Chapter Nine
Frustration surged through every step Lyra took. It made her feet heavy, her skin itch and her head pound.
When she was young, years before they'd gone to get their own wands, Lyra and Sirius often explored the many rooms of Grimmauld Place. One day, Sirius had insisted she follow him after declaring to the near empty room that was intolerably bored and needed to go an adventure. Lyra had followed, partly out of her own boredom, but mostly to protect her twin lest he find himself in an undesirable situation. Even from such a young age she'd assumed her position of his protector, not that she'd vocalise such a thing to him.
Eventually, they'd found themselves in the drawing room, a moderately sized room that, while it had the potential to be bright, remained darkened due to the heavy curtains, black wallpapers and mahogany furniture. It didn't take long for Sirius to start rummaging through the contents of the cupboards, and while he marvelled over objects she knew were dark natured and potentially dangerous, Lyra moved to the bookshelf. Her young eyes took in the words she knew and glazed over those she didn't, she ran her fingertips over the worn leather.
She remembered jumping when Sirius let out short sigh. 'It's boring in here, let's go find Kreacher.' He left without waiting for her, but not before she saw him pocketing a short, silver knife. She thought about following him and trying to convince him to return it, but she simply sighed, turning from the books and starting towards the door. She'd almost reached it when movement caught her eye. On the wall beside her, sitting in an ornate frame, sat the portrait of a man, his dark eyes fixed on her small frame, pointed eyebrows pulled together in a probing stare. She held his gaze for only a few seconds, before dropping her eyes to the ground and retreating from the room.
Later that night, she'd returned to the portrait of her great-great-grandfather. When she'd asked Phineas Nigellus why he hadn't alerted her parents over Sirius' thievery, he simply shrugged, telling her that the knife was of no consequence, and that her presence indeed reassured him that the most important item still remained safe. At the time she'd not realised to what he was referring.
That was the last and only conversation she'd ever had between the portrait and, try as she could to forget about his portrait, he'd made it hard for his presence to be ignored completely. More than once she'd caught him moving between the various portraits hanging throughout Grimmauld Place casting an assessing eye after her, only to shift from the frame when she confronted him with a glare.
But she feared that a glare would do nothing to deter the infuriating portrait tonight. Lyra huffed as she pictured Dumbledore looking up his crooked nose to conspire through the night. What an idiot she'd been for ever stepping foot in that room in the first place. The more sensible thing she should have done would have been to feign a sickness and locked herself away for the foreseeable future until Dumbledore's curiosity ran its course.
'Miss Black?'
Lyra stifled a gasp and tried to school her features into a neutral expression as she turned to face the sound of oncoming footsteps. Flicking her eyes up only for a moment, she was met with the dark-robed figure of Professor Antone making his way towards her, collar cocked high against the cool evening air.
She slipped her hands into the pockets of her robes, choosing to fix her eyes on a spider struggling to climb the stone wall to escape through an open window. It's progress halted when the footsteps stopped before her.
'I did not expect to meet any students out in the halls this close to curfew,' Professor Antone said, tone light, conversational.
Lyra tried to read beneath his words, grinding her teeth when she couldn't.
'I had a meeting, Professor.'
Antone hummed, as if he had been expecting such an answer.
Lyra wondered who else from the teaching staff knew about her so-called detention with the Headmaster.
The spider continued up the stone, its long legs grappling for purchase. Finally, it reached the ledge, and as it passed through the window into the night, a high-pitched, echoing howl greeted its arrival, as if in celebration.
Lyra's eyes narrowed in on the dark patch of dense trees edging the perimeter of the forest the howl had torn from.
What the hell were they playing at.
'I've heard,' Antone started, causing Lyra to blink in surprise, having forgotten for a moment that he was there, 'that Headmaster Dumbledore allows a vast array of creatures to occupy the school grounds, centaurs, werewolves and the like.'
It was her turn to give a noncommittal hum, knowing all about what exactly hid in the Dark Forest.
'I imagine that it could be a rather frightening prospect to be a student here knowing that dark creatures lurked so close.'
It took all her will power not to frown and meet his enquiring look. Instead, she remained as composed as she could manage, ignoring the tightness settling over her chest.
'Quite, sir,' she muttered, taking half a step away from the window.
'Well,' Antone said, a little louder, rubbing his hands together as if to warm them up, 'you best be running along to your common room, Ms Black, after all, it is almost curfew.'
Lyra didn't need to be told twice. Nodding her head as a way of quick farewell, she turned on her heel and continued along the corridor.
She never heard any footsteps other than her own as she walked away.
By the time she made it through the portrait hole, the common room was mostly empty, with only a small handful of students who had strewn themselves throughout the room to complete last minute homework. Without having to look up from the ground, Lyra immediately took note of the group who had sat themselves around the fire.
She refused to acknowledge anyone as she crossed the room, her head was pounding so much that with every step the room tilted a little more.
