I do not own Harry Potter. All rights go to J. K. Rowling as well as Warner brothers (For the movie rights).
Daughter of Darkness
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The day passed smoothly with Lyra mostly reading about runes and flipping through some of the lighter topics in the Black library. She did write a letter to Hermione detailing Amelia's punishment, and received a rather relieved response. Of course, it wasn't a surprise that Hermione was relieved not to have been expelled. It was a fate worse than death to her bushy haired friend.
She wrote other letters to her friends; one to Fred and George, one to Ron, one to Luna, one to Daphne, and one to Harry. Just the formalities, mostly. The how do you do's and whatnot, but she specifically asked how Harry was doing with his relatives. As she expected however, he dodged the question in his reply letter. Shaking her head, she pushed the creeping anger out of her mind. There was only so much she could do, unfortunately, but she was determined to do something.
When it was time for dinner at Amelia's(the day seemed to fly by, so engrossed in her books was she), Lyra excitedly flew down the stairs and into the fireplace, only sparing a moment to give a rushed and excited goodbye to her rather amused godmother.
She appeared in the fireplace with a whoosh of green fire before she was immediately rushed by a redhead.
"Lyra! You came!" Susan exclaimed.
"Of course I did," Lyra replied. "Why wouldn't I?"
"I don't know. I thought maybe Narcissa would have her own punishment or something," Susan answered sheepishly. Lyra chuckled.
"Ah. Amelia told you what happened, then?"
"Yeah, she did. She told me. A hippogriff, Lyra! What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that an innocent creature, one who was a victim of Malfoy stupidity, deserved to be free. I was only taking it into my home temporarily," Lyra answered a bit heatedly, her hair beginning to turn red. She hated that nobody seemed to understand her intentions until she explained it to them. Susan backed off with an easy smile.
"Hey, no need to snap my head off; I get it. I say Malfoy kind of deserved what he got for being an idiot anyway. Professor Hagrid told us that Hippogriff's were proud creatures and Draco decided to call it a stupid bird. Obviously, Buckbeak was highly offended," Susan explained. "Calling for Buckbeak's death was a gross overreaction, I think. There was only the barest scratch on Draco and very little blood."
Lyra sighed, her hair and eyes returning to their normal sapphire blue that she preferred to keep.
"Yeah, he's really great at phoning it in, isn't he?" Lyra said. "Too bad he's my cousin," she added, her face literally turning green as her tongue rolled out of her mouth, going far past her chin. Susan snorted as her hand flew up to her mouth in surprise as her shoulder shook. She patted Lyra sympathetically on the shoulder before the two broke out into laughter.
"Ah, I thought I heard you down here," a voice came from the grand staircase.
"Amelia!" Lyra exclaimed, trying to get her odd blue, green, and orange coloring under control.
"Having fun?" Amelia asked in amusement, taking in the blue hair, the orange eyes, and the pale green face.
"Oh, just discussing unfortunate family relations," Lyra calmly responded. Susan let out a small snort as Amelia regarded the two. Of course, the older woman knew the rather shallow secret of pureblood society.
"I think you'll find, if you look hard enough, that the black family has more than one 'unfortunate family relation.'" She explained.
"Oh dear Merlin," Lyra groaned, her hair going pale. "Please tell me I'm not related to Crabbe and Goyle!" she begged. Susan lost the last shred of sanity she had as she fell over laughing as Lyra's comically wide, pleading eyes. Amelia decided to put the girl out of her misery.
"No, as far as I know, you're good with that family. They primarily married...within the family," she said replied.
"Oh that's just gross!" Lyra exclaimed.
"Yes, though I've heard it's not uncommon in muggle royalty," Amelia commented.
"Not anymore," Lyra countered. "They recognized the danger of inbreeding centuries ago. Well, the smart ones, I should say," she added thoughtfully before shrugging. She had never really cared too much about the royal family and all that jazz. Hell, she was eleven years old the last time she'd really been back to the muggle world outside of visiting Hermione.
"In any case, it's not as common in pureblood society as it used to be, though the Black family in particular was known for marrying cousins. Walburga and Orion, for example," Amelia explained. Lyra literally turned green at the thought.
"Please, no more," she begged, holding her stomach and feeling slightly sick.
"Alright," Amelia chuckled. "Why don't you go wash up, get all the ashes off of you, and then we can have dinner?" she suggested. Lyra nodded.
