*Edited as of 09.04.2017*
I know that it's really early in the year to have a Hogsmeade trip and I've been tossing up whether or not to delay it, but I decided not to. Please forgive me for it
Thanks to everyone who's been following/favouriting and commenting on this story. The more intricate plot lines are still a bit sketchy but I think I've got a vision for the plot more long term now which is always a good thing.
I went on Pottermore and read up on wand types so I could give Lyra what I think is a perfect fit ... If anyone's interested in why I gave her the combo she has all the info is on Pottermore or drop me a note and I'll let you know :)
But, as they say, on with the show…
'For the mission to run the smoothest possible course it was a … necessary requirement that your mental stability be compromised,'
She stood in the middle of a narrow hallway. Everything seemed to tower over her so that she had to strain her neck slightly to see the many heads that hung along the wall, which were mere silhouette's in the shadows.
From somewhere down the halls, echoes of sobbing drifted towards her. It was a pitiful sound, choking and whining. As she stood there she had the strange feeling, like that noise was pulling at her. But she did not want to go to it. She was afraid of what she might find, why would someone cry like that, as if they were in pain, but from deep within them?
Suddenly she was half way down the hall and the sobbing had reached an ear-splitting pitch. Then she was by the door at the end of the hall, the sobs full-blown shrieks of agony and desperation.
She threw her hands over ears and made to peer into the room when the shrieks changed all at once. Removing her hands, she found that the cries had stopped, replaced with delighted, tinkling laughter.
Cold fear flooded through her, rooting her to the spot where she stood. Strange that she should have such a reaction to laughter and not screaming. A young boy with shoulder length black hair came skipping from the room. Her panic peaked when the boy turned to her on his way past.
He had no face.
Where eyes, a nose and mouth should have been, there was nothing but an expanse of smooth skin. It reminded her of a mannequin's head. But without a doubt, the laughter that continued to ring was coming from this faceless boy.
When the boy was half way down the hall, he stopped suddenly and turned back around.
She would have bet anything that if he had had eyes, he would have been looking right at her.
'Come on!' The voice came from the blank head. 'It's this way.'
What was? She looked around, then back to the boy. She recognised the setting now. She was in Grimmauld Place. But who was this boy supposed to be? Why had he been crying so horribly? Had he done something bad? She didn't want to get in trouble.
The boy sounded excited now though. It would be rude of her not to follow, yet she still felt that dread snagging some corner of her mind. He was just a little boy, what harm could he do?
She made to move to follow him but her feet wouldn't move, everything from her ankles to her toes felt unbelievably heavy. Looking down, she gasped.
The floor below her was no longer solid. It was pulling her down quickly.
She tried pulling her feet out but it was no use.
'Help!' She called to the boy. The floor had reached her knees. 'Help me!'
But the boy did nothing but faced her as she struggled.
She descended into complete hysteria as she sunk further and further. She called out to the boy, pleading, begging for him to help her, but he didn't move. For some inexplicable reason, she had the feeling that, if he had a mouth, it would have been curling up into a sinister sort of smile.
The floor was now at her ribs. She felt it surround her ribs. She couldn't breathe. She clawed at the ground, her nails digging into the polished, wooden floorboards. But still she sank.
It was at her shoulders now. Her arms were trapped. Her throat was closing up. It was getting harder to see. She couldn't move. Why wasn't he helping her? She squeezed her eyes shut as the floor consumed her.
Lyra jerked from the bed. She was covered in sweat, her pyjamas sticking to every inch of her body they covered.
There was no way of ignoring it any more, her dreams – her nightmares – they were getting worse. It took her hours to fall asleep now and when she did it was restless, always teetering on the edge of consciousness and a light layer of dozing. And even if she were lucky enough to find any sort of deep sleep it would be filled with cryptic and frightening dreams. She was lucky to be getting three hours sleep a night now.
