Lumos: Year Two

Lanee's detention had started that night. McGongall kindly instructed her to wipe down all the desks in her own classroom before she sat down at her desk and began to grade homework. Sighing, Lanee began working by attempting to scrub off the same semi-permanent ink she had used on Seamus's arm off her own desk. She had scribbled a few random drawings of hippogriffs and instanly regretted it after seeing how much scrubbing it took.

"Proffeser, can I please use magic for all this ink?" Lanee whined.

"No. That would defeat the purpose, now wouldn't it?" McGongall said without looking up from the paper she was grading. "If you clean off the chalkboard as well I won't have you come in tommorrow, seeing as it might intefer with the Quidditch game. I'm sure neither of us would want to miss that." Lanee quickly agreed to the offer. It would be the first Quidditch game of the year, not to mention it was a sport she adored. She had always aspired to be a Beater, she thought it suited her well.

Lanee had to admit she didn't click as much with the other proffesers as she did with McGongall. She felt respected by her, unlike Snape who seemed to hate her guts even though she was second best in the class right behind Granger. McGongall treated her like both a person, respecting her views, and a student, respecting her ideas and intellect. Lanee didn't actually mind spending her detention with this proffeser.

After the room was spotless, McGongall allowed her to head to the Great Hall for dinner. It was already around eight and most of the students had retreated to their common rooms, dinner was probably already over . As she rounded the corner, she found Dean and Seamus waiting for her holding a small bag.

"There you are!" Dean smiled.

"Come on, we're headed down to the lake to eat dinner. We're gonna celebrate!" Seamus annouced as they began walking.

"Celebrating what? Did you steal that food from the Great Hall?" Asked Lanee confused.

"You finally getting Parkinson! She's almost as bad as Malfoy, it's about time someone taught that girl a lesson!" He sounded very proud that it was his best friend that had done the deed.

"And yes, we did take it, stole it right from the tables!" Dean smiled triumphantly.

"You did? My my, Dean, what a reckless boy you're turning into. You took food that was made for you!" Lanee teased as they reached the tree by the lake. The giant squid skimmed the surface, eyeing the food as it was removed from the bag and listened to the laughing kids. After being tossed a few slices of bread, it retreated to the depths of the lake peacefully.

"How deep do you think that pond is?" Lanee asked lazily as she leaned agaisnt the tree, eating another peice of chicken.

"Pretty bloody deep." The Irish boy responded. "I've never seen your hair blue before."

"What?" She pulled her hair infront of her eyes and examined it before it turned red again. "Weird, I've never gotten it to go that colour before. How'd I look?"

"Cute." Seamus mumbled before turning beet red and hiding his face in the grass. Lanee giggled and turned to Dean who was in deep concentration as he drew. He was working on the drawing of the tree, but this time he was adding the lake and tree small basic figures next to the tree.

"Are those going to be us?" She asked, pointing to them. One of them layed out closer to the water like Seamus was now, two leaned agaisnt each other near the tree like Dean and her were.

"Yeah." He said as he shaded the shadows of the water. Lanee noticed that he had drawn in a full moon reflecting in the water, glancing up to see his drawing matched this very night. "What time is it?"

"Time for us to be in bed." Seamus checked his watch, concerned that it was past their curfew. They snuck inside quietly, careful to avoid anyone. There main fear was Percy Weasly, who would turn them no matter what. Filch might let them off because he had a soft spot for Lanee and no one really knew why. Maybe it was because Mrs. Norris liked her for some odd reason. Lanee just joked around and said she must smell like meat.

* * * * * * *
After sleeping in later than she shoud have, Lanee awoke the next morning and headed down towards breakfast. Seamus and Dean were waiting for her, holding a battered note from Nymphadora Tonks.

"I think you're in trouble, 'Nee." Dean warned, handing the letter to her. She feared opening it, afraid of her punishment. After taking a few swigs of pumpkin juice and reminding herself of Gryffindor courage, she opened the letter.

Lanee,

I hate punishing you, but I must. I know you probably hated this girl, but it still doesn't give you an excuse to attack her. I let you off easy last time, but this time I must ground you. This summer I won't permit you to go anywhere (except Grandmother Andromeda and Grandfather Ted's house) or have any friends over for the first month of holidays. I'm sorry but I had to do something, I couldn't allow you to think that this fighting is okay. Do you even consider the consquences, Lanee Elizabeth? You lose more than you gain and it is just pointless. Please, don't let me receive another letter. I love you and hope to decide to came home for the Christmas holidays.

Mum

"How bad is it?" Seamus asked.

"I'm just grounded for the first month of the summer holidays, that isn't too bad I guess." She glanced around and realized people were getting up and getting ready to go watch the game. It was Slytherin against Gryffindor, everyone knew it was going to be an interesting match. "Let's meet up with Helena and head out to the pitch."

She quickly founded Helena before they exited the school. They instantly started arguing about who was going to win. Slytherin may have had excellent chasers and keeper, but Gryffindor had the best beaters, the Weasly twins, and the best seeker, Potter. It was going to be an exciting game, Lanee had to admit.

“Let’s have a bet, shall we?” She finally decided. Helena agreed and asked what kind of bet. After a moment of thought, Lanee decided to have a little fun. “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." The air was misty and chilly, but it didn't seem to phase the fans who were crowding the school grounds as they apprached the field.

“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 had an evil grin as well as Lanee did. They decided to keep their ideas seceret in order to surprise the other. A small part of Lanee hoped she'd lose so she could jinx the chalkboard to write everything Lockhart wrote backwards.

The game was intense. The captains were furoius and seemed more competitve than normal, a sure sign of a fantastic game. Lanee kept her eyes glued to the Beaters, the postition she longed for. After watching them for a few minutes, she knew she'd have to wait until Fred and George had left the school before she even had a chance at getting a spot on the team. It would have made her mum proud knowing that she was using her strength in sports rather than fights.

Noticing that Draco was the seeker, she eyed him carefully. He could fly well, but he seemed more busy taunting other team members that actually focusing on the game. Her attention shifted to an abnormal Bludger. It seemed to have a mind of it's own as it zig-zagged it's away across the field, weaving through players until it followed a small Gryffindor that appeared to be Potter. That's not how gravity works? Lanee thought to herself.

"Something's wrong with that Bludger. It's cursed or something!" She told Dean and Seamus who were watching the same scene as her.

The whistle suddenly blew and the players landed. Madam Hooch talked to the captains and the two teams pointed and had a heated conversation. The whistle was blown again and seemed to bring more rain with it. The game continued, the Bludger still was right on Potter's tail as he spotted the tiny golden blur fluttering around in the air. Malfoy soon followed him in the chase for the gold.

Potter reached out his arm, and Lanee heard a sickening crack as the Bludger slammed into his arm. He clutched it painfully but continued to fly. She had to give it to him, it was pretty impressive that he could do that. Suddenly, he stood up and began to reach with his good arm. Was he insane? He was going to get himself killed! Yet, he managed to grasp the snitch before tumbling over onto the ground, smiling as he held up his prize.

She cheered before heading to find Helena.

"Have fun with Professor Lockhart tonight." Lanee winked. For once, she could not wait to go to class.