Chapter Two

The Dementor's Search

Lyra was dreading going back to Hogwarts. She usually had a nervous anticipation about returning, but never full-on dread. Thanks to a loud-mouthed Gryffindor back in her first year her whole year group, and possibly the rest of the school as well, knew exactly who her father was. She'd always been given shit for it; daughter of a mass murderer and traitor being accompanied by more colourful insults she'd rather not repeat, but with her father's escape, this year was going to be ten times worse. Not even Cas and Ade's reassurances that they'd stand by her managed to quell the dread that had settled in the pit of her stomach.

Remus being at Hogwarts wasn't likely to make things better either. If it got out that their new Defence Professor was her godfather, then 'teacher's pet' was likely to be added to the long list of names people had for her. She'd decided not to tell Remus her suspicions about the Weasley's rat; she'd wait until she had proof, that way Remus wouldn't be able to deny it and would finally believe what she'd been saying all these years.

She had hoped that maybe her father would've come to see her, even if it was just in his Animagus form, but, alas, she'd not seen or heard anything from him since he'd escaped. Realistically, though, she knew that hadn't been likely to happen; he had no idea where they lived now as they'd moved not long after he'd been sent to Azkaban. Besides which, Azkaban was in the very north of the North Sea and Falmouth was in the south west of England; it would have been a very long way to travel in his Animagus form and she knew he wouldn't have risked it as a human.

Lyra sighed as she made her way across Platform 9 and 3/4, searching for Ade and Cas. Usually, they all went together, but Remus had wanted to get there early this year so he could get settled on the train and go over his lesson plans one more time. That was just fine with Lyra, since it meant they got there early enough that barely anyone would see them arrive together. Not that she was embarrassed to be seen out with her godfather, but again she didn't want another nickname adding to the list.

As she pushed her way through the crowds that had now gathered on the platform, her trunk hovering along in front of her, she could hear the muttering from her fellow students and see the stares out of the corner of her eye. As much as she tried to ignore them, she couldn't deny that it bothered her a bit. Despite the insults throughout the years, most people at Hogwarts just tended to ignore her or avoid her; she wasn't used to being the centre of attention. The only people who had never treated her any differently were the Slytherins. Whether that was because of Cas and Ade's influence, because they respected her family name or because they knew the truth, Lyra could never quite be sure. Nevertheless, the only friends Lyra had were Slytherins and she was counting on them to carry on treating her the way they always had. It just sucked that she couldn't be in Slytherin with them and instead had to go back to Ravenclaw Tower at the end of each day. She pushed her way through a group of glaring Hufflepuffs and onto a clear stretch of platform.

Then she saw them: a group of redheads standing a few metres away from her on the platform. The Weasleys. Her eyes scanned the group, looking for a grey rat with a missing toe, but she couldn't see him. Then her eyes fell on a boy with wild black hair, glasses and a lightning bolt scar. Harry Potter. She was fairly confident he had no idea who she was, and she planned on keeping it that way. Though that was something she might have no control over, if certain loud-mouthed Gryffindors decided to make it known to him that Sirius Black's daughter was at Hogwarts. It didn't matter anyway, Harry was a third year Gryffindor and Lyra was a fifth year Ravenclaw; they weren't likely to cross paths anytime soon, if ever.

A loud, "There you are!" jolted her out of her thoughts and she spun round to see Ade and Cas heading in her direction. They were sans trunks, as they'd already found a compartment on the train.

"Hey guys, I was wondering if you were here yet. I've been here ages," Lyra said, following the Slytherins back through the crowd and onto the train, her trunk still hovering along in front of her. In fact, she'd been there so long that she'd already changed into her robes, with a shiny new Prefect badge sitting proudly above the Ravenclaw badge. She'd been so thrilled when she'd received the letter telling her she was to be one of the Ravenclaw Prefects this year, though not as ecstatic as Remus had been. When she'd shown him the badge he'd hugged her tightly and declared he was treating her to dinner in the semi-fancy restaurant in town. Ade and Cas had both groaned when she'd told them, as it meant that their monthly midnight feasts in the school kitchens would no longer happen. Lyra had assured them that wouldn't be the case, but they both knew she wasn't much of a rule-breaker as it was so they hadn't quite believed her.

