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Chapter Text

‘Things are different this year.’

‘I know, Felix, I know-’

‘No, you’ve got to be careful, Lottie,’ her brother lowers his head down to her level, and she looks firmly into his eyes. ‘We’ve both got targets on our backs now, it’s not safe. Not even at Hogwarts.’ His grip on her wrist has become painful now, and she snatches her hand to her chest, her gaze still focused on her brother.

‘I understand,’ she nods, looking at her scuffed, white sneakers. ‘I won’t let my guard slip, I promise.’

‘Swear on it?’ her brother asks, holding out his pinky finger. In spite of everything, Charlotte Knight manages a smile, intertwining her finger with his.

‘I swear,’ she promises firmly, and they both kiss their thumbs, sealing their deal. And then, like a light switch, her brother is beaming at her like he used to when they were kids.

‘I’m so proud of you, Lottie,’ he says into her hair, hugging her so tightly she feels like the pressure might crack a rib. ‘Sorry mum didn’t want to come. I tried to persuade her.’

‘It’s fine, don’t worry. I know how she is with this stuff,’ she responds, shrugging. 

‘Promise you’ll owl me every day?’

Lottie gapes at her brother. ‘Every day? You’re dreaming.’ But when Felix’s expression doesn’t change, Lottie realises he’s being serious. ‘I’ll owl you every week, how about that?’

Felix mulls her proposition over before nodding. ‘Fine, fine okay. Have you got everything? Wand, emergency healing kit-’

‘Yes, Felix, I have all of them,’ Lottie replies, stifling the urge to roll her eyes at her brother’s frantic antics. ‘It’d be a bit embarrassing if I forgot my wand.’

‘Stay out of trouble, please-’

The whistle blows, interrupting Felix, and Lottie struggles to separate herself from her overly emotional older brother. 

‘Yes, yes I will, now let me go or I’ll miss the train!’ she says, and reluctantly, he finally lets her go.

She races up into one of the carriages with her trunk, and waves from the windows. Her brother waves back enthusiastically, and the train slowly pulls away from the platform, gaining speed. Not once does he stop waving, and soon the train goes around a bend and he disappears behind her. 

Sighing deeply, Lottie hauls herself and her luggage through several carriages until she finds the one she’s looking for. Several Gryffindor students give her wary glances, as if her house colours are stamped on her forehead, wondering why she’s in their carriage instead of her own, but she ignores them. 

Finally, she finds just the compartment she’s looking for. 

‘Good summer, ladies?’ she asks the room, and two smiling faces beam up at her. 

‘There you are, Lottie!’ Mary MacDonald cries, excitedly patting the seat next to her, which Lottie eagerly accepts. ‘I was wondering where you’d gotten off to. Blimey, look at you!’ she exclaims, her mouth dropping open. ‘Give us a twirl!’ 

Lottie obeys, spinning around, and Alice Fortescue nods approvingly. 

‘My god, where did you get those pants? They’re fantastic!’

‘Got ‘em from Debenhams, half off. Bargain I reckon.’

‘I’ve got to tell mum to get me some, they’re bloody spectacular!’

‘I know, Felix hating them makes it even better.’

‘Lucky you’re late, you missed Alice’s tale of woe. Apparently her and Frank aren’t on speaking terms-’

‘That’s not what I said!’ Alice argues indignantly. ‘I told you that he wants to get married, and I told him that I wanted to wait until graduation, and now we’re having a disagreement.’

‘Woah, steady on!’ Lottie cries, her jaw dropping open. ‘Marriage?!’

Alice blushes but resumes her train of thought. ‘Yeah, he proposed the idea to me this summer.’

‘No way,’ Lottie says in disbelief, and Mary nods, agreeing. 

‘The thing I’m mad about is the fact that you didn’t tell us!’

‘We both agreed it wouldn’t do any good to tell anyone without actually being engaged,’ Alice says, smiling and rolling her eyes. ‘But you guys will be the first to know, I promise.’

‘We better be,’ Mary mumbles bitterly, and all three of them laugh. Suddenly, the compartment door slides open to reveal the Gryffindor seventh year prefect, Conrad Cloven, looking peeved, tense and out of breath. 

‘There you are, Lottie. Jones wants everyone in the prefect’s carriage, and you’re the only one missing,’ he says, irritated, and Lottie leaps to her feet. 

‘Shit, sorry Conrad! Completely slipped my mind!’ Lottie hurries out the compartment, flashing an apologetic look to her friends. ‘Be back in a jiffy!’ she calls back to them, before heading back up through the carriages to the prefect’s compartment at the front of the train. Conrad slides into his spot, and Lottie glances around to see the only seat left is next to him . 

Just my luck , she thinks, as she braces herself and takes the seat next to Regulus Black, who looks just as disgusted at the thought of sitting next to her as she feels. 

His hair has grown out a little since she last saw him, and now his raven curls reach his shoulders. He glances at her once, his grey eyes traversing her entire body, before ignoring her existence entirely. 

‘Now that we’re all here,’ the Head Boy, Louis Jones, says pointedly, glaring at Lottie, ‘we can get started.’

The meeting seems to slip by impossibly fast, probably due to the fact that Lottie doesn’t pay attention whatsoever, instead focusing on how the light bounces off the gold furnishings in the carriage. 

‘Now,’ Jones announces, snapping Lottie out of her daze, ‘I wanted to talk about patrols and partnering for them. I feel that last year’s pairings did not suffice, and due to the amount of times some were caught fooling around,’ another pointed look, but this time directed at Black, ‘with their partners, I have decided that partnerings will stay within houses.’ 

Lottie’s heart stutters to a stop. Does Jones want her to be hatecrimed? She glances around quickly. Oh , she thinks, of course everyone in this carriage is pureblood . 

‘Just to make sure I’m clear, that means that Thornton and Avery will be together, Killoran and I, Cloven and Delacroix, and Knight and Black.’

As if it couldn’t get any worse, Black makes a noise beside Lottie that makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Her ears must be fooling her. It sounded like he actually laughed. 

Her blood runs cold. She has to talk Jones out of this stupid pairs thing, or she might not even make it to the end of the year. 

Much to her relief, the meeting is soon declared over, and she nearly tumbles over her own stupid sneakers trying to catch Jones before he gets too far. 

‘Careful, Knight,’ a low voice sounds behind her, and Lottie whips around to see Regulus Black smirking at her. ‘Wouldn’t want you dead before we even get to school, would we?’ 

‘Fuck off, Black,’ she spits. 

‘It seems you have some work to do on your manners,’ he replies, his tone mocking, and she scowls at him before hurries through the corridor after Jones, who’s already on his way to the Hufflepuff section of the train. When she finally catches him, he’s chattering animatedly to Melody Killoran, the Head Girl. 

‘Jones! Wait!’ Lottie calls, and he does, his smile faltering a bit as he sees her. 

‘What is it, Knight?’

‘About the pairings-’

‘I’m sorry, Charlotte, but they’re final.’ Lottie winces at the use of her full name as well as the fact that Jones sounds completely convinced. 

‘But don’t you understand, Black is the definition of a blood supremacist, have you not been reading the news?’

‘I have,’ Jones says, chewing his lip impatiently, ‘but as I said, the pairings are final. I wouldn’t have put him with you if I wasn’t convinced it wasn’t going to work out. Now excuse me, I have some second years to sort out.’

Lottie’s entire body deflates. Out of all people, she would’ve thought Jones might listen. She’s not just mad, she’s livid , and as she stalks back up the train, much to her displeasure, she passes Black again. 

‘Watch it, Knight,’ he says. This time his voice is dangerously low. She tries to push past him, but he’s blocking her way entirely.

‘Again, kindly fuck off ,’ Lottie snarls impatiently, but he doesn’t budge. In fact, his cold fingers wrap around her wrist, the cool metal of his rings against her warm skin.

‘What did I say about manners?’ he asks, and Lottie tugs at her wrist in his grasp. She doesn’t expect his grip to be like iron, but here they are.

‘Let me go,’ she snaps, but Black just raises his eyebrows at her. Bloody fucking hell , Lottie thinks as she squeezes her eyes shut. ‘Please.’

Immediately, Black releases her wrist, smirking wickedly. For good measure, she stomps on his foot, and he swears loudly. As she traipses back to her compartment, she can feel him glaring at her, and she loathes the way it makes her skin crawl.

‘How’d it go?’ Mary asks, looking up hopefully from her muggle magazine, until she sees the look on Lottie’s face. ‘Oh no, what happened?’

‘I got paired with Regulus Black for nightly patrols,’ Lottie declares. Alice gasps and Mary’s mouth falls open. The look that Mary and Lottie share can only be described as utter panic, because they both know what this means. 

‘You’ve got to be shitting me,’ Mary says in disbelief. ‘That’s a death sentence!’

‘How could Jones do that?’ Alice asks, a storm clouding her face already. ‘That’s ridiculous!’

‘I already asked him to change it, but he said there’s no chance.’

‘You’re kidding!’

‘I’m not,’ Lottie says, her voice low, and kicks the door so hard the frame rattles dangerously. ‘I guess it’s a good thing that Felix spent the entire summer drilling me on defensive spells.’

The other two just gape at her, speechless. 

‘Does Jones not know what the fuck is happening in the world? What happened to your dad? What’s happening with your brother? Does he just not care?’ Mary asks again, more to herself than anyone, appalled at how careless the Head Boy is.

‘I already want to hex his balls off,’ Lottie curses angrily under her breath. ‘Not to mention Black actually laughed when Jones announced the partners. He’ll probably be laughing when he flays me too-’

‘You’ve got to go to Slughorn!’ Alice says, but Lottie shakes her head. 

‘He wouldn’t care, he thinks Black is a charming, perfect, harmless little angel who can do no wrong. Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks,’ she says, and sinks deeper into her seat, scraping her face with her palms. 

Did Jones truly not care? Lottie’s past isn’t exactly a secret. It had been only two years ago when she’d been pulled out of class by Professor McGonagall, only to be told that her father had been murdered by You-Know-Who himself. She still remembers that day crystal clear in her mind - how Mary had to hold her up as she escorted her to Dumbledore’s office, how her knees buckled every time she’d tried to speak. Almost every headline in the Prophet this summer had somehow involved her brother, who’s very high up in the Ministry for someone who also happens to be half-blood. It had been a harrowing two months for Lottie, who was terrified that You-Know-Who might break her door down at any second and torture her family until they begged for death.  She’d thought it would be different at Hogwarts, a change of pace from the constant dread clawing at her, but now instead of a break, she was being thrown right into the thick of it head first. 

‘Lottie? Love, you’re looking a bit pale,’ Alice murmurs, taking Lottie’s hand in her own. 

‘’M fine,’ Lottie mutters, but both Alice and Mary can tell it’s complete bullshit. ‘I just need to use the loo.’

Lottie makes a break for it, darting down the deserted corridors to the bathroom at the end of the self-designated Gryffindor carriage. Everyone has settled into their own compartments by now, and she sighs with relief as she finds the bathroom unoccupied. 

Lottie settles herself in front of the porcelain sink, and takes a look in the mirror. Alice was right - she does look pale, her freckles standing out sharply. 

She turns the tap on, cool water swirling down the drain, and she watches it for some time, twirling her hair around and around her finger. She finally splashes her face several times with the freezing water, breathing in deeply. 

You’re safe , she thinks to herself, you’re safe here . 

Lottie pats her face dry with one of the fluffy, Hogwarts Express towels, and then unlocks the door, silently making her way back to the compartment with her friends inside. 

Her brother told her this year was going to be different, but it never really sunk in until now. Last year, the Marauders had been around, and they provided some semblance of protection for the Muggleborn and half blood students of Hogwarts. However, most of the time, the courtesy didn’t stretch to those in Slytherin. Lottie’s used to fighting her own battles, but now, it’s truly every man for themselves. 

The door to her friends’ compartment slides open, and they suddenly look guilty. They’ve obviously been talking about her. 

‘Look at this dress, isn’t it stunning? I might have to get one at Christmas,’ Mary says, holding up the newest edition of Marie Claire to show Lottie. A rush of gratitude surges through her, and she seriously appreciates how quickly her friends are able to recognise when she wants to talk about an issue or be distracted by something entirely different. 

Lottie glances at the dress in question, before realising the price noted just next to the dress in tiny print. 

‘Seventy quid? Surely not!’ she cries, and Mary snatches the magazine back and scours it for the price. 

‘Never mind then,’ she sighs, flicking through the rest of the magazine quietly while Lottie and Alice strike up a conversation about the upcoming NEWTs. 

‘I’m going to spend most of this year stressing over my grades, I can just feel it,’ Alice says grimly, shivering at the prospect. 

‘I’m highly thankful for choosing to keep doing Divination,’ Mary adds, ‘it’s the easiest subject ever.’

‘Yeah, but you’re Gerhook’s favourite student. I wouldn’t have kept doing it if someone offered me a thousand galleons,’ Alice replies honestly. 

‘I’m excited for my healing classes with Madam Pomfrey, they’re really interesting,’ Lottie contributes, and Mary looks like a lightbulb just went off inside her brain.

‘Oh, I forgot to ask! Did you hear anything back from St Mungos?’

‘I forgot to tell you!’ Lottie says, wondering how she could have missed this piece of news. ‘They said that if I keep my grades up I could start an internship as soon as I graduate!’

‘Ooh, congrats!’ Alice cries at the same time as Mary, and they both pile on top of Lottie, who’s in a fit of giggles. 

‘Our little girl, all grown up. I’m so proud!’ Mary sniffles, faking wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, and Alice playfully hits her in the arm. 

‘Stop it, you silly sod, we’ve still got a year left of this place, don’t get too excited to be rid of her.’

‘I’m going to miss these train rides when we graduate,’ Lottie says honestly, and Mary sighs. 

‘Me too.’

‘Me three,’ Alice joins in, and they all sit in silence for a bit, lost in future possibilities. 

———————————

Despite having to sit at her house table, Lottie finds the Great Feast to be the most pleasant event of the day, and she eagerly helps herself to the millionaire shortbread which has been served as dessert. 

The one thing she hates, though, is the fact that she’s lumped at the end with the seventh year Slytherins, who include the most vicious, blood-purist kids in the school, including Evan Rosier, Walden MacNair, Barty Crouch Jnr, the Carrow twins, and Regulus Black. Just her luck, she’s sitting directly across from Crouch, who’s eyeing her like he’s found a new toy to play with. Crouch’s father has been Felix’s boss since the beginning of last year, and ever since his father got the job, he’s been taunting Lottie constantly. When her gaze finally snaps to his, a vindictive smile plagues his face.

Repressing a shiver, Lottie diverts her eyes to the front of the room, where Dumbledore has begun his speech, commanding everyone’s attention. 

‘Welcome to all the newcomers, and welcome back to those already familiar with Hogwarts,’ he says calmly, his voice carrying over the entire hall. ‘Before you go up to bed, I think a warning is in order. As the majority of you know, the tensions outside this castle are mounting every day. Many of your parents wouldn’t permit me saying this, but this war doesn’t look like it’ll be stopping for a while.’

‘Therefore, I find it imperative that all of you understand this. Your enemies are not inside this castle. In times as dark as these, your fellow peers, who are in the very same position as you, will be your greatest allies. I urge you to protect one another, because when we all turn against each other, that is surely when the darkness shall win.’

For a moment, it seems as though everyone in the Great Hall has been holding their breath, before a polite applause breaks out over the audience. Lottie isn’t surprised to find that most of the Slytherin’s haven’t moved a muscle, and feels inclined to clap louder to aggravate them. 

