Lucy's POV:
EXECUTED?! how?! Just because some little brat can't just listen to his teacher's instruc- tions?!
"Malfoy, the little brat," I hiss at no one in particular. "And his stupid father just barg- ing in as always, acting like he's bloody royalty!"
"Yeah well with their wealth," Ron admitted through gritted teeth, also seething. "He basically is, sadly. You've seen it!"
"Oh, I can't believe this!" Hermione stands up in frustration, throwing a very annoyed Crookshanks off her lap.
"Keep that thing away!" Ron grabs at his pocket in panic.
"What, d'you have a gun in there or some- thing?" Ron looks at me, totally confused and thrown off guard for a second. "A what?"
"Ronald has been afraid Crookshanks will eat Scabbers," Hermione explains with a pointed, annoyed look to Ron. "Which is not going to happen, Crookshanks is a very sweet cat."
"I wouldn't say it's a sweet cat exactly," Harry tunes in.
"Oh come on, Crookshanks is fine," I tell the boys. Hermione smiles brightly, finally having found some support. "Crookshanks is actually the only cat that's sweet that I know of."
"Wait, but you love cats," Harry frowns at me. "When did you stop liking Mrs. Figg's cats?"
"Yeah well, most cats take a disliking to me lately."
Harry opens his mouth to ask, but he closes it again when he realises, giving me a sad frown. Don't you dare pity me, Harry Potter!
"How's Hagrid doing, with all of this?"
"Not good," Ron scoffs at no one in particu- lar. "He's mad at himself mostly. But also at Malfoy, of course."
"As he should be," Hermione comments with a huff. "It was not even his fault. Neither was it Buckbeak's, he was being provoked by Malfoy!"
That might be true, but I of all people know how the Ministry does not care about that. This incident is like catching two flies at once: they get to please Lucius Malfoy, be in his favour and they can get rid of a 'monster' that they want to get rid of anyways. Doing what is right doesn't matter in this case, not to the people who decide.
"Is there anything we can do?" I really want to help Hagrid, he does not deserve this. And I'm pretty sure Buckbeak doesn't deserve what's coming for him either. I should go see Hagrid and meet Buckbeak, try to help a little.
"Well there is one more chance, sort of," Harry starts, but they do not look too hope- ful. "The day of the execution, the Minister will come first, to make the final decision."
"But he won't change the verdict," I finish for them. Defeated, Harry hangs his head and nods. Hermione bites her lip, obviously doing everything to keep her tears in.
Should I just go comfort her? How? Do I tell it's going to be fine? I know it probably won't, she knows it too! She looks like she needs a hug, maybe a hug?
I decide that is the right thing to do. I walk up to her slowly, maybe she doesn't like hugs, then she'll have time to tell me. She doesn't though, so I go in for the hug. She stiffens, probably in surprise, and so do I, but she quickly hugs me back. Merlin, why is this so hard? Why do I even flinch when I'm the one hugging first?
"Lu, are you... okay?" Harry asks from behind me and I can just picture his face right now. I never hug anyone unless they're like my best friend or they go in for the hug. I only ever really hugged Harry, Remus and Ginny, if you don't count Liliana in a group hug and Vanessa, who often initiates hugs.
"Yeah, I'm good."
*
"Lu, Vanessa, look at this!" Ginny all but dives onto my bed, followed by Liliana. "We found this under a table in the library!"
"I bet it was the in the twins' possession," Liliana adds. She seems like she's glowing in excitement and Ginny is no different. "We just need to figure out how to work it!"
"It's a piece of parchment," Vanessa exami- nes it, brows furrowed, but she obviously does not find anything.
"How do you know it was Fred and George's?" I ask them, looking it over on my turn. I too, do not find anything too strange.
"They were sitting there before us," Liliana informs us, with a proud smirk. "We spied on them a little."
"Ooh, nice!" Vanessa smirks back at Liliana. Ginny and I exchange a look and burst out laughing. They look like two psychopaths.
"So, how do we figure it out then?" Vanessa asks, completely ignoring Ginny and my outburst.
"Oh we were thinking you two'd help with that part," Liliana presses her lips together, looking at both me and Vanessa in turn. "We're open to suggestions."
"We could try some revealing spells," Vanes- sa suggests, shrugging. "If you haven't tried it yet, of course."
