The Death Eater's Daughter

Chapter Ten - Stumble and Falter

Luci woke up on the last day of July with her stomach in knots, and after some deliberation, realized that it was because she knew that she was going to have to approach Harry Potter and talk to him. She really hadn't spoken to him since the wedding, and now, she had no idea what she would say. It was time to give him Dumbledore's gift. But why would a stranger be giving him a birthday present? It was absurd. He would surely question her, and how should she answer? Say it was from someone else? Say she felt obligated? Say she was simply a gift-giver who loved to give gifts and was therefore, giving one?

Of course, when he opened it... He'd have many more questions. How and why did she know Dumbledore? How and why did she have a key to his office? How and why did she know how important their relationship was? Fucking plan was useless. She'd just have to say as little as possible and get out of there as fast as she could.

By the time she'd straightened out all of the details in her head, she was late for breakfast. She had to walk down the entire length of the table to reach her little blonde posse.

On her way, she instinctively put a delicate palm to Harry's head and chirped, "Happy birthday, Harry!"

Then she retrieved her hand instantly, stunned by her own bizarre assumption of familiarity. It was how she would have touched a friend at home on their birthday. Why would she even presume to do it here? She hadn't meant to. And it was like she'd been electrocuted; every nerve was fizzing. He was going to yell at her for such a horrible overstep...

Instead, to her sheer amazement, he peered up at her, smiling. He didn't say anything, so she forced a similar expression in return and hurried down the table.

Why had she done something so stupid? And why didn't he bite her head off? No time now.

Draco was irritated by all of it and told Luci so with a glower as she sat down across from him.

"What's with that?" he demanded.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You and Potter? Were you, like, running your fingers through his hair or something?"

Narcissa sniveled to Luci's left.

She could feel her cheeks burning, but she answered, "Of course not. I was just wishing him a happy birthday."

Her brother made a gagging sound. "Every day might as well be Potter's birthday. He gets enough attention. And you should probably wash your hands."

Luci shrugged, ignoring the last bit. "Birthdays are special. I'll make a big deal out of yours when it comes, okay?"

Draco's nostrils flared. "You missed it. It was a few days after we came to this hell hole."

"Oh," she said softly and with more guilt than she should have felt. "I'm sorry. You didn't say anything."

"It doesn't matter," he snapped.

"Stop this," hissed Narcissa at the two of them. "You aren't supposed to be worrying about birthdays. Draco is supposed to be learning and you," - she gave Luci a revolted look - "are supposed to be staying out of everything else!"

Luci blinked at her. This woman was worried that her son might actually have a little fondness for his own sister, whether he knew it or not, and perhaps he unconsciously wished that she'd acknowledged his birthday too. Luci almost laughed aloud at Narcissa's blatant fear and at her own teensy tiny victory.

"I've never learned Charms so easily," contributed Draco, interrupting her thoughts.

And then he dug into a huge stack of pancakes and none of them said anything else to each other for the rest of the birthday meal, which turned out to be excellent, even though Luci hated giving Molly Weasley any kind of credit.

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Luci was still feeling anxious all through that afternoon's lesson with Draco. They were going over the complicated method of creating Veritaserum. Luci enjoyed potions, because there was a certain amount of perfection required in order to get things right, and she loved perfection. Draco, however, had no interest whatsoever.

"Did you say to chop the root or shred it?" he mumbled as he worked.

She had been going over her future conversation with Harry about the gift. In her head, of course. Her brother's voice brought her back to the present, and she responded, "Neither. Grate it."

"Grate it?" he frowned. "I'm looking at the book and it says to chop or shred, depending on potency."

"Yes," said Luci, "but trust me. Grating is a bit of a nice trick. You get a much smoother consistency and not even the most gifted wizard could tell the difference between the potion and water."

"Snape could," Draco sassed.

"Well, of course, Snape could! But he's in a league all his own, I'd say."

Her brother's voice softened. "You think he's still with the Dark Lord?"

Luci nodded, not wanting to discuss it any further.

"Do you think they're getting an army together? To take back what's ours?"

"I don't know, Draco," she sighed.

"I hope so," he said. "The sooner we get out of this place, the better."

"Well, don't hold your breath. It could be awhile."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "What makes you say that?"

"Nothing. Just... try to adapt, okay? Make the best of it while we're here?"

"Sometimes, I think you're far too optimistic to be a Death Eater," her brother commented.

And if he hadn't been smiling slightly, Luci might have been unnerved. Instead, she replied, "If you don't watch the cauldron, that's going to boil over."

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After dinner that night, Luci decided that she couldn't procrastinate any longer. She wouldn't find a better excuse to give this stupid thing to Harry. She had waited for this specific day, ever since she'd heard Hermione mention it. A better time wouldn't come. So she went to the room that he shared with Ron, but neither of them was there. She tried the kitchen and living area, and finally made her way up to the drawing room.

The door stood ajar.

"A?" she heard Ron's voice ask.

"Nope," replied Harry.

Why did she suddenly feel like throwing up?

With a hesitant peer into the room, she knocked quietly on the doorframe.

