Chapter 11: Protection

"You better head off now, Lucy," Snape said later that night after all lessons were finished. "The quicker you're there, the sooner it will end." 

"Alright, I'll go. Wish me luck," she groaned. She waved goodbye to Snape and Shona and dreaded the detention more than she dreaded Snape and Shona fighting when she was gone. 

Lucy climbed up the stairs to the defense against the dark arts classroom, took a deep breath then knocked on the door weakly. She could do this. 

"Come in!" The annoying voice from Umbridge squeaked from inside the room. 

She placed her hand on the handle firmly and pushed down carefully and she was almost blinded with pink; the walls were pink, the decorations were pink and so was Umbridge. Lucy's favourite colour was pink but even she couldn't stand this much and she also liked cats but the pictures of cat's on the wall were starting to scare her a little. 

"Good evening, Miss Snape, it was good of you to turn up." Umbridge smiled, trying to be nice but Lucy knew that she was going to torture her every time they had defense against the dark arts. "You're going to be writing lines for me today — " Umbridge gestured to the desk positioned next to hers. 

Lucy sat down gingerly and looked at the parchment waiting for her, she rummaged through her bag and had just placed her hand on one of her quills when Umbridge stood up and placed one on the parchment for her. "Oh no, dear, you'll be using one of my quills today." 

"Can I have some ink, please? I knocked mine over earlier and I sort of need some more..." Lucy asked, she was toast now. Umbridge would keep her in her pink room longer than Lucy wished to be there. 

"You won't be needing ink. Now, you're going to write 'I will not be rude to teachers when I know Lord Zuc is not real,' I would like this written one hundred times." 

"But — " 

"If you refuse to do so, I will give you a week's worth of detentions." 

"OK..." 

Umbridge sat back down at her desk and Lucy took another deep breath, she had to keep calm. Lucy placed her quill on the parchment and began to write her lines. 

'I-will-not-be-rude-to-teachers-when-I-know-Lord-Zuc-is-not-real,' Lucy thought as she wrote and to her surprise the quill showed up on the paper even though she didn't have any ink. She continued writing and tried to annoy the pain in her hand, the sooner she got this done the sooner she could get out...

But by the time she was on her twenty-fifth line she couldn't take it anymore, she pulled up her sleeve and almost fell off her chair at the thing on her hand: I will not be rude to teachers when I know Lord Zuc is not real.

Whatever she wrote with this quill would appear on her hand, it would be written in her own blood. That's why she didn't need ink. 

"Good evening, Dolores," Fiona Wave smiled as she walked into Umbridge's office. She glanced at Lucy and then her hand, she then looked at Umrbridge again. 

"Yes, Miss Wave?" Umbridge asked. 

"Professor Dumbledore requests to see Miss Snape." 

"I'm afraid that will have to wait because Miss Snape is in detention." Umbridge smiled, Lucy growled under her breath threatingly although Umbridge couldn't hear.

"No!" Fiona yelled and Umbridge gave her a look. "It's urgent. She has to come now." 

"It cannot be that urgent, as the girl has landed herself in detention she must serve it."

"But Dumbledore protested that she must come and see him immediately."

Umbridge gave Fiona one last look before turning to Lucy. "Very well, Miss Snape, you are dismissed." She then added. "But I will be checking with Dumbledore that you most definitely went to see him!"

Lucy stood up with relief, clutching her left hand even though her right hand was starting to ache from writing anyway. Fiona led her out and as soon as they were halfway down the corridor Lucy slammed her against the wall and took her wand out. 

"I know Dumbledore really doesn't want to see me, so what do you want?" Lucy growled in her face so their noses were almost touching. 

"I got you out of detention! You should be thanking me!" Fiona squealed, this would be the second angry Snape she would have encountered since the start of the year. 

"I know you're Jessica Stone and I'm sure my dad does to, I'm sure he doesn't forget the person who almost killed him. What do you think?" 

"Wow, you Snape's aren't dumb..." Jessica laughed nervously. "Seeing as you are actually related to Professor Snape, it sort of makes sense." 

"Oh, so you know then? What else do you know about me?" Lucy narrowed her eyes. 

"Your full name is Lucy Eileen Snape, your real parents are Lily Evans and Severus Snape, your animagus is a doe, your patronus is a phoenix and your favourite subject is potions." 

"And where did you learn all this?" 

"Well, when I'm part of the resistance I have to know all about you." 

"OK, there's part of 'the resistance' and then there's being a stalker and I think you slot better into the stalker category." 

"Look, I'm sorry but I'm here to protect you and in order to do so I have to be with you at Hogwarts. What would happen if I wasn't?" 

"Nice try, you're going to find the orb and run back to Kingston and Zuc. I'm not as daft as you look," Lucy hissed and began walking back to the dungeons, clutching her hand, leaving Jessica startled for a second. 

"I got you out of detention, I was saving you from being harmed further!" Jessica yelled after her as she tried to catch up. 

"Well the damage is already done!" Lucy yelled back as she ran to the dungeons, Jessica following her every step, she wasn't going to lose this battle. 

