Disclaimer- I wish everything here was mine… and if wishes were hippogriffs we'd all fly to the office on Mondays.

AN-

Thank You so much for reading this! Thank you even more for Favorite-ing/Following/Reviewing this!

Mewster7-It's very similar to Tom Riddle's wand

-I haven't decided on the pairings yet- although I do like your idea of having Harry explore a bit before he figures things out. And no I'm not very fond of the Hinny pairing... in either case- romance will be a minor component of the story- at least until fourth year- unless I'm struck by a sudden muse to go that way. Cerdic and Lyra is a growing temptation.

Chapter 14- First Year (part II)

Hogwarts Castle-October-1991
Age 11

Lyra's POV

Halloween feast

I heard about what happened in the Gryffindor's charms class from Susan, who heard from Hannah, who had eavesdropped on a conversation between Lisa Turpin and Stephen Cornfoot who had heard all about it from Lavender Brown. It's a wonder any secrets survived in this place!

I had been hoping that my presence had at least mellowed things between Hermione and Ron a bit. Apparently I was very much mistaken.

Walking into the Halloween feast, the first thing I did was head up to the Gryffindor table to hit Ron upside the head.

"Y-ouch… bloody hell! That hurts woman! What was that for!?"

"Oh, I need to tell you what that was for do I? Can't think of anything you might have done today that could possible justify this?" I remarked, doing (I hoped) a good impression of my mother's you-are-in-so-much-trouble-young-lady expression.

Beside him, Harry was trying to duck behind the table to hide his amusement.

"And you!" like I was about to spare him the grief. "You just stood by and let him say that to Hermione? Neither of you even went after her!" Harry at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed at my reminder.

"Well… It looked like she was crying, and I didn't know what to do… it's not like we knew she was listening!" Ron whined. I rolled my eyes- men. They probably wouldn't have half as much trouble confronting the troll later today as they would trying to deal with a crying female. But I could tell he was feeling guilty about it.

"Whatever, you better apologize to Hermione next time you see her!" The Or Else was pretty much implied. Once they both looked properly cowed, I returned to my seat. Just in time for Quirrell's dramatic entrance.

Troll in the dungeons… Sure, send half the school's population to the dungeons then… why ever not? Wonder if magic makes people just a little senile- because none of the professors look particularly bothered by that decision. Oh well… it's not like it's really in the dungeons. So I went on my merry way, noting that I was probably the least panicked student present in the hall.

I noticed Ron and Harry slip away in the confusion, for a second I debated following them… but what for? They all manage to come out of it just fine- not even a stay at the hospital, hell none of them got so much as a scratch from the troll. I could only make things worse, not better.

That doesn't mean I didn't whack Harry on the head next morning for trying to take on a troll on his own. Why waste a perfectly good excuse to hit him on the head? Then I sat down and make him tell me all about it. In the Great Hall. In front of witnesses. If it was inevitable that this would be talked about, then I'd rather everyone had their facts straight. I had already started hearing some malicious rumors about 'That attention seeking prat' who went looking for the troll to get a good fight, and then burnt it to a crisp with a single fire spell.

Being Harry Potter meant that people were going to talk about him, whether he liked it or not. And if he didn't tell people what really happened… a lot of opportunists were just waiting for the chance to spin stories.

I wasn't ever going to let it get as bad for him as it had in fourth year. If I had it my way (and I would) Harry will be safe from public scrutiny for as long as I can manage it.

The Quidditch match

I knew it was going to happen…I mean I had half-hoped, with the extra safety features in his broom it wouldn't come to this, but still, I had know there was a chance that it would happen. Right now seeing Harry dangling from a piece of wood, thirty feet up in the air, I snapped. I could feel my magic seep out and seek the link that tied Harry's broom to someone in the teacher's stands. I could see the second link tied to Snape trying to weaken the first. I couldn't manipulate my magic into interfering with them- they were too well formed. Raw magic couldn't compete with properly structured spells. So I did the next best thing- block their view. A bunch of Slytherin and Gryffindor scarves went flying into the air. Circling the entire stadium, flickering across everyone's direct line of sight to Harry. The jinx broke. And while everyone was still muttering about the abnormal behavior of their scarves, (throwing a few dirty looks my way for good measure), Harry caught the snitch.

