Lumos: Year Two

Helena watched the window quietly as her oldest brothers sat in silence, studying for when they got back to Hogwarts. She was petting her cat, Lucy quietly and sighed. She hadn’t been to this cottage in ages, and it was odd to her. From the window, she had a view of the frozen lake with surrounding cottages that the neighbors owned. It was peculiar to her, staying somewhere where people lived so closely. She was so used to staying in her manor that was out in a distant area, away from other people.

She had never met the neighbors here before, but she wondered if anyone had ever come out here during Christmas break. Looking around, she noticed that there was a boy near the lake, who had bright red hair. He was looking out to the frozen water, standing still and wearing a long, black trench coat.

“Art, who is that boy out there?” she asked.

“What does he look like?” he didn’t look up from his book.

“Red hair… he looks like a Weasley.”

“He’s a Farrell. Don’t associate with them, they’re foul traitors of wizard blood,” Artemis spat.

Helena blinked and wasn’t sure how he knew this to be true. “Why do you say that?”

“Ronan Farrell gave us some trouble when he found out that Father was hosting a non-mudblood event a few years back.”

“Muggle-borns aren’t all that bad,” Helena sighed.

“You’ve been brainwashed,” Artemis rolled his eyes.

“It’s true, Art,” Jude shrugged. “You just have a problem with redheads.”

“It’s not my fault that every redhead I’ve ever met is a foul waste of space.”

“Art, are you okay? You’re more tense than usual…” Helena frowned.

Artemis slammed his book down, “I need some space.” He then turned to finish reading.

Jude looked over at Helena and gave her a sympathetic expression. Helena began to analyze everything about her, compared to her family. Wondering, did she truly belong in Slytherin? All her family may have a history within it, but she really didn’t know how her personality fit. She felt like a bad egg in the middle of a nest of hatching birds. She could be cunning and determined at times, but she didn’t mind muggles anymore or even like snakes.

Could the sorting hat have slipped up? Maybe she should have chosen Gryffindor after all. Her family would have disowned her though. They’d be so offended by how she’d tarnish their name.

“Children,” she heard her father as she looked up. “Your mother is thankfully beginning to recover. It will be a slow process though.”

“Tell me again, why do we have to be here?” Victoria scowled. “We could be at Hogwarts and be perfectly fine.”

“I wasn’t sure how your mother was going to be, so I wanted you to be here for her if she was on her last days. Since she will be making a full recovery, that won’t be needed though.”

“So are we going back?”

“Helena and Annabel will be returning to Hogwarts. You, Artemis, and Jude will be staying here to take care of your mother while I go out of town for my meetings.”

Victoria’s face went red as she went for a reply, but knew she couldn’t win as she stopped herself.

“Helena, have you unpacked your things yet?” Alabaster asked.

“Not yet,” Helena shook her head.

“Good. You’ll be leaving with Mr. Malfoy. He was here to check in on things and offered to escort you. I’ll take Annabel with me before I leave since it looks like she’s already made herself at home. Veronica and Avery will be staying with grandmother, also.” He headed into the back room. “Mr. Malfoy will be down shortly.”

Without words, Helena gave an uncomfortable smile to her father as she then turned and went to pick up Lucy to put her back in her traveling cage. There wasn’t much she could do at this point. She had hoped that Draco had not talked to his father about her already, or things were going to get awkward fast. She had enough on her mind with her father disliking her. She didn’t need another adult to put her down.

When the minutes passed, Lucius Malfoy appeared at the stairwell, walking down slowly. He stared at her for a moment and stopped at the front door and turned to speak to her. Helena grabbed her things quickly and walked toward him.

“Ah, hello. I hope you don’t mind that I offered to take you home. Your father seems so disorganized right now, so I took it upon myself to rid him of more work.”

“More work? He still has to bring Annabel back to Hogwarts. He could have taken me at the same time and it’d all be fine,” Helena shrugged.

“From what I hear, you’re a bit troublesome to your father though, which is why I volunteered. No hard feelings, of course. I’m sure he has his reasons to find you a bit… off.”

