- Chapter 21 -
The Howler
Lyla's vacation ended on a high note. Her friends were back, she'd succeeded thus far in making Rylie forget past indiscretions, and school was starting that next day. To which Lyla was overly excited for, even though spending two blistering cold hours on the grounds for Care of Magical Creatures was not something she looked forward to.
Though she'd grin and bear it, after all it was part of the Hogwarts experience so she was happy to oblige without complaint. Others however, were less jubilant about the return to classes. Ron and Harry grumbled the whole way down to breakfast about being up so early in the morning but Lyla's good mood could not be deterred by their negative dispositions.
Not even the glares from Malfoy could get her down. They only served to put her in even higher spirits as she recalled exactly why she was receiving them. Breakfast was almost over with when the morning post arrived and she got yet another reminder of her past mischief.
Owls skittered about here and there, swooping by and dropping parcels to their designated person, or more precisely in their designated person's breakfast. Lyla snickered as a few of her classmates around her were splashed by their porridge only to stop abruptly as an extremely rare event occurred.
A large, majestic, Eagle owl plunged down from the ceiling, nearly taking Lyla's head off as it angrily dive bombed towards her. She shrieked, her arms flailing above her head as she ducked low to avoid the blasted bird. Though she really needn't bother with that, for it appeared to desire only one decapitation attempt before its departure.
Lyla cautiously lifted her head from its safe haven below the table only to find a scarlet envelope stuck in her breakfast. She tilted her head to the side wondering who on earth would send her post when everyone she knew was already at Hogwarts. Picking up a fork, Lyla poked at the letter suspiciously, knowing enough to know better than to open a suspicious package.
Rylie and the rest stared warily as Lyla proceeded to poke and prod the crimson note, completely oblivious to how each stab of her fork caused everyone around her to duck and cover. This didn't go on for very long for Harry finally plucked up the courage to do something about his sister's daring antics.
He reached across the table, grasping the utensil from her hand. "Open it will you?!" he shouted hoarsely, leaning back farther away from the offending letter. And Lyla could definitely see how the still-soaking-in-her-porridge letter could be offensive—note the sarcasm there.
"Crikey! What's got your knickers in a twist?" Lyla asked wondering why everyone was acting all suspicious-like all of a sudden. She knew why she was, but what was everyone else's excuse?
"Don't you know what that is?" Hermione drawled out in her know-it-all tone that never failed to cause that ever-irritating twitch in Lyla's eye.
Lyla, try as hard as she might, failed to stop the spasm from making itself known. "No 'Mione, I don't. But since you apparently do, why don't you tell me because as far as I can tell: It's. A. Letter." She said condescendingly talking down to Hermione to see how she liked it.
Apparently she didn't for she completely blanked Lyla, refusing to respond to Lyla's derisive tone. Ron thankfully answered instead, looking oddly pale as he spoke. "That's a Howler, that is," he said shakily. "I got one last year from me mum...it was horrible."
Lyla had never heard of a Howler before so it came as no surprise when she cocked her head to the side yet again and with a very straight face inquired, "Well...what's it do?"
Harry smacked his forehead at his sister's inability to put two and two together. He was growing impatient for he knew what would happen should she not open the darned thing soon. "Just open it and find out before it blows up!" he said impatiently.
"It'll blow up?" Lyla asked, wide-eyed and excited at that prospect, a considerably large grin crawling its way across her face. Many may think that a bit odd and they'd all be right to think so. However Lyla had been quite disappointed when her gift from her favorite Weasleys didn't do as she'd anticipated, so she saw this 'howler' as a good thing.
Though everyone else—barring the twins—were adverse in thinking this way. Harry and those nearby wanted Lyla to open the darn thing before it was too late, while others—mainly Malfoy and co.—were just anxiously watching on, not caring either way for they'd hear what was said no matter what.
No one had to wait very long, for while Lyla argued with Harry and the others about opening the letter, it began to smolder. The red ribbon keeping the crimson note shut, unraveled as it burst open and a loud, hysterically angry, voice boomed from around the explosions point of origin, leaving Lyla with no question as to who had sent her the entertaining magical letter.
"You blasted, cheeky, little chit! How dare you humiliate me like this?! Congratulations! You've single handedly destroyed any sense of pride, honor and dignity the Malfoy family has spent centuries building. I hope you're pleased with yourself!"
"I'm quite giddy about that yes..." Lyla mused to herself, not in the slightest shocked by dear ol' Lucy's reaction.
"You better reverse this and do it quick or so help me, you will pay. You will beg for reprieve before the end and it will not come swiftly! You have been warned, send the reversal spell or you will have me to deal with."