‘Now, head up to bed and get some dearly needed rest!’ Dumbledore calls, and Lottie stands up quickly, heading to the front of the hall where the first years await. 

She’d never admit this, but one of her favourite jobs as prefect is guiding the awe-struck first years around the castle, watching as their lips fall into perfect, comical ‘O’s as they pass portraits, ghosts and other Hogwarts oddities. 

Lottie breaks into a smile as she sees Odessa Darkmoor, the sixth year Slytherin prefect, has joined her for the job. 

‘Hiya, Odessa,’ she says brightly, waving over the first years as she does. 

‘Hi yourself,’ Odessa replies, smirking at the bewildered faces of the children in front of them. 

‘Good holidays?’

‘Yeah, brilliant, went down to Cornwall for a week.’

‘That sounds lovely,’ Lottie replies, hating the tone of longing slipping into her voice. 

Thankfully, Odessa’s attention is set on the scrambling mass of kids in front of them both. ‘Slytherin first years, follow me!’ she calls, and both her and Lottie walk out of the hall, a steady trail of buzzing children following them. 

When they finally reach the stretch of wall in the dungeons, barely recognisable as the entrance to the common room, many of the first years are still chattering loudly. 

‘Alright!’ Lottie calls. ‘Let's get some things straight. Blood purist ideals aren’t tolerated in school. We don’t care if you think purebloods are the top dogs, keep it to yourself. To any Muggleborn or half blood kids here, if anyone says anything to you, or threatens you, or hurts you, just know that you can come to me or Odessa with any problems you have, and we can sort them out, okay? Slytherin might get a bad wrap, but we’re not all evil.’

The first years look momentarily shocked, but then all nod as one.

‘Is your brother Felix Knight?’ someone squeaks, and Lottie momentarily freezes. 

‘Yes... why?’ she asks slowly. 

‘I dunno, I just see him in the Prophet a lot. My mum doesn’t like him very much.’

‘Oh, alright then,’ Lottie says, not sure what to do with that information. 

‘Right,’ Odessa interrupts, ‘the password is Aqua Vitae , and every week, the password will change. Either me or Lottie, or another prefect, will tell you the new password, understood?’ The kids nod again, more eagerly this time, and when the password is spoken, the wall slides open to reveal the Slytherin common room, unusually deserted for the time of night. 

The windows provide a clear view of the depths of the Black Lake, the silhouettes of kelp dancing around in the evening light. Fire crackles in the fireplace, and the green tinge to the room makes Lottie feel oddly out of place. 

The first years ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at their new common room, and Odessa continues the tour. 

‘Boys dormitories on the right, girls on the left. Curfew is 10pm, so make sure you’re back here before then every night.’

‘Remember, if you need any help, then talk to a prefect. That’s what we’re all here for!’ Lottie says brightly, and all the first years nod before separating into small groups and going to wander around. 

Lottie sighs heavily before sinking into the leather couch by the fireplace, and Odessa follows suit. 

‘Well, that was interesting,’ she says, and Lottie hums in response. 

‘I recognised that kid who asked about my brother. Looked a bit like a miniature Avery, didn’t she?’

‘I know, I recognised that too. I don’t know why she brought that up, we were literally just showing them all to the common room,’ Odessa replies. ‘How is Felix, by the way?’

‘Stressed. I wish the Prophet would shut up about us.’

‘I wouldn’t worry too much. The fact that the Prophet is still running amazes me, considering how much of it is literal bullshit,’ Odessa says, and Lottie laughs. ‘I think I’m going to go up to bed now. I’m praying that somehow Slughorn decided to switch around the dorm layouts.’ Odessa usually complains about her roommates, and Lottie thinks it’s fair enough. When they aren’t plotting who to curse for their blood status, they’re making fun of Odessa for one reason or another. Most of their insults revolve around her skin colour. 

‘Good luck,’ Lottie murmurs, patting Odessa’s hand as she leaves, and Odessa flashes her a tentative smile before climbing up the stairs. 

Lottie lays on the couch for a while, contemplating if she should go to bed or not, and then finally decides she should face the music. 

Climbing the stairs two at a time, she reaches her dorm quickly. She pulls open the door silently, and slips inside. All of her dormmates are awake, and when she enters, they turn to stare at her. 

‘Good holidays, Ingrid?’ Lottie asks the blonde girl who’s unpacking her trunk in the corner. 

‘Yeah, alright, how about you?’ Ingrid smiles. 

‘Fine, yeah,’ Lottie replies absentmindedly, rummaging through her own trunk trying to find her toiletries and pajamas. 

Out of everyone in her own house, Lottie is closest to Ingrid Duke, who’s stuck with her through thick and thin. Even if they might not be the best of friends who confide everything to each other, they’re always there for one another, and that’s something Lottie appreciates incredibly. Not to mention the similarities between their last names, which they constantly joke about.

The other two girls across the dorm, Lucille Le Torneau, a reserved blonde haired girl, and Belladonna Flint, an outspoken, fiery ebony haired girl, are muttering to each other, and when Lottie glances at them, they hardly seem to notice. Both of them have been inseparable since first year, and come from families who are notorious supporters of You-Know-Who. Lottie can take a guess at what - or more likely who - they’re talking about.

It could be worse , Lottie thinks to herself, remembering that she narrowly escaped bunking with Alecto Carrow. She pities the three girls that got stuck with her, because apparently last year, one girl spoke out of turn and got hexed down the stairs.

Finally finding her pyjamas, she leaves them on her bed before sitting down at her and Ingrid’s shared desk to write a short letter to Felix, who’s probably already worrying himself sick.

Dear Felix,

Don’t panic! I’m at school in one piece. The train ride to school was fine, and even better was the feast (they had millionaire shortbread - jealous much?) The first years seem to get smaller every year, it’s seriously frightening. Hope mum isn’t harassing you too much,

Lots of love, Lottie xoxo

She seals the letter in an envelope, addresses it, and then turns to Ingrid.

‘Hey Ingrid, do you think I could borrow Barny to send my brother a letter?’ Barny, Ingrid’s barn owl, hoots delightedly in his cage. Lottie has always found his name funny, teasing Ingrid about her creativity with naming things, like her cat back home, whose name is Fluffy.

‘Sure,’ Ingrid replies, ‘just to London and back, yeah?’

‘Yup,’ Lottie answers, letting Barny out of his cage. He flutters over to her, onto her shoulder, and Lottie dashes back down the dormitory stairs and into through the corridors to the Entrance Hall. Letter attached, Barny hoots once more before flying out the window and into the rapidly darkening night, the early autumn breeze ruffling his feathers. 

Lottie stares for a few moments, stars blinking in and out of sight in the expanse of navy, before turning around to see Amycus and Alecto Carrow walking down the stairs from the upper level, whispering in hushed voices. Amycus’ gaze falls upon her, and a malicious grin spreads across his face from one ear to the other. Since it’s two on one, Lottie decides to keep up the niceties in the hopes that they’ll just ignore her.

‘Amycus, Alecto,’ Lottie acknowledges, and they both simultaneously sneer at her.

‘Shut up, half breed,’ Alecto snaps, and continues past Lottie, arm in arm with her brother, without another word. Lottie grinds her teeth together, but otherwise doesn’t make any comeback. Throughout the school, the Carrows are known to be the violent masterminds behind nearly every single attack on Muggleborn and half blood students. It’s not like they even try to hide the fact - most of their time is spent boasting about the pain they cause. Because of this, it’s only obvious that they’re at the top of Lottie’s list of people she wants to avoid this year.

Making sure to wait a few minutes to create distance between her and the twins, she sets off back down the twisting corridors and up to her dorm.

When the door clicks shut behind her, Ingrid looks up at her, relief clear on her face.

‘I just heard Carrow walking up the stairs, I thought she might’ve done something,’ she explains, but Lottie just waves her off.

‘I saw her and her brother, but they ignored me, thank god.’ Lottie collects her pyjamas and makes her way over to the bathroom, but Ingrid shakes her head.

‘Belladonna’s in there, I wouldn’t disturb her.’ Lottie retraces her steps, sitting and waiting patiently on her bed. Last time someone interrupted Belladonna while she was using the bathroom, a glass jar had come flying out of the room, nearly missing Ingrid’s forehead and smashing into the wall behind her.

Perched silently on her bed is Lucille, her gaze set intently on Lottie, who frankly finds it quite unnerving.

‘Er- do you need something, Lucille?’ she asks, but the girl just shakes her head, drawing the curtains around her bed. Ingrid looks just as put off as Lottie feels, but before either can utter a word about what just happened, the bathroom door cracks open and Belladonna exits, leaving it empty.

‘I’ll be right back,’ Lottie murmurs to Ingrid, who nods in response, as she closes the door and locks it. She wastes no time tugging on her pyjamas and brushing her teeth, and manages to leave the bathroom in record time.

By the looks of it, it seems that both Belladonna and Lucille have retired much earlier than usual, and Lottie can hear one of them snoring softly. Ingrid gestures to Lottie to join her on her bed, and Lottie happily obliges.

‘Muffliato,’ Ingrid says, directing her wand at the two sleeping girls, and then folds her legs beneath her, staring intently at Lottie. ‘Hiya,’ she says, a kind smile on her face.

‘Hey…’ Lottie trails off, a bit lost. They’ve never once had any late night rendezvous before. ‘Did you need something, or…’

‘No, no, I just wanted to talk. You seem a bit down.’ Ingrid shrugs casually, and Lottie scratches the back of her neck sheepishly. Had it really been that obvious? ‘How were your holidays? I saw all the Prophet articles and… well, frankly, all I can say is yikes .’

‘It was okay… I didn’t really go anywhere though. My mum’s a bit panicked at the moment.’ Lottie’s shocked at how emotionless her voice sounds. Her voice is steady, and she’s fighting to keep her feelings in check. She’s wasted enough summer nights crying into her pillow.

‘She’s a Muggle, right?’

‘Yup. She’s hated magic ever since… You know. I think she’s getting to the point of no return.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Lottie. I can’t imagine what that must be like,’ Ingrid says softly, reaching out and squeezing her hand, bridging the gap between them with one simple gesture. ‘I hope you know that you can always talk to me if you need to, yeah?’

‘Yeah, I know,’ Lottie nods, smiling appreciatively at her friend. Ingrid yawns loudly and extensively, and Lottie shoots her an incredulous look. ‘That was seriously impressive,’ she giggles, and Ingrid smirks.

‘What can I say? I’m just a legendary yawner.’

‘Yeah, yeah, sure you are,’ Lottie rolls her eyes. ‘I’m going to leave you to go to sleep, because you sound positively exhausted.’ She scrambles off Ingrid’s bed, and pops her head through the curtains to say goodnight.

Feeling thoroughly tired herself, Lottie decides to call it a night, crawling under her covers and staring blankly at the ceiling, waiting for the dark to lull her to sleep.

—————————————

The next day, Lottie wakes up feeling like she’s a walking corpse. Her joints ache and her head is pounding, and one glance at her timetable efficiently sours her mood. She spent most of the night tossing and turning, and when she finally fell asleep, she had one of the worst nightmares she’s experienced in months.

As per usual, she’s snapped awake earlier than all of her roommates, who are all snoring peacefully, curtains still drawn. As quietly as possible, Lottie sneaks into the bathroom to get changed and ready for the day, before tip-toeing down to the common room. The first rays of light are streaming through the windows, tinted green by the algae in the Black Lake, and the air is frigid and bitter. It’s still a good forty-five minutes until breakfast is served, so she decides to sit by the fireplace, curled up on the comfy leather couches, and read a book. Luckily for her, one wall of the Slytherin common room is obscured by a large bookshelf filled with books that look incredibly weathered and ancient. Lottie scours the shelves for a few moments, before landing on a book that looks least likely to turn to dust in her hand. The cover is dusty, and Lottie swats the grime away to reveal the title: A Study of Dragons: Their Properties and Power compiled by Eoin Serphent .

Settling down on the couch, the book falls open of its own accord, and much to Lottie’s relief, the pages are written in english. Many of the books on those shelves, she’s discovered, are written in runes. Her headache would only get worse if she had to spend hours translating it sentence by sentence. She’s so immersed in the writings of Mr Serphent, reading about the Peruvian Vipertooth and the properties of its venom, that she hardly hears the footsteps rapidly approaching her.

‘Looking for a new pet?’ a voice snaps her back to the common room, and she turns swiftly to see Regulus Black, eyes trained on her, leaning against the fireplace. ‘I’d recommend the Chinese Fireball, it suits your personality.’ Considering Lottie’s just read about how that species of dragon is remarkably aggressive, she’s not taking it as a compliment.

‘Find someone else to torment, Black,’ Lottie retorts, his name bitter on her tongue.

Regulus only looks more bemused, but his eyes stay intimidatingly cold. ‘Gladly.’ He breezes from the common room and disappears from sight. Another sigh of relief, a very near miss. Maybe the blood purists are taking the first few days of school off?

Despite how hard she tries, Lottie can’t seem to concentrate anymore after being so rudely interrupted, and considering that the common room is filling up at an impressive rate and breakfast has already been served, she gets up, collects her things, and makes her way to the Great Hall. Immediately, her eyes land on Alice and Mary at the Gryffindor table, who seem to be in a very heated conversation. Mary is gesturing wildly with her hands, while Alice is nodding sagely, attempting to get a bite out of her breakfast. 

Lottie makes her way over to them both, and sits down next to Alice, dumping her book bag on the floor. Some fifth years shoot her dirty looks, but she just returns them, as simple as that.

‘Lottie!’ Mary exclaims, smiling briefly. ‘I was just telling Alice about how men are unreliable and perpetually let me down.’

‘I’m sensing a recurring theme,’ Lottie says slowly, and Mary rolls her eyes. ‘Who do we need to beat up this time?’

‘Oh, no one specific. I’ve just decided that taking a break from the male species in general would do me some good.’

‘I firmly agree with that conclusion,’ Lottie replies, serving herself some toast and liberally spreading marmalade over every visible surface.

‘Oi!’ Alice cries, snatching the jar out of her hands. ‘Save some for the rest of us!’

‘You don’t even like marmalade!’ Lottie says, trying to grab it back from Alice, but Alice just hands it to a sixth year who was asking for some of the spread. ‘Traitor.’

Alice sighs and shakes her head, picking up the communal Daily Prophet and sipping pumpkin juice from her golden goblet. A frown works its way across her expression, and she glares at the large words printed across the paper.

Having just caught Alice’s dark expression, Lottie drops the slice of toast she was about to take a bite of and beckons for her to pass the paper.

‘I don’t think-’ Alice begins, but the newspaper is already out of her grasp, snatched by Lottie.

In huge, bold letters, the title Felix Knight: Asset or Embarrassment? is splashed across the front page. Included is a picture of Lottie’s brother, looking frazzled as he exits the Ministry, waving politely with a very tense smile plastered on his lips. The photo is captioned: Felix Knight, Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, leaving the Ministry yesterday after more Muggle attacks in Blackpool.

Lottie bites her lip so hard it draws blood, and Mary pulls down the top of the paper to peer at the front page. Her curious expression immediately sours, and her and Alice shoot each other glances, talking via different exaggerated expressions.

‘Oi, Knight!’ someone across the hall shouts. Lottie’s head snaps up to see Barty Crouch Jr smiling gleefully at her. ‘Is your filthy half blood brother enjoying the limelight?’ Crouch’s gang of terrorists begin snickering, trying to muffle it with their robes and failing hopelessly.

‘Why you little-’ Lottie snarls, getting up from the table and reaching for her wand, but Alice grabs her by her robes and hastily tugs her back down.

