1st year

"Ugh... I can't believe Lockhart is our teacher. He is so snobbish!" Lexie complained. It was the beginning of the second term and Lexie always complained about D.A.D.A.. It was her favourite subject, she always loved to hear her father talking about the Dark Arts, and how to defend herself. However, Lockhart ruined it completely.

"Have you done your homework?" Ginny asked. "I did mine. I and my mom are big fans of Lockhart, and I knew all the answers to the homework!"

"Please Ginny... How can you like that man? He is so cocky and vain, it becomes nauseous!" Lexie replied. The two Slytherins went to the D.A.D.A class that they both hated and said goodbye to the youngest Weasley that definitely wouldn't mind to take that class in their place.

"Uh, look at me I'm so pretty even though I'm fucking useless and a complete idiot." - Vulchanov muttered as soon as she saw him. - "I bet that I know more spells than he does. In a duel I'd win easily, he probably doesn't even know what Avada Kedavra is."

"Come on, Lexie. Calm down. He might hear you." Frances advised and Lexie rolled her eyes.

"Hey, have you heard?" A small boy from Slytherin, Robin Collingswood, asked when they entered the classroom.

"About what?"

"They're starting a duelling club."

"Really?" Frances asked surprised.

"Tell me where and when and I'm in. And so are you, Frances." Lexie was happy and she didn't even try to hide it, she loved a good duel. "And no, you have no choice." She added as soon as she noticed the look in her friend's face.

"The first meeting is tonight in the Great Hall."

"Great! Thank you, Robin." Lexie said smiling.

The two Slytherins informed Ginny about the new club and at eight o'clock the three girls went to the Great Hall that was already almost full. Fred and George approached when they saw their little sister so Lexie and Frances decided to give them some time. They saw Malfoy in the middle of the crowd. Lexie started to pull Frances to come with her, and they moved towards him. "Hey" She said.

"Are you talking to me? I thought losers and babies were not allowed, how come you're here?" He asked teasingly.

"Shut up, Malfoy. This baby can kick your ass in two seconds."

"Oh really? I'd like to see that."

"Why? Do you like to embarrass yourself?" Lexie provoked but when Draco was about to answer, something shut him up.

"Gather round, gather round!" Itwas Lockhart that finally decided to appear. "Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works."

"As if." Lexie muttered, clearly annoyed.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape, he tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry — you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"I'm probably better than him, does that idiot really think that he's better than Snape?"

After all that talking they finally started the duel. Gilderoy made the countdown and as he reached three, Snape shouted "Expelliarmus." Lockhart flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall and collapsed on the floor. Lexie, Frances and Draco cheered among some other Slytherins. Everyone with a brain hated Lockhart.

"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart said as he got up. "That was a Disarming Charm — as you see, I've lost my wand — ah, thank you, Miss Brown — yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy — however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..." he immediately shut as he noticed the murderous look on Snape's face. "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me —"



"What do you think, Vulchanov? Want to pair up and show me how good you are?" Draco asked.

"Oh, no. Sorry, I hate easy duels." Lexie answered with a smirk.

"Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter." They heard Snape calling.

"And you always have Potter... How could I forget? Maybe The Boy Who Lived will feel sorry for you and give you a chance to win." She shrugged. Fortunately, she ended up with Frances.

"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents — only to disarm them — we don't want any accidents — one... two... three — "

The girls swung their wands high but before they could cast the first spell, they heard Lockhart shouting.

"I said disarm only!" Apparently, Draco couldn't resist attacking Potter. Both Lexie and Frances we're finding the whole situation quite funny because Potter used the Tickling Charm and Malfoy couldn't even move for laughing.

"Well, at least we can say he's happy." Lexie said between laughs.

***

"I can't believe you did it! What were you thinking, Ginny?" Lexie asked. Ginny was laying in her bed, crying silently. Frances was caressing her hair and sitting beside her while Lexie was walking around the room, a little bit stressed. Frances gave her a look, and she realized she was being a little harsh. "Don't worry, Ginny. Soon, nobody will remember..." She tried to help. "It was just a stupid poem... Sang by a stupid dwarf..."

"He will never forget that stupid Valentine's poem!" Ginny said with anger in her broken voice. She had written a Valentine's poem for Harry Potter... They all thought it was a bit... ungainly:

His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he's truly divine,
the hero who conquered the Dark Lord.

A few moments later, Frances got some chocolate and gave it to Ginny. They spent the rest of the night together, and both Frances and Lexie slept in the Gryffindor dormitory that night.

