October 1991, 1st year

"Show me the wand movement again," Blaise said and Draco rolled his eyes.

"I don't know what you're looking for – it's really only a slashing movement."

"But there's got to be something I'm missing," Blaise insisted. "Potter's shield is way sturdier than mine."

Draco huffed. "Maybe Harry is just naturally talented at defensive magic?"

"Uh, guys?" Harry called from across the room.

"Eyes on your opponent, Harry," Lynea said and immediately shot a knockback jinx at him that Harry barely dodged in time.

He did an impressive roll to soften the fall, but didn't quite manage to get back on his feet afterwards. Lynea threw another spell at him for good measure and Harry's wand flew out of his hand.

"Being on the ground makes you an easy target," she said. "That roll wasn't bad, but you missed your chance to use the momentum to push yourself up again."

"I know that," Harry exclaimed, flopping back on the ground, arms spread wide. "It's just easier said than done."

"Up, Harry. Let's try again."

Harry groaned.

They had asked Professor Snape for permission to use one of the abandoned classrooms in the dungeons to practice defensive spells and their Head of House had accepted under the condition that they do it under the supervision of at least one prefect. Their sixth-year prefect, Travers, was sitting on one of the chairs they hadn't cleared away and reading a book about advanced Arithmancy, occasionally glancing up when one of them cried out in either surprise or pain. He didn't really bother paying attention to them otherwise, but that was fine with the first-years.

Teaching each other the spells they had learned had been quite fun, but only learning the spells wasn't enough. They needed to use them in real-life situations and the more they were prepared for ambushes, the better. So Lynea, Draco and Pansy had devised a schedule after assessing everyone's skills about who should practice what and with whom. Harry, for one, was too easily distracted, was usually never paying enough attention to his surroundings and tended to disregard his own well-being to protect others – quite Gryffindor-ish tendencies, if you asked Lynea.

Draco had immediately put him with Lynea for practice and she would be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying putting her grand-aunts ruthless training exercises to use. Their supply of Bruise Removal Paste and Dittany was steadily running out, but they were starting to see results. They would soon all be on a somewhat equal level, although Vincent and Gregory were noticeable lagging behind – at least they could make up for that with sheer physical strength, just as Millicent was already doing. (Her headlocks were nearly impossible to escape without a wand.)

"I wish we would do stuff like this in Defence Against the Dark Arts," Theodore said during their break. "It's what that class is for, after all."

"Well," Pansy said, "Quirrel is rubbish at what he does. I doubt he even knows any useful spells – and even if he did, he would be too scared to use them."

Tracey snorted. "Is he even able to cast any spells at all? With that terrible stutter of his?"

Pansy shrugged. "I've certainly never seen him cast one."

"Professor Quirrel sure is weird," Theodore said and they all agreed.

"Besides," Pansy said as she stood up to stretch her arms, "this way we have the advantage against everyone else in our year."

Blaise hummed in agreement and then said, "But there's only so much we can teach to ourselves. Having a proper teacher with actual knowledge, power and experience would be really useful."

"We could always ask our parents to teach us more during the holidays and then share our collected knowledge like this," Draco said.

"We can do that anyway, regardless of the competence of our teacher," Lynea pointed out.

"You all talk as if Professor Quirrel won't be around next year," Harry said.

"Sometimes I forget you didn't grow up in the magical world, Harry" Draco said. "Everyone knows there's a jinx on the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. No teacher has lasted for more than a year for the last twenty years or so."

Harry blinked. "There has been a new Defence professor every year for the last two decades? Where are they even getting so many capable people from?"

Blaise snorted. "They aren't. Just take a look at Quirrel."

"Bloody useless," Draco said. "I should have gone to Durmstrang after all."

Blaise put an arm around his shoulders. "But Draco, darling, we would have missed you terribly if you had gone to a different school."

"There are other schools aside from Hogwarts?" Harry asked curiously and their conversation went from there.

Travers even joined in after a while. One of his cousins apparently went to Beauxbatons, the French school.

o

Lynea watched the dark clouds puffing up from the cauldron that stood in front of Neville and his partner (whose name she had never bothered to learn). Her and Harry's potion was left to simmer on a low flame for the next few minutes, so they didn't really have anything to do right now and could quietly watch the events unfold.

