Lilith sat on one of the sofas in the common room, tuning her violin, still feeling the heat in her chest from her confrontation with Fred earlier. She had been reeling from what he had said to her in the library, but she was the one that had encouraged Johnson to ask him out. She just didn't think it would make her feel so dreadful.

It had completely caught her by surprise in the library when Cordelia has broken the news, and she had membered the quilt on his face, but still, he didn't have to say yes to Angelina, so it was his own bloody fault anyway.

It didn't help that Cordelia was furious at her for saying no to the date as well, but the last thing she wanted to do was sit in the Three broomsticks and pretend to be interested in Chambers, especially when she knew Fred was probably out having the time of his life with Angelina.

She had never felt so pathetic in her life. How the hell was a Weasley of all people making her feel so wretched.

As Draco walks in with Crabbe and Goyle she forces herself to stop thinking about it, the three of them in laughter as they take a seat on the sofa opposite.

"What are you three so bloody happy about?"

"Nothing." Draco says with a smirk.

"Just that –" Crabbe starts to speak but Draco hits him in the back of the head, shutting him up. That doesn't exactly kill Lilith's suspicions that they were up to something.

"What did you do?" She asks as she looks up from the violin, attempting to seem disinterested.

"Nothing." Draco insist again. "What are you doing with that?"

"Stop changing the subject and tell me what you did." She presses and her little cousin rolls his eyes, but he sneers.

"We may have found a boggart in the dungeons." He chuckles.

"May have locked him in with it." Goyle sniggers. The three of them break out into a cackle of laughter and Lilith looks at them mortified.

"Who?" She asks but three of them keep laughing, then she sees Goyle twirling a wand that wasn't his and her stomach sinks.

"Which dungeon?"

"The cupboard it was in was locked – " Draco starts but Lilith casts her instrument aside and stands from the sofa.

"Which dungeon Draco!" She snaps at him and his laughing immediately stops.

"The one Snape stores his old furniture – "

Draco doesn't get to finish his sentence as she's already snatching the wand from Goyles hand as she races out of the common room.

Lilith can already hear Neville's terrified yells as she rounds the corner to the room, flicking her wand so the door slams open. Neville is cowering in the corner with Snape closing in on him and Lilith stares at the sight for a moment before her brain finally starts working, grabbing a book off one of the discarded tables, throwing it at the back of his head. As it slowly turns to her, she regrets her horrible idea and was starting to hope that it was in fact the potions master she had flung the book at and not a boggart.

"Longbottom close your eyes!"

" I – "

"NEVILLE I SAID CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Lilith yells at him, trying not to frighten him, and Neville slams a hand over his eyes. The boggart turns to her and she can already see it start to change shape as she raises her wand to it.

"Turn into a spider you fucker, turn into a spider." She mutters under her breath but suddenly snape features change and he falls to the floor in a heap.

"Can I – "

"No!" Lilith says as she circles around the boggart who is spawled on the floor in its new shape. When she reaches Neville, she grabs his shoulder and yanks him off the floor, shoving his wand into his hand that's not clamped over his eyes. "Do not uncover your eyes Neville, Promise me?"

"o…ok" He says with terror in his voice.

She looks down at the woman now spawled out on the floor and tries to keep her eyes focused on it, wand at the ready and her other hand gripped onto Neville's shoulder as they start to sidestep around it. Then it opens its mouth and the screaming starts.

"NO PLEASE, STOP. I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE."

The woman is writhing about in pain, screaming at the top of her lungs and Lilith starts to drag Neville towards the door. She has her wand raised and she knows what to do, but the words can't escape her throat as she stares at the creature on the floor.

"Is that – " Neville starts with a tremble in his voice and Lilith prays he doesn't recognize it.

The woman is now crawling along the floor towards them, dragging herself alone, arms bruised and nails digging into the floor. Lilith needs to make it stop but she can't control the fear that's overcome her entire body.

"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. PLEASE!"

Lilith was too distracted by the screams to even realise Neville was now tugging on her arm, with a final glance they both run out of the dungeon, slamming the door behind them, both pressed up against it as she locks the door and they both sink to the floor, breathing heavily as they do.

Lilith isn't sure how long they are sat there in complete silence but she's far too afraid to say anything first. Her head is on her knees as she keeps replaying it in her head, wishing she hadn't let the fear consume her, but she can hear Neville stammer a few times and she's not sure she wants to hear what he has to say.

"I opened my eyes." Neville finally admits quietly and Lilith finally lets out the breath trapped in her chest.

"Sorry." She's mumbles into her knees, not sure if she said it loud enough for him to hear but she's still desperately trying not to look at him.

"That was -" He pauses for a moment and she can hear the shake in his voice. "How did you know what she looked like?"

She has been waiting for Neville to ask her that but it was quite frankly a conversation she never wanted to have with the Gryffindor. She reminds quiet, but she can feel his eyes burning into her and finally she lifts her head.

