Lucy became a bit of a thief. Most of her trophies came from the Room of Requirement. She spent more and more time there, filtering through the piles of junk. She'd amassed a small fortune of coins and had a nice pile of jewels hidden in her trunk. She planned to take them to Gringotts as soon as she was old enough to go on her own.

There were even more books. Useless books on breeding flobberworms and carving cheese. Ancient, crumbling books about runes and battles long since forgotten. Her favorites were the spellbooks. Some were banned, tossed in the room by students escaping punishment. Others were outdated textbooks with spells deemed obsolete or illegal. There were even a few that looked like they might have belonged in a family library. She handled those with dragonhide gloves. She wouldn't put it past some of the purebloods to hex their books against people like her.

Time passed slowly. Dumbledore tried to move her up a year or two, but Mum refused. She thought it best for Lucy to be around children her own age. It was very sweet, if not exasperating. In the end, the professors gave her alternate assignments. Dumbledore watched her grow warily. She tried to put his mind at ease, but it never worked. He might have loved her, maybe even cherished her, if the Hat had put her in Ravenclaw.

She never really made friends until her later years. After their first Christmas holiday, Violet Brown didn't ostracize her like the rest of the Slytherins did. They even began eating together in fifth year. Severus Snape hunted her down when they were thirteen. They spent hours dueling and debating theory. She even helped him work out the kinks in a few of his spells.

Lucy avoided the so-called Marauders as often as she could. It proved more difficult than she liked. All of the castle knew about her, the girl who was rumored to cast an unforgivable at eleven, got six Outstanding OWLS her fourth year, and outed the Dark Lord's true name. They feared her just as much as Voldemort was intrigued by her. Of course the four troublemakers would be drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

Everyone thought she was someone to be feared so she kept the image up as well as she could. She wasn't placed in Slytherin for her ambition alone. Lucy wasn't the next Dumbledore or Voldemort. She was intelligent and driven, but she didn't possess half the power they did. For all the hours she practiced dueling, it didn't come naturally to her. She didn't have the reflexes and quick thinking that people like Sirius Black and Severus Snape had. Lucy relied on plans and practice.

Her entire life revolved around one massive, insanely complex plan. It was mapped out in a heavily cursed journal hidden in her heavily warded bag that never left her heavily protected side. Each bullet point had its own page. Over time, the plan became more of a table of contents. There were plans for the plan. She had pages and pages of notes for each part. Some of it was legitimate research. Others were half-thoughts scribbled in the margins.

The Table of Contents looked something like:

Master Occlumency

Buy poison. QUICK!(and preferably painless)

Buy tent.

Learn

Apparation

portkeys

fighting

wards

Master fiendfyre/get dagger & venom

look for another way to destroy horcuruxes

diadem

ring

summer maybe? easier to find than cave.

buy house elf.

escaping from cave/manor

how are they with gringotts/goblins?

destroy locket BEFORE RAB GRADUATES

contingency plans

ted & andy obvs.

moody fo sho

amelia bones?

dumbledore, probs.

Lucy? Black? Potters? - someone needs to know about peter if i die

join order

prevents suspicion

closer to pettigrew

if fail - go to godric's hollow

Fail again? STOP SIRIUS.

Better yet, don't fail.

Kill Pettigrew if neccessary.

Become Animagus? To escape Azkaban?

DO NOT GO TO AZKABAN.

Break into Malfoy home. Steal diary. Destroy it. Simple!

On second thought, maybe Azkabandying agin.

Study goblin laws and look for work around.

Dumbledore?

Maybe let Vol get blown up first? Get cup after?

Flitwick?

Robbing is last option.

Live so I can see Queen and Nirvana and Tupac and maybe even the Backstreet Boys.

Every decision, every waking moment centered around the Table of Contents. To most, Lucy seemed to be an eccentric scholar. There could be no other reason a bright young girl would be so obsessed with warding and runes and ancient rituals and magic. The denizens of Hogwarts learned not to look twice at a Slytherin girl waving her wand at random walls and fixtures of the castle. For the longest time, it was just Lucy and the Hogwarts wards. Then, in sixth year, everything changed.

A couple of firsties clamored out of their portrait hole one cold morning and came to an abrupt halt. An older Slytherin sat cross legged on the floor, her eyes bloodshot and sunken. The Gryffindors shuffled on their feet nervously. Lucy Tonks cast the killing curse and single handedly revealed You-Know-Who's heritage all in her first year. Dumbledore looked at her funny. They could only guess what she did in her independent studies.

One firstie nodded at the other grimly. Everyone knew not to go into the sixth year boy's dormitories, but this was an emergency. If James Potter and Sirius Black couldn't defend them, no one could.

Well. Maybe except for Lily Evans. She scared even James Potter when she had a fit.

The Gryffindors rushed back inside. Lucy hadn't even noticed. She sat utterly enthralled by the wall. It was several moments before Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin burst through the portrait. They stared in bewildered silence for a moment, then rounded on each other in furious hisses. Whatever argument they had, Sirius Black lost spectacularly.