But she did what she'd done all the other nights, rubbed her face – rubbed the lingering memories of the dream from her mind – got out of bed, revelled in the hot water and steam of her morning shower, packed her bag for the day ahead and left for breakfast. The one thing that hadn't seemed to escape her was her appetite. Every time she jerked awake from a bad dream, or even after she'd simply laid in bed with her eyes closed for most of the night, she found herself famished.
She took the space between Remus and Lily. James, Sirius and Marlene sat across from them, with Peter sitting next to Remus.
It didn't take her long to realise that they were discussing the upcoming Hogsmeade trip.
'Well I wasn't going to go …' Lily said meekly trailing off.
'But then I convinced her that if she didn't get out of this place every once in a while, she may actually go completely stir crazy.' James looked awfully pleased that he'd managed to change her mind on the matter. Actually, he probably would have looked pleased to have influenced any decision the red head made.
Marlene's eye roll and muttering at this wasn't missed by Sirius who leaned back in his spot on the bench to look at her. 'What was that, McKinnon?'
Marlene leaned back. She looked at him steadily for a second, not saying anything before she faced the others again.
At least there are some things that have stayed the same, Lyra thought, watching the exchange as she heaped a pile of scrambled eggs on to her plate. Those two need to have a row and soon, or they'll both drive each other insane.
'How about you Lyra?' Lily asked. 'You planning on going?'
Lyra nodded whilst she chewed. 'I was actually,' she said, swallowing. 'I have to admit, they've gotten better the last few trips.'
From beside her she heard Remus huff out a smile as he focussed on cutting his food.
Marlene narrowed her eyes at Lyra, who simply answered the look with a small, baiting smile.
XXXXX
'Alright, I want everyone to split up into pairs and spread yourselves around the room,' Professor Antone called out to them one cold Wednesday afternoon.
Complete control, you're in complete control.
Lyra had found herself thinking this exact phrase for quite some time now. If she were being honest with herself it had been growing louder and louder ever since the Hogwarts Express had pulled into Hogsmeade Station. And as much as she'd like to keep trying to convince herself that it was bringing her comfort and not annoyance, it was becoming more and more difficult to do so.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the only thing she'd been finding difficult to ignore. The bizarre conversation that had taken place during her detention with Dumbledore, not to mention the even more odd encounter with his phoenix – the one she was still feeling the effects of the next day – the wounds around her middle, which were requiring more and more attention – she had taken to stopping in at the bathroom between classes to check them, heal them when necessary. Add in the stress of Sirius' elusiveness, Remus' recent transformation and the conversation she'd overheard between Lestrange and Regulus, Lyra was battling a constant throbbing, all-consuming headache.
Lyra and Marlene worked their way to the back corner of the room. The churning feeling that had started in Lyra's gut from the moment she'd entered the classroom and saw that the tables had been pushed to the sides, grew worse when Antone instructed them to walk ten paces apart and then turn to one another.
'Wands out.'
Lyra clutched at her Acacia and Phoenix feather wand tightly as she faced Marlene.
She was only half paying attention to the Professor as he reminded them on the correct way to perform the disarming spell, to which they were attempting to do non-verbally. Apparently he'd realised that the subject had been one of their least consistent, what with his predecessors being many and varied in their teaching methods. For the last few weeks he'd had them going over the basics, a very welcome surprise for Lyra who was very much hoping that it would last just a bit longer.
As per usual, however, it didn't seem as if her wishes were going to be granted.
You're in complete control. Just breathe.
The familiar warmth had started pulsing in the veins along her arm. She was fighting the urge to look down at her fingers as she willed the warmth from her fingertips to flow in small trickles into her wand. Like drops from a leaking tap, or morning dew off a heavy leaf.
'You may begin,' Antone's voice called out. 'One person from each pair at a time, if you please,' he said, casting a narrow glance in the direction where Sirius and James stood, smirking at one another.
