FHB: Chapter 7

“Hey boy, what did I say about lurking around the Gryffindor table?” Lucius called out to Severus.

Tanya narrowed her eyes at Lucius before taking a quick glimpse behind her.

Severus, who had no idea what was going on, nervously walked up to the two of them.

“I didn’t ask you to come here. Get back to your seat,” Lucius shot.

The look on Severus’ face was rather pitiful, and as expected, Tanya stood up for him.

“You shouldn’t treat first years like that,” Tanya said.

“I’m only following the rules,” Lucius replied with a shrug.

“There is no such rule.”

“You have to read the rule book again, Tanya,” Lucius casually said as he reached for Severus and pulled him towards him.

Before Tanya could defend Severus once more, Lucius quickly whispered in his ear, “Get the parchment and run.”

“Let go of him!” Tanya demanded as she gently pulled Severus away from him.

Then turning to Severus she said in a gentle voice, “Go back to your seat. You’ll be safe there.”

Lucius wanted to laugh. He could not take her seriously, and her mother duck gesture tickled his funny bone.

“Tanya, please. I was not going to hurt him,” Lucius said with a chuckle.

“You don’t need to pretend anymore, Lucius. I know what kind of a person you are. My friends told me about you.”

“Your friends? I was your only friend when you arrived. Is this how you treat friends?”

Lucius had a guilty pleasure of making people feel bad about themselves.

“I thought so too, until I realized you were just using me,” Tanya pointed out.

Enough talk. Get a move on it boy, Lucius thought as he made eye contact with Severus.

“Friends help each other. If you don’t want to help me, you can just say so,” Lucius replied, hoping to buy more time for Severus to act.

Unfortunately, Severus was going back and forth with his decision. It was agonizing to watch this first year struggle with such a simple instruction.

Unable to take anymore of Severus’ hesitation, Lucius turned to him and asked, “Didn’t we tell you to get a move on it?”

That question must have set off the ‘go’ switch in his brain and immediately, Severus snatched the parchment from Tanya’s hand and ran out of the great hall.

Tanya watched in shock as Lucius shrugged and said, “See, I told you he was trouble.”

Lucius did not wait for her reply as he walked back to his seat. He noticed Tanya contemplating on going after Severus, but she soon made up her mind to return to her newfound friends.

The bunch of giggling girls stopped when they saw her and quickly got the juicy story out of her. Lucius noticed that after Tanya was done, three of them turned to his direction and gave him a glare.

Ignoring their obvious finger pointing and dissatisfied expressions, Lucius went back to his meal. He knew they could not do anything about it, but he also knew Tanya was no longer useable. Well, at least there was still that first year, right?

After dinner, Lucius decided to head back to the common room. He had rounds to make, but the parchment was much more important. Upon arrival, he asked the head boy for the room list before asking if he could do his rounds for him. Of course, the head boy had no objections to either request.

Once he had learned of Severus’ room, Lucius got his hands on the parchment almost immediately. Thankfully, Severus had safely returned to their common room, and when he handed the parchment to Lucius he did not ask what it was but pulled his blanket over his head.

From the look on his face, Lucius know he was still hungry. Strangely, he felt sorry for the boy. So he pulled out a chocolate bar and placed it on the side table.

“Eat this,” Lucius merely said before he left.

That night, Lucius spent a few hours memorizing Professor Slughorn’s instructions. By the time the clock stroke 12, Lucius went to bed.

The following days went rather well, and Lucius did short revisions on the potion before bed every night. It was until the night before his next potion class that he gathered his classmates.

About thirty-five of them stayed up in the common room after everyone else had gone to bed. Lucius was sitting near the fireplace when he told them that the potion’s test would be a Polyjuice Potion. No one bothered asking where he had gotten the information from, but they thanked him instead.

It was a common practice for Lucius to share last minute tips with his classmates. He knew none of them could outdo him and most of them would barely pass. But even so, that would mean more house points.

When Potions Class was in session the next day, Lucius was confident in acing the test. That was until Tanya came up to him.

“I’ll give you the chance to do it right, Lucius,” Tanya whispered.

“Do what right?”

“You cannot cheat,” Tanya replied.

“I’m not. In fact, you’re cheating. You stole the parchment after all.”

“I know you have the parchment. I’m not stupid.”

“So, what are you saying? You want me to fail?”

“Yes. You’re not supposed to know about the potion before the test. It’s not fair.”

“I’m not going to fail. Instead, I’ll do so well that Slytherin will take the lead in house points again,” Lucius replied with a smile.

“Then I’ll have to tell Professor Slughorn,” Tanya said.

Was that a threat? It sure sounded like one. Lucius thought about it and it became a little worrying. If Tanya told Professor Slughorn, it could go two ways.

One, he would brush it off because he did tell Lucius about it to begin with. But, he might no longer give Lucius hints. Two, he would ask Lucius about the missing parchment and stop trusting Lucius all together.

Lucius wondered if he should actually fail this time, or just wiggle his way out of Tanya’s blabbering words later.

To Be Continued…

(Leave a comment below or vote on whether Lucius should ace the test or fail it!)

Advertisement