"Remus wanted to get here early then?" Ade asked, already knowing the answer.

"Far too early for my liking," Lyra huffed, not having appreciated having to get up nearly two hours earlier than she usually would have.

"You could've come with us," Cas said.

"S'pose," Lyra said, "I kinda got the feeling Remus needed the support though. He's still a bit nervous about teaching."

"He shouldn't be. He was born to be a Professor. I couldn't think of anyone better suited to the role," Adrian glared at a couple of second years who were taking up far too much space in the corridor.

"Well make sure you tell him that; he needs his confidence boosting a bit."

The three headed down the train towards the back. Most of the students were already on the train and the compartments were starting to fill up. They passed the one Remus was in and gave him a friendly wave. Eventually they reached a compartment near the end of the train. Elliott Parkinson was already seated and Lyra greeted him as they entered. She hovered her trunk up onto the rack above the seats and took a seat opposite Elliott. Cas sat next to her and Ade sat next to Elliott, giving his boyfriend a kiss as he did so. They'd been dating since near the end of fourth year and they were still as lovey-dovey now three months later as they had been in that first week they got together.

When neither of them showed any inclination of pulling away from the other, Lyra gave Elliott's shin a light kick. "Oi, if you plan on doing that for the rest of the journey, you can find another compartment. I have no desire to watch two of my best friends playing tonsil tennis for the next several hours."

Elliott managed to drag his lips away from Adrian's long enough to stick his tongue out at Lyra and reply, "You're just jealous."

Lyra gave a little snort at that, "Jealous? It may have escaped your notice, Elliott, but you and Ade aren't exactly my type." She'd come to the realisation at the start of her third year that she liked girls the way her dorm mates liked boys. It was a realisation she'd come to fairly easily, unlike when Ade realised he had feelings for Elliott and went into full-on panic mode. The only people who knew were the three people she was currently sharing a compartment with and, of course, Remus. She knew her friends wouldn't have an issue with it, but she had been nervous - wrongly so - when she'd told Remus. Her godfather had given her a small smile, said that he'd suspected as much and then told her that he was bisexual. He'd then asked if there was some lucky girl that she liked, to which Lyra blushed furiously, stuttered out a no, and fled the room from embarrassment, leaving Remus chuckling away.

"You know what I mean! You just wish you could be doing this with Isabella," Elliott teased.

Lyra blushed, not unlike how she did that day she came out to Remus. "Shush!" Her eyes darted to the compartment door, as if expecting the girl she'd been mooning over for the past several months to just suddenly appear there.

Lyra scowled as Elliott began to cackle with laughter.

Isabella Zabini was, in Lyra's eyes, the most beautiful girl in their year, if not the whole school. She was dark-skinned, with long, thick, dark hair that Lyra itched to run her fingers through. She had dark, chocolatey eyes and a figure that just oozed elegance and gracefulness. Lyra had been crushing hard on her for the better part of a year, and during that time the only contact she'd had with her was in lessons where Lyra had just about managed to garble out a few semi-intelligent sentences. Ade and Cas used to tease her mercilessly about it, that is until they developed crushes of their own which meant Lyra could give as good as she got.

Cas rolled his eyes, "Oh, honestly, I don't know why you don't just talk to her."

Lyra shot him a glare, "Because I'm likely to turn into a gibbering imbecile, that's why."

"I've seen you talk to her in lessons."

"That's different."

"How so?" Ade asked.

"Because it just is! Besides I don't even know if she likes girls."

"So ask her," Cas shrugged, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lyra spluttered at the suggestion, "You can't just go up to someone and ask them what their sexuality is!"

"Why not? Adrian did it with Elliott."

Ade flushed at the reminder of one of his not-so finest moments.

"Yes, but Ade was a moron and his actions should not be hailed as a perfect example of asking someone out."

"Hey! I was not a moron!" Ade objected.

Elliott patted his boyfriend's arm sympathetically. "Honey, you were a bit of a - what did Lyra say? - gibbering imbecile when it came to asking me out."

Ade crossed his arms and pouted. "Well, excuse me for having a bit of a sexuality crisis."

"Aww, come on, cheer up, you got me didn't you?"

Adrian took the opportunity to attack Elliott with his mouth again. Lyra and Cas let out equal groans of annoyance.

