Double Trouble:
Lucy waited patiently as the students returned from Christmas break. The train was due in the early afternoon and she was antsy to find Tonks so she could give her the gift she picked out for her. Mittens was rubbing against her ankles, finally wanting Lucy's attention since she was impatiently waiting for someone else's.
She crouched down and pet her kitten as she waited. He was finally opening up more around her. When they first returned from Diagon Alley, he ran out of Severus' quarters and didn't come back around for days. Severus told Lucy he needed to explore the castle to ensure it fit his needs, but she wasn't sure. When he finally returned, he brought a quill someone must've lost.
She stood up when she heard groups of students coming up the path from the front gate. Once she spotted the pink hair, she ran against the crowd to her friend. The older girl broke out into a grin as she saw Lucy running to her.
"Wotcher, Lucy!"
Lucy couldn't wait to give her friend her gift, and practically threw it to her. Tonks reached into her knapsack and retrieved Lucy's gift.
"It's not wrapped, but I hope you like it all the same."
Lucy accepted the items presented to her, but she was at a loss. One was a thin white tray with circles of colors and a quill-adjacent utensil covered by a clear lid. Another was a packet of 12 pencils of varying colors.
Seeing the younger girl's confusion, Tonks explained. "Art supplies. You'll probably get bored if you only ever draw with chalk, so I wanted to get you some more things to use. The case has water colors in it. You mix the colors with some water and then use the brush to paint. You'll want a goblet to clean the brush between colors or it'll be a right mess." She pointed to the packet of pencils next. "Those are colored pencils. Have you used a pencil before?"
Lucy shook her head.
"Well, it's not hard but you'll need to make sure not to press too hard or you'll break the tips and they'll get small faster. I can probably find a pencil sharpener for you to use, too."
"That's really nice." Lucy wiped a tear from her eye with her wrist as she sniffed, trying to compose herself.
"You all right?" Tonks worried.
Lucy nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. It's just really nice."
"Well, that's what friends are. Now, what's in here?" She removed the ribbon from the pouch Lucy had given her, peering inside. "No way! Drooble's and Berties Every Flavor Beans!"
Lucy was relieved to see her friend excited about her gift. "I tried to pick pretty colors like your hair."
Tonks changed her hair to blue to match the bubble gum she popped in her mouth. As she wagged her eyebrows at Lucy, the girls giggled.
"Let's go find somewhere to set up with some paper so I can show you how to use your new supplies." Lucy followed Tonks closely, admiring the bubbles Tonks was able to blow with the Droobles.
xXx
As Lucy finished outlining her drawing, Tonks read her notes for an assignment she forgot was due after break. The girls sat in the Great Hall at the Hufflepuff table, still stuffed from dinner.
Bored of her homework already, Tonks rested her chin on her hand and watched Lucy draw. She used the pencils (a little harder than Tonks would recommend) to outline her forest scene and then water colors to fill in the tree trunks and leaves. Her green had mixed a little into the yellow, but Tonks had already offered to help her clean up the spill. Lucy wanted to leave it to see how the color turned out for now.
"You sure you don't want me to dab that green up?" Lucy nodded. Sighing, Tonks sat up, cracking her back. She stretched out and yawned, suddenly feeling much more tired than she expected. Travelling did that to her.
"I'm going to head to bed, you staying here or comin'?"
"My picture isn't done yet." Lucy was getting the hang of cleaning her brush between colors, but she still forgot to dry the excess water so she dripped over her painting as she reached for blue.
"Well, I can't stay up. I've got classes in the morning." Lucy looked at Tonks packing up her untouched essay. "I still have some time. It's only 4 inches and it's not due 'til after lunch." Tonks winked as she got up to leave.
Lucy smiled as she turned back to finish the sky.
xXx
One thing about painting, as Lucy discovered, is it takes a while to dry. She didn't have a bag to carry her supplies so she could hold her picture on the way home. Instead, she had to wait until the paint dried and she wouldn't ruin it when carrying her stack of belongings.
Finally, she felt comfortable enough to carefully gather her things. The goblet disappeared when she got up, as if the castle knew she was done with it.
There were no students in the hallways. Maybe it was later than Lucy realized. She didn't have classes in the morning, but the prefects and professors doing rounds didn't seem to like finding her roaming the halls at night. Something about double standards and bad examples.
She heard footsteps. She sighed, trying to guess if she was in for a lecture or a shooing. It was the whisper that intrigued her.
"Shut up, will ya? We've already gotten-" That's not a professor.
"Shh, did you hear that? Someone's there." It sounded like two boys – too young to be prefects, either.
There was a scuffling noise, as if one of the boys had suddenly come to a halt and restrained the other one from moving on. "Shut up, George; there, did you hear that? Someone's here."
"Where? I don't hear anything!" George sounded like he was beginning to get annoyed.
As they rounded the corner, Lucy stopped in her tracks. She gawked at them for a moment as they noticed her.
The boys instantly smiled. "Well, Fred, looks like we've got a damsel in distress before us."
"Why yes, George, I believe we do. What do you say we help her out?" They winked at each other before suppressing chuckles at the look of shock on the girl's face.
"I dunno, that Snape can be a real git . . ." Fred nodded in agreement.
"What?" Lucy hadn't recovered from seeing the two boys who looked like copies, but she wasn't a fan of them being mean about Severus.
This time, the boys didn't hold their fits of laughter back. Lucy had half a mind to turn around and find another way home. The boys exchanged glances before one of them smirked.
"How'd you even get stuck with him anyway?"
"Yeah, couldn't anyone else take care of you?"
Lucy dropped her hands at her side, no longer cradling her painting. She looked at the red-headed boys for a minute before shaking her head.
