October 2008
Wizarding London, England
Grimmauld Place
Wednesday morning...at an ungodly hour
Lyra paced haphazardly around Harry's sitting room, a spelled pair of headphones connected cordlessly to the receiver on the desk. It was a little past one in the morning and the rest of the house was long since asleep.
Lyra liked staying up late. She enjoyed the quiet mystery of the sleeping world and enjoyed the eccentric night-owls that lived their lives inside of that well kept secret. Fortunately for her, Lucius Malfoy seemed to agree. He was awake and listening to Wagner (pfft...typical) in his study. She could also hear the sound of a quill scratching on parchment and the quiet crackle of a fire. She would occasionally register a masculine sigh or a baritone cough that reassured her that she wasn't just listening to Narcissa or a poetry-writing house elf.
She heard the quiet cry of a small child from inside Harry's house and shifted one of the cups of her headphones off of her ear. It was Albus. He was a light sleeper, like Lyra. He was also an incredibly reliable midnight snacker. She hadn't met another person outside of her father, Alistair, that was so dedicated to the cause of nocturnal snackery. It was admirable.
She made her way out of the sitting room, down the hallway to Albus's small room where she intercepted a very exhausted looking Ginny Potter.
"I can get him a bite and put him back down, Gin. You should sleep." Lyra said softly, just outside of the bedroom.
"My heart, I could kiss you." Ginny replied with a yawn.
"Hey, that's fine. Just no photos and you have to brush your teeth first." Lyra quipped, entering the room and bending over the crib to lift up the sad little boy who reached for her with an adorable pout.
"Hm. Fried onions and the whole editorial staff of The Quibbler?" Ginny fired back without hesitation.
"You read my mind." Lyra smiled back, gently swaying back and forth with Albus. "Go, honey. We'll be fine."
Ginny mumbled a tired "goodnight" before making her way back down to her and Harry's bedroom.
Lyra carried her wee friend down the stairs, chatting to him softly, and got him some warm milk and little cookies. She noticed in her phoned ear that Lucius Malfoy had stopped his music and she heard only ambient noise in the room. No quill scratch. He was moving.
She reluctantly trudged back up to the sitting room with Albus. He was working on his snack and covering the pair of them quite impressively with cookie crumbs. Lyra didn't mind. He was her little buddy. She liked him. His loudest producible sound was probably a quarter of his brother's standard volume. James was a good kid. He just had so much energy, she couldn't keep up. This guy, though. This guy she could handle.
She shifted Albus far on to one hip and started flipping channels on the receiver to tune in different bugs. She almost switched past the channel for one placed inside some vast echoing room within the manor when she picked up a faint noise that sounded like a whisper or a gentle mumble. It slowly increased in sound, as the speaker moved closer to the device.
Damned boy. He can't even kill a stupid woman when cursed to do it. I wonder who she is. Maybe some Nagini whore at the House in London...the augmentation is worth a try. The little rat seems to need some incentive to perform.
The voice faded again and Lyra concluded that he was pacing. It is compulsion. I fucking knew it. Lyra fiddled with the sensitivity knobs on the receiver to try and hear more. Should have taken Narcissa's advice and spelled the damn things. Just then, Lyra heard in the headphones what sounded like glass and metal knocking together as if someone was rummaging through a cupboard.
Lyra heard the man spell a fire to life somewhere in the room and moments later she heard him begin to speak in a low voice. His distance from the bug made her have to strain to hear him, and she only caught every few words. It was a cast, of that she was certain but it was in a language she was unable to identify.
ajaa takaa...veri totta...rakkaus ja vakivalta...
The man continued muttering and Lyra felt her heart accelerate in her chest. She had no idea what Malfoy was casting, but as an Auror, she was trained to know when she was in the presence of dark magic. She could feel it in her bones. The child in her arms began to stir anxiously, as if he could sense it as well. He let out an uncomfortable whine and Lyra ripped the headphones off her head, throwing them on the couch before heading quickly back to his room to put him to bed. It was as if she instinctively wanted to put as much space as possible between the unholy sound and the little boy.