She was so relieved to find the dormitory empty that she sagged a little on the door before heading directly for the bathroom. With a simple twitch of the fingers, her pyjamas soared into her hands.
ooOOoo
'Do you think she's alright?' Peter asked when Lyra disappeared upstairs. 'Only . . . she looked awfully pale.'
Marlene looked around the group, wondering if anyone was going to answer him, but they all seemed to be submerged in their own thoughts. Lily kept looking from the staircase to the others every few seconds, a confused expression pushing her eyebrows down.
James seemed to be studying Remus and Sirius, who were both seemingly preoccupied with staring into the fire. Remus looked pained and worried, and maybe it was a trick of the firelight, but Marlene could have sworn that his eyes looked more amber than their usual shade of green.
Mary, who sat closest to the fire, was staring openly at Sirius with a puppy dog-like look of concern. In any other circumstance, such a look would have prompted Marlene into releasing a scoff.
After a short silence, Sirius looked up and instantly met Marlene's eyes. He went to speak, but he didn't have to. He'd always been fairly easy to read.
Marlene rose from her spot. 'I'll go check on her,' she said, placing a hand on Sirius' arm on her way past.
Sirius didn't say anything, didn't offer any form of thanks as she climbed the stairs. He simply stared at the spot on his arm where her hand had touched him.
Lyra was halfway through pulling her pyjama top gingerly over her head when someone banged on the door.
'Lyra?'
Lyra jumped, wincing immediately. She went to answer but decided that the effort required to do so wouldn't be worth it, Marlene could wait.
'Lyra, are you alright in there?'
Marlene may as well have been pounding against Lyra's skull. She held her head, rubbing her temples hard, trying to get it to stop throbbing.
But Marlene's pace had increased. Without looking in the mirror, Lyra spun around and yanked the door open. The blonde stood before her, mouth open mid-yell, hand up ready to bang on the door that was longer there.
Her dumbfounded expression held as Lyra brushed past her, but she recovered quickly. Sensing Lyra's mood, Marlene merely walked toward her own bed instead of following the dark-haired girls to hers.
'How was detention?'
'Fine,' was all the response she got Lyra climbed into her four-poster.
'Well, what happen ––'
She was cut short when Lyra pulled the curtains around her bed closed.
With a silent sigh, Marlene made her way back down to the Common Room, all the while cursing the Black temper.
She'd long since recognised the difference between the twins and how they dealt with things that didn't agree with them.
Sirius, she imagined, would have been the sort of child to throw immeasurable, painful tantrums. She could just picture a three-year-old version of him, throwing things, stomping his little feet into the ground, shouting in a high-pitched squeal. Even now, as a supposed adult, Sirius seemed to live by the motto 'do now, think later' . . . If ever.
Lyra, however, . . . Secretly Marlene was incredibly grateful that she had never been the cause of upsetting her friend. To say that Lyra gave the silent treatment would have been a gross under exaggeration. After all, Lyra was a Black and along with the temper, the twins had also inherited the signature Black mask. Unreadable and unrelenting.
But where Sirius didn't quite know what to do with it or how to use it, the mask could fix itself so naturally to Lyra's features that anyone meeting her for the first time whilst she was in a mood would have them checking their every move for fear of annoying her further.
It had taken a few years for Marlene to figure out how to handle the two.
Confront for Sirius, retreat like hell for Lyra.
Although she didn't really have to concern herself all that much with the former, which was a shame really. Out of the two, Sirius' reactions did prove the most entertaining.
'Maybe talk to her tomorrow,' she said when she re-entered the Common Room and found six pairs of eyes on her. 'She's . . . very tired.'
Sirius' jaw was clamped, a muscle there twitching to a furious beat, his hands wrung together, knuckles bleeding white.
Four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . .
Sirius shot up from the lounge and stormed up the stairs to his dormitory without a word or look to any of them.
Marlene watched him go, not at all surprised when the others – led by James – quickly followed, Remus obviously hiding a wince as he pushed himself off the armchair.
From out the corner of her eye, Marlene saw Mary move forward, as if to chase after Sirius herself. Without looking her, Marlene said blandly, 'Don't bother, Mary.' She didn't acknowledge the glare she received in response.
ooOOoo
It took Sirius until lunch the next day before he could confront Lyra about what had happened during her detention. She wasn't in the Great Hall when he arrived for breakfast, despite his coming down earlier than usual just to try and catch her. He'd become more irritated when Dumbledore failed to make an appearance at breakfast either. This, coupled with the fact that they had separate classes all day, had left Sirius in a sour mood when he spotted Lyra's figure making her way up to the castle from the grounds where she'd just finished her Care of Magical Creatures class.
Telling the others to head into the Great Hall for lunch, Sirius made a beeline for Lyra, ignoring her protests as he grabbed hold of her and steered her off in the direction of the greenhouses.
'What the hell do you think you're doing?' She hissed when he finally let her go.
'What happened last night?'
Sirius wasn't at all perturbed with the glare she shot at him, instead he held his own unrelenting stare. He knew that if he didn't have this confrontation with her now then she'd never tell him what happened.
