April to May 1993, 2nd year

"Mister Potter," Professor Snape drawled, ignoring that they had just come out of a girl's bathroom. "May I have a word? In my office."

"Er – of course, sir," Harry said, looking at Lynea with wide eyes.

Lynea tried to give him a reassuring smile. "I'll see you at lunch." She nodded at Snape. "Professor." And then she led her grand-aunt down to the Entrance Hall.

"I believe I have accomplished everything I came here for," Naenia said. "I left the documents with Severus, all that is left is Harry's consent."

"He will really come and live with us," Lynea murmured and then a smile spread across her face. "I'll have another cousin, then."

"First cousin once removed, if we are going to be accurate" Naenia said.

"But you're not adopting him," Lynea pointed out. "So I can just pretend Harry's a cousin of mine, like Theodore."

"He could also be a brother to you."

Lynea took a moment to think about that. "No, I think I feel more comfortable with cousin. My relationship with Thelus is quite different compared to the one I have with Theodore."

"That might be partially due to what the two of you went through prior to Lysander's arrest. You and your brother were in different positions back then, whereas Theodore is someone you can relate to a bit more."

"Why don't we adopt him?"

Naenia gave her a look that might have resembled sadness. The sunglasses made it a bit hard to read her face. "If only it were that easy, Lynea."

Lynea's mother would have done it, had she been in the state of mind she was today several years ago and steadily progressed from there. But Phyllida's relationship with her brother Nereus had not changed a lot over the years. Lynea would never understand her mother's standpoint – not where it concerned Theodore, not from before her father's arrest, nor after.

Her mother hadn't known. She hadn't understood what was wrong with her daughter until Naenia had taken her aside and explained it to her. But she had never done anything to help, either. Granted, Lynea's father had made it rather difficult for Phyllida to step in, but, surely, she could have done something.

Lynea loved her mother, of course she did. (As much as she was capable of love, stunted as her emotions were, as a Necromancer.) But there were days where she felt closer to Naenia than her own mother. And Naenia was by no means a better person than Phyllida. On the contrary – Phyllida Fawley tried to be a good person. Naenia Lémure was a morally grey person at best, more on the darker side on most days, and she carried it with her head held high. The fact that Naenia's closest friend at Hogwarts had been actually the Dark Lord, himself, already cast a bad light on her. On top of the whole baggage that came with being a Necromancer, obviously.

Lynea had heard a lot of stories about Tom. It was hard to imagine that the charming and clever halfblood boy Naenia had valued so much had later become one of the most evil wizards of all time, preaching pureblood supremacy and plunging the magical world into chaos for no apparent reason. Tom Riddle had been brilliant, according to Naenia, but the Dark Lord's plan to take over the wizarding world had lacked finesse – if that had been his plan, some people weren't so sure about that.

But Tom Riddle had also been power-hungry, Lynea remembered. Naenia had not talked about it very often, but it had always made her more melancholic than she usually was when telling stories about Tom – almost as if something about it caused her great sorrow and pain, now that Lynea thought about it.

In the end, Lynea had known him neither as Tom Riddle nor as the Dark Lord and as terrible as his deeds were, they were only stories to her. She could not judge a character based on stories alone. And the fragment she had met through Quirrel could barely compare to who the Dark Lord had once been.

"Where there any more Mutilatio victims?" Lynea asked, shaking herself out of her thoughts.

"Roughly one every month," Naenia. "There have only been two in one singular month once."

"Is there a pattern to it?"

Naenia smiled. "There is."

And she would not tell Lynea, it seemed.

o

"You alright, Harry?" Draco asked.

Harry shrugged, eyes still glued to the piece of parchment he was clutching tightly. "It still hasn't really sunk in, yet, I suppose. I'm not sure it will until I actually – well – until I permanently move in, I guess?" He shrugged again. "It feels weird calling it 'home'."

"You'll get used to it," Draco said. "And you'll see – there is nothing better than having a real home and a real family. I'm sure the Lémures will be great."

"Fawleys," Lynea said, but Draco only made dismissive shooing gesture. Although he did glance back at her, as if unsure how she would react to that.

"It's – not a real family, though, is it?" Harry ducked his head and averted his eyes. "They're not adopting me."

"We don't need to adopt you to make you a part of our family," Lynea said gently. "Naenia would adopt us both, if she could. But if she adopted me, my mother would throw a fit, and if she adopted you, her mother would throw a fit … Anyway, the Dursleys were your legal guardians and they lost that privilege until the end of all times. They do not have any rights over you anymore, so it's not like an adoption is necessary from a legal standpoint."

"Nor is it from a magical standpoint," Draco added. "Lynea's grand-aunt made sure to keep the matter quiet, but it is still known within the Ministry – and even those dunderheads wouldn't knowingly let a magical child be mistreated by some Muggles."

"Do you want to be adopted?" Lynea asked. "It won't change anything for us – you will be a part of the family either way. But if it's important to you …"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "You're absolutely right, it wouldn't make a difference." He raised his eyes and gave them a genuine smile. "But thank you."

