Taste of Youth

“Merlin, Lena, pushing a kid to the brink of her magical abilities like that.” A male voice sounded near me echoing in my ears.

“I did no such thing.” Lena sounded irritated at the scolding.

“You have a fifteen year old girl doing magic that not even the best Healers in the world are capable of preforming to the degree you demanded.”

Lena let out a scoff, “This girl has been put into my program by Ministry force, I’ll be damned if she isn’t some kind of prodigy before I let her run a muck.”

“She’ll be going through three years worth of training like everyone else and as it seems she is some kind of prodigy.”

The two of them bickered some more about ethics and training techniques for a little while longer. I pushed my eyes open and looked at the pair. The man standing next to Lena with his arms crossed was rather large but not as big as Hagrid. Burly would have been a good way to describe him, his hair was a mass of corkscrew curls and his nose was long with a distinct hump at the bridge.

“I think that the training was fine, there’s no point of under training people anyway. Once they get out into the field they’ll have no idea how to survive.”

Both of them looked at me startled and the man stepped forward pulling his wand from his sleeve, “Ms.Rein feeling alright?”

“Little fuzzy and minor aching. Vision isn’t blurry, limbs aren’t heavy, speech isn’t slurred. I’d say I’m just fine, Doc.”

The mans thin lips pulled into a smile, “You’ve done your homework.”

“Comes with the student occupation. What time is it anyway? I only get so much leeway you know.” I shoved up from the cot I had been set in and took my wand from the Healer.

“Past time for you to leave, Rein. I’ve already contacted the Headmaster so don’t worry about it.” Lena said coming around the cot to peer at me, “I apologize for pushing you. Gibbon is right about that much at least.”

She shot a look at the man who gave a smug smile in response. While Healer Gibbon checked me Lena explained the three year training requirement. I’d be participating in my first two year whilst at Hogwarts, extra training being provided every night by Moody who I would meet by Floo after my last class and leave at midnight. Had I been a comedian I would have fallen from my cot with an over dramatic expression of shock. No sleep for me it would seem.

When the two of them finally let me Floo back to the Headmaster’s office. It would have been the middle of Lily and Alice’s History of Magic class and I had no erge to go and bother them in the best known class to put students to sleep. The Headmaster greeted me as I tumbled into his office and a stack of work hovered in front of me. I took the stack said my goodbyes and headed for the Great Hall to wait at the empty tables for lunch to start.

The work was simple enough, Charms being a review of protective spells and Transfiguration being mostly about spells used in duels. I summoned my books, quill and ink and set about doing the work I’d have no time to do any other time over the next year or so. I was half way through with a two foot essay for Flitwick when Remus walked by the open doors. He stopped and walked back a few steps staring at me with a bemused expression.

“Luce?”

“Hey, Remy!” I called over to him waving, “The boys leave you to practice Quiditch?”

He was frowning as he walked over to me, “Peter has tutoring with a Ravenclaw and yeah, James and Sirius left me to practice Quiditch. James is-”

“Capi-tan.” I grinned at him, “He wouldn’t stop boasting to the common room when McGonagall told him remember?”

Remus smiled and motioned to the seat next to me, “May I?”

“Of course!” I pushed my bag to the ground and moved my papers over to make room, “Sit, sit. You can help me with homework.”

The two of us sat together and did Transfiguration work for maybe ten minutes before Sirius and James came slinking in hair plastered to their foreheads with sweat and smelling like the gym lockers at the house. I made a face at the state of them but otherwise ignored them as they flopped across from Remus and I. They were incredibly loud and distracting, taking to levitating our papers when they realized we weren’t paying attention.

“What?” I snapped at Sirius after he turned my essay into a duck.

He raised both his hands, “Calm down, Rein. I was just playing.”

“Well if I lose a single comma on that essay, Black, I’ll be having your liver for lunch.”

“Touchy.” He muttered and changed it back, “There no harm done.”

“That is for me to decide.” I scowled at him and he prodded at my bruised left hand.

“What happened to you?”

“I went to work.” I responded pulling my hand away from him, “Stop touching it.”

“That’s your wand hand.”

I rolled my eyes, “Yes, Sherlock, it is my wand hand. How ever did you find out?”

“Ha ha ha.” Sirius made a face at me, “ You’re not cute at all, Rein.”

“I’m very sorry about that, Black.” I patted his hand, “I’ll work on that for you.”

Remus cut him off before he could come up with a witty remark, “Alright you two, calm down. Luce do you know the answer to this?”

I stuck my tongue out at Sirius and set about explaining Muggle anatomy to Remus. I tried several different manners to explain it to James who after I told him Lily might like him more if he did his work decided to jump into it. Out of default Sirius started up too and kept asking me thousands of questions. He actually looked like he cared about the biological theories that Transfiguration brought up. When lunch actually started I had a full length drawing and several diagrams spread across the section of the table that we were in. Lily and Alice stopped next to us and stared at the group.

“What is going on here?”

“Luciana is helping us with Transfiguration.”

Lily shook her head and looked at me, “Speaking of Luciana, where have you been?”

“Pushed it in training a bit.” I shrugged, “I’m fine now.”

“You’d better be. What assignment is this?” Alice asked leaning over the diagram of Animagus transformation.

“Essay on theories using Muggle anatomy for Transfiguration explanations.” I told her greeting Frank as he came in.

“In other words how to cover up a Transfiguration mishap.” Lily nodded, “I didn’t know you knew so much about Muggle medicine.”

“I had a lot of time and the books were around.” I looked up at her from one of my drawings, “I may have a shoddy memory when it comes to dates and times but I remember most of the interesting things I’ve read.”

“Mmm.” She said dropping her bag and settling next to me and curiously peering at one of the papers, “These are really good, Luce. The detail is amazing.”

“Thank you.” I pointed at a picture and turned to Sirius, “You see right here. This section is similar to this animal, they can be easily misidentified.”

He looked confused for a moment and rummaged through the papers. James kept prodding me about if you could identify a person should you see their animagus. I raised an eyebrow at that and told him I didn’t know. The others came later and we cleaned everything up the boys demanding that I bring it all out in the common room later that night.

I laughed, “Sorry boys, I have business tonight.”

“Business, Rein? You have a boyfriend already, it’s only the second day!” Sirius piled his plate staring at me and waved his fork at me as he talked.

“First of all, Black, I do not have a boyfriend. Second of all, you have no right to be pointing fingers. How’s your new girlfriend doing?”

Sirius laughed, “How did you find about that?”

“You are the interest of nearly the entire female population, Black. Word gets around about you faster than you think. That and,” I pointed behind him to the Hufflepuff table, “she blew you a kiss on the way in.”

He glanced at the girl who immediately brightened and tried to wave. Sirius turned back to me without giving any sign he had noticed her.

“Lots of people blow me kisses.”

“Mmhmm. Let’s see what she has to say.”

“Guess who!” The Hufflepuff tossed her hands over Sirius’ eyes when she came up behind him.

“It’s not good to jump on an Auror, Kristen.”

“You’re not an Auror yet.” The brunette pouted unhappy, “You’re not even a trainee.”

I covered up a snort and ducked my head toward my plate. Lily was snickering next to me trying to stifle her laughter in her sleeve. Sirius and Kristen spent the next couple of minutes flirting despite James’ loud gagging noises. I couldn’t help but agree with James’ motions, I never was very comfortable around couples. After a few years of leaving my rooms to accommodate them I didn’t hold high regard for the pairings. When she left I gave Sirius a look.