"Mimbulus Mimbletonia," Hermione said to the Fat Lady before she even had the chance to ask for the Password. The portrait swung open to reveal the hole behind and the four of them scrambled back through it.
The Common Room was nearly empty when they entered; nearly every Gryffindor was still down at dinner.
Crookshanks uncoiled himself from an armchair and trotted over to meet them, purring loudly, and when the four of them took their favorite chairs at the fireside, he leapt lightly up onto Lucifer's lap, curling up into a small orange puffball.
"How can Dumbledore let this happen!?" Hermione yelled suddenly, making Harry and Ron jump. Crookshanks didn't even budge, like he was used to this from his owner.
She had pounded one arm of the chair in fury, causing some of the stuffing and padding to protrude through the holes, "How can he let that terrible woman teach us!? And in our O.W.L. year too!"
"It's exactly like I thought... he probably wasn't able to get anyone, and Wizarding law allows the Ministry to appoint a teacher in event, the Headmaster or Headmistress is unable to do so themselves..." Lucifer in return had taken himself to use his girlfriend's cat as stress reliever, and patted Crookshanks fur which irritated Hermione for two reasons, she couldn't say either.
Knocked unconscious by a falling stone, Countless faces had twisted in bewilderment in the Great Hall. If you said Umbridge was unlucky, she certainly was. The Hogwarts castle had never seen anything like this before, let alone hitting someone.
Umbridge could be called the first in centuries. Yet, she was also quite fortunate. From such a height, such a large stone, and only getting a concussion that would heal in days, but she still remained unplugged on taking leaves off. It left everyone unsure how to judge the situation. However, another piece of information passed on by 'fifth-years' deserved attention.
Not only were they forbidden from using wands in class, but no new spells were taught either, just memorising safety regulations. Seemed like 'Defence Against the Dark Arts' wouldn't teach anything useful this term either. Many older students felt foreboding. Two good years had made them almost forget, the Defence post was 'cursed!'
"Well, we've never had great Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, have we?" Harry asked, completely disregarding the fact Lupin was their Third-Year teacher, "You know what it's like, Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job, they say it's jinxed."
"If Dumbledore wasn't able to find someone himself... that's not good... that Umbridge woman is despicable," Hermione said, a bit giddy in her way of yapping, "Oh, Lucifer, she didn't appreciate the name you gave to her, but I think everyone in the class surely felt great," She couldn't help half-smirk that appeared on her face.
"It was brilliant," Ron said, clearly imagining the scene to be on repeat mode, "and she's trying to get people to spy for her. Remember when she said she wanted us to come and tell her if we hear anyone saying You-Know-Who's back?"
"Given what happened at the end of last year with Dumbledore and Fudge... that doesn't surprise me at all," Harry said darkly.
"How about we do our homework, get it out of the way?" Hermione suggested and they all got their stuff and then returned to their chairs by the fire, "Lucifer already got most of it done after he walked out, so doesn't have much to do."
"That won't happen again... I'm a Prefect, I need to act like it," Lucifer glanced at Hermione for a moment, then got out the only bit of homework he had yet to do, Snape's assignment.
"Shall we do Snape's stuff first?" Ron asked, dipping his quill into his ink, "The properties... of moonstone... and its uses... in potion-making... " he muttered, writing the words across the top of his parchment as he spoke.
"There," he underlined the title and then looked up expectantly at Hermione and Lucifer. "So what are the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making?"
She wasn't listening, though, and Lucifer was just simply ignoring him as he wrote, and already was eight lines down on the parchment before Ron even got the title written.
Hermione was squinting over into the far corner of the room, where Fred, George, and Lee were now sitting at the center of a knot of innocent looking first years, all of whom were chewing something that seemed to have come out of a large paper bag that Fred was holding, "No, I'm sorry, they've gone too far," She stood up and looked positively furious, "Come on, my fellow Prefect."
Lucifer looked up to see her face, "What?" He asked and then racked past her, coming to an understanding, "Oh... that... let's go," he stood up with her, and as he did, one by one, each of the First Years, as though hit in head with 'invisible mallets', were slumping unconsciously into their seats; some slid right onto the floor, others merely hung over the arms of their chairs, their tongues lolling out.
Most of the people watching were laughing; Hermione, however, squared her shoulders and marched directly over to where Fred and George now stood with clipboards, closely observing the unconscious First Years.
Lucifer was following her, but much more calmly and casually.
"That's enough!" Hermione said forcefully to Fred and George, both of whom looked up in mild surprise, but even she noticed slightest flicker of fear in eyes as they glanced at Lucifer.
That didn't stop them from cracking jokes, "Yeah, you're right," George nodded, "this dosage looks strong enough, doesn't it?"
"I told you this morning, you can't test your rubbish on students!"
"We're paying them!" Fred said indignantly.
"Are you giving them hazard pay?" Lucifer asked staring at the coin bag in the Weasley twins pocket bulging with Sickles and knuts.
Hermione looked at him, mortified, but Fred just scrunched up his nose, "What?"
"With how dangerous some of your stuff can be, I doubt you're paying them enough to warrant use of your product on them."
"Calm down, both of you, they're fine!" Lee said reassuringly as he walked from First Year to First Year, inserting purple sweets into their open mouths.
"Yeah, look, they're coming around now," George said with hints of warmth..A few of the first-years were indeed stirring. Several looked so shocked to find themselves lying on the floor, or dangling off their chairs.
These students were clearly not told what would happen.
