✧THE YOUNGEST LESTRANGE✧

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Lorelei Lestrange had been absolutely flourishing in being deemed a Slytherin, course it had a lot to do with her parents and their reigning status over the pureblooded kingdom. Both she and Rosa were a rather deadly pair, and she realized the standards of being a Ravenclaw were far too stressful to take into consideration.

"Did your mum send cookies?" Lori asked, taking a peek to see what Rosa had got as a package and she earned herself a fitful nod. "Yes, but papa's peeved over the ministry too. They're being difficult," Lori nodded along, McNair had taken a position at R.L Attorneys and it allowed their fathers to work together.

Course, there seemed to be a new case every day, not to mention it meant they could see each other frequently throughout the summer months.

In spite of having a free period, she had been called by her head of house—And while she thought it wasn't that big of an issue, seeing the room completely empty with only the professor was starting to make her nervous.

Rosa gave her a small smile of encouragement before booking it to their dorm room, no blame at all—Lori wanted to do the same. "You called for me, professor?"

Of course Severus knew that the young Slytherin had entered his classroom, and yet he finished scribbling his sentence before giving her his attention. "How have your studies been going in your other subjects, Ms.Lestrange?" He questioned, and Lori did a mental recap.

"A-alright...I suppose."
"Just alright?" He questioned and she bit her lip, so he sighed and held up her recently submitted assignment. "Let me rephrase myself, how do you think you're doing in potions?" That instantly made her grim as there had nearly been a 'T' on her parchment before he crossed it out.

"I understand that you're coming from the American system of equation, but that hadn't been an issue for the rest of your siblings."
"Course, they're brilliant and I got the short end of the—"
"Ms.Lestrange." He sighed once more and placed the parchment for her viewing and marked the beginning portions.

"You explain everything with ease, you've done the research. All you must do is refrain from using any of that American nonsense that you've been taught." Well, it wasn't as easy as she would've liked to admit, and as the frown appeared onto her face, Severus understood the difference.

"Whether or not you were born in this country or theirs, this cannot go on much longer. We're at the end of October."
"You wouldn't happen to know how Romulus or Cara do it, would you?" He shook his head slowly and Lori sighed as she gripped the paper once more.

"You didn't tell my mother or father yet, have you?"
"Not yet, but if this continues to persist—I cannot allow Mistress Lestrange's daughter to receive a Troll, I simply couldn't do it." She offered a kind smile and nodded. "I'll work on it, I promise."

"No. You will ask your brother or sister for aid, otherwise I'll be forced to appoint them as your tutor."
"But they'll tell mum!" She shouted back, her small fists curling as she fought back the tears, mum was already distant with her letters ever since she had been placed into Slytherin, this would just be the last bit of hope she had left!

While not completely true, it was hard to compete with Rabastan's shower of approval when Aurora hadn't even done that with her own flock of birds.

"You will redo the assignment and write an extra excerpt explaining what you did wrong, I am not here to punish you, Ms.Lestrange. But if you cannot start here, it will only get harder." He wasn't here to be the enemy, and Lori knew it. But asking any of her siblings was basically the same as committing a sin in their eyes, and thus she hurried to her dorm—Thankful that it was empty.

Taking a further look at her parchment she huffed to see the red ink all about it, goddess this was going to be a nightmare. But then an idea popped up, she hurried to her trunk and fished out the beautiful silver mirror that her Uncle had gifted her.

In peeking at the clock she did a rough estimate that Uncle Reggie would be on break or even at home.

She tapped the glass in the corner, and after a moment of no response, she pouted. It wasn't that much of a surprise, however the small rippling waves had caught in her sights as she squealed. "Uncle Reggie!"

"I'm sorry love, I was with a student...Is everything alright?" The soft voice of her uncle had felt so soothing, course she wrote to him and the rest of her cousins but she felt much closer in this moment to family than when she sat beside Ronan.

