"You said you'd already worked out that Egg clue!" Hermione said indignantly in the back of Charms class one day in February, all four of them sitting at a table by themselves.
Lucifer had already accomplished the task set before them on the first go after Flitwick asked if he could do it non-verbally, so he was allowed to just sit or stand idly.
"Keep your voice down!" Harry said, glancing around, "I just need to - sort of fine-tune it, all right?"
While in Charms, they were to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm, which was the Banishing Charm, Depulso.
Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room, Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practice, minus Lucifer.
And the theory was that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target.
It was a good theory, but it wasn't working very well.
Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room - Professor Flitwick, for instance.
"Just forget the Egg for a minute, all right?" Harry hissed as Flitwick went whizzing past them, landing on top of a large cabinet, "I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody..."
This class was the most ideal for a private conversation, as everyone was having far too much fun to pay them any attention.
With Lucifer not having to practice the Banishing Charm, he was able to keep them safe with having his eyes elsewhere.
Harry had then recounted his adventures of the previous night in whispered installments for the last half hour.
"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron asked in a whisper, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand, which soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off.
"What... do you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"
"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's doing it anyway," Harry said as his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk, "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something..."
'That actually makes an odd amount of sense... there is no way someone like Snape would be here under normal circumstances, which must be why Dumbledore didn't argue against me when I threatened to kill Snape... now I wish I really had gone through with it,' Lucifer thought darkly.
"Oh Ronald," Hermione said, shaking her head skeptically, Lucifer had clearly missed Ron saying something, "we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"
"I doubt he did that out of the goodness of his heart, though. If anything, he'd have done it just so Dumbledore wouldn't fire him," Lucifer said.
"It seems silly to disregard Professor Dumbledore, though," Hermione pointed out, "he trusted Hagrid and Lupin and gave them jobs when no one else would, and he was right to, they are both great teachers in their own right, so-" Hermione faltered, she hated and loathed Snape because of his treatment of Lucifer, and she claimed she would never forgive him, and she never did.
And if she was being honest, she wasn't that upset with Lucifer over defending her against Snape's cruelty when her teeth had grown at an alarming rate.
So was she really about to change her tune just to trust Dumbledore?
No, no she was not, so she didn't finish her thought because she no longer thought it to be true.
"Why do you think Crouch is pretending to be ill?" She changed topics.
"Who knows... but I've been thinking over some things we know about Mr. Crouch... and they just aren't adding up..."
"Oh, Morningstar," Professor Flitwick came up to them, "could you send some more pillows into the box without saying a word again? I'm so sorry to bother you with this, but it's truly a marvel to see a student below Sixth Year using non-verbal magic."
He sighed, "Sure, Professor," Lucifer said and didn't get to explain his thoughts as he went and sent more pillows into the box like the others were supposed to, and Flitwick was overjoyed to see it happen, and he gave Gryffindor Twenty Points.
Lucifer couldn't exactly complain after that.
xxxxxx
After Harry sent another letter to Sirius, explaining everything that had happened a couple days ago, he had one major problem ahead of him, "How am I going to survive underwater for an hour?"
"You could always use the Summoning Charm on one of those Aqua-Lung things from a Muggle Store," Ron suggested.
"Ron, that won't work, I mean it would, but Harry would be breaking the Statute of Secrecy by allowing Muggles to see it flying through the countryside," Hermione said, "ideally, the best case scenario would be to Transfigure yourself into a Submarine, but we won't be practicing Human Transfiguration spells until our Sixth Year... and it can go really bad if you don't know what you're doing," she said uneasily.
"Yeah, I don't think I much fancy walking around with a periscope on my head..." Harry sighed.
Lucifer was distracted with his thoughts and didn't have an answer for them.
For some reason, he kept thinking about the words Hermione might have said or not inside her brain at the Yule Ball....
"Lucifer!?" Hermione yelled, bringing him from his thoughts.
He looked over at her, "Hmm?"
"I asked if you had any input on how Harry can survive underwater for an hour?" She tutted, a little upset with him, but he didn't take it personally.
"Oh... well there's the Bubble-Head Charm, but a little difficult to pull off for most Fourth-Years, or there's Gillyweed, you'll just have to make sure you don't take too little or too much. If you were proficient in Potions, you could brew up a Water-Breathing Potion, because I'm not making it for you," Lucifer gave his thoughts on the situation.
"You really wouldn't make me one?" Harry asked, but the tone of his voice suggested he wasn't surprised, nor did he really expect Lucifer to.
"No, so that leaves the Bubble-Head Charm, or Gillyweed," Lucifer said, "and with how your performance with Charms has been as of late, I'd suggest the Gillyweed. You can ask Longbottom precisely how much to take, he excels at Herbology."
"You mean you're not helping him at all?" Hermione asked, her tone sounding slightly hurt.
"I'm sorry, I've got too much on my mind to be of any real use," Lucifer said and packed up his stuff, leaving them in the Common Room that evening and went to bed.
xxxxxx
There was a week left to go before the Second Task and Lucifer had been spending a lot of time alone or could only be seen around Hermione.
This didn't go unnoticed by Eve, as she had come up to Hermione and asked her about him,"Granger, I do not mean to interrupt, but is Luce upset with me?"
"Sorry, we both have been very physical lately. So, he just didn't get enough time to hang out with you," she said, trying to stay dignified in her response.
"Oh.....Oh, you mean?" Eve said sadly and left back to the Ravenclaw Table.
Movement from the Giant Oak Doors leading out to the Entrance Hall caught her attention, and she saw Lucifer enter long enough to get a plate of some toast, jam, and a Goblet of juice before leaving as quickly as he entered.
At least it looked like he was eating some, but Hermione was still upset for just leaving here.
She practically had to force arouse him to have fun with her at night.
She looked over and saw that Eve also saw him, and had stood up to go talk to him, but he left before she made it very far.
The Owl Post arrived and a copy of the Daily Prophet was dropped in front of Hermione.
After what had happened at the Three Broomsticks, she had been getting a copy of the paper every day to see if Lucifer had been talked about by Rita Skeeter.
She didn't even have to open the newspaper to see that it was in fact about him.
She paid the Owl, which flew away afterwards, and carefully opened Prophet to the next page, which she read quietly to Harry and Ron:
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