Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable except for Lya and Athena

Chapter 4

The cold of Hogwarts didn't compare to the cold of the North, and the further they rode the colder it got. Scotland's winter had seeped into the stones of Hogwarts no matter if every fire in the castle was going and many of the younger students and even some of the older, found it impossible to go without a warming charm.

Lya normally managed without one, but not today. How her siblings were handling it so well she couldn't understand. They had managed to find extra cloaks for Sansa and Arya, Lya had thrown on the fur lined coat that Aunt Minerva had given her one winter, with buttons up the front, in a deep blue with grey fur. She had always been drawn towards greys and blues though it never made sense given she was in Gryffindor.

She kind of understood now, given the grey and white banners everywhere.

"That's a pretty cloak", Sansa said from the other side of the cart. Lya was a little irate that she wasn't allowed on one of the horses, instead she was at the mercy of the girls with no escape.

At least Athena had decided to hop on the wooden cart as well.

"Thank you, it was a gift", she said shooting the girl a small smile glancing around at the fairly green and empty surroundings. She absentmindedly petted Athena's head where it sat in her lap.

"Why does it have so many buttons", Arya asked.

"It's a style", Lya said, she had no idea outside of 'to keep it closed'.

"Why's it short?", Sansa asked this time.

"So it's easier to fight, right?", Arya answered for Lya, turning to her for confirmation.

"Lyarra can't fight Arya, she's a lady, unlike you." Sansa rolled her eyes as Arya bounced a little.

"If Lya wasn't fighting then how'd she get the scars on her arm, and how did she get all of us out of King's Landing?", Arya said glaring at Sansa.

Sansa was stuttering for a moment before finally saying, "Don't be stupid"

"You don't be stupid", Arya said back rather loudly.

"If you can't do anything except argue with each other, I'll silence you both till we get to Winterfell.", Lya said narrowing her eyes at the both of them. They had been like this for the last few hours. Lya was at her wit's end.

"No, you won't", Arya scoffed crossing her arms.

Lya raised a dark eyebrow at the girl.

A few hours later, as they stopped to make camp for the day, Catelyn came over to them as Sansa and Arya were gesturing wildly. Lya stood in front of the silently upset pair, arms crossed and slightly smirking.

"What in the Seven is going on?", Catelyn asked only to have Sansa and Arya spin towards her and start wildly pointing towards Lya and trying to tell the older woman something. No sound came out of either girls' mouth.

"Lyarra, what happened?", Catelyn asked slowly shifting her blue eyes between the younger girls and Lya.

Lya could just feel the motherly disapproval that was about to be directed at her.

"They wouldn't quit arguing", Lya said with a shrug.

"And they are silent because?", Catelyn asked cautiously, eyes narrowed at her.

"I charmed them silent, because they wouldn't quit arguing and I was tired of listening", Lya said with a shrug. She wasn't a saint; her patience had limits.

"Lyarra, you cannot just silence your sisters", Catelyn said exasperated as Ned came up behind her.

"What has happened?", he asked. Guess there hadn't been that much to do with camp. Or they were causing a scene, Lya wasn't sure.

"Lyarra silenced Sansa and Arya with magic", Catelyn explained narrowing her eyes at Lya.

Lya knew she didn't look sorry for it either. She wasn't going to pretend.

"Lyarra", Ned said with a sigh.

"They argued for six hours straight", Lyarra said desperately, "What else should I have done? Let them continue on until nine hours had passed?"

Ned only raised a brow, Catelyn's eyes still narrowed, causing Lya to huff and growl under breath, waving her hand to unsilence the pair.

"We were not arguing that much", Sansa tried to explain.

"You didn't have to silence me for hours", Arya whined.

"She should've silenced you sooner", Sansa said.

All Lya could was gesture at the pair and give Ned and Catelyn a look that said do you see what I mean?

"Six. Hours.", Lya hissed.

"You can't silence your sisters just because they irritate you," Catelyn said before turning on Arya and Sansa, "And the two of you know to be more respectful of those around you. Your sister has been through enough, do you wish for her earliest memories of the pair of you to be arguments?"

The younger girls both looked guiltily at the ground. "No", they mumbled.

"Sorry, Lya"

"Sorry, Lyarra"

It took a look from Catelyn and Ned again before Lya said, "Sorry for silencing you"

Catelyn herded the three of them to where the Stark tents had been set up and after sending Arya and Sansa into one, she stopped Lya.

