A/N: Get ready for some feels and a bit of Lena insulting someone with Greek Myth ^-^
~~~
Hestia and Flora led a group of small first-years in, only sparing a glance and smile to her, the rest of Slytherin tromping in until she gave them a deadly glare, and they all sort of sheepishly toned down their noise.
However, the small new snakes were gaping at where she was currently being clung to by a tear-stained Theo who had promptly fallen asleep after sobbing on her.
Not that she was upset- Theo needed a break from life and he was getting it.
It wasn't the usual impression she liked to make but she supposed that it would have to do. After Hestia and Flora explained the house rules quietly, she waved the group forward and gave a tired smile, her voice a soft mutter. "Hello. I am Lena Farland, Queen of Slytherin, and the boy you see clinging to me is my Jester." She scrunched up her nose slightly. "He's not feeling so funny right now."
One of the girls in the back giggled, the others looking wildly confused.
"I won't pretend like on the regular day I won't be scary and sometimes a bit cold, but this house is not just metaphorical. From now on everyone wearing the badge of Slytherin is family and we all stick together. Me being Queen just means that I oversee everyone's safety and make sure nothing horrible happens." She pointed to where two Slytherins were sitting all the way across the Common Room from each other. "Those two? They were dating last year but are now acting as if they hate each other, so after I am released from captivity-" a few other of the kids giggled at this and she smiled, "-I will have to talk to them. In short, I smooth things over- plus it helps that I'm friends with the Headmaster."
The girl who had giggled earlier smiled mischievously. "So you're like our mom now?"
"Well..." Lena blinked a few times. "I suppose that's one way to see it. Mom, sister, cousin, protector- whatever title you want to give me, I am."
"I always wanted a mom!" The girl beamed and moved to hug her awkwardly, to which she looked to where Flora and Hestia were snickering, mouthing 'help me' and causing the other kids to snicker.
Hestia started over. "Okay, now why don't we give Lena some room, Theodore has been through quite the experience lately and-"
"And this is Hestia! The other Queen of the House!" The room stilled, Lena grinning at the pure shock on the girl's face. "Uncrowned, of course, but she's been on my court for a long while, so she'll be the other house mom, right?"
The older girl seemed to flail, before nodding. "Right... Now- um- now let's see about your rooms..."
Blaise moved over, whistling lowly at the glare she got back from Hestia. "Looks like she's pretty mad about that being sprung on her. Same with Puecy- I heard he thought he was a straight shot for King. You know, we've never had two Queens before, though we have had two Kings."
"Maybe that's why this house is so bent out of shape. Boys are dumb."
The boy made a move as if wounded. "I am hurt."
She scoffed. "You're dumb too. Be hurt." Waving him off when Theo shifted slightly, she pulled the lanky boy in her arms closer.
Mom.
Hmm... It was strangely appropriate for her behavior if one ignored her occasional death threat, as she had the sense that child services wouldn't like a mother threatening to kill her children.
"I refuse to go back to Divination or Care of Magical Creatures as they're both useless. You should teach me again. It would be so much-"
Snape waved his hand. "Fine. No Divination and Care. Now either tell me a class you want to take in replacement or get out."
Lena crossed her arms. "Potions."
"As I said before," he glared at her, "I am not going to teach you or let you touch a cauldron in my sight until you have your mastery." When she opened her mouth he raised his hand, real anger hiding under his calm veneer. "Don't make me fight you on this Lena, we've been over it a thousand times and I won't change my mind."
"Why! This is ridiculous!" She knew her voice was rising to a shout, but that was how this argument always went. "I can't learn everything from potion texts and cooking your goddamn food every goddamn-"
The man stood, slamming his fist to his desk. "Don't you curse at me!"
She ignored her tiny flinch, walking forward to get into his face. "Oh yeah? Why? What's the real issue here? Your hatred for a father I never knew? Your prejudice against a family I won't accept? Why do you still deny me the one thing-"
"BECAUSE I REFUSE TO LOSE YOU AGAIN!"
Lena stilled, watching Snape rub at his face before practically collapsing back in his chair. "You-"
"I refuse to lose the last good thing I have in this world." Not looking at her, his voice broke just slightly as his hands gripped the side of his chair. "Dumbledore made me teach after- after you were proclaimed dead because I was at risk of drinking myself to death. Here... he could watch over me. Next time, should anything happen to you, I don't think that even Dumbledore would be able to still my hand."
She swallowed thickly. "And so potions..."
Snape finally looked up at her, eyes so very tired. "My mother was strong enough to deal with my drunken abusive father... it was an experimental potions accident that killed her, left me alone with the bastard."
"I-... I'll wait then." Her smile was crooked, wavering slightly. "For now I think that Arithmancy will work... give me extra time at the library."
He snorted softly. "You and that library going to get married anytime soon?"