Why, oh why did I have to be such a short tempered idiot. I couldn't have just toppled Quirrell over discreetly… noooo, I had to turn the whole thing into a freaking circus act. What was I thinking? Oh, right… I wasn't. Well… all actions have consequences. Quirrell started paying a lot of attention to me in DADA classes after that. A few times I felt an odd sort of pressure against my head in his classes. The thought that Voldemort was trying to get into my head was nothing short of terrifying. If he ever succeeded in that, he will have won the war he didn't even know was coming. So the fate of the world rested on my ability to keep the Dark Lord himself out of my head, with little-to-no proper training in occlemency. No pressure.

In other news, I'd given up on trying to convince Harry that Snape is innocent. But I did occasionally point out how odd Quirrell's stutter is- it almost seems fake don't you think?- I dropped a few other hints too. Isn't it weird how Quirrell said the troll was in the dungeons and then it turned out to be on the third floor? It couldn't have gotten up there so fast… so why was Quirrell lying? What was he doing in the Dungeons on Halloween anyway? Wasn't his office on the sixth floor? That certainly gave Harry something to think about.

"No Hannah, we have to finish our assignment first!" Susan said sounding exasperated.

"But it's SNOWING! How could we possibly stay inside when it's the first snow of the season- on a SUNDAY no less! It's a message from the Gods I tell you! We have to go out!… Lyra, tell her we have to go out!" Hannah said, turning to me with wide tearing puppy eyes. Damn it- the girl was really good at the puppy eyes.

"Umm… well… I guess we could always finish the assignment after dinner?" I tried.

"YES! Two against one! Take that princess!" Hannah shouted out, doing a weird victory dance while pointing at Susan.

"Hmph… you give in far too easily, you know that?" Susan looked at me accusingly, "We're going to have to work on your resistance to her faux innocent looks" But then she got up to put on her scarf anyway.

I had decided to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. Partly because Harry wanted to stay and partly because I was still in the middle of researching on emotion manipulations through magic. I already had access to the restricted section thanks to Snape. Hemione had been salivating at the sight of my year long pass to the 'Forbidden Library'. At one point Harry, Hermione and Ron had come along begging for permission to look through it. When I asked him why he was suddenly interested in reading, he had (reluctantly) confessed Hagrid's slip up about Nicolas Flamel. I really should have known. I resisted the urge to whack myself on the head and told him he's an idiot and then point to the book Hermione was currently holding- 'for light reading' and told them to look through there in the Alchemy section. Needless to say they were all hilariously embarrassed… especially after Harry got another look at his chocolate frog card of Dumbledore.

Still, despite not needing to, when Christmas came Harry decided to wander around the school at night under his father's invisibility cloak. And once again he found the Mirror of Erised. He told me to meet him after dinner the next day so he could show me his family. I realized he was talking about the mirror, and despite my misgivings, I agreed. Would you really choose to walk away from a chance like this? A chance to find out what you truly desired and by extension, a chance to discover who you were.

In the mirror I see overlapping images, me as I was before being reborn- whole and happy with my parents smiling down at me-looking proud. My father was sober and happier than I'd ever seen him. This picture was faded though. Washed out. Imposed on that was another picture, vivid bright and more real. Me, as I am now, just older standing next to Harry, my parents behind us alongside another couple that I could only assume were Lily and James Potter, and all our friends were surrounding us. Instinctively I knew this image was free of the ghosts of the future. There was no Voldemort, no Hocruxes, no war. Harry was just like any other wizard (no lightning bolt scar), and I was just like any other witch (no memories of a previous life, no knowledge of a tremulous future).

"Can you see them?" Harry asked hesitantly. "Ron couldn't… but I thought maybe…"

I turned my attention to Lily and James again. They were smiling at me, and though they looked like strangers- I couldn't shake off the feeling that I knew them. I smiled back.

"You're mother is really pretty isn't she… you really do have her eyes… but everything else you got from you father- there's that same that untamable bird's nest you call hair" I remarked.

Harry let out a half-chocked sob, as he came and stood beside me. He stood leaning his head on my shoulder as we put our arms around each other's waists in a half hug and the mirror versions of us did the same.

"Hey Hagrid… nice dragon" I said.

"Lyra! What'r ya doin in here!" Hagrid exclaimed surprised and maybe a little panicked.

"I just came to drop by some of the homemade muffins my mum sent over for you" I said "Is there a problem?"

"Err… no… no problem" He appeared slightly confused(probably due my lack of any response to finding a baby dragon in his hut) "Thank yer mother for me wontcha"

"Will do!" I smiled back. "Oh and Hagrid? You wouldn't happen to need to go to the forest for anything next full moon night would you?"