She walked warily back to the sitting room and stared nervously at her headphones on the couch. She took a deep breath, collecting her nerves and took a tentative step towards them. She realized then, though she was several feet from them that she could hear Lucius Malfoy. He was screaming. Enraged words. She was terrified, but she needed to hear it.
Blood racing, Lyra ran to the headphones and slammed them over her ears, the noise within them deafening. His voice was inhuman, scratchy like a growl. Black and twisted. It sounded like...a demon, which was unfair to demons, really. Even they didn't sound this terrifying.
tuhota ja tuhota, murskaa luu ja, surmata-SURMATAAAA, OTTAA HENGILTA!
The lights flickered around her. The lights in Harry's house. Lyra took the headphones down around her neck and looked around her, holding her breath. She could still hear the man's screaming pour out in muted form in to the sitting room.
To fully analyze what happened next would take Lyra hours of careful recollection but the final version on the deposition would read as follows: She first heard a knock at the window, which made her jump. She saw an owl fluttering impatiently outside and walked to the window to let him in. She detached the little scroll from his leg before he flew away in haste. Lyra unrolled the scroll immediately and read...
Lyra,
I don't know if you will get this, as I don't know where you are, but I am sure now that Lucius has done something to Draco. The ballroom in the east wing is full of the most terrifying things. Blood, claws, Draco's clothes, dismembered animals. I don't feel comfortable in the Manor right now and have left to go somewhere safe. You have to arrest him, now. I know darkness when I see it and what he's doing is beyond anything I've encountered. I don't know what to make of it. Please help my son. Please be careful. I've left the floo open for you, please hurry. Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire.
Yours,
Narcissa Malfoy
Lyra was starting intently at the scroll in her hands when she was surprised again by the sudden cessation of noise from the headphones around her neck. She looked up, confused. She didn't have much time to enjoy the absence of sound, however, because several seconds after his screaming stopped, she was startled by a desperate knock on the door. It was terribly loud and shook the very pictures on the walls around her. She moved evenly out of the room to the top of the stairs. Peering down, she could see the door shake from the violent percussion taking place on the other side of it.
By this time, Albus had begun crying again and both Ginny and Harry were out in the hallway; Ginny going to the children and Harry joining her at the top of the stairs.
"What the - " Harry began.
"LYRA!" The voice beyond the door yelled, giving an extra hard pound to the door for emphasis. Harry and Lyra froze, recognizing the voice instantly.
"It's him. He's here." Lyra whispered.
"Sweetheart, open the door. I just want to look at you. You've been so far away. Across the street, across the sea. Always through the glass, always asleep. Just let me see you." Draco crooned sweetly through the wood separating them.
Lyra drew her wand from the pocket of the thin bathrobe she was wearing over her nightdress and waived it around her head gracefully whispering lumina prohibere to extinguish all the lights in the house.
"LYRA OPEN THE DOOR!" he shouted, rage seeping in to his voice. He began pounding again on the door. She heard James's muffled cry from Albus's bedroom where Ginny had sequestered both of the children.
Lyra looked down towards the main landing of the house. Near the bottom of the staircase she was standing on she noticed a small cloud of sand swirling in agitation above the carpet. The ward. Worth a shot...She had to wonder if it would make an exception for a homicidal half-Black trying to kill a faux-Black. She hoped so.
"Contact the office. We need to arrest Lucius Malfoy NOW. He's doing this Harry. I heard him," she whispered.
"And the ferret?" He asked gesturing towards the door.
"I am going to try something. If I can catch him, he'll need to be restrained," she explained as Draco's blows continued reigning on the door "preferably very hard," she added.
"I am not leaving you alone here to defend yourself against that lunatic," Harry protested.
"Well, someone has to notify the ministry."
