Sheer Dumb Luck

            Ancient Runes was uneventful, having already had that class in the future didn’t help with her boredom. Linda being there helped, but she was a Ravenclaw and Head Girl, meaning, she didn’t actually help ease Venus’ boredom at all, Venus is still a Gryffindor at heart after all. She always had a hard time sitting still and being quiet, made her friendship with the Weasley Twins all that better. And after that she just went to her next class of the day which was going to prove to be more challenging than the prior, Transfiguration. Not because she was bad at it, Venus was exceptional at it, but there were some other students there just as good as her, those being James Potter and Sirius Black, her father.

            She knew that seeing her father and godfather would hurt, for a multitude of reasons, she had her mind sat in avoiding them as much as possible, but that proved to be difficult seeing as Linda was not in this class, and Venus had no partner. Hence her present predicament.

            “Oi! New girl!” shouted a voice from the front of the class as Venus was searching where to sit, as she turned her head, she saw just what everyone meant when they saw Harry for the first time, James and Harry could be twins. Seeing Harry’s face in James’ made her feel more at ease for a second. At ease enough to respond in a surprisingly bored tone.

            “Yes?” she said.

            “Come sit with us, there’s enough space here!” James said with a welcoming but slightly mischievous tone as Sirius was staring at her with a curious look as well as a suspicious one.

             Venus didn’t know what possessed her to actually accept his invitation, but before she was able to stop herself and think properly, she was already sat next to the two Marauders.

            Trust her to just do what a Potter says, just like that. Like father, like son indeed.

            “Name’s James Potter, this is Sirius Black, we’re friends with Lily, she threatened us with a particular nasty hex if we didn’t keep an eye out for you during classes,” James said pointing at his black-haired friend and shrugging off, “and I am also Head Boy for Gryffindor so it is partially my job.”

            “Oh, nice to meet you both, name’s Elora,” said Venus while looking from one boy to another trying not to stress this so much, the less suspicious she is the less they will want to talk to her too much, “Lily found me roaming the Castle when I first arrived, she is rather sweet.”

            “She is isn’t she, she’s the best!” James replied with a stupid lovestruck vibe to him, that made Venus’ heart hurt a little bit more.

            As Venus opened her mouth to respond, Sirius spoke for the first time since the interaction started. “Are we related?”, he said looking a little pale.

            Venus let out a laugh that to them sounded surprised, “No, I lived in France remember? Not related at all.”

Oh the irony.

            “Are you sure? my family is French,”, he pressed, “we look like we could be twins, its creeping me out.” He looked creeped out alright.

            “Merlin Pads stop bothering the girl already! So, you two look slightly similar, nothing to stress over.” James said while laughing at his best friend’s spooked expression.

            “Pretty sure I would know if I was related to anyone in this school, sorry to disappoint but we are not related.” Venus said trying to keep her tone light.

            Just as Sirius was about to respond, Professor McGonagall entered the classroom and everyone went silent.

            Saved by the bell.

            And so, the class went pretty smoothly, Venus keeping to herself for most of it while the two boys leaned more toward each other, naturally. As she was one of the first ones to get the transfiguration required successfully, Venus spent the majority of the class thinking, meeting the most important people of her life has been easy enough so far, but she still hasn’t met her mother, and she will keep it that way by any means necessary.  

            Don’t jinx it, idiot.

            As the bell went off signaling class was over, she collected her thing as fast as she could and bolted out the door. Next was Potions and that was going to be torture for a multitude of reasons as well. Again, she wasn’t bad at the subject, however her experience having Snape as its teacher didn’t make for an enjoyable class for her. The man absolutely loathed her from day one, for the longest time for no apparent reason, until everything unfolded two years ago when her father escaped Azkaban and became a fugitive.

            The way from the Transfiguration classroom down to the dungeons was a extensive one, and Venus decided to take her time, making her a few minutes late but since she was “the new girl” that could easily blamed on the fact she didn’t know the way.

