The next morning, Lucifer was rubbing his eyes as he sat up in his bed at 6:30 in the morning.
He looked around at the other five boys, all soundly asleep in their beds. They had kept him awake until late at night, talking about how Harry and Ron had arrived at Hogwarts in a Flying Car, rather loudly.
Ron explained... they had apparently been seen by a few Muggles that the Ministry had to Obliviate.
Lucifer didn't know how much sleep he'd actually gotten, but he felt tired. For a moment his eyes flickered towards a nearby pen holder, coincidentally two quills were inside, his face darkened as he imagined springing em into life, transforming into ropes---that shot out and bound the boys tightly.
With a flick of his wand, he would turn quills into elongated, softened, and morphing into a whip, 'CRACK---!
"AAAGH!"
Just by imagining their screams, and howls in strucking sleeping backs, leaving Harry and Ron twitching in agony, other three wouldn't receive his mercy either.
Delivering a good dozen lashes each might make his mood better. Their twelve year old brains who wanted to have fun would probably find the meaning of silence at night difficult---
But a whip.... a whip would get the message across just fine, 'don't disturb Lucifer's precious sleep.'
Another round of ten lashes for good measures, if disobeyed again, he wouldn't feel anything stripping them down and hanging by the school gates. Before he really did get on with his creepy thoughts, Lucifer went into the bathroom their dorm room had and saw just how tired he was.
Dark circles plagued his eyes, and it's only because of Ron, that he woke up when Hermione was eating..... yeah.
Sighing he left and got dressed, going down to Common Room, finding no one down there. He was surprised he didn't see Hermione like promised, she was usually up bright and early on the first day, he remembered her saying that for every year in Primary School, she was always up extra early on the First Day, and last year on September 2nd, she was also up pretty early.
It was almost Seven when she made it down, "Late morning?" He asked her, raising his eyebrows a bit.
"A little bit, my hair was being unruly, even with Magic, so I had to painstakingly brush it for the past twenty minutes, I've been up since 6:30," Hermione said to him, sitting down beside him, "You look tired, did you... uh, not sleep well?" She's feeling a little nervous to ask this.
"It wasn't until sometime before 11 when I fell asleep..." Lucifer said, recounting last night and this morning when he woke up at 6:30 himself. 'It's okay.....'
"Those idiots!" she said with a sigh.
"Next time they are up at Eleven still talking, it's either the 'whipping' or I'm coming down here to the Common Room to sleep. It can't be worse than with those five loud mouthed morons," Lucifer said, closing his eyes as he leaned back into the couch.
It was so soft, he could almost fall back asleep.
"Well, beating 'them aside'... the Great Hall will be open now for Breakfast, let's go and eat, maybe that will wake you up?" Hermione said, standing up and holding her hand out.
He grabbed it and stood up, doing most of the work because, Lucifer knew she wasn't that physically capable of pulling him up, "I think the only thing that will wake me up is cold water splashed onto my face. You go on ahead, I'll meet you down in a little bit," he said and walked up the staircase back to his dorm and glared at all of these children before walking into the bathroom again and splashing cold water onto his face.
Sure enough, the shock from the cold got his senses going, but Lucifer still felt drowsy.
He'd just have to suffer for now.
He walked out of there and back down to the Common Room to leave Gryffindor Tower. Lucifer made his way down to the Great Hall and saw only a few people in there aside from Hermione, who was...
"I'm sure it won't be that bad, Hermione...."
'Thud, thud, thud'
"Don't you think you're overreacting a bit?"
'Thud, thud, thud'
"Hit your head against the table again and I will freeze you until the end of the day."
"Well that's just rude," Hermione said looking into Lucifer's face.
They were sitting at Gryffindor table for breakfast and just before Lucifer entered the Hall, Professor McGonagall was handing out their timetables.
Hermione had taken one look at hers and had immediately seen they had Defence Against the Dark Arts that afternoon.
The moment she had, the table and her forehead had begun to get well-acquainted.
"Now, you are just giving up without the benefit of doubt," Lucifer said, sliding a bowl of cereal under where Hermione'd just been hitting her head so she wouldn't do it again.
"I did try to ask him a question in Flourish and Blotts, but Lockhart just proved he was a waste of space!"