"I saw a picture once." She confesses softly.

"But why is she…" He trails off but she doesn't want to respond. Lilith can't bring herself to tell him about the shame she feels knowing it was her parents that had forced him to lose his. That she had nightmares about what they had done to the Longbottom's. That every time she sees him, she feels the guilt consume her despite the fact she was only a child when it happened. She wants to tell him she wishes it was her parents instead of his, but she can't bring herself to do it.

So, she changes the subject.

"You know, you have my permission to hex Draco or his little goons if they come near you again. In fact, I could teach you a few rather good ones."

Neville laughs slightly, and she finally looks over to him. This was the longest conversation the two had ever had, and this was the only time she hadn't seen him terrified in her presence. Lilith considers for a moment asking him not to tell anyone, but she's not even sure who he had told about his parents, if anyone.

"I always thought you hated me." Neville says nervously but his face softens when he looks at her.

"Ditto Longbottom."

Neville shakes his head. "No, I just…well – " She doesn't really need to hear Longbottom's excuses, it's not like she blamed him anyway.

"How could you not fear me?" She says with a laugh. "Scary psycho mother so I must be the same." She wasn't aware of the sadness in her voice until she sees the way Neville is looking at her.

He finally pushes himself off the ground and holds out a hand for her too. Not wanted to reject the little fourth year she takes his sweaty palm and he helps her up.

"Thank you for…that" He says it as he looks towards the dungeon door with genuine appreciation, and it makes her ache a little. She didn't feel like she deserved it.

"Why Snape?" Lilith asks, utterly curious and she sees him swallow hard.

"I don't know what they look like." He admits softly. "For some reason I never thought they would have looked like you."

Lilith wants to hug the little twerp, but she resists the urge because it feel too foreign.

"You should go back to your common room; I'll get Moody to take care of this."

"I can come with?"

She smiles slightly at his offer, impressed the shake from his voice has disappeared.

"No. It's ok. You've probably been traumatised enough for one day. I know I have."

Lilith's clenched fist hovers over the door to Mad Eye's office and she wished for a moment she had asked Neville to go instead. There was something about the Professor that made her skin crawl and she couldn't figure out what it was. He had taken to picking on her in lessons and quite frankly she was getting sick of it.

"YOU CAN COME IN LESTRANGE!"

She rolls her eyes, of course he could bloody see her waiting outside with his magic eye. As she opens the door she sees Mad eye sat behind his desk, swigging from his flask.

"What is it Lestrange?" He asks as he wipes away some dribble away, but she remains in the doorway, not wanting to enter.

"There's a boggart that just tried to attack Longbottom. It's locked up in the Dungeon's."

As he stands from the desk and hobbles around it Lilith remains in the doorway, watching him as he picks up his wand and moves towards her.

"Longbottom fought off a boggart?" He says with a scoff. "Couldn't imagine that."

"He didn't, not really."

"Surprised you couldn't take it on Lestrange."

She wasn't going to go into the details with him of all people. The chest in the corner of him room starts to rumble and Lilith's eyes glance over to it, and Mad eyes fix on her.

"You know Lestrange, since you're here I might have something that will interest you." He opens the draw to his desk and pulls out a blade, shining slightly in light from window. "Your mother, as much as she liked to torture, had a thing about knives too, did you know that?"

She feels frozen for a moment as she stands in the doorway to his office, wishing she had walked off as soon as she told Moody about the bogart in the dungeons.

"No." She says softly as her eyes cast over the blade in his hands.

"Kept this as a souvenir. After I helped put her away. Here." He walks over to her and places the blade in her hand and she can almost feel the wickedness in-between her fingers. "You have her eyes, you even sound like her a bit in my lessons, sometimes."

Lilith clutches the daggers handle in her hand at his words. No one has ever told her that before, not even her aunt, but the idea of it made her feel sick. But what she couldn't understand was why he spoke about her mother it seemed to be with slight affection, as if they were old friends.

"I don't think I'm like her at all...actually." She doesn't mean to say it with complete disgust, but it just happens to come out that way. Lilith see's the flash in his eyes as he snatches the knife back from her and she clutches her hands to her stomach, the desire to wash them overwhelming.

"I'll take care of the boggart Lestrange, go back to whatever you were doing."

Lilith doesn't have to be told twice as she practically runs out of his classroom.

After what seemed like an eternity of scrubbing her hands red raw but in fact it was only five minutes Lilith was hiding in one of the stalls of the girls bathroom. She didn't want to go back to Slytherin Common room as she knew the second she saw Draco she was going to throttle him for what he did to Neville, and she didn't really want to have to write a letter to his parents explaining why.

As she heard the footsteps enter, she pulls her feet up on the closed toilet seat and sighs when she hears the giggling.

