Violet

Part 3: dropping hints

Lyre was a bright witch, she somehow always knew the answer, despite never paying attention to anything. It was a skill she got particularly good at while going to a muggle school. Back then though, she wasn't surrounded by people telling her she should be in a divination class because that ability is called unprecedented hindsight. Lyre on the other had thought divination was a load of bull crap. Of course she knew some people could definitely see in to the future, she just didn't believe that ability would be heightened by tea leaves or crystal balls. Lyre personally was better at potions, it was a subject that had always come easy to her. It had all the instructions laying out plain and simple. she didn't have to listen to anyone explain or anyone complain to her about not paying attention, she simply just had to do. Lyre even had Snapes praise for the ability of her work despite being a first year. Hanging around Fred and George though always diminished that praise. Especially on days like today, Someone had been substituting for Snape, and made the mistake of letting Fred, George and Lyre work in a group of 3. It's not that they all didn't work well together, it's more once the 3 had been in a group the volume in the room increased tenfold. It started with just the twins getting rowdy convincing Lyre to make anything, but what they were supposed to be making. After Lyre finished the initial project, it got progressively worse.
"Ly, make us something to turn invisible!" Fred asked excitedly, having another 40 minutes in the class
"No Fred, that's not even possible. I can make your tongue grow, like maybe 4 feet longer."