"The plan is to read every book in there before I graduate, so I don't have to." Reaching across the desk, she took his potion-stained hand and sighed softly. "I have no plans to die anytime soon... but then again I do seem to get into trouble, so for what it's worth- Sorry in advance."
"Demon."
Lena grinned. "Fourteen-year-old."
Snape raised an eyebrow. "Synonymous."
"Ah, my own logic." She released his hand and rocked back on her heels with a smirk. "Can't argue with that. Now, am I free to walk, warden?"
"Be free, demoness."
Chuckling, she saluted him and went to join the others at lunch.
Lena was walking hand-in-hand with Theo, the boy quieter than usual lately as he'd been dealing with the prospect of not only being free of his grandfather but being the last of his family (save the father that murdered his mother) when an older Ravenclaw stepped in front of them. "Look who it is! The baby Death Eater has a girlfriend in the Snake bitch!"
Theo flinched slightly and she glared at the boy. "Go away before I lose my temper, idiot."
"What? Is the little girl going to try to hex me?" The boy jeered. "It's a blessing that his old man died! Death Eater scum!"
Snarling, Lena looked to Draco and let go of Theo, stepping in the Ravenclaw's way when he tried to follow where Theo moved to join Draco in getting away from here. "Where do you think you're going? With that face I wouldn't be surprised if your mom shagged a bull and had you- in fact, I bet her name's Pasiphaë!"
"Shut up!" The boy pulled out his wand faster than she could, making her dodge a curse sent her way, wincing through the pain as she did.
A spell flew past her, hitting the boy and she had to take a deep breath, a hand resting on her shoulder. Mad-Eye Moody looked down at her sternly, his hand feeling nothing but warm where it rested on her shoulder. "Maybe you should be more careful about taunting older students when you're still injured."
Looking over to where the boy was suspended in the air by his foot with a rag stuffed in his mouth, she glared. "He was talking badly about one of my Snakes."
"I see..." The man turned to the boy who looked a bit pale now that he was faced with an adult and an Auror at that. "And do you know how that Death Eater died?" The man barked, his brown eye narrowing when the boy shook his head. "He was cut right through! His head severed right from his shoulders in a cleaner cut than I've ever seen any spell do- all his blood drained into the ground in a matter of seconds !"
There was a crowd watching now, some of the students squirming.
"Tell me, since you know so much..." Moody pulled the rag out of the boy's mouth and glared at him. "Do you know who killed one of the darkest and most slippery Death Eaters that even I couldn't catch?"
"N-no?"
A gnarled hand pointed to her, the eyes of the hallway turning to stare. "He sent a curse at Miss Farland here that should have killed her in seconds- the second time some think that's happened... And with two broken ribs and a fully grown Death Eater bearing down on her, she managed to behead him with nothing more lasting than a few bruises."
Lena sighed, looking away as the students started to whisper. "Professor. I'm over my temper and all my snakes are accounted for so I have no reason to let you make a spectacle out of this." Flicking her wand, she cast the counter-curse, the boy dropping to the ground with a thud. Giving Moody a frown, she clenched her jaw. "There is no pride in what I have done to survive, as monsters never ask to become what they are."
Moody's gaze followed her out of the hallway.
It was reluctantly that she found herself in the scarred Auror's classroom the next day, the school passing the information about her run-in with Nott Sr. through its gossip mill before determining that they were going to whisper like this was second year all over again.
Nodding to Moody as she took a seat, her group settled around her, the rest of the outside Slytherins settling around them.
"Right then," Moody muttered when the last person had sat down, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this year. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures- you've covered Boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappas, and Werewolves... But you're behind on dealing with curses. So I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark-"
"What, aren't you staying?" Ron Weasley blurted out, looking crestfallen.
Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron, who looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody's stare eased and the boy seemed to sag in relief. "You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh? Yeah, I'm staying for one year. Special favor to Dumbledore. . . . One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."
Draco and Daphne traded looks as if they were doubting if Moody's retirement had ever been quiet and she smirked.
"So- straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves- he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."
Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing another girl something under the desk. Apparently, Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.
"Do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
"The Unforgivables." She didn't raise her hand, speaking softly, but the man pointed at her.
"Exactly, Miss Farland! And can you tell me one of them?"
Lena stared at him blankly.
Blaise answered instead, voice smooth. "Imperio, other known as the Imperius Curse."
"That is one." The man moved to a jar where three large black spiders were scuttling around, reaching into the jar and catching one of the spiders. Holding it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it, he then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"
Watching as the man made the Gryffindors laugh by making it dance around, all the Slytherins still and quiet, she looked out the window with her voice soft. "What happens when he orders it to kill itself? Will its lack of freedom still amuse you?"
The class stilled, laughter fading at that thought.
Moody made a huffing sound. "You stole the words out of my mouth, Farland. However the Imperius Curse can be fought and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He barked, and everyone jumped or flinched.
