The Eagle and the Badger

Chapter One: Expecting the Expected

Author's Note: Many thanks to Leandra Black, Specialbear, and Currer for the inspiration to continue the story of Lucia Malfoy and to give her a friend from Hufflepuff. This is a kind of sequel to "Another Malfoy, Another ?," which tells the full story of Lucia Malfoy's Sorting.

Enjoy, and please review!

~~~~~

"Are you sure you packed everything, Hugo dear? Books, wand, quills, ink - "

"Yes, Mum." Hugo Weasley was far too excited to let his mother's fussing bother him. In fact, it felt comfortingly familiar.

"He'll be fine, Hermione," sighed the tell, red-haired man at her side. He'd been expecting this reaction from his wife, this scene having played itself out two years ago when their daughter, Rose, left for Hogwarts for the first time.

"If he's forgotten anything, we'll send it along. Give the owls something to do."

Ron Weasley grinned down at his son and tousled his chestnut curls affectionately.

"You're going to love Hogwarts, you know," Ron assured the boy. "Even if you feel a little overwhelmed at first, you know Rose and Al and James and - everybody will be right there to help you. And con't forget, Dominique will be Head Girl this year. If you have any trouble, she'll be more than happy to sort it."

Yes, I'm sure she will. Hugo groaned inwardly, thinking of his officious - if undeniably beautiful - older cousin.

Hugo's mother, whose curly hair and brown eyes he'd inherited, consulted her watch.

"Don't worry, dear, you'll be just fine," she assured him.

Hugo's attempt at a cocky grin didn't quite come off. "Who said I was worried?"

Sometimes, it was annoying to have a parent who could read your mind. Deep down, ever since receiving his letter last June, he'd been alternating between pure, giddy excitement and attacks of nerves.

What if he turned out to be a Squib after all? Sure, he supposed he'd done some magic by accident, but what was causing the apple tart pan to slide within reach, compared with Lily's ability to light a fire just by looking at something? True, she'd been really, really steamed at James at the time, but still . . .

Speaking of Lily . . . There she was, nearly lost amid a swarm of siblings and cousins, many of them with hair in various shades of red. HIs parents were still talking as he slipped through the crowd to join them.

"Hi, Hugo," said Lily, whose grin lit up her face. In her excitement, she raced up fo hug him, as though they hadn't just seen each other at the Burrow.

"We were just deciding who's sitting together. It's going to be me, you, Fred, Molly, Al, and Rose."

The latter, a tall, lanky girl with flaming hair, smirked at her younger brother.

"Yeah, I promised Mum I'd keep an eye on you," she said. "Make sure you get to school in one piece."

"I don't need a minder," Hugo protested, but his tone was mild. Both Rose and his mum meant well, he knew that.

Hermione surveyed the crowd on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters as puffs of steam from the Hogwarts Express' engine swirled around the clusters of people saying their goodbyes.

Through a temporary gap in the whiteness she spotted Harry and Ginny Potter, as well as assorted Weasleys, all there to bid their children goodbye and offer final words of advice.

Far down the platform, she caught sight of a vaguely familiar figure, an elegantly slim woman in smart velvet-trimmed robes. She was flanked by a silver-blonde boy and a smaller girl who looked very much like him.

"Ron," Hermione hissed. "Over there, by that pillar. Isn't that Astoria Malfoy?"

Ron followed his wife's glance. "Must be - haven't seen her since Hogwarts, but that's Scorpius, all right. That must be his little sister. Wonder if she's starting school this year."

Hermione scrutinized her. "She looks the right age. Pretty little thing, isn't she?"

" Hah! Another Malfoy, another bloody Slytherin, if you ask me," Ron grumbled. "Draco still on the lam, then?"

The glare that Hermione turned on her husband was worthy of a Blast-Ended Skrewt.

"Oh, Ron, really! No one knows what's happened to him, as you're perfectly well aware. No matter what people say, there's no reason to assume that Draco ran off with another witch. It's equally likely he blew himself up doing a spell, like Luna Lovegood's mother, or got carried off by a harpy - the real kind, not the Quidditch kind. Anything can happen in the magical world."