“Of course, of course,” she sighed. This wasn’t anything new to her. She just wish things could go back to the way they used to be. She would have loved to spend Christmas with her family in a happy way like she used to when she was younger.

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When Helena had arrived back to Hogwarts, it seemed rather lonesome now that her siblings were all away in Ireland back at their cottage. Living in Ireland was so odd to her, because she often grew annoyed of the change in their accents. She had been born in the England countryside, but her father had suddenly made them move away because the Ministry was questioning them when she was four years old.

It all made sense to her now though; her father running from the ministry was because of death eater business that he didn’t want to get involved with. He must have still been torn from the whole thing. It’s a shame that he had to go through something as horrible as that. Maybe that was why she didn’t get too upset with the fact that he was neglecting her. She felt too much sympathy as to what he went through.

She walked into the Great Hall and saw Lanee sitting at a table, eating alone. She walked up quickly and sat down next to her, trying to hide the fact that she was in a bitter mood. She did it horribly though, as the frown had been stuck to her face.

“What’s up with you?” Lanee turned to her.

“Nothing. My father is just a complicated person. I got sent home abruptly because my mum was dying. Then they sent me back when they found out she was okay. Apparently I was the only one sent back because of my father’s issues with me,” she sighed.

“Issues?”

“Long story. Are there any other Gryffindors that are staying here during Christmas break?” Helena tilted her head.

“Just Hermione. Why?”

“Do you… think she’d mind if you leant me some Gryffindor attire and I crashed in your dorm with you two?”

Lanee smirked, “If she has a problem, I can fix that.”

That night, Helena crept out of the girls’ lavatory with her hair up in a ponytail while sporting a red and gold tie with a Gryffindor robe. Lanee stood across from her, smirking.

“Well? How do I look?” she bit her lip.

“Like a Gryffindor. Hermione is completely fine with it, also. I talked to her and apparently her, Weasley, and Potter are all using Polyjuice Potions to go to the Slytherin common room to find out if Draco is the heir.”

“He’s not though,” Helena sighed. “I asked him already. He says he wishes he was.”

“Oh,” Lanee looked a bit disappointed. “Well they already left. Too bad for them!”

When the too reached the Gryffindor tower, Helena laid herself on the couch. The common room here was much more cozy than Slytherin’s. Lanee reclined in one of the chairs nearest to the fireplace.

“We should do this for every holiday we both stay in Hogwarts for. I’d go insane being by myself in Slytherin’s common room,” Helena shook her head.

“Isn’t Millicent in Hogwarts this Christmas?”

“You think I want to room with her? Please, spare me.”

They both laughed for a moment when things then got silent. Helena looked down and sighed, unsure what to say. The only thing that lingered in her mind was her father. Lanee could tell though, as if she was screaming it to the world in silence.

“So… what’s the relationship between you and your father?” Lanee asked.

Helena pursed her lips for a moment and looked away from her, “I don’t know what happened. We used to be so close. Ever since last year, he’s treated me like I’m second best.”

Before speaking again, she crossed her arms and gave an angry glare toward the fireplace.

“He only talks to me when absolutely necessary and puts on a fatherly act in front of strangers. In our household though, he calls me a disgrace to the family. He favors my younger sister, Annabel over me and makes it painfully obvious. He stuck me with Victoria’s old wand and I don’t get my own until next year. Annabel got one her first year.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Being myself apparently tarnishes my family’s honor. If that damn sorting hat had just kept quiet and placed me in Slytherin without a second thought, maybe things would be better.”

“The hat was hesitant?” Lanee tilted her head.

“It questioned me about being in Gryffindor… or it tried to. The moment I heard that ‘G’ slip from his tongue, I told it no as quietly as possible.”

“You should have let it sort you here!”

“And have my entire family disown me? No thanks.”

The rest of the night, Lanee and Helena told stories of their lives and fell asleep on the couch by midnight. This was an ongoing event until the end of Christmas Break. When Artemis, Victoria, and Jude arrived back, things were a bit livelier for Helena. She moved back to the Slytherin dorms and didn’t tell a soul where she had been staying. It still surprised her that Millicent and Annabel never questioned her random disappearance from the common room.