"See, that's the thing," Liliana retorts. "We did already try, with extra spells from the books in the library as well."
"But it didn't work?"
"Nah, but the manufacturers told us to piss off," Ginny looks back down at the parch- ment, inspecting it again.
"That's how we knew we were right," Liliana adds as proof that they were actually not crazy. We already know they are crazy though.
"That is very cool," I admit to the group and they agree instantly. "How 'bout we get it back to Fred and George?"
The girls stare at me blankly.
"Are you insane?!" Ginny exclaims, quickly snatching the parchment out of my reach. "We're not doing that! We finally tricked them!"
"Are you feeling good Lu?" Liliana raises her eyebrows questioningly. "What got into you?"
"I mean, should we give it back and watch what they do?" I explain myself with a smirk. "We already know spying on them is easier than figuring this out ourselves."
"Where's the fun in that?" Ginny pouts.
"And it's a bit unfair," Vanessa adds.
"Maybe," I admit. "But we want to figure it out, right? Do you have any other ideas? If so, let's do that, I'm happy to do something else!"
The girls give in after thinking about it a little. So, after my Quidditch practice that evening, I sneak it into Fred's bag when no one is watching.
Now, reveal yourself.
*
"I just know they would think differently if they took the time," I sigh sadly as I pat the hippogriff lightly. Buckbeak is literally so beautiful and sweet.
"I know..." Hagrid pats him too. Then he turns away and wipes a tear from his face. "But they've never bin tha' way, I'm 'fraid."
"Guess not."
Hagrid still does not know about me being a werewolf of course, but sometimes I figure maybe I should tell him. I'm pretty sure he is a giant by now, I've read enough magical creatures and monster books to see things. He deserves to know he is not alone in bejng different. On the other hand, you can never truly know how someone will react if you tell them you are a monster, even if you think you know. Don't trust anyone, even those you do trust.
"Malfoy went too far," I tell him. "I promise we'll get him back, Hagrid. I'll make sure of that."
He sniffs, takes my shoulder and pats it as a gesture of apprecuation. The pat is more of a slap, but I bite my tongue, because it's Hag- rid. He looks down at me and smiles as a tear rolls down his cheek.
"Thank you, Lucy."
"It's nothing Hagrid," I chuckle. "Also, as a teacher, I don't think you're allowed to have favourites."
"I'm not your teacher," he argues, but he blushes nonetheless. "And I'm not teaching at the moment."
"Not for long. You'll see, you cab teach again in no time."
"Y'know," I turn to an apprpaching Harry. "Snape has favourites and he's still here."
"And Snape not only has favourites: he bul- lies the ones he hates as well."
Hagrid never argues with us on our dislike of Snape, but he does not really agree either. I never really understood why, maybe he just trusts Snape. Nevertheless, I do not trust him anymore: he is on to my downfall, almost telling people what I am. And all of that, just bcause of who our dad is?! I swear, that man gets pettier with the years.
"How 'bout a cup o' tea huh?" Hagrid sniffs once more, then leads us inside.
Harry and I both sit down and get a cup from the cupboard. Hagrid gets the tea and gives us all some, before he sits down with us.
"Ye both are growin' so fast," he grunts, looking between me and Harry. "It's only been three years and ye've grown a lot already! An' I'm not just talkin' 'bout how tall ye are!"
"I mean, we've changed, I guess," Harry admits. "How could we not? Our whole lifes have changed so much since you came and told us we were wizards. Of course we changed too."
"Yeah," Hagrid sighs. "It's good things changed fer ye. Those Dursleys are awful."
Harry and I exchange an uncomfortable glance, but we quickly look away. We try to talk about them as little as possible, just to be sure no one figures anything out. So far it has worked fine: the only person who knows is Remus and he keeps our secret. Unlike sone teachers do.
"Y'know what Hagrid?" I start to steer the subject away from the Dursleys. "I am going to find Ginny, Liliana and Vanessa later and I'm gonna plan a good prank on Malfoy. He is not getting out of this unharmed, I promise."
Hagrid smiles lightly and takes a sip of tea. "I know ye will, Lucy. I don' doubt it."
*
Harry's POV:
"POTTER!" I jump, but as I turn around, I realize it's not me they're after. Draco Malfoy, followed of course, by his body- guards Crabbe and Goyle storms towards the Gryffindor table.