"Right you are, though this is probably not the time to be thinking of all the horrible things that could happen to our kids."

The speaker, a slim red-haired woman, had pushed her way through the crowd to where her brother and sister-in-law stood, followed closely by a man with unruly black hair.
 "Where're the kids?" Ginny Potter asked. "We thought Lily might be with you."

"It's tough to see through all this steam," Ron answered, "but I think they're both over there, with their seventy-two cousins. I'll go round them up, shall I?"

"Never mind that." Ginny waved her wand, which emitted a piercing whistle.

When Hermione uncovered her ears, she smiled at her sister-in-law. "Good thinking. Here they come."

"We've decided who's sitting together," the petite auburn-haired girl told the assembled adults. She had to raise her voice to be heard above the chugging of the engine.

"Got it all sorted, do you?" Ron asked with a chuckle. In a way, it was nice that his children and their Gryffinor cousins had each other for support. He remembered how relieved he'd been to meet Harry getting on the train and knowing he'd have someone to sit with. And then, when Hermione had burst into their compartment . . .

As they say, the rest was history. Security was all very well, but there was something to be said for the element of surprise.

"Hi, Hugo," his uncle Harry greeted him with a warm smile. "All ready for your great adventure?"

"I can't wait," Hugo said, and it was true, mostly. He'd been looking forward to this moment for so long. Feeling a little nervous was normal - wasn't it?

The platform was emptying as students began to board the train.

"It's about that time," Ginny said, watching James and some of his friends mount the steps. They'd already said their goodbyes.

"Let's go get your things, Lil."

"All right. See you on the train, Hugo. Whoever gets there first will save a compartment."

The three Potters disappeared into the swirling steam.

Hugo picked up a large cage, in which his new barn owl sat, his dark eyes blinking slowly.

"Not so fast, young man," Hermione said, tugging the cage out of her son's hand and setting it back down on the platform.

She swept Hugo into a ferocious hug and then released him, still holding him by his sturdy shoulders.

"Be sure to study hard," she admonished her son, who was trying to pull out of her grasp as he saw the last stragglers head toward the train. "Don't stay up too late playing Exploding Snaps, remember to avoid the missing stairs, and above all - write!"

At last succeeding in wriggling free, Hugo grabbed Loki's cage again as his father Levitated his decidedly overloaded trunk and began moving toward the train.

"I will, Mum, I promise," said Hugo, and then he disappeared from view.

ooOoo

The elegantly dressed witch and her two children stood well apart from the jostling multitude on the platform. The girl's dark grey eyes glowed with suppressed excitement, as her older brother looked impatiently at his watch and searched the crowd once more.

Finally catching sight of the three boys he'd been looking for, Scorpius Malfoy picked up one end of his trunk, for which his mother had conjured shiny silver wheels.

"I'm off, then," he said, flicking back his shoulder-length platinum hair.

"You'll write, won't you, dear?" his mother asked.

He nodded curtly. "When I can."

He stood still long enough to allow his mother to embrace him lightly, then pulled away and strode rapidly down the platform to join his friends, who were beginning to board.

Many of the parents seeing their children off were familiar to Asoria Malfoy, but she avoided catching anyone's eye. Instead, she focused on her daughter, who was grasping the handle of a carrying case as though it might escape her at an moment. Inside the case, a fluffy white cat stared out at the world with unblinking green eyes, seemingly unperturbed by the commotion on the platform.

"Come, Lucia," said the woman, "we'd best get you aboard. I do wish Scorpius had waited for you."

The girl's smile lit up an otherwise somber face. "It's all right, mother," she said. "i'm sure I'll find him. He was very clear that I was to sit with him and his friends."

She hoped those boys were nice; they'd never come to visit Scorpius at Villa Malfoy, and he said very little about them.

As she reassured her mother, Lucia Malfoy felt a twinge of regret. It would have been nice to meet some of the other new students on the long ride to Hogwarts. Perhaps because he was now the man of the family, her brother tended to be somewhat overprotective.

Bowing to the inevitable, she followed her mother to the steps of the train and smiled gratefully as an older boy helped her lift her trunk aboard.

She turned back to give her mother a quick, fierce hug.