"As a matter o'fact, I might, why'd ya ask?" He said.

"Oh, I just needed to go there to look for some potions ingredients, but Professor Snape said I could only go if I had adult supervision… and no one knows the forest better than you! So I was hoping maybe you wouldn't mind taking me along… I won't be any trouble!"

He chuckled "Sure ya can come along… it'll be the comin' Friday then?"

"Yes! Thank you Hagrid! You won't regret it! I promise!" I could barely contain myself. I could finally get the required ingredients to start with my experiments!

" I can't believe you were that stupid Draco! What were you thinking, reporting them for being out after curfew while you were doing the same!" I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time" He mumbled.

Harry snickered.

"You're not really one to talk Harry! You could've just told McGonagall or Dumbledore- Its not like they'd throw Hagrid out over it!" I said.

"Didn't think of that" It was Harry's turn to mumble.

Draco snickered.

"Boys!" I couldn't help the eye-rolling. "idiots, both of you"

"Why are you here anyway?" Draco asked.

" Potion ingredients, full moon, duh!"

"Hmph… What kind of person volunteers to go out into the bloody Forbidden forest in the night, just for a bunch of potion ingredients" Malfoy sneered.

"My kind… and again- duh!"

Before he could make another come back, Harry gasped in pain, dropping the lantern he was holding up and clutching his forehead. In front of us was a small clearing … with the dead unicorn… and the monster that killed it. Draco panicked and screamed at the sight, but instead of running like he had in the books, he looked towards me, then back towards the road we had come from and then me again. As if he couldn't choose which way to go. I immediately sent up sparks so Hagrid would know where to find us and gave Draco a firm nod. That seemed to calm him down a bit. Harry was still in pain though- and the centaur that was supposed to step in right about now was nowhere to be seen. But then again with three of us there the monster seemed reluctant to attack. As I stepped forward to confront it-it just fled.

The sight of the dead unicorn was so sad , it was painful to look at. And while we watched and waited for Hagrid to turn up, a foal came out from behind the bushes and walked up to the corpse. It was a tiny little thing- barely up to my waist, with a short stub for a horn and a golden coat of hair. Harry and Draco looked equally stricken at the sight. I can only imagine that I wore an expression to match theirs.

The dead unicorn was probably her mother.

I walked up slowly up to the young foal…. She didn't move away, so I started petting her- she let me. There were tears in her eyes. Such sorrow, such grief, such pure remorse. I instinctively knew the tears were special.

I mentally asked for permission to take them- and to my surprise, I received and equally muted mental response in return. The baby unicorn tilted her head to look at me, she almost looked like she was nodding her accent. I took out a vial and held it out to her. It quickly filled up with shimmering drops of liquid silver. Just as Hagrid walked in there with Hermione and Neville.

They took in the scene with sad eyes. With nothing left to do we started to head back to the castle… the foal followed us

"Probably has no one left now that her mum's gone" Hagrid explained.

I almost cried when we reached Hogwarts and the foal tried to follow me into the castle. I told her to stay with Hagrid, and promised I'd be back first thing in the morning to see her. She seemed to understand what I was saying, but she didn't want to stay back- she was tearing up again. I felt another mental nudge. There were no words but a desperate fear that seemed to be screaming at me not to leave her alone.

Screw the rules, she was coming with me.

I'd deal with the Professors in the morning.

Hagrid just shrugged and nodded. "I'll still make a shelter for her by the forest, in case she needs it".

Thanks Hagrid I hugged the friendly giant.

Then I hugged Harry and Hermione goodnight and headed down towards the dungeons with Draco and the foal

"Careful little foal" I said as we neared the staircase

She just snorted and started down the steps with enviable grace.

"Aren't you going to… you know name her?" Draco asked.

"Hmm… do you have a name?" I asked the baby unicorn.

Confused… she didn't understand what names were.

Draco looked at me as if I were insane for talking to the little unicorn

"She's communicating with me somehow" I shrugged

"Huh- like a familiar?" he looked surprised

"Maybe… I don't know much about familiars" I confessed.

"They're just animals with high intelligence that have a close bond with a witch or wizard of their choosing. Sometimes they can communicate telepathically with their bonded- although that's rare. I hear Dumbledore has a phoenix familiar" He said with grudging admiration

"Hmm…What would you like to be called?"

Confusion again. She still didn't get what I was talking about.

She had such big wide black-brown eyes, like a baby deer's- " I know what to call you- Bambi"