Lyka Potter knew two things about herself. The first thing being that she did enjoy making potions. The second thing being that she hated having to listen to someone drone on and on about the process of making said potions. And thus here she was stuck in her own personal hell. Having to listen to Slughorn talk endlessly about how to brew a pompion potion but they wouldn't be allowed to till later was driving the white-haired girl insane. She was sure that if her hair wasn't already white it would have turned so just from having to go through first year potions again.

She looks over to the empty seat next to her and sighs deeply. 'Maybe it was a mistake giving Draco an opportunity to go look for the diadem. He should have to suffer through Sluggy's annoying explanations, too.' She scowls and returns her attention to Slughorn only to note that everyone was packing away their supplies.

"Well everyone, that will be all. And don't forget to write a parchment long essay on the uses and properties of the pompion potion! Due next Friday!" Slughorn calls as the students file out of the classroom.

Harry comes up along Lyka's side, seemingly excited for what's to come. "So what sort of style do you think Professor Ambrose is?"

Lyka rolls her eyes at Harry's over-excitement. Did he manage to forget that they already have six years of defense classes under their belts? "Hopefully more straightforward. With a bit more emphasis on spells that will actually help us in situations where we will need to defend ourselves."

Harry nods along as their path takes them out of the dungeons and up, up, up the stairs of Hogwarts. "What if he ends up being like another blond defense professor we once dealt with?"

"Then Dumbledore is even more of an idiot for hiring two of the same types regardless of the amount of time between." Lyka scoffs and nods acknowledgment to Draco as he comes up on Harry's other side. "How are you feeling?"

Draco swings an arm around Harry's shoulders, "Better. Although I went to hang out in the Room. Since Pomfrey was a bit preoccupied tending to Severus." Draco holds up his index finger to silence Lyka as her face goes red. "Also I did end up getting caught by Lucius. We ended up having a decent conversation for a wee bit before the topic turned sour."

Harry stares at Draco's profile as they walk, trusting Draco wouldn't let him run into anything. "Did you end up getting detention? And why did it go bad?"

"No detention. Lucius was very understanding of my mental state. And Lucius had willed the Room to take the form of my mother's sunroom. Which my father had completely destroyed after an event that happened when I was but a child." He says while pressing his free hand to his forehead.

"You still are a child." Lyka mutters in disappointment. It would have been such a relief to get the diadem this early on. But there will be other chances. Unfortunately it might just end up not being until later in term. Then there was also the problem of the Marauders targeting Severus. That made her blood absolutely boil.

Draco glances over to Lyka at this moment, "Uh-oh. Lyka's thinking too hard. The tips of her ears are turning red." Lyka glares at Draco as he laughs and quickly takes her hair out from behind her ears. They arrive at their Defense classroom and note that the rest of the class is sitting outside the room. "What seems to be the problem?" Draco directs to one of the other first years.

"Well we can hear that Professor Ambrose is inside. But the door is locked. So no one can actually get in." The Gryffindor states as a Slytherin knocks on the door. Several bangs resounded from deep within the classroom. For some reason the professor was held up within his own classroom and was completely ignoring his students attempts to get in.

Harry shrugs out from under Draco's arm and pushes his way through the crowd to the door. "Well when push comes to shove!" He says to the crowd before pointing his pale wand towards the lock. "Alohomora." The door unlocks and Harry pulls it open. Inside was not what they were expecting. Professor Rousseau was dodging between wand wielding dummies and blasting them with various spells. He didn't even seem to notice as the students file into the classroom.

Eventually Professor Rousseau disarms and takes out the last dummy before turning towards the class. "And that my students, is how you deal with multiple opponents when cornered." He smiles brightly and wipes the sweat off of his forehead. "Now can anyone tell me what spell I was using to disarm them?" Lyka raises her hand. "Yes Miss Potter?"

"You were using expelliarmus. And was all of that really a demonstration for our benefit? Or did the dummies just go rampant?" Lyka asks as she glances back towards the scattered and defeated dummies.

Professor Rousseau bursts out laughing, "All right you got me. The magic controlling them did go a bit haywire after my last class. But you're also correct on the spell. Which is also what we're going to be learning today." And so for the next hour the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years practiced disarming each other. Professor Rousseau gave out many compliments to Harry, Lyka, and Draco. But as Lyka thought to herself, 'Well we've had sixteen years experience with the bloody spell and technique.' Fortunately there were no strange mishaps like there had been in the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff class.

As they all got out for lunch, Lyka turns towards Harry and Draco. "I'll see you guys later. I'm gonna go see if Severus is still in the hospital wing or not. And if he is...well I'm going to accompany him to lunch."

Draco snorts loudly, "Bodyguard Lyka Potter. Scariest and deadliest of all!"

Lyka flashes Draco a smile and finger-guns, waving her hands up and down. "Oh you know it, Dray. See you two in the great hall!" And with that Lyka parts ways with the boys. She quickly makes her way to the hospital wing, skipping several steps and jumping off the last five of several staircases. As she arrives in the corridor leading to the hospital wing, she witnesses one of the large doors open and a fairly tall, skinny, pale and dark-haired boy exit. "Oi Sevy!"

Severus turns towards her and smiles shyly as she approaches, "Hey Lyka." His smile quickly disappears when he notices her expression turn from happy to overly concerned. "I'm all right now. Also all that happened was I tripped down the stairs and managed to bump my head a lil bit." He tries to give what is supposed to be a reassuring smile.

