Lyna's return from her winter training was met with little fanfare. Mostly because she was known to wander the school at odd hours looking into all sorts of abandoned classrooms.
The house elves and ghosts were more than happy to give her directions back to common areas, and it meant she could spend hours (or days) not being seen at all.
Besides, the elves always made sure she was supplied with fruits and vegetables for snacks, so it wasn't like she went hungry. The professors had come to the conclusion she was wasted on first year spells, but she did at least pretend to pay attention so they kept their silence.
However it took all of five hours for the entire school to notice she was carrying a staff, not a wand.
"Lyna, where did you get the staff?" asked Padma. "And why?"
"Master told me I had progressed enough that I was allowed to carry the prototype staff for my training. Since I won't be getting a proper one until she deems me worthy, I need to get used to carrying one."
"Point of order...why?" said Hermione.
"Staffs fell out of favor because the power requirements and training to actually use one were more...intensive...compared to a simple wand. That and it's pretty awkward to carry if you're not used to it. In general it was easier to make wands the standard and forego staffs because no one wanted to put in the effort, despite the fact it would earn you an instant prestige bonus," said Lyna. Seeing the expressions on her friends faces, she shrugged. "I looked into why everyone was carrying an easily breakable stick instead of something that could be used as a makeshift weapon in a pinch. Apparently the magical society opted for laziness instead of continuing their vast and rich heritage."
Seeing the gleam in Hermione's eyes, Lyna smirked and simplified it even further for her.
"Being able to cast magic with a staff instead of a wand and actually showing competence means not only will that braying idiot Malfoy have to bow down and call you mistress, but it means reading more obscure and rare tomes because the training was considered 'obsolete' and only truly dedicated people would bother with it."
Hermione's gleam got worse.
"While that does sound well and good, I don't think Parvati and I would be willing to put in that much work," said Padma.
Lyna considered her friends for a moment, and then grinned.
"Considering neither of you are inclined to fight, and I know Parvati and Lavender love fashion and girly things...how about becoming specialists who create magical armors, make-ups and small things that would turn witches into bigger badasses compared to the wizards? I bet a make-up brand that could cause enemies to become disoriented or discreetly heal wounds would become really popular with female aurors. I mean have you seen the fashion around here? It's positively medieval in all the worst ways!"
Seeing she had the more fashion-inclined twin interested, Lyna grinned.
It took her all of an hour to have Parvati hooked, with Lavender equally interested in studying for once. Even better, it created an unofficial bridge between the twins who had become slightly distant due to being in different houses, and gave Hermione a chance to feel useful while still being girly.
Some time later...
Hermione, Padma, Parvati and Lavender were all looking rather worriedly at the out cold form of Iris. Not much information was known, but what they did hear was that one of the professors had targeted Iris and she had retaliated in violent fashion. The man hadn't survived the encounter, but Iris had managed to make it to the hospital wing under her own power before crashing on a bed, to the alarm of Madam Pomphrey.
The girls had come to see Iris as their unofficial leader. Hermione because Iris accepted her bookish ways and the other three because she had given them a viable way to indulge their love of fashion and make a useful career out of it.
Iris slowly stirred, and for a moment Hermione would have sworn her eyes were a shade of purple that turned back to green when she blinked.
Later, Hermione would mark the increasing sheen of almost luminescent silver as a progression of an unknown condition Iris had. What was going on with her friend was slowly eroding her humanity away in favor of something that made her more than human.
"Iris what happened?" asked Padma.
"Quirrel," spat Iris irate, "Was possessed by a wraith and thought it was a brilliant idea to use ME to get a fake artifact I had already destroyed from a mirror I could care less about."
"What," said Padma in disbelief.
"Yeah, I wasn't that impressed with his behavior either," said Iris annoyed. "Apparently it never occurred to him that maybe someone who was brazen enough to play with a Cerberus and was known for disappearing for days at a time would have found that ridiculous mirror and would know how to deal with the artifact in question."
"So what happened?" asked Parvati, morbidly curious.
"I made my opinion known, in as graphic and painful a manner as I could devise in that instance. It took me fifteen minutes to find my staff and get out of that room," said Iris sourly.
Fortunately Lyna knew her Master would set her loose on some Dead Apostle Ancestors or some idiot Magus to get her remaining murderous tendencies out.
The end of year feast ended with Ravenclaw in the firm lead. No surprise, considering Lyna was in that house.
Hermione and the others expected Lyna to be on the train with them.
So you could imagine their confusion when she started walking towards the forest instead.
Lyna made a sharp, piercing whistle that could literally be heard all the way to Hogsmeade.
A loud, almost ethereal bark came from the forest. It set the other girls on edge, as that was not the sound of a normal dog.
A pale green beast of a hound appeared at the edge of the forest. It was not a normal animal and most certainly a magical beast.
"Oh my god...is that...a Cwn Annwyn?" said Hermione in disbelief.
"Setanta!" Lyna called out cheerfully. The dog barked, and cheerfully ran up to her, wagging it's tail.
"Is that...your dog?" said Hermione twitching.
"He's my familiar," said Lyna cheerfully.
"...I'm not going to ask," said Hermione.
"I am. Why the bloody hell did you wake us up so early to call your dog?" asked Lavender.
"Oh, that's because Master will pick me up. She doesn't particularly like the crowd at the train station."
Dead silence.
"Your master is picking you up, here?" said Padma slowly.
"Indeed I am," said an unfamiliar, but distinctly female voice.
The woman before them held all the aura of a real queen, and the beauty of a warrior. She had long deep red hair and carried a lance in her arms with such casual ease there was little doubt she was well versed in it's use. She wore well loved, but sturdy armor.
"Hello Master!" chirped Lyna. "May I introduce Hermione Granger, the Patil twins Padma and Parvati and Lavender Brown."