She appreciated that about her aunt and sister. They didn't use magic for everything, even if it would've been more convenient.
"Why did you lie and say that she isn't related to Vincent Crabbe?" Susan asked once Lyra was out of earshot. Amelia chuckled.
"She looked ready to puke. She'll find out eventually, but it's of no consequence. She'd be mature enough not to make too big of a deal out of it. Unlike someone," Amelia looked pointedly at her niece "I think she can handle being related to someone she doesn't like."
"I was ten!" Susan protested hotly, stamping her foot in indignation.
"Of course. You're so much more mature now," Amelia joked. Susan stuck her tongue out at her aunt, causing the older woman to laugh and wrap her arm around Susan's shoulder. "Come on. Let's go set the table for Flopsy," she said. Susan nodded walked beside her aunt, shoving her good-naturedly with her shoulder.
"That," Lyra exclaimed once the food had been cleared away. "Was absolutely delicious!" she declared. Flopsy looked ready to cry in sheer happiness at Lyra's words.
"Little miss be meaning that? Truly?" she asked. Lyra nodded emphatically.
"Of course! I dare say it's even better than Hogwarts!" Lyra added. Flopsy burst out crying and hugged her tiny arms around Lyra's leg.
"Thank you, little miss!" she declared.
"Anytime. Maybe I could convince Amelia to let me borrow you so you can teach Kreature how to cook such excellent meals!" Lyra laughed.
"He seemed to do a good job at the party?" Susan questioned. Lyra let out a sarcastic laugh.
"Yeah, only cause Narcissa had her eye on him. I guarantee someone would've found a rat tail in their food if she hadn't," she muttered. "Still though, even if Narcissa recommends it constantly, I can't get rid of the little guy. He's been alone for so long and…well I just can't do it."
"You're a very kind young woman, Lyra," Amelia said, reaching across the table to pat Lyra's hand. Susan pulled her sister in for a side hug.
"It's a wonder Hufflepuff didn't get you!" Lyra snorted.
"Well, I dunno about being a 'Puff, but the hat debated between Slytherin and Gryffindor for a while," she explained.
"I can see it," Amelia replied, her head nodding up and down as she steepled her fingers. "Either house would've been lucky to have you."
"Yeah, but would Slytherin have been able to handle all of this?" Lyra asked, gesturing to her body as she went through multiple morphs of different Slytherins, including Draco. When she stopped on the form of her cousin, she began attempting to imitate his voice. "My father will hear about this!" she exclaimed in an oddly deep voice.
She quickly changed back to her normal form.
"Oh, and what exactly will your father hear about? Last anyone saw you, Mister Malfoy, you were seen talking some serious game against several of the seventh years. Even the Prefect! What would your father say of such a foul mouth!" Lyra exclaimed in a very posh voice, fanning herself with her hand before quickly shifting into Malfoy once again, though this time the face was accurately tomato red in all the right places.
"Why you little!" she shouted, noticing Susan wheezing in laughter out of the corner of her eye. "Bones! Come control your sister!"
"Oi!" Lyra shouted once more, shifting to her base form "No one controls me!"
"Stop!" Susan wheezed, tears pricking at her eyes. "Stop before I throw up but please, I'm begging you to do that in the great hall at the start of term!"
"With pleasure, Sister," Lyra purred. She didn't often like changing her form, always preferring the comfort of being herself, but she did see the appeal of getting into certain shenanigans with her friends by changing into different people.
"Tonks is an excellent teacher, I must say," Amelia pointed out. Lyra nodded quickly.
"Naturally! She's a great teacher. I wouldn't have gotten nearly half as far on my own," she said.
"It's natural, I assume, for her to teach. She reminds me of her own teacher, and I can see a lot of her in you," Amelia said.
"Wait, Tonks had her own teacher?" Lyra asked. Amelia nodded and stood, heading for one of the bookcases near the fireplace. "I always thought she was self-taught."
"She was, in some areas. But, Tonks' abilities really began to take off when I introduced her to a friend of mine," Amelia answered, coming back to the table with a picture in her hand. She sat down in the chair and simply stared at the picture in her hand for a moment or two before handing it over to Lyra. "The woman in the middle was Tonks' teacher, Celestia was her name. She was one of my closest friends and allies during the war. She was one of the few people I could trust, and I knew, from some of the stories she told me, how dangerous experimenting with Metamorphmic abilities was without a proper teacher. After an incident where a five-and-a-half-year-old Tonks got herself stuck in an animal shape, Andromeda asked if I would contact Celestia for help. I remember she was hesitant at first, and she didn't get along with Andromeda at all, but she was exactly what Tonks needed in a teacher."
