The first few days were really nice, and I didn''t enjoy school like this last year. Or at least, I don''t think so. All was great until it was time for our first Dark Arts lesson. I knew it would not be something nice because of the father and son duo, but I wasn''t expecting what would happen in the end.


    "From this year onward," Lucius explained the moment he strolled into the classroom with his fancy walking cane, "You will start learning what it means to use magic… the proper way." Just as he said it, Draco sat up straight, proud like a peacock, making my stomach turn. "Anguine! Come out!"


    "..." I only looked at Lucius once before shrugging, standing up, and feeling Quincy''s eyes follow my back with a bit of worry flickering in them.


    "Slow!" He tapped the stone floor with his cane impatiently.


    "Sorry." After a brief pause, I murmured, adding the last part, "Professor."


    "Your father is said to be a great duelist!" He continued with a sneer hanging on his face, looking down at me.


    "22 against 4," I answered plainly, and although nobody understood it, the change in Lucius''s expression, fighting hard to maintain his sadistic smile, filled me with satisfaction. It was how many times my Father won over him in their official duels.


    "Today''s lesson will be about proper dueling etiquette!" Lucian continued, pulling his wand out of his cane, waving it, and making space for practicing. It didn''t take long to realize I would be his partner in demonstrating how it is done.


    "Okay…" I thought to myself, feeling my blood boil, my anger rising. He wanted to humiliate me because he couldn''t do the same to my Father? Win a duel against me? I can take a lot of things… but this is ridiculous… I won''t play along!


    "A wizarding duel is to showcase two wizards or witches'' skills and can only be fought by magical means!" Lucian explained, standing at the opposite side of me, watching me perform the courteous bow that was required by the etiquette… not that he imitated me in response. I knew it was beneath him to bow to a student, especially to the son of his most hated colleague. Or rival, but I failed to see him as my Father''s equal. "All spells are allowed in a duel, but of course, this being a lesson, I will act accordingly!" He smirked, signaling to Draco, "There needs to be an official count to three! Son, if you will!"


    "With pleasure!" He grinned, standing up and coming close to us, wanting to watch my demise from the front rows. “3… 2… 1…!”


    I don''t know if it was because of the ritual, but I could perceive the change in Lucius''s eyes. The twitch of his fingers, the throbbing of the vein on his neck. I heard his heartbeat quicken as blood rushed to his fingers, gripping his wand. It was like looking at a slowed-down image, watching him raise it way before Draco counted to one. Already cheating? Like Father, like Son…


    My eyes were fixed on his hand movement, seeing his lips opening, and by the first syllable and the way he was raising his hand, I already recognized the spell he was trying to unleash. Confringo. Was he trying to blast me apart? Probably not… but that did not mean I would come out of this scenario uninjured. Multiple scenarios played out in my head before I decided to do the most sensible thing that would result in an easily explainable situation.


    "Protego!" I said calmly, doing the movements at the exact same time as he and raised a sufficiently strong enough defensive charm to deflect his spell… right into the face of Draco, who was flung backward, crashing into the tables and his cronies. His blonde hair turned black, the same as his skin from the burn marks and charcoal-like smoke from his ruined robes.


    "What are you doing?!" Lucius roared at me, making me raise an eyebrow.


    "Defending myself. What else?" I asked back, not looking at Draco. "Standing close to dueling wizards is a stupid thing to do. Spells do fly off to the sides and can hit people who are over-eager to witness it. It was the first thing MY Father taught me not to do."


    I saw him raise his hand again and noticed the rise of magic around him. I could smell it… taste it in my mouth, on the tip of my tongue. I knew that the next spell would be more potent and by what margin. My defensive charm would not hold up to it, so I made the next best choice and rolled to the side, dodging it and hearing it blast against the castle walls. If not for them being magically reinforced, I bet it would have blasted a hole in it.


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    "That is enough!" A voice interrupted us right when I was thinking if I should try and disarm him. Guess… not.


    "Headmaster…" Lucius said calmly, lowering his wand, watching the door where Snape stood silently, looking directly at him.


    "There was already a death in the school last year." He continued in an evenly paced voice, with so little emotion, I wasn''t sure if this was warning him or me. "We are not to make… a habit out of it."


    "Did you come here… to tell me this?" Lucius asked, feeling indignant about it.


    "No." The Headmaster replied, and I could swear I saw a faint smirk on his face. "I needed your son… as Death Eater, he has… responsibilities, which you should be aware of. Albeit…” This time, he looked at the unconscious Draco with unmistakable disappointment. "But I see that he is unavailable."