Lyra raised her arms slightly, tensing them, preparing them, nodding for Marlene to go first.
It took several attempts on Marlene's part to disarm Lyra, who kept glancing at the clock on the far wall, willing time to go faster. Lyra was so focussed on the time that she hardly noticed when her wand was sent flying from her grip, landing with a clank on the ground between herself and Marlene.
'Good attempt, Miss McKinnon,' Antone, who had been moving from pair to pair, said in a silky sort of voice. 'You still need to practice however, Miss Black's wand should have reached further than that. Carry on.'
Lyra slowly went to retrieve her wand. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Sirius and James – who had been successful in non-verbally disarming each other – were now attempting to disarm Remus and Peter who stood on the other side of the room.
Antone followed Lyra's gaze and hurried off in their direction.
Although thankful she no longer had an audience, when Lyra had returned to her position and faced Marlene once again, she felt extremely nervous.
Still focussing intently on trying to maintain that small, steady stream of warmth leaving her fingers she raised her arm, pointing her wand at Marlene's.
She breathed deeply, willing all her concentration on the spell and her wand movements. Expelliarmus.
Marlene gave a yelp of pain and clutched the hand her wand had been in to her chest, as if it had been burnt. Her wand was merely a blur as it passed through the air, landing quickly in Lyra's wand-free hand.
Lyra's eyes went wide half from shock, and half from the dull, aching pain throbbing down from her shoulder to her fingers. Her shock, thankfully, outweighed the pain and pushed her over to see if her friend was alright.
Marlene was still cradling her hand by the time Lyra had reached her.
'Merlin Marlene, are you alright!?'
Marlene shook her head. 'I'm fine, Lyra. I'm fine.' She flexed her fingers, demonstrating, though Lyra didn't miss the slight wince that flickered across her face as she did so.
So much for being in control. Lyra raised her head, looking around at the other pairs. A seed of bitterness burst when she realised that everyone was practising without incident. She was just trying to school her features into anything but a scowl when her face fell completely.
From the other side of the room, standing next to a strained-face Constance Gretchen, stood Professor Antone, staring right at her.
He had seen the whole thing.
XXX
'Really, Lyra, I'm fine!'
They were making their way to their next lesson – Care of Magical Creatures, with Professor Kettleburn – and despite Marlene having repeated this statement at least ten times within the last half hour, Lyra just kept on asking if her hand was alright. She knew that she was starting to get annoying and she knew that Marlene was almost at the end of her patience.
'I don't understand,' Dorcas piped up from beside Marlene. 'What happened again?'
'We've told you,' Marlene said, rolling her eyes, 'Lyra got the spells mixed up.'
Lyra tried to look sheepishly at the two girls. If only they knew that it was for exactly the opposite reason that she'd hurt Marlene.
She saw the familiar look of pity in Dorcas' eyes. It wasn't all that much of a secret that Lyra had always struggled with wand work. 'At least you got something out, though.' She snorted. 'Better than Gretchen. Did you see her? I've never seen a redder face in my life!'
'I have! But then they usually need my help to look that way.'
Lyra winced a little as Sirius threw his arm around her shoulders. He was smiling goofily around at the group and Dorcas had to eat her words as her face bloomed a bright red when he threw her a wink.
The twins had, over the past few weeks, started talking more and more, but as much as they were trying to ignore it, there was still tension there and neither twin quite knew how to get rid of it.
'Excuse me ladies, d'you mind if I still Lyra for a few moments?'
'Uh …'
'What Dorcas is eloquently trying to put into words is, not at all, Black,' Marlene drawled before pulling Dorcas further along the corridor.
It didn't take long afterwards for the entire corridor to empty, leaving Sirius and Lyra quite alone.
'I need the map back.'
'What?'
'Don't try and play the fool, Lyra. I know you took the map from my bag that night in the library.'
Lyra frowned. 'I most certainly did not. I haven't seen it in weeks. Have you checked with the others? Maybe Remus put it back in his trunk?'
