Lumos: Year One

The year seemed to fly by fast after that first week of school. When she wasn’t in class, she spent most of her time with her roommates, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, Daphne Greengrass, and Tracey Davis. While she was in class, she often was partnered with Pansy and the two of them became very close. Nothing particularly interesting happened during the first term and it was coming to its half point—it was Halloween Morning.

Helena made her way to the dungeons, heading to her potions class and sat on the side of Draco and his two friends as always. There was still one stool left next to them, but it was usually filled by Millicent, but she sat somewhere else for the day for some odd reason.

As Professor Snape began explaining his next lesson, Helena listened intently. She had lead eyelids though, and almost found herself nodding off. Suddenly, the dungeon doors opened loudly as Snape directed his attention to see Lanee standing at the exit, holding her books tightly with a blank stare. Her empty, green eyes stared back at him silently as everyone turned around to see her with bright blue hair.

“Miss Tonks… pleased to see that you decided to join us,” Snape spoke quietly.

“Sup,” Lanee walked in nonchalantly.

“Please use proper English in my classroom, Miss Tonks—there’s no need for you to make a mockery of yourself with your poor etiquette,” Snape spoke lowly as Helena and Malfoy sniggered.

“Okay,” she shrugged looking around for a free stool. The only one seeming to be open was the one that was next to Helena. She narrowed her eyes and walked over, sitting there quickly, and Helena did not seem to be pleased that she chose to sit next to her.

Lanee was not pleased to sit next to her either, but whenever she had to deal with Helena, she took the opportunity to change her hair, knowing it annoyed her. Her blue hair began changing colors quickly, stopping on a bright red before Helena spoke in frustration.

“Why is it that whenever you sit next to me, you have to change your bloody hair in my face?” she growled.

Lanee smirked as she looked at her once more, her roots changing to a bright pink all the way down to her tips.

“Stop it, before I seriously do something I’ll regret much later,” Helena spoke through her teeth as she eyed her down.

“Good luck with that.”

Helena lifted her wand abruptly as other kids started to stare. Anger rushed through her as spells rushed through her head. She wanted to burn off all of her hair if she could, but she knew she’d get into serious trouble, so she chose to use the next best thing.

“Anteocula—”

“Lower your wand, now!” Snape bellowed as he stood in front of the two of them.

Helena did so immediately, turning away with a glower.

“It would not be polite to turn one’s hair into antlers, Miss Villar, now would it?” Snape asked her as she stood in silence, “No matter… I’ll excuse it for now… I’m sure she did…” he looked to her as she stared back with a blank expression, “—deserve it…”

He started to walk back to the front of the class as everyone looked toward them in silence. Helena had her arms crossed as Lanee rested her elbows on the tabletop, looking forward and disregarding all who stared.

“And miss Tonks, please do try to keep your hair one color when entering the classroom…” Snape pursed his lips.

She didn’t reply, seeming to yawn instead of regard what he had told her. Snape watched this and his lip curled as he started to roll the cuffs of his long, black cloak up, looking into his cauldron.

“Five points from Gryffindor, miss Tonks,” he then spoke as many of the Gryffindors in the room all looked at each other in disgust.

“She was the one who started it!” Seamus yelled as he pointed at Helena.

“Not today, Mr. Finnigan—unless you would like to add more points taken away.”

Seamus dug his hands under the desk as he looked away with a puzzled glare. Snape went back to teaching his lesson right away when the class had settled down and had everyone settle in groups of three. Helena immediately went to group with Pansy and Millicent and huddled around their cauldron, awaiting for instructions.

“Today we will be learning how to create a solution for measles. Take out your copies of Magical Drafts and Potions and turn to page 233. Follow instructions carefully,” Snape turned as he gave Seamus, Dean, and Lanee a narrowed stare. He then walked to the front of the class to allow everyone to begin.

Helena and Pansy opened their books quickly and read over the ingredients out loud as Millicent searched the room for each of the needed equipment.

“Alright, we need the juice of seven snopper beetles,” Helena read out loud as Pansy began crushing each of them quickly, “Next we need to brew it with 19 ounces of ground-worm venom. No more—the chemical reaction may cause the cauldron to explode.”

Pansy immediately started to measure the venom in a small flask, making sure that she did not exceed the amount that they needed. While doing so, Helena continued reading off ingredients while chopping up some of the needed herbs.

“Seamus, I think you put a little too much ground-worm venom in there…” she overheard Dean say nervously as he looked over the flask.