"I've already dealt with you and apparently I did a dandy of a job at that too," Lyla laughed as the howler tore itself to pieces, the shredded slips of ruby paper floating down to make their final resting place in her porridge.
Lyla went back to her breakfast—foregoing the porridge for some toast instead—oblivious to the stares she was receiving from her classmates and teachers and the intense glare burning a hole into the back of her head from Malfoy himself.
A few minutes went by before the suspense became too much for everyone. "Ok, what'd you do?" Lyla looked up as her brother accused her of having done something, though she wasn't denying the fact that she had indeed done something, for dear ol' Lucy blabbed to everyone via Howler that she had very well in fact did.
So instead of denying it, like she usually would have, Lyla simply smiled and said, "You'll see for yourself soon enough."
Her friends knew enough to know that they weren't going to get anything else out of her until she wanted them to know. So they left her alone, the conversation flowing quietly between them until it was time for their first class of the day: Care of Magical Creatures.
It was freezing outside and Lyla spent a good majority of the two hour class huddled around the giant bonfire that Hagrid had constructed. Rylie was right along with her, warming her frozen body by the fire as they observed the salamanders scampering around in the burning cinders. Rylie had been trying to get what Lyla had done to Malfoy's father out of her but Lyla wouldn't let slip a single word.
Class ended after Lyla...accidentally-on-purpose...tripped Malfoy into the bonfire resulting in her added amusement for the day in ticking off not one but two Malfoy's. Malfoy was soon sent to the Hospital Wing, yet again, and Lyla felt slightly guilty. Not because he was 'severely burned'—as he oh-so-dramatically wailed. But because Hagrid would more than likely get more heat about the incident though if need be Lyla would gladly testify that it was Malfoy's own big feet that got him all fired up in the first place.
Rylie and Lyla, giggling about the events that had ensued, made their way up to the castle for their next class: Divination. Lyla personally was ecstatic. Normally she absolutely abhorred the so-called class but considering her last encounter with Trelawney had been nothing short of amusing, she found herself looking forward to it...if only to poke further fun at the loony-bin.
She knew now that she wouldn't get in trouble. McGonagall herself was openly mocking her—with Lyla no less—so Lyla saw no reason why she couldn't. It wasn't like Trelawney would realize she was being mocked while it was happening if she realized it at all.
And realize it she did not. Though she did glare at every snicker that came from Lyla's immediate direction—even if it didn't directly come from Lyla. Class flew by quickly for Lyla amidst the glares not only from Trelawney, but Lavender and Parvati as well, who had neither forgiven nor forgotten Lyla's declarations of the previous day.
Though Lyla didn't expect they would and was quite pleased that they hadn't. She was overly elated that everyone was still speaking of her declarations well into and through Defense Against the Dark Arts, her last class of the day—for it meant they'd disregarded the events of that morning's breakfast.
Lyla noted that Remy had gotten that days lesson from the Creature Feature she'd given him and therefore decided—since she'd already read and was well versed in the book—that she didn't need to pay attention. Her mind was already preoccupied with thoughts of soon starting up her training again anyway.
Remus noticed Lyla's off-in-another-world stare during his lecture and knew only too well that she'd be bothering him with whatever it was once class ended. Though to be fair he was quite looking forward to their chat—considering he'd missed the Christmas Feast and was quite curious about the details of his goddaughter's encounter with the elder Malfoy.
As soon as class came to a close Lyla attempted to make her way to Remus but Harry got to him before she'd even packed her things. Being the nice sister that she was, Lyla patiently waited outside the classroom to give Harry his privacy. She told Rylie to head on without her since she expected her training to begin after Harry left the room.
Harry departed the room soon after Lyla had finally taken a seat by the open door. He walked right on by—apparently not noticing his sister crouched in the corridor. Lyla ignored this though since it was insignificant to her at the moment. She entered the room and found Remus leaning against his desk as though waiting for her.
He still looked quite ill to her but she'd grown accustomed to seeing him as such—although it still bothered her, she knew it would do neither of them any good to worry over it. So instead of saying anything on her godfather's health, Lyla simply smiled in greeting, walking up the center aisle of desks till she reached the front row where she then settled herself atop a desk across from Remus.
"To what do I owe this visit, Lyla?" Remus asked, although he had a feeling he knew exactly what she was there for. However that didn't stop him from feigning ignorance.
"Can I not visit my favorite Defense Against the Dark Arts professor without there needing to be a reason," Lyla said smiling sweetly, swinging her feet back and forth slowly. This was a game of theirs. Both knew what they were there for, but the banter between the two would always be far too appealing to brush aside.