Lyka hums, not satisfied at all with this answer. "Is this what you would tell Lily to get her off your back about these things? Because unfortunately or fortunately, I'm not Lily, Severus." She links her arm with his as they begin to head towards the great hall. "So what really caused you to fall and miss two classes? I doubt Madam Pomfrey would have kept you for that long if it was just a simply bump to the head."

Severus sighs as they take another turn and begin to take the stairs down, "Well I might have heard someone cast a tripping jinx just before I fell. And I might have actually of had a cut somewhere on my head. Causing Madam Pomfrey to be concerned that I had a concussion. Thus why I was in the hospital wing for two class periods before she let me go."

Lyka hums again, a bit more satisfied with this answer. "And did the voice casting the tripping jinx happen to sound like someone I'm closely related to? Or perhaps one of their motley crew?" She glances out of the corner of her eye to gauge Severus' reaction. To which she was not disappointed as the boy bit his lower lip in frustration. "You know you can tell me. You're one of my friends, Sevy. I'm not going to choose my idiot brother or his idiot friends over you." She whispers to the boy as he brings them to a stop to blink away tears.

"I know that, Lyka. I'm just not used to it is all. Even Lily during our first year would always find some way to twist what I told her around so it was my fault. Even for moments when she was there!" His voice breaks with a combination of rage and pain. "And it was just so unfair. Because she made friends with that Marlene and Alice. Then almost completely forgot about me unless she wanted help with her homework." He sniffles a little and rubs at his eyes with his free arm. "Then somehow you decided to come along into my bloody life. Yeah, part of it has made things worse with Potter. Since he seems to think that he needs to protect you from me. Honestly...I think we need to protect all of the school from you with the way you walk around, Lyka." Severus lets out a watery laugh.

Lyka envelopes the teary-eyed boy in a hug, her heart aching for him. While a burning rage towards her older brother only grows. As she opens her mouth to attempt to comfort the taller boy, a slow clap echoes through the corridor. Groaning in her head, Lyka turns to look and sees exactly who she was expecting. "You know most people know how to read the situation and usually don't interrupt with creepy clapping." Her words ooze with disdain as her brother and his friends appear.

"Well little sis, what can I say? Can't help but applaud a good show." James says with a mischievous smile. "Anyway, you run on along to lunch, Lyka. We need to have a little chat with Snivellus before he gets to lunch."

Lyka narrows her eyes at James as she feels Severus tense up in her arms and his breathing becoming faster and shallower. She slowly releases Severus and turns towards the group of boys, crossing her arms in the process. "Yeah. I don't think so, brother dearest. How about you lot run on along to lunch before I hex all four of you?" She smiles prettily at them as her muscles automatically loosen for a fight. She watches closely as Remus and Peter share a look.

"James, would she actually hex us?" Peter asks quietly as the tension mounts between the two groups.

James snorts, "She's just a bunch of hot air. Just make sure to go easy on her, boys." At this signal, all four of the boys draw their wands.

Lyka sighs and shrugs dramatically, "Of course you boys would have to learn the hard way." With that she trains her full focus on the quartet and lets out a high pitched note followed by a lower pitched note. The four boys react with shock as they're disarmed and flung onto their backs. Among the groans and light cursing, Lyka giggles and grabs an equally shocked Severus' hand. "By the way, good luck dealing with the third surprise I left ya." With that she breaks into a run for the great hall, dragging Severus the entire way and not stopping till they were at the doors.

As they stood, partially bent over and panting, Severus quick glances at Lyka. His eyebrows scrunch together in concern. "Are you going to be all right? You look like hell warmed over."

Lyka nods and answers between breaths, "Yeah. Just a lot more done than I should have." She stands up fully and gives Severus an exhausted smile. "I think I might eat really quickly and then take a little nap before charms."

Severus nods, knowing that she'll refuse to go to the hospital wing or even skip class. "By the way, what exactly was the third thing you did to them?"

She snickers, "I turned every hair on their body into a petunia. They won't be able to get rid of them without removing them entirely and being bald for a bit."

Severus laughs loudly as they enter the great hall, "But why petunias?"

"Because they symbolize hatred and resentment. Which for reasons know and unknown, they have a lot of both for you." Lyka states simply as they join the rest of their friends for lunch.

XxXxX

XxX

XxXxX

Author's note:

Hello everyone! Sorry for taking so long to pump this chapter out. I've been working extra hours at work with very little time there to work on writing. Plus I've recently adopted a new kitten and when he first moved in he felt the need to attempt to chew any and all electrical cords. That were plugged in. So there was very little time for any sort of writing there either.

I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things! Although that doesn't mean that I'll have a decent posting schedule. I'm probably still going to be very sporadic.

Also it doesn't help that my brain has been a bit preoccupied with two different alternate universes of this one. One where Sirius doesn't go to Azkaban and raises the twins after James and Lily's deaths. And we get to see him and of course Remus struggle raising the two of them. Because who doesn't want "Unca Pahwfoo!" and all the other shenanigans toddler Harry and Lyka would get into?

And another where Voldemort was defeated during the first Wizarding War and either one or both of the Potter parents survives. Although this particular one would be taking place after the twins and company are done with Hogwarts. Because uuuhhhh, I'm kind of struggling with not being at the cutesy parts of this story yet. I wanna write the romance!

Plus there's always the temptation of writing out the original series of events. Before all the time travel and death. Because I mean give me a show of hands of who doesn't want to see exactly how Harry, Lyka, and Draco became friends?

Please feel free if you guys would be interested in reading any of these ideas! And don't worry, I won't abandon StWR2 in favor of any of these.

Love you all!

-Siren