            “Oh! Miss Mayfield, did you manage to find your way alright? I am Horace Slughorn, Potions Master and Professor!” Said the professor in an animated tone that Venus was already losing patience with, and with a bored but slightly sarcastic tone she responded, “Well yes… Nice to meet you Professor.”

            While her interaction with the Professor felt like it dragged itself, she scanned the classroom and saw few Ravenclaws and fewer Gryffindors, it was clear from the amount of green and silver in the room that majority of the students were Slytherin. Yay.

            “The only seat available is the one on the far-left Miss Mayfield, you may partner with Mister Snape from now on, brilliant he is, as are you as I’ve heard from Albus, please take a seat!” Ah shit, of course she couldn’t catch a break.

            “Right…thank you Professor.” Venus made her way towards the greener side of the classroom in a tense stride, the last thing she wanted was to interact with any Slytherins from this time period, much less Snape. He already looked sour enough and she hadn’t even sat down yet.

            “Snape right? Mind if I sit here?” she asked in a lazy tone and sitting down not really waiting for a response.

            “Don’t have much choice now do I?” he said sneering at her almost the same way he did (or will do) 20 years from now. She heard muffled sniggering from his house mates around her. As she opened her book not looking at his direction she said, “Ever heard of a rhetorical question arsehole?”

            Thankfully Slughorn finally started the class cutting their interaction short, and for the duration of the class Venus had the chance to quiet her mind and focus on something else, while being taught by Snape wasn’t exactly the most peaceful thing in the world, she always managed to quiet down the world around her and do what she needed to do, she found it oddly relaxing.

             They each finished the potion in record time, the Professor congratulated them both saying “Well Mr. Snape seems like we finally found your match!” in the same animated tone as before. Snape grimaced at that. Venus tried not to.

As the professor walked away Snape turned to her and sneered, “Just because he said that doesn’t mean I need your help.”

            “Well clearly, my talent doesn’t diminish yours Snape, pull yourself together.” Said Venus with the same sneer in her face.

            Snape was about to star an argument went a voice came up from behind them, “Hey new girlie! Glad to finally meet you personally, you have been the talk of the school y’know. Name’s Adrien, Adrien Avery.” He said with a smile that made her skin crawl, Snape was friends with Avery? Awesome.

            “Pleasure. And I think this school has been lacking some interesting things happen if a random French girl is enough to ruffle everyone’s feathers.” The sarcastic tone and the blank face should’ve been enough to send the message, but no, because she heard a different voice talk. “Oh maybe, but one as pretty as you? Definitely ruffled all of our feathers, isn’t that right Severus?” She actually didn’t know much about him, which unsettled her even more.

            Sure, meeting part of the Marauders had hurt, but she knows them, they’re family, that’s safe, these guys however, besides Snape (who she didn’t actually know almost at all, much to her displeasure, she sure would’ve loved to blackmail him back in her original time line), she didn’t know them, knew nothing about them. They’re not safe. Mulciber was, though, for lack of better terms, tall, dark and handsome. With a mischievous aura to him, but Venus knew that looks meant nothing, she could feel things were off with them, even Snape, she had her hand twitching closer and closer to her wand by the second.

            And it seemed Lady Luck was on her side today after all, because Snape had no time to reply to Mulcibers’ jab, there was two more known faces in the classroom today, one already familiar to Venus, Lily, and the other made her want to dig her own grave in the grounds of this very school, made her hands start shaking slightly as she gathered her things to leave, made her want to puke. Marlene McKinnon, her mother.

            “Hey Elora, I’ve been meaning to find you, come here!” Lilys face was bright as she said that, a smile that could steal anyone’s breath away, but her eyes were sending a message to Venus many girls around the globe are familiar with, a rescue look, a get the fuck away from them look, Venus understood it immediately. “Sorry, duty calls, nice to meet you though.” She didn’t even wait for them answer, she just left.

            And so, Venus was wrong once again, Lady Luck is not on her side, she was not behind her, they’re not even in the same room together, this looks more like the work of Miss Misfortune.