Lyra took note of the sadness in her eyes as she spoke of her friend.
"What happened to her? You sound like she's not around anymore?" Lyra carefully asked. "Sorry!" she added hastily, seeing Amelia's expression. "You don't have to answer."
"It's alright. The truth is, I don't know what happened to her. She disappeared only a few days after the Potters were killed. I never saw her again after that, but…I always assumed that some Death Eater had gotten to her before we captured the ones we could. She…she hated them, the Death Eaters, though she never really told me why. Whenever we were teamed up, I always got the feeling that she was hunting them. There was one in particular that she was always gunning for, and she seemed to know who he was, but she never gave up the name," Amelia said softly. She suddenly perked up and offered a tight smile, clearly indicating to Lyra that the woman was done talking.
"Right, well, who wants dessert?" she asked. Lyra nodded, feeling quite bad that she had effectively made Amelia revisit painful memories.
She laid awake in the bed in her room, a very comfy and soft bed, unable to really sleep. Memories of the war were always difficult. Memories of her best friend at the time even more so. Even years later, and many hours of investigation, she still hadn't found Celestia or any indication of what had happened to her. It was like she'd vanished into thin air. Granted, she was an incredibly talented witch despite her disability, and on top of it all, she was a highly capable witch who wasn't afraid to do what needed to be done.
Amelia may have been older than Celestia by quite a few years, but she admired the hell out of the younger woman. She'd never let anything stop her and was often times very knowledgeable about different branches of magic; Lily Potter was often calling her one of the smartest witches she knew. James Potter, one of the best aurors Amelia had ever had the pleasure of training, never stood a chance whenever he and Celestia squared off against one another. Often times, it was inspiring to watch her dance across the battlefield, sending Death Eaters scurrying for cover as their comrades fell to her lethal spells.
That was another thing. Celestia was a hit witch; a specialist in the auror corps that had been mysteriously assigned to Amelia's auror squad, so it was feasible she could've known how to disappear (even for magical standards). Nobody knew how or why she had been assigned, only that she had and that someone in the Department of Mysteries had had a hand in it. Amelia had yet to figure out who had done it, but she knew it was her only clue as to what possibly could've happened to Celestia. She knew it in her gut that the Department of Mysteries had something to do with Celestia's disappearance, and she was going to find out why. No matter what.
A week passed, and Lyra and Hermione had fully engrossed themselves in their punishment, writing letters back and forth (since both of them were grounded they weren't allowed to hang out) to each other about their research. There were two hippogriff reservations that were promising, and that they'd sent letters to, but neither of them had written back yet.
Until now.
"Yes!" Lyra exclaimed as she read the letter a second time before letting out a very undignified (according to Narcissa) whoop of relief.
"They wrote back?" Narcissa asked, looking at the letter. Sirius came down the stairs as well to hear what Lyra had to say.
"They wrote back! They'll come by tonight to take Buckbeak to a reservation in France. Best of all, they don't care about his death sentence!" Lyra grinned. "Hippogriffs are considered rare and intelligent creatures by the ICW and are therefore required to be relocated first before any official death warrant is handed down, an agreement which Britain signed in 1882!"
"The ministry broke the law, then. No surprises there," Sirius grumped. Lyra patted him on his bony shoulder, which had filled out some since he'd had access to consistent meals and a relieving lack of dementors.
"Don't worry. We're still on your case, Sirius. In fact, I forgot to tell you, but Amelia now knows you never received a trial. She also knows, that there was a disturbing lack of evidence as said lack of trial, and that the trial lasted under thirty minutes, an impossibility given the fact that you were a suspected death eater at the time. Even Crouch's own son received a longer trial. And his was real!" Lyra exclaimed. Sirius chuckled and clapped her on the back.
"You're a good kid, Lyra," he said softly.
"Well…I'm not doing this just because you're my family. I'm doing it also because you're Harry's family. The only one he's got. And if my gut is to be believed, the only chance he has to get away from his relatives," Lyra said firmly. Sirius chuckled.