"They're fine because you gave them a purple sweet, what would happen had they not received that?" Lucifer asked, but he didn't receive an answer, "No?" He asked. Even though he was calm and very clearly not angry, his mere presence lately had an effect on a person. The constant shiver running down your spine, the feeling of dread someone felt.
If Voldemort wasn't causing that to happen, it was Lucifer.
"Feeling alright?" George asked in his calmest voice to a girl.
"I-I think so," she said shakily.
"Excellent!" Fred said happily, but the next second Hermione was taking the clipboard from him and Lucifer 'wandlessly' seized the paper bag of the sweets from his hands.
"It is NOT excellent!" Hermione yelled.
"'Course it is, they're alive, aren't they?" George asked angrily.
"You can't do this, what if you'd made one of them seriously ill?" She said loudly. Everyone in the Common Room was looking their way, but they had stopped laughing from a moment ago when the first years had fainted. Not because it was wrong, but Lucifer had a 'natural effect' to cause unease wherever he went, and only if he wanted to.
"We're not going to make them ill. We've already tested them all on ourselves, this is just to see if everyone reacts the same-"
"So what if one of them had some nasty effect that required being rushed to Madam Pomfrey? What if one of them dropped dead immediately upon ingesting it?"
Once again, he was met with no response. Fred and George simply didn't have an answer for him, and he figured it was because neither of them had thought about the severe potential consequences.
"If you both don't stop doing this I'll..." Hermione paused for a moment, she knew what she planned to say, but she wanted their attention from Lucifer and on her. When they looked at her with glares, she played her Trump Card, "I'll write to your mother."
They both went wide-eyed, "You wouldn't..." Fred sunk back into his chair, a horrified look on both his and George's face as they looked at her.
"Oh, yes, I would," Hermione said grimly, "I can't stop you both from eating the stupid things, but I can stop you from giving them to First Years." She took the bag from Lucifer and thrust both it and clipboard into Fred's arms. She gave them one last threatening look, before both her and her boyfriend stalked back over to the fireplace.
They resumed their seats and she looked at him, "Thank you for your support back there."
"Don't mention it," Lucifer smiled and they got back to their homework, not sharing anything they wrote with Ron, no matter how much he begged.
Harry at least got a fair bit written down before he ultimately stopped.
Lucifer and Hermione both got Snape's assignment done in almost no time, and that meant he was completely done with homework.
He was looking over Hermione's work, not to help her, just to see what she would do for 'Arithmancy' and 'History of Magic' when a Third Year walked up to them. It was a girl, and she had a note in her hands. He turned upon feeling her presence and looked at her, "Yes?" He asked calmly.
"Um... I-I was asked to give this to you..." the girl said and handed him a note.
"Thank you," Lucifer said and accepted it. The girl took off back to her friend's, he set the note down on the table and pulled his wand out. He pressed it onto. Hermione was staring at him, then the note, then back to him, and then back to the note. Nothing happened.
Then he set his wand down, picked up note, and opened it. She watched his face, but it was as neutral as it ever was, he then suddenly crumpled the parchment, and tossed it into the fire.
"Lucifer?" Hermione asked worriedly. He didn't say anything, "Lucifer, what was---"
"It was nothing," he said with a serious look, his eyes focused on the table in front of him. She looked at Harry and Ron, both of whom were glancing between her and Lucifer.
"I'm going to bed," Lucifer said, grabbing his stuff and going towards the boys dorm.
"No, wa-- " Hermione was cut off as he already went towards his dorm. 'Why did he have to go?' She thought who was sniffing him from time to time doing her 'History of Magic' work.
"What was that about?" Harry asked as he looked towards the staircase.
"I don't know..." She looked at the fireplace, hoping to see any last bits of the paper, "and he burned the only evidence..."
"Well, if he wants to talk about it, he will... right?" Ron asked with mild happiness, as he was gone.
"With him, I don't know..." Hermione sighed. She no longer felt any motivation to continue her homework. She couldn't sniff him more anyway, packed up her stuff, but didn't grab it just yet. She looked around the room and saw the Third Year who brought it to him.
Then with a sense of foreboding stood up and marched right over to the girl and her group, "Excuse me."
The girls looked up and appeared to shrink upon the sight of Hermione's hardened face, she looked very scary at the moment, and probably didn't even know it herself, "Uh... h-hello..." one of the girls said shakily.
It wasn't the one who brought the note, "Hello," Hermione replied, and looked at the girl who did bring the note, "Who asked you to take the note to my Lucifer?"
"N-No one..." she said.
Hermione closed her eyes and sighed, trying to remain cool, so she could dig for more information, "That wasn't even an attempt at lying well... just tell me who gave it to you."
The girl looked twitchy, her eyes darted around the Common Room, "I-It was a Slytherin..."
"And what do you think the letter said?" This girl wasn't going to tell the truth, Hermione was going to have to accept that for now.
"Well, since it was a Slytherin... I guess nothing good..." She said, her face burning red.
"Right, who asked you? Do you remember what the Slytherin looked like?"
"W-Well... s-she had k-kinda like your hair c-colour..." She stuttered out.
Hermione's anger spiked drastically, she scowled loudly at the girl below, and muttered darkly, "Greengrass!" Her fists were clenched, stopping the urge to match downstairs and pound the girl into the floor.
"Y-Yeah... i-it was her..."
"Oh, when I get my hands on her, I'm gonna---" She stopped herself before she said something she'd regret. Hermione Granger stomped her way back to Harry and Ron, "I'm going to my bed!" She grabbed her things and went up to the girls dorm.
xxxxxx
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