"Alright," Draco said, "now that we have cleared that up, let's not leave the others hanging any longer, shall we? While the two of you were Merlin-knows-where during the morning, Professor Snape gave us a list with new subjects we have to choose for third-year. We didn't want to start without you."

So they vacated their little corner in the common room and joined the others at one of the tables, where their housemates had already laid out some books and the letters their families had sent to help them with the decision.

"This could decide our whole future," Theodore said, looking a bit frantic. "We need to think this over very carefully."

"Muggle Studies is out," Draco said in a careless tone. "We already know no one will take that."

Harry furrowed his brows. "What? Why?"

"Muggle Studies, Harry." Draco rolled his eyes. "Come on, use that pretty little head of yours."

"You think I'm pretty?"

Draco groaned in exasperation.

"I would like to," Theodore said, "because the Muggles possess knowledge that is worth collecting. But my father would have my head."

"And you can't attend on your own," Blaise said. "Apart from Muggle Studies, we have the three with the most academical advantages – Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. Divination is really only useful if you have the Sight and I doubt any of us do."

"But it's easy," Vincent said. "We can just make stuff up."

Gregory nodded. "Arithmancy sounds like a nightmare. And Runes demands a lot of memorizing. We're not good with that."

"I think I'll choose Divination, too," Tracey said, but offered no explanation. "Anyone else?"

"Er – you said we can just make stuff up?" Harry asked Gregory. "Then I think I'll go with Divination as well."

Draco frowned. "Are you sure about that Harry? That won't do you any good in the long run."

Harry just shrugged.

"Okay," Lynea said. "Muggle Studies is out. We have four people attending Divination – you should be fine, so long as no one tries to kill Harry again. I think Care of Magical Creatures is going to be the most popular one. Does anyone not want to choose that?"

"Me," Blaise said immediately.

"I'm going to pass, as well," Daphne said.

Lynea nodded. "Anyone else? No? Okay. Blaise, Daphne, you both ran out of options."

"Fine by me," Blaise said. "Arithmancy and Runes were already the most intriguing." He smirked at Daphne. "Right, darling?"

Daphne only smiled.

"I'll agree with you there," Lynea said.

"So you're going to choose three extra classes?" Draco asked, searching her eyes for confirmation. "Then I will, too."

"You're mad," Millicent commented.

"And you still need one more," Lynea shot back.

"Runes. I'm good with memorizing stuff. I imagine it's going to be like History, but with an interesting teacher."

"Only you would say something like that," Pansy said. "I think Arithmancy is by far the more interesting subject. Arithmancy is all about numbers and logic."

While Pansy and Millicent got into an argument over which of the two was more interesting, Lynea turned to the only person left. "Theodore?"

"Runes," Theodore said. "I don't think I could handle three additional classes like you and Draco. Runes are more suited for what I have in mind."

"And what might that be?" Draco asked.

Theodore smiled. "That remains to be seen, doesn't it?"

"I wonder what Hermione is going to choose," Harry mused.

Lynea chuckled. "She would probably choose all five, if she could. But if she goes about this in a smart way, then the same ones Draco and I. Hermione already knows all about Muggles, and Divination, like Blaise said, is useless when you're not a true Seer."

Harry brightened up. "Maybe we'll see her in Care of Magical Creatures, then."

"Depends on the number of students, I suppose," Lynea said. "And how smart the assigned teacher divides the houses if there are too many for one single class." She wrinkled her nose. "If we're unlucky they'll pair us with the Gryffindors."

"I believe Professor Kettleburn is retiring," Draco said. "He always paired Slytherin with Hufflepuff, because the combination with Ravenclaw made his head hurt and you obviously can't expect us to work with Gryffindors. Father didn't tell me who will replace him, though. I assume they haven't decided or found a new teacher, yet.

"Arithmancy and Runes are usually shared by all houses," he continued, "as is Muggle Studies, technically, but there's usually never a Slytherin in that class."

"So Divination is one of the two favourites?" Lynea asked incredulously. "Does no one value useful education anymore?"

Draco snorted, but quickly masked it as a cough, when Tracey turned to them with narrowed eyes.

"Oy!" she said in an admonishing tone. "Don't slander something you don't know anything about."

Lynea raised her hands defensively, letting a smile tug the corners of her lips up. "Fine, fine, I'll be quiet. I didn't mean to ruffle anyone's feathers."

o

On the first day of the last term, Dumbledore made an official announcement to the school that the danger had passed and that they would have to fear no more attacks. He said some other vague things that no one really cared about and then Lockhart held his own speech about how it had been all him – that the Heir of Slytherin had become scared of him or something like that. Curiously enough, Dumbledore had not used the phrases 'Chamber of Secrets', 'Heir of Slytherin' and 'Slytherin's Monster' even once, but even without Lockhart's pompous speech everyone had known what he had been talking about.