He approached with something that looked suspiciously like caution.

"Hello, cousin," he said.

Lucy jolted. She glanced over her shoulder and cringed.

"Not your cousin," she muttered before turning back to her work.

"Now, now. There's no need to be rude."

She ignored him. Sirius hesitated before dropping to the floor beside her. She looked like shit. Her eyes were swollen and her hair was piled in a messy knot on top of her head. She hadn't even changed out of her uniform from yesterday.

"Luce, how long have you been working on that?"

"Dunno."

"Well when did you start?"

"Dinner."

"Right. Maybe it's time you take a break."

"Can't."

"And why is that?"

"Almost got it."

"Got what?"

"Look for yourself."

Sirius glanced at his friends uneasily before casting a personal revealing spell. The wall lit up in a maze of lights. He gaped. It was a tapestry of glowing threads, some new and strong, others old and frayed, and a select few ancient and sturdy. It was mesmerizing.

"You're breaking into our common room," he said.

"Yep," she said. He watched, enthralled, as she twisted a pink cord around a golden one. It hummed with primordial magic.

"Is that...is that from Godric Gryffindor?"

She turned to beam at him. Sirius, romance aficionado and two time consecutive winner of Hogwart's Most Eligible Bachelor, had to blink several times to ground himself. It was easy to forget how beautiful she was. Everyone, even the Slytherins, could not deny that Lucy was one of the most tempting girls in school. She had the face of an angel and a body that promised all sorts of wickedness. Smiling like that, like she knew every secret in the world and was happy to share it with you, was dizzying.

"What was that about cousins, Padfoot?" James asked.

Lucy, thankfully, didn't seem to hear him.

"Yes! It's fascinating!" she was saying. "Every common room has different wards along with the usual Hogwarts ones. It took me weeks to figure them all out. It doesn't help that students and professors have added their own over time, so they go all the way back to when the castle was built. Did you know the House colors are based on the Founder's magic? You better thank god I wasn't here because a quarter of us would be wearing pink and indigo."

"Your magic is pink?"

She waved him off. "Yeah, but it's not just the colors that are so cool. It's the magic itself! Ravenclaw was a breeze. It's hardly warded beyond the standard protection spells and runes. Their founder was a scholar and didn't really care if anyone got in as long as they were there to learn. It still applies today. That's why they've got the eagle knocker."

"...You're telling me you broke through the wards of Ravenclaw Tower."

"That was nothing. Slytherin's weren't even that difficult. I think he thought that if someone was sly enough to get in then his students deserved it. What was most difficult was preventing the wards from recognizing me as a Slytherin and pushing me through without any trouble. That and the Parselmagic. It's everywhere, all throughout the castle. It's even in some of the columns. I bet he had the best gossip. It was the Slytherin students that were so difficult to get by. I'm pretty sure I found Voldemort's signature and I suspect Merlin left something that turns animagi into flobberworms, but I'm not completely positive that was his magic."

Sirius paled. "Good to know."

Potter stepped forward, eyeing the wall with wariness. "Sooo you're breaking through everyone's common rooms because..."

"The Professors hardly ward their rooms at all. Slughorn's took the longest and that was only forty seven minutes. This is amazing. There are runes here that I'd never even heard of. Godric Gryffindor was a fucking badass. Feel this."

Sirius didn't miss how she avoided the question. Instead of confronting her, he flicked his wand and a jet of light sped to ravel around the golden string she offered. Lucy canceled her own spell to give him more room to explore. Sirius poked and prodded as he wove through the lattice of protections.

"It's is a puzzle," he whispered in awe.

"Oh dear God, I'm going to go eat. He'll be here for hours," Lupin said.

Potter groaned. "Sirius, mate, come on."

"Nah, you lot go ahead. Go visit Peter. I'll meet up with you later."

Potter rolled his eyes, but he trudged off without further complaint. Lupin hesitated beside them.

"I'm sorry about your mum," he said. "I just lost mine too."

Lucy gave him a small smile. "It's alright. I've still got Ted. And at least it was natural and not...not him."

He nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Keep an eye on Sirius, will you? We've got Charms at half nine."

"Just tell Flitwick he's working with me. It'll probably make him happy."

Flitwick was indeed very happy. He arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait just before lunch with Minerva McGonnagal, who was decidedly less happy. The last thing she needed was Sirius Black armed with such catastrophic knowledge. Nevertheless, the professors conjured chairs and cast a universal revealing spell. A group of passing third years gaped at the sudden appearance of the wards.

Sirius and Lucy were silent except for small exchanges and muttered curses.

"Who's this yellow line? It can't be..."

"Yep. That's Helga Hufflepuff."

"But it's so dark!"

"You should see their common room. There's a reason no one other than a Hufflepuff has been able to get in for centuries."

"Fuck! That stung."

"Goddamnit! Don't touch that if you want to keep your fingers."

"Bloody hell! What was that?"

"Huh. You know, I think Voldemort put that on the dungeon. I wonder if he got it from here."

"But what does it do?"

