Lydia's Story

Up in Gryffindor tower, Hermione had settled with a textbook by the fire as Ron and Harry played a rather violent game of chess. She watched them silently over the pages of her book, neither of them seeming to notice her.

"Harry, have you read that book I gave you?" she said at last.

"Huh? What?" Harry's voice answered distractedly from the board, as one of Ron's knights dragged away his queen.

"The book. The one I told you to read!"

"Oh, that," he answered, looking up for the first time in over an hour. "I - er - well..."

"Harry!" she groaned impatiently. "When I give you something, it's serious! Why can't you listen?"

"I'll read it as soon as I'm done this - er - " his voice trailed off as he watched Ron's last bishop wrestle his king off the board.

"Sorry, mate," Ron said with a shrug, picking up his pieces. "I guess you can't escape anymore."

Sighing, Harry picked up his chessmen while Hermione scowled at Ron. Throwing them into a box, he hurried up to the dormitory to get his book, the box issuing muffled complaints from the indignant figures.

Digging through his bag, he quickly unearthed Hermione's book, though slightly more battered than before. He tucked it under his arm and he returned to the common room, taking a chair by the fire. With one last hopeless glance at Ron, he began to read.

*~*~*~*~*

Draco laid awake in his bed, the green and silver hangings blocking out the moonlight completely. He wasn't able to sleep, possibly because the hangings couldn't block out the amazingly loud snores around him, more likely because his mind was too busy to rest.

He felt better than he could ever remember. It was a feeling he couldn't name, didn't recognize. But like everything that confused him, he brushed the thoughts away. He didn't like to admit ignorance.

Victory always brings strange emotions, he told himself resolutely.

Victory was indeed the only emotion he could recognize at that moment. He had kissed Lydia, and she had kissed him back. He was in with the inner circles of the Death Eaters again.

The Malfoy name is restored, he thought with a yawn. I'll have to thank Pansy for that sunset tip. Later. Maybe.

*~*~*~*~*

Lydia was sitting on her bed, her thoughts just as confused as Draco's.

Why did I do that? she thought in frustration. But even as she thought it, she realized that she knew the answer.

She had wanted to.

No matter how she looked at it, she realized that she had come to like Draco a lot. Yet she still wasn't sure if she was ready for this. In the past, all the guys who seemed to care were just users. Being a good-looking, record-breaking Chaser, and a Meliflua moreover, she was something of a prize at Durmstrang.

But this is Hogwarts, she thought to herself. It's not the same.

As she crawled under her blankets, Draco's smiling face reappeared in her mind. But far from calming her, her nerves seemed to skyrocket.

He's not like the others, she told herself determinedly. At least, I hope he isn't.

*~*~*~*~*

Looking over her timetable the next morning, Lydia quickly realized that she did not like Wednesdays.

Double Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions in the morning, Double Transfiguration in the afternoon, and Astronomy at night, she read with a groan. Three classes in a row with Snape seemed like more than she could bear. She didn't even have any breaks later, and would be up at midnight in Astronomy.

Life's not fair, she thought sullenly, as she went to get her things from the dormitory, hoping against hope that maybe Snape wasn't as horrible as he had seemed before.

When Lydia first arrived at her Defence Against the Dark Arts class, she told herself that it couldn't be any worse than Potions had been.

She quickly realized that she was wrong.

The first big difference was that Draco wasn't there with her, so she was once again all alone. She was also very much out of her element: she had never taken a Defence Against the Dark Arts class in her life. Dumbledore had insisted that she take the course anyway, saying her previous Dark Arts classes would help her, as well as the Duelling Club she had joined for extra credit the previous year. Professor Snape, however, seemed determined to expose her lack of experience to the class, as well as her previous involvement in Dark Arts classes.

"We will start today's lesson with simple Shield Charms, something even the dimmest of you shouldn't be able to bungle up. I will need a volunteer first, to show the class how it's done. Someone with a good knowledge of dark curses and hexes...let me see," his black eyes took no time in finding Lydia, whose hands were hidden in her lap. "Miss Meliflua, I believe you will do perfectly. Now come up to the front of the class, and bring your wand."

Lydia rose silently from her seat, her wand clutched tightly in her hand. As she walked to the front of the class, she could feel the eyes of her classmates boring into her.

"Now watch as Miss Meliflua attempts to hit me with a curse, which I will reflect back to her." Snape turned to face her, his dark eyes seeming to laugh coldly. His greasy hair framed his face as he raised his wand, waiting.