"I want you to promise me that you will not silence your sisters again"

"I promise that I'll attempt to not silence them again", Lya conceded.

"Lyarra"

"Lya", she corrected softly. "You already know when I'm lying, there isn't really a point in me promising to never do it again."

Catelyn looked almost searchingly at Lya before releasing a sigh with a slight shake of her head. "Go clean up for supper, Lya."

Lya gave her a small smile and nod before moving into the next tent that Catelyn had gestured towards.

It didn't take long for her to clean up a bit, thank you magic, so she ended up wandering around with Athena at her side. Most people didn't come too close to the giant red direwolf. Unfortunately for Lya, Jojen wasn't as cautious as everyone else.

"Hello Athena", the dirty blonde said holding out his hand for Athena to sniff. Lya wasn't entirely sure where he'd come from. Athena didn't bite him but didn't fully acknowledge him either. Guess she had caught on to Lya's dislike for the boy.

"Reed", Lya said trying really hard not to role her eyes.

"Stark or is it McGonagall? You never did answer that question."

"Oh, did your dreams not tell you?", Lya asked trying to move around him.

"They don't tell me everything", Jojen said rolling his eyes at her. He moved to walk next to her with Athena as a buffer between them.

"Oh, how terrible", Lya said sarcastically returning the eyeroll.

"You're not fond of me", Jojen stated, locking his hands behind his back.

"Not you", Lya corrected.

"My powers then? Kind of hypocritical of you given the kind of things you can do with magic." Jojen glanced over before continuing, "At least I can't remove someone's spine"

Lya had him pinned to the tree they were passing at wand-point in less than a second. "One, it would be within your interest to not bring up that battle. Ever. Two, if you actually used your sight- dream- thing correctly, maybe, just maybe, you would know that man murdered my best friend", Lya growled lowly. "Three, keep your psychic visions off of me."

"I'm sorry! I can't control them", Jojen said wide eyed, glancing panicked between Lya's wand and her furious expression.

"The bloody hell you mean you can't", Lya asked still keeping her wand aimed at him, tucked under his throat forcing his head back.

"I can't control it, they come to me whenever they want to", Jojen admitted rather quickly.

Lya narrowed her eyes at him before lowering her wand from his neck. Lya huffed and returned her wand to the holster hidden up her sleeve.

"Well why didn't you start with that?" Lya stepped back from him, to give him more space.

"What?", Jojen asked wide eyed standing stiff still against the tree.

"Do you want to learn a trick that might help with that?", Lya asked. She moved to sit down across from the tree, Athena plopping down next to her. She shifted her bag to her lap and started searching.

Jojen looked at her hesitantly as he moved slowly to sit down in front of her, keeping his back against the tree. "Do you know one?"

"Well, it would be rather useless if I offered and didn't know of one", Lya said. "Now, the extent it will work or help? That I don't know, it varies based on the person"

"But there's a chance?", the sixteen-year-old asked.

"Yes", Lya said concentrating before finally giving up. She pulled her hand out and took out her wand, "Accio Alcina Drakos Guarding the Mind"

The book shot out of the bag and landed in Lya's hand. She let out an oomph. She didn't remember the book being this big. She dropped it into her lap and started flipping to where she knew the occlumency section started.

She turned the book around and pointed at the open page, Jojen was watching rather attentively.

"This is where it starts, the steps continue and it's lined out rather well", Lya said holding the book out to him.

"Is this how you learned?", Jojen asked looking down at the pages.

Lya nodded, "If you have questions, come find me"

"You're sure it'll work?"

"It worked well for a friend of mine", Lya shrugged. Luna was the one who introduced it to her in one of their library corner meetings. "She was a seer as well"

Jojen scanned the page flipping it a few times. "Thank you", Jojen said sincerely, finally looking back up at her.

Lya nodded in acceptance. "You can keep it with you, that way you don't have to come irritating me every time you need it."

Jojen was about to retort when he noticed the teasing smirk on Lya's face. He let out a little laugh that Lya eventually echoed before she stood back up.

"I'll see you around, Reed", Lya said holding a hand down to him.

He took the hand and stood up as well, "See you around"

Lya started to head back to the Stark tents when Jojen called out. She turned and faced him just as he asked.

"Stark or McGonagall?"

Lya tilted her head before shrugging, "I'll tell you when I figure it out."

She walked straight into Sansa and Arya as they were heading to supper.

"Mother was looking for you", Sansa informed her.

