Lumos: Year One

Helena woke up early the next morning, but to her surprise, everyone in her dormitory had been gone. She knew that class had not begun yet, so she assumed that everyone had left for breakfast. She got herself dressed into her new Slytherin robes and exited the common room immediately to go and eat.

Her predictions were correct when she arrived to the Great Hall and she sat next to Pansy quickly before the seat would have been taken. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle sat across from them and they were already in the middle of conversation. She felt slightly awkward for arriving late, but she soon found them being welcoming enough.

“My father says that Slytherin is the best house to be sorted in. The most powerful wizards get into this house most often, as seen by events in the past,” Draco smiled condescendingly.

“I agree. You can definitely tell who those worthy of being witches and wizards are in Slytherin,” Pansy nodded as she took a bite into her bacon.

“What about you, Helena? What’s your opinion?” Draco asked, his stare burning into her forehead. She didn’t know if she had an opinion, honestly. She thought that the houses were the same, though her family agreed otherwise.

“My entire family is of the Slytherin house, so that says something. Especially since my father says it’s a great honor to be apart of that house. He doesn’t agree so much with the others, seeing as though the lot of them get distracted by their feelings too often,” Helena spoke proudly.

Draco smiled at her answer once more, “I agree. Your father sounds like a smart man. You’re a Villar right? My father talks about your family sometimes. He says that only the truest purebloods deserve to walk this earth, and he has mentioned your family every time he talks of it. Consider yourself lucky to be apart of such a noble family.”

Helena’s smile grew wider when she heard this, but she noticed that Pansy went red in the cheeks, as though she was upset about something in the corner of her eye. She turned to her to ask what was wrong, but Pansy started to speak abruptly.

“My parents are pureblood, too, you know. They always talk about your family, Draco. I must say that I feel proud to now be friends with the proud son of such a family,” she sneered as she narrowed her eyes at Helena, seeming to be annoyed with her out of nowhere.

“We’ll see about that, Pansy. I’ve never heard much of your family to begin with, but I’m sure that if you are of pureblood decent, you must have good intentions of the wizarding world in mind,” he gave her no eye contact and spoke in a neutral tone as he dug into his ham.Helena stared at Pansy blankly as all of them went silent. When breakfast had ended, they all had gotten up and headed to their class.

Helena and Pansy headed to History of Magic on time and sat in the second to last row, avoiding the many Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students who sat up front. Behind them was the odd girl, Lanee from the King’s Cross station and the sorting ceremony that Helena thought was odd, only this time, she had bright green hair. She decided not to give her any eye contact, but Pansy immediately turned around to remark her.

“Someone must have taken some pea-soup and dumped it on your head. Are you aware?” Pansy smugly smiled as she crossed her arms, trying not to laugh.

“Quite aware, thanks, bitch,” Lanee replied coldly.

Pansy’s eyes widened at her language, staring at her dumbfounded. Helena didn’t give either of them eye contact, staring toward the front of the class, but her eyes widened as well at the girl’s reply.

“Just who do you think you are?” Pansy glared menacingly.

“Lanee. Your name?”

“Pansy Parkinson.”

“Like parkinson’s disease?” Lanee asked.

Helena turned around at this point and Pansy’s face was going red.

“How dare you compare me to a dirty muggle illness, you abominable bloody creature of dirt,” Pansy snarled.

“That’s honestly one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard someone say.”

“Hey, shut it, you obsolete dingbat,” Helena scowled.

Lanee disregarded Helena, shrugging as she looked back at the papers on her desk.

“Hey, pea-brain, why don’t you say something?” Helena simmered.

In an instant, from the roots of her scalp, Lanee’s hair began changing to a bright red as she stared at Helena.

“Not pea-brain anymore.”

Helena’s stomach lurched as she and Pansy turned around quickly. They stayed quiet as the students who were staring at them started to turn themselves around as well. When the teacher came in, he announced that class has begun and that they were to get their quills out.

For Helena, the entire hour was boring, but she listened intently for the most part. All the professor did was explaining the syllabus for that class. What made her the most uncomfortable was that the professor was a ghost.

When the hour ended and class was dismissed, there was a short break between her first and second class. She looked at her schedule and saw that she had potions. She asked her other friends when they had all met up in the main hallway if they had it for second period as well, and only Draco had said that he had it.

They both headed over into the dungeon classroom, Helena staying silent as she listened to Draco triumphantly talk of his father. He didn’t ask anything of her own family, but Helena didn’t seem to mind very much at all.

“My father thinks that half the people at this bloody school deserve to get locked up. All these mudbloods think they’re so special… they’re just wannabes,” Draco spat.

“I agree, muggle-borns are quite retched. I still don’t understand how they even get chosen by magic. It’s an insult to our pure blood,” Helena nodded.

“At least someone understands. Though I wouldn’t expect any less from the heir of the great Villar family,” Draco smirked, “People like us need to stick together.”

Helena grinned at the fact that he said that, and even went a little pink in the face, as though she was blushing. Soon, they both entered the dungeons quickly and sat next to each other. She found that Crabbe and Goyle were already sitting in the classroom, and they moved over to herself and Draco quickly.

Their teacher was tall, had greasy black hair and went by the name of Professor Snape. He was taking the roll calls and went in the order of alphabetical last names. He had paused in the middle of the list when he had stopped on the great new wizard in her class’s name.

“Ah, yes,” he spoke very quietly, “Harry Potter. Our new—celebrity.”

Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and she started to snigger quietly as they tried to hide their faces. Snape then continued to go down the roll call and stopped once more when he saw another name that Helena was not pleased to hear.

“Lanee Tonks… I see…” he spoke lowly as he eyed her for a moment. He then went back to calling the names off.

Draco’s thoughts still seemed to be rendering on the fact that Harry Potter was in their class. He had an annoyed expression as he turned to Helena, his arms crossed.

“He’s quite daft for being ‘the boy who lived’. He doesn’t seem to know anything about the wizarding world at all.”

Helena nodded, but was afraid to say anything since Snape was still in the middle of speaking off the roll call. She had seen Snape look in their direction while he was speaking, and felt his eyes dart at her for a long moment before he turned back to his parchment.

When he had finished, he dropped the paper down quickly and looked at the class for a long moment in silence, “You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making,” he had started to talk, but spoke so lowly, she and several other students had to lean forward to hear him.

“There is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the soft simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses…. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death—if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunerheads as I usually have to teach.”

Both Draco and Helena looked at each other with the corners of their eyes as they smirked. They both knew that since he favored Slytherin, it may be easy to get away with better marks in the class. Even still, if she wasn’t a Slytherin, Helena had high confidence of getting good marks. She was very interested with potions to begin with, so she wasn’t going to allow herself to get below an outstanding.

As time passed, Snape started to ask strange questions to Harry Potter, and he wasn’t doing a very good job at making himself look very bright. Anytime he didn’t know the answer to something, Draco sunk lower in his seat, as if trying to hide the amused expression on his face. Helena saw that a young girl next to Harry had her hand up so high; she thought it might stretch to the ceiling. How on earth could she know the answer to all the questions that he was asking?

Finally, after Snape had given up on asking for answers from Harry, he had everyone get into groups so that they may have their first potions lab. Crabbe and Goyle had paired up together while Draco and she went off onto their own cauldron. Their task was to make a solution that would cure boils. Snape was watching each pair closely, often criticizing anyone who he thought did not do well. The only people he did not seem to talk badly about though, was herself and Draco, since he seemed to be fond of one of them.

Helena was a bit clueless to how to stir the solutions correctly, but she had measured and put each of the ingredients in. Still, Snape seemed to have thought that Draco should take credit for everything, and had often told the other classes to look at how perfect his cauldron had been stewed.

Helena didn’t seem to mind that Draco was taking all the fame, but it did bother her that Snape was disregarding her completely; as though she was only there to cheer Draco on. She doesn’t care when her partner takes all the credit, but she does care when she is treated like she does not exist.

The hour ended quickly and she had to head to her other classes quickly. She still had charms, defense against the dark arts, her flying class with Madam Hooch, astronomy, and transfiguration. Every class was the same thing over and over; professors often explaining their syllabuses. Potions class was the only class where they actually had to do something. By the end of the day, Pansy and she were lounging across the common room couch, yawning loudly and resting their eyes.

“Little sister, you look tired,” a familiar voice laughed. Helena immediately turned up to see her second year brother, Jude. She smiled lightly and gave him a quick hug from over the couch.

“I didn’t expect to see you any time soon,” Helena laughed.

“How’re you enjoying Hogwarts so far?” he asked.

Helena shrugged, “It seems like they’ll be hard classes—Oh, this is my friend, Pansy, by the way!”

Jude shook Pansy’s hand and smiled brightly, “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Jude, Helena’s older brother.”

“I have several other siblings, too… but he’s the one I’m closest with,” Helena laughed.

“Anyways, I was wondering if maybe I could talk to my sister alone, if you don’t mind…”Jude looked to Pansy politely.

“I’ll wait in the dormitory, Helena. See you later,” Pansy had gotten up and quickly walked up the tower stairs.

Helena sat back down as Jude sat beside her in silence for a moment. When there was no one in sight at this point, he had narrowed his eyes, his expression changing to a puzzled look.

“What did the sorting hat mean when it spoke about you?” Jude asked her.

Helena’s heart sank. She had hoped that he’d have forgotten. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Really… it sounded like the hat considered putting you into Gryffindor,” Jude looked more serious, “Father would have you disowned if you disrupted the family tree of pureblood Slytherins… especially if you were sorted into that house.”

“I know. I’m as concerned as you are, thanks,” Helena was getting annoyed. She didn’t know why the hat considered her for Gryffindor, but she didn’t want to worry about it. She was a Slytherin now, and that’s all that mattered.

“Father must not find out about this. Artemis, Victoria, and I all discussed it and we decided it’s for the best.”

“What do we do if the younger siblings make a different house?” Helena asked.

“They won’t, Helena. You’ve always been the one who would stray from the pack. You’re aware that father has small faith in you, I’m sure… why do you think that you always got in trouble as a child? You were always the one who never listened or had the same opinions.”

Helena stayed quiet when she heard this. She felt her throat close up and her mouth go dry. Did her father truly fear that she’d fail to bring honor to their name? This all seemed so new to her that her family didn’t trust her. She was only 11, after all… did they expect her to be on the right path from the very beginning of her birth? She didn’t even know what was expected of her.

“Just stay on your best behavior and don’t go fooling with the wrong sorts. That Pansy girl and the Malfoy boy you sat with at lunch are fine. No mudbloods though… bad reputation,” Jude warned her.

“Like I’d ever befriend a muggle-born,” Helena laughed, “How barbaric.”

“Good girl,” Jude got up, “It’s getting time for dinner. Might want to head down soon…”

“I will in a bit,” Helena pursed her lips as he started to walk away.