"Don' worry about me," she said, feeling the tension in her mother's body. She was truly looking forward to attending the great wizarding school, but she hated the thought that her mother would be truly alone now, at least until the Christmas holiday.

The flaxen-haired woman smiled down at her daughter. "Of course, I'm not worried. I won't tell you life at Hogwarts is always easy, because it isn't. Being in Slytherin can be - challenging. Just stick close to Scorpius, and you'll be fine. And I can count on you to write, can't I?"

"Of course you can," Lucia said, and with that, she and her familiar climbed aboard.

ooOoo

Six people were really too many for Exploding Snaps, so Hugo persuaded his sister Rose to give up her window seat so that he could look out as the Hogwarts Express rushed through the countryside. He soon realized why she'd been willing to switch seats; the train was moving at such a rate that the passing scenery dissolved into a blur before Hugo could fix on anything in particular.

That, and the explosions from the card game reverberating in the cramped compartment, soon began to make Hugo's head ache.

"Can't you lot play something quieter - chess, maybe?" he begged, but his sister and his cousins were laughing too uproariously to pay any attention. After a while, he got up and stumbled out into the corridor.

Without any real intention, he wandered from car to car, playing a game of his own making: trying to guess which house the occupants of each compartment belonged to.

Having been born into the magical world, Hugo had absorbed a good bit of lore about Hogwarts, enough to decide that the five older boys with their noses in huge tomes were probably Ravenclaws.

In the next compartment, a mixed group of boys and girls broke off what appeared to be an animated discussion to smile and wave as Hugo walked by. He returned their greetings without stopping, though he briefly considered poking his head in and introducing himself. Hufflepuffs, he guessed.

Hugo's head felt much better now, and he was just on the point of turning back when a flash of something caught his eye. He stopped to peer into the compartment he was passing and saw that the glint must have been a ray of sun touching the silver-blonde hair of a girl sitting next to the window, reading. She was too absorbed in her book to look up, but one of the older boys in the compartment apparently sensed someone was looking at them and scowled at Hugo, who simply shrugged and walked on. The boy matched Rose's description of Scorpius Malfoy, so these must be Slytherins, and from her coloring, Hugo guessed the girl was Malfoy's younger sister.

When Hugo rejoined his cousins, Rose was showing the others how she could Transfigure Molly's toad into a lump of modeling clay, while Fred and Albus were arguing about which Seeker was superior, Falmouth's or Puddlemere's.

"How was your walk?" Lily asked as he stepped over her extended feet and took his seat. "Did you see anything interesting?"

Her cheeks were suffused with color, and her brown eyes sparkled, though nothing very exciting was happening at the moment. It was enough, apparently, to be on her way to Hogwarts. Ever since Albus had left for school two years before, Lily had longed for this day.

"Nothing, really," Hugo said, watching Rose turn the lump of clay back into a toad with an elegant swish of her wand. (Fortunately, Molly hadn't relaxed her grip on the ugly thing.) He wasn't sure his sister was supposed to be doing magic aboard the Hogwarts Express, but a lot of kids seemed to be trying out various spells, so he supposed it must be all right.

"Rosie?"

"Hmmm?" His sister stowed her wand away and turned to her little brother. "What is it?"

"Do you know if Draco Malfoy has a younger sister?"

Rose shrugged. "Dunno. I think Mum may have said something to Dad about the Malfoy children, plural, but I wasn't really paying attention. Why?"

It was Hugo's turn to shrug. "No special reason. I just saw someone who looks like him a bit, sitting with him and some other Slytherins."

"Oh." Rose got to her feet. "I'm going to hunt down the tea trolley - who wants food?"

ooOoo

A soft voice in Lucia's ear startled her into looking up from the book she was reading. She was grateful to her brother for letting her have a window seat but had soon given up on trying to focus on the passing scene, as the speed of the train blurred it into a featureless mass of greens and blues and browns.

"Aren't you a little old for that kiddie stuff?"

The voice belonged to Draco's friend, the one whose name Lucia could never remember. Something to do with a wound . . . pus something . . .

Pus - y? Lucia stifled a laugh, picturing Draco's face if she referred to his friend as "Pussy," no matter how you pronounced it.