"I dunno. I felt him and didn't play with it too much."

"But what does it do?!"

"Something Voldemort appreciated."

"...right, moving on."

Finally, at one in the afternoon, the wards suddenly flared to life and the Fat Lady's portrait swung open. Professor Flitwick burst into applause.

"Well done, well done. Most impressive!" Flitwick cried. "A hundred points to you each for your success, and another fifty for such a heartwarming display of interhouse cooperation. I suspect you'll want a tour of Gryffindor Tower, Miss Tonks?"

Lucy blinked. Her eyes were rimmed with red and burned something awful.

"What time is it?" She asked.

"It is just after one. When did you start?" Flitwick asked.

"Six yesterday evening. Sirius jumped in at what? Nine?"

"Seven," he said.

"You broke through a thousand years worth the wards in less than twenty four hours?"

McGonnagal asked incredulously.

Lucy bit on her cheek to hide her smile. "Well, I've been working my way up so it wasn't like the material was new or anything. It's just a matter of solving the puzzle."

"Indeed?" McGonnagal raised a brow. "And what, pray tell, are you working your way up to?"

"The Headmaster's Office, of course."

Sirius barked out a laugh.

Flitwick hopped from foot to foot excitedly. "Fascinating! I daresay you could write a dissertation instead of taking the Charms NEWT. Though of course, neither of you would have a problem sitting them this very minute."

"Please do not inflate Mr. Black's ego further," McGonnagal said, her twitching lip betraying her own amusement.

Sirius smirked. "Oh, Minnie. You don't have to hide your affections from me."

"Tonks, come along for the tour," Minnie snapped.

She nearly dragged Sirius through the portrait. He could be heard saying something about eagerness and pleasure. Lucy shuddered despite herself. She had no doubt that Sirius would bang his teacher for shits and giggles. Hell, he'd probably bang Dumbledore just to know that he had.

"Miss Tonks. A word."

Lucy paused outside the entrance. Flitwick peered up at her with a dangerous glint in his eyes. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention.

"Miss Tonks. I am not so easily fooled. You are not a Ravenclaw. This is not a passion project, no matter how much you have enjoyed it. You are up to something. Something that will require you to get through complex wards. What are you planning, girl?"

She chewed on her lower lip and scratched at a groove in the stone wall as she weighed her options. Flitwick was hardly mentioned in the books. He seemed to be loyal to the school rather than the Order. In fact, he probably wasn't even in the Order. What had the Ministry ever done for magical creatures?

Lucy glanced down the hall, even peeking past the open portrait to ensure their privacy. When she was completely sure of it, she licked her lips nervously and looked down at her professor.

"I'm going to rob Voldemort," she said as quietly as she could. "He's hidden several...things in several different locations. I don't know what I need to know, so I'm not taking any chances. I figured if I can get past Dumbledore in his own castle I can get past anyone."

He narrowed his eyes. "Hmm. And have you told Albus about these items?"

"No, and I don't plan on it. I don't trust him. It might be stupid, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I do have several contingency plans in place in the event of my disappearance or death, so he'll know when he needs to."

Flitwick let out a heavy sigh. "I must confess my relief. I was afraid you were thinking you could rob Gringotts."

"No." Not if I can help it. "I think I might have to bring Dumbledore in on that one."

"Merlin's beard," Flitwick gasped. He stumbled back against the doorsill. "What ever have you got yourself into?"

She gave him a sad smile. "I didn't choose this. I even thought about running away. Still don't know why I haven't, if I'm being honest."

"Luce!" Sirius Black called. Flitwick and Lucy glanced over to find Sirius leaning into the other end of the tunnel. "You coming? Or can Minnie and I-"

"SIRIUS BLACK IF YOU FINISH THAT-"

He winked as he vanished from their sight. "Okay, okay. Don't get yourself in a tizzy."

"It's for them, I think," Lucy said slowly as she thought aloud. "I don't have anybody, but that doesn't mean everybody else should lose their somebodies."

"There are many somebodies out there waiting for you. Take Mr. Black, for instance. Us teachers notice more than you'd think."

"I promised myself I wouldn't get involved. It's too dangerous for them."

"Then it's a good thing you're a Slytherin. Your kind are always great at finding loopholes in vows and laws."

Lucy tilted her head thoughtfully. "That's very clever of you, Professor."

"I am a very clever wizard, Miss Tonks, and you are a very clever witch. Now forgive me, but I must prepare for class. Go and explore the Lion's Den. Maybe invite Sirius to study or lunch? That boy could use a steady hand in his life."

"You know, I think I might do that."

She did something better. After the tour, she pulled him aside and invited him to spend Christmas with Nymph and Andy. He accepted cheerfully, then pulled Lucy down to the kitchens where they both fell asleep by the fire with full bellies and cozy blankets.

The next day, Lucy made herself comfortable in front of the Hufflepuff common room. After that, it was Dumbledore's office. And after that, she cornered Sirius Black at King's Cross.

"Sirius," she said. "How would you like help me steal something from Lord Voldemort?"