Longbottom offered up the Cruciatus Curse, the class watching in horror as a different spider was subjected to the torture spell.
Theo gripped her hand under the table and she flicked up a barrier around the spider, cutting off the spell. "Enough of that."
The man stared at her intently, watching as she got out chocolate for a shaking Theo, before nodding. "Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse... That one was very popular once too... Can anyone tell me the third?"
"Avada Kedavra."
Several people shifted uncomfortably.
"Yes, Miss Farland. The last and worst. Avada Kedavra. The Killing Curse." Moody raised his wand, pointing it at the spider in front of him. "Avada Kedavra!"
A flash of green light lit the room.
The classroom was silent.
"Only one known person has ever survived it, and they're in this castle... though we aren't sure which one was the child to do such a thing." Though by the eyes watching her, she bet the man thought it was her. "Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it, but that doesn't matter, as I'm not here to teach you how to do it. Now those three curses- Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus- are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight..."
The students all looked properly shaken up.
"Class dismissed. Farland, stay behind."
Handing Theo another bar of chocolate and rubbing his back, she let Daphne lead him away, nodding to the others before looking to Moody. "And here I was going to just self-study this year." She stood and slung her bag over her shoulder. "You're not a bad teacher if a bit batty."
Chuckling, the man came to stand in front of her, eyes intent. "You did wandless magic."
Lena nodded slowly. "I've been doing it since I was six."
"Is that... what you used to kill Nott?" Moody's blue eye swiveled around himself, but his brown on fixed on her. "Albus talks highly of you and yet you talk of yourself like just another girl."
Holding out her hand, she looked at him pointedly.
The man took her hand, eyebrows furrowed.
His skin was wrinkled and slightly leathery, but the feeling... it was like Riddle but slightly less warm, as if the man was associated with him but not-
Oh.
"Why are you really here?" She pulled her hand back. "What do you need, because if you ask nicely, I might be able to just give it to you. I would rather not deal with Dumbles finding out his friend is an imposter, nor letting anyone get hurt unnecessarily."
Something in the man's face seemed to change, darken, the mismatched eyes glinting with the promise of violence. "I was sent to get your blood for a ritual and if you give it to me willingly I might be able to spare you and your friends a painful death from my Lord."
Lena blinked. "You think Voldemort is..." She rubbed the bridge of her nose, wondering when her life came to dealing with insane Dark Lords. Leaning back against the desk, she wondered if she gave the man the stone she'd been keeping if he'd come back more sane than before... "If I give you a vial of my blood and another object that might help, will you promise to leave peacefully, as you've completed your orders?"
"I will."
Keeping the man in her sight, she reached for her bag, pulling out her pouch that she'd linked to her secret compartment the year before. Raising a privacy barrier, she glanced at the man before looking at the bag. :Give me the stone, as I am the snake guarding immortality.: Watching it glow a soft purple color, she tipped the blood-red stone into her hand and held it out. "This might help."
Ignoring his stare as he took the stone reverently, she took out an empty vial and flipped open her switchblade, cutting a shallow line across her wrist. Letting the blood drip into the vial steadily, she healed the cut and corked the vial, holding it out.
"A parselmouth with the philosopher's stone..." The man grinned in a way that made him seem even more grizzled than usual. "You are nothing like anyone expected the Chosen One to be..."
"I'm not. The 'Chosen One', that is. Charlie can have that particular title."
The man chuckled darkly. "Neither of us actually believes that... You can't believe it. Not when my Lord told me to get specifically your blood out of the choice of both Potter children." It was less of a statement and more a quizzical open-ended question.
Lena looked at him flatly, putting her things away. "Leave. Go to your master and kneel like the dog you are. Just get out of my castle." Then without another word, she turned and strode out.
Drawing in a shuddering breath, eyes closed still as he'd just been reborn and still felt like his whole being was on fire, he slowly took a deep breath of the chilled night air and opened his eyes to the starry sky.
He was reborn.
"My Lord?" Barty kneeled by the side of the bed of soft fur pelts he found himself in, Narcissa casting diagnostic charms over him.
Eyes sliding to look at the man, he let his lips curl stiffly into a smile. "Bartimus. You have done well..." Even he had not imagined that Lena would find out his plans and agree to the ritual anyway. "Go back- protect the girl."
Narcissa's tense body seemed to relax just a bit, even as Barty gaped. "Are- are you sure?"
Growling lowly at the questioning of his motives, he narrowed his eyes on the man. "Lena will be crucial to my plans and she will not, in any way, be harmed. Now go back to that damned castle and make sure of that."
"Yes, Milord." Dipping his head, Barty stood once more.
~~~
A/N: Okay but now I just have this mental image of some student from a different house seeing a first-year calling Lena 'Mom' and her smiling sweetly in response and their head just exploding, because isn't that a contradiction to everything they know?
Lena 'Chocolate Queen Mom' Farland... we stan a legend
Also, VOLDY'S BACK!