‘Don’t. He’s well and truly not worth it, the pathetic, parasitic worm.’

‘What I don’t understand is why my brother gets shit on all the time, when it's Crouch’s dad who’s the actual head of the department. It’s his responsibility as much as, or more than. Felix’s, so why isn’t he getting slandered?’

Lottie and Mary share a brief glance. They're both familiar with the worse side of blood purist ideals. 

‘I think we all know the answer to that,’ Alice says grimly, picking at her porridge, which is now cold. No one speaks again until it’s eventually time to leave for class.

‘Today is a shit subject day,’ Mary says abruptly, and Alice and Lottie sigh in agreement. 

‘At least we have Potions last,’ the latter says, looking forward to the one class she enjoys. 

‘I still don’t see how you enjoy Potions as a subject,’ Alice replies disdainfully. 

‘I hope Slughorn lets us choose our partners again, because I claim Lottie.’ Mary smiles triumphantly, and Alice rolls her eyes. 

‘Hey- what?’ Lottie cries, shocked. 

‘You’re good at Potions, I’m not,’ Mary explains simply, shrugging. ‘We’ll make an excellent team.’

Lottie laughs heartily before all three girls turn down the corridor to the Transfiguration classroom, where Professor McGonagall is already waiting at the front of the room. When everyone has filed inside, she waves her wand and a levitating piece of chalk writes out ‘NEWTs’ on the chalkboard. 

‘Now,’ Professor McGonagall says in her usual stern voice. ‘Before we start our lesson, I feel that it is important to stress how crucial your NEWTs are.’ She turns to stare pointedly at Walden MacNair, who’s muttering intensely to his desk mate Crouch. However, neither of them realise they’re the cause of the interruption. Instead, Regulus Black, seated behind the two of them, has to kick MacNair’s chair to get him to finally shut up. 

‘Ten points from Slytherin,’ she says simply, before continuing. Lottie groans. At this rate, Slytherin will come dead last. ‘As I was saying. If you thought school couldn’t get harder after your OWLs, then you’re in for a rude awakening…’ McGonagall drones on and on, and eventually, halfway through the lesson, she starts talking about the type of work they’ll be doing this year. By the end of the lesson, they’ve been assigned a sixteen inch essay on the risks and benefits of bodily transfiguration. 

‘Blimey, there’s more homework by the second. I’ll drown in it at this point,’ Mary points out sullenly at lunch, having attended a double period of Arithmancy with Alice beforehand. Lottie herself just attended her double Ancient Runes class. 

‘My head hurts,’ Alice whines, and Lottie can’t help but sympathise. She feels the exact same way. There’s a sudden shuffling noise behind Mary, and Lottie looks up from her plate to see that, once again, Conrad Cloven has miraculously appeared. 

‘Er- hiya Conrad, is something wrong?’

‘No, Jones just wanted me to give you this. It’s the patrol timetable,’ he says, looking thoroughly uninterested. 

Lottie takes the piece of parchment from his outstretched hand, and nearly collapses at the sight of it. 

‘I’m on patrol? With Black? Tonight?’ she asks, her voice rising with each sentence. 

‘I guess,’ Conrad says, shrugging. ‘Good luck with that.’ And with those inspiring words, he leaves the three girls and returns to his friends at the opposite end of the table. 

‘You’ve got to be shitting me,’ Lottie mutters, squeezing her eyes shut and willing it all to be a bad dream. 

‘Right,’ Mary says firmly, and Lottie’s eyes reluctantly open. ‘Alice, it looks like the plan needs to be enacted sooner than we thought.’ Alice nods sagely. 

‘Wait, what plan?’

‘We’re going to make sure you make it back to your dorm alive,’ Mary says proudly, taking a huge bite of her steaming pork pie. 

‘And how exactly are you going to do that?’ Lottie asks, curious at how her friends think they’ll be able to hoodwink a lot of school rules. 

‘Simple. Disillusionment charm  You know Alice is a darl with them, we’ll be fine. We’ll meet you outside the Slytherin common room at midnight. If you’re not back by ten past, we’ll sound the alarm.’ Lottie is taken aback by this news. She blinks once, twice, three times, and then manages to find her voice. 

‘You guys are doing that for me?’ 

‘Of course!’ Alice assures, her smile blinding. 

‘Well, at least until we know that Black won’t attempt to kill you and hide your body.’ Mary adds. 

‘That mental image is encouraging, thanks for that.’

‘Oh, you’re so welcome,’ Mary replies, giving Lottie her most cloying smile. 

—————————————

A couple of hours later, as the sun sinks lower in the sky, the three girls make their way down to the dungeons and into Slughorn’s potions classroom. 

Lottie isn’t surprised to find that well over half of the class is full of her fellow Slytherins, and feels her insides twist at the sight of Crouch, Rosier and Black smirking at the back of the classroom. 

Because of this, she herds herself and her friends to the front of the classroom, where Slughorn is about to begin the lesson. 

‘Welcome back to your seventh year at Hogwarts!’ he cries, his bushy moustache bristling with every word. ‘Now, I won’t lecture you on your NEWTs, no, no, we’ll just jump straight in!’ 

The three girls nearly deflate with bottled relief. Every single professor they’d seen today had dumped as much information as possible about their NEWTs on them.  

‘Seeing as last year you got to choose your partners, I’ve decided that this year I will be the one pairing you up!’ Slughorn announces joyously, and the relieved smile instantaneously slips off of Lottie’s face. Oh no. ‘Now where did I put that silly list…’ Slughorn scrambles through the loose pieces of parchment that litter his desk, before finding the list he was looking for. 

‘Ah, here we are… Alright, when I call your name, please move to a bench with your partner. Gillian Arnold and Troy Latimer, Alice Fortescue and Devin Magnus…’ Alice seems to relax as she realises she’s not partnered with anyone too bad, and eagerly makes her way over to Devin, a red-haired Ravenclaw. 

‘Esmerelda Goran and Seth Viril, Mary MacDonald and Heath Whitmore…’ Lottie is starting to feel like Lady Luck is well and truly about to screw her over as Mary confidently struts toward Heath, a dark-haired, dark-skinned Hufflepuff, who looks like he struck it rich. 

‘Aura Diablos and Regulus Black, Isobel Le Blank and Barty Crouch Jr, and Charlotte Knight and Evan Rosier.’

Lottie’s book bag nearly slips straight off her shoulder and onto the floor, but she manages to get a grip. She risks a glance over her shoulder, and sees that Rosier is already sporting an ingratiating grin. Lottie reluctantly makes her way to the back of the room, where Rosier has already claimed a bench next to Crouch and Black, of all people. Isobel Le Blank looks like she wants to jump off the astronomy tower, while Aura Diablos is beaming like she just won the lottery. In a way she did, because Black is one of the best in the class, next to Lottie. Lottie herself feels the sudden urge to repeatedly slam her head against the table. 

‘Well, lucky, lucky me,’ Rosier says, and Lottie can already tell it’s going to be one hell of a year. It’s almost as if his arrogant smirk is permanently glued to his stupid face. He looks her up and down, painstakingly slow, before shrugging. ‘I hope you know I’m going to be doing literally nothing.’

‘That’s fine.’ Lottie replies stiffly, and Rosier laughs lowly. 

Instead of talking, he takes to resting his chin in his hand on the bench, staring up insouciantly at Professor Slughorn. Out of the corner of her eye, Lottie can see Regulus Black glaring at her, his cold eyes narrowed, but she chooses to ignore him completely. 

‘Today,’ Slughorn’s voice booms around the room, ‘we will be creating an invisibility potion, which is renowned for being quite difficult to concoct. Can anyone tell me why?’ When no one else answers, Lottie raises her hand. ‘Yes, Miss Knight?’

‘It’s known to be quite difficult to create because of the rarity and exclusivity of the ingredients, as well as the time it takes to brew. If you miss a stir by seconds, the potion could completely backfire.’

‘Very good, Miss Knight! Ten points to Slytherin,’ Slughorn declares, and Lottie feels an ounce of satisfaction that she earned back the points that MacNair and Crouch lost earlier. ‘Now, as I said before, this potion is particularly tricky to brew, so one person from each group needs to come up and get a stopwatch from me. These will help you to measure the periods of time between each stir, because, as Miss Knight said, they are very precise and, if measured incorrectly, will ruin your potion.’

‘I’ll go get the stopwatch,’ Rosier volunteers, and heads off to Slughorn, who’s handing out silver pocket watches. Lottie opens her textbook to page one hundred and forty seven, and when she glances up, she realises that both Crouch and Black’s partners have left them to get the pocket watches. She stiffens considerably when she also notices the obscene, toothy grin on Crouch’s face which makes him look utterly demented. 

‘Hmm,’ Crouch hums, looking mockingly thoughtful. Lottie’s fists are clenched by her side, anticipating the next nasty thing he says. ‘I wonder if your disgrace of a brother will survive much longer. Hopefully he’ll be killed sooner or later and put you and your Muggle mother out of your misery-’

‘Oh, shut it, Barty. Can we have a moment of peace without your incessant ramblings?’ Regulus snaps at his friend, looking impossibly irritated. 

Crouch looks just as shocked as Lottie feels, but before she can blink, his devilish smirk is back on his face as if nothing happened at all, though his eyes are murderous. 

Finally, Rosier and the two boys’ partners return, and Rosier seems to pick up on the tension between his friends. 

‘Did I miss something?’ he asks Regulus, who just shakes his head mutely.

‘Leave it, Evan,’ Crouch bites, dismissing Rosier’s curiosity. Rosier’s gaze flickers between the two boys before shrugging and handing the pocket watch to Lottie, who nearly rips his fingers off as she snatches it from his hands. 

‘Right,’ she says, her voice tense from the anger simmering just above the surface. ‘Rosier, go grab the powdered daisyroot, fairy wings, Lady’s Mantle leaves and demiguise hair, please.’

‘Er- what?’ 

Lottie sighs, shoving her textbook into his hands. ‘I’ve underlined the things you’ve got to get. Go on then,’ she shoos Rosier off before he can shoot her another incredulous look, and pulls her potions kit out of her book bag, grabbing pomegranate juice, dragon blood and her octopus powder to strengthen the potion - just in case. 

She tips her vial of pomegranate juice into the cauldron, lighting a fire beneath it with the tip of her wand, and watches it cautiously as it comes to a boil. Rosier returns with everything she asked for, and she directs him to grind the fairy wings into a paste with a mortar and pestle, which he reluctantly does. 

While he gets to work with the wings, Lottie adds the daisyroot as well as the dragon blood, stirring the mixture thrice in an anti-clockwise direction before setting her eyes on the stopwatch, which she’s charmed to go off in exactly two minutes. 

‘You could do that a little bit faster,’ she says to Rosier, who’s making no effort to grind up the fairy wings properly. 

‘You do it then,’ he huffs, shoving it at her, and she rolls her eyes. 

‘Pathetic,’ she mutters, mashing up the wings until they’re a fine, glittering bowl of dust. 

‘I heard that you know,’ Rosier states, an insufferable smile on his face, but Lottie ignores him, watching the pocket watch incredibly carefully, her bowl of ground fairy wings hovering above the cauldron. When the timer goes off, she immediately tips all of the mixture into the cauldron, using her wand to stir it eight times clockwise as she does. When the timer is set again for five minutes from now, her eyes flick to the textbook to see what’s next. 

Shred the Lady’s Mantle leaves and add half of them stirring once clockwise. Wait three minutes before adding the remaining half, stirring once clockwise. 

Lottie wipes her brow with her robes, the humidity and suffocating temperature of the dungeons suddenly hitting her like a tidal wave. She brushes this off however, and gets straight to shredding the leaves carefully with her silver blade. Glancing around the room, she sees Alice and her partner looking fraught and frantic, while Mary and her partner seem to be arguing over how to grind the fairy wings. No one in the class is up to where she is, and she feels slightly accomplished at that. Not even Regulus Black is halfway done, and he’s supposed to be the resident potions master. Even better still, Crouch’s concoction is a bright, sunset orange, instead of the periwinkle shade it’s supposed to be. 

Lottie finishes shredding the leaves thirty seconds before the timer goes off, and adds half of them to the cauldron just as instructed, stirring once clockwise. Another timer is set, and she waits patiently for it to ring through the room again. 

Rosier peers over the edge of the cauldron, before consulting the textbook. ‘Christ, you didn’t tell me you were a potions whiz,’ he mutters, unable to help the impressed look that crosses across his face. 

‘You didn’t ask,’ Lottie replies simply, and Rosier barks a laugh. 

‘I suppose I didn’t, no.’ At that moment, the timer reaches ten seconds until it goes off, and Lottie leaps into action. When it finally rings and buzzes, she tips the remaining leaves into the cauldron and stirs it once clockwise again. Now she sets another timer for six minutes and thirty-five seconds, when she needs to stir it three times clockwise, add three demiguise hairs and nine times anti clockwise. After she’s done that, fingers crossed, the potion will turn clearer than water. 

Both Rosier and Lottie stay completely silent for the entire six-and-a-half minutes, and when the timer goes off, Lottie gets up and stirs the cauldron manually, once, twice, three times clockwise, add the hairs one by one, and then nine times the opposite way. 

She beams down at her potion as it turns perfectly translucent. Rosier catches her reaction and peers over the cauldron once more, clapping her on the back when he realises she’s successfully completed the potion. Thank god Lottie’s already extinguished the flames, because his overly-strong gesture might’ve sent her careening into them if she hadn’t. 

Since their potion is complete, both of them relapse into silence, Rosier twiddling his thumbs while Lottie people-watches. 

Alice’s cauldron just went up in flames, singing the hair of her partner, who she’s now yelling at. Lottie has to put a particularly large effort into stopping the amused smile she can feel creeping onto her face. 

Mary, on the other hand, looks completely at ease with her partner, who’s sneaking subtle glances at her as he stirs their potion. They’ve obviously resolved their previous argument. 

Lottie just can’t help the triumphant smirk that slides onto her lips as she realises that Crouch still hasn’t managed to finish his potion, and is swearing at his partner, looking absolutely livid. On the other side of her and Rosier, Black is wearing his trademark expression of absolute indifference, ignoring his partner completely. Finally, a smirk tugs at the corners of his lips, and he glances at Crouch with a goading glint in his eyes. 

Damn , Lottie thinks, he must’ve done it right, too.

It’s almost as if he’s telepathic. As soon as the thought crosses her mind, Regulus Black’s eyes immediately snap to hers, and he stares at her, almost egging her on. Lottie folds her arms across her chest, but looks away instead of participating in his childish staring contest. His smirk falters a little, but regains its full level of arrogance as Slughorn travels over to the bench shared between all six of them, visiting Black first. 

‘Simply marvellous!’ the professor cries, stroking his thick moustache thoughtfully. ‘I knew I could expect great things from you, Black. And you, Miss Diablos,’ Slughorn adds as a second thought. 

He moves over to Lottie and Rosier, and when he gazes over the lip of the cauldron, he’s almost glowing with pride. ‘Aha! Knight and Rosier, I knew you’d make a perfect team! Brilliant job, you two!’ Both of them smile politely at Slughorn, but as soon as he’s out of earshot, Rosier begins snickering quietly to himself. The professor then moves on to Crouch and his partner, who both look dishevelled and thoroughly irate. 

‘Hmm,’ is all Slughorn says to Crouch, before moving onto the next table. Lottie has to press her lips into a flat, tight line to keep herself from laughing. Regulus Black, however, apparently has no self restraint when it comes to being a bully. 

