[Chapter Twelve]
I sat a cupcake each in front of Fred and George.
“Happy birthday,” I said.
“Hey, you figured it out,” said George, picking his up.
“Or she asked Percy,” said Terry.
“Oh, hush.” I lightly punched him on the shoulder.
“Cheater,” Fred said.
“You never gave me any rules,” I protested.
Fred rolled his eyes.
“Oh, alright, you win,” he said. He reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a box of Every Flavored Beans, handing it to me.
“Yay!” I squealed.
The next month when stretched into nothing but long hours of homework (mostly from Snape) and studying. Terry and I only saw Fred and George at breakfast and I often didn’t help with them with pranks so I could go to the library (“You really are a Ravenclaw then?” Fred asked, peering over my shoulder as I worked on one of Snape’s essays). Some nights I would fall asleep at the tables in the common room, and I would be shaken awake by a prefect who would tell me to go get some sleep in my own bed.
Exams were approaching rapidly, and I knew that anything under an E was unacceptable.
“Did you hear about what Potter did?” Fred asked darkly on a rather gloomy morning (ironically).
I raised an eyebrow. I looked over at Terry, who shrugged.
“No, but I can imagine that you’re going to tell me,” I said.
“He, Ganger, and that Longbottom snuck out after curfew and lost Gryffindor one hundred and fifty points,” he said, a look of disgust on his face.
I didn’t know what to say. This entire year I hadn’t paid an inkling of attention to the hourglasses in the entrance hall, but as we passed them now, I noticed that Gryffindor was below all of the other houses, despite winning both of their Quidditch matches. Personally, I didn’t understand why Fred was so angry, but, then again, Fred and I were two completely different people. He cared about pranking and Quidditch, and, while I spend some time pranking, I would rather spend my time doing schoolwork or reading.
“So what if they lost points?” I asked. “The house cup really isn’t that big of a deal.”
“Not that big of a deal?” Fred and George both glared at me. “We could have won this year, but then Potter and that lump had to go ruin it!”
I opened my mouth to say something, but Fred cut me off.
“Save it,” he sneered. He turned and stormed away, George at his heels.
“Fred!” I called after him. My eyes stung and I blinked away tears.
“Lucy?” Terry asked cautiously. “Don’t worry about him, he’ll cool off by tomorrow, most likely.”
I shrugged.
“I’m going to go up to my dorm,” I said. “I’m not feeling to well.”
Terry nodded.
I hurried up the marble staircase and took off towards the Ravenclaw tower. I went straight up to my dormitory, which was empty, and collapsed onto my bed. I rolled onto my back and stared up at the blue curtains of my bed.
After a moment, a feeling of drowsiness overwhelmed me, and I soon dozed off.
“NO!” I shouted. “I WON’T!”
A man and a woman both smiled evilly.
“We can’t lay a finger on you,” the woman said. “But we can do whatever we please to him.”
She jabbed a finger at Terry, who stood a small distance off.
The man swept forward and grabbed me by the arm, holding me back as the woman pointed her wand at Terry.
There was a flash of red and Terry was sprawled on the floor, screaming in agony.
“NO!” I shrieked, trying to free myself of the man’s grip. “NO!”
The woman let out a cackle.
“Enjoying the show?” she taunted, clicking her wand again.
Terry screamed again, his spine arching.
“TERRY! NO, LEAVE HIM ALONE! TERRY!” I dropped to my knees, sobbing uncontrollably.
The man pulled me back up, wrapping his arm around my neck, forcing me to watch.
After the third time, the man released me, and I fell to the floor. I crawled over to where Terry lay and curled up next to him.
“Terry,” I whimpered, seizing his shirt.
He didn’t move his body, but his eyes looked into mine. I understood. I had been under the Cruciatus Curse before.
“I’m so sorry, Terry,” I whispered, burying my face into his chest and sobbing.
I sat bolt right up in my bed, a layer of cold sweat covering my body. I scrambled out of my bed and tore down the staircase.
Terry sat alone at a table, working on one of his essays. He looked up when he heard my footsteps and stood up just in time for me to tackle him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I had a bad dream,” I said, tears pouring down my face. “You were being tortured – they were using the Cruciatus Curse on you!”