"Well, I'm sure there's someone. Fred?"
"Yes, George?"
"I say we help this damsel escape the dungeons for good."
"I say that's the best idea I've heard all day."
Lucy huffed, having enough of their back and forth. "No, Severus already saved me."
With that, she walked past the gobsmacked boys who had suddenly lost control of their jaws.
xXx
What Lucy hadn't known was that once you captured the attention of the Weasley twins, it was hard to break free of it. The only thing Lucy had going for her was the fact that they had classes to attend. Unfortunately for her, Fred and George Weasley were not known for their perfect attendance.
Lucy, however, was only concerned with keeping her friend. Tonks had been studying all month with no breaks for friends. As a result, she'd forgotten all about Lucy. And though Lucy kept telling herself she didn't mind much, she was lying to herself. The truth was, she did care. She cared a lot. And now she found herself wandering about the castle alone more and more.
One time, she'd almost fallen through another disappearing step on the third floor's staircase. That gave her quite the scare. Fortunately, no one had been around to witness the almost accident - at least, that's what Lucy thought. A certain set of twins had been turning the corner when Lucy had almost gone through. George had shoved Fred back before he got them caught spying.
They'd watched in silence, occasionally glancing at one another. Though the girl wouldn't let them be her friend, they would help her out if she needed it. Unfortunately for them and luckily for her, she got herself in the clear just in time to go downstairs before the staircase decided to move.
Now, Lucy sat by the Black Lake in deep thought. Mittens sat upon her lap, soaking in some sun and relishing in the attention he got from his mistress. The girl sighed; she was bored. She was bored, and she had nothing to do. She was out of ideas for drawings and she had no one to keep her company. Severus was busy every weekday and whenever he did have time to spend with her, he wanted to spend it doing lessons in literacy and maths. She almost wished she was old enough to go to classes. At least then she'd be on the same schedule as the other kids.
Besides, she still struggled with a few subjects that she read in the library . . . okay all of them except History of Magic. But that was only because she didn't have a wand yet! How was she to practice spells and hexes without a wand? Severus told her that maybe she can help him make a basic potion during Spring Break, but that wasn't for a few weeks.
Lucy was extremely worried about it. What if something went wrong? What if something blew up? What if Severus-
She couldn't breathe. Water filled her lungs and she tried to cough, which only brought more water. Her limbs flailed all about, but she just seemed to go deeper. The blue around her darkened and her body went numb.
At the bank, Fred slapped George upside his head. "Blimey, what'd you do that for?"
"Well, I was trying to give her a good scare!"
"You did a bloody good job," Fred muttered. "Well, aren't you gonna go in after her?"
"Oh, right!" With that, George jumped in after Lucy just as Mittens hopped up onto a rock, perched in a spot he could watch the boy peer into the murky water.
"Tosser," Clearly Fred wasn't happy with his brother.
After a few moments of searching for her, George had to go back up for air. Coughing, he shook his head at his brother.
"This is perfect, just bloody perfect!" Fred sighed heavily. "Keep looking; I'll find Snape."
George donned the most shocked expression. "What are ya gonna do that for?"
"She bloody lives with him!" The twin shouted as he ran to the castle. George dove back down.
xXx
As Fred got to the last step, he almost ran into the Potions Master. Severus sent him a deathly glare and raised an eyebrow as if waiting for the explanation.
"Sir, it's Lucy!" To say the professor's face changed would be an understatement. "She was on the bank, and George . . . but she can't swim! He's searching for her, but - Sir?" Severus had taken off running as soon as Fred had mentioned water. There were only a few places she could be, and it wasn't hard to deduce.
Poor Fred tried to keep up with his professor, but he proved slow in comparison, which shocked the youngster. When Snape finally got to the lake, George was trying to pull her to shore.
Within seconds, Severus had Lucy in his arms. He set her in the grass a few feet away from the water and performed a reviving spell on the girl. She had a lot of water in her lungs that she coughed back up, but she was alive.
Lucy rolled onto her side, catching her breath. Severus closed his eyes, thanking whatever gods may be before he turned to the worst students he had the misfortune of teaching. And they were only second years.
"Explain." The twins couldn't help but shiver at their Potions Professor's word. "Well?"
"Um, we were just . . ."
"What George means to say is-"
"We were playing."
The boys looked at Lucy as she sat up, hugging her knees to her chest. They exchanged glances as if to tell each other to let her lead the conversation.
Severus turned to his charge, disappointed she decided to cover for them. He'd been watching her avoid the miscreants for weeks. Yet, today was the day they conveniently made friends and she just so happened to fall into the lake she spent a good portion of her time sitting on its bank?
"How did you find yourself in the lake?"
"We were playing. I wanted to see something and I . . . fell." She couldn't look at him as she fabricated her story.
He didn't believe a word of it, but in his eyes, she'd chosen to lie. Disappointed, he left the children on the bank without another word.
As Severus left, the boys let out sighs of relief. Lucy sat on the ground, watching Severus stride back to the castle, no longer dripping wet. He hadn't done her the favor of drying her off magically. She stood up, intending to go change and get warm. Even Mittens didn't stick around, choosing to follow Severus back to the castle.
"What do you reckon we should do first, friend?"
Lucy walked past the twins, even less interested than before in a friendship.
George tried, "Yeah, we could go to Hogsmeade-"
"-Or we could prank Filch-"
"Nah, we could spy on Dumbledore-"
"Maybe we could play wizarding chess-"
As she continued to walk away, George reached out for her. As he made contact with her arm, she jerked away as if burned.
"Don't touch me!" She ran to the castle entrance as the boys exchanged matching grimaces.