"Well, you are related through his grandmother, Dorea, but it's kind of a distant relation. Still, yay for family and all that," Sirius said, waving his hands around in sarcastic excitement. Lyra smirked and shook her head. "And I'm not his best chance of getting away from those retched little beasts. You are. You're getting my name cleared. You're trying to find a way for him to get away from the Dursley's. That's no small accomplishment."
"It's not an accomplishment if I haven't done anything yet. I was hoping to have the ball rolling on a case for your exoneration by now, but with the disturbing lack of evidence when literally everyone in Britain thinks you're a mass murderer who also betrayed the Potters, things don't tend to go well. They'd convict you legitimately this time."
"So you need proof, hard proof that I didn't do it?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well yes, that's generally how justice is supposed to work," Lyra sarcastically replied, rolling her bright purple eyes in frustration.
"Well that's easy. Just get the Potter will. It'll tell them that I wasn't the secret keeper; Peter Pettigrew was," Sirius said simply. Lyra blinked.
Then blinked again.
Then one more time for good measure before she closed her eyes, slammed her head into the table as her hair turned a bizarre red, purple, and gray. She let out a loud groan that almost turned into a scream of frustration before she suddenly sat up to the wide of both Narcissa and Sirius and took deep breath. Her eyes were a gray and red mix that pierced Sirius to his core as she glared at him.
"You knew," she started in a low voice, bring her hands together and pointing an accusing finger at the man. "where we could find evidence of your innocence and said nothing!" she hissed.
"It's not like it helps," Sirius bitterly muttered.
"Of course it helps!" Lyra growled. "We could've shown it to Amelia and let her make sense of it. Why didn't you tell me this evidence even existed?"
"That Will should've been enacted and executed a long time ago," Narcissa cut in. "But for the life of me, I can't remember anyone ever talking about it. Is it possible that it was quietly opened?"
"Beats me," Sirius chuckled. "I never really got involved in all that legal and political stuff."
"Much to your detriment," Narcissa muttered.
"Anyways," Lyra butt in with a raised eyebrow and impatient expression. "Where would we find this Will, since it appears it hasn't been executed properly and is so far our only lead on clearing your name?"
"Well, it'd be in the Ministry. In the hall of records," Narcissa said.
"Okay, sounds simple. But that begs the question; why has it not been executed in the last thirteen years? What's been preventing it from being opened and read?"
"Either the Executor of the Will is dead, since it's technically their responsibility to make sure the Will is handled properly, or someone has been deliberately suppressing it, making sure that everyone forgets it even exists," Sirius explained.
"Okay. Do you know who the executor was?" Lyra asked, pointedly looking at Sirius.
"Can't say that I do," he sighed, stroking his beard. "James and Lily were private about that stuff, even to Remus and I; the times and all that. You had to be careful who you told things to. You never knew who was imperiused or not, and at the time, we knew there was a spy among our ranks."
Lyra groaned at his admission.
"Back to square one, then." Sirius sat up straighter in his chair for a moment before snapping his fingers.
"Not…not necessarily," he said.
"What do you mean?" Lyra asked.
"James and Lily didn't know who to trust, so they set up multiple contingencies. I'd bet anything that there's a second copy of their will someone else. They wouldn't have trusted just the ministry," Sirius said. Narcissa sighed.
"The problem now becomes 'Where do we begin looking for a second will that nobody knows even exists?'" Lyra's face fell as she out her head in her hands.
"This just got a lot more complicated," she groaned. "The question now is…where would the Potters have hidden the second Will? It couldn't have been their house, it would've been found by someone, and it couldn't be Gringotts, then nobody would've been able to get to it except for Harry, which he hasn't. So, who would they have trusted enough to hide the Will where nobody would think to look for it?" Lyra questioned aloud before shifting her eyes to look at Sirius and Narcissa. The two shrugged as Lyra sighed. "Well, we'll have to try the Potter vault first and go from there."
Lyra sighed as she stared down at the papers in her hands. They were a copy of the dowry and the marriage contract between Houses Black and Malfoy. Lucius and Narcissa's marriage contract. According to the contract that Lucius had broken when he hurt Narcissa several times, the dowry should've been returned no longer than a month after the separation of Lucius and Narcissa, a stipulation that Cygnus Black had insisted on since, at the time, the Malfoy family was still relatively small (but growing in power) and he didn't trust them.
