Peaceful Pines Connecticut, was a small and fairly sleepy town. It's forested hills and old covered bridges gave it an air quite in tune with it's name. The Winter River was up due to the melt and the spring rains. But now the hottest part of summer was coming and soon enough the weather would be sweltering. Lydia Deetz was enjoying her bike ride home from the last day of Miss Shannon's School for Girls before the summer break. She was four - nearly five years in the past from her perspective. Sadly that meant she had three more years of Claire Brewster to deal with. Fortunately, time provides perspective. And having spent almost two years working with Juno and the Destiny Repair team in the Underworld, she could see just how little Claire's petty issues would affect her after school.
Lydia and her family had moved into the Maitland house three years ago. In those first few months she had noticed things her parents had taken no notice of. Later she deduced that she was able to see things others could not because she herself was "strange and unusual." Making friends with the Maitlands' Ghosts was one of the best things that had ever happened to her. The incident wherein she met BJ not withstanding. For some reason, knowing what she did now she suspected the MACUSA Obliviators, her parents had no recollection of the seance or the aborted wedding.
Even the short book 'The Living and The Dead' that had appeared in his study and so interested her father had vanished. Though for some reason her memories were left unchanged. Otho had moved back to New York, and none of her parents old friends were inclined to visit anymore. Delia was much less intense about her art and actually began acting like a mother. Charles was less prone to extreme anxiety attacks, and the Maitlands were free to wander the house safe in the knowledge that only Lydia could see them. Though they did tend to hang out in the Attic more than anything.
Several weeks after the incident, BJ had appeared in her bedroom vanity mirror and they had spoken. He was obviously enamored of her, but being thirteen she was firmly against that, though she was willing to be friends. After several nights of talking through the mirror, BJ was able to convince her to come across to the Netherworld, while still alive of course. None of her ghost friends suggested she give up her life for a ghostly one. "being dead isn't any easier" they all agreed.
The Netherworld was not what she was expecting. It was chaotic, illogical, and seemed to be highly mutable. Certain people, like BJ, could literally alter reality with a phrase he called it having 'juice'. Some places she saw were twisted mirrors of the normal world, others were like bizarre dreams of historical books and period musicals. She loved it. But they were right, even here where everyone was dead, (or seemed to be) there were problems. While she spent time playing, having fun, and making friends, she also reached out and helped people when she could.
Eventually she became one of the first 'Civil Servants' in the afterlife that was not only not despairing, but actually wanted the job. Some of that was yet to happen. She had been busy in the Netherworld for some time, but had yet to even finish school, however if she kept her memories, Juno probably did as well.
Once Lydia arrived back in her bedroom she drew the curtains and spoke the incantation that would open a portal to the Netherworld rather than merely summoning BJ. It was a bit more involved than drawing a door and knocking three times. That only worked for actual ghosts... Barbra and Adam had, with her help finally found the way to open a portal to the Netherworld in a location that mirrored their own house instead of the waiting-room of the dead. It was all in the Handbook... though reading it was a chore. Her spell, for that is what it was, instead called upon her connection to BJ and used him as a focus, it generally opened the portal into his dwelling in the afterlife.
Once in the Netherworld, Lydia decked out in her traditional black body stocking and red spiderweb designed parka made her way to the office building where Juno worked as a caseworker helping the recently deceased. Like every other building around it was not square in the slightest. It's twisted visage would be impossible to build without magic if it was truly subject to such things as gravity. Yet despite looking like something drawn or painted by Dali, it was a government building to it's bones.
Making her way inside was not difficult despite her 'living' status, she was well known to the locals. She probably would have been stopped had her friend BJ been with her. He had worked here years ago and it had resulted in him being banished and name bound. Though he was free now, he was considered by most to be unemployable and was unwelcome in the halls of government. His brief stint as Mayor last year hadn't helped.
Though in one sense she was seeing it for the first time, Juno's office was as it always was, cluttered, dingy, and bathed in a an uncomfortable green light. "Ms. Deetz, I was hoping you would come by, we have a lot to discuss." said the elderly seeming ghost with a smile almost as wide as the one that brought her here. Lydia's return smile was nearly as wide.
Leaving Juno's office a few hours later Lydia carried with her a new Badge of Office. The badges were not available in the previous timeline but Harry had authorized them along with everything else in that contract he didn't bother to read. She really would have to work with him on that. The badge was obsidian and hematite, a stylized shield with eight points, the uppermost point crowned with the crown of England. In the center of the badge was the Deathly Hallows symbol of a line, circle and triangle in argent on a sable background. Wearing this badge, Lydia could do things she had always wanted to be able to, without dying first.
She made her way back to her portal. Slipping back into the land of the living, the badge clutched in her hands she felt the cold pulse as it left the Netherworld. Had there been any other ghosts in the area they would have felt it too, but the Maitlands had taken to spending time playing tourist now that they could access places other than the waiting room, the house, and the Sand-worm desert. As such there was no one to notice the pulse. It didn't even register on the sensors the Obliviators had arranged to be placed around town.