"Professor Snape gave me back an assignment...He saved me from getting a Troll—Goddess what do I do? Mummy's going to kill me!" She said close to tears and Regulus had narrowed down to the device and faced it towards himself. "Love, I can promise you your mum would adore helping you."
"But she asked all summer and I told her I was alright!"
"And I've said that countless times, it's different when you really need it. And if you don't want to ask your mum, what about Romulus? Or even Ronan?" She huffed, rubbing her eyes, leaving her face to sour even further.

It's what Snape told her to do too.

"You know when I first came to America, I had to adapt to all these sorts of strange sayings and damn those calculations. We're met with the opposite struggles love, and there's nothing to worry about. Asking for help isn't something to be scared of, I asked your mother countless things before Saros came."
"But mum already thinks I'm thick as it is!"
"Now where on earth did you get that?" His question had caused her shoulders to drop, and the young Slytherin Lestrange child had sniffled once again.

"Ah...I know what this is. It's being the youngest, am I correct?" In seeing his niece pout further caused him to chuckle. "Love, I'm the brother of a world-renowned potion mistress and what am I?"
"You're a brilliant professor!"
"And?"
"I'm just a student!"
"And nobody is asking you to perform your NEWTS at the moment darling. Would you feel better if I ask Phoebe to send you a bit of help?"
"Not really...I need it done sooner than that." He nodded and asked what it was that she needed help with, and the face he had made when she recited the prompt and the added question of what she'd done wrong caused a look of horror on Regulus' face.

"If I knew how to help, Lolli, I would. But I think your siblings would love to help you. Romulus especially. It isn't about being the smartest or outing you for being stupid because you aren't. But he is there to help you, I've asked my brother for some things that I wouldn't your mother and vise versa."
"Did Uncle Paddy laugh at you?"
"Not at all, and if they say anything I'll sort through it. Promise. But not doing anything will just be worse in the long run." She nodded and thanked her uncle for talking with her, and of course he smiled.

"Speaking of my brother...How is it over there? How is Romulus?"
"Some of Gryffindors gave him a dirty look here and there, but he's friends with a few in his year. Other than that and the Dementor or Auror accident. It's been alright." Regulus nods and runs down the list, smirking and sharing his congratulations verbally about her being sorted into Slytherin.

"I bet your father is proud."
"He is, he's sent a bunch of Slytherin things already. And Ronan stood up and gave me his seat after I was sorted." She said with a bright smile, and Reg had followed with a laugh.

The conversation didn't last much longer as he pushed her to go and seek out her brother. Cara of course would be just as helpful, but part of her knew that what her uncle said was right. Funny enough, it hadn't been that difficult to find the bloke.

Not when his prefect status gave him lesser of the few places to station at, today was located in the library—Which would be perfect.

However, now that she had the time to think about what was going to happen, she lost her courage and stood just behind the bookshelf watching him through the cracks. Looking down back to the question she'd written as Professor Snape had assigned—She felt the previous stress in trying to conjure up the correct answer.

It made her physically ill.

With another huff she moved her feet towards her brother with her books clutching her chest. "Hey Rommy...?" She questioned and his head instantly looked up, once he took the second to recognize her—He smiled.

"Hey Lori, what's up?" Goddess, why did he have to be so nice? The small smile he'd given her was something she'd grown up and recognized easily on her Opa and Uncle.

Making it that much more heart-wrenching.

"I um...I need some help with an assignment. If you're busy then—" He didn't hesitate to push aside his own work to pull out a separate piece of parchment and pull out the chair beside him. "Come on hun, what subject?" Romulus should've realized with the face she'd made and he sucked in a breath.

He scanned it for a moment, trying to ignore the grade and seeing where she was having trouble. "Do you have your textbook?" She nodded and produced it out from her satchel and flipped to the page they've been working on.

"Professor Snape said I had to get help otherwise he was just going to place me with a tutor." "Which would've been me anyway, it's alright. Imara had a bit of trouble too her first year."
"She did?" Romulus didn't expect an instant relief to grace her worry lines.

"Course, there's no need to be discouraged. Look, you've gotten half the assignment correct. You know the potion, it's just when it comes to brewing it'll take too much time if you're trying to make the correct measurements. Probably burn it in that time."