“Relax, will you? I know what I’m doing!” Seamus poured it all in at once.

Immediately, both Lanee and Dean backed away as Snape looked up, overhearing their argument. Seamus looked into the now boiling pot, laughing slightly to see that nothing happened.

“See what I told you? Nothing happened—“ Seamus was then cut off as the cauldron began shaking violently. Snape intervened at this point as he walked up quickly, observing it.

“How much venom did you put in there…” he whispered.

“19 ounces like it says—though I didn’t measure it very carefully—“

“And did you stir it in evenly, or pour it in all at once?” he spoke more angrily.

“…I poured it all in! It doesn’t say anything about putting it in even—“

“Once measured, stir the ingredients carefully by pouring in the venom in a circular motion so that it does not concentrate,” Lanee read out loud, trying not to laugh at Seamus’s failure.

“I see… everyone leave all of your work on your tables and move to the west side of the classroom immediately! As for you, Seamus, I want to see if you and your team are able to stop this boiling brew from exploding.”

He walked away into the area in which he directed the rest of the class to go. Everyone was silent except for Helena who was laughing

Seamus’s face was well past red now as he looked around quickly for anything that might simmer down the solution.

“Well, now you’ve done it, you bloke!” Dean yelled out nervously as he looked around as well.

“Don’t blame me! You should know by now that I’m horrible with instructions!”

“I’ve noticed! Next time, you can read them and we’ll do everything!”

Both of them went silent as they looked to Lanee, who was leaning onto the desk, watching the two quietly with an ear-to-ear grin.

“Well, don’t just stand there! Help us!” Seamus spoke nervously.

“You did say you wanted to learn how to blow stuff up,” she laughed.

“I take it back!” Seamus’s voice cracked as the pot started boiling more violently, “Save me, please!”

The entire class began laughing at this point at his desperation as Lanee moved in quickly to look for the ingredients. She found a forbe stone in a bottom of a drawer, remembering how Professor Snape had mentioned it being a depressant for most potions. She immediately threw it into the pot and the boiling instantly stopped.

Dean and Seamus both sighed in relief loudly as Seamus then looked into the pot, “So it’s done? No exploding?”

At that moment, the boiling water had erupted into a smoky gas that engulfed the area around Seamus’s face, covering him in soot.

Lanee started laughing very hard at this point as Seamus tried to wipe his face off, “I thought you were supposed to save me!”

“I’m only 11, do you honestly think I know how to stop a concoction you created from erupting?” she tried to stop herself from laughing too loudly.

Class had ended with another five points taken away from Gryffindor for Seamus disrupting the class. Now she was sitting at the dining table with the rest of the Slytherins for lunch. Eating quietly as she listened to Pansy having different conversations with different people, the sounds of scrambled sentences were starting to give her a headache. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle had not shown up until halfway through dinner, and each of them had very frustrated expressions.

“D’you know that Potter’s got a broom?” Draco crossed his arms, “Caught him running to his common room with it all nicely wrapped up, as if he was trying to hide it!”

“When was this?” Pansy’s voice sounded astonished.

“Just yesterday. The bloody kid probably doesn’t even know how to use it correctly. That day in flying class was pure luck!” he scowled.

Helena honestly wasn’t even sure what to say about that since it was Draco's fault for him egging Harry on. She remembered that class perfectly, and kept murmuring to her friends about how stupid Draco was being. She really didn't want to worry about why Draco was so worked up.

Helena and Pansy made their way to charms with Professor Flitwick and sat down quickly. They were hoping that he would consider pairing them up together, since he always had a knack for pairing them with the most revolting sort of people. He immediately read off the names for the pair practice, and thankfully for Pansy, she was paired with Millicent. Unfortunately for Helena, she was paired with someone she really didn’t want to deal with.

“Miss Villar and Miss Tonks.”

Helena groaned to herself as she picked up her books and marched her way across the floor, sitting next to Lanee who refused to move. Lanee had been sitting next to Seamus who was paired with Harry Potter.

“Now don’t forget the nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing!” Professor Flitwick laughed slightly, “Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too—never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said ‘s’ instead of ‘f’ and found himself on a floor with a buffalo on his chest.”

Helena stayed quiet as she watched Lanee with an emotionless stare. She decided not to put effort into today’s lesson since she knew that Lanee would find some way to criticize her. Lanee didn’t seem to put much effort into it either and they were both staring at the next table over, with Harry and Seamus. Both of them seemed to be having a difficult time. At one point, Seamus had set his wand on fire, Harry immediately having to put it out with his hat.