"Why", Lya asked but Sansa could only shrug.

Lya hoped it wasn't about the altercation she just had with Jojen but didn't think it was possible since it had barely been five minutes before. Though given how the Hogwarts Rumor Train, as many of the students delightfully called it, ran it wouldn't be entirely shocking. Still doubtful though. Lya didn't think there were any talking portraits with nothing better to do than gossip with students and themselves in this world, there certainly weren't any in the middle of nowhere location they had set camp.

Finding Catelyn wasn't difficult. There were only a few women in the entire camp and only two that had striking red hair. She had taken a seat off to the side, perched on a rock working at the same odd wheel thing that she had been working on next to Lya's bedside.

"Sansa said you were looking for me?" Lya moved closer, not wanting to startle the woman. She had been told by a lot of her classmates she needed to make more noise when approaching. She had a tendency of accidently scaring people by walking up on them. Her dear sweet roommates had threatened to put a bell on her multiple times and Kellah actually bought one as a gag gift one year.

She still had it, too.

Catelyn startled a little, not having realized anyone was approaching. "I was, I wanted to ask about something Theon had mentioned the other night."

"If it's about the scar on my hand, it's been healed over for about two years now." Lya let out a small sigh. It wasn't that big of a deal, yet everyone continued to turn it into one.

"Does that scar have anything to do with the tremors that afflict your hands occasionally?"

Lya froze. She realized Catelyn had probably seen the tremors when she woke screaming the first night, but honestly, Lya had hoped the older woman would brush it off as shaking from fear of the dream.

The universe did not like to work in Lya's favor it seems.

Lya slumped and took a seat on the rock next to Catelyn. "No. The tremors were caused by something else"

Catelyn laid the wheel on her lap and focused all her attention on Lya.

"I assume it was the war you fought in?", Catelyn asked softly.

"It wasn't like what I've heard about wars here", Lya began slowly, fiddling with her necklace. "The only literal battle was the one I was in before landing back here. It was kind of like an underground war fought mostly politically with random attacks that became more public as time went on."

Lya took a breath, "Hogwarts was the safest place you could have been until this last year. The other side managed to infiltrate, get positions among the staff, and even though Aunt Minerva was on the staff there was only so much she could do to help the students without being killed and she wouldn't have been able to protect us at all if she was dead."

"The punishments at Hogwarts shifted from cleaning whatever mess you made, or the trophy room or writing lines with normal quills", she emphasized for Catelyn's sake. "To being placed under an illegal spell this last year. It.." Lya shuddered remembering how the pain coursed through her body.

Catelyn shifted closer, taking Lya's hand in hers. Lya squeezed her hand, it comforted her and helped settle her mind. "It was illegal for a reason. No one should have to experience that kind of pain. If left on too long or done too much, the person begins to loose their sanity, eventually becoming shells of themselves" Neville understood it all too well with his parents having been in St. Mungos since he was a babe. He had been furious.

"Even after the spell stops, your body still hurts, you can barely stand you're shaking so bad for the first few minutes after. Eventually it calms down, but tremors are a side effect if you were under it too much and didn't go crazy."

Catelyn didn't interrupt but Lya could smell the saltiness of tears from where she sat. She wondered if this was a side effect of Greyback's mark on her but decided to dwell on it later.

"I pissed them off, the fake professors. Intentionally most of the time. Especially if it looked like they were targeting some of the younger years.", Lya admitted, "It was me or a kid that was Sansa's age, that was Arya's age. No child should have to know that pain so early in life, if it can be prevented"

"You should not have had to go through it either", Catelyn finally spoke up.

Lya shrugged not really knowing what to say.

"Was it like that all of the time? So dangerous?", Catelyn asked voice barely above a whisper.

"No", Lya whispered smiling a little, "I mean, there was certainly no limit to the trouble a lot of us caused, there were over a thousand students, all of whom could do magic. The trouble with that type of trouble is it started out as fun and snowballed out of control. Hogwarts was home when I didn't have one, it was home for a lot of students really"

Catelyn squeezed her hand gently.

"What is that", Lya asked, not wanting to focus on her memories right now.

Catelyn glanced down at her lap looking at the circle Lya was pointing at.

"It's a Prayer Wheel, something done by the Seven"

After a moment of silence Lya asked, "What's the Seven?"

"The Faith of the Seven, it's one of the religions of Westeros, the North follows the old Gods"

"But you don't?" Why can't things just be simple? Oh, wait, that would just be too easy.