'No, no, I've already checked.' He looked around, thinking. After a few moments he sighed and rubbed at his face. 'Alright, well if you see it then just come find me, alright?'
'Okay,' she said slowly. 'But why-'
'Just come find me, okay?' Sirius called out, already walking away from her.
She continued to stand there long after he'd vanished from sight. Something was going on with that boy and she was still trying to figure out whether she really wanted to find out what it was. Knowing Sirius it wouldn't be anything good, especially with everything that had been on his mind lately. She remembered her conversation with Snape, a rumour had been circulating through Slytherin house. She shuddered to think whether the two were connected.
She was still deep in thought when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, the skin there growing hot and itchy, her breathing becoming constricted. She whirled around, to the suits of armour and the portraits hanging on the walls. The suits of armour were all quite still and none of the portraits seemed to be paying her any mind now that Sirius had left her.
The corridor was completely deserted, there wasn't another soul in sight and yet the feeling remained, the unmistakable feeling of being watched. She indulged in the feeling for just a few more heartbeats before shaking it off and turning back, making her way quickly to her Transfiguration class, to which she was almost certainly late for. McGonagall was going to kill her.
XXXXXXX
Sirius had a problem. Not a particularly major one, more of an extremely persistent and annoying one, and for once in his life, he was not referring to Marlene McKinnon. No, this problem had arisen after the last few weeks of observation. He was quickly coming to realise that, out of all the people in the whole castle, none proved to be more elusive than it's most important occupant.
The only times he'd seen Dumbledore was at meals. Breakfast and dinner, each night, well, most nights. It wasn't unheard of for the Headmaster to leave the castle every so often, him being involved in Ministry matters as well as the running of the school and all. Other than these seemingly insignificant facts, Sirius had no clue as to where the old man spent the rest of his time. Surely he couldn't have be in his office day in and day out.
And therein lies the problem.
He needed the map, now more than ever. How was he supposed to successfully sneak into the Headmaster's office when he didn't know where the man was half the time? The best time to attempt this was when Dumbledore was out of the castle altogether. That would assure him having plenty of time to spend in the room.
Then there was the problem of all the other portraits. How would he be able to talk to Phineas Nigellus without running the risk of being overheard by every other portrait that hung on the surrounding walls? Portraits who would, undoubtedly, report anything they heard back to Dumbledore upon his return.
But now he was getting ahead of himself.
First the map then the charms.
Or maybe he could simply get himself in enough trouble to warrant a meeting with the Headmaster, then, once he's in the office, he'll simply stun the old man, steal the portrait, interrogate it and then return it before Dumbledore has a chance to recover.
'Hey!'
Sirius hadn't even realised where he was walking, but looking around, he found himself in the Gryffindor Common Room, with James sitting in one of the armchairs and looking right at him.
Sirius nodded hello to him and walked across the room. Two sixth years were sitting on the lounge next to the chair James was in. Sirius walked over to stand in front of them.
'Really?' was all he needed to say before the two rose from the lounge, quickly going to find somewhere else to sit. He collapsed into the lounge with a huff, stretching his arms out to lay across the back.
'Where have you been, then?' James asked, sounding more than a little hurt.
'Why? Miss me?' Sirius winked at him.
James, it seemed, wasn't falling for his considerable charm this time. He scoffed, the smallest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth but he continued to stare across at his friend, the question still soaking heavily in his eyes.
Sirius looked around the room. The two sixth years from before had found an empty desk in the far corner of the room and had spread a great number of books out in front of them. Apart from them there were a handful of other sixth and seventh years making the most of their free periods.
'I just went to see if Lyra had that homework. I need it,' he said, resting his head back on the lounge.
'I thought you had it last?'
It had long since been established that whenever that homework was discussed within the group they were actually talking about the Marauders Map, one of their most prized possessions.
