Lumos: Year Two

“Hey Helena!” Lanee had ran up to her quickly the next morning as she headed toward the Great Hall, “Meet me in the second floor west corridor today at exactly 4:10, okay?”

Helena gave her a puzzled expression, but nodded, speaking slowly as she sat down next to Jude, “Um, okay. Why?”

Oh, you’ll see,” Lanee smirked before walking off to her table. Helena laughed lightly to herself, grabbing herself a bowl of porridge as Artemis looked over to her with a grin.

“I see you made yourself a new friend.”

“Yeah, it’s funny cause we used to hate each other,” she took a sip from her bowl, watching his green eyes stare back at her.

“Really? Is that the girl you got into a physical fight with last year?” Jude asked suddenly.

“Yeah, it is,” Helena chuckled as she looked back to Artemis, “I feel like her and I are more alike than we thought…”

“What’s wrong with that?” Artemis saw her eyes flicker to a sudden sadness as she avoided his gaze.

“Sometimes it makes me think that maybe I really should be in Gryffindor, and that I really am the disappointment of the family. It’s like I don’t belong.”

“Helena, you were put in Slytherin because you’re—“

“I’m a Villar. I’m probably only in Slytherin because of that. I was a hat stall, and my personality is like none of these other people.”

“I was a hat stall too, Helena,” Jude spoke suddenly. Both Artemis and Victoria looked at him in surprise.

“The sorting hat wanted to put me into Gryffindor as well. I never told anyone about it because I know father would be very upset,” Jude shrugged.

“Really?” Helena blinked, relieved to know that she wasn’t the only one.

“The attributes of a Slytherin is to be ambitious, cunning, and being competitive. I know for a fact that you display all of these,” Artemis smiled, “The reason those other Slytherins are so alike in personality is because they were all raised to believe that muggles were horrible and that they were the best because of their blood purity. Unfortunately, our father is like that as well. Just be glad that our mother has taught us not to think like that.”

“Unfortunately I sucked up to father growing up and caught part of his personality inside of me and made a fool of myself as a snotty Slytherin last year,” Helena sighed, “and now I realize how foolish I was being. I treat our house elves like spoiled little siblings.”

“Really?” Victoria laughed, “That’s why Silas loves you so much I’m guessing.”

“Yeah, I give him pastries whenever he does something for me.”

“That’s… really cute,” Victoria laughed lightly.

As breakfast ended, Helena headed to her class quickly. Her classes were going by very swiftly and she was grateful for that. She usually had to deal with long, dreary hours, but she was surprised with how quickly everything was flying by. At the end of her classes, she was starting to head to the west corridor. Walking swiftly, she asked several paintings what time it was to make sure she wasn’t late. She had several minutes to spare, so she picked up the pace.

“You there!” Helena felt herself grow numb, knowing whose voice that was. She turned around to see Draco walking toward her with an unsatisfied expression on his face.

“What do you want, Draco?” Helena gave a blank stare as she pursed her lips.

“I want to know something,” he crossed his arms.

“What?” she narrowed her eyes. She was becoming impatient; she needed to get to the corridor.

“Are you going to be at the Quidditch game tomorrow? Because as the new seeker, I’d appreciate it if you could have everyone cheer extra—“

“I have to go, I really don’t care for what you’re trying to have me do, and yes I will be there!” she snapped as she turned around to continue running forward. Draco glared at her as he quickly followed her.

“What’s got you in a hurry?” he asked suspiciously.

“Nothing! Come off it and leave me alone!”

“You wouldn’t have told me that if we were still friends,” he sneered, “What are you doing? Something involving petrified students and blood on the walls?”

“No! Honestly, Draco, if anyone was the heir of Slytherin, it’d be you. Now leave me alone!”

“Me? I’m flattered you think that, but I can guarantee it’s not me. So where you going?”

“I’m meeting my friend here. She told me to be here. GO AWAY!” she picked up the pace, very annoyed at this point. As she approached the corridor, she could hear the sounds of cheering and screaming. There was a large group of Gryffindors surrounding someone in the middle. She narrowed her eyes as she went closer and pushed through them, seeing that Lanee was on top of Pansy, clawing at her face and smacking her against the chin. She didn’t know how to react at first, but when she saw Pansy look over at her in panic and abhorrence, she smirked lightly, a gleam in her eye. Draco approached the group as well, his eyes widened as he watched Pansy begin to cry. He turned to Helena in disgust.