‘Let me guess, going to blame it on your partner?’ he asks, and Crouch scowls at him. 

‘Shut your trap, Black,’ he snaps, but Regulus only smiles irksomely back at his friend, definitely trying to provoke a reaction out of Crouch. 

It’s only then that Lottie notices Crouch’s partner, a Gryffindor named Isobel Le Blank, and the fact that her hands are raw, red and swollen under the table. 

Isobel catches Lottie’s eye, and abruptly looks away, her eyes filled with tears. If possible, Lottie’s hate for Crouch grows even more, and her synapses burn with barely contained rage. At least Lady Luck didn’t fuck her over enough to lump her with him. 

Slughorn dismisses them soon after, but not before loudly announcing that Lottie and Regulus Black were the only two to get the potion perfect. As the students file out of the classroom, Lottie practically sprints to Mary and Alice, who are already chatting like madwomen. 

‘Oh, he gets on my nerves ,’ Alice says, her voice dripping with uncharacteristic venom, which vaguely terrifies Lottie. ‘The fucking idiot added the wrong ingredient when I told him not to. Bloody Ravenclaws and their compulsive need to think they’re right.’

Lottie laughs, and Alice’s murderous expression finally eases. ‘Well, if he’s hung on the roof of Ravenclaw Tower by his underwear tomorrow, I’ll know who did it. Mary, how’s your partner?’

‘An absolute dream,’ Mary says earnestly. 

‘I’m guessing that means that your vow against men is going out the window?’ Alice asks, and swiftly receives Mary’s elbow in her ribs. ‘Ouch!’ she breathes. 

‘I can have platonic relationships with men, you know.’ It’s not that her friends don’t believe her, but rather the fact that Mary is rather well-known for her insatiable libido. ‘Don’t look at me like that!’ Mary cries, rolling her eyes and flushing at the knowing look Alice and Lottie share. 

They finally make it out of the classroom, and when Lottie sees Isobel Le Blank making her way up to the Gryffindor common room, she holds a hand up to her friends. 

‘One moment, I just have to do something,’ she says, before rushing after Isobel. ‘Isobel! Wait!’ she calls, and Isobel turns around, her blue eyes wide. 

Lottie hurriedly digs through her satchel before pulling out a tub of cream she specially manufactured for stinging hexes, keeping in mind that they’re Crouch’s favourite hex to use. 

‘Here,’ she says, handing Isobel the tub of powder pink ointment. ‘It’s to treat stinging hexes. It takes away most of the pain and reduces swelling.’ 

Isobel’s mouth opens and then closes, her eyes flickering between Lottie and the container in her outstretched hand, before taking the cream. ‘Thank you,’ she says, her voice soft. 

‘No worries,’ Lottie smiles sincerely. 

‘When do you need this back-’ Isobel begins, but Lottie cuts her off. 

‘Nonsense. You keep it, you’ll probably be needing it for the rest of the year.’ Isobel grimaces at the thought of Crouch being her partner for the next few months, but then nods. ‘If you need any more, just come and find me. Alice and Mary usually know where I am.’

‘Thanks again,’ Isobel says, grinning timidly, and Lottie waves goodbye before hurrying back to her friends who are looking at her with curious expressions. 

‘What was all that about?’ Mary whispers conspiratorially, and Lottie rolls her eyes. 

‘Crouch was cursing her the entire lesson, I just gave her some cream to help her with the pain. You know his stinging hexes are awful.’ Mary nods grimly, knowing full well the extent of Crouch’s sadistic tendencies. 

‘Oh, Lottie,’ Alice says. ‘How was Rosier as a partner?’

‘Lazy. He didn’t do anything, the little shit.’

‘Well, it’s not like you needed anything done anyways.’

‘Yeah, but I bet Slughorn’s much happier to give him credit than me,’ Lottie says, and they all sigh at the honesty of the statement. 

‘Come on, you mopey gits,’ Mary says suddenly, a warm smile spreading across her face. ‘Let’s get some dinner before Lottie’s date with the devil.’

Chapter Text

Lottie sets off to the Slytherin common room with a full stomach, which is making the unshakeable nausea a lot more unpleasant. Her friends had reluctantly parted with her in the library, promising they’ll be waiting to make sure she gets to bed safely. The castle’s corridors are dark and silent, and there’s a chill to the air that creeps down Lottie’s spine slowly.

When she rounds the corridor into the dungeons, Regulus Black is already there, leaning against the stone wall and playing with one of the many silver rings gracing his fingers. His eyes snap to hers when he hears her footsteps approaching, but he remains expressionless. This time, Lottie refuses to break eye contact, her gaze steely. Black looks away first, to her satisfaction, a smirk on his face.

‘Come on,’ he says simply, and he starts walking down a corridor at random, forcing Lottie to follow him.

The first few minutes of their patrol is spent in complete silence, and Lottie spends most of it trying not to get in Black’s way. She doesn’t exactly know the extent of his temper, and isn’t willing to push it. Suddenly, Regulus halts, throwing an arm across Lottie’s chest to stop her, too.

‘Excuse me?’ she starts, but he cuts her off with a dark look. 

‘Shut up and listen.’ Lottie does what he says, and in the silent darkness, she can hear someone sniffling faintly nearby. Holding her wand aloft, she mutters ‘ Lumos ’, and walks further down the corridor. Her wand light falls onto a huddled shadow tucked away in the corner, and she points her wand in that direction immediately.

A sobbing first year is sitting alone in the dark corridor, curled in the fetal position, looking absolutely mortified. She looks up at Lottie, and if possible, shrinks away further. Lottie’s heartstrings pang painfully, and she kneels down in front of the girl, who refuses to meet her eye. As she does, she realises the girl’s hands are covered in small cuts and scrapes that are bleeding slowly, rivulets of blood trickling down her wrists.

‘Hey, hey, I’m not going to hurt you,’ Lottie says softly, but the girl still won’t look at her. By the looks of the first year’s robes, she’s in Hufflepuff. ‘I can heal your hands, if you want me to.’

Finally, the girl looks up at her, and hesitantly puts her shaking hands in Lottie’s, who slings her wand light into the air above them and immediately gets to work sealing each cut on the girl’s hands. Even when they’re all healed, there are still thin silver scars all over the girl’s hands. Just to be sure there’s nothing else, Lottie casts a quick diagnostic spell, scouring it, and the girl looks at it too with a wondrous expression.

‘Good as new,’ she says, smiling weakly. ‘Can you tell me your name?’

The girl opens her mouth as if she’s going to speak, before her eyes widen and fill with tears again. She shakes her head, and Lottie’s brow furrows. The realisation strikes her with the force of a lightning bolt - the girl has been silenced.

‘ Finite ,’ Lottie says firmly, and the girl looks relieved.

‘My name is Molly,’ she says in a small, scratchy voice, and Lottie nods.

‘Can you tell me what happened? Who did this?’

‘Some Slytherin seventh years, b-but I don’t know their names. They threw a bunch of curses at me and then- then they silenced me and left me here. I got lost.’

Lottie squeezes her eyes shut, and she barely manages to quash the overwhelming need to curb-stomp Regulus Black’s perfect face to bits. ‘Do you know why they would do that?’

‘I’m Muggleborn,’ the girl says, her watery eyes fixed on the floor.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Molly,’ Lottie replies sincerely, and squeezes Molly's hand in hers. ‘Do you feel well enough to stand up?’ The girl nods. ‘Right then, we’re going to Professor Sprout’s office.’ She helps Molly up off of the flagstones, and then finally risks a glance at Black. Much to Lottie’s surprise, he’s not smirking at what his friends did. In fact, he’s standing rigid as a board, frowning at the first year clutching her hand as if it’s a lifeline. He hasn’t moved from where he stopped Lottie before, and seems to be keeping his distance for one reason or another.

As she walks past him, he opens his mouth to say something before clearly thinking better of it and attempting to follow behind the two girls silently. Regulus doesn’t get very far, however, because once Lottie realises what he’s doing, she whips around and shoots him her most withering look.

‘You’re not invited,’ she spits, and a dark expression crosses his face. 

‘I didn’t do this,’ he retorts, his stormy eyes freezing over.

‘No, but your friends did. Besides, someone needs to continue patrolling, and it’s not going to be me. I’ll come and find you when I’m done.’ With that, Lottie stalks away from him, Molly looking bewildered at her side, and down to the kitchens, where the Hufflepuff common room and Professor Sprout’s office are located.

Lottie knocks on the door to the professor’s office three times, and waits patiently, listening to Sprout fumbling around inside.

‘I told you tomorrow-’ she starts, opening the door and looking distressed, but when she realises who it is, she cuts herself short. She looks between the two girls, and a very grave expression crosses her face. ‘Come in,’ she says immediately, ushering both inside. The two girls take a seat in front of Sprout’s desk. ‘What happened?’

‘Regulus Black and I found Molly in the corridors while we were on patrol duty. She’d been attacked and silenced so she couldn’t get help. I’ve healed the superficial injuries and checked for others, but I still think she should go to the hospital wing, just in case. I just wanted to bring her here first.’

‘Very well, that was a wise idea, Charlotte,’ Professor Sprout says earnestly, sitting down behind her desk, turning to gaze at Molly with her kind brown eyes. ‘Molly, could you tell me what happened?’

Molly relays the exact story that she told Lottie minutes ago, but in a lot more detail, and by the time she’s finished, Sprout’s expression has distinctly soured even further.

‘Molly, don’t you worry. I’ll have a serious word with Professor Slughorn in the morning, but until then, let’s get you up to Madam Pomfrey,’ Professor Sprout says, before looking gratefully towards Lottie.

‘Thank you for bringing her here, Charlotte. You may return to Mr Black now.’

Lottie nods once, smiles at Molly, and then leaves Sprout’s office, hurrying back up to the Entrance Hall from the kitchens. She silently casts a locator spell on Regulus, and immediately a red trail of light bursts forth from her wand, directing her up the moving staircases and to the fifth floor. No sooner does she take a step from the staircases when Regulus appears from around the corner.

‘How’s the first year girl?’ he asks, and the sincerity in his voice astounds Lottie.

‘She’ll be fine. Sprout is taking her up to the Hospital Wing, just to be double checked,’ she says hastily. ‘Where else do we need to go?’

‘I’ve completed floors one through five, so only two to go,’ he says, and then walks away and up the staircase to the sixth floor without another word. 

‘Bastard,’ Lottie mutters to herself, once she’s certain he’s out of earshot, furiously climbing the stairs behind him. However, Regulus abruptly stops, turning around to tower over her.

‘I heard that, you know. I may be many things, but deaf isn’t one of them,’ he sneers, the mocking glint in his eyes driving her insane, before continuing up the stairs silently. Lottie feels like she’s incandescent with rage at this point, but she just stews in her own anger as she walks the corridors with Black, making sure no one’s shagging in the spare classrooms. Despite what many think, that particular situation is far too common for Lottie’s liking.

Eventually, after covering all the floors of the castle, Lottie checks her silver wrist watch and sees that it’s already ten to twelve. 

‘Right, I’m going back down to the common room,’ Black announces, obviously having followed Lottie’s gaze.

‘Well so am I,’ she replies, somewhat defiantly, and Regulus quirks an eyebrow at her. 

‘Brilliant,’ he retorts sardonically, rolling his eyes. Once again, a cocky smile is plastered on his face, and Lottie wants to slap it right off. He starts down the stairs, leaving her behind, and she waits for him to get out of sight before going down to the common room herself. 

When she finally gets there, she nearly completely forgets that Alice and Mary should be around. 

‘Alice! Mary!’ she hisses, and she detects movement by the dungeon wall. Her two friends’ heads appear out of nowhere as the disillusionment charm melts off of their skin and trickles down their bodies. 

‘Lottie! We thought Black had done something to you, thank god!’ Alice cries, rushing over to Lottie and wrapping her in a bear hug. Mary looks stricken over Alice’s shoulder, and Lottie musters the most apologetic smile she can. 

‘I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to walk back with the prick.’

‘Why? Did he do something on patrol? I’ll smash his head in-’ Mary starts, but Lottie shakes her head. 

‘We found a first year girl who’d been attacked and just dumped in the corridors, so I took her to Sprout. It was his friends that did it.’

‘You’re shitting me,’ Alice says, and Mary looks too mortified for words. ‘It’s only the first day back!’ 

‘A Muggleborn first year?’ Mary asks incredulously. Lottie nods grimly and suddenly Mary’s expression turns to one of fear, and she throws her arms around Lottie’s shoulders, burying her head in her hair and piling on top of Alice. ‘I’m so sorry you’re stuck with him, Lottie.’

Lottie hugs her friends tighter than ever, and sighs deeply. ‘It’s okay. Besides, Black didn’t try to torture me tonight, so I think we’ve got the all clear.’

‘Nice try,’ Alice says, folding her arms across her chest. ‘But we’re not giving up that easily. Black might have the face of an angel but he’s just as vile as his gang of terrorists.’ Lottie can’t argue with her friend’s logic, so she just shrugs. ‘Besides, it’s great Auror practice.’

Lottie laughs. ‘You two should get back to bed. Make sure Filch doesn’t get you,’ she adds, and Mary grimaces at the thought of being caught by the old Squib. 

‘We’ll try,’ she replies, giving Lottie one last squeeze before following Alice through the dark and silent corridors up to their common room. 

‘Aqua Vitae ,’ Lottie mumbles, rubbing her eyes as she steps into the Slytherin common room. She’s not surprised in the slightest to see Regulus Black lounging about on the plush leather couches, and completely ignores his existence, heading up to her dorm and collapsing onto the bed. 

—————————————

The next day, Lottie wakes up with her mind on Molly, and decides to go and see her as soon as she gets dressed. She clambers out of bed, takes a quick, blistering shower, and tugs all of her uniform on before hastily slinging her book bag over her shoulder and bolting down the stairs. 

Regulus Black is at the bottom of them, clearly waiting for someone, and he looks up at her, a taunting grin pulling at his lips. 

‘Early morning rendezvous, Knight?’ he asks salaciously. Last night’s fury at him reignites deep in her bones. 

‘Suck my dick, Black,’ Lottie replies, giving him a very open display of her middle finger over her shoulder and walking straight out of the common room. 

As soon as she rids herself of Regulus’ shadowy presence, she heads straight to the Hospital Wing, knocking on the door three times. 

‘No visitors!’ Madam Pomfrey says as she cracks open the door, before she realises who it is. ‘Charlotte, what are you doing here?’ 

‘I was wondering if a first year named Molly is here?’ she asks, and Madam Pomfrey frowns. 

‘She is, but as I said, no visitors this early in the morning!’

‘I just wanted to see how she is, Madam Pomfrey. I was the one that found her.’ Pomfrey looks sympathetic but stays resolute. 

‘She’s doing fine, Charlotte, but the policy still remains. She’ll be raring and ready to go as soon as she wakes up.’

‘Alright, thanks Madam Pomfrey. See you on Thursday!’ Lottie waves goodbye and heads back down the stairs in a slightly more glum mood. She makes her way to the Great Hall, where, thankfully, breakfast has been served. Lottie sits down at the Gryffindor table and grabs two pieces of toast, liberally spreading marmalade on them both whole she still has the freedom. 

She can feel a pair of eyes burning holes into her head, and sighs before looking up to see who wants to hex her into oblivion this time. Expecting it to be Crouch, Lottie is momentarily struck dumb as she meets Regulus Black’s intense gaze. He doesn’t seem phased as she stares right back at him, his face wiped clean of emotion. He looks almost thoughtful, that is until he glances down at his porridge, mixing two teaspoons of brown sugar into it. 

