NO MORE A PRETENDER~ {The Lestrange Daughter #3}

𝟓. Education

TRIGGER WARNING; Contains violence directly involving the characters. Not terribly graphic but please take care if you are sensitive to such things.

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1992, September 5th,

It's only the first week back and so much has already happened! Not that it surprises me. That's one of the things I love about this place. Something is always happening. Our very first class was Herbology and Professor Sprout taught us how to replant Mandrakes. Now, that was definitely an eventful experience. 

Oh! I might have made a new friend. I'm not sure yet though. His name is Meriton Hasani and he's definitely not from Britain judging by his accent but it felt rude to ask. He's a Slytherin in my year that I had never really spoken to before. I noticed he was having trouble with some school work in the Great Hall and at first, I told myself just to mind my own business and let him be.  After all, he might just want to be left alone but he still seemed to be struggling for some time and I felt more bad thinking that I might be able to help but didn't because I was being cowardly. So I did it! I took a deep breath and asked him and it all turned out okay! He's super nice and a very hard worker. He didn't even seem to mind Leah and all her...well, Leah-ness. But even more important than that, I think he really liked Liam. As in liking him in a very particular way. I don't know if anyone else picked up on this though. I could be wrong, but I just don't think I am. Meriton was blushing a lot and Liam can be very, as my father would say, suave, when he wants to be. Even though I don't think he was trying. I don't know what Val and Draco thought about Meriton though. They didn't say anything bad but that doesn't mean anything good either. I suppose that fact that they didn't outright object to him is a good thing. 

Oh! And something even more important than that happened! We had our first lesson with Lockhart and it wasn't what you might call fantastic. He had us take a quiz about his personal achievements...even I think that's very odd. Val refused to do the test at all and stopped Lockhart before he could bother her too much. When Val is stressed, everyone is stressed. But it didn't matter in the end away because Val jumped right over the desk and had Lockhart at wand point! It was totally crazy! Then Lockhart opened a cage full of Cornish Pixies and that was even crazier! They were everywhere, in my hair and on my face. They were attacking everyone and everything! We all had to leave the classroom but then Val went back inside and used the Freezing Charm on the pixies. Then came Professor's McGonagall, Burbage and Trelawney and they were not happy. Then Snape came as well and he was even less happy then they were. He had to physically remove her from the room. Although that's pretty normal for them. Val has detention with Snape today because of it.

Honestly, just about anything else that happened pales in comparison to that. I was partnered with this Ravenclaw girl in Transfiguration's for the day's assignment because McGonagall chose the pairs herself. Her name's Jane Philips and she's very pretty and way smarter than I am. She asked a lot of questions about Val though. A lot more than most people would. It was a little strange actually but I know more than anyone that Val is a very interesting kind of person. I'm sure she was just curious. 

Valentine sat back and stared across the bathroom at the wall. She remembered, she realised, that Olivia and Jane had been partnered for a lesson. Leah had whined about being separated from her and made the whole lesson difficult for her own partner, one of the Patil sisters. 

God. She really was there the whole time. I just never realised it. She was there the whole fucking time watching me with her creeping, obsessive stalker eyes. 

What Valentine knew about Jane Philips whereabouts today were minimum. She'd been expelled from Hogwarts naturally and her actions noted officially within the Ministry or at least the Ministry as it had been. Valentine had never met her parents but they didn't make any noise about wanting to fight the expulsion, they'd just taken their daughter away and Valentine had never had any interaction since. It had closed that chapter of Valentine's life for good. She fully intended never to see Jane again, knowing with great satisfaction that Jane would suffer because of it.