The Malfoy family, thanks in no small part to the generous dowry, had grown considerably since then.
Narcissa had advised her not to collect on the dowry right away. She of course knew that Lucius had spent a significant amount of the Malfoy fortune, both during the war and after, to keep his allies out of trouble. It had nearly bankrupted the Malfoy family. Narcissa knew, and had told her as much, that if she were to collect on the dowry without giving Lucius ample time to come up with the money, the House of Malfoy would collapse and be left without even a knut to their name.
While Narcissa (and Lyra) did not care for Lucius, she did care about her son and what Lucius would do to him if he were backed into a corner.
"What would you have me do?" Lyra groaned as she leaned her head into her hands, dropping the papers. "The month is up. I cannot, and will not, be seen as a pushover. Someone for the other Noble houses to take advantage of," she said firmly.
"Just give him more time," Narcissa begged. "Extend the deadline. Send him a warning that if he doesn't come up with the money, you will be forced to collect. Please, just give him time so that he isn't forced to use my son as a means to pay off the debt."
"Do you think he really would? Can he even do that?" Lyra asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"If he's desperate enough," Narcissa replied. "He could marry Draco off to one of the lesser Noble families. If…if he was really desperate, he could practically sell Draco off to one of the Russian ruling families and then I'd never see him again." There were tears in Narcissa's eyes as that thought took hold. Lyra reached across the desk and took Narcissa's hand.
"I can give him until Yule at the most. Right now, the family finances are recovering, but Goldclaw isn't exactly happy with how they're still spiraling without any good investments. Lucius used your connection to the family to steal our contracts and agreements right out from under us. I got another letter from Gringotts that it would be in the family's best interest to collect on all of our debts, as it would be the fastest way back to where they once were," Lyra explained.
"I thought that might happen. We'll have to go through the book to figure out which families owe us what and collect what we can."
"That's going to be a long and frustrating process. Can we wait until after the Quidditch world cup to do it?" Narcissa chuckled at Lyra's frustrated groan.
"Of course, dear. The debts aren't going anywhere," she smiled. Lyra smirked.
"Small mercy's, then," she said. Standing, she opened the drawer to her desk and slid the papers inside before taking the key and locking them away. Narcissa wrapped her arm around Lyra's shoulders and led her out of the Black room.
"I'm going to go downstairs and get some dueling practice in. Will you call me up for dinner whenever it's ready?" Lyra asked. Narcissa chuckled at Lyra's anxious expression
"Of course, dear. You go and enjoy your time and try not to exhaust yourself," Narcissa said. Lyra smiled and was about to run off when Sirius' bedroom door opened.
"I couldn't help but overhear. Would you mind if I joined you?" he asked. Lyra quirked an eyebrow.
"Are you any good?" Narcissa tried to hide a snort as Sirius gave a toothy grin.
"Any good? Any good? Darling you are looking at one of the finest aurors the academy ever produced!" he exclaimed. "Your aunt was my mentor. James was trained by the Alastor Moody. They often had James and I training together. Him and I were partners, one of the most effective auror teams in the whole department. I think between us, we were putting away You-Know-Who's supporters by the dozens."
Lyra had a snarky reply on the tip of her tongue but thought better of it. Instead, she asked, "Alright then. But how will you help me without a wand?"
"Well, I figured I could teach you a few things. Things that I learned that helped me. I know you want to be a duelist and being an auror is a bit similar, except…you know…your opponents are trying to actively murder you on a daily basis. Other than that, though, totally the same!" he finished with a grin. Narcissa brought a hand to her face and sighed as Lyra laughed.
"Alright then, oh mighty teacher. Teach me your ways!" Lyra cheered with Sirius as the two went down to the basement.
"That's it!" Sirius shouted as Lyra pushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Keep that arm high! No, higher! Nope, too high!" Lyra shot him a glare as she pulled her arm back, practicing a fireball charm that Sirius had taught her, invented by none other than Lily Potter herself. The fireball acted like a curveball in muggle baseball, bending through the air. Lyra loved the idea of it, of using it to set up a good distraction.
"Like this?" Lyra asked as she whipped her arm wildly watching as the fireball first started way off course of her target before gradually curving back towards it.