Alice and Mary time their arrival perfectly, sitting down across from Lottie and obscuring her view of Regulus entirely. Alice looks drained of life, huge bags under her eyes, while Mary looks the complete opposite, almost bursting with life. 

‘I had the strangest dream last night, Lottie,’ she says, her ebony eyes full of wonder. 

‘Enough with your dreams,’ Alice mumbles bitterly. ‘I didn’t sleep a wink last night.’

‘Is your insomnia back?’ Lottie asks, concern slipping into her voice. 

‘Probably,’ Alice says, shrugging it off. ‘It got worse over the summer. But don’t worry,’ she says sharply, catching the look on Lottie’s face. ‘I’m perfectly capable of brewing my own Sleeping Draught.’

‘Mary, you were talking about your dream?’

‘Well, basically what happened was I saw you,’ she gestures to Lottie, ‘and Marlene, and you looked like you were trying to heal someone. I couldn’t see who, which really pissed me off, but anyways. And then Lottie’s car came along and ran me over.’

Lottie tries to muffle her giggles with her robe, but it doesn’t work. ‘Wow, that’s er- really interesting,’ she replies, trying to be subtle, but Mary knows her too well. 

‘It is a bit funny, to be honest,’ she says, smiling. ‘Your car just came out of nowhere and turned me into roadkill.’

‘Did you see who was driving?’

‘Nope. It looked like a big black dog to me.’

‘That’s really strange,’ Alice says, sipping her pumpkin juice quietly. The morning mail swoops into the hall, dropping parcels and letters left and right, and Lottie recognises Barny heading straight for her. He drops the letter neatly into her opened hands, and she hastily tears it open, while Alice snatches her copy of the Daily Prophet . 

Lottie opens her letter to find that it’s from Felix, who’s finally taken the time to respond. 

Hey Lottie,

You’re right, I am jealous. I’d kill for some millionaire shortbread any day of the week, but that’s not the point. Mum’s going stir crazy, you know how she is, and she’s now begging me to quit my job (surprise). She hates you being at Hogwarts. It’s driving her nuts. 

Anyways, I’m doing okay. The Prophet is still writing articles, but I can deal with that. Things on the war front don’t seem to be looking up, so just a heads up that things might get a lot harder soon. 

Make sure to stay out of trouble. I’ll know if you don’t - Slughorn’s a blabbermouth and he has a lot of Ministry friends. 

Look after yourself, okay?

See you at Christmas, 

Signed, Felix Knight

Lottie rereads the letter twice, before looking over to Alice, who’s scanning the Prophet with unwavering focus. 

‘Anything good?’ 

‘Well, nothing bad,’ Alice responds, folding the paper in half and helping herself to some bacon and hash browns. ‘Felix isn’t on the front cover, but there’s still an article on the DMLE on page two.’

Lottie sighs with relief, and takes a huge bite out of her toast, savouring the strong citrus flavour, thinking about what Felix said in his letter. Of course she already knew the war was bad, but if Felix is telling her, then she’s guessing that things have definitely taken a turn for the worse. 

‘What’d Felix say?’ Mary asks, her mouth full of cheerios, and Lottie snorts. 

‘The normal stuff. Mum’s harassing him to quit his job, the war’s going shit, he wants me to stay out of trouble.’ Lottie shrugs. 

‘Does he say anything in particular about the war?’ Alice probes nervously. 

‘No, why?’ Lottie asks slowly, and Alice shakes her head. 

‘Nothing, it’s fine.’

‘Alice, you can tell us.’

‘Well, I’m worried about Frank, and your brother, Lottie,’ she adds. ‘Frank told me they’ve joined this resistance group.’ Alice lowers her voice as well as casting a quick Muffliato charm, glancing around. ‘It’s called The Order, and it’s people who want to fight against You-Know-Who. Both Frank and Felix are a part of it, as well as the Marauders and their friends, so if anyone knows anything, it’d be them.’

Lottie’s shocked into silence. A secret organisation? Had this been what Felix meant when he said that both of them had targets on their backs? More importantly, why hasn’t her brother mentioned this once ?

‘I want to join as soon as I’m out of school,’ Alice admits, playing with her food. ‘It’s the right thing to do, and they’ll always need more hands on deck.’

Lottie’s mind reels, and she can’t help imagining her best friend being killed in the war. ‘I think I’ll join too,’ Mary says softly. ‘I agree, it’s the right thing to do.’

‘Me too. They’re going to need healers, and it’s the right thing to do,’ Lottie says definitively, and all three girls nod in mutual agreement. To Lottie, standing on the sidelines is nearly as bad as fighting on the same team as the Dark Lord. It’s good and evil, light and dark, and as long as she lives, she won’t let the darkness win. Deep down she needs to win this war. She’s been secretly contemplating what she could do to help the war efforts all summer, and now she’s got her answer. She’s going to have her say in this war.

—————————————

By lunch time, Lottie’s already dreading tonight’s patrol with Regulus. She barely eats anything, even after Mary and Alice keep bugging her to do so. They don’t ask what’s troubling her - they already know. As Lottie gets up from her seat at Gryffindor table to head off to Herbology though, her mood significantly brightens as she sees Molly sitting at the Hufflepuff table, chatting to some of her friends. 

Lottie makes her way over to the table, and Molly sees her coming and waves. ‘Hiya Molly, are you feeling alright?’ she asks.

‘Yup, I got discharged a while ago. Thanks for last night,’ Molly replies somewhat shyly, and Lottie beams down at her. 

‘No worries! And hey, if you ever need help again, you can come to me,’ she assures, and Molly returns her smile. ‘I’ve got to get to class now, but I’ll see you around!’ 

However, Lottie’s good mood only lasts a few more minutes before she realises, as she enters the Greenhouse Two, that they’ll be working with Venomous Tentacula. Again. 

‘But professor,’ Allard Digby says as he glares daggers at the writhing plants sitting in front of them, trying to rip their hair out, ‘didn’t we do Venomous Tentacula last year?’

‘Oh yes,’ Professor Sprout replies, spritely as ever and tugging her dragon hide gloves on. ‘But since these plants will come up a lot in your NEWTs, and Madam Pomfrey requires the leaves for some more healing potions, we’ll be working with them again!’ 

Professor Sprout’s enthusiasm is not shared throughout her class as they wrangle with the feisty plants, trying to prune them and collect some of their leaves without being strangled, like poor Coral Kane was last year. One benefit, and the only one it seems, is that they’re allowed to curse loudly if their plant gets particularly vicious, which Lottie takes in stride.

‘Fuck!’ she yelps as her pot of Tentacula rips through her robes and leaves a jagged, bleeding cut down her left forearm. She hurriedly heals it as quickly as she can, not wanting to keep her eyes off of her vengeful plant for prolonged periods at a time. Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Sprout declares the class over, and Lottie stalks out of the greenhouse, with blood stained and ripped robes, and up to the castle for her next class - Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Unlike some subjects, Lottie actually finds DADA interesting, especially considering the conversation she had with Alice and Mary this morning. She enters the classroom with a renewed sense of anticipation, which only grows when she sees that the desks in the classroom have been removed. She finds both Mary and Alice, who also take the class, Alice because she needs it to become an Auror, and Mary because Lord knows she needs to be able to walk around the castle safely.

‘I think we’re going to be duelling today,’ Alice whispers conspiratorially, talking behind her hand. ‘Professor Delarosa hinted at it yesterday, and there’s not many other reasons to get rid of all the desks.’ Lottie nods in agreement. She’s thinking the same thing, and she’s only more excited when their professor confirms their suspicions.

‘I think that after such a theory based curriculum last year that it’s only fair to dive head first into the practical side of Defense Against the Dark Arts,’ Professor Delarosa announces, withdrawing a list from within her robes. That’s never a good sign. ‘Today you will be duelling with assigned partners. May I remind you that it’s a week’s detention for anyone who does lasting damage to their partner. This is for practice, yes, but if any Dark Magic or lethal curses,’ the professor stares pointedly at the group of Slytherins in the room, and Lottie recognises Regulus Black’s familiar raven hair, ‘then I can guarantee serious punishment will be dealt to the perpetrators.’ 

Professor Delarosa whips out her glasses before squinting at the parchment in front of her face. ‘Right, when I call your name, line up in front of me facing your partner. Girls on the right side of me and boys on the left. Alright, Kraus and Crouch, Le Tourney and Monroe, MacDonald and Rosier, Goran and Whitmore...’ Mary looks like she’s been cheated as Heath Whitmore faces off against Esmerelda Goran. ‘Roseberg and Snow, Knight and Black…’ For a moment Lottie panics, her blood turning cold, before realising that she’ll be duelling against Regulus. The small, vindictive part of her is currently screaming as she makes her way over to the line, facing her opponent with a clear head and a neutral expression. Regulus looks far too amused for anything good to happen to her, and Lottie runs through every single defensive and offensive spell she knows as Delarosa continues down her very extensive list. Lottie notices that Alice has been paired with her potions partner, who she’s currently scowling at down the line. 

‘Alright, each pair will take turns to duel. I would like you all to refrain from disarming one another, as the aim of this is for you to demonstrate other skills you have learned in the past six years of your education. Up you come, Kraus and Crouch.’

The pair make their way up to the front of the classroom, and the rest of the students watch, Lottie with her breath held, as both bow to each other. However, before Crouch’s partner has even managed to get her bearings, he shoots stinging hex after stinging hex at her, before, when satisfied she’s in enough pain, stupefying her. The girl’s prone body collapses to the floor, and Professor Delarosa hurries to rennervate her, sending a disdainful glance at Crouch, who looks thoroughly unbothered, almost as if this is somehow inconveniencing him. Maybe duelling only interests him when he’s tormenting muggleborns. 

Next to take the floor are Lucille, Lottie’s roommate, and a nervous looking boy named Nicholas Monroe, who’s already fidgeting with his wand. Like Crouch, Lucille looks uninterested, and after both bowing, she shoots multiple jinxes at him, knocks him down to his knees, disarms him and catches his wand gracefully. 

Lottie wishes Mary luck as she takes the stage opposite Rosier, both looking thoroughly determined to thrash the other. They both bow deeply to each other, before shooting well placed hexes at each other. Since the pairing is rather well balanced, the duel takes much longer than the previous two, ultimately ending with Mary winning, using a shield charm so strong it knocks Rosier off his feet and disarms him at the same time. Lottie watches with a proud smile as Mary makes her way back to the throng of students, giving her a congratulatory thumbs up. 

As the two remaining pairs in front of Lottie take their turns, the anticipation grows more and more inside of her. She’s seen Regulus Black duel against their classmates before, and she remembers how he moved fluidly, almost instinctively, and with a certain grace and poise that was reminiscent of water. 

‘Knight and Black, your turn,’ Delarosa calls, and Lottie walks up to one side of the classroom, while Regulus gravitates to the other. They both bow deeply to each other, and then immediately begin firing off hexes and curses towards the other with startling accuracy. A well placed bat bogey hex from Lottie sends Regulus staggering backwards a few steps, a small black bat crawling from his nose before she takes the opportunity to send multiple other jinxes his way, all of which he easily deflects. Suddenly, the scales tip in Regulus’ favour and one of Lottie’s deflected spells rebounds straight at her, causing her to duck and allowing him to take the offence again. Slowly but steadily, their curses are getting more volatile, each getting more aggravated with the other, one of his jinxes throwing Lottie onto her back on the floor, and one of hers sending him crashing into the wall. 

They can both hear their professor protesting against their wandwork, but both of them are too enthralled in their own world to even care. Most of their spells have become nonverbal, which makes them even harder to identify and counteract. At one point, Lottie uses the levicorpus spell against Regulus, but much to her chagrin, he easily and nonverbally recites the counter jinx, smoothly returning to his feet in seconds before shooting even more spells at her, each more egregious than the last. 

After Lottie fires a particularly nasty Confringo curse at Regulus which he barely manages to deflect in time, Professor Delarosa intervenes, using the Ebublio charm to encase both of them in bubbles where they can’t harm each other anymore. However, both Lottie and Regulus glare daggers at each other as the professor lectures them, who only lets them out of their respective bubbles when they promise they won’t hurt each other further. Lottie’s shin is bleeding from where a bit of debris from her own spell scraped the skin away, and Regulus’ nose is bubbling blood, coursing over his lip, which he wipes on the sleeve of his robe. 

Lottie heads straight to where Mary is waiting, wide eyed and slack jawed, at the back of the classroom. Before Mary has the chance to speak, she kneels down and heals the surprisingly deep cut on her leg, straightening up to look at her friend.

‘You must really hate him,’ is all Mary says, and Lottie turns back around to glare at Regulus. He catches her eye and stares back, his gaze as sharp as broken glass.

‘He’s a coward,’ Lottie replies simply, folding her arms defiantly across her chest and silently giving her attention to the next pair to take the stage. Alice is the last of the pairs to have a go, and it’s over in mere minutes, Alice having knocked her partner unconscious as well as disarming him. The duel was shockingly close, but she managed to overpower her partner with her shield spell, knocking him off balance before yelling ‘Expelliarmus!’ and stupefying him.

‘Well, that concludes our lesson for today!’ Delarosa announces when the bell chimes, clapping her bejewelled hands together, the metal of her rings clanging sharply. ‘I would especially like to applaud Mr Black and Miss Knight, who both demonstrated a unique understanding of duelling that I’ve rarely seen in my teaching years!’ 

Both Regulus and Lottie manage a polite smile, and Professor Delarosa finally dismisses them, permitting them to leave for the Great Hall, where dinner is being served.

‘That was the most fun I’ve had all day!’ Alice cries, looking radiant, as all three girls head down the stairs to the first floor. A portrait indignantly tells them to be quiet, but Mary just sticks her tongue out at the woman, who looks flabbergasted at the display of blatant disrespect.

‘Rosier was shockingly easy to overpower,’ Mary hums thoughtfully. ‘I thought he’d be really good at duelling, he just seems the type. And meanwhile, you,’ Mary prods Lottie in the ribs, causing her to squirm, ‘were attacking Black like he just slaughtered the entire school.’

‘He probably would if he could,’ Lottie shrugs. ‘And besides, it wasn’t like he wasn’t doing the exact same thing.’

‘They were some serious hexes,’ Alice says incredulously, looking bewildered. ‘I mean, some of the ones you used we haven’t even learnt!’

‘Felix taught me some during the holidays. I thought it might be nice to try them out.’

Alice and Mary share a strange look that Lottie purposely ignores as they head into the Great Hall, taking their usual seats in the middle of Gryffindor table. For dinner it’s one of Lottie’s Hogwarts favourites - roast tomato soup with toasted sourdough bread. Her stomach growls in anticipation and she hastily serves herself some of the delicious smelling liquid, filling her bowl up to the brim.

Lottie spends the entirety of dinner listening to Alice and Mary chatting about a multitude of topics - the war, NEWTs, Christmas, even the first quidditch match of the season in November. Eventually all the plates are cleared, and Lottie decides to make her way to the library to try and get some homework done. Both of her friends ask her if she wants them to come, but she declines in the most polite way possible. 

She uses the next hour wisely, finishing all her homework she’s received over the last two days, which is way more than she’s used to. She dots a full stop at the end of her potions essay before packing away her things and walking through the shelves upon shelves of books, her fingertips skimming the rough and weathered spines until she reaches the section of the library dedicated to Merlin. Lottie flicks through volume after volume until she finds the one she wants, taking it with her to her favourite spot in the library, the overly comfy chintz armchairs by the window. The chilly autumn wind breezes through the open windows and across Lottie’s skin as she sits in one of the two chairs, folding her legs beneath her and cracking open the book to the chapter dedicated to Merlin’s accomplices and companions. 

