Lucy Riddle and the Boy Who Lived

The Five Galleon Bet and the Queer Quill

Chapter Sixteen

The rest of the morning was spent being harassed by Fred who took every chance he got to use the "Accio condom" advice her father had sent him. Sometimes she wondered whether she should've used the Muffliato charm on herself or all together throw Fred off the Gryffindor tower.

Luckily Hermione and Ginny were her heroes and invited her to join them on the trip to Hogsmeade, but this time with the help of Harry Potter's trusty Invisibility Cloak instead of the humped, one-eyed witch. Fred tried to persuade her to come with through the latter, but Lucy knew better than to trust him to keep quiet.

The girls were on their way to the Three Broomsticks when Draco Malfoy popped out of nowhere with his cronies. Crabbe and Goyle were like his bodyguards. They went wherever he went and almost never left him alone. Draco had a smug look on his face.

"Oh, I thought you weren't able to go, Lucy?" Draco said. "It wouldn't be good for you if someone to . . . oh, I don't know . . . tell Filch that you're here?"

The two boys behind him smiled with their crooked, yellow teeth. Draco had finally found something to use on her. Hermione staring at him, made him to feel a bit uncomfortable. He almost felt embarrassed.

Lucy smiled too. "Well, Bellatrix wouldn't be so happy, would she? Rodolphus too, and you know how those two are."

Draco was now feeling a bit scared. The mention of his aunt and uncle made him uneasy. Even his friends weren't doing anything. They were as equally scared of them as he was.

"Oh, and don't forget Dolohov! Man, can't forget him, can we?" Lucy added.

"How do you know them?" Draco mumbled.

"Bellatrix and Rodolphus are my foster parents and Dolohov is my grandma. Weird, I know." Lucy always called him that even if he protested every time. Then she added in a way-too-girly voice, "So, we're basically related."

Draco was already gone by the time Lucy finished talking. Ginny and Hermione raised their eyebrows at her, but she merely shrugged. They continued walking to the Three Broomsticks and met up with Harry and Ron, who already saved them seats.

Harry was gazing at Ginny like she was a piece of artwork, and Ron was staring at Hermione like she had just told him she liked Draco Malfoy. Once Hermione took a seat besides him, they began arguing immediately about homework. Apparently Hermione wouldn't show him her homework.

Lucy felt arms wrap around her waist. She was hoisted up in the air and kissed on the cheek by Fred Weasley who couldn't help it. Fred occupied a seat besides Lucy. They eyed the other two Weasleys — they all were in deep conversations with each other, Ginny with Harry and Ron with Hermione.

"So, who do you think will be together first?" Fred asked.

"Harry and Ginny for sure! They have some chemistry. All Hermione and Ron do is argue."

"My money is on my baby bro and Hermione. Five Galleons?"

"Deal." The two shook hands. Fred kissed the top of her knuckle like the cheesy, romantic goof he was.

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On Monday, Lucy was glaring at the Defense Against the Dark Art's chalkboard. It had instructions instructing the class to read another boring chapter from their textbook.

She stared at the clock. In about 10 seconds, Harry was going to stand up and say something about Voldemort coming back. So she counted. Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . and then she heard it.

Harry knocked his chair backwards at a fast attempt to stand up. "Voldemort will be back. Let's just bloody learn how to use spells already so I don't have to interrupt everyday."

Professor Umbridge knew it was coming. She just simply ignored Harry and continued with her reading. Lucy had had enough of Umbridge's silence. She was done with what Umbridge had to say (or not to say) and decided that now was a time to retaliate. Umbridge was now headmistress — how, she will never know — and the students of Hogwarts need to show some love to the new headmistress.

"Professor Hairybridge, you really need to stop with all the 'Voldemort is not alive' and 'Stop lying, Harry!' because it's starting to get pretty old. At least come up with something new."

"What did you just call me?"

"I really don't have a care in the world about what the Ministry wants, to be frank. They can all suck my —"

And that's how Lucy got a detention with Professor Umbridge for the night. She was really dreading it. It's not because of regret. No way, it's because she has to spend a couple hours with Hairybridge (she created that awesome name yesterday) when she could be doing something productive like sleeping or trying to find a way to stay alive (Peeves was still hunting her down).

Professor Umbridge had just given her a quill, a smirk playing on her lips. Lucy sent her an unamused countenance. "What to do with this quill . . . hm, should I go and write how to do spells? Gee, that would save me from your, oh excruciating, wrath!"

"You won't be laughing when you have to write lines, little girl."

Lucy raised her eyebrows but didn't say another word. She simply started writing the sentence on the blackboard:

I will learn to keep my mouth shut.

Lucy did so and felt a stinging pain on her right hand. She looked at the paper and noticed the words were in a crimson red instead of jet black. Oddly enough, when she looked at her hand, the words were engraved on her flesh but vanished soon after.

That's queer, she thought. Umbridge should be doing this — not me. Her ignorance would put her in such a bad position one day.

She wrote the words again. I will learn to keep my mouth shut. And stopped after that. Lucy waited for the feeling of pain to flash before her, but it didn't come. Instead, Umbridge yelped and her hand started bleeding.

Lucy was fascinated at what was happening. She wrote again. Umbridge made another sound. She continued this until Umbridge couldn't take it anymore, stood up, and plucked the quill out of Lucy Donavon's grasp.

"You will never write again, young lady."

Umbridge waved her wand at Lucy, but the spell hit her mother's bracelet. It ricochetted off and hit its producer square in the chest. Lucy left the classroom before anything else happened.

[A/N: queer is an older, british form of odd.]