Professor Snape had already launched into an extensive lecture on what the Gryffindors had done wrong and how stupid they were and what a disgrace this was and so on. It had become such a common occurrence during their Potions lessons that most students didn't even look up from their work anymore. Lynea wouldn't even care, if it wouldn't disrupt their lessons every time. She was growing rather tired of being disturbed in her favourite subject every single time and Professor Snape wasn't helping. In fact, he was probably making it worse by frightening Neville so.

For a Gryffindor he sure lacked courage. His nervousness didn't help him get through this class unscathed, his shaking hands and frayed nerves only made him mess up more. Apart from flying lessons this was the only class the Slytherins shared with the Gryffindors – which was both a blessing and a curse – so Lynea didn't know how Neville fared in the other subjects, but the only other teacher who came close to be as intimidating as Professor Snape was Professor McGonagall and she was Neville's Head of House, so he might actually do better in other classes.

There was a low hissing sound as the potion melted first through the cauldron and then through the table.

Or maybe not.

Their Potions professor vanished the foul liquid away before it could cause any more harm and then took another twenty points from Gryffindor.

"Neville hasn't done anything wrong!" the Weasley boy shouted. "You're just punishing him out of spite!"

The other students finally looked up at that, most of them had reached the simmering part as well by now, so they could risk not paying attention to their own potions.

"Make that another ten points from Gryffindor for not listening, Mister Weasley," Professor Snape snapped. "I have just explained, in great detail, what exactly Mister Longbottom has done wrong."

"But maybe he hasn't actually done anything wrong," Weasley said and Lynea could already see where this was going. "Maybe, it wasn't his fault. Maybe, you are just a bad teacher."

Someone whistled low under their breath. He sure was brave, the Weasley.

Snape narrowed his eyes. "Detention, Mister Weasley. You will report to me right after class." His gaze swept over the other students. "Don't you all have a potion to attend to?"

"Do you think he actually did that for Neville?" Lynea asked Harry in a low voice. "Or did he just want to blow off some steam?"

"Maybe a bit of both?" Harry shrugged. "They're friends, right? He just stood up for his friend."

Lynea raised an eyebrow. "Do you find that admirable?"

Harry shrugged again, looking unsure.

"If he had just wanted to protect Neville, there would have been many other ways."

"Like what?"

"Not agonizing the teacher, for one. Now Professor Snape is probably going to be even more vicious to both of them." Lynea tilted her head in thought. "He could have started by offering Neville some comfort, after class is over. And then help him regain some courage and maybe give him some extra lessons in potions, so he will be prepared and doesn't mess up so badly next time."

"That actually sounds like a good plan," Harry said and stared at her.

Lynea frowned. "What are you looking at me like that for?"

"Why don't we do that? You already know Neville, don't you? He could really use some help and his housemates are apparently not giving him any."

"I don't know, Harry. Why would we help a Gryffindor?"

Harry smiled slyly. "Because then your favourite class wouldn't be interrupted so much anymore?"

Lynea felt a grin spread across her face. "You do make good point, Mister Potter, I'll give you that."

And that was how they ended up cornering Neville after class and dragging him into an abandoned classroom.

"Please don't hurt me," the boy whimpered.

Lynea and Harry looked at each other.

"We're not going to hurt you, Neville," Lynea said gently.

"No?" came Draco's voice from behind them. "It very much looked like it, though." The blonde entered the room, followed by Vincent and Gregory. He raised an eyebrow. "You do remember the rule about forming groups of at least four, don't you?"

"I think we can safely let that one go," Lynea said. "We're all proficient enough at self-defence by now that a minimum of two people should be enough."

"While that may be right, we haven't officially agreed on anything, yet."

Lynea sighed. "You're here now, aren't you?" She turned back to Neville. "Like I said, we're not here to hurt you, Neville. We have a proposal for you."

"W-what kind of p-proposal?" Neville stammered, visibly frightened.

"We want to tutor you in Potions," Lynea said and Neville's eyes widened.

Draco let out a dramatic sigh. "First the know-it-all and now the great lump. Are you collecting lowlives, Lynea?"

Lynea rolled her eyes. "This is for your benefit as well, Draco. Or do you actually enjoy having to deal with disruptions in every single Potions lesson?"

Draco stayed silent for a moment, crossing his arms in front of him. Vincent and Gregory looked around at nothing in particular.

"And the know-it-all?" Draco asked eventually.

"I value knowledge more than blood," Lynea said.

