The return of Lierre was also marked by the sudden move of the remaining Black family to France. More importantly it was marked by the rather unfortunate fact that Draco bloody Malfoy would be attending the same school as his cousin.

Lierre was thanking every god she could think of that they didn't have any more room in her class, and that he would be forced to go to a different homeroom.

He was bad enough in Hogwarts. She didn't want to deal with him another minute in the same classes.

She also didn't feel an iota of pity sicking Chloe on him, and telling her to use some of her worst behavior as a way to cut his rampant ego down to size.

Chloe had been a headache. Draco had been a bloody nightmare.

Tikki didn't ask what she had done in England. She had been keeping up on the international circuit through the twins and their copies of the Daily Prophet. (They charged extra for international deliveries, which required house elves rather than owls.)

The fact that the Kwami didn't hold any judgment for or against her was an honest relief. Apparently she understood that if something wasn't done, the death toll would have been higher.

Voldemort was still running around, but with information on the soul pieces and the knowledge that not only was Dumbledore doing nothing to stop it, but he was actively hindering his club from helping...well that had been the last straw for Amelia Bones.

It didn't hurt that Lierre had publicly named a proxy for dealing with the Death Eaters in her place. Madame Longbottom had never catered to Dumbledore, and with the Blacks backing her up officially, she finally had the push she needed to force the neutrals to clean up the mess Dumbledore had created.

It was in the form of a magical contract. In exchange for the vaults of the families that were wiped out for joining the wrong wizard, and the assurance that Dumbledore would be forced under oath to retire from any and all future offices with any influence over their society as a whole, Lierre graciously opened the floodgates for any families who had lost someone close to them in the last war.

And with how thorough Voldemort was with wiping out families, well, there were quite a few people who were only held back by the legalities of going out and murdering the ones responsible.

Finding out that Madame Bones wouldn't be prosecuting any deaths so long as it fell under the rules of blood feuds between families had opened the door.

Lierre left England with the knowledge that at least now they might get back on track. The old ways were somewhat outdated, but they still worked better than the crap Dumbledore tried to shove down the throats of the pure bloods.

When it doubt, go back to basics, from before the Ministry was formed.

And the best part of all was that Dumbledore couldn't stop it because they had been in place for centuries.

"So how was England?" asked Marinette. It was weird being Ladybug for a while, but at least Lierre thought things through.

"Dull, but on the plus side I made great progress cleaning up a rather irritating mess that my old teacher left for the new generation to deal with. And I have a lot of new orders from the girls at my old school."

"And what about the news of a new student coming to our school?" asked Chloe.

Lierre's sudden disgusted grimace surprised many.

"Please don't remind me of that pompous windbag. It's bad enough we're related. I'm just thanking any and every god that will listen we're not in the same class. He's much worse than you ever were Chloe," said Lierre miserably.

Chloe thought back to the two examples Lierre had given her to make her understand that she knew that most of her snotty attitude was a plea for attention from her father. Which is why she asked "Your cousin or the one who always threatened people with his father?"

"The second," said Lierre.

Chloe made a face. She had gotten even more stories out of Lierre about this Malfoy kid and had been glad to never meet him.

"Wait, wait, wait. What?" said Alya.

"My cousin (Lierre spat the word out like it was a disease) is someone who was ten times worse than Chloe at her bitchiest and on that time of the month. He always treated the smallest slight against his person by threatening to bring his father into it, all because of his position. Well now his dad's gone and he's forced to take his mother's maiden name. Which means he's going to be a complete headache to be around until he gets his head out of his ass," said Lierre miserably.

"Ouch," said Alya in sympathy.

"On the plus side, if he gets too annoying this time I can pull rank on his sorry butt and shut him down. And best of all his mother doesn't mind if I put him in his place, because his behavior was unbecoming for a member of the family," said Lierre vindictively.

As the head of the family, Draco had to listen to her now. Especially when she pulled out the title on him. He might be the Malfoy family heir, but that was only on paper. In the pure blood circles, family was practically everything.