"I'm your only Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Remus pointed out dryly, smirking as his goddaughter pouted.
"Duly noted," she said laughingly, "I am here to see you though."
"I figured as much," Remus said mockingly for it was apparent that she'd come to see him. Who else would she have expected to find in the DADA classroom? Snape? Surely not for Dumbledore was adamant about keeping Severus away from that position—a fact Remus reveled in really. "Do I have to ask again or were you planning on telling me why you've come to see me after daydreaming during my lecture today?"
Lyla smiled guiltily at having been caught. She hadn't meant to not pay attention...ok that was a lie but she'd already knew what he was teaching, so what was the point! She'd pass her exams with or without paying attention. "Yeah," she drawled out, "sorry about that."
Remus rolled his eyes with a sigh, knowing far too well that she wasn't the least bit remorseful. However he knew better than to call her on it. That would only make her deny it and then go into a long spur on how he thought so little of her and they'd get nothing accomplished that way. So he did the only thing he could. Acting as the adult in the situation he fixed her with his patented get-to-the-point stare, which never failed him.
Lyla got the idea and got to the point Remus was so eager to get to. She was rather eager herself to get to her training and figured the sooner she told Remy what she was there for the sooner they could get started. Lyla jumped off the desk getting straight to it, "You! Sir Remy-kins, made a promise to a young and impressionable red headed Gryffindor about the reemergence of her training when classes recommenced and, as you've probably noticed, the semesters well on its way past its starting line."
'Impressionable? Not bloody likely...' Remus thought to himself. "So..." he said slowly trailing off for Lyla to finish.
"So what's say we get started?" She said excitedly causing Remus to laugh, his straight-faced defenses deteriorating as he saw how animated she was.
Remus started back at the basics with Lyla, though he knew very well that she'd remembered everything he taught her that summer. However he felt it prudent to go over it all to refresh her memory. It wasn't until that Thursday that he really started her training.
Lyla, unlike Harry, had training every night, her weekends were still negotiable. For the first two days the sessions started directly after her last class—this was purely for the purpose of completing her review. Thursdays were when Harry had his anti-dementor lessons so both Remy and Lyla agreed that her sessions on that day would be before dinner while every other day of the week it would be held after dinner.
Thursday came only too quickly for Lyla, a fact she was ever-so grateful for. She made sure to take the time between her last class and the few hours before dinner to finish the mounting pile of homework she'd been neglecting that week. As soon as 3 o'clock hit Lyla was out the Gryffindor portrait and on her way to Remus' office on the second floor—where the two had been meeting the last few days.
However Remus wasn't in his office. In fact his office wasn't even opened. Lyla tried jiggling the doorknob but it was locked. The door didn't give way and grant her passage but something else, of a peculiar variety, did happen. Lyla jumped back away from the door as it began to shimmer brightly in the darkened corridors of Hogwarts castle, casting an iridescent light that illuminated her surroundings.
The light dulled as it burned words into the middle of the door. It was a message, from Remy...a riddle actually:
"Lyla:
By now you should have perceived,
That here is where I am not.
Search not high but low to find me,
For where I'm not is hot.
Below, below the sweeping boughs,
Tis where I am to be found.
For you see, I'm not in the castle,
I'm on the .
Remus J. Lupin"
"Grounds," Lyla said dryly. "Golly-gee! Thanks for making that a challenge, Remy-kins," she drawled out sarcastically, turning on her heal as the words faded from the door. It was still quite light outside and yes, as cold as it was that last time she dared to venture outside. When she reached the grounds, Remus was, once again, no where to be seen.
She walked down the slope towards Hagrid's hut, glancing around for any sight of her godfather. She couldn't find him...She was far too preoccupied with trying to search out his hiding place that she forgot the first thing he'd ever driven into her head: Always be on your guard. She wasn't of course and paid dearly for it.
There was nothing around her but snow, the castle behind her and the Forbidden Forest before her. She shivered as the wind rushed about all around her but noticed there was no sound. The wind wasn't making its usual wispy noise as it rustled through the leaves.
Lyla was startled from her unwilling game of Hide and Seek as an unidentified object—she'd thought was the wind—went ripping through the air, whizzing right passed her head, causing her hair to whip across her face. She spun around to try and find the offending object but there was nothing. No one around to throw whatever it was. Nor were there any creatures that could have possibly been whatever it was.
Before Lyla could think anymore on what was going on, she stumbled forward from the yet again unidentified projectile. She still had no idea what it was, and other than cold to the touch there was no indication that would answer her now irritated inquiry. There, of course, wasn't any time nor was any one around to answer her either.