After leveling another scathing look, Lyra finally relented.
Sirius didn't interrupt as she recounted the conversation she'd had with Dumbledore, or how she feared that the portrait of Phineas Nigellus would relay it to their parents. He frowned when he learned of the encounter she'd had with Professor Antone, who Sirius had been wary of all year. Normally upon meeting new people, Sirius found himself instantly suspicious, sometimes downright defensive for no discernible reason. The first Defence Against the Dark Arts class they'd had back in September however, where they were introduced to Antone for the first time had left Sirius feeling next to nothing, and that in itself was enough for him to remain careful around the young professor.
'Well, that doesn't sound too bad,' Sirius said when she'd finished. 'Better than scrubbing out all the toilets on the third floor, anyways,' he mumbled.
Lyra shot him a dead panned look.
'What?'
Shaking her head, she turned to make her way back up to the castle. 'Right. Fine,' she muttered as she walked away.
'What!' Sirius called out, striding to catch up with her. Grabbing hold of her arm, he ignored her protests as he turned her to face him again. 'It's not like he tried to recruit you!'
Lyra couldn't help but look aghast. She'd always failed to understand how someone could be so smart and so incredibly dense all at once. Dumbledore didn't have to ask her outright like he'd done for the others. He knew that she wouldn't accept such an obvious invitation. So, he'd taken the route of the round-about, cautious ploy. The one full of riddles, and pretence, and everything she couldn't stand.
'He did try!' Lyra hissed. 'And I won't be roped into anything, not by him, not by you, not by anyone.'
She couldn't believe that they were back here again, rehashing the same fight they'd had months ago when Sirius had come to her with the news that Dumbledore had asked him and the others to become part of his little resistance movement.
'Is that why you keep refusing?' Sirius scoffed, finally letting go of her arm. 'Out of pure stubbornness? You want everyone to know that you do things on your terms, even if it ends of up killing people?'
'Don't be dramatic, no one's died.'
'It's only a matter of time! There's a war starting out there, Lyra,' Sirius said, pointing out over the grounds.
'But not in here! Stop acting like you're already out there Sirius. You're not a soldier, you're a student!'
'And when I am out there? Do you care about what will happen then, to me? To any of us?'
At his words, a memory of Sirius being dragged back by their father burned in her mind, his outstretched hand connecting with hers which she held tightly, flooding his skin with warmth.
How could he ask such a thing.
'I am trying to keep people safe!' She said quietly, watching Sirius, now panting from exertion, throw his hands in the air. 'You know, more than anyone else, what could happen. I refuse to act rashly.'
'Or are you just refusing to act?'
She'd never change, Sirius had known this for years. Whether it was because she couldn't, or she didn't want to, or both, he didn't know. But at this point, he found he cared very little as to which one it was. It was true, he more than anyone else, knew the kinds of instincts that drove her, but was that an excuse to stand by and do nothing while some madman went after her friends, her family?
But time was running out, for all of them. In a few short months, they'd leave Hogwarts and all the things that they'd read about in the Daily Prophet; the attacks, the disappearances, that will become their new lives. And no matter how much she wanted to deny it, Lyra would be right there with them. Her refusal to help went against every fibre of his being, her selfishness was infuriating.
'It's time to accept reality,' he said as calmly as he could manage.
She stared at him for a beat, silver eyes swirling at a rapid pace. Finally, she loosed a wry chuckle.
'Oh? And what's that on your shoulder? A shield?'
He didn't bother going after her this time. He watched as she walked away, his hand coming to grip the strap of his bag that hung over his shoulder. What infuriated him most about her, is that as much as he told himself she knew nothing about the world, that she didn't know what she was talking about, that she was too naïve, too unwilling to see things as they were, he knew that it was far from the truth.
Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, Sirius started back up towards the castle.
Her argument had a validity that he couldn't ignore. But he was adamant that his did also. He feared that they would be having this fight the rest of their lives.
Firstly, let me apologise. I realise it's been a while, work and study got in the way unfortunately. But I have the next month and a half to try and get as much written as I can, so hopefully I'll be able to post a few more chapters.
I was going to try and delay this confrontation between the twins but this just felt like the right moment. I've had the shield line that Lyra ends on in my head for years! I promise I'll try my hardest to put some more light-hearted moments in the following chapters (sometimes I feel like this story so far is very doom and gloom).
Thanks to everyone who's continued to follow/favourite/review whilst I was MIA. It means a lot to me to know that people are engaging with the story.
AllyCatt12 - Thanks! It's going to be worth the wait (hopefully) but you will need to wait a little more ;) Hope you like this update!
Thehush1 - Thank your for your review! Personally, I don't think Lyra's stance towards Dumbledore is bashing the character, I made that disclaimer as I know some people can get quite protective of certain characters. I like your theories as to Lyra's nature, but unfortunately you too will have to wait :) Hope you like this update!
Till next time!