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The fun began bright and early on that fateful morning. It started with the large crash of whatever Pansy and her cronies had used to barricade the door being shoved out of the way. That was followed by the agonizing sounds of the enchanted alarm clock filling the hallways of the dormitories. Then all hell broke loose.
Pansy and Daphne were screaming at the tops of their lungs, shouting all the very nasty things they were planning on doing to her. Milicent and Isobel had their hands over their ears and were crying that the clock just wouldn't stop. The rest of the Slytherin house then began to file into the hallways cursing whoever was making all the noise at this ungodly hour. Everyone was screaming and shouting at each other while Lyssa just sat in the corner watching the mayhem unfold, she even spied Malfoy having a good chuckle off to the side as well. The only thing that made the whole production even more entertaining than it already was for Lyssa, was the fact that everyone was dressed in pyjamas.
"WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU ALL THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Professor Snape had entered the Slytherin common room and as he shouted at his students his volume was much louder than Lyssa thought possible. Everybody froze. The room had gone silent. Well, it would have been silent if not for the continued ringing of Lyssa's clock. "What is that noise?" Snape asked the room.
"Oh I'm so sorry Professor," Lyssa spoke up from her corner of the common room, "I was locked out of my dorm last night and couldn't turn off my alarm clock this morning." She shrugged as if it wasn't that big a deal. Maybe, it wouldn't have been if the alarm hadn't still been ringing and getting progressively louder.
"Well if you don't mind Miss Wiley," Snape addressed her, "Go and turn it off!" he shouted. Lyssa skipped into her dorm room and retrieved the clock from its place on the floor beside a few very large textbooks. She waved her wand over the clock and it silenced. Lyssa placed the clock in her pocket and returned to the common room, highly aware of the many stares she was receiving.
"Everyone out!" Snape commanded but the gaze he had set on Lyssa told her he was not talking to her. "Not you," he looked at Lyssa's dormmates and they stopped in their tracks, "My office, now." The five girls followed Snape out of the common room and down the hall to his office. He closed the door behind them with a flick of his wand and sat behind his desk. "Explain," he said simply.
Lyssa waited for Pansy to respond, it would be much more satisfying to catch her in a lie than to outright accuse her of wrongdoing.
"We didn't know that Lyssa wasn't there when we went to bed last night," Pansy whined, "She usually goes to bed before us and we just didn't notice."
"That would be well enough Miss Parkinson but may I ask why you thought she was there when you knew she had an overnight detention?" Snape asked Pansy. Lyssa was contented to realize that she might not even have to be the one to catch Pansy lying.
"We didn't know, Professor Snape, honestly," Daphne pipped up.
"Really, Miss Greengrass?" Snape turned to look at her. "I was quite sure I overheard Mr. Malfoy tell you about his detention with Miss Wiley last night in my class yesterday." Daphne went quiet and shrunk under Snape's glare. "But, if you say you didn't know I'll believe you." Daphne's confidence returned and Lyssa's shoulders slumped a bit. Surely he wasn't buying this?
"Miss Wiley," Snape looked at Lyssa now, "I was not aware you were having trouble with your unlocking charms, Professor Flitwick has told me that you excel in his lessons."
"Oh, no Professor, my unlocking charms are fine." Lyssa understood now where Snape was going with this. She was more than happy to play along. "I heard the lock click open last night when I tried to get in, but I still couldn't open the door."
"Miss Parkinson," Snape turned back to the other girls, "Why would Miss Wiley be unable to open the door, even after unlocking it?" He asked Pansy. The girls stood still staring directly at the floor. It wasn't very long before Isobel broke.
"Because there was a dresser in front of the door," Isobel said, still avoiding eye contact.
"Thank you, Miss MacDougal." Snape said, "I will be taking 15 points each from Slytherin for your behaviour," The girls looked defeated. Good, Lyssa thought, serves them right. "You are dismissed," he waved the girls out of his office, "Miss Wiley please stay a moment."
Lyssa stood with Snape in his office for only a moment after the others left when he gestured for her to have a seat.
"How long has this been going on?" he asked her.
"Only last night Professor," Lyssa didn't need to explain where she had been sleeping since November, that was a secret she wanted to keep.
"Really," Snape quirked an eyebrow at her, "And I am meant to believe you had an enchanted alarm clock merely by coincidence?" he questioned.
"I'd been practicing my charm work on it," Lyssa shrugged.
"Lyssa," Snape warned. He had never used her first name before, it was kinda scary.
"Since November," Lyssa sighed, "After the first quidditch game."
"And why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Because I needed to deal with it myself," she huffed, "They're never gonna respect me if I go crying to a Professor every time something doesn't go my way." Snape stared at her urging her to continue. "And it's not like no one knew, all the first-years knew, and the quidditch team knew I wasn't sleeping," Lyssa turned her head away, "It was just that nobody really cared."
Snape did not question her further and he let Lyssa return to her dorm. She had to go retrieve her things from the Room of Requirement first but she settled back into her dorm pretty quickly. The story of the enchanted alarm clock quickly spread around the school. The warped version Pansy was telling though, not the one that the Slytherins knew was the truth. This incident did, however, give Lyssa a reputation among the Slytherins. They all thought twice before insulting her now, most of them still did insult her but they weighed their options carefully knowing that they might come to regret anything more.