She turned to face the direction it came from only to have her question answered as a snowball crashed into her face. Of all things it could have been, it was a snowball. Obviously someone else was out there with her trying to mess with her and she wasn't appreciating this, especially not when the ambush really started. A barrage of snowballs hurled themselves at the startled Gryffindor, seeming to come from everywhere at once.
Lyla was getting more and more agitated as each and every snow projectile made its intended contact. She was so angry she couldn't focus on dodging the objects so she settled for running—her hands covering her face as she ran. She made it halfway up the hill towards the school when the attack came rushing to a halt.
Pulling her hands down from her face, Lyla looked back down the hill where a disappointed Remus stood, shaking his head to express said dissatisfaction. Lyla groaned silently to herself knowing that she was without a doubt in for a lecture. She completely disregarded the fact that he'd blatantly lured her out there only to sneak attack her with an onslaught of snowballs.
With a sigh of resignation—there was no point in fighting the inevitable—she carefully made her way back down the hill to where Remus was standing. His arms were crossed. His foot was tapping. Lyla had seen this stance many a time; he was definitely in lecture mode.
"I must say Lyla; I am very disappointed in your performance just now. I expected better of you for I know I trained you better than that," he paused as though thinking of what precisely to berate his goddaughter on next. Lyla attempted to explain herself in the minimal amount of time he took to regain his bearings, but he just went on, cutting her off. "Did you not suspect the situation was at least a little shifty?" he inquired.
Lyla made to defend herself but shut her mouth before any sound managed to come out. Truth was she hadn't. She was just focused on finding her godfather and getting started with her training that she just didn't even think to connect the dots. She could have saved herself the embarrassment of repeatedly being pelted by snowballs and being forced to turn tail and flee if she had.
"I didn't think so," Remus muttered much to Lyla's annoyance. "I had hoped you would, but apparently we have a lot of work ahead of us. Perhaps we should spend more time going back over the basics..."
Remus trailed off momentarily before going on and on about how awful Lyla preformed causing Lyla's irritation level to hit an all time high. "Alright I get it!" she screeched in annoyance, not being able to take anymore of her godfather's verbal bashing. Remus looked somewhat affronted at Lyla's tone as well as the fact that she had just shouted at him and it was quite obvious, to Lyla especially, that she'd done wrong.
However she didn't learn from her mistake—meaning she knew not how to shut that gaping hole on her face that the problem inducing sounds billowed out from—for as Remy made to once more lecture away, interminably no doubt, Lyla cut him off. She had the decency to look contrite for her actions though an actual apology was far from making an appearance and that became blatantly more obvious as she spoke.
"Just give me a second chance," she demanded exasperatedly. "I'll prove to you that I can conquer this situation just fine!" Lyla knew that she could back up her indignant exclamation. All she needed was the chance.
Remus sighed as he rubbed at his temples. His goddaughter was just not getting the point. "Lyla, I know that you'll conquer this situation just fine now that you know what's coming. But the point is you won't always know how everything will play out. There are no second chances in real duels and situations like this. You make one mistake and that's it; you're done for. You can't just expect to shout 'Do over' and have everything restart from the beginning again."
"Glad this is just practice then eh?" Lyla shot back quickly. "I understand that there are no do overs out there in the real world. I get that and I didn't expect there to be any. I'm not naïve; I understand the way things are out there even if you think I don't." Lyla took a deep calming breath to regain her composure before going on, slower and quieter than before. "I admit I did no where near my best today. I'm not going to give any excuses nor am I going to refute your analysis."
Remus looked on suspiciously as Lyla paused and who could blame him really? Lyla never went down without a verbal or physical fight of some sort. So her standing there and telling him that he was basically right was a little unsettling and Remus knew better than to take whatever Lyla said at face value.
"However," Lyla drawled out slowly, proving Remus' theory to be true. "This isn't a real life endangering circumstance. This is practice or training if you will and I think I should get another shot at this." Remus wanted to argue his point more but Lyla knew what was coming and decided to beat him to the punch. "How do you expect me to be able to progress at all if you just lecture me about how disappointed you are? Are you going to be disappointed if I were to fail at this in an actual life-threatening situation?"
Remus was silent, not knowing how to answer her question which was more than likely rhetorical anyway. Of course he wouldn't be so much disappointed as devastated. Lyla had become such an intricate part of his life that he couldn't and outright refused to imagine life without her. He conceded with a nod of his head and they got right to it.