When she finds the page that she’s looking for, at long last, someone clears their throat above her, and she reluctantly looks up to see Regulus Black’s piercing grey eyes boring into her. Lottie grits her teeth as he points at his watch and taps the face of it. She glances down at her own watch and realises that it’s time for patrol again. Lottie barely stifles the urge to roll her eyes as she grabs her book bag as well as the book on Merlin and heads to Madam Pince’s desk, watching as the fierce and intimidating woman stamps her name into the back of the book. 

‘I want this back in perfect condition,’ Pince says sharply, and Lottie nods politely.

‘Of course, Madam Pince,’ she replies sweetly, and Pince eyes her carefully as she leaves the library, Regulus keeping stride beside her. ‘What, are you stalking me or something?’ Lottie hisses once Pince is out of earshot, and he just smirks.

‘No actually, I was researching a particular piece of dark magic in the restricted section that requires me to murder someone.’

Lottie stops dead in her tracks, turning to look at Regulus incredulously. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Ah, I see you took my advice and learned some manners,’ he replies smugly, before rolling his eyes. Lottie feels frustration burning through her as she remembers their encounter on the train. ‘And I was joking.’

‘Wouldn’t put it past you,’ she says simply, and the smile on his face falters almost imperceptibly. ‘I need to drop my stuff off before patrol.’

‘Fine,’ Regulus says, his voice clipped, and they continue silently down the corridor until they reach the dungeons. Lottie takes her stuff up to her dorm, dumping it carelessly on her bed and waving a quick goodbye to Ingrid, perched on her own bed, before returning to Regulus, who’s waiting patiently directly in front of the door. ‘This way,’ he inclines his head and sets off down the corridor, once again forcing Lottie to follow him. Arrogant asshole .

Their patrol continues silently for the next twenty minutes, until Regulus unexpectedly speaks up.

‘Why were you reading about Merlin?’ he asks, his eyes staring straight ahead, wand held aloft.

‘Why do you want to know?’ Lottie retorts, giving him a dirty look.

‘Because not many people read about his escapades of their own free will,’ he drawls. ‘I find them particularly mind numbing.’

‘I wasn’t reading about him, I was reading about his companions.’

‘Oh yeah? Such as?’

‘Nimue, actually.’ Regulus looks completely baffled.

‘Why would you want to read about the peasant girl Merlin brought along with him as his personal conquest?’ If possible, Lottie’s loathing for Regulus Black increases tenfold, but he clearly can’t sense how close she is to breaking point.

‘Because she was a powerful witch, and a great healer, and I was looking to see if anywhere or anyone mentioned what spells she used exactly,’ she grinds out, and Regulus eyes her wearily.

‘Right,’ he says, disbelieving. ‘So you’re saying she wasn’t just a random girl who decided to tag along with Merlin?’

‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying,’ she snaps, but he just continues looking entertained.

‘Okay, then,’ Regulus replies calmly, clearly enjoying getting a rise out of her. The silence returns for a few more minutes, in which Lottie’s anger finally recedes as she focuses her mind on something else entirely. ‘So tell me again, why were you reading about her?’

He’s utterly relentless , apparently, and can’t read the room to save his life, unless he’s just ignoring the way Lottie tenses. ‘Did you not hear me? I said because I wanted to find out about the type of magic she used.’

‘And did you find anything?’

‘No. From what I can gather, it was just a natural talent she had, not something she learnt.’

‘I don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with this Nimue person.’

‘You don’t need to, because it’s none of your business,’ Lottie replies sharply, and Regulus snorts.

‘You could stop being such a bitch. I’m only trying to make polite conversation.’

‘Polite conversation, my arse , Black. I’m half blood. People like you don’t try to have nice little catch ups with people like me. Maybe you could try and stop being such an insufferable dickhead.’

Regulus almost looks stunned before he reforms back to his look of casual indifference. ‘Whatever, it was a waste of my time anyways.’

‘There he is, the Regulus Black we all know and love,’ Lottie mutters sardonically, and he shoots her a look so dark that it could probably cause a solar eclipse. She immediately shuts her mouth, and he eyes her appraisingly, scrutinizing every inch of her.

‘I’m going back to the common room,’ he announces, before swiftly turning on his heel back in the direction they just came from and down the stairs, his hands in his pockets. Lottie just gapes at him, because they still have half an hour of their patrol left.

‘Dickhead!’ she yells down the stairs at him, her voice echoing, and every single portrait turns to stare at her. Peeves cackles maniacally somewhere overhead. ‘Oh shut up!’ Lottie snaps, but of course, Peeves doesn’t listen to anyone but the Bloody Baron, and if anything, his laughter only gets louder.

She stands there for a few minutes, debating whether she should continue patrolling or not, before ultimately deciding that there’s truly no point, and Alice and Mary have already seen Regulus return before her. She hurries down the stairs to the Entrance Hall and then down the stairs to the dungeons.

Both Mary and Alice appear out of thin air and rush towards her, looking stricken with worry. ‘We were worried about you!’ Mary cries, and Alice nods eagerly.

‘He came back so early, we thought he’d already dumped your body!’

‘Guys, it’s okay.’ Lottie manages a smile, which eases the anxious expressions on her friends’ faces ever-so-slightly. ‘He just ditched me, that’s all.’

‘Black might’ve seen us,’ Mary adds, and Lottie just stares at her.

‘How?’

‘I sneezed,’ Alice confesses, looking vaguely guilty. ‘And then he came round the corner and just sort of stared at us.’ Lottie’s gaze flickers between the two of them, before she bursts out laughing, so hard in fact that she has to grip Alice to stay steady.

‘But he didn’t give you detention?’

‘He didn’t look fussed, to be honest,’ Alice shrugs, a small smile on her face.

‘Well, we better be off,’ Mary says, grinning warmly at Lottie. ‘We’ve all got to be up early tomorrow. Transfiguration first.’ Alice mimes gagging, and they all giggle.

‘I’ll see you tomorrow then,’ Lottie says, hugging her friends quickly before entering the Slytherin common room and heading wearily up to bed, thinking about Regulus’s strange interrogation of her this evening. Why the hell did he care what she was doing in the library? She doesn’t know the answer, she can only assume that it was a strange way of taunting her.

Lottie hastily gets changed into her pyjamas, and almost dives underneath her covers, curling up tightly and falling into a deep sleep.

Chapter Text

Lottie’s next patrol with Regulus falls on a Thursday, and therefore ruins the entire day leading up to it, putting her in a sour mood. The one good thing is that she’s managed to convince both Mary and Alice that they don’t have to stand guard to make sure she gets back to the common room safely, which took quite a bit of persuading on her behalf. The two of them have enough on their plates without staying up until midnight 3 times a week.

The next three weeks pass by in a blur. Classes are so chock-full with content that Lottie barely has time to pause and breathe, let alone do anything else. Nearly every day she spends at least two hours in the library, doing research on one thing or another, Alice and Mary tagging along, since they have a lot of the same classes. Weekly patrols are nothing different than what they were before - silent and irritating. Regulus has apparently made it his mission to wholeheartedly ignore Lottie whenever she speaks, which is something she doesn’t object to. Like she’d want to have a conversation with someone that stiff and proper anyways.

Her Saturday evening healing classes are significantly more dull without Marlene around to crack jokes and do spot on impressions of anyone and everyone inside the castle. Although Lottie enjoys the content she’s learning, and the fact that Madam Pomfrey is a patient and smart teacher, it’s just not the same without her friend to keep things entertaining.

The one silver lining is that the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year is rapidly approaching, and on the Friday beforehand, she can feel the anticipation bubbling in her stomach at the prospect of a warm butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks. 

When the day finally arrives, Ingrid doesn’t even have to wake her up for her to be out of bed, already hurrying to get down to breakfast.

‘You’re in a good mood,’ her roommate says, giving her a sidelong glance as they walk to the Great Hall. 

Lottie simply shrugs. ‘The prospect of Honeydukes chocolate coated honeycomb melts is a good one.’

‘Can’t argue with that logic,’ Ingrid agrees, waving as they part ways per usual. Lottie moves to sit with Alice and Mary, who seem to be discussing the date the latter has planned at Madam Puddifoot’s tea shop.

‘Merlin, couldn’t you have chosen a better venue?’ Alice asks, scrunching her nose in disgust, and Mary laughs in response.

‘It was his idea.’ She sighs and sips noisily at her pumpkin juice.

‘Whose idea?’ Lottie asks, sitting down across from the two, and Alice snorts.

‘A horrible Ravenclaw named Sean Evergreen.’

‘So I see you’ve decided to go back on your pledge to stay away from men,’ Lottie observes, and Mary glares at her from across the table. ‘Alright, alright. I’ve never heard of him before,’ she says, leaning over to take a slice of buttered toast from beside Mary. ‘Good looking, I assume?’

Mary rolls her eyes. ‘Not everything is based on looks.’

‘This is you we’re talking about, right?’ That earns her a well placed bit of scrambled egg to the cheek, which she promptly flicks off her face. ‘Thank you for that lovely addition to my face.’

‘Oh, shut it,’ Mary says, but the smirk she’s fighting says otherwise. 

‘So, Alice, my one true love, planning to ditch me today?’

‘I’m meeting Frank at the Three Broomsticks,’ she says, giving her an apologetic look. ‘Sorry.’

‘You lot are horrible friends, leaving me on my lonesome on our one day off.’

‘Oh, I’m so terribly sorry, how will you ever forgive us?’ Mary deadpans, and Lottie laughs at her expression.

‘If you tell me about every minor detail of your date.’

‘Like that wasn’t going to happen anyways,’ Alice says under her breath, which earns her an elbow from Mary.

‘Deal,’ the latter, says, stabbing at her eggs on toast.

When they leave the Entry Hall, Lottie realises just how bleak and miserable the weather is, especially for late September - the wind seems to have a mind of its own, and a heavy grey cloud rests just above the lake. 

The three of them walk down to the small wizarding village together, chattering about whatever nonsense they can think of; Quidditch, the awful new Honeydukes sweet that tastes like expired cat food, and of course, the amount of coursework they’ve been given the past few weeks. Before they even reach Hogsmeade, however, Mary’s date finds her and whisks her away in moments. Lottie wasn’t wrong, he’s definitely good looking, and almost Mary’s type to a tee. She’s surprised she’s never heard of him before.

‘Well, let’s hope that doesn’t go down in flames,’ Alice says brightly, watching the pair grow smaller and smaller as they walk away. 

‘Agreed,’ Lottie replies, knowing there’s a good chance that boy might get his heart broken within the month. Not even five minutes after Mary leaves them, Frank shows up to take Alice to the Three Broomsticks, his cheeks flushed in the brisk autumn wind, blonde hair mussed.

‘Nice to see you, Lottie,’ he says, giving her a polite nod, and she smiles back at him.

‘Have fun you two,’ she says, allowing them to go in front of her and watching them descend the steep hill leading into the village.

‘And what are you doing here, all by yourself?’ someone behind her asks, and she turns to see none other than Regulus Black standing behind her, wearing a black turtleneck under a grey peacoat. His cold, silvery eyes fit right in with the desolate landscape, and his hair is messy from the wind, curling just above his shoulders.

‘Do you follow me everywhere?’ she asks, walking away from him, but he doesn’t take the hint apparently, or just really wants to annoy her.

‘Where’s your little pack of friends?’

‘On dates,’ she replies, a slight bitterness bleeding into her tone.

‘Ah,’ Regulus says, and doesn’t say anything more, which she’s thankful for. ‘I suppose you’re not meeting anyone then?’ She shoots him a look which she’s hoping says enough.

‘No. Why? Am I your next target?’

He smirks, but it’s sharp and jagged, sending a slight chill down her spine. ‘I’ll see you around, Knight.’ He doesn’t move in the direction of Hogsmeade, instead turning around back the way they came from. Lottie follows his gaze to see Barty Crouch walking down the hill, listening to Rosier talk about god knows what. Just the person she was aiming to avoid at all costs.

‘Alright then,’ she replies, taking it as her cue to leave before Crouch can threaten to curse her into oblivion. 

It’s a quiet walk the rest of the way, and only takes a short amount of time for her to reach Hogsmeade, the small streets bustling with overexcited students, most notably the third years pouring into Honeydukes, eyes lit up like it’s Christmas morning. She makes her first stop at the apothecary, because she’s run out of some of her potions supplies and needs to restock. She’s not trying to make the mistake of forgetting ingredients, because that earned her a week’s detention last year.

The apothecary is almost empty, apart from one of her classmates who seems to be looking at jars of frog spawn that Slughorn said they’d need for their next potion. The air is filled with years of undisturbed dust, and the purple carpeting is severely discoloured and squelches beneath her feet. She suspects that the floor has seen a vast amount of horrors that she wouldn’t like to imagine. She rummages around for a few minutes, collecting the few items she needs before she pays for them and leaves. 

As she makes her way down the bustling street, towards the Three Broomsticks for a warm glass of butterbeer, she hears someone call her name from behind. At first, it’s so quiet that she thinks she’s hallucinating, but then she hears it again, louder, and she turns to see none other than Marlene McKinnon and Lily Evans walking towards her, arms filled with various bags full of parchment and other supplies.

Marlene’s hair has grown longer and wilder, and is now a lighter shade of blonde, and her eyes are still their warm, chocolate brown. Lily, on the other hand, has cut her hair into a bob, a fringe now framing her emerald green eyes. Her freckles stand out against her ivory skin, and vague shadows fill her under eyes.

Lottie smiles widely as Marlene waves wildly at her, arms flailing, and Lily rolls her eyes dramatically. ‘Oh, Charlotte Knight, how I’ve missed you!’ the former says, throwing her arms around Lottie and squeezing her tight.

‘Hogwarts isn’t the same without you, Mar, I can tell you that,’ she replies, laughing softly into her friend’s shoulder. Lily offers her a warm embrace as well, and when they finally separate, they’re all grinning like idiots. ‘So, what are you guys doing here?’

‘I needed some supplies for various things, and Marlene offered to come with me,’ Lily explains, gesturing to the bags on her arms, and Lottie nods.

‘I was just going to head to the Three Broomsticks, do you wanna come with?’ Lottie asks, and Marlene beams at her.

‘Do I ever!’ 

‘It’s bloody freezing out here,’ Lily says mutinously, and Lottie laughs.

‘For September, it’s definitely a bit chilly.’

‘God, I hope the weather doesn’t stay like this, or else it’ll be miserable the rest of autumn,’ Marlene adds as they enter the Three Broomsticks, which is jam packed with students, teachers, and other shoppers alike. They manage to find a table in the corner, unfortunately right next to a couple that seems to be currently entangled with each other, and order their respective drinks, butterbeer for all three of them.

‘So,’ Lottie says as their drinks arrive, taking a small sip and talking over the chatter of the pub, ‘how are things with you two in the big wide world?’

‘Awful,’ Marlene says as Lily says ‘Good.’

Lottie looks between the two of them and Marlene heaves a sigh. ‘Things with training are going fine, though of course it’s a bit stressful, with the war and everything. We get a lot more casualties from that than anything else combined.’

‘I haven’t read anything about that in the Prophet,’ Lottie says.

‘No, they don’t report on it. If it’s not a death, they rarely do these days. A lot goes under the radar now.’

‘Oh,’ is all Lottie can think to say. 

‘Things are busy at the moment,’ Lily adds, ‘but they’re going okay.’

‘How’re things with James? You’re both in the Order, right?’