'Well, obviously, I don't.' He didn't mean to snap but if anyone could take it, James could.
'You need it for that assignment?'
Assignment – prank or in this case, Sirius' self-appointed mission to get inside Dumbledore's office. He'd decided to confide in James his wish to speak with Phineas Nigellus. He knew that the reasons why didn't need to be said – James had heard everything there was to hear about the Blacks, including the twins, and Sirius didn't particularly feel like repeating any of it, lest he confirm any of it by doing so.
'Lyra's been annoyingly unhelpful.'
James snorted. 'And you expected anything different?'
Sirius glared at him.
'Maybe you should see if Remus has it.'
Sirius grumbled unintelligently at this. Remus was the first person he'd gone to when he couldn't find the map in his trunk.
'Peter!' James called out. Peter had just descended the stairs from the dormitory. 'You've seen that homework lying around someplace?'
'No,' he said, taking the seat next to Sirius. 'You all said that I'd probably lose it if I got to keep it. Maybe I would've surprised you all, if you'd trusted me just a little more,' he said matter-of-factly.
'Aw come on, Pete. We trust you, but you have to admit that you do tend to misplace a lot of things.'
Peter glared at James. 'Oh yeah? Name one.'
James grinned. Holding out a hand on which to count off. 'Last week's potion homework, the charms homework the week before that,' he said pointing to a finger after each one.
'The quill they gave you in the herbology OWL exam,' Sirius chimed in. 'That valentine you got from Elisa Tippet last year.'
'The valentine I was going to give Lily in fourth year.'
'Although, if we're being honest that was probably worth losing.'
'Hey!'
Sirius quickly dodged James hand that had come up to slap him across the back of the head.
'Alright, you've made your point,' Peter said as James came around for another pass. 'But none of that stuff was important – mostly none of it was important,' he added as James leered at him. 'But I would have taken care of that homework, would've kept track of it.' He leant back into the lounge. 'I guess now we'll never know though.'
Still smiling Sirius looked over to the boy. 'We're truly sorry, Pete. Please forgive us. If we ever find it again, we'll stow it away in your trunk.' Pete offered him a smug sort of smile which quickly turned into mock outrage when Sirius added, 'and hope for the best.'
'If we ever find it,' repeated James, frowning in thought. They all knew that it was too valuable to lose, now more than ever.
XXXXXXX
The small slivers of deep timber of the cluttered desk top shone in the warm light of the crackling fire. Amongst the clutter were strewn pieces of parchment filled with messy handwriting, some blotted with ink stains, others marked with very noticeable food stains. Various letters sat on the mess of parchment, along with a number of wands, empty vials and flasks.
In the centre of the desk lay a piece of parchment. It had been spread out and covered most of the clutter. In dark black it showed a map, labelled and detailed. It was a map of Hogwarts in it's entirety. And within the map small markings moved – moved through the various halls, corridors, classrooms and common rooms throughout the school. Each mark had a label – a person's name, and every name had a label.
The firelight flickered across it, throwing certain black-inked sections into stark contrast with the paleness of the parchment.
A clink of ice against glass cluttered in the near-silent room. A glass a quarter the way filled with a rich reddish liquid came to rest just to the side of the map and a dark shadow was thrown over the parchment.
He looked from the section that had held his attention for the last ten minutes to a slightly crumpled letter that sat next to it.
Picking it up he scanned over it once more.
I appreciate you keeping me updated but it would seem that much more attention needs to be given to this cause. We cannot afford anything to go amiss. There appears to be many more interested parties devoted in claiming a stake in our investment. We must proceed with much more caution if we are to see our plan bear fruit.
You said in your last correspondence that there is some sort of recreational day this weekend. In Hogsmeade if my memory serves me correctly. It is there and then that I will meet you so that you can give me a more comprehensive update on your progress.
Maintain focus and do not succumb to any temptation. Remember why you are doing this.
Make your family proud.
I will see soon.