And if he wanted to remain in the Black family, he would have to learn some much needed manners, among other things. Otherwise he might as well be a muggleborn.

And that was completely unacceptable to Draco.

All Lierre could think of the situation was "Payback is a bitch, and so am I."

"By the way, did anyone else get a text from the Lucky Ladybug about..." started Chloe, changing the subject.

"Shh! It's called a 'flash mob' for a reason!" hissed Alya.

"Flash mob?" said Marinette.

"Oh yeah, you don't subscribe to the Lucky Ladyblog," said Alya. It was tied to her site, the Ladyblog which had all the news and theories on Ladybug and her partners.

Lierre had asked Alya if she didn't mind tying the sites together to drum up business and web views. For every Ladybug or similarly themed outfit (there were also ones for Chat Noir, Chat Blanc, Volpine and Queen Bee), there was a link that went straight to Alya's page.

And for every person Alya's blog sent to the Lucky Ladybug boutique, Alya got a small commission. It wasn't much, little more than ten Euros for every person who visited the site through Alya's blog that bought something, but it was more than she got initially when she started the site.

"Actually my Lucky Ladybug has been going so well that I'll soon be able to open a second store in England."

"So soon? Aren't you worried about the store failing?"

"I have a...captive... clientele," deadpanned Lierre.

And by that she meant the purebloods, half bloods and muggleborns practically begging for a store where they could wear clothes that fit in both mundane and magical worlds. Until things actually started to change, her store was the closest thing the muggleborns had to a modern trend that they could wear in the magical society without being shunned.

Besides, gold was better than ephemeral paper money.

Félix approached Lierre about the 'new student'. One word was all he needed to know that the new kid was to be avoided at all costs.

"Malfoy."

Lierre's return couldn't have been timed better. It was class election time, and this time it would be rather... interesting. Everyone just assumed Chloe would be the rep again.

She had no interest in running this time around. While her self confidence had gotten back up, she didn't want to deal with that headache again.

However it seemed fate, and some girls who really didn't like the blond for her change of heart, had different plans.

"The class representative for this year will be Chloe..." started the teacher.

"WHAT?"

Startled by the sudden interruption, the teacher looked at her oddly.

"Ms. Bustier, I never signed up for class rep this year!"

"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it," said the teacher apologetically.

"Then can we at least chose other candidates so that I'm not stuck with the position by default?"

"Well? Is anyone willing to run for class rep?"

Knowing Chloe had reformed, and with the time turners Lierre had thoughtfully shared with the other heroes to make day-to-day life easier when they had to fight akuma, Marinette slowly raised her hand. To her surprise, so did Lierre.

"Marinette? Lierre?" questioned the teacher.

"I'll run for class rep," said Lierre.

Age old rivalry between Abeille and Tikki kicked in.

"I'll run as well. Might as well make this interesting, right?" said Marinette. Lierre winked at her.

"Very well. You'll all have a week to chose among the three candidates. Be sure to pick your vice-rep carefully."

Marinette looked at Lierre.

"I'm going with Alya."

"In that case I'll drag Félix into this and force him to help with the paperwork," said Lierre wickedly. Adrian, having overheard that comment snickered.

The next day...

Almost overnight posters of Chloe appeared all over the school. From the way she was ripping them down with a furious look on her face, some were beginning to doubt she had put them up.

"What the heck?" said Lierre.

"I came in and found these all over the school! I have no idea who put them up either!" said Chloe in her defense.

"I believe you. Come on, let's try and find out who dragged you into something you aren't inclined to deal with," said Lierre gently.

In the end, it was Lierre who found the culprits. She let her full Black heritage out to play and left the bullies crying and terrified of her.

No one pissed off a Black. And this reminded her a little too painfully of her experience in that thrice damned tournament. At least Chloe wouldn't be shunned by the entire school.

"Trying to be the golden girl again, Potter?" sneered a voice. It was Draco.

Rather than take his nonsense with quiet grace, Lierre suddenly found herself backed by the majority of her class.

"This coming from the boy with the lowest grade point average in the school?" sneered Chloe. Her old habits were kicking in, and she fully intended to put this dog in his place.

