The Farland Files

The Art of the Deal

A/N: Please don't shoot me for taking the chance to make the title a bad joke :)

~~~

The first year introductions went quite as they had the last few years, only, for the second time in a row, no one questioned her position as Queen.

As the common room calmed down with many students going to unpack, Blaise and Daphne moving to help the first-years to their rooms and answering questions, she turned to the journal she'd gotten from Perenelle and turned to a sketch she'd been doing of Marvolo and Riddle sitting on opposite ends of a couch, both looking as if they were staring at her out of the page.

"You really like drawing us, angel~... are we that important to occupy all your thoughts?"

Well, you two never let me forget that you're in my head, so yeah. Plus I can admit you're both relatively handsome.

She smiled, shading the couch's shadow slightly and using her finger to get the right texture.

Sometimes.

"That's really very good." Ginny leaned over her shoulder, eyes wide. "Tom's older here, right? Both of them? I like him with long hair..."

Snapping the journal shut, she looked at the girl. "Ginevra. What is it?"

The girl grinned, unaffected by the use of her first name. "It? Well, it looked like a picture of two versions of Tom sitting beside each other and looking incredibly fit... but then again, I could just be seeing things."

"Oh?" Daphne drifted over, snatching the journal and flipping through the pages, eyes widening. "Lena! These are-... I know a few girls who would pay for a commission of one of these- or Merlin- Blaise's mom would just eat these up! Is this Tom? That mystery guy? Because he's hot."

"Maybe." She snatched the journal back, scowling as she kept it to herself. "But my sketches are private."

"How sweet..."

"Should we be flattered, dearest?"

Lena flushed just slightly, gripping the journal tightly.

Shut up.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Even if Tom gave me his permission to allow me to give out my drawings of him... I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. My work is my own and his figure is his own- he just lets me use him as my muse."

Daphne and Ginny shared a look, both nodding and backing off slightly, even as Daphne grinned widely. "If you ever think differently, maybe he'd be okay with a more... risque drawing session if you know what I mean?"

"I think that we would be-"

"Nope." She now felt herself flush fully, stopping that thought in its tracks. "No thank you." When the girl opened her mouth, Lena narrowed her eyes. "We are friends."

Both nodded, looking chastised, and after a moment Ginny smiled weakly. "Anyone ever tell you your eyes glow when you're mad?"

Lena smirked cruelty, making her eyes flash bright red as she'd learned to do in the orphanage, the two girls turning as white as a sheet. "I don't think you have ever seen me get mad... not really ." Then she turned on her heel. "I'm going to turn in for the night. Chocolate is on the table, along with the nightmare journal."

As she had her NEWTs for Ancient Runes already and she was yet to test out of Potions- meaning she wasn't allowed to be in the potion lab- Lena found herself sitting in the empty astronomy tower and sketching the Dark Mark absently on a piece of paper in the back of her journal.