"That's perfect! Your opponents aren't even going to know what hit em'," Sirius congratulated. Lyra smirked. "Now, the real challenge. I want to see if you can work it into a chain," he said with a grin. Lyra nodded before taking a deep breath, focusing on her magic before bringing her wand up.
She slid her right foot forward before twirling her wand through the air, letting loose a piercing hex followed up by a cutting curse. She cocked her arm back before thrusting it forward. In that same motion, she cast the fireball charm, letting it sail through the air. As her arm finished its thrust forward, she cast a Bombarda. Right as her fireball impacted the dummy's left side, the explosive spell hit it in the chest.
"Good job. Rather clever using the motion of the fireball charm to transfer into a Bombarda," Sirius complimented.
"Well, I read that it was easier if one wasn't truly adept at point-casting to use similar motion spells to preform a spell chain," Lyra explained.
"And that is very true. Not many though can think about it in the heat of the moment," Sirius said appraisingly. "You'll go places, kid. You've got a bright future ahead of you."
"Thanks, Sirius," Lyra blushed at the praise. She shook her head before looking at the charred dummy. "Okay. Show me what else you've got," she challenged, hungry for more knowledge. After all, if she was going to be the best duelist in the world someday, she'd need to know everything she could.
When it was finally the week of the Quidditch World Cup, Lyra was more than ready. Her punishment had come to an end just yesterday when several French witches and wizards very politely knocked on her door. Very quickly they had gone upstairs, only briefly looking in the direction of known mass murderer Sirius Black, before looking to Buckbeak.
"Oh, magnifique!" one of the witches breathed before switching to highly accented English. "E' is beautiful! We Zhank you for taking such wonderful care of him."
"It wasn't me," Lyra had said. She jerked her thumb behind her. "It was Sirius. He made sure that Buckbeak was always properly taken care of and well fed." The older wizard at the door chuckled.
"Well, Monsieur Black, should you ever find yourself in France for…any reason, you are more zhan welcome to come to our reservation," the wizard offered. Sirius chuckled before rubbing the back of his neck.
"Errr…right," he said eloquently before he had walked over to Buckbeak. "I'm gonna miss you, Beaky." He patted the hippogriffs hind feathers a few times. "But you're going to be okay now. You'll get to fly the open skies as a free hippogriff. Who knows, maybe someday I will go to France and join you when I'm a free man. This is goodbye for now though," he muttered. If lyra hadn't known any better, she'd have sworn that Buckbeak looked genuinely upset to be saying goodbye to Sirius.
And that had been that. The French went out to the back yard just outside the ward lines, took out a specialized portkey, wrapped it around Buckbeak's neck, and then they were gone with a crack.
Sirius had, of course, sulked a little for the rest of the day, but Lyra had a plan to cheer him up, which she had thought of only last night.
The Weasley's knew of Sirius' innocence. Harry had apparently explained, and both Molly and Arthur were all too willing to believe him. It would be no problem at all to have Sirius come to the burrow with her, as padfoot of course just for a little extra deniability, so that he could spend some time with his godson.
At breakfast that morning, she brought up her plan.
"How would you feel about coming to the burrow with me when I go to the Quidditch world cup?" Lyra asked as she shoveled her eggs from her plate to her mouth. Narcissa shook her head at her goddaughter disapprovingly but said nothing, only hiding the barest smile right on the corner of her lips.
"Why would I be going to the burrow? Aren't I supposed to be laying low?" Sirius pouted. Lyra quirked an eyebrow at the grown ass man in front of her, crossing his arms petulantly over his chest. She assumed it was because he was bored without Buckbeak and not being able to do anything fun outside of talking to Narcissa or helping Lyra practice her dueling.
"You are supposed to be laying low, but thanks to Harry, the Weasley's know you're innocent. I'm sure they wouldn't mind hiding you for a few days. Besides, Harry will be there. You can talk with him, get to know him," Lyra prompted. Immediately, Sirius' mood changed. He was grinning wildly and looked like a kid in a candy store.
"Now who's grinning like mad?" Lyra chuckled.
"You've got your goddaughter; I've got my godson. You'd be grinning like mad too if you were in my shoes. I only got to see him the one time, but we've been writing intermittently the past few weeks." He had a fond smile on his face before he suddenly sat up straight in his chair. "When do we go?!" Lyra chuckled.
"We'll be going to the Weasley's tomorrow, and the World cup is the day after that. Now, there isn't much space at the Weasley household, so I figured I'd come back here and leave my pet dog with them for the next few nights," Lyra explained.