Lydia searched her mind for a curse that was not too bloody or painful, which was surprisingly difficult. When she finally thought of one, she readied herself, her wand aimed at Snape.

"Burbulia!" she said loudly, brandishing her wand in a wide circle. A purple ball of light exploded from her wand, flying straight at Snape.

"Protego," Snape said coolly, reflecting the curse with a bored flick of his wand. The purple ball ricocheted off an invisible barrier, and came hurtling back at Lydia.

Without thinking, Lydia raised her arm. "Protego!" she cried, and the curse bounced yet again, this time at an unsuspecting Snape.

His own shield having disappeared, Snape bellowed loudly as the curse hit him, encasing him in a giant purple bubble. The sound of his voice was immediately cut off as the bubble sealed itself. The class watched in amazement as he continued to yell something at Lydia, but the sound was trapped inside the bubble. There was a scattered applause from a few members of the class.

Recovering from the shock, Lydia waved her wand for the third time, muttering a counter curse. The bubble around Snape dissolved.

He stood panting for breath, his expression fierce. His face had darkened into an angry red, his eyes sharp.

"What did you think you were doing?!" He spat at last.

"We were studying Shield Charms, weren't we?" Lydia said innocently, meeting his eyes calmly.

Professor Snape glared at her, his lip curling dangerously. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for your inability to listen to instructions. Ten points from Gryffindor for your cheek. Now, for anyone who can listen," he said, turning to the class, "we are doing single reflections only. Double reflections will only be studied in your seventh year. Now sit down Miss Meliflua, and everyone open your books to page thirteen. Copy out the first paragraph before dividing into pairs, then you will practise with your partner."

Lydia went back to her seat, a million nasty things to say about Snape circling in her mind. As she flipped open her book, she noticed that Professor Snape didn't seem so eager to be stalking through the class anymore. He was sitting at his desk, his eyes looking unseeingly at a page in front of him.

A boy she didn't know across the room gave Lydia a thumbs up. Lydia smiled back before turning to her book. She had unnerved Snape and made a new ally, all in one class.

Maybe Defence Against the Dark Arts wouldn't be so bad after all.

*~*~*~*~*

Harry had watched Lydia's amazing performance, not sure how to feel. His instincts told him that she was trustworthy, but everything else around him said otherwise. He had read more of The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts than Lydia had, and understood Hermione's fears. A person involved in the Dark Arts performing advanced magic is never a good sign.

*~*~*~*~*

Lydia was happy to be with Draco again during Potions. Defence Against the Dark Arts may have had its good moments, but it just wasn't the same.

Lydia wondered if it was her imagination, but Draco seemed to be sitting a lot closer to her than usual. She had first noticed it when she had accidentally kicked him in the shins. His hand also seemed to brush hers a lot more when reaching for ingredients. Lydia found it too sweet to be annoyed.

"Are you free after supper today?" Draco drawled as he added a few toad eyes to his cauldron.

"Not this evening. I've got to get some sleep before I head to my Astronomy class," Lydia answered, carefully measuring out some pomegranate juice.

"Oh. Well, how about at lunch?" he asked hopefully, grabbing his own pomegranate juice. "We can grab some food and eat by the lake again."

"Sure, sounds good to me," Lydia said happily, stirring her potion clockwise, then counter-clockwise.

"Good! Now - er - do you have any idea how this is supposed to be a love potion?" Draco asked sceptically, staring down into his cauldron. His potion was a deep burgundy, and had a syrupy consistency. "How exactly do toad eyes make a person fall in love? Sounds like a turn-off to me."

Lydia looked down at her own crimson potion, a faint pink vapour rising from its watery surface. "Well, it's only a mild love potion. It's not supposed to be very effective anyway. Besides, what do you have against toad eyes?" she asked jokingly.

"I think it's pretty obvious. Besides, the only eyes that inspire love in me are yours!" he added softly, so that the people around them couldn't hear.

Lydia's face deepened to match her potion.

*~*~*~*~*

After class, Lydia and Draco hurried to get some food to bring down to the lake. The weather was beautiful again, and many other students seemed to be out on the grounds. Lydia was grateful for the extra noise and distraction. It meant she could easily avoid another awkward moment, since all Draco could do was give her a goodbye kiss on the cheek.

Until she learned to trust, that was all she wanted.