When they managed to separate themselves again, Elliott noticed Lyra's Prefect badge. "You made Prefect too? Awesome! You can help me keep these two in line." He held his hand out for a high five, which Lyra returned enthusiastically.

Adrian and Cassius exchanged glances. They were so screwed.

Once Lyra and Elliott had returned from their Prefect's meeting at the front of the train, the four spent the next few hours catching up, stuffing their faces with sweets, playing Exploding Snap and just generally having a laugh. They were supposed to be patrolling the train and making sure people weren't doing something they weren't supposed to, but frankly there were enough Prefects that they could get away with hanging out with their friends for a few hours and just putting an appearance in on the corridor once in a while.

Elliott was in the middle of telling the others about his family's trip to Austria and how he and his sister Pansy had almost got lost in Vienna when it happened. The train stopped. The lights flickered before going out entirely. It was cold.

"What the-" Ade exclaimed, echoing the sentiments of everyone in the compartment, and probably everyone on the train.

Cas wiped the condensation covered window with his sleeve and peered out.

"See anything?" Lyra asked, shivering. She had a bad feeling about this.

Cas shook his head as he pulled away from the window. "Not really, it's too dark out. I thought I could see something moving, but I don't know."

Elliott took out his wand and muttered, "Lumos." The tip of his wand glowed, casting a white light over the four of them and brightening the dark compartment.

Lyra stood, opening the compartment door and peering her head round to see if she could see anything. She stepped out fully onto the corridor, squinting in the darkness. She lit her wand; she could see something a bit further down the corridor, but she couldn't quite make out what it was. The light of her wand was bright enough to extend several metres down the corridor and what she saw in the distance almost made her gasp. Hovering just in front of the compartment her godfather was in was a figure dressed in a dark hooded cloak. She could just make out a scabby grey hand protruding from the cloak. It was a Dementor. She'd only ever seen pictures of them in books, but there was no doubting that was what it was. The cold it exuded practically consumed the train corridor. She shivered again.

Lyra stood rooted to the spot as the Dementor seemed to sense her presence and turned its head towards her. It didn't move, but it seemed to be studying her. There was no doubt who it was looking for, and Lyra wondered if it could sense that she was related to its prey. After several long minutes, it turned its head away and focused back on her godfather's compartment. She watched transfixed as it opened the door and was soon met with her godfather's Patronus charm. She let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding as it fled the opposite way down the corridor.

Her godfather stepped out into the corridor, saying something to whoever was in the compartment with him, and then approached her. "Lyra? Are you alright? You look pale," he asked, worry etched in his voice. The lights had flickered back on now, and Lyra extinguished her wand.

"M'fine," she replied, before adding, "I always look pale." At least the Dementor hadn't taken her sense of humour with it.

Remus gave a weak smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Go sit back down and eat some chocolate. You'll feel better soon."

Lyra rolled her eyes at his suggestion, "That's your answer for everything: chocolate."

"What can I say? I have a sweet tooth. That, and it actually does work."

"Yeah, yeah," Lyra teased, not entirely convinced by his reasoning.

"Seriously, Lyra, it'll make you feel better. I'll come check on you all later."

Lyra nodded, offering Remus a small smile before heading back into her compartment.

"What was it?" Cas asked, worry etched on his features. It was an odd look on him; Cas was one of the most carefree people Lyra knew, so to see him actually worried about something unnerved her a little.

Lyra settled back into her seat, "A Dementor."

"Shit," Elliott muttered. He looked as pale as Lyra did and he had a vice-like grip on Ade's hand. Elliott was the only one out of the four of them who really knew the effect Dementors could have on a person. He'd visited his grandfather in Azkaban numerous times, not that he'd ever wanted to; he had no desire to visit his homophobic, Muggle-hating, Voldemort-loving grandfather, but his father had never given him much choice. The presence of Dementors was not something you ever got used to and every visit to Azkaban left Elliott feeling miserable and ill. "What did it want?"

"My father, of course," Lyra scowled. "It's gone now."

"Good riddance," Ade said, having let go of Elliott's hand and slung an arm round his shoulder instead. "If I never see a Dementor again it'll be too soon."

Lyra hummed in agreement, though she got the feeling it wouldn't be the last they saw of them.