"I was born in the Light of the Seven at Riverrun, your father follows the old Gods. Where the Seven worship in a sept the old Gods are worshipped in a Godswood with a weirwood tree."

Catelyn was patient, extending on the explanation once realizing Lya didn't recognize any of those words. It felt odd though to know something yet not know it. Everything she said made sense in a way Lya couldn't describe.

Thankfully the first day of the trip had been the most eventful, the next week and a half was rather dull in comparison. Things calming down finally made her realize how exhausted everything made her. Sleeping when stuck in the cart became a good way to ignore Arya and Sansa's inevitable arguing and catch up on the sleep she lost during the night working on the rune stones when the rest of camp slept. By the last few days of the journey, she could honestly say she wasn't tired for the first time in a year.

She hadn't taken into account some of the magical vernacular within the book that she'd given Jojen, so it became a common sight when they made camp to see the pair bent over the old book discussing the techniques and some of the common knowledge wizardry stuff it mentioned. Jojen hadn't brought up anything to do with the war again.

Meera was still a little wary of her but would occasionally listen in on her and Jojen's conversations. Their fathers were just happy they'd stopped going for each other's throats. Figuratively, of course. Jojen hadn't mentioned Lya holding him at wand point, thankfully.

Not her best move. The day after she silenced her sisters, she realized that the night she'd gotten angry at Theon, for a good reason, had been the first day of the full moon. She was hoping and dreading that the scar Greyback gave her had caused her to lose her temper more so than usual.

She tried to keep her temper under control most of the time.

Looking ahead she slowly saw massive stone walls grow over the horizon. She watched for a few minutes before her sisters noticed her watching.

"Winterfell", Arya cheered. Sansa who had been the most disappointed with the turn of events in Kings Landing couldn't help smiling.

Lya's stomach was twisted into knots. She'd been hoping her memory would start coming back once Winterfell was in sight. Maybe it'd take being inside the walls. Could be she saw the outside so rarely that it didn't help.

It was disappointing and irritating really.

Athena was running around with Greywind today. Lya guessed being so close to seeing their siblings again was making them excited.

Lya observed the stone walls and direwolf statues and carvings that marked most of the surfaces as they passed. The people inside and in the town outside were cheering, all seemingly thrilled that the army had come home safe.

The stares Lya got just made her twitchy.

Everyone climbed off their horses, or cart in her case. Lya rubbed her temple, spinning in a slow circle taking in the courtyard around her as Ned and Catelyn directed different people to do whatever.

Her head hurt. A lot.

"Mother, Father", a small red-haired boy ran up to the pair, Catelyn caught him and hugged him to her, kissing his curly hair. Lya watched for a moment before turning her gaze elsewhere. A large man, close in size to Hagrid, was carrying a slightly older boy.

She remembered him being born, sneaking away from somewhere to play with a little Arya and Bran. She remembered helping him climb the trees in the Godswood, once she realized he wasn't going to stop.

She doesn't know how, doesn't really care but she remembers.

Before the boy could call out, Lya spoke up, fighting through her pounding head.

"It's been a while, Monkey-Wolf"

"Hodor, stop", he said urgently turning his head to stare wide-eyed at her. "Lyarra?"

She gave him a small sad smile. "Yea, Bran, it's me"

She moved closer to the large man that was holding him, probably because of his legs. When she was close enough he reached his arms out to wrap around her, she wrapped hers tight around him in return.

His little arms squeezed her neck tight, Lya falling to her knees squeezing him to her, her throat tight as she buried her face in his neck. She held most of his weight in her lap, but she couldn't care less.

She remembered her baby brother.

She must have been mumbling that aloud because he pulled back slightly, keeping his arms tight around her neck. "Why would you not remember me?", he asked his voice tight, big blue eyes watery.

She teared up a bit, admitting, "I don't remember anything"

"but you remember me?" he mumbled tucking his head into her neck.

"Barely", she whispered sadly. "more than the others though."

She felt someone else's arms wrap around them but between trying not to cry and failing because she finally remembered more than a glimpse and fighting back a headache, she didn't care to figure out which of their family had wrapped their arms around them.

ITS SPRING BREAK, hope everyone is staying safe out there.

Would anyone be interested in reading a Ned Stark/Oc where J =/= R+L? Leave a comment, check out my other stories, which have updates in the works as well and I hope you enjoyed.

Hugs!