"Now the spell I used is a variation of multiple mobility enchantments. It's a conjunction of two Latin words: mobili—which is to mobilize, and nivus—which is snow. You may have run across a plethora of spells that comprise of mobili and an objective, mobilicorpus for example, which is to mobilize a—"
"Corpse?" Lyla asked, purposefully cutting her godfather off, for he was doing more rambling than was truly necessary.
"Retrospectively: yes, but generally speaking: the body, of the living or not. Now the purpose of this particular exercise is to help build up your defensive skills and agility. We'll be working with dodging and deflecting undamaging items for now and eventually work our way up to potentially detrimental objects such as knives and various spells."
"Ok I think I get it, can we get started now?" Lyla asked impatiently, trying desperately to keep the whine out of her voice. She wanted to get to the practical part of the lesson. She entirely disregarded the fact that he was going to be sending pointy objects flying at her in the near future for she knew no harm would come to her that couldn't be fixed later.
Remus got the message without Lyla having to whine, though he decided to give her a bit of her own medicine. He did keep to his promise and gave her a second chance, but he couldn't help but be a smartarse while doing so. With a swish of his wand, he clearly stated the spell which, instead of sending a wave of snowballs at her, sent only two...two that were moving as though in slow motion as well.
Lyla narrowed her eyes, knowing Remus was doing this on purpose. Though, she didn't make any snide remarks about his actions. She merely continued with the lesson as though her godfather weren't being a wanker about it all, and gradually the snowballs increased in both quantity and speed as they barreled towards her. Though the blame for that was entirely all her own.
Instead of dodging them all which would have been the smart thing to do, Lyla kicked and swung at each one that she couldn't dive away from and the results of that were most disastrous. With each strike that actually managed to make contact with its intended target, two more sprung up in its demolished place. And each new snowball that appeared seemed to have had an adrenaline boost the first two did not for they zoomed and swerved at such a high speed that Lyla was starting to have a difficult time following the path of movement.
Lyla cursed to herself realizing her obvious blunder as she made it a point to not lash out at any of the snowballs. It was far too late to fix her blunder so she spent the next half hour or so twirling, ducking and diving away from the soaring objects. It only just occurred to Lyla however—when she was finally starting to grow fatigued—that she was a witch and as such she could have immobilized at least a few of them.
Quickly pulling out her wand, Lyla took aim and shouted, "Impedimenta maxima!" Fortunately she added that last part for her jinx would have only stopped a few of them instead of the vast majority. With the snowballs frozen, it seemed, in mid-air, Remus approached, slowly applauding Lyla's performance.
However, that wasn't the smartest thing he could have done. Especially when Lyla was still a wee bit miffed at him for essentially treating her like a child. But more so when Lyla now had control over the very thing he had sent after her. "Let's see how he likes it," Lyla muttered softly to herself before waving her wand and sending the barrage of snowballs towards the unsuspecting turned horrorstruck Remus.
His troublesome goddaughter hadn't slowed them down as he had nor had she only sent a few either. Lyla laughed as Remus tried and failed to outrun the multiple fast moving snowballs hurtling after him from every direction it seemed. Remus looked as though he were caught in a blizzard that only affected the areas he moved to...It was as though he were encased in a warped snow globe of some sort and Lyla loved every second of this new turn of events.
Well that was until Remus, much like Lyla had, realized he had a wand as well and was more than capable of outsmarting a few hundred rampant balls of frozen water. Remus reversed Lyla's charm on the snowballs and redirected them back at her but Lyla had by then already mobilized more ammo and sent them back to Remus. It was utter chaos as Lyla's charm and Remus' mixed and swarmed around the two who, instead of giving up and ending things like anyone with half a brain might have, ran around screaming like a Jobberknoll about to face its' destruction.
It was growing dark on the grounds and dinner was most likely to have started already when Remus shouted that he gave in, growing winded by the impromptu exercise he hadn't been planning to participate in. "Finite Incantatem!" they shouted simultaneously, collapsing side by side near the forest, sighing in relief as things went back to normal.
"Well that was bracing," Lyla said breathlessly. There was a moments silence as Remus gazed at his goddaughter in disbelief. However as soon as her trademark smirk broke free and their eyes met that moment of silence was shattered in the most joyous way.
Both had given up any hope of making it to dinner on time as they sat frozen on the snowy grounds as the last remnants of laughter left them. Both were exhausted and cold and yet content to stay in each other presence for as long as they were able to. And they did for at least another ten minutes. Neither spoke, as they looked up at the starry sky, enjoying each others company—neither noticing the dark outline of a dog watching them from the shadows of the forest, longing to be included.
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