The Tales of Black I (Original)

Chapter Ten: Christmas

“Yeah, come one,” said George. “How can you possibly say no to that face?”

Fred nudged me forward and I stared at the Fat Lady as she stared back at me.

“Oh, all right,” she said. “Password?”

“Pig snout,” George said.

The Fat Lady’s portrait swung forward and I was shoved inside a room completely decked with red and gold. It wasn’t like the Ravenclaw common room at all.

They had squashy armchairs, couches, and a few tables in one small area. The Ravenclaw common room had more tables, a single couch in front of the fireplace, and there were bookshelves lining all the way around the room, under a wooden platform that led to the separate stairwells that led to the dorms. Personally, I preferred my own common room to Fred and George’s.

Fred and George yanked me along to a spiral staircase and pushed open door under a plaque that read “Third Years.”

The dorm looked just like mine, but in scarlet and gold.

“You’ll be in our dorm, since we’re the only ones in our year that stayed,” George explained.

“You can sleep there,” said Fred, pointing to the bed next to the one with a trunk initialed “F.W.”

I sat my knapsack on the bed and we headed back down to the common room just as Ron and Harry entered, melted snow glittering in their hair.

“Lucy, what’re you doing in here?” Ron asked, staring wide-eyed at me.

“It was their idea,” I said, jerking my thumb at Fred and George, who both wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

“We can’t have our little Lucy all alone in the Ravenclaw common room, now can we?” Fred cooed.

They sat me down on a couch between them and I sat there listening to their plans for pranking.

“What do you think, Lu?” George asked.

“Should we send Snape a box on Dungbombs for Christmas?” Fred asked.

I snorted.

“Sure, why not?” I said as the Percy Weasley climbed through the portrait hole and caught sight of me at once.

“What is she doing in here?” he demanded. “She’s a Ravenclaw, she’s not supposed to be in here.”

“She’s staying in Gryffindor tower for Christmas,” George said.

“You can complain to any of the professors you want, but we already arranged it with Flitwick, McGonagall, and Dumbledore,” Fred said firmly.

“And you didn’t bother to tell me this?” I asked.

“Nope.”

~x~

That night, instead of going to Azkaban, my dreams took me to a large mansion. Someone was dragging me by my arm, but whenever I looked up to see his or her face, all I could see was darkness. I glanced around and in the dim moonlight all I could see were my midnight blue robes billowing in the wind.

We entered the mansion and three people greeted us. The Malfoys.

Lucius smirked at me, and it was an unpleasant sight. He looked as if he hadn’t been clean-shaven in weeks. Narcissa gave me a cold stare as I glared back. Draco scoffed at the sight of me and stalked out of the room.

There was a maniacal cackle from beside me and I slowly turned to see my mother pulling down the hood of her robes.

“Let me go,” I said in a harsh whisper. “Let me go back to Andromeda and Ted.”