The fire was so abrupt that his face was once again covered in soot. Everyone once again went into silence as Seamus lowered his head, shaking it in disappointment.

“How is it that you still have eyebrows?” Lanee asked very seriously during the silence.

Helena couldn’t help but start giggling quietly at that question. Lanee looked back at her with a puzzled expression as Helena then stopped herself, embarrassed that she was trying to laugh with someone she disliked heavily and looked down with a pink face.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” Helena tried doing it herself, but nothing happened.

“You’re not doing it right, your hand movements are too tense,” Lanee rolled her eyes.

“Oh really now? Well then let’s see you try.”

“Fine. Wingardium Leviosa!” she did the movements elegantly, but still had no avail to lifting the feather.

“You’re not saying it right, you nit. You need to hold out the ‘o’,” Helena sighed.

“Don’t you dare tell me how to fix my spell.”

“Then don’t tell me how to move my hand!”

“Girls, girls!” Professor Flitwick tried to stop the two from arguing, but they continued to snarl at each other.

“You’re a snob and everyone knows it. Stop trying to act like your some Slytherin queen and grow up,” Lanee spoke lowly as her eyes flashed with anger.

“Well, you’re a repulsive troll who feels the need to change how she looks for attention! What the bloody hell is your natural hair color anyways?”

“I… I really don’t know…” she stopped.

“Exactly, you freak,” Helena crossed her arms.

There was a long silence between the two of them while Professor Flitwick watched them closely, making sure one of them wouldn’t do anything rational.

“At least I can do something about how I look. You’re stuck with your bloody disgusting face,” Lanee added quietly, just enough for Helena to hear.

Helena’s eyes widened as she slowly turned back to the girl whose hair had changed from white to red. She clenched her teeth and stared for a long moment as Lanee looked back to her wand.

“You’re such a bitch…” Helena shook her head. Lanee directed her attention to her suddenly as she was then jumped on, knocking her out of her seat. Helena started clawing at her face, growling as she pulled on her hair. Lanee attempted punching her in the face but Helena would move out of the way to avoid her fist.

“Girls, stop it!” Professor Flitwick screamed loudly as he tried to pull Helena off of her. He held her back as she calmed down, wiping the sweat from her cheek as she looked to Lanee menacingly.

Lanee got herself up, wiping off the blood on her lip as she glared in silence, standing there for a long moment. When everyone thought that the fight was over, that was when Lanee moved up quickly and punched Helena in the face swiftly with all her power. Helena’s eyes widened as she fell to the floor, covering her now bleeding face as she stared at Lanee with hatred.

“I owed you that from King’s Cross Station,” Lanee started to walk out of the classroom.

“Both of you head down to Professor McGonagall!” Flitwick yelled as Helena strode past him, heading in the same direction as Lanee.

After this happened, the two of them spoke no words to each other as they headed down to await their punishment. To their surprise, Professor McGonagall had decided to give them a warning since no wands were involved in this incident.

Dinnertime came quickly and Helena was sitting at the end of the table with a tablecloth to her nose, trying to make the bleeding stop. Draco sat next to her, listening to Pansy rave about how Helena and Lanee were going at it.

Helena wasn’t sure if she should take the incident as a triumphant moment for herself or if she should be angry that there was no winner of the fight. Either way, she couldn’t worry about it, because if they were to get into another fight this year, they’d both end up on a field trip to the Forbidden Forest.

She tried to take her mind off of the pain when in a sudden moment; the large doors opened loudly as Professor Quirrell sprinted in, panting heavily. He ran across the hall as he then made his way to his seat at the main table, trying to keep his breath as he then exasperated, “Troll—in the dungeons—thought you ought to know.”

Everyone began screaming loudly; Draco, who sat next to Helena started screaming in her ear as she sat up to avoid her eardrums from exploding. She looked up to see Professor Dumbledore yelling for everyone to go into silence.

“Prefects lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!” Dumbledore roared.

The Slytherin prefect immediately started to organize the children as the other prefects tried to keep those in the back from making too much noise. The head boy started to lead each of the students back to the common room, but Helena, who was in the front with Draco started to get very nervous.

When they arrived to the dormitories, Helena immediately found Pansy and the other girls she roomed with and they all went into their dormitory immediately, discussing what had happened. Helena was still holding her hand to her nose, looking into the mirror to see that she was most likely going to develop a black eye the next morning.