After a quick supper and wishing her father and stepmother a good night, as well as feeding her cat, she prepared for bed a little differently than usual. She dressed in comfortable clothes, but not exactly nightwear. She then got under the covers of her four poster bed, with her sneakers on, and drew closed her bed-curtains. Soon she was lying in repose hands clasped together just under her breasts badge of office in hand.
Three breaths later and her spirit left her body. An ethereal form rose in the same position she lay. The body she left behind continued to breathe, seemingly asleep to any inspection, but comatose without her consciousness to stir it. She floated above her body and turning looked down and smiled at her sleeping form. Then spoke "Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter" and found herself elsewhere.
Harry's day had been interesting and a bit exhausting. So much so that he had turned in early and found himself waking much earlier than usual. Perhaps the unfamiliar bed was to blame, but having gotten at least six hours sleep before waking he was unlikely to be able to return to sleep any time soon. Peeking out his bedroom door he was relieved to see Sirius wasn't sitting vigil again guarding his door in Padfoot form. Silently padding down the carpeted hallway he managed to make it into the kitchen before being stopped by Kreature.
"Does young master need warm milk with a drop of sleeping potion?" the elderly elf asked almost kindly. His visage looked hopeful at being able to do something for Harry, the good master that had helped him finish Master Regulus' last request.
"Thank you Kreature, I'll have the milk, and a bit of buttered toast but no potion" replied Harry. "I've slept as long as I expect to tonight." Checking the time he noticed that it was a little after three am. He had gone to bed a little before nine despite normally staying up quite late during the summer. Not having to avoid the Dursleys may have knock on effects.
Soon enough he was ensconced in a comfortable overstuffed chair in the drawing room drinking a second glass of milk, cold this time, and reading through his second year notes and returned assignments. He wanted to make good his promise to Hermione to have all the summer work done, without coming off as a sixth year. As he sat he began to grow drowsy despite his earlier assurances to Kreature and was nearly napping when he heard a faint sound, almost like a tapping.
He was jolted awake by the sudden rapping and quickly glanced around the dimly lit study. The gas lamps light was barely bright enough to read by and so he had drawn back the antique purple silk curtains (blessedly free of Doxies) to let in the moonlight. Striding at first to the door Harry opened it but found little but the darkened hallway and nothing more. Stepping back into the room he glanced at the bust of Athena that seemed to glower down at him before closing the door. 'There may be some residual prank spells on the house even if the curses have been laid by the elves' he thought. Turning back into the room he saw there floating framed by the window was an apparition. So unexpected was it that he was filled with a fantastic terror for a moment, the adrenaline assuring he was well and truly awake.
Harry was not afraid of ghosts, but the floating figure with the hooded cloak looked rather more like a Dementor. But there was no aura of cold, nor was the window frosting. Slowly, perhaps not wanting to scare him further the figure raised it's hands to it's hood and drawing it back he saw silhouetted against the waxing moon a familiar raven black hairstyle. "Lydia?" He spoke in a whisper, unsure of what he was seeing.
Lydia for her part took in the view before her. Her spell had pulled her to Harry and placed her just outside the window of the room he was in, apparently the house was warded against ghosts. She was able to see him nodding, nearly napping in a large old chair surrounded by curious old books and sheafs of parchment. She noted the purple silk curtains mostly drawn back, and the bust of Pallas Athena above the door and couldn't help her self. She tap tap tapped at the glass. His reaction was perfect. Now if he would just open the window...
As Harry approached the sealed window he saw hovering there the ghost of a girl he had met in the afterlife, one who by all accounts should still be alive. He was horribly concerned that something he had done had caused her death, and found himself horrified at the idea. He flung open the latticed window and said again, almost dreading the answer "Lydia?" The specter of the girl that quickly had become his friend glided into the room her cloak fluttering around her and turning to him said "Nevermore."
To which Harry replied "What?" in a confused and flat tone.
"You haven't read Poe?" asked Lydia incredulously.
"Who?" asked Harry in genuine confusion.
"Edgar Allan Poe, author of The Raven?" said Lydia questioningly.
"Never heard of the bloke," said Harry with a shrug, relieved that Lydia seemed alright all things considered.
"What are they teaching you over here?" She asked disdainfully and perhaps a bit jokingly.
"Was he an American?" asked Harry now curious about the man.
"Yes, but he was educated in England for a time and went on to become one of the more famous poets and writers of scary stories in American history." replied Lydia defensively.
"I probably would have learned about him had I stayed in normal school," soothed Harry, "we don't learn about British writers at Hogwarts, much less American ones."
"Well, with a study decorated like this one, someone has been reading it," remarked Lydia dryly.
Harry decided to ignore that for the moment and address the ghost in the room... "So, how did you die?" he asked with little more tact than he had asked Myrtle.