In just one day, the mood of the whole school had been lifted considerably. The mandrakes were not quite ready, yet, but that did not discourage anyone as they were slowly but steadily growing each day. The exams looming above their heads didn't dampen the mood, either – maybe made Hermione a bit frantic, even though they still had more than a month to prepare, and when Hermione became frantic, she often pulled the others from their study group down with her – which was noticeable smaller this year, because of a certain blood purity issue with certain pureblood parents.

Hermione had indeed originally planned to sign up for all the new classes, but let herself be talked out of it. Blaise's argument that the limited capacity of teachers would probably force her to attend two of the classes at once finally convinced her – after all, she couldn't very well be in two places at the same time, could she?

They got a short reprieve from all the studying and revising when Beltane approached. Because the threat that the Chamber of Secrets had posed was gone now, Headmaster Dumbledore no longer had any valid reasons to forbid the students form observing the Beltane traditions outside, under the stars.

The bonfire was just as magnificent as it had been the year before. Some older Gryffindor managed to singe his clothes while jumping over it, but there were, fortunately, no severe accidents. As the second-years were still too young to get involved with the more nefarious traditions, they spent the evening dancing and braiding flowers in their hair. Lynea had come prepared this year and went to the edge of the forest with her friends – supervised by prefect Travers, because they weren't allowed close to the forest at night – where she set to plant a little tree sapling.

This year, too, they were not allowed to stay after midnight, and this year, too, they ignored their bedtime and sat together to chat some more. They were lucky it was the weekend and that they had no classes the next day. The celebrations didn't stop Hermione from pestering them about studying for the exams, though.

Unfortunately, studying for the exams was apparently not a good reason to miss out on a Quidditch match – not one the Slytherin team was involved in, at least. Lynea had been allowed to sit out on the games their house had not been part of, but she had not found a way out of the match versus Ravenclaw (no Harry-related incidents, this time) and was now dragged to the game versus Hufflepuff.

It was only a sport.

But most of her housemates, unfortunately, disagreed.

"It's the last game of the season," Millicent said. "With Harry and Draco playing this year, our chances at winning the Quidditch Cup are very high. You cannot miss this, Lynea. Don't you want to support your friends?"

Lynea sighed. Why was Quidditch the one thing they always ignored her protests against? She didn't mind the others standing up to her, but she did mind attending Quidditch matches.

"You can't truly think it is a waste of time," Tracey said. "Honestly! Not even Blaise complains as much as you do."

Blaise shrugged and said, "It's alright." Which earned him a half-hearted glare from both Millicent and Tracey.

"Leave her be," Gregory said. "Not everyone likes everything."

"What a wise thing to say," Blaise commented and Lynea wasn't sure whether he meant to come across as sardonic or not.

The game wasn't half bad as Lynea made it out to be. (She was a Slytherin. Slytherin's liked to be dramatic.) Lynea mostly listened to Pansy's comments on the various Hufflepuff players, while she watched Draco race across the pitch and Harry circle above them.

"And lastly," Pansy said. "Cedric Diggory." She sighed dreamily. "He's in fourth-year and a likely candidate for both the position of the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain and a fifth-year prefect next year. He's the Golden Boy of our school."

"The Golden Boy?" Lynea asked, glancing at the Hufflepuff hovering on the other side of the pitch, scanning the area for the Golden Snitch.

Pansy huffed. "Have you looked at him, Lynea? Cedric Diggory practically screams 'Golden Boy' – he is handsome, intelligent, very polite and nice and friendly even for Hufflepuff standards, and he has the charm and charisma to go with it. That boy is perfect."

Lynea narrowed her eyes and gave the Hufflepuff a once-over. "I suppose he is pretty to look at."

"Pretty to look at?" Pansy exclaimed. "What are you looking at? The moon?" She shook her head. "Everyone is swooning over him. You can't possibly tell me you're immune!"

"Eh." Lynea shrugged. "I didn't even know he existed until today."

"But I've been swooning over him since first-year! You must have at least heard me talking about him."

Lynea blinked. "You have?"

"Honestly, Lynea. Do you never pay attention?"

"Not when it concerns Quidditch."

Tracey laughed. "Because that wasn't obvious. Harry has seen the Snitch, by the way."

And so had Cedric, whom Lynea had still been watching. But Harry had a head-start, a better broom and was a genius flyer – although Lynea didn't know whether the latter didn't also apply to Diggory. Pansy had said he was in line to be the next captain for Hufflepuff, so he was probably quite good.

Anyway, Harry obviously caught the Snitch. And Lynea was happy on his behalf and cheered with the others, but she still didn't like Quidditch. Judging from the quelling looks on Millicent's and Tracey's faces, she didn't mask it very well. At least the Quidditch season was now officially over. Oh. That meant Slytherin had actually won the cup.

The Slytherins were in for a long night.

(Because even sophisticated, stiff, stuck-up Slytherins weren't indifferent to victory parties.)