Pucey - that was it, Gordon Pucey. He was sitting much too close to her for comfort, and she shifted to leave more space between them.

HIsses and growls issued from Calypso's carrying case, as Lucia's familiar glared at the boy with hostile, perfectly circular green eyes.

The stocky boy glared back, then fixed his mud-brown eyes on Lucia.

"I asked you a question, shrimp."

. Though she was tempted to, Lucia refused to look away, trying to think of a response that would repel the boy without being outright rude. After all, they were going to be in the same house, and besides, Scorpius wouldn't like her being cheeky to one of his close friends.

Calypso's racket made Lucia doubly glad she hadn't let the cat out of her carrying case. Not that her familiar would get lost - her mother had assured her they never did - but she didn't entirely trust these boys. The game they were playing involved starting and extinguishing small fires; what if they singed Calpso's fur?

And now, she didn't entirely trust the snarling feline, either.

The noise caught Scorpius' attention. "Pucey, change places with me. I need a word with my sister."

"As long as you're giving orders, you might tell little sister to shut that cat of hers up," Pucey grumbled, taking his sweet time getting up and sliding into Draco's vacated seat. "They're all yours."

Under cover of the train wheels' rumbling, Draco said, pointing at his sister's worn copy of The tales of Beedle the Bard, "He's right, you know. You're a Hogwarts student now, too old for this nonsense. Mum lets you get by with all sorts of things, but act like a little girl in Slytherin and you'll be eaten alive."

Lucia shuddered. "You make Slytherin sound horrid. I thought you liked it."

Scorpius' face clouded. "I do, but it's no place for the weak, or anyone perceived to be weak. Life is not a fairy tale, Lucia. The sooner you learn that, the better."

Just then, a movement outside the compartment caught his eye and he scowled as he spotted a boy with curly chestnut hair looking back at him. Scorpio thought he recognized him from the platform: one of the Weasley clan, minus the usual red hair.

Another bloody Gryffindor. Scorpius wanted to ask what the hell he was staring at, but the boy was already gone.

ooOoo

Lily's hands fluttered like agitated birds as she talked. The sky outside the compartment was darkening, and that could mean only one thing: Hogwarts was very close now.

Hugo watched his vibrant cousin with amusement and understanding. As his own anticipation mounted, he'd gone quieter and quieter. He was looking forward to the start of his first year - truly, he was - but his mind was filled with questions, too.

Uncle George had taught him a few simple spells, even though he really wasn't supposed to, but would he turn out to be any good at magic? It was hard to imagine doing spells the way Rose did, with such ease and confidence.

And then there was the whole bravery thing. Hugo didn't think he was a coward, exactly, but Gryffindor set a certain standard for valor he wasn't at all certain he could live up to.

That worry led to another. Did the Giant Squid really try to upset the first years' boats? James was notorious for teasing the younger kids, but what if he was telling the truth this time?

Most of all, Hugo wondered whether he was going to be able to hold his own as a Gryffindor, amongst all his boisterous, self-confident cousins. He loved them, but he sometimes felt invisible among them.

"Better put your school robes on," Al admonished the first years. "We're almost there."

Changing into his school clothes, Hugo was struck with a sudden thought. By sharing a compartment with his oh-so-familiar relatives, he'd missed a chance to get to know some other first years.

He really did have a lot to learn.

ooOoo

The ride to Hogwarts seemed endless, and Lucia was relieved when the darkening sky signaled the end of the journey. Knowing she'd be sitting with boys, she'd arrived at King's Cross already dressed in school robes and had nothing to do now but wait - and think.

The prospect of finally arriving at the great school for magic should have filled her with joyful anticipation. Perhaps, if she'd sought out some others her own age, boys and girls who didn't seem to know everything already, her mood would have been different.

As it was, she couldn't stop thinking of what her mother and brother had told her about the house that would soon become her home for the next seven years. They made it sound less like a home than an endless struggle for survival.

She shuddered a little, wondering how many Slytherins were like Gordon Pucey and whether she'd have to turn into someone like him to survive.

Tears blurred her vision, and she scrubbed them away quickly, lest anyone see.