"So, what happened?" The highest voice asks. "How was it?"

"Nice, really nice. We went to three broomsticks and just talked; he seemed a bit distracted though."

Lilith pushes her heels of her palms to her eyes and holds in the groan as she recognises Angelina's voice. Despite her afternoon with Neville it had actually managed to get her mind off of Weasley, and this was the last thing she wanted to listen to.

"He was probably nervous, that's all." The third voice reassures her.

"Maybe."

"But did he, you know?" The first voice talks again.

"Well –" Lilith can almost hear the smile in Johnsons voice. "We were walking back and I just went for it."

"And?" Both of the other girls ask in unison.

"He kissed me back."

There's a squeal of delight from them and Lilith tries to hold in the gag. Of course he did, because apparently Weasley was a giant man whore.

"But what if he only did it because I kissed him first?"

"Oh come on, you're not still worried about Lestrange are you? She's a complete psycho it's not like he would even like her."

Lilith flips her middle finger at the door.

"I don't know." Angelina sighs. "I suppose not. It's just at the ball – " If Angelina said one word about what happened that night Lilith was going to kick the bathroom door open and hex her into the next century.

"Stop worrying about it. George didn't kiss me at the ball either."

"Yeah, he was too busy throwing up at the after party." High voices girl laughs and suddenly they are laughing along with her.

"I guess not. Ok. I won't worry about it." Lilith can still hear the fear in her voice as she agrees with her friends.

"Now can we please go to Dinner so we can tease Fred?" The third one asks and the girls laugh as they leave the bathroom and Lilith finally lowers her feet from the toilet, stretching her leg that had a cramp in it. She guessed she should probably go to the great hall and have dinner, but it was the last thing

Lilith sighs as she opens the toilet stall and checks her reflection in the mirror, tidying her shirt and hair which has become frazzled from earlier. She felt completely exhausted after the entire day's events and wants to just head back to her bed, but the rumble in her stomach betrays her and she finally heads to the great hall.

She was finishing off her supper at the table alone, keeping her head down as she ate. She had seen Fred and Angelina at their usual spots on their table but right then she didn't have the energy to look or even care. She just wanted to fill her stomach and then head to bed, but then Cordelia takes a seat next to her, looking at her with a pout and Lilith sighs as she grabs more bread.

"If you're going to moan at me about the date I don't care."

"I wasn't."

"Good."

"Phlegm and I broke up actually."

Lilith rolls her eyes and loads another forkful of food into her mouth as she answers in between bites. "Shocking."

"He's an idiot and I hate him." That was what she said every time they broke up. Lilith wasn't a betting person, but she'd put money on it that they were back together by Charms next Thursday. "Chambers was disappointed you weren't there."

Lilith nods slightly, not entirely saddened to hear that.

"Well what did you do all day?"

"Nothing." She shrugs, not wanting to tell Cordelia about her exchange with Neville, Fred, or Mad eye for that matter. The whole day had been bizarre. "Re-strung my Violin."

"Party never stops with you does it Lestrange?" She teases with a smile.

"So, you're not mad at me anymore?"

"I suppose not." Cordelia sighs as she reaches for the pumpkin juice. "Guess who I saw making out in Hogsmead though?"

"Weasley and Johnson?" She says quietly.

"Oh, who told you?"

"Lucky guess." Lilith sighs as she goes for the pudding, deciding to eat her feelings.

"It was gross, all tongues as well. It was like they were trying to eat each other."

Lilith drops her spoon and pushes the crumble away, suddenly changing her mind about desert, then she spots Draco entering the great hall with Crabbe and Goyle and she practically jumps from her seat, ignoring Cordelia as she heads over to him. When Draco spots her he immediately turns back the way he came but she's already grabbing him by the back of his neck and dragging him out into the corridor, much to his annoyance.

"Get off me!" He yells as she throws him against the wall and he starts to tug at his now dishevelled clothes. "What did you do that for!"

"You know exactly why I did that! You could have gotten Neville killed!"

"The fat lump is still alive, isn't he?" Draco scoffs and Lilith clenches her fists.

"Do you not listen to me at all? What did I say about him?"

Draco shrugs as he leans against the wall. "I thought you were joking."

"Well you better listen to me now. If Grabbe and Goyle do another thing to him, I'll turn them both into slugs and feed them to Trevor." Draco starts to laugh but stops when he sees the look on her face. "I mean it Draco, if I hear that you even look at him funny, I'll make sure you never hit puberty either. Stay away from him!"

"Why do you even care about Longbottom!"

Lilith suddenly freezes when she feels the eyes on her, and sure enough there's a crowd of students, including most of the Gryffindors watching the exchange. She sees Neville who is watching her with wide eyes and Fred who looks utterly bewildered.

"I mean it." She says to him one last time before heading off to the Slytherin common room, ignoring the murmurs coming from the crowd.