Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

1 September, 1975 - Good Summer?

The only slightly odd thing about the situation was that she seemed to be making no effort to leave her family. Where Lavinia was usually one of the very first to take a compartment, wasting no time getting out of the presence of Rhea, who she had no doubt grown sick of over the summer, she was now standing right beside her mother, looking a spitting image of the older woman.

Just then, Alexandra and Eloise opened the compartment door.

"There you are," Alexandra said with a smile, hurrying to put her luggage up while Eloise stood in the doorway, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Hello, Alexandra. Did you have a good summer?" he asked.

"Delightful," she said, beaming down at him

Lavinia had long ago tuned out her father's voice as he gave advice to William while they stood on the platform. Normally, she would have been itching to go find a compartment by now, but the prospect of facing her friends was a somewhat daunting one. What Regulus asked about that first day of summer? She knew he'd seen and could only hope he'd taken the hint from her letter that she wasn't going to discuss it.

And then of course, there was the problem of Alexandra. Lavinia wasn't entirely sure how she would react to seeing the girl again, but the mere thought of her brought up a strange combination of rage and resignation that she didn't know how to reconcile. But of course, she couldn't afford to make a scene. People would ask questions, and thus far, by some miracle, no one else seemed to know of her shame. She suspected Regulus had somehow convinced Walburga that it was a lie, for she had no doubt Alexandra had taken the information straight to the Black family matriarch.

"Lavinia, dear." Her mother's sharp voice snapped Lavinia out of her reverie.

"Yes, mother?" she asked, keeping her tone polite and her smile in place.

"Remember what we discussed yesterday," Rhea reminded her daughter.

"Of course."

"Study hard. You know my expectations."

Lavinia nodded, the weight of her mother's words from the other day bearing down on her. I expect perfection, Lavinia. Don't disappoint me. You know the consequences.

When her parents had finished saying goodbye to William and reminding her a few more times just how important her OWLs were, Lavinia was finally sent off to the train by the sound of the warning whistle.

She let William board in front of her, and watched from the end of the train car as he ran off to go meet his friends, feeling something strange and hollow in her chest as they piled out of the car to greet him and help with his trunk.

"Hey! Lavinia!" called a voice from behind her and Lavinia looked away from her brother to see Thomas waving from in front of a compartment down toward the very back of the car. "We're in here!" he said, gesturing.

Lavinia raised a hand to let him know she had heard and made her way slowly down the length of the car, bracing herself with every step, trying to come up with responses, to script herself so she didn't say or do anything stupid.

She reached the compartment to find the door left open for her and stepped over the threshold, her eyes immediately locking on to the brunette sitting next to Regulus. Alexandra met her gaze with a smirk and raised brows.

Lavinia felt a wave of anger rise over her. She wanted to scream at Alexandra, to yell and rage and ask how could you do this. Wanted to cry and break down and fight back. But she beat the urge away, reminded herself that in the end, it was her fault. She'd done the stupid thing. Alexandra had simply told someone about it like the cruel, cowardly snitch she was. Lavinia sighed. She would have to work on those thought patterns. If she wasn't careful they would sneak out in conversation.

So she took a deep breath to calm herself and smiled back, a cold set to the edges of her mouth and began to put her trunk up in the luggage rack.

"Have a good summer, Lavinia?" Alexandra asked once Lavinia was seated between Eloise and Severus, directly across from the other girl. She fought the urge to narrow her eyes. Or laugh. Or cry. She could hardly believe this girl. She was really pushing her luck. It was a good thing Lavinia didn't want to get in further trouble or Alexandra would have been faced with the realization of just how far ahead Lavinia was in her studies.

"Couldn't have been better," she said sweetly. "And you? I didn't hear any news."

Alexandra's smile faltered slightly. No news would be normal for a family like the Fawleys, who were hardly at the front of pureblood politics, but it was painfully clear to Lavinia that Alexandra was desperately trying to climb that ladder. Desperate enough to stab Lavinia in the back for a hope and prayer of getting Walburga Black's favor.

"Nothing special," she said, some of the smile leaving her voice.

"Shame," Lavinia murmured, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. She saw Regulus raise his eyebrows slightly and quickly shifted her eyes to Thomas. "What about you, Thomas?" she asked. "Good summer?"

The conversation progressed and Lavinia was glad no one seemed to want to pry about her summer, though more than once she saw Regulus looking at her somewhat strangely. She would have to do something about that.

Though she'd been apprehensive, it was nice, now she was with them, to be back in the company of her friends. She'd missed the banter, the sarcasm, the jokes. People didn't crack jokes in the Selwyn house and she'd missed it. It was nice to laugh again. Nice to be distracted from summer's events.

But it also came as something of a relief when she stood up and informed the group she had prefect duties to attend to. Alexandra's jealous frown nearly made her day and it was deeply satisfying to Lavinia to be able to turn her back and walk away. Not as satisfying as screaming at the other girl, but also far less suspicious. So she contented herself with a smirk no one could see and left to attend to her duties.