Draco seemed to pick up on the Queen Bee vibe, because he brought his full pure blood haughtiness to bear.

"As if someone like you would know," sneered Draco.

"As I recall, Draco, your father's precious family was kicked out of France with it's tail between it's legs by mere commoners. Even your family name practically screams that you're a sniveling coward," said Lierre viciously. Draco blinked, not expecting his old rival to be as catty as his mother during that time of the month.

"What's going on?" asked Adrian.

"Lierre is just putting this cad in his place. He shouldn't have butted in on a conversation," said Chloe. Draco just rubbed her the wrong way on so many levels.

"Oh look Potter, you have fan girls!"

Lierre glared at him.

"For the last time, bad faith, my name is Noir, not Potter. And you really don't want to push me. Unlike last time, there aren't going to be any teachers here to stop me from really expressing how I feel about your snide comments. Not to mention that pathetic teacher won't be here to cover up your bad behavior. Or that if you get kicked out of this school for being an ass, you'll shame the family. You're treading on thin ice as it is," said Lierre with a cold tone.

Draco couldn't hide the wince at the reminder. His mother had been quite clear on the fact that while the Malfoy family might tolerate his bratty behavior, as a Black he was held to higher standards.

And with his father Lucius dead, and the goblins withholding the inheritance until Draco came of age or passed his N.E.W.T.s he had to rely on the Black family.

The problem was that his rival Potter was the head of the family, and all the current Blacks agreed he needed to fix his behavior.

Bellatrix had been a mad dog, but Draco actively made the entire bloodline look weak and cowardly. Not exactly something an ancient and noble house wanted.

If he didn't shape up, he would make the Malfoy blood look weak, which meant he'd be lucky to get a proper pure blood wife of suitable breeding.

Draco reluctantly backed down. Potter... Noir, had won this round.

"What was that about?" asked Marinette.

"Draco Malfoy, my cousin...unfortunately. At our last school he practically ruled the place because his dad was on the school board and rich enough that he practically had a Minister in his pocket. It didn't help that the teachers turned a blind eye to his bullying habits, and one actively covered up his more...unpleasant activities. He got away with far more than Chloe ever dared to pull," said Lierre with a grimace.

"Seriously?" said Alya.

"He once used the British equivalent of the derogatory 'N' word from American slang to describe others he considered of lesser breeding, and not once was he punished for it or given detention. However a lot of things are different now."

"Different how? Because no offense girl, I would pretend we weren't related if he were one of my cousins," said Alya.

Lierre's grin was vicious.

"For one thing, his father's family was chased out over a century ago from France. And now he has to live here despite the bad blood left behind. Which puts him on the lowest of the low in the high society ranks. Another is that while he's the heir of a slightly old family, he can't inherit squat until he's at least seventeen or emancipated. The thing is, until he turns seventeen, he's completely dependent on his mother's family name. And I happen to be the HEAD of said family. Which means he has to at least behave or I cut him off and leave him destitute. It also means he'll have a very hard time getting a wife later on."

"Sounds overly complicated and silly," said Marinette.

"Eh. The nobility might have faded into obscurity, but until it's abolished completely there are still enough remnants that take it far too seriously. And until that happens, if he annoys me too much his ass is mine," said Lierre viciously.

Yes, she was taking far too much enjoyment having control over her former rival, but at least she wasn't abusing it like he would have. She was going to teach him some humility and respect if it meant forcing him to bow down and call her "Queen Noir".

Later that night...

A hooded figure sneaked into the school. They had only one mission...to destroy or cover up those stupid posters.

The moon peaked from behind the clouds, granting light to the courtyard while the figure was busy at work. Two faces were seen from their place over the posters of Chloe.

Marinette and Lierre.

When the figure turned, it was not who one might expect.

Chloe was the one putting up the posters. She didn't want to be class rep this year, and she definitely didn't like being forced into the running by the same girls she once considered acquaintances.

She just hoped Lierre and Marinette didn't get into trouble for her replacing these stupid posters.