When Lucy arrived a the dungeons she tried to slam the door in Jessica's face but she managed to squeeze in just before the door gave an almighty slam. Snape's and Shona's heads snapped up from their work as Lucy aimed her wand at Jessica again, showing her teeth. Jessica backed up against the wall and tried desperately to prevent Lucy from attacking her. 

"Leave-me-alone." Lucy growled through gritted teeth, saying every world slowly so that Jessica would understand. 

"Miss Stone!" Snape suddenly stood up. "What did I tell you about talking to my daughter?" 

"I'm protecting her!" 

"No you're not!" 

"Yes I am!"

"No you are not! Now leave! You are no longer welcome in the dungeons, and if I had my way you wouldn't even be allowed to step foot in this school again. We know what you are." 

Jessica approached Lucy and swiped Lucy's wand out of her hand, she was fed up of her threatening to kill her. Lucy aimed at punch at Jessica but she grabbed hold of her hand, and unfortunately it was her left hand; the hand with the writing. 

"Ow!" Lucy swore, she clutched her hand and glared at Jessica just as Snape disarmed her. "Was that really necesarry?" 

"I'm trying to protect you and all you seem to do is want to kill me! I'm head of the resistance!" 

"Wait a minute...what's that on your hand, Lucy?" Snape asked as he took her left hand gently in his and rolled up her sleeve. 

"It was Umbridge's detention, she had me write lines but it ended up on my hand...written in my own blood." Lucy sighed, she really wished she could forget about it. 

"That's going to leave a scar..." Shona winced and came over to look at Lucy's neat handwriting which was now on her hand for all to see. "Haven't you got any potions to heal it, Snivels?" 

"I have, but I'll bandage it up first..." Snape replied as he looked down at Lucy's hand which was in fact bleeding. Jessica covered her nose and tried desperately not to look at Lucy's hand. "In case any more accidents take place." He gave Jessica a look of disapproval.

"What do you expect? I'm a vampire. We feed on blood, although that Hogwarts food isn't half bad," Jessica muttered as she sat herself down next to where Shona had been sitting and Shona herself decided to sit on the other side of the classroom, away from the blood sucking demon. 

Lucy sat down next to Snape at his desk as he bandaged up her hand, while Shona kept a close eye on Jessica. The three of them really didn't trust her, no matter what she said she was. 

"It really hurts..." Lucy muttered as Snape finished off the bandage. 

"I'm not surprised, because like you said, it's written in your own blood. Professor Umbridge is not following the right form of punishment. She should have you write normal lines." Snape replied while he began rummaging through his draws until he found a potion. "Drink that, it will heal your hand." 

Lucy un-stoppered the potion and took it one gulp, she winced; almost all potions tasted disgusting.

"Hopefully it should heal within a couple of days," Snape said as he took the empty flask and shoved it back in his desk, amongst the other junk that lay in the draws. "Unless you get another detention of course, which I hope you don't."

"Even if she does, I'll try and get her out of it," Jessica blurted out. "That's what I'm here for, preventing you from harm. No matter how much you all hate me I'm trying to protect you."

"But why should we trust you when you almost killed us all?" Lucy asked, her voice was no longer on the edge and threatenging. It was softer and Jessica actually looked up and faced her, rather than staring at the hem of her skirt. "Would you want to trust someone if they killed or almost killed someone you love?"

"Not really...but I will do everything in my power to win your trust back again and I can swear to god that Kingston isn't back in the castle...and nor is Ryan, because he's dead..."

"Look," Lucy stood up then walked over to sit down next to Jessica. "I respect the fact that you want to protect us and I think it's very brave of you, but if I'm honest...we don't want your help. We're doing pretty well on our own, I mean have you seen Shona fight off bad guys?"

"I'm good at that, planning to take on fifty at once if they attack me," Shona winked and began to fantasize about destroying many members of Zuc's continuously growing army.

"I mean, I fought Lord Zuc at the start of summer. Got a lot of scars but I got out alive, we're getting stronger. I promise you." Lucy continued as Jessica shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

"I can see that it's hard for you all to understand but I really need to take on this role, I'm acting as a double agent and I need to protect you. I can understand it must be really awkward for Severus..."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. He can find other girls," Shona shrugged. "He got a date to the Yule ball last year, I don't think it's that hard for him...well, it was hard but I helped him so..."

"Look, Jessica," Lucy began again. "You can protect us all you like but it's going to take a lot of doing to get us to trust you again."

"I totally agree with you..." Jessica glanced at Snape who was watching her with careful eyes, in no way would he let her harm his daughter. "I can understand why you hate me but I promise to look out for you all, I promise to warn you if you're ever in danger or going to be in danger."

Lucy gave her a long look, as though she was seeking any lies beneath her disguse, Snape and Shona stared on eagerly waiting for Lucy to make a decision. They knew she wasn't the best fighter but they knew she wasn't thick and was very wise when making decisions.

But then, Lucy held out her right hand.

Jessica took it glady as Lucy confirmed. "Agreed."