Lucy was not one to get a detention. In fact, she had never really been the type to require any sort of disciplinary action. She was, up until now, an example of the perfect student. Draco was amused but certainly not pleased to hear that she had tried to hex Potter. A week had gone by since he had been attacked, and thankfully, he was released from the infirmary.
"What do you reckon Slughorn is going to make me do?" Lucy asked. She sat perched on an old desk in the Room of Requirement, watching Draco work on mending the Vanishing Cabinet. The two had finished dinner just moments ago, and she wanted to spend her remaining time with him before detention. Lucy found it cute to watch him work so hard, murmuring the spell and constantly opening and closing the grand mahogany cabinet. His uniform shirt was untucked from his trousers, something he rarely did, seeing as he came from a family that commended looking sharp.
"Who bloody knows with that nutter," Draco said under his breath before turning around in frustration. "It's not going to be done in time!"
Lucy sighed softly and hopped off the desk before walking over to him. "It will, Draco. Have patience,"
She gently rubbed his back as he ran a hand through his pale blonde hair.
"It's almost May, and Greyback hasn't even tried to come through yet,"
Lucy rose to her tiptoes and reached up to cup his face with her hands. "It'll be alright,"
The boy sighed and leaned forward to connect his lips with her own. His hands quickly snaked behind her and grasped her waist. The smell of his luxurious cologne overwhelmed her as she moved one of her hands to play with his hair. He snogged her passionately and with intent before Lucy pulled away breathlessly.
"I have to get to detention," she insisted, her lips swollen.
Draco groaned and held her close to him. "Ten minutes?"
"Slughorn will have my head!" Lucy argued worriedly, untangling herself from his grasp. She would much rather enjoy her time with the blonde than the portly Potions master, but life was, unfortunately, not fair. Draco frowned as she smoothed out her uniform and slipped her robes back on.
Once she had treaded back down to the dungeons, Lucy forced a fake smile upon her face before knocking on the heavy door of Slughorn's office. A few moments went by before the pot-bellied man swung the door open.
"Oh, Ms. Armstrong, come in!" he exclaimed, ushering her inside.
"Hello, sir," she greeted shortly, entering to see his office had been converted back to its normal size compared to the Christmas party. She gazed around at the stone walls and her eyes fell on the shelf, remembering the photo of her mother sitting upon it.
"I do apologize for having to give you detention," Slughorn began as he shut the door and wandered over to her, the buttons on his robes threatening to give at any moment. "However, it would look bad if I played favorites, now wouldn't it?"
Lucy nodded and flashed him a fake smile once more. "I understand, Professor,"
"Now, for your detention, I was hoping to have you tidy up my office if that's alright. I have a select store of ingredients you could go through as well, and make sure nothing has expired,"
"Of course, Professor," she replied graciously.
Slughorn studied her for a moment before bustling over to what looked like a wooden table with a selection of bottles that Lucy assumed to be alcohol.
"Something to drink, dear?"
"Er-sure," she answered, knowing that alcohol would help her get through the insufferable evening to come.
He chuckled to himself and grabbed two glasses and pondered for a moment on which bottle to pick up.
"Let's see, stout, firewhiskey, mead," he listed off, talking to himself before hovering over a bottle of mead. "No, this I'll save for the Headmaster-" he then reached for a bottle of firewhiskey.
"Firewhiskey it is!" he declared with a chortle before pouring two glasses and handing one to Lucy. She willingly took the glass and sipped it lightly before placing it down. She was far too interested in the bottle of mead that he was saving for Dumbledore. Surely it couldn't be that easy. A devious plan formed in her mind as she smiled sweetly at the Professor.
"Well now, best get to work, eh? You can start with the cupboard over there," Slughorn declared cheerfully.
Lucy begrudgingly wandered over to the broom cupboard in the corner of the room and opened the door. She groaned internally when she peered inside to see it in a state of serious disarray. Books, empty flasks and vials, and broken Potions equipment were nearly falling off the unkempt shelves. She glanced over her shoulder to see Slughorn facing away from her before quickly swishing her wand. At once, the cupboard put itself back together nice and tidy. Now, she merely could pretend to be actually cleaning the bloody storage.