"Pet dog?" Sirius muttered.
"You, bonehead. No one knows you're an animagus except for Peter, Remus, and my friends. Well, the Weasley's will, but that's not the point. The point is, if anyone suspects they're hiding you, this gives them plausible deniability," Lyra explained.
"That seems a bit overly cautious?" Sirius pointed out.
"Of course it is," Lyra nodded. "But being cautious has kept you safe so far. There's no need to abandon that now and do something reckless."
"Good point," Sirius said thoughtfully.
"Of course it is. I'm full of good points," Lyra smugly retorted. Sirius reached across the table and ruffled her hair.
"Yeah kid, sure you are!" He chuckled. His chuckling soon contained a slightly nervous edge as she glared at him, her hair turning a slight purple as she fixed her hair.
"Just so you're both aware, I don't like this idea at all," Narcissa threw her two cents into the ring with a frown, her steepled fingers in front of her face.
"It's a pretty good plan, Narcissa," Lyra replied evenly.
"I don't doubt that you believe that, but it's still a risk," Narcissa said firmly. Lyra sighed.
"I get it. If it goes wrong, Sirius is kissed and I'll be sentenced to Azkaban for harboring a criminal, but the risk is small. Nobody knows that Sirius is an animagus save for a few people, people who can't even make use of that information since there's basically no evidence to support it. The Weasley's? they're not going to turn Sirius in, not knowing that he's innocent anyway," Lyra replied with a shrug. Narcissa pinched her nose before shaking her head.
"Well, it seems I can't dissuade you on this, but I hope you'll at least be more open to suggestions in the future rather than just doing what you want. Andromeda was a lot like you, though she was far more careful to not push too hard on the constraints my parents put her under until she met Ted."
"I get it, Narcissa, I really do, but this is a safe risk, and everyone is happy so there's no harm no foul," Lyra added, trying to get the last word in, feeling a little annoyed that Narcissa wasn't behind her one hundred percent. Narcissa backed off, going back to eating her breakfast.
The next day, Narcissa saw Sirius and Lyra off as they headed to the burrow.
"I'm coming back tonight, remember?" Lyra asked amusedly as Narcissa fussed slightly, making sure that the cloak she was wearing would keep the soot from the fireplace off of her dress (something Narcissa had insisted on, much to Lyra's chagrin). "Is all this really necessary?"
"Of course it is! You're the Lady of House Black. You must always look presentable and put together, none of those 'jeans, hoodies, and sneakers' that make you look like some commoner!" Narcissa insisted. Lyra chuckled and went along with it, knowing it made her godmother happy to be able to do this, especially for a girl. And, if Lyra was being honest, she kind of didn't mind the dresses.
Only once in a while though!
"Right, would hate to look like an absolute pile of shit, Narcissa," Lyra snarked, turning her hair a disgusting green color and smirking a little at Narcissa's affronted expression over her vulgar language. It was one of the things that the older witch had sworn never to accept and would break her goddaughter of the habit one day. On the other hand, Lyra had quietly sworn to one day get Narcissa to swear, even if it was a tiny one.
"There's nothing wrong with looking nice, Lyra," Narcissa rolled her eyes. Lyra smirked.
"I know, I'm only teasing, Narcissa." There was an amused glint in Lyra's eye that Narcissa loved to see, because it always translated into a lovely lilac color that dominated her eyes. It meant Lyra was happy, and that was the most important thing.
"I know you are. Now, don't forget, when you're in the Floo, keep moving as if you're walking. Otherwise you'll trip flat on your face," Narcissa reminded.
"Yes and wouldn't that be so unbecoming. I can see the headlines now! 'The Lady Black; two left feet,'" Lyra joked, pretending like she was reading a headline from a paper. "I remember. I'll be fine, Narcissa."
"Good. Have fun today, I'll see you back here tonight," she said, hugging the girl.
"I will. See you later," the girl replied as she picked up the floo powder, Sirius as a dog right behind her.
Red=angry
Gray=nervous/anxious/irritated
Orange=happy/excited
Blue=sad/overwhelmed
Purple=worried/concerned/frustrated
Green=jealous/suspicious
Brown=content/relaxed
Yellow=afraid/shocked
Pink=amusement/surprise
Silver=determination
Light blue=embarrassment