In the next ten minutes, Lori had learned more than she had from her brother's instructions than what she'd try and figure out on her own. And in another twenty, she had the assignment completed, in her own words because Romulus loathed cheaters, but Lori wasn't like Imara where she'd copy.

"I should've brought my conversions notebook, it's at home."
"It's alright, Snape said I should just get it out of my mind anyhow." Romulus didn't want to say that her efforts had been worthless, but he simply relaid the idea of being universal no matter where she was in the world—it was still useful information, just not in relation to what's being taught here and now.

With that being all said and done, Romulus had offered to walk her down to the kitchens for a bite to eat considering that either of the Lestrange children had worked up an appetite.

Lori had been honest like Uncle Reggie had told her to be, and she was thankful that he'd spent the time relaying his own experience in not being the smartest at her age or how being the youngest wasn't always the easiest. Sure she'd get the most attention from her mother and father, but now the expectation still rang high—if not higher.

She simply didn't want to disappoint anyone. And Regulus couldn't believe how much of his sister managed to pass down to her children.

In the midst of their conversation, Ronan had managed to sneak up behind Lori and pull his hands over her eyes. "Merlin sakes Roe! Cut it out!" She shrieked and the brothers laughed. "How'd you know it was me?"
"The rings." She said with a small tap to the Lestrange emblem that the whole family wore.

Curtsy of mum's hobby.

Ronan hadn't had any lunch yet either, and Romulus ordered him a bit as well. Knowing that Ronan had a bit of a time to forget eating as well. Upon that, Lori explained what happened with her meeting with Professor Snape, since Roe had been the one to tell her he wanted to speak with her.

And while Ronan wasn't going to excel potions anytime soon, he too offered his advice if Romulus wasn't available and Lori sighed in relief.

"I just don't understand how mum does all this nonsense and I can barely handle a simple bloody equation." She claimed, pushing around her Shepards pie with a small pout.
"Lolli I can barely comprehend with this one and Cara does on a basis, it's alright...Really, you're not expected to just know it. And Romulus didn't know much in the beginning ether, he learned and spent his time trying to learn it." Roe concluded and Lori peeked to see if her eldest brother did indeed follow suit.

"That and I was beside mother for most of it, once you find your subject you'll do the same." "But I don't have a subject!" She said with another groan and Ronan chuckled.

"Neither do I, and you're going to start stressing me out. So quit worrying, eat your damn meal and let's get on with it, yeah?" With the firm touch that Romulus was struggling to find, he nodded to his brother in thanks.

Clearly, this was much more than not understanding a potion's formal. It was simply the stress of being Madam Lestrange's children that started to combatten in mind of Lori.

Perhaps being in the heart of Slytherin wasn't as all dandy as she thought.

Romulus had switched up the conversation on the inkling that Lori was going to be playing Quidditch next year and that brought her smile back. And while she did want to try for Keeper or even seeker. The only issue with that is the Slytherin team already has one.

However the sudden opening of the kitchen's door had caused them to turn. "Oh bless it! We have a situation." Imara called out, and just behind her was Cara—Who looked sickly pale.

"What happened, what's wrong?" Romulus said, standing to his feet and coming closer to the bother of them, gripping Cara's shaking hand.

Yet the quiet 'how did they we were here,' from Lori had escaped Romulus' mind.

"The Gryffindor Common room was broken into." 

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Date Posted: 04-04-2021

Time: 1:10

Words: 2621

Author's Note:
My new guilty pleasure fic is now live and it's called -Undoubtedly Yours- with a Prologue posted, not sure about a posting schedule just yet but I'm excited! I think it's safe to say that that I adore the Black family.

In addition, I've been playing around with some new Immer covers because I was told they look a little childish. So don't panic if they look different in the next few days, I'm going to experiment and play around with some new ideas;)

On a much funnier note, I went thrift shopping the other day and I was talking to my mom and out of the corner of my eye I saw two wand boxes--I now have an Olivandars ashwood wand AND Sirius Black's wand for 8$ each.
To say I'm a happy camper is an understatement.

Until next time, stay safe and enjoy your weekend!