mudblood spied on our Quidditch practice. I put him into his rightful place, but apparently Potter didn't like that very much."

"Colin didn't do anything wrong!" Harry exclaimed. "He just wanted to watch our practice."

"Defending a mudblood, are you?" Pucey spat. "I knew you were blood traitor the moment I saw you talk to the Granger girl."

Lynea put a hand on Harry's shoulder and tried to silently convey to him to calm down. It didn't quite work, but Harry let her take the lead.

"Some of us, and that includes Harry and myself, are actually friends with Hermione Granger."

"So it's true," someone said. "You are actually blood traitors."

"Does that matter?" Lynea asked. "Neither Harry's family, nor mine advocate the pureblood ideology."

"Isn't your father a known Death Eater, though?" another student called.

"And he is serving his sentence in Azkaban for it," Lynea replied evenly. "My family is neutral."

"What about the others, then?" Montague said, joining them in the middle of the circle the crowd had formed. "I know for certain that some of their families still advocate the right beliefs."

Lynea looked him straight in the eyes and raised her voice, so everyone could hear. "Not all of us are friends with Hermione Granger." They had discussed this beforehand for a situation like this, after all. "They tolerate her for our sake. Because Slytherins do not cause unnecessary trouble with their own housemates, as you all perfectly well know."

"A mudblood," Pucey hissed. "You can't expect us to play nice with a filthy –"

"Adrian," Montague said in a warning tone. "Behave yourself. You are a pureblood and a Slytherin. Do not slander either of those titles just because you cannot keep yourself under control. The Granger girl is off-limits." He turned back to Lynea. "I hope she will remain the only one."

Lynea shrugged. "I personally don't plan on befriending any other muggleborn, but I can't speak for the others."

"You are their leader," Montague said. "It's your responsibility to keep them in line."

"For public issues," Lynea replied. "That has nothing to do with conflicts inside our house."

"Fraternizing with mudbloods is a public issue."

Lynea stared at Montague for a moment, then let her gaze fall on her classmate. "Harry, what do you have to say about this?"

Harry set his jaw. "All muggleborn should be off-limits."

"Out of the question," Lynea said.

Harry glowered at her. "I believe you could make that happen."

"No," Lynea said. "This is not my problem to resolve. Blood purity is a far greater issue than I, a twelve-year old child, can deal with. The same goes for you."

"Don't you turn thirteen in a month and a half?" Blaise interjected.

Lynea nearly rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Blaise, I totally forgot about my own birthday. Because this is totally relevant right now."

"It kind of is," Blaise said. "Once you are thirteen, you have more authority."

Lynea sighed. "My point still stands." She gave Blaise a sharp look. "Or do you disagree?"

Blaise raised his hands. "Not at all. I was just pointing it out."

"Will you be able to keep you classmates under control?" Montague asked. "The Granger girl is off-limits, but that's where we draw the line. There will not be a repeat of what happened today."

"If Pucey hadn't hexed Colin, we wouldn't have a problem in the first place," Harry growled. "Is It so hard to act like a decent human being?"

Pucey drew his wand. "You dare –?!"

"Pucey!" Lynea said in a warning tone. "If you every lay a hand on Harry – or any of my classmates, for that matter – I will personally make sure you will regret the day you were born."

Pucey rounded on her. "And you think you can take me on? A tiny second-year girl against a big fourth-year boy?"

Lynea smirked. "Well, I am descended from the ancient Lémure family, known as one of the most powerful families in the world. What do you have to offer?"

"You are a Fawley, you said it yourself."

Lynea narrowed her eyes. "Yet I have still inherited the Lémure blood. Do not mistake me for a weak girl, Pucey, because I am able to use the Forbidden Arts as well as the Old Magics."

Pucey lowered his wand and bowed his head. "I understand."

"Alright, folks!" Montague called out. "This meeting is over. Bugger off!" He looked over his shoulder at Lynea. "Remember, the Granger girl and no one else."

Lynea waved at him dismissively. "I got that the first time."

Montague nodded and then disappeared with Pucey in tow.

Draco raised his eyebrows at Lynea. "That was impressive. Quite unexpected, too."

Lynea pinched the bridge of her nose. "I never thought I would actually have to use that name one day."

"And yet here we are," Draco said.

"Pucey wouldn't have backed down otherwise," Lynea replied. "And I'm fairly certain several others were ready to side with him, as well."

"They were already whispering who should step forth," Pansy supplied. "I'm sure I heard the Lémure name drop a few times – and that was before your grand declaration. You might deny your name, but you can't deny its usefulness."

"My name is still Fawley," Lynea said. "That won't change. Unless my mother decides to file for a divorce and take on her maiden name again. But the Lémures certainly would never let me officially take on their name, even if I wanted to."

And she certainly didn't. Nor did Lynea plan on marrying into the family, although she probably met the requirements.

"If you say so," Pansy said. "That doesn't prevent you from making good use of it, though."

"But I do not want to," Lynea said.

"I think you will find that you have no choice," Draco murmured.

Lynea looked around for Harry, but the boy had seemingly vanished into thin air.