Lumos: Year Two

With Dean leaving later that day, Lanee was left alone for the remainder of her holidays. Although she loved and admired her mother, she couldn't stand how she always was buried in work during Christmas. She would love to go home, return to the familar town of Coldwater Creek. The town was small, and techinally, Lanee didn't live in it, just next to it, past the creek that always ran cold. From her bedroom window in the run-down shack (that most townspeople thought was an abandoned shed) she could see the entire town from elderly beggers and rich school-children. A simple muggle town she loved.

Then she thought of her father. He used to come around last year, but after The Incident over the summer, he decided it would be best to leave Lanee and her mothers lives. At this thought, Lanee ran her nails over the thick, long, white scar that ran from the side of her right eye down to her jaw bone. She still couldn't decided if she hated him or loved him. Loved him because he was, no matter what, her father? Or hate him because he left?

Her thoughts vanished as Helena slid next to her at breakfast, looking horribly depressed. Shaking from her thoughts, and turned her attention to her friends frown.

* * * *

“You should have let it sort you here!” Lanee exclaimed, once learning that the hat almost sorted Helena into Gryffindor.

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

"You know, being disowned isn't so bad. My grandmother was disowned from her entire family because she married a muggle-born. In fact, she's Malfoy aunt. Isn't that weird? I'm distanly realted to Malfoy, bleck!" Lanee stuck her tounge out and Helena giggled. "But I think she's a lot happier without her family.She married the guy she loved and had a pretty cool kid, who had another cool kid. Why do you care so much about your family accepting you anyways?"

Helena broke eye contact with Lanee and redirected her eyes into the fire, sighing. "Because they're all that I really have. If they don't like me, the rest of my family will never accept me. Then I have no where to go if I were to be disowned."

"You have me." She said quietly, pushing a strand of snow white hair from her face.

Helena shook her head. "My family has a bad name in the wizarding world to anyone other than Slytherins. No one would take in a Villar."

Lanee burst out laughing. "Honestly, Helena, have you not known me for two years? Do you really think I care what others think?"

The Slytherin bit her lip. "Your parents wouldn't approve. Trust me when I say my family has bad blood."

Lanee rolled her eyes. "You think my mum cares? And my father is hardly the one to not accept someone."

Helena glanced at her suspicously. "I thought you said you didn't know your father."

"I don't." Lanee lied quickly. "I meant grandfather." After a brief silence, she asked, "What's the scariest thing that ever happened to you?"

Helena looked down for a moment. "I was only four. I couldn't get to sleep one night, and it was when we had first moved to Ireland. It was storming and the thunder kept me awake. I heard the sound of someone approaching our house, so I went to see what it was. I looked out the window and saw a carriage heading past... but I swear, the person had no head. So I went outside to get a better look.

"The carriage stopped--it somehow knew that I was there. The figure turned itself around as the carriage began backing up and my thoughts were true... it was headless. It was wearing all black and held a bucket in its hands as it towered over me. Next thing I knew, I was covered in blood and I started screaming and it woke my parents up..."

"People usually don't believe in those Irish folktales about Dullahans, but I experienced it firsthand... I've never been so afraid of anything in my life," she pursed her lips. "What about you?"

Lanee thought for a moment. Deep down, she knew her scariest moment was when her father threatned to leave once when she was eight, but she couldn't tell that to Helena, not yet anyways. "Probably the time I almost drowned. I live by this creek, and it's freezing. I was seven or eight and fell in and it was so cold that I couldn't move, like my joints were locked. That was the scary part, feeling helpless, not the drowning. I remember sinking for a moment, then waking up in St. Mungos. They said I almost died 'cause my body temp dropped too low, though I don't remember actually being cold, just stiff."

Helena looked down and scowled. "I hate water. When I was eight, Artemis took Victoria, Jude, and I swimming at this lake that our cottage is by. Everything was fine until Artemis did something to make Victoria mad. I was swimming underwater and all of the sudden the water started to freeze at the surface because her anger magically affected it. I started to panic and I kept slamming my hands against the ice to the point where they started to leave cuts on them. I don't really remember much after that, but apparently Jude got me out. I was covered up in a blanket in my bed. My hands were all bandaged up. I think that's why me and Jude are so close. We understand each other and he saved my life."

"I'm really jealous of you." Lanee admitted. "You have so many siblings. I would kill for a brother or sister. I don't think my mum ever planned on having kids, I was an accident, she got pregnant with me during her last year at Hogwarts. And I doubt with my mums job or luck with men I'll ever get a brother or sister." Lanee paused. "But at least I have Dean, he's like my brother."

"What about Seamus?" Helena raised her eyebrows.

Lanee thought for a moment. "Well, I'm as fond of Seamus as I am of Dean, I like them both equally. Except I see Dean as a brother, and Seamus...well, I'm not sure what I see him as." She has never given much thought to her feelings toward Seamus. Her feelings for Dean were much more clear in her mind, a best friend and brother at heart, she had been sure of that since the second day she had known him. Then there was Seamus, a boy she wasn't really sure what she saw him as. When she though of Seamus as a brother, it felt weird to her. At twelve, Lanee wasn't very in touch with her feelings, and had trouble decidnig how she truly felt about people.

"I'd say you have a crush on him." Helena teased. "Your hair turns pinker whenever someone mentions his name. Your hair is like a mood ring."

"It is." Lanee smiled, trying to ignore her embarassment and pushing the pink out of her hair. "I can change it on command, but sometimes it changes itself when I'm feeling a really strong emotion. My eyes have even started doing it a little, but I gotta be really mad or sad for my eyes to change."

Helena studied Lanee for a moment. "Odd."

"Everything about me is odd."