Lyssa got a good laugh when Professor Flitwick asked to see the clock. He even gave her extra credit for it, citing her impeccable charmwork and ingenuity.
𝀈𝀈𝀈
When exams finally arrived it felt like Lyssa could finally breathe again. She had spent the entire school year preparing for this moment as if her finishing at the top of her year would be enough to erase everything else that was going on in her life. All of her studying proved worth it though when she sat her exams. The theory parts were a breeze, Lyssa looked over all her answers twice after she had finished writing each one and was still always the first to hand in her paper. The practical parts couldn't be described as anything other than fun for Lyssa.
Professor Flitwick had asked her to make a pineapple dance across a desk. Lyssa giggled with glee as the pineapple performed a very intricate tap number in spite of its lack of legs or feet. Professor McGonagall had set the task of turning a mouse into a snuffbox. Lyssa focused very clearly on the image of one in her house back in Surrey. It was a pretty blue colour with ornamental flowers and jewels all over it. When she waved her wand Lyssa was delighted to see the picture in her mind appear in front of her. Professor Snape's practical was comparatively the hardest, but Lyssa breezed through that one as well. She took extra care in brewing her forgetfulness potion and refused to hand it in until she knew that it was perfect.
All in all, exams had been a breeze and it was until they were over that Lyssa began to think about what she would do on her summer holidays. Her mind jumped to her Christmas break, not the good parts though. She thought about the wary looks her mum gave her when she thought Lyssa wasn't looking. She thought about every time she sat down with her brothers in the living room to play and how her mother wasn't far behind.
In this moment it occurred to Lyssa that maybe she wasn't entirely relieved to be returning home after all. She had always focused on all the reasons that she didn't want to stay at Hogwarts and it was jarring to come to the realization that she might prefer it here.
But Lyssa knew she had to go home, even Harry was going back to Little Whinging this summer and lord knows he had it far worse than she did. But maybe she could make it better for both of them, she considered. Harry hadn't been very friendly to her this year but he's had a lot going on. Not only did he have to discover the whole mess of this magical world like the muggle-borns, but he also had to grapple with being at the center of all of it. Lyssa resolved that she would cut him some slack and try one more time to be his friend.
So that evening at dinner when she saw Harry and his friends sitting alone like they had every during every meal since they got caught out after curfew, she walked up to them and sat down.
"Hi guys," Lyssa smiled, "How did your exams go?" the Gryffindors stared at her incredulously.
"They were fine Lyssa," Hermione replied. The three of them sat there waiting for Lyssa to pick up on the fact that she was unwelcome. Lyssa did recognize this, she wasn't stupid, but she wasn't going to keep letting people dismiss her based on preconceived notions that had nothing to do with her.
"Actually, Wiley," Ron glared at her, "We're kinda in the middle of something if you don't mind."
"Oh, maybe I can help," Lyssa suggested.
"You don't even know what it is." Hermione huffed.
"Yeah, and it's sorta dangerous," Harry explained.
"All the more reason you should accept my help then!" Lyssa insisted she didn't know what she was getting herself into, but how bad could it really be?
"We've already got one muggle-born genius that's enough for my taste," Ron sneered, "Can't you tell when you're not wanted?" Lyssa's smile faltered, she knew that these three weren't her biggest fans, but, they had never been outright mean to her, not like the Slytherins had.
"Of course, I can," Lyssa began to rise from her seat. "I just didn't want it to be true."
"What do you mean?" Hermione questioned, Lyssa remember their encounter back on Halloween. These three genuinely thought she was friends with the Slytherins.
"I just didn't want to admit that you are as bad as they are." Lyssa gestured to the Slytherin table. "Don't worry it won't happen again." Okay, maybe Lyssa was trying to guilt-trip them a little bit. But, in her defence, if they weren't so insistent that the Slytherins were made from everything nasty, evil, and wrong, then they wouldn't have been so offended by the comparison.
"Wait!" Harry grabbed her arm as she went to leave. "Maybe one more person couldn't hurt," he proposed to his friends, "We don't even know what we'll be up against." The expressions that Hermione and Ron were wearing said everything they didn't. They didn't trust her, this was a bad idea, and they would make Harry rue the day he made them ally with a Slytherin.
"Fine," Ron spat, Hermione just continued to grimace.
The trio filled Lyssa in on everything she had missed. The package from Gringotts, the three-headed dog in the forbidden corridor (his name was fluffy) that was standing on a trapdoor. They told her about Nicolas Flammel and the philosophers stone. They even told her all their suspicions about Snape, which after no more than one verbal protest she silently disagreed with. She soon understood the gravity of the situation.
"So we're going down tonight?" Lyssa clarified.
"You still want to help?" Harry looked a little shocked.
"Of course I do," Lyssa said. Even if she didn't think Snape was going to steal the stone something was definitely up. "Is that so shocking?" She asked the group.
"Slytherins aren't exactly known for their bravery," Ron chided, "Or their will to do the right thing," he added.
"Well maybe I just want the glory from helping to save the stone," Lyssa joked. She wasn't going to change his mind today, so she might as well have some fun.
"Yes, tonight," Harry tried to get the conversation back on track. "You'll have to meet us there though, I only have one cloak."
"I can do that," Lyssa agreed and the plan was set.
She was going to help save a magical artifact that a month ago she had only ever read about. While, the thought of what was waiting for her in the third-floor corridor that night was scary, the thought of doing nothing was scarier.