‘Yup,’ Lily says, taking a long sip of her drink before replying. ‘Everything’s alright at the moment. Busy, like I said, but we’re alright. We’re surviving.’ Marlene gives her friend a loaded sideways glance, before shaking her head. ‘I saw that,’ Lily mutters, and Marlene laughs, loud and warm. Merlin, has Lottie missed that.

‘Now Marlene,’ she says, turning to her flaxen haired friend, who wiggles her eyebrows in a way that inevitably makes Lottie snort into her drink. ‘What’s been going on with you? Apart from your horrible life at St Mungo’s,’ she adds, and Marlene rolls her eyes.

‘Well, Dorcas and I moved in together. Finally .’ Lottie’s eyes widen, and she gapes at her friend.

‘When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me!’

‘Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Little Miss Knight! It only happened a month ago.’

‘So it’s been ages! How dare you!’

‘Psh,’ Marlene says, waving her off, and Lily watches the two of them with an amused smile.

‘We should be asking you how life at Hogwarts is,’ she says with a sly smirk. ‘Probably decently quieter now that the idiot I live with has graduated.’

‘Agreed,’ Lottie nods, taking another sip of her butterbeer and savouring the warmth that curls inside her as it makes its way down her throat. ‘I mean, things are getting a bit worse with the whole blood supremacy side, but apart from that-’

‘What do you mean worse?’ Lily asks, her eyes narrowing, all traces of joking wiped from her face. Marlene stops smiling too, and her gaze sharpens. ‘Has anything happened to you-’

‘No, no. Not me, nothing major. Just the usual slurs yelled in the hallway and all that. Though, a first year was attacked at the start of term-’

‘A first year?!’ Lily cries, obviously outraged. ‘Surely they can’t do that!’

‘I know,’ Lottie replies, a sour taste on her tongue. ‘I haven’t heard of anything else happening, and they still haven’t caught the culprits of that attack.’

‘That’s sick,’ Marlene says, her eyes full of hatred, and Lottie nods.

‘I know,’ she repeats. ‘I was the one to find the poor thing. I’m pretty sure she got taken out of school after that.’ 

‘Probably for the best.’

‘Probably for the best,’ Lottie agrees, and they drink their butterbeer in silence for a bit. 

The conversation never really recovers after the dark turn it took, and after another hour, Lily reluctantly brings up their deadline, saying they need to be back at her apartment by one thirty in order to be on time for an Order meeting.

‘I’ll see you around soon, yeah?’ Marlene says, giving Lottie another tight squeeze.

‘I bloody hope so,’ Lottie says, and Marlene snorts in response.

‘I’ll hold you to that.’

‘Good. Have fun at your Order meeting,’ she replies, wondering if that’s the right sentiment.

‘Fat chance,’ Marlene says, and Lily tugs her hand. 

‘We’ll see you again sometime soon,’ the redhead says, her green eyes sparkling in the dim light.

‘Bye, you two!’

‘Bye bye, Lottie!’ Marlene calls as both her and Lily turn on their foot and apparate out of the village.

Lottie lasts barely two seconds, looking up at the cloudy afternoon sky, before she feels someone tapping her on the shoulder. She turns around to see the head boy, Louis Jones, smiling curtly at her, his Hufflepuff scarf wrapped tightly around his neck. His cheeks are flushed a deep red and he’s out of breath, as if he’s been running. This should be good.

‘Jones,’ she says.

‘Hello, Knight. Look, I’m so sorry, but I have a favour to ask.’

‘And that is?’

‘Could you and Black take my patrol this evening? A last minute event has come up, and I haven’t been able to find anyone else.’ Louis is talking a mile a minute, and it takes a few seconds for her to catch up.

‘I-’

‘Oh, thank you, that’s a relief. By the way,’ he says as he begins to walk off. ‘You’ll need to find Black yourself, I have somewhere to be. I owe you one, Knight!’

‘You bet your arse you do,’ she mutters once he’s out of earshot. Unbelievable . She’s been looking forward to having a few hours to herself tonight and now she has to spend her entire evening roaming the halls with just about her least favourite person. ‘Fucking hell.’

She sighs heavily, before walking up the main street, scanning the windows and shops for any sight of Black. It takes her nearly half an hour before she finds him, standing outside a near deserted shop on one of the most desolate and lonely looking streets she thinks she’s ever seen. He’s talking to Rosier, of course, his back to her, while Crouch leans against a nearby wall and smokes some form of magical cigarette, blue smoke pouring from his lips, listening to whatever conversation they’re having.

Rosier sees her first, and smiles at her, which makes her raise an eyebrow. Regulus obviously catches his friend’s reaction, and his grin turns to a scowl as he realises who she is.

‘Black.’ is all she says, waiting for him to tell her to fuck off. 

‘Knight. Need something?’ he asks, sounding entirely disinterested by her presence.

‘Jones gave us his patrol tonight, said he’s too busy to do it, or something.’

‘Right, very well then. You can leave now.’

‘Gladly,’ she replies with a bitter smile, turning to leave, but apparently Crouch decides he needs to weigh in with another of his awe-inspiring opinions.

‘Ah, Knight, come for a beating?’ She ignores him and continues down the street, but he clearly doesn’t understand social cues, because he keeps talking, his voice following her. ‘How’s your brother doing? I heard that ministry members are being attacked now, especially people that don’t belong there. Mudbloods and halfbloods, you know who I’m talking about.’

‘Alright, that’s enough,’ Regulus says behind her, cutting Crouch off from whatever nasty thing he was planning on saying next. ‘Just leave her be.’

‘Ooh, Reg, playing hero, are we?’ His voice is overly friendly, and Lottie can sense the passive aggressiveness from a mile away. Fortunately, Regulus doesn’t respond, and Crouch doesn’t hex her, so she sees it as a win-win situation. 

After that conversation, she decides that it’s probably for the best that she heads up to castle, already feeling worn out and ready to collapse on her bed. She passes by a bunch of third years who ask her for directions on her way out, and she points them in the direction of Honeydukes, which is of course where they want to go.

The walk back through the grounds is quiet, and she savours the peace, soaking up all she can get of it. She can hear the branches creaking and snapping in the Forbidden Forest nearby, and then something, some creature, lets out such a horrific screeching noise that she has to put her hands over her ears, hopelessly trying to dull the sound. A shiver runs down her spine, and something cold pools in her stomach. After what feels like hours, the screaming finally stops, and she removes her hands, looking around aimlessly for the source. There’s no one in sight, and she can’t see anything beyond the treeline. Deciding that it’s a dumb attempt, she continues up the dirt path, looking around every once in a while, feeling incredibly on edge, as if someone’s watching her every move.

When she makes it back to the castle, she heads straight to the common room and up to her dorm, shedding her jacket as she opens the door.

What she doesn’t expect is to see Ingrid sitting on her bed, head in her hands and chewing on her nails. Her roommate is staring down at a letter, obviously tense, barely glancing at who opened the door.

‘Ingrid? Are you okay?’ Lottie asks tentatively. She’s never seen her like this before.

‘I’m fine.’ Her voice is dead, and before Lottie can say anything else, the letter explodes into a ball of fire in Ingrid’s hand, immediately turned to ash. Barny, perched on her headboard, squawks loudly and then begins to soar around the room.

At a loss, they lapse into an uncomfortable silence, and not another word is uttered.

Chapter Text

A few hours after her bizarre interaction with Ingrid, Lottie finds herself on another miserable patrol with Regulus. For some reason, he seems more tense than usual, his posture more rigid, which makes him even taller than her. She hates that more than anything. His jaw is clenched hard enough to snap a tooth, and his eyes are solid steel, glaring at some invisible entity. A glowing orb of light hovers above them, cast by her, lighting the way down the darkened corridors.

It feels as if Regulus is a ticking time bomb beside her, just waiting to explode and make her the number one casualty. She feels like she’s walking on eggshells, but it’s definitely better than him hexing her just because he’s had a bad day.

Just as they’re about to turn a corner, she hears a noise behind her, a scuffling sound coming from the broom closet. Merlin . Well, it had to happen sooner or later. She sighs heavily before heading over to the wooden door, wand raised. Regulus watches her from a distance, eyeing her disdainfully. ‘ Revellio ,’ she mutters, and the door swings open to reveal Walden Macnair and a Ravenclaw girl Lottie vaguely recognises, both half naked and pressed up against each other.

Three things strike her immediately. One, Macnair has his wand out, for what reason she doesn’t know, but it seems… out of place. Two, the way the girl’s eyes are glazed over and foggy, as if she’s been drinking heavily. And three, the way Regulus immediately puts himself in front of her, between Macnair and herself.

‘Macnair,’ he says, sounding bored. ‘How many house points do I have to take off you this time?’

‘Aw, come on, Black, don’t be a spoil sport,’ Macnair says with a smirk, tugging his shirt over his head. His companion mimics him, but significantly slower, her movements sluggish.

‘What’re you doing up so late?’ Lottie asks, her eyebrow raised, and Macnair scoffs.

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ he replies, an irritating smile plastered across his even more irritating face.

‘Well-’

‘Detention next Sunday, Walden.’ Regulus cuts her off without a second thought and then nods in the direction of the dazed Ravenclaw girl. ‘Make sure she gets back to her common room safely. I’ll be checking.’

‘Alright, Black, have it your way.’ Macnair has a malicious glint in his eyes as he stares down Regulus, grabbing the girl’s bicep and guiding her down the hall and into the darkness. As soon as he’s out of earshot, Lottie turns to him and glares at him with what she hopes is the power of a thousand suns.

‘Why the hell did you cut me off? That was suspicious, and you know it.’

‘I can see why your brother is so worried about you. You practically go sniffing for trouble,’ he sneers.

‘What the fuck do you mean, Black?’ Anger begins to simmer in her veins, and she feels herself gearing up for an argument.

‘First Barty, now this. Were you trying to get him to hex you today? To bait him into using an Unforgivable? I mean, really, what was that? People like you can’t just waltz up and talk to people like me .’ He moves closer towards her slowly, like he’s stalking his prey. Lottie barely notices over the white noise that’s flooded her ears, drowning out everything but his words.

‘What do you mean, “ people like me ”?’

‘You know perfectly well what I meant.’ he spits, eyes as cold as ice.

‘You know what, Black? You can shove your blood theory up your tight fucking ass where it belongs, because it means absolutely nothing. Judging people off of things that are out of their control is poor fucking form.’

‘And you’re the authority on good judgement?’ She can see it in his eyes, the moment, the very instant the thread holding him together snaps in two. He pauses, his eyes roaming every inch of her, and doesn’t seem remotely impressed. If anything, he seems disgusted. He takes yet another step closer, and she feels her head tilting up to meet his burning gaze. ‘From what I can tell, your father had poor judgement, marrying muggle scum like your mother. What does she do, huh? Defend muggle criminals? I doubt she’s any better than the people she keeps out of prison.’

His words trigger something deep inside her. Memories wash over her, dragging her under like a tidal wave. The Dark Mark looming over her house for days on end. The funeral procession. Her mother sobbing at the kitchen table.

He doesn’t get to say this. He doesn’t get to say any of this.

In that moment, Lottie Knight sees crimson . She doesn’t even realise she’s drawn her wand until it’s pressed up against his chest.

‘Shut the fuck up, Black, do you hear me? You know nothing about my family, about what people like you did to us. Say one more word. Say something else, I fucking dare you.’

Regulus says nothing, still staring down at her as if she’s inferior to him.

‘You can judge me all the fuck you want, hurl whatever slurs you want at me, but you don’t get to say a word against my family. Not against my brother, not against my mum, and not against my dead fucking dad, do you understand?’ Regulus nods, but it’s not good enough. Not in a million years. ‘I asked you a question, Black. Do you understand ?’

‘I understand, Knight.’ His impassive mask is back, but before it slides into place, she sees something flicker behind his eyes, too quick to decipher.

‘Good, because I’m going to bed. Deal with this on your fucking own.’ And with that, she walks back the way they just came. With a flick of her wand, she extinguishes the light above them, plunging them both into darkness.

—————————————

Lottie spends the next week going to whatever lengths she has to to avoid Regulus, because she’s not sure if she’ll be able to stop herself from punching him square in the nose if she sees him. Whatever classes she has with him are spent on the opposite side of the classroom to him, as much space between them as possible. That is, of course, until their next potions class rolls around again. 

She’s in a shit mood today, put simply. She had a dream about her dad last night, and her heart feels like it weighs a thousand pounds. It doesn’t help that Rosier seems more excitable than ever before, bouncing around on the balls of his feet, making random comments on whatever Slughorn’s saying. Normally she wouldn’t mind, but it starts to get on her nerves when he starts tapping his fingers on the bench in some god awful tune. ‘Do you need something?’ she asks, side eyeing him heavily.

‘Well, you seem tense today, so I was just saying that I could take over the potion-making if you want,’ he says innocently, obviously trying to win her approval as he grins at her, cheeks dimpling.

She blinks once, and then twice. She hadn’t even heard him speak, too deep in her own thoughts to notice. ‘You know what?’ she says, shrugging her shoulders. ‘Go ahead. I’ll do the theory work.’

‘Brilliant.’ He beams at her as she moves aside, making space for him, and she begins scribbling down the answers to the questions on the board.

Every once in a while, she glances over into their cauldron to make sure that Rosier hasn’t messed up too badly, and to his credit, it takes him a lot longer to ruin it than she thought it would. She eventually becomes so engrossed in trying to answer one of the essay questions that she doesn’t remember to check on him, only snapping out of her brainstorm when she hears Rosier speak.

‘Uhm, Reg, I think I did something wrong,’ he says, sounding completely out of his depth, and Regulus looks up from what he’s doing. He rolls his eyes, but looks into their cauldron anyways, and then stares at Rosier like he’s completely brain dead. Lottie’s grip on her ink bottle becomes deathly tight.

‘Merlin, Evan, how did you fuck it up this badly?’ he asks, moving to his friend’s side, looking over the brutalised array of ingredients littering the bench. She has to repress the urge to shove him away.

‘I don’t know!’ Rosier cries, exasperated, his usually perfect blond hair sticking up at weird angles thanks to the humidity. ‘I was following the instructions, and then I thought it needed a bit more Abraxan hair, so I put some more in-’

‘The method doesn’t ask for Abraxan hair once, Evan.’ Regulus sounds disappointed but unsurprised.

‘Oh,’ Rosier replies, seeming winded, and Regulus looks at him pointedly.

‘Yes, “oh”.’ The latter sighs and skims over the textbook, pouring in some frog spawn to counteract the effects of the unnecessary additions Evan’s contributed to the potion. After a few clockwise stirs, it returns to the colour it should be, a deep emerald green.

‘Well, look at that, Knight! All better, eh?’ Rosier seems chuffed with himself, even though Regulus did all the work to fix it.

‘Right.’ Lottie says, avoiding eye contact with the both of them, her writing getting more and more aggressive, her quill scratching holes into the parchment.

‘Come on, where’re your manners?’ Rosier says, not unkindly.

‘Evan, shut up . It’s fine,’ Regulus mutters sharply, words like a knife, but Rosier clearly can’t take a hint, still smiling and glancing between them, completely oblivious.

‘No, thank you, Regulus,’ she says, glaring at him with every bit of anger that she has left in her, ‘for involving yourself somewhere you weren’t fucking wanted.’

Rosier seems dumbfounded, obviously realising his mistake, while Regulus just stares at her.

‘Happy, Evan?’ he whispers mutinously.