“Did you ask her to do this?” he spat.

“Of course I did. I’m not gonna let some bloody little brat threaten me without some payback,” Helena crossed her arms.

Suddenly, Professor McGonagall approached the group, attempting to clear the area. She began yelling at all of the students, telling them to go back to their common rooms. Lanee was asked to stay behind and was given a two week detention. Helena suddenly felt very guilty as she was backing away and sighed.

“Wait! Professor!” she called out as she started to walk back toward them, “I told Lanee to do it.”

“And why would you ask her to do such a thing?” McGonagall shook her head in disappointment.

“I—I was mad at Pansy,” she decided to sanitize the story. Whether Pansy was rotten or not, she knew that violence was no way to solve any problem. That’s just how she wanted to solve it for the time being, though.

“This is very childish of both of you. Detention for you as well, Miss Villar. And ten points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin,” Professor McGonagall sighed as she walked away, leaving the two of them. Helena predicted that she most likely went off to write to their parents. She knew this wasn’t going to end well with her father.

“How’d I do?” Lanee suddenly spoke, grinning at Helena.

“Perfect,” Helena then simpered.

---

It was eleven o’clock and Helena rose early to get ready for the big Quidditch game. It was Slytherin against Gryffindor and both Helena and Lanee were friendlily arguing about who would win. As they headed out onto the rainy path, they continued to bicker.

“Let’s have a bet, shall we?” Lanee smirked.

“Okay… what should it be?” Helena asked.

“I think that rather than betting galleons or candy, we should have the person who loses do something completely ridiculous.”

“Sounds good,” Helena laughed, “I have a good idea in mind.”

“Tell me.”

“Well, considering we both hate Professor Lockhart… I think that whoever loses has to go up to his office and rave about how brilliant he is. And while he’s giving one of his conceited, utterly mind-numbing stories, we jinx something in his room so that he embarrasses himself during class tomorrow,” Helena laughed sinisterly.

“That might just work. What do we jinx?”

“Keep it to yourself so that it’s a surprise in class tomorrow.”

“Deal.”

Helena headed toward the Slytherin area of the Quidditch arena. She sat next to Victoria as she watched the teams approach the center where madam Hooch was. The two Quidditch captains, Flint for Slytherin and Wood for Gryffindor shook hands as they backed away to their brooms once more. Hooch then blew the whistle as the balls were released and the teams went flying.

So many things were happening at once. She watched the keepers as they tried to avoid the Quaffles flying into their goals and she could see Draco chasing after Harry. Suddenly, her attention was caught by a Bludger that was chasing after him. Draco avoided it quickly as it continued to chase after Harry.

Two of the beaters had chased after it as well, hitting it out of the way several times, but it had continued its course after Harry.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Helena narrowed her eyes as Victoria shook her head.

“I’ve never seen it do that before.

She lost her attention to Harry when he had disappeared from the course and immediately found Artemis and Jude who were both beaters. She could see that they were confused as well, but continued to hit the Bludgers that came near their chasers.

Madam Hooch’s whistle blew suddenly as the two teams were forced to the ground. The Slytherins were all looking aggravated as the Gryffindors looked to be having a very frustration conversation. The Slytherins all started to point to the Gryffindors, laughing and screaming things that she couldn’t hear. She shook her head, wondering what was going to happen next as Hooch headed toward the red and gold team.

It seemed that the rain had started to fall even heavier once Madam Hooch had blown her whistle once more, continuing the game. The teams flew out in all directions as they were trying to get back into position.

Harry was going out in all directions, trying to avoid the Bludger that continued to follow him. Malfoy started to follow him as they both eyed the snitch. Helena had to look away at this point when she saw something she wished she hadn’t seen.

The Bludger going after Harry broke past his arm, breaking it quickly as he started spinning out of control. He quickly caught himself, trying to fly straight as he followed the snitch still. She was astonished that he was continuing on.

He suddenly stood up on his feet on the broom, as if he was surfing toward the snitch, just past Malfoy who stopped to avoid the Bludger following behind. Harry reached forward, grasping the snitch in his hand before tumbling down to the ground, rolling onto his back.

She saw Lockhart, as well as other teachers approaching him to inspect his arm as Helena stood up and headed out of her seat quickly. She ran toward Lanee, finding her at the end of the stairs, watching her with a smirk.

“Have fun with Professor Lockhart tonight,” Lanee winked.