And he is completely soaked in blood.
And I mean, he is utterly soaked through, as if he's just come insode from the worst storm England has seen in ages, but instead of rain, it was blood pouring down. It's going to take a lot of time for him to clean and dry up if he doesn't use magic.
"Hello there Malfoy," Lucy greets him back, face extremely blank for someone who has just pulled this huge prank. "Whatever might you have done? Did you actually get hurt this time? Wow, that's ironic, after that 'incident' with Hagrid's class!"
Vanessa, Liliana and Ginny laugh and assess their work in astonishment. Malfoy seethes at them all, turns back to Lucy and points a finger at her. "You are gonna regret this! I warned you! I am done with your bullying, and I will not let you do that to me!"
"Since when am I a bully?!" Lucy's face turns red in a second, her gaze burning a hole right through Malfoy.
Normally, he would have looked scared by now and backed off. It seems that this time, he is so furious he doesn't even notice this danger. "You and your 'pranks' on all of us! I know some people will not tell you this, but it isn't even funny anymore! But I am above sparing you from that info, I am not afraid of you! I will not be undermined by an ugly half-blood!"
My blood boils before mind even registers what he has said. I stand at once and walk towards the group. There's no need for me to step in, Ginny and Liliana and most of the Gryffindors around them fo a fine job by themselves, but I can't help myself.
"What did you just say?" I ask him when I stand in front of him. Malfoy doesn't listen to me, he is too busy avoiding a curse that comes flying towards him, fired by Seamus it seems.
Ginny dives for his neck, but she's held back by Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. Vanessa is cursing him so badly Malfoy flinches at her words. Liliana is firing spells at him as well, which he sadly dodges too.
"ENOUGH!" The vooming voice of McGonna- gall echoes over us all, stopping everyone at once. "Mr. Malfoy, miss Shacklebolt, miss Weasley and miss Johnson, mr. Finnigan, to my office, now! Severus, you'd better come too. Miss Potter, would you like to follow as well?"
"Sure..." Lucy's look tells me she doesn't actually want to be there, but what choice does she really have with McGonnagall? So she follows us, looking just as guilty and devastated as the others, who actually did something.
"You sure Lu?" I ask her, but she shrugs and follows without saying anything else. All I can do is watch them all leave.
"You don't suppose she'll get in trouble too, do you?" Neville asks, a tremmor in his voice, as if he's afraid to ask. "Because of the prank, I mean?"
"If Snape can help it, she will," Fred grunts. Both him and George are watching Snape leave and staring him down as if that might set him on fire.
"But he has no proof it was them," I reason, but I know it's hopeless. It's painfully obvious it was them, they didn't even deny it. And they won't.
"But er... we gotta go," George nudges Fred and gives him a weird look. "We've got to get our y'know, right Fred?"
"Right George." And just like that, the twins leave too, doing whatever sneaky thing they are planing now. It'd better be aimed at Snape or Malfoy.
"I swear, normally I understand, but Lucy didn't do anything this time!" At the table next to ours (the Ravenclaws) sits Marley, Lu's dorm mate. She's scowling and she clearly saw everything.
"Snape is so unfair," a girl next to her comments, watching the doors. She was very beautiful, with dark shining eyes, long black hair and very delicate skin. "I don't understand why Professor Dumbledore keeps him here. His teaching isn't even that good."
"Right!" Someone else agrees with the girl. Who is that girl?!
"Harry," Hermione snaps her fingers in front of my face all of a sudden, a smug glim in her eyes. "We should go to class!"
"Where did you just come from?" Ron frowns at her. "You weren't here before!"
"I was here the whole time, Ronald."
"No, you weren't!"
"We're going to be late, let's go," I interrupt their usual bickering. "We can't help Lucy anyway."
And please let her be able to get out of this whole thing wothout my help.
_____________________________________________
A/N
I'M SO SORRY I JUST DISAPPEAR ALL THE TIME RLLY
Let's just say school was a lot this semester and will be even more dramatic next semester, so it might take some time again. I'm doing the best I can, I promise I'll try being more frequent in the updates. I think it will get a little better maybe.
Merry christmas everyone! Little late, but yeah, I wasn't done with this chapter yet, early happy New Year anyways!