"Now, you are just straight up lyin-"
"I was about to! But, all he did was sign books and show off with Harry!"
"That's enough, calm down or I'll have to punish you....." Lucifer said, while glaring at the girl, who stayed quiet after hearing this.
"P-punish....why?"
But he just looked at her empty plate which now had a visible crack on it and then his bowl of cereal, she hadn't eaten anything yet.
It's not the first time, Hermione did this...."You haven't eaten again," he said, looking very serious.
A vein started to pop on her forehead, as her face darkened....
"I don't like this food," She said in a low voice, moving the bowl of cereal away from her. Only, for Lucifer to push it back.
"But Hermione it's important that you eat this. Can't always just wait until late....." Lucifer stopped himself in the middle, taking the girl's face with his hands.
"No, I don't wanna!" She said, while pouting, swatted his palm and then looking away on the side.
"Aren't you the one...who talked about eating breakfast just a whi-"
"I said that for you, not m- Hey, what are you doing Mmhh?!" Hermione yelped, loudly, when she saw Lucifer putting the spoon in front of her mouth so that, she could eat it.
Taking an annoyed peek at his outstretched fingers, she hesitated before she just closed her mouth and refused to bite.
"Open up." Lucifer said with a gentle tone. The bushy-haired girl just shook her head again, in denial.
"Open it and I'll give you a prize" Then, he even smiled at her.
Hermione thought about it for a few seconds and opened her mouth.
Lucifer put the spoon inside, and she ate the cereal, who then felt the boy kiss her on the cheek, making her face go scarlet the next second, flushing in embarrassment.
Hermione even wanted to fan herself, she was feeling a little too hot in the morning, not knowing the reason.
She really had to 'admit--Charms' were incredibly convenient, maybe even a little like cheating.
The utensil which had been shown a crack due to her mistaken fierce head butting just moments ago, was now completely restored after just a wave of Lucifer's wand. 'In the Muggle world, this kind of thing would be considered nothing short of a miracle....'
If not for the fact that time was clearly moving forward as normal, one might've thought they'd stumbled into some kind of forbidden time altering magic.
But the one casting the spell wasn't thinking about any of that. His mind was now stuck on two boys....
Only at this point, Harry and Ron showed up to Breakfast, with the other three Gryffindor Second Year Boys trickling in, and Lucifer glared at every single one of them, "Morning," he said to them as they sat down across from him and Hermione, not sparing them a second glance.
"What's his problem?" Ron asked Hermione, who now seemed very eager to finish her bowl.
"You five kept him awake till 11, causing him to not be well-rested. I'm rather angry with both of you two at the moment!" She said, while her right hand was busy, filling up a jug with milk to grow.
Ron didn't understand what she was on about, now.
But Neville from a few feet away tried to lighten the mood, "Mail's due any minute---I think Gran's sending a few things I forgot...."
That was a true statement. Neville was horribly forgetful, and also quite accident prone.
He wasn't the only one in a strange state that morning. All around the hall, many students looked pale and weary, showing the telltale signs of having pulled all-nighters. Summer homework was, without a doubt, the most pointless burden imaginable.
The diligent students didn't need it---they would study on their own anyway. The lazy ones wouldn't benefit from it either; the only thing homework gave them was sore wrists and the need to waste massive amounts of brain cells fabricating nonsense answers.
Lucifer strongly suspected that most professors didn't even bother reading summer assignments. Or if they did, it was only 'perfunctory.'
At least he knew Snape certainly didn't. During the Christmas holidays, the man had only graded Harry's homework---everyone else's had been left untouched.
Hermione, at least, looked fairly energetic in that regard. It was like she had downed two bottles of energy potion. Seeing that he appeared deep in thought, she didn't disturb him, quietly sipping her milk now poured with orange juice, instead.
Suddenly----
The late arrivals had all just started eating when the mail Owls did indeed arrive, circling Great Hall and dropping off letters and packages into the chattering crowd.
Harry caught sight of something small and gray falling out of the air. It bounced off of Neville's head, and because of his quick reflexes, caught it out of the air before it hit Hermione's milk jug, "It's an Owl with a red envelope."
"Errol!?" Ron said loudly as Harry gently laid the owl on the table. He seemed to be exhausted, his little chest was rising and receding at a rapid pace.
"Oh no..."