"Ooo do that... but not to me." Fred looked around the room "do it to that bloke." He smiled up at Lyre who rolled her eyes taking her seat again
"That's not possible in 40 minutes." Taking her seat in between the boys who had obviously never finished anything early in their life.
"We got to do something Ly, we might die."
George looked at her with puppy eyes while his twin continued his plead
"Please ly, we need something to do, or else I fear we might blow Snapes classroom to pieces." Fred begged lyre rolled her eyes again. she knew the twins didn't want to get another detention with Snape, because the last time they did went so awfully. Lyre decided to finally cure the twins boredom.
"Fine, see that boy there." She averted Fred's eye contact to a boy in their year, he was a gryfindor, they didn't really hang around him much the only thing they really knew about him was his name, Carlos. Carlos was really nice the one time they had spoken to him. he had a really thick forgein accent from across the seas. His family had just come to the UK, his father got a job working with and studying unicorns.  "Carlos has a crush on, Megan, he asked her out few weeks back, they've been working together ever since ." She pointed to the hufflepuff girl he was working with, "Megan has been leading him on to get good grades, she told me and Angie in the bathroom the other day after herbs class. She's really dating him, she pointed to a different hufflepuff student, someone they have talked to a few times, but never really payed much attention to.
Fred then spoke up in awe of the situation "Cedric diggory! I knew that guy was a-" Lyre cut him off by lightly smacking his head
"No you twat. Finny! The boy Cedric's working with." Finn was a boy Cedric often hung out with, Fred and George always thought Cedric wasn't very nice because he was a bit better off then them. Lyre always knew that Finn was the real prat. Cedric always had a decency about him, but Finn always acted a bit more spoiled.
"Okay. What does this have to do with our boredom, gossips cool and all, but what are we gonna do about it?" George spoke up
"Well I reckon, Carlos over there is rather tall for his age. I bet he's not a bad competitor for Finn either. It might take Finny down a notch to get a beating weather it be magical or not." Dropping the hint both twins finally understood exactly what the girl meant.
"Okay but how to we get them to fight?" George looked over at his brother and friend. Lyre shrugged her shoulder crossing her legs, and looking up at the ceiling. That's when the substitute Madame pomfrey announced something
"I am going to step out for a moment, professor Snape will be continuing the class when I return."  The woman sauntered out of the classroom, assuming everything would be fine. It wasn't a bad assumption. Fred watched as she left then saw Megan clutching Carlos's arm giggling while he stirred the potion perfectly.
"I've got an idea Georgie." Fred stood up with some books in hand. he walked over directly behind the "couple" then tripped right behind Megan's chair.
"Oh shit, clumsy me!" Both kids looked at the boy who fell. Fred started a long wordy statement unprompted by the kids "Hey Megan, how's things with Finny? Saw you snogging in the corridor, reckon he's a right good kisser. You two went at it for almost a decade before class the other day. Honestly, I fogged up the whole hallway. Anyways Maybe you'll get a room next time eh?" Fred said picking up the books while Carlos face got heated,
"What's that stuff about Finny George?" The boy said asking Fred who turned around from putting the books away. He ignored the boys mistake in person.
"Oh you didn't know? Megan and Finny over there are a fling, reckon the whole castle knows after the other day." Fred went about his business as Megan swore that it never happened, from the look on her face though. Something similar definitely did happen.  Fred returned to his friends grinning at his work.
"Perfection Freddie!" George applauded his brothers performance Lyre finally started paying attention as Megan and Carlos fought. Until Finny got involved. That's when things got rather physical. Fred and George started cheering for Carlos and the whole class started watching. Megan began crying when she turned to Lyre.
"YOU! I told you all that about Carlos in confidence! And you told the whole damn school!" She screamed out in anger clenching her wand
"I did nothing, maybe I told Fred which in hindsight was a bad idea." Lyre knew that she most definitely was the reason all this was happening , but she also figured the current situation was better than poor Carlos getting played with.
Megan tightened her face in to an impossibly mad look "you Lyre Black need to be taken down a notch." She pointed her wand at the girl as Fred made a joke about Lyre already being short. A wisp of magic came out the tip of Megan's wand, Lyre hurriedly grabbed her wand and put up a very small shield. The spell then deflected, the whole class was now watching the 2 girls. Even the physical fight had stopped to watch the girls duel with wands. Because surely this was far more interesting than a physical altercation. Lyre scurried out of her chair, landing on the floor as the twins picked her up and pushed her towards her opponent.
"Shit, you really wanna fight?" Lyre looked at Megan who nodded in response while throwing a curse at Lyres feet. Lyre was quick enough to dodge backwards. It's not that Lyre didn't want to fight the girl, it was more so she didn't feel like Megan really deserved it. She had quite a few classes with Megan, she knew she was a subpar spell caster. Lyre was also quite confident that if they did get in a fight she would be the overwhelming victor. Megan had continued to throw more curses at the girl. Lyre finally got fed up with it when one curse had hit really close to her face. It had struck hard enough for a bit of blood to poor. Lyre finally gripped her wand and casted a spell that glued Megan's shoes to the floor. Megan struggled a bit before casting another poorly constructed spell at lyre who ducked and dodged as it hit the wall behind her. The twins started cheering for Lyre. Lyre knew she needed to end this quick before snape got back or else things might get messy. Megan threw more poorly aimed spells at lyre. Who dodged around some more until she positioned herself behind Megan. Lyre scurried to grab a decently finished potion off Snapes desk. She then Poured it out on Megan's head as Megan's hair turned green. That's when Snape came back to his classroom to see, not one student working.
"50 points from hufflepuff and gryfindor. Class dismissed, everyone out," snape was fixing some of the things Megan had knocked over from her clumsily placed spells. Lyre attempted to sneak out with the rest of the students. Megan was trying to take off her shoes so she could leave as well. "Not you Black, Romero, you stay put as-well." Megan huffed not even attempting to take her shoes anymore blowing her green hair out of her face. Lyre walked back in to the classroom, standing  furthest away from Megan. Once all the students cleared out snape waved his wand fixing his classroom, and freeing Megan.
"Romero, detention at 9 pm. if you're late Sprout will be informed and you will be given a weeks worth of detention. Dismissed." Snape sneered at the girl.
"What about my hair?" Megan asked the older man desperately. He responded in an impossibly evil tone  "What about it?" Megan got the hint and left. Lyre rubbed her cheek where Megan had hit, it was still bleeding and now it was starting to sting.
"Miss Black, just like your father. Picking on the helpless. I bet You think it's funny too.  2 weeks worth detention and 30 more points from gryfindor" the man said  heartlessly.
Lyre was baffled
"I wasn't picking on the helpless I-"
"Would you like to make that 50? Get out." Lyre knew when to shut up, she left almost in tears. She really didn't feel comfortable being compared to her father. Although it left questions, it was no mystery to her that snape went to school the same time as her dad, was she really that much like him. As she walked further down the hall more tears fell down her face. She ran right past the twins who where worried for her. She ran right in to the empty ladies room, throwing open a stall and sobbed quietly. It wasn't long before Fred spoke
"Ly? What did that clown say?"  Lyre noticed Fred was the only one in the bathroom. One of the ways she could tell was his tone of voice and how Fred spoke. she sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.
"Where's George?" She asked
"He went to teach Snape a lesson, got kinda pissed seeing you crying."
"Oh, that's not very bright of him" Lyre opened the door a bit disappointed to see her friend standing still by her stall.
"He's not a very bright guy. Can we step out of the ladies, I think I scared girl a bit coming in." Lyre laughed a bit still crying.
"Sure" once they had got in the hallway they both slid down the wall waiting for George to come back.
"You never answered me." Fred spoke out. "What did Snape say to you? I know he's a prat, but I wouldn't be sobbing about anything he has to say." Lyre wiped her eyes once more before looking at Fred.
"He said I remind him of my dad." Fred looked a bit confused. "My dad is a murderer." She whispered as if saying it out loud would make it even more true. Fred didn't really respond, he just nodded after a heavy silence he finally spoke
"Yea, Snapes a dick. I will tell you this much, you're not a bad person. I don't know your dad, I won't pretend to know your situation either. But you lyre are not a bad person at least not I'm my book."  Lyre listened carefully to every word Fred said. She had never been told something like that, Remus had always told her she was like her father or her mother. Kids at the muggle school never knew her well enough to say something. No one however had ever told her what she wanted to hear though, that's when lyre realized Fred and George might be the first real friends she had ever made. Friends that knew her better than anyone. This realization made her smile quite a bit, despite being a murderers daughter, she was also now best friends with a bloke named Fred and a twat named George.
"Thanks Fred, do me a favor though. Try not to tell anyone about my dad. I have a feeling not everyone would have the same opinion as you." Fred nodded
"Right, I won't tell a soul. now where's ickle Georgie." He said standing up looking down the hall. "Surely it can't take this long to set off a few dung bombs." They both stood up to see Snape seething chasing the red head out of his classroom. They both decided it was in their best interest to let him be chased. It wasn't their idea to set dung bombs off snapes classroom when he was already in a bad mood.