"Doing alright, eh Armstrong?" called out Slughorn, causing her to curse under her breath. "I'll be back soon, I must go talk to Professor McGonagall I'm afraid,"
"Okay!" Lucy echoed from the cupboard, waiting to hear the satisfying sound of the door slamming closed. She rushed over to his cabinet full of potion ingredients, desperate to find what she needed. However, the wooden cabinet had a large lock upon it. Lucy huffed before she tapped the lock with her wand. "Alohomora!"
The silver lock fell to the floor, and she urgently searched through each drawer for any sort of ingredient that she knew to be poisonous. She was suddenly thankful at that moment, for paying attention in Potions class for the last six years. Her fingers skimmed over the labels of the dreadfully organized ingredients.
Spine of Lionfish, Bezoar, Chizpurfle fang, Fluxweed, Cowbane.
"Yes!" Lucy gasped, grabbing the small vial containing the purple Cowbane. Hurriedly, she popped the cork out of the vial and trotted over to the bottles of alcohol. She grimaced at the very large amount of liquor the professor had and wondered if he was possibly an alcoholic. The bottle of mead that was meant for the Headmaster had a small brown ribbon upon it. To save time, she flicked her wand to unscrew the top of the bottle, before carefully pouring in fat little purple drops of the poisonous solution.
Once Lucy was confident that it was enough to do the job, she returned everything to its prim and proper place. Fear struck in her heart as she heard the handle to the door begin to turn. With a swish of her wand, the lock clicked back on the cabinet just as the door swung open. The portly man teetered inside with a chuckle.
"How is the organizing going, Armstrong?" Slughorn asked.
The raven-haired girl was breathless. "Great, Professor. The cupboard is all done!"
"Excellent! Now just this cabinet here, if you would be so kind-" he walked over to the cabinet she had only just locked up. "Whatever has expired feel free to throw away,"
Lucy nodded as he unlocked the cabinet and stepped aside with a content smile upon his reddish face. She began to sort through drawer by drawer, squinting to read the labels on each box and bottle. It was grueling work, and could certainly not be done with the use of magic.
Time went by agonizingly slow as she diligently worked. When at last she tossed the expired box of Venomous Tentacula leaves into the rubbish bin, she was allowed to leave. She slipped out of the door and sighed in relief with her back against the door before realizing Draco was waiting for her. Based on his content expression, he was very pleased with himself.
"About bloody time," he said, peeling himself off of the stone wall he had been leaning upon. "Guess what?"
"What?" she asked curiously as he intertwined their fingers together.
"I did it," he whispered into her ear, his hot breath fanning upon her face. The smell of peppermint tickled her nose. "Carrow came through the Cabinet just a couple hours ago with no problems,"
"Are you serious?" Lucy exclaimed with delight. "Brilliant!"
Draco seemed quite satisfied with her response and a smug look overcame his face.
"I wish I would have known that before detention though," she added as they began to make their way to the common room.
"Why is that?" he questioned.
"I er—may have slipped something into the mead that Slughorn was planning to give to Dumbledore," she informed him with a smirk upon her soft lips. "Just as a precautionary measure, of course,"
Draco stopped in his track, bewildered by what she had just said. "Bloody hell,"
"I'm sorry, I just—"
"It'll be alright," he insists before taking her hand and backing her up against the cool stone in front of the entrance to the common room. Draco's lips crashed onto hers with a loving passion behind them.
While Lucy felt extremely guilty for her actions, she could not help but enjoy the response it invoked in the tall blonde. It was a relief for the two to at last feel at peace with the cards they had been dealt. In fact, she even allowed Draco to whisk her away to his dormitory that evening to celebrate that they had at last, accomplished what they thought impossible.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
author's note
okay i lowkey don't love this chapter i feel like its kind of boring and drags on and makes lucy look like a bitch but our girl is trying to save her own skin so u cant really blame her.. also i am aware i kind of switched the plot around because typically ron is poisoned before draco's sectumsempra scene but this fits this story's plot line better. also thank you SO much for the 2k reads!!! thats crazy. omg do you guys like the new cover?? i hope so.