"What is it?" Harry asked him.
"My mum..." Ron seemed hesitant to speak, "Sh- She sent me a Howler..."
"A Howler?" Now, even Lucifer looked up at Ron, "Now I'm curious what it is," he said with a smirk, resting an elbow on the table and his chin in the palm of his hand, "Open it."
Ron was violently shaking his head.
"You'd better open it, Ron," Neville said in a timid whisper, "It'll be much, much worse if you don't. My gran sent me a Howler once, and I chose to ignore it and---"
Neville visibly gulped, "--it was horrible," he said with a shudder as he remembered the bad memory.
The red letter began to smoke, "Hurry up, Weasely, I want to see what it does," Lucifer was still smirking.
"Yeah, open that howler Weasely. I also want to know!" Even Malfoy encouraged Ron from the Slytherin's table.
Ron outstretched a hand and took it from Errol's beak. He opened it and Neville quickly plugged his ears, Lucifer immediately knew why....
"RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR!! WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY HAD EXPELLED YOU! YOU WAIT UNTIL I GET A HOLD OF YOU! I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE!?"
Ron was visibly shrinking in his seat, trying to make himself as small as possible; other House students were looking this way to see who received the Howler. "THE LETTER I RECEIVED FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME! WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS! YOU AND HARRY BOTH COULD'VE DIED!"
Lucifer looked over and saw that Harry was trying to ignore obnoxiously loud voice of Mrs. Weasley, that was right beside him.
"I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER IS FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT!"
At the Gryffindor table, every student looked stricken, their faces pale as parchment. Ron wanted to sink his whole head into his bowl of milk. The other Weasleys were flushed with shame, wishing the ground would swallow them whole.
Mrs. Weasley's voice suddenly went calm and gentle, "And Ginny, dear congratulations on making Gryffindor, your Father and I are so proud of you!"
By the time Mrs. Weasley's Howler screeched Ginny's name, the poor girl looked seconds from fainting, her face as red as her hair before going back to writing in what looked like a diary.
The letter then suddenly burst into flames and curled into ashes.
When the Howler finally burned away, hall remained locked in a suffocating silence for several long seconds.
Then---
"Pfft-! Hahahahaha!"
The silence shattered. Draco Malfoy stood up cackling so hard he doubled over, clutching his stomach.
"Weasley? Did I hear that right? Your father's job is under review?" he sneered between bursts of laughter.
"If he really does get sacked, maybe he can have a little chat with that half-breed oaf. Who knows? Hagrid might share half the gamekeeper's hut with him. Then 'yourfamily' could build a nice little shack out on the lawns!"
The Slytherin table erupted in raucous laughter, loud enough to rival the Howler itself.
Lucifer glanced over at the back. 'Say what you would about Malfoy--but that mouth of his was pure Wizard of the Century material.' His cutting words hit like a blade to Ron's weak soul.
The Weasleys looked murderous. If looks could kill, Malfoy would have been ash on the floor. Normally, Harry would have jumped up to defend Ron, diverting Malfoy's spite onto himself. But right now, Harry's mind was blank, still reeling from his own mention in the Howler.
He couldn't even muster a retort--just sat there drowning in guilt.
To Lucifer, it was nothing but 'well-deserved' humiliation.
Harry was an idiot--fine, that he could excuse. But Ron Weasley had lived in the wizarding world for twelve years. Not finding any other way to get to Hogwarts?
Either he was truly useless, or he thought driving a flying car was "cool" and used the blocked platform as an excuse. Either way, it was pure stupidity. And now, to be publicly executed in front of the school?
'Deserved.' Lucifer quickly finished his plate of crispy fried cod from Iceland.
But Hermione was pretty cool, just gulped down her milk, and looked down at Ron from across the table, "Well, I don't know what you expected, Ronald, but you---"
"Don't tell me I deserved it!" Ron snapped at her, sitting back up.
"Well guess what, you deserved it, you arsehole!" Then Hermione was also quite loud, her fuse was already very short, challenging Ron to continue with that tone of voice towards her.
Ron looked away, reading his schedule, they had Double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs first thing.
1 Extra Chapter - 150 Power Stone's!
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Author's Note
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It is also mentioned in the bio.
Bonus Up to Chapter 90 has already been posted there.
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