The blonde nodded and Harry looked between them, clearly confused.

Lynea turned back to Neville. "Think about it, okay? And if you don't feel comfortable with Slytherins teaching you – or with me teaching you," She was still marked as a Lémure, after all, even if she liked to forget all about that, "then you might try asking Hermione Granger from Ravenclaw. She should be able to help you out as well."

"Why are you doing this?" Neville asked meekly.

"Because you are a danger to yourself and to others and Professor Snape won't do anything about it. I'll be frank with you – I'm really just taking pity on you and trying to get some peaceful Potions lessons out of it."

"I'm actually going to take advantage of that as well," Harry said. "Because I really only understand half of what you're doing in class and I would like to be able to produce a passable potion on my own." He grimaced. "Although I doubt Snape would leave me be if I were on my own."

Lynea grinned. "He would breathe down your neck to make sure you blotch it up." She looked back to Neville. "Just think about it, alright?"

The boy nodded slightly, still looking moderately frightened and Lynea gave him a gentle smile, before taking Harry's arm and steering him towards the door.

"Uh, Lynea?" Neville squeaked.

Lynea turned around. "Yes?"

"I, uh, wanted to thank you. For the Remembrall."

Lynea blinked. She had already forgotten all about that. And it wasn't like she had done it for Neville's sake.

She waved dismissively. "No need to thank me."

Then she left the room and joined the other Slytherins on their way to the Great Hall.

o

Giving Neville extra lessons in potions turned out to be a great success. The boy was fairly good at Herbology, which helped a lot, and really not that bad at the subject once he actually sat down and got proper explanations.

It had been mostly Professor Snape's fault, after all. Of course, because of that Neville's results in the class itself weren't as good as they were during his private lessons – Lynea sometimes had him actually brew the potions on top of teaching him the theory – but he improved significantly and there were less interruptions and incidents from then on. If Professor Snape noticed, he didn't show it. His treatment of Neville and the Gryffindors remained as awful as it had always been.

Hermione soon joined Neville's tutoring out of academical curiosity and then realized that the boy was the perfect subject to impart her knowledge to. According to Neville, his grades picked up in all of his classes thanks to the Ravenclaw. Since Harry was often sitting with them as well, what had first begun as tutoring Neville evolved into a regular study group. Daphne happily joined them, occasionally dragging Theodore and Blaise with her, although the boys were always seemingly uncomfortable with Hermione's presence and tried to avoid the Ravenclaw as best they could. Hermione, to her credit, didn't let that bother her in the slightest.

Maybe, with time, the boys would see reason and realize that being muggleborn was not a bad thing at all. Harry, Neville and Lynea had already accepted her as a friend and Daphne would not admit to it, but didn't deny it either.

"How do you tell a Flitterbloom from a Devil's Snare?" Blaise asked one day. "Touching it to see whether it wants to strangle me doesn't seem like the best idea."

Hermione looked up from her book and opened her mouth to reply, then saw Neville had raised his head as well, looking rather excited, and let him have the word.

"Flitterblooms have gently swaying vines that don't exactly move around very much and they also do not ever bloom," Neville explained. "Devil's Snare has moving vines, too, but also tendrils and both either do not move at all or in a not-so-gentle manner compared to the Flitterbloom. While touching the plant may be a sure way to tell one from the other, it is really not recommended as the Devil's Snare can kill you quicker than you realize it was not a Flitterbloom after all." He tilted his head. "If you keep your composure and stay calm and relaxed it may release you eventually, but there is no guarantee for that."

"So how do I tell one from the other without killing myself?" Blaise asked.

"Devil's Snares like dark and damp places. If you put the plant in a sunny environment, it will usually recoil from the light and try to find some darker place."

"Putting it next to fire or putting some fire next to the plant would work as well," Hermione said, when it seemed like Neville was finished. "Bluebell Flames would work best, because they're not as dangerous as real fire, but the Fire-Making Charm would do the trick as well in a controlled and fire-proof environment."

Blaise looked at Hermione contemplatively, then gave her a short nod and wrote down some notes on his parchment.

Lynea smiled to herself. They were getting there.

October went by like that. There were a few more incidents involving the first-year Slytherins, but they all managed to escape unscathed and most of their assailants now knew better than to attack them unprovoked. The teachers certainly never noticed anything. Apart from that the weeks leading up to Samhain were rather peaceful.