‘Mm, supremely,’ Rosier says hurriedly, his voice unnaturally high, trying to smooth over the awkward tension he’s created. Lottie grinds her teeth together, vaguely listening to Slughorn as he congratulates them on their ‘amazing creation’.

As soon as they’re dismissed, she doesn’t waste a single second leaving the classroom, gathering her books and quills and papers and shoving them all into her bag. She has an awful headache, one that she can feel creeping down into her neck and shoulders, and she needs something to eat. 

‘Knight? Knight, wait,’ someone says behind her, and she recognises the voice. She stiffens, stopping dead in her tracks, and turns around slowly to see Regulus walking towards her, his attention focused on putting his books carefully in his bag. When he glances up at her, he doesn’t seem all too surprised at her irritated expression.

‘Come to call me a slur?’ she asks flatly. It takes a moment, but the realisation dawns behind his eyes at what she means. He looks, quite frankly, insulted.

‘I’d never call you that,’ he says, incredulous.

‘But you didn’t have a problem calling my mother “muggle scum”?’

He sighs, defeated, and a sense of grim satisfaction clouds her mind. ‘I came to apologise.’

That momentarily stuns her, she’ll admit. ‘You’re saying sorry?’

He smiles, somewhat self-deprecatingly, at her disbelief. ‘I just wanted to apologise for the things I said. I was out of line, and it won’t happen again.’ His expression is solemn, his words genuine.

‘You bet your ass it was out of line.’

‘I know. I’m sorry.’

She raises an eyebrow, arms folded across her chest. She supposes there's a first time for everything. ‘That’s it?’

‘That’s it,’ he confirms.

‘If it ever happens again, I can guarantee you’ll get hexed through a wall,’ she says sharply, and he nods.

‘I deserve that. Message received, loud and clear.’

‘Brilliant. I don’t know about you, but I have dinner to attend, so farewell, Black.’ she replies, smiling sardonically at him before walking the other way and leaving him behind, wondering who taught him basic human decency overnight.

Chapter Text

Dear Lottie,

I haven’t heard from you in a while, but I’m assuming it’s because you’ve been busy with your schoolwork, with your NEWTs coming up and all that jazz.

Anyways, how are you? Everything’s just peachy at the Ministry. The Prophet is still my biggest fan (shocking, I know). Mum’s doing okay, you’ll be glad to hear, although she’s constantly worrying about us. She’s asked me to quit my job twice this month already, but for a fair reason. The attacks are getting worse, and the death count keeps rising every time. That brings me to my next point.

The news tomorrow is going to be bad. Really bad. I’m currently working on it at the time I’m writing this, and it’ll be taking up all my time from now on. It’s the worst attack yet, by a mile, and there’s no doubt it’ll be front page news.

Just prepare yourself, alright? And stay safe. 

Big hugs from your favourite older brother,

Signed, Felix Knight.

—————————————

‘Thirty-seven deaths. Thirty-seven.’ Alice slams the paper down on the table, rattling her pumpkin juice, which threatens to topple and spill everywhere. ‘I can’t believe this. Thirty-seven people dead. Gone. Just like that.’

‘May I?’ Lottie asks softly, taking the copy of the Prophet from Alice’s shaking hands. She skims over the article, the picture on the front taking up more than half the page. It’s of a burning house, smoke pouring and swirling into the sky, which is filled with the Dark Mark, snake writhing and curling in on itself. It’s captioned “ The Wellington household, Bournemouth, was a victim of the attack last night. The family, consisting of Jane, 33, Joel, 34, Rebecca, 5, and Elijah, 3, did not survive. ”

Her eyes start to burn as she reads over the list of casualties, ranging from ages two to fifty-eight. Yes, Felix warned her that it would be bad, but she could never imagine this. Never in her wildest nightmares could she think that this many lives would be taken. She’s rendered entirely speechless, her mouth far too dry to speak.

‘That’s awful. I feel so sorry for those kids,’ she says when she’s able to, her heart breaking as she thinks of how they must have felt last night. Mary, across from her, is silent, staring at the butter melting on her toast. ‘Mary? Are you okay?’

‘I’m so scared,’ she replies, her voice reedy and strained. ‘Any of those could have easily been my family. I can’t do anything while I’m here.’

‘Mary, I promise you, they’ll be okay,’ Alice tries, but Mary shakes her head.

‘You don’t know that,’ she says, her wide brown eyes filled with sadness and grief. ‘I can’t wake up one day and see my sister’s name on that list. My mum’s. My brother’s. I just can’t.’

Lottie reaches across the table and takes Mary’s hand in hers, squeezing it tightly. ‘I know how you feel, Mary. But Alice is right. They’ll be okay. They’re safe. I’ll make sure it stays that way, I swear.’

Mary squeezes back, and takes a deep breath. ‘Okay. Okay, I believe you.’

—————————————

Dear Felix,

You were right. The news is bad, worse than I thought it would be. I can’t believe that so many lives could be taken in one night.

How are you? I know you said work is busy, but apart from that, how’s everything going? Have you talked to Diane recently? (Don’t yell at me for asking that). I trust that mum’s doing well. Has she got any interesting cases lined up?

Look, I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but I want to ask you a favour. I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important, and it is, so.

Remember my friend Mary? You’ve met her, she’s the one who laughed so hard orange juice came out her nose at my party over the holidays. Well, she’s muggleborn, and with the recent attacks, she’s been worried about her family back home, as any sane person would be. Is there any way you could make sure that they’re safe in their home? Like put some wards up, or check on them every week, or something like that, because it would be a really big help. She’s been so quiet lately, I’m really worried about her.

Anyways, that’s about all I have to tell you. School’s going okay, but NEWTs seem like some kind of impending doom. I’ve been paired with Evan Rosier for Potions, and though he’s a bit of a nuisance, he’s tolerable enough. I’m top of the class, along with Regulus Black (eugh), and all my subjects are going well apart from that.

That’s about all I have to tell you from my end. Hope everything is going well!

Love from your favourite annoying sister,

Lottie xoxo

—————————————

It’s Monday, which means that Lottie’s potions class is the last class of the day. As she’s packing away her things, Slughorn waddles towards her shared desk, brass watch dangling precariously from his breast pocket. ‘Would you two mind waiting behind for a moment? I have a favour to ask,’ he says, speaking to both her and Regulus, and they share a brief, confused glance before looking back at their professor.

Once the room has been cleared of students, Slughorn begins speaking again. ‘I wanted to ask if you two would mind watching over my first year class tomorrow morning. I noticed the both of you have a free period, and considering that you’re both top of the class, I thought to myself, “Why, these two would be the perfect fit!”’

‘Sir,’ Lottie asks, trying not to sound too pissed off, ‘if you don’t mind me asking, why can’t another teacher take the class?’

‘Well, and I hope Dumbledore won’t mind my saying,’ he replies, lowering his voice to a faux-whisper, ‘but there’s been a shortage of professors, due to this so-called war going on. Lots of folks are too afraid to teach, I presume.’

‘I see,’ Lottie says slowly, glancing at Regulus before resuming. ‘So what would we have to do?’

‘Oh, nothing much, nothing much at all. The first years will be making a simple antidote to common poisons, nothing too difficult, of course.’

‘So we’ll just be… supervising them?’

‘Yes, yes, and if they need any help, I’m confident you’ll be able to assist. Am I right?’

‘Yes, sir,’ Regulus replies calmly, and Lottie bites back a sigh.

‘Perfect! I’ll see you both tomorrow morning before the class starts, is that alright with you two?’

‘Brilliant,’ Regulus says, smiling politely down at their professor. ‘Is that all, sir?’

‘Yes, yes, run along now! I assume dinner will be served soon, so yes, go on.’

‘Thank you,’ Regulus nods his head in acknowledgement before turning to leave, holding the door open for Lottie. As soon as Slughorn is out of sight, the smile slides right off his face, leaving behind a blank slate. Unlike Lottie, he doesn't seem too bothered by the request, his steel grey eyes glinting in the late afternoon sun.

‘You’re seriously not mad about that?’

‘Not particularly,’ he says steadily. ‘Why should I be?’

‘Because it’s not our job to teach his class?’

‘I don’t see why we should say no, though,’ he replies, shrugging his shoulders.

‘It’s not our responsibility.’

‘If you have that much of an issue with it, you could have just told him no,’ he says, his brows furrowing.

‘I would have, if you hadn’t spoken for me.’

He smirks coldly down at her. ‘I didn’t say anything about you, let alone for you. I wasn’t stopping you.’

‘You didn’t let me get a single word in!’

‘If I remember correctly, you said quite a bit before I even opened my mouth.’

Lottie simply glares at him, loathing the fact that he’s right. ‘You answered for both of us, and you know it.’

‘Right,’ he says, looking amused.

‘You know what, Black? I’ll see you tomorrow,.’ And with that, Lottie walks away from him with her hands balled into fists, nails digging into her palms.

—————————————

When Lottie arrives at the classroom the next morning, Slughorn is already waiting there, talking to Regulus, who looks genuinely pleased to be there. The two of them are standing next to a line of first years, who are all chattering excitedly. ‘Oh, there you are, Charlotte!’ Slughorn cries when his watery eyes land on her in the hallway, and the first years turn to stare at her with wide eyes. ‘Alright, I think we’re just about ready to begin, am I right?’

‘Right, sir,’ she replies, plastering on her most polite smile as she follows him into the classroom, the first years trailing in behind her. On her way through the door, she turns to Regulus and raises an eyebrow. ‘Why are you in such a good mood?’

‘Joie de vivre, I suppose,’ he replies lamely, and his pronunciation is perfect. Lottie wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if he turned around and said he’s fluent in French. Before she can say more, Slughorn begins the class, writing the instructions on the board and lecturing the students about manners and proper classroom etiquette. When he’s finished, he turns to Lottie and Regulus, and introduces them.

‘Since I have an errand to run this morning, I’ve asked some of my seventh year students to do me a favour. The Slytherins in the room, where are you– ah, right there in front of me! Well you might recognise them, they’re your prefects, too. Go on, you two, introduce yourselves.’

‘Uh, hi everybody, I’m Charlotte,’ Lottie says, waving somewhat awkwardly, and some of the first years start whispering when she says her name. She resists the urge to roll her eyes.

‘And I’m Regulus,’  Regulus says next to her, sounding bored, and one girl’s eyes light up with recognition. 

‘Now, these two are just here to help you if you need it. Don’t be afraid to ask! Even if you just need to know which direction to cut the mistletoe branches! Any questions?’ No first year students raise their hands, and Slughorn takes that as his answer. ‘Brilliant. Well, I’ll be off now,’ he says to the class, and then turns and whispers more quietly to the two of them. ‘Just send me an owl if something goes disastrously wrong, yes?’

‘Sure, sir,’ Regulus replies, nodding.

With that, Slughorn bids them goodbye, leaving the classroom with an absentminded wave. For a long moment, the room is full of silence before the first years begin unpacking their ingredients and heaving their textbooks onto the table. Lottie herself pulls out the Charms essay she needs to finish before third period, and starts scribbling down her response to the question, quill scratching against the thick parchment.

The first fifteen minutes of the lesson are quiet, the first years chatting amongst themselves quietly, creating a steady hum. Whenever they get too loud, Lottie just asks them to keep quiet, and they listen.

She doesn’t even notice when someone comes up to ask her for help, in fact, Regulus has to elbow her to get her attention. She flashes him a look of annoyance before she turns to see a short, fair-haired boy blinking at her, his hair matching the Hufflepuff tie around his neck. ‘Sorry,’ she says, capping her ink bottle. ‘Do you need any help?’

‘Yeah,’ the boy says, playing with his fingers, ‘I was just wondering how to cut the mistletoe.’

‘Oh, let me come over and help you,’ she says, before following him back to his workbench, where ingredients are scattered everywhere. She begins showing him how to slice the ingredient, but when she glances at him to see if he’s gotten the idea yet, he just stares at her blankly. ‘Do you understand?’

‘Uh,’ he responds, drawing out the word, and she smiles reassuringly at him.

‘It’s okay, I’ll go over it again.’

She’s demonstrating how to do it again, speaking slowly and softly, making sure she gets his nod of approval before continuing, when someone clears their throat next to her. She looks up to see yet another first year, this time from Gryffindor, staring up at her with big round eyes. 

‘I need help,’ she says assuredly, and Lottie looks between the boy on her left and the new girl.

‘I’m in the middle of helping someone else right now, but just- Black? Can you help her, please?’ she asks, and Regulus looks up from his textbook, gaze flicking between the girl and Lottie, before he slams it closed and makes his way towards them. It’s astounding how quickly the girl’s confidence is stripped away, and Lottie feels bad for her as Regulus sidles up next to her. The height difference between the first year and him is almost comical, and he leans down slightly in order to talk to her properly.

‘What do you need help with?’ he asks, and it takes the girl a few seconds to respond.

‘Uh…’

‘Where are you up to with the potion?’ he tries again, and this time he gets an answer.

‘I just added the unicorn horn.’

‘Okay then. Do you have the mistletoe ready?’

‘...Yeah.’

‘So is it the stirring that’s confusing you?’ The Gryffindor nods, and he peers over at the open textbook on the bench. ‘Alright, it’s rather simple once you get the hang of it…’

Lottie tunes the two of them out before she resumes helping the boy. The next few minutes are quiet, most of them filled with her low voice, trying to teach certain techniques, until the peace is broken by a loud crashing sound to her right. She turns to see the first year girl Regulus was helping staring wide eyed at the latter, who’s now covered in a bright, minty green potion. The girl is so pale that she looks ghostly, and it seems as if everyone is holding their breath. Well, everyone except Lottie, who’s struggling to bite back her giggles.

‘Don’t worry,’ Regulus says softly, speaking only to the Gryffindor first year. With a wave of his wand, the mess is gone, and the cauldron is back on its stand. ‘Let’s try that again, shall we?’

The girl seems almost as shocked as Lottie is, and takes a full five seconds to nod her head and grab more of the ingredients from her satchel on the desk. All Lottie can do is simply stare at Regulus, for so long that he catches her at it and gives her a strange look, raising his eyebrow and tilting his head.

She shakes off her astonishment, and goes back to helping her first year, who she’s gathered is named Henry. 

When the bell rings, signalling the end of class, Lottie’s surprised. She truly didn’t feel that much time passing, and as the kids file out of the classroom, she shoves her things into her back, squashing the fresh parchment, and most likely smudging the ink, and heads towards the door, but not before she hears Regulus call her name.

‘Knight, hold on a minute,’ he says, leaning down to scoop up his papers neatly, shuffling them and aligning the edges before placing them in his bag and turning to face her. ‘Why were you staring at me so peculiarly? Before, I mean?’

‘No reason.’

‘You seemed surprised that I didn’t curse that 11 year old.’

‘Yeah, I was.’

‘Do you really think that low of me?’ She stares at him, because the answer is blatantly obvious, and he seems to recant his words. ‘I wouldn’t curse a child , Knight. I wouldn’t curse anyone.’

‘Yeah, right,’ she snorts. ‘You’d curse me if Slughorn wasn’t breathing down our necks.’

‘No, I wouldn’t.’

‘You would. You’d do it if Crouch asked politely enough. Maybe as a dare, even.’

There’s a moment of silence from Regulus on her left, and she glances at him to see his expression, which seems to be on the cusp of taking offence and some kind of realisation.

‘I wouldn’t. I promise.’

‘Your promises mean nothing to me, Black,’ Lottie replies noncommittally. ‘On that rather depressing note,’ she says, ‘I’ll see you around.’

He lets her pass by without another word, their paths criss-crossing over the other’s as they take different routes to their next classes.