“It’s okay,” Terry said, rubbing my back soothingly. “It was just a dream.”
“I love you, Terry,” I choked out through my sobbing.
“I love you, too, Luce,” he murmured, holding me tightly.
For the longest time, Terry didn’t let me out of his sight. Ever since my breakdown, we’ve been attached at hip, not that I minded. I never did feel very safe when I was alone.
Neither of the twins had spoken to me since our… erm… argument. It was fine by me, though – if they wanted to give me the cold shoulder then they were bloody welcome to. I mean, it did get a bit quiet not having them around, but I wasn’t too worried about it.
When exams came up during the first week of June, I breezed through them with no problem at all. For weeks I had been worried that I would fail, but they were so bloody easy and I came out with full marks.
The morning after I received my results, I entered the Great Hall to find everyone whispering to each other. I caught bits and pieced of it, such as “Quirrell’s gone… Harry Potter… Ganger and Weasley…”
“What’s going on?” I asked Terry.
He went on to explain how Quirrell had Voldemort on the back of his head (made sense, since he had that bloody turban), and how he went after the Philosopher’s Stone, which was what was hidden behind the out-of-bounds corridor, and then how Harry, Ron, and Hermione went after him to stop him and how Harry killed Quirrell.
“So, I guess next year we’ll have a new Defense teacher,” I said, munching on a piece of toast.
“Was that all you got out of that?” Terry asked.
“No, but that was the first thing that popped into my head,” I replied.
~x~
“I going to miss this place,” I said as I peered at the Hogwarts castle through the window of mine and Terry’s compartment. “It’s like a second home.”
The door of the compartment slid open and Fred, George, and Lee entered.
“Mind if we join you?” Fred asked.
I shrugged.
“Go ahead.”
Fred sat next to me, and George sat next to Terry while Lee sat on Fred’s other side.
“We’re sorry about the whole house points thing,” said George.
“We suppose you’re right,” Fred jumped in. “It’s not the house points that matter.”
“It’s Quidditch,” said George.
I rolled my eyes.
“You would,” I said. “But you’re forgiven.”
I hadn’t even noticed that the train had started moving.
The next few hours were even better than my first Christmas holidays at Hogwarts. Lee Jordan became my new friend and we all joked and laughed as we passed Muggle towns and ate candies from the trolley. Before we stopped in King Cross station, we removed our robes and I pulled on my Weasley jumper on over my shirt.
“Come on, you two, you’re meeting our mum,” said George as he hopped off of the train.
I dragged my trunk onto the platform, barely paying attention as the twins led us to a small group of red-haired wizards.
“Mum, this is our friend Lucy,” said Fred, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Then this is Terry. Luce, Terry, this is our mum and our little sister Ginny.”
“It’s very nice to meet you.” Their mum smiled kindly at me. “Fred and George have told me so much about you.”
“More Fred than me,” I heard George mutter.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Mrs. Weasley,” I said, ignoring George.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see my uncle.
“Hi, Uncle Teddy,” I said, grinning up at him.
“Hey, little Lucy,” he said. “Hello, Molly.”
“It’s good to see you again,” Mrs. Weasley said.
As they spoke, the twins, Terry, and I stood in a little group.
“You three better write me,” I said.
“Yeah, same here,” said Fred. “All three of you better write me.”
“I live with you!” George protested.
I laughed, hugging Terry, then Fred, and then George.
“I’ll miss you guys!” I said.
“Don’t worry, you’ll see us soon,” said Fred, winking.
~x~
To the complainers that will whine about it being to fast: Go away. I've already explain why I've sped up the pace: I want to get on to the second book in this series. This story is rather short, but it's more like a prologue to the entire series than it's own book.
So the second book will skip to her third year of Hogwarts, since there is nothing that she can do in her second year besides argue with "Professor" Lockhart. As a true Ravenclaw, Lucy was very irriated with Lockhart, and often helped the twins with pranks against him, such as placing a bucket of Pimple potion (will cause one to break out in loads of boils) over his office door. Snape was so pleased with all three of his students that he awarded them each ten points. She was extremely pleased to hear that he was not returning to teach again.
:)