2nd year

Professor Remus Lupin was, in Lexie's point of view, the best teacher in Hogwarts. She already loved the Dark Arts but with him she liked it even more, if that's possible. Frances disagreed, her favourite teacher was obviously Severus Snape and everyone knew it. She liked Lupin too but no one could be compared to Snape.

"Isn't he a genius?" Lexie whispered in the middle of a class, talking about Lupin, as expected.

"Yeah, yeah but you don't have to say it every class you know? One or two times is enough." Frances laugh a bit.

"Yes, I do! Besides, you spend all of your time talking about Snape and I don't say a thing so it's my turn." The other girl defended herself.

"You don't say a thing because you don't even listen! And you're always telling me to shut up." Whitby argued.

"No, I'm not. But it's kind of repetitive. You're always saying the same. Lupin always has new stories, I don't only talk about his hair"

"More like fur" Frances replied under her breath and Lexie didn't seem to believe in what she heard. "What?" Frances answered as if it wasn't that much of a big deal "It's true. You know that both of us think he is a werewolf."

"Well, at least he doesn't have a dark mark on his left arm!" They were now walking out to the corridors since the class was dismissed. They didn't seem to care.

"You know what? I'm done. I can't believe you just used it against him. You're not even sure about that!!" Frances said walking the other way. "You sound like a Gryffindor."

"Oh dear, I'm not the one who was supposed to be in a different house." Lexie yell in an evil tone. For a moment, Frances stopped walking and the other girl waited for a comeback. Yet, Whitby didn't open her mouth and kept walking without even looking in Lexie's face.

***

It was a rainy Friday. Frances and Lexie were still mad at each other. They were both heading to Potions, in separate ways. Frances sat next to Ginny, who was finding the whole situation difficult to overcome, since neither Frances nor Lexie seemed to be ready to take the plunge. Lexie sat next to Robin Collingwood. Snape entered the classroom almost immediately, without any delay.

"Any of you, brilliant minds, know what this is?" In his hand was a small stone. Frances raised her hand, because she once had seen her brother studying that kind of stone.

"Yes, Miss Whitby?"

"It's a bezoar, Sir."

"Indeed it is. Now, what does it do?"

"It's an antidote for a lot of poisons, right?"

"Right. 15 points to Slytherin. In fact, a bezoar is an antidote, and it's a stone taken from a goat's stomach." He answered. "Today you are going to brew an Antidote for Common Poisons, in which the main ingredient is this little stone. The brewing instructions are on the board," with a wand flick, he wrote the instructions in the board "and you must finish it until the end of the class. Any questions?" Everybody remained silent. "That's what I thought. You may start."

Frances started, happily, preparing the ingredients for the potion. Ginny was quite nervous, but Frances told her if she needed any help, she could ask. In the opposite corner of the room, was Lexie. She was quite good, and the fact that she was in Slytherin also gave her advantages, so she was relaxed. Everybody was getting their ingredients. However, Frances thought something was missing... She went to the cupboards to get the ingredients, and she got the ingredients in the instructions and a few from her own thoughts. Essence of lavender, Honey water and some Mint Springs. When Frances was crushing the bezoar, Snape approached: "Extra ingredients?" He inquired.

"Oh... I thought it would make the potion even more effective."

"Who told you that?"

"Nobody... I'm sorry, I won't use th-"

"You should use them. I myself would use that." Frances relaxed a bit, with pride. "One thing you shouldn't do..." She started to worry again for a few seconds, sometimes she wondered why he spoke so slowly. "... is doubting yourself. I wish your brother was as good as you are in Potions."

That class made Frances feel a lot better about herself. She couldn't believe that she was afraid of Snape on her first year, now he was her favourite teacher and she loved Potions more than anything else.

"The class is dismissed. You may leave." Professor Snape said and Frances started to walk out to the corridors.

"Whitby. We heard what Professor Snape told you. What's your secret, hun?" A group of Gryffindors approached and Frances remained quiet. "You're not going to talk? What a shame. Guess we'll have to make you." The girl was frightened. What was she going to do?

"Back off!" She heard a female voice that she recognized as Lexie's. The group in front of her turned to see the origin of those words. "You heard me. Get a life! It's not her fault you're so stupid. Keep your heads in your books and get the hell out." Lexie said and the group started to move. She was quite... aggressive so people didn't like to get on her nerves. Besides, she was friends with Malfoy and that was something people used to take into consideration.

"Lexie, I thought you were mad at me..." Frances said confused.

"Oh, come on. You know I can't be mad at you for too long. And I don't like those guys anyway. You know how much I hate brainless people." Lexie said smiling a bit and Frances smiled back.