"Wait...are you telling me this is the actual Scáthach, the Queen of Shadows? The very same woman who trained the famous Cu Cuhainn?" said Hermione in disbelief.
"Why, is there another?" said Lyna cheekily.
"But... she looks so young!" said Hermione, sputtering.
Scáthach, sensing an opportunity to cause trouble for that complacent old fool in the castle, smirked.
She had barely tolerated his behavior on Christmas, and this would be the perfect way to cause him headaches.
"Some people earn such a fierce some reputation that they earn a form of semi-immortality. It's certainly more efficient than Flamel's patethic attempts to cling to life," said Scáthach. "Besides, I wrote my own destiny, rather than allow others to write it for me."
Which was why she had accepted Lyna Inverse as a student. Most people were content to be sheep, but Lyna...Lyna had the aura about her that said with the right chance she would become just as powerful as Scáthach herself.
Who was she to deny that opportunity and watch the girl bring some major waves into this boring world?
Seeing the near idol worship in the eyes of the girls, mostly because she was a powerful woman who didn't take shit from anyone, Scáthach waited until they were out of earshot before she talked to her apprentice.
"I expect you to bring those girls up to standards before they graduate."
Lyna smirked, an uncanny resemblance to the one her teacher had before.
"Already on it. Two of them are more fashion and defense inclined, so I'm going to train them up to be my own personal armorers. Hermione is a bit of a toss up, but I think she can be either a heavy-hitting spell researcher or a fire specialist. I haven't been able to pin down where Padma would excel. I think I might make her the runes specialist for her sister and friend."
Her Master looked pleased. She knew her student wouldn't rest until those girls were at least semi-competent, as there was very little chance they would survive the sort of training Lyna had endured without a word of complaint.
Scáthach had briefly visited the 'house' her student had fled from. That family wasn't worth the effort it would take to annihilate them, they were that disgusting.
"Come, apprentice. I need to make sure you're not slacking off," said her teacher.
"Yes master," said Lyna obediently.
Coincidentally the small coven of vampires who made the rather horrible mistake of targeting the two females would not survive the encounter. Lyna's mood vastly improved though.
"Where is she? She's late!" said Hermione. Summer had passed by all too quickly, and at the same time at a snail's pace. She had her homework done within two days, she was that excited.
"I have no idea," said Parvati. "She can be absentminded, but she was never the type to be late to important events."
Since it was a rare good day, they had the windows open to let the breeze in. The only time it was closed was when they went through a tunnel.
"I can hear you, you know," said a familiar voice dryly.
The girls took a few seconds for that to register, but when it did they jumped up at once.
"Iris! Where are you?" said Hermione, as that voice had been ridiculously close.
Rather than answering her, there was a loud "slam" on the edge of the window, causing the girls to shriek loudly in shock. Further inspection revealed a pale hand against the metal, and they could hear the distinct sound of Iris cackling at her prank.
"Iris! What on earth are you doing up there?" said Hermione, once she got her heart rate down.
"Master had a theory as to how the train was able to use the tracks without crashing into other trains. I wanted to see if she was correct, and it turns out she was," said Iris.
"Will you get down from there?" said Padma irritably. "How have you not been smashed against the roof of the tunnels?"
Iris snorted, but there was a brief pause as she calmly put her staff inside first, before she squeezed into the open window. She barely looked ruffled.
"The train's smoke stack is higher up than I am, and I was laying down. A simple air bubble kept the smoke out of my face," she replied.
"Have you been up there this whole time? How has no one seen you?" said Hermione.
"I've been up there since eight this morning, when the portal to allow the train in was opened up. I waited for it to park before I got onto the roof, once I stashed my trunk in of course. I didn't feel like dealing with having people trying to steal my spot, so I waited for you all to show up and get one. I fell asleep about fifteen minutes once I got myself settled, until the train started moving," shrugged Iris. "It took me a minute to find where you were, thanks to the voices."
"And you didn't think to come down earlier?" said Padma, twitching.
"It was really comfortable up there?" said Iris sheepishly.
"What are we going to do with you, Iris?" sighed Parvati exasperated.
"Complain while I drag you through ridiculous adventures that no one else will ever understand or get to have, while making you all obscenely rich and respected in the process?" said Lyna, tilting her head with a smile.
"...I can live with that," said Lavender, mostly at the "obscenely rich/respected" part.
"Well, we did get sorted in Gryffindor," sighed Hermione.
Padma and Parvati looked at each other. Then at their friend.
"We're in, but you better make it worth our time," said Padma.
The idea of being so valuable as a potential marriage partner that men would have to jump through hoops appealed to them greatly. Even better, their family's reputation would shoot through the roof if they did this right.
As Lyna went to use the bathroom (she had been up there a while after all) she found a pale haired blond with the aura of the fair folk.
Lyna gravitated towards her instantly.
The girl looked up at her, her eyes Seeing more than most humans would be able to handle.
"Greetings, Princess of Flowers," she said dreamily. "The wrackspurts don't like you at all."
Lyna stared at her, allowing that to sink in before a broad smile crossed her face.
"Oh I'm keeping you," she said cheerfully. The other girl blinked, likely startled that someone would accept her quirky nature without question or hesitation.
The girl's name was Luna Lovegood, and it took her a few moments to realize she had been basically adopted by Lyna as a baby sister of sorts.
Scáthach was going to love this one, she just knew it.
On an unrelated note, Luna would end up rooming with the second year Ravenclaws after a few...incidents. Most of Ravenclaw understood pretty damn fast she was under Iris Potter's protection, and Potter was not inclined towards mercy when it came to anyone harassing her Luna.
The teachers simply shook their heads over the matter, remembering how rabid a defender James had been over Lily, and accepted it as a quirk of the family.