Lydia laughed. "I'm not technically dead, I'm just astral projecting. My body is safe and sound back at home. I'm here for your first intercession with destiny repair."
Harry's mouth snapped shut and he realized that his jaw had dropped. "Wait, you remember too!"
"Just now catching that, wow, you must be tired Harry." said Lydia with a giggle, and a casual loop de loop in the air.
"So, it's not just me, who else remembers?" asked Harry eagerly. "Hermione has been having dreams..." he began.
"Officially It's just you, me, and Juno," interrupted Lydia, "Hermione will have subconscious impressions because of your connection, but won't truly remember like we do, it will be like déjà vu." she sighed. "Hedwig somehow also came back, normally animals don't have true ghosts so she shouldn't have had any memories to receive, not to mention that she died nearly a year before you did. Juno is still figuring it out. It probably has something to do with the Familiar bond"
"So, are you visible to anyone like a ghost, or just me since you're just projecting" asked Harry, having read about Astral Projection in both his Divination texts and his Handbook for the Repeatedly Deceased.
"Only you can see or hear me, unless I appear in front of a person who is a true seer, capable of seeing auras and such unaided. Even a mage sight spell won't reveal a projector to those they aren't visiting." assured Lydia, people like that were exceedingly rare and like Lydia could see ghosts even if they had no other magic.
Changing the subject she added,"I understand it's only the second day, but you had a pretty tight schedule for certain things, I was just checking in on how you're progressing." At this she also stopped floating about and settled in the chair across from his, though there was no visible indication of her presence, no compressing of the cushions, or anything, she just hovered there as if she were seated.
"Well, as you may have noticed, I'm in my Godfather's townhouse in London rather than staying at the Cauldron. We managed to destroy the Locket earlier, Kreature is on board with our plan, and I managed to start writing back and forth with Hermione." said Harry smiling slightly.
"Are you going to play things out at Hogwarts or intercept the rat in the ally?" asked Lydia having gone over plans for each scenario with Harry.
"I refuse to sleep in the same room as that rat, and Sirius seems pretty stable now, so we'll try for the ally, and if not that then the train. I know the animagus reversal spell this time and hitting Scabbers with a somnus is easy. He sleeps most of the time anyway. Follow that up with a stunner and we're golden." assured Harry confidently.
"Did you show Sirius the memories of the objects and their locations?" asked Lydia looking at a checklist on a clipboard that she didn't seem to be holding earlier.
"Yeah, that went well, it's how we got the locket. I think he'll be able to get the cup from Bellatrix's vault so we can destroy it during the Christmas Hols." Harry shrugged. "Since he's the head of the Black family, and she never had any kids with either of the Lestrange brothers her vault technically reverts to the Black Family since she was sentenced to life in prison. Once she gets out, if she gets out, it will be an issue of course. But now he can just slip in and do it." He paused, "I'll take care of the tiara during the first weekend back at Hogwarts, no sense sneaking about at night after curfew unnecessarily." he added.
"Have you tried calling the Ring to you?" asked Lydia
"Not yet," admitted Harry, "I didn't want to chance it until I got to Hogwarts, even if it does appear like BJ said it would, it is probably still cursed. I don't want to have my arm rot off because it takes too long to get to Madam Pomphrey."
"Make sure you're wearing Dragon-hide Gloves and you should be fine, the curse, and the Horcrux is in the ring not the stone. But the ring should recognize you as it's legitimate owner so it shouldn't lash out unless you put it on," she shrugged, "and it might not even then."
"That just leaves the main piece and whatever he is possessing in Albania." mused Lydia. "Until he gets a decent body he can't make Nagini into a Horcrux, assuming it was Bertha Jenkins that fueled that ritual." she speculated. "Go ahead and destroy the cup on the winter solstice rather than any old day. It may drag him into the afterlife immediately. If it does, Juno or I will contact you." she continued. "If he manages to stick around he will be vulnerable and might die at any time as simply going into wraith form may suck him down, and as his presence kills the hosts rapidly, he may expire a few days or weeks later."
"What about professor Snape?" asked Harry.
"His value as a spy is fairly worthless," began Lydia, "especially as you can get free roaming ghosts to spy for you. And having the Mark is a death sentence now so go ahead and use the parseltongue removal spell we got from Paracelsus so he is no longer bound to that master. As long as you are occluding he shouldn't detect you under the cloak."
Outside the window the sky began to lighten at the edges as the predawn light began to creep up the horizon. Lydia, seated facing the window decided it was time to return. "Well, Harry, it looks like you are off to a good start." she said as she rose, Harry rose with her. She glided forward and gave him a warm hug he could feel as though she was solid!
"How can you?" he began only to be interrupted by her laughter.
"You didn't think BJ was the only one with Juice did you?" She asked playfully as her misty form dissipated like the Cheshire cat, her smile the last thing to go. Her laugh seemed to hang in the empty room and Harry decided that he really needed a shower and a good breakfast after his eventful night.