    And with that, he was gone. Of course, this sent Lucius''s mind reeling about what it had to be, probably scaring him as he left after Snape without saying anything, leaving me standing there like an amused idiot.


    "I guess… this means our lesson has ended?" I joked, smiling a little, feeling… great.


    …


    ….


    ……


    Two weeks later, things did not really improve regarding our Dark Arts lessons. I was singled out whenever a new spell came up, or it was time to practice dueling. Every… damn… time. I was getting more than fed up with it, and I was getting extraordinarily stubborn and combative. I spoke to Lucius with fake respect, and every time I made extra sure not to give him an inch. Not to back down… I started to wait in front of the class now, knowing I would be called out anyway. I stopped playing stupid games; it wasn''t funny at all.


    I was expecting him to snap soon and attack me with the intention to kill. I wasn''t afraid of that; I was waiting for it. It would be a good reason to get my Father and probably the Headmaster involved in this too. I wouldn''t resort to that if it was Draco who I was dealing with, but… I was cursed with putting up with the older Malfoy, of all things. Well… until that happened, there was another matter that I had to watch out for. One that was discussed with Quincy daily.


    We concluded that we would start the ritual of becoming an animagi at the first full moon in September, which is only a few days away. It should play out in a way that by the time November rolls around, we will surely have a storm to get done with it quickly. The only problem is if we screw up and get closer to November, it will be harder to find a clear night with the full moon shining. Oh well, we will get to cross that bridge when we get there!


    "Here!" Quincy gave me a tiny, little leaf.


    "This is it?" I asked, surprised at how tiny it was.


    "We scoured the texts!" She said, reassuring herself more than me, "None of the instructions stated how big the leaf must be! It doesn''t matter! The smaller, the better because it won''t impend our speech!"


    "Yeah, and we must keep conscious about it, not letting it slip out from under our tongue!" I shrugged, already annoyed with it.


    "Nobody said it would be easy!" She shrugged, flipping the mandrake leaf over and back in her palm while we were inside our hideout of the old divination classroom. "The difficult part will be when we are sleeping…"


    "I thought about that!" I stood up, bringing over a library book about jinxes, "Miblewimble. The tongue-tying curse! It gave me an idea, and I devised a new jinx!" I pointed my wand at Quincy, who didn''t even flinch, trusting me completely. "Lingua gluten!"


    The next moment I saw her surprise, opening her mouth while picking out a hand mirror, looking at her tongue in wonder. It was completely stuck to her jaw, and she could not raise and speak coherently. Revoking it, giving its freedom back, she chuckled while slurping back her saliva.


    "This will be nice!"


    "Only, we will be drooling like idiots!" I laughed with her, proud of my new spell, "Plus, it is perfect because you need wordless casting to use it! You can''t pronounce it otherwise! I will cast it upon us every night and morning; it should be fine!"


    "Extra fine! Plus, don''t forget the ritual''s incantation!"


    "Amato Animo Animato Animagus. I won''t." I assured her, "I''m totally not in the mood to start it over multiple times! Luckily, it has no ''r'' or ''l'' in them, so we can speak it with our tongue glued down."


    "But we probably will screw it up at first... Anyway, I have enough for ten tries! And I can get more going through Professor Slughorn! Oh, by the way, he mentioned to me that if you keep improving… you will also be invited!"


    "Oh? Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. That was… a surprise.


    "Your proficiency in the Dark Arts has been… noticeable."


    "Really now?" I murmured, surprised a little but also… not really. I just didn''t expect Professor Slughorn to care about it.


    "He likes unique people, and you are starting to pique his interest. He knows of your Father, although, back then, he wasn''t part of his… club."


    "My Father never was a good student. He was very plain in school… he came to name after graduation." I thought out loud, knowing well that my Father was, in all the sense, an average guy while going to school. Good, but not the best marks. Even in some courses, he barely passed. He made a name for himself by dueling… but only outside of school. In his words, the rules were suffocating him. It was not something he enjoyed when dueling. "Well… Now I want to keep it up even more…" I smiled at Quincy, "I am curious about what those dinner invitations look like!"


    "That would be great!" She exclaimed happily, "I hate going there alone… Especially when the older students start talking, I feel… sticking out like a sore thumb! Everyone else is already in their fifth, sixth, or seventh year! Ugh…”


    "Mhm… Then it is settled!" I clapped with a grin, "I will make sure he has no choice but to invite me!"