All three sets of eyes landed on her and her cheeks went warm.

"Sorry," she began, holding out the box. "A late birthday present."

Harry got to his feet and came towards her. He looked slightly suspicious but he didn't say a word. Then his hand touched hers as he retrieved the box, and Luci felt something stumble and falter inside of her. She almost staggered backwards from the sensation.

"What is it?" he was asking, and she guessed that he meant the gift, and not her preposterous jolt.

"I'm just the messenger," she managed vaguely.

"Thanks," was his quiet reply.

Astonished that he presented no further questions, Luci thanked her lucky stars and forced a smile. "Happy birthday... again."

Then she nearly ran back down the hallway, her heart pounding. What had just happened? Random hands touching... it occurred all the time. But this time... And this morning, in the kitchen...

She shook her head. It had been nothing. Static electricity, maybe. She pushed it away. Far, far away into the deepest recesses of her mind. She suddenly had to get out of this house, and reporting her successful delivery to Dumbledore was as good an excuse as any.

Luci rushed into her room, locked the door behind her, and pulled the Professor's Pass from the drawer of her desk. She'd never used it, so she hoped it would work. She Apparated from the spot and found herself standing outside the large gates of Hogwarts. It was just now growing dark, thanks to the long summer days, and Luci grew worried that she might be seen.

The school was currently inoperative for the summer, but she imagined there would at least be a groundskeeper, and perhaps other people lurking about. Her best bet was to wait until the sun had gone down completely. So she crouched beneath a nearby bush and pulled her knees up to her chest.

She fixed her eyes upon the huge pigs that sat on either side of the gate, their wings spread slightly, and tried to keep her mind blank. She didn't want to think about it. Or him. Or even her desperate situation. She focused on humming to herself instead.

Despite her determination, the feeling was clear in her mind, and she found that it led her to thinking about Mark. Not the nightmare of their ending, but the splendor of the little bit of time that they'd had together. She could still almost see his face, his long dirty blonde hair falling into his eyes, his bright smile. He'd been almost as tall as Draco, but far softer, quicker to laugh, more joyful. She often wondered if she had ruined him that fateful night, if he no longer laughed so easily. If so, it would be a shame, because it was one of the things that she had loved most about him. He never took anything too seriously, the way that Luci did, and he had a way of helping her to keep things in perspective. But her favorite part was the electricity, the way that she felt alive when she was near him, the way that she wanted to be touching him at all times, and the way that her skin sparked when their skin did meet.

Just like it had sparked when she'd touched Harry.

"Ugh!" she growled aloud, and then looked around to make sure that she hadn't been heard.

Was it simply a physical chemistry, something rare that just happens every once in awhile and can be completely ignored? God, she hoped so. But if she was honest with herself, she knew that she'd found him attractive since the moment she'd met him. But that was all this was. She simply didn't find many people attractive, and hadn't touched someone she'd found attractive since Mark. It had been many years. Perhaps her body just wasn't accustomed to it.

"A mountain out of a mole hill," she told herself, knowing that she was overreacting. The problem was that she'd been allowed to sit here and mull it over in peace. And she was making too much out of it. She always did this. She overanalyzed. The truth was probably that it was nothing. Absolutely nothing. And she was going to forget that it ever happened.

Luci got to her feet. It was dark enough, she decided. She stepped up to the gate and stood there, holding the Pass out in front of her chest. Nothing happened. She hoped very much that she wasn't supposed to know a spell to activate this thing. She tapped the Pass firmly against the iron and it budged, only slightly, so she simply pushed inwards, and the gate gave way, creaking deeply. It was heavy, and she could only hold it open for long enough to slip her small frame through the crack. Once through, she took a relieved breath, closed it again behind her, and started towards the castle.

It was a long walk, longer than she'd remembered, but the scenery was beautiful. She was gazing around unhurriedly when she noticed a light go on inside of the castle, in one of the very high towers.

"Fuck," she said aloud, and then hushed herself. This wasn't her only problem. She'd abruptly realized that she had absolutely no idea where the Headmaster's office was located. Severus had taken her there before, and she even remembered him telling her to pay attention, but now, she wasn't sure if she could find it on her own. So her options were to turn around and leave, or to wander through this massive place and hope that something looked familiar and that she didn't run into anyone. She didn't know why, but she chose the latter, as she'd almost reached the front doors anyway.

Once there, she tugged as hard as she could on the massive planks of oak, and they responded more smoothly than she would have expected. She found herself in the enormous front hall, lit only by a large torch over the entryway. She could see steps before her, but otherwise, everything was black. This would make it far more difficult to find the right office.

She took her wand from inside of her cardigan and instructed, "Lumos!"

Now things looked a bit recognizable. The steps she'd seen were the huge marble stairs that she remembered taking with Severus. So she headed quietly up, holding onto the oak banister. She kept her wand to the ground, not wanting to feel those paintings staring at her again.

About halfway up, Luci heard a loud cackling above her. She started. And when she fearfully moved her wand to illuminate the space around her, something crashed into her chest and she went tumbling down the staircase.