Harry went to Albus's bedroom and quietly directed Ginny to contact the ministry and move to the back of the house with the children to hide, and run if necessary.
He rejoined her on the stairs. "Good?"
"Fine," she whispered.
She led Harry down the stairs, pointing out the swirling sand as they retreated back down the long hallway towards the kitchen.
"You think that'll work? I mean he's part Black..."
"I think it'll distract at the very least," Lyra replied.
Harry drew his wand and looked down at Lyra. "Ready?"
Lyra narrowed her eyes in determination. "Yeah," she said at full volume. "Hey, sandman, you ready?"
A torrent of swirling ash rose up in front of them, shielding them from the front door.
"DRACO STOP!" Lyra yelled.
The pounding on the door, which had grown tired and intermittent, stopped immediately.
"Let me in, Sweetheart. Please." he said darkly.
"Yeah, no thanks, Frog. You're not my type."
He laughed, but it sounded manic. "Lover, I am exactly your type." he replied with confidence.
"Not today, kid. Not fucking today" she countered.
She waited for a witty retort and got none. She could almost feel him pacing angrily on Harry's front landing. There was an eerie silence that fell between them and Lyra knew it wasn't over. He would fight. She needed only to hear the first syllable of his spell to reach over and tackle Harry gracelessly to the floor.
"BOMBARDA!" Draco screamed, shattering the door into a spray of splinters, and rendering Lyra momentarily deaf. The ward shielded them from the worst of the explosion but Lyra took a small piece of shrapnel to the arm while shielding Harry's face. The searing pain of it helped Lyra recover from the blast, which she did first. She lifted herself shakily on to her elbow and turned to try and make out Draco's shape beyond the wall of sand separating them, but she was still too disoriented. With a few quick shakes of her head she was able to hear above the ringing in her ears. The ward was shouting...
"You dare come to the noble and ancient house of your ancestors to shed blood?! You are not welcome here! GET OUT!"
The wall rushed forward then. Lyra leaped to her feet, a little dizzy, but ready to fight once the ward passed. It would just be the two of them and unless he was on dark magic steroids, she could take him wand to wand. She was certain of it.
The ward, much to her continued surprise, didn't disintegrate in to nothing as it had before. It started rotating rapidly around a tall black-clad figure at it's vortex. Draco.
He was screaming in pain and anger. She couldn't make out any of his features, aside from the occasional flash of his platinum hair. The fine grit was filling his mouth and scratching at his skin. His blurred shape began retreating blindly towards the exploded entrance of Harry's house while the ward roared at him.
Lyra fired several spells to stun him, but they ricocheted off the column of dust obscuring him from her vision. They did, however, seem to get his attention and he made a sprinting push out the door. The ward then flowed over the ruined hole that had once been Harry's front door, sealing it shut. The whole thing, from explosion to retreat couldn't have taken more than 60 seconds. Lyra was dumbfounded.
"He will not return, Miss Black...although I would like to see him try," the ward said, almost cocky.
"Wow. Thanks sandman! Or...ward? What's your name?" Lyra inquired, in shock and relief.
"Marius. Marius Black."
"You saved our lives Marius. Thank you. Hey, you're not really a ward are you? You're a ghost."
"That is true," the ghost replied.
"Impressive," Lyra mused, trying to cull the adrenaline pumping in her veins.
Harry groaned on the ground behind her and she went to see that he was okay. "Take it easy there, buddy. You're alright, but I have some unfortunate news about your foyer."
"What?" Harry asked, confused before noticing the gaping pit in the front of his house being covered by an animated wall of sand.
"MALFOY BLEW UP MY BLOODY HOUSE! THAT TOSSER! I'LL KILL HIM!"
"Later. Go check on your family. I trust Marius here, but I think they should stay somewhere else for a little while until things calm down."
"Marius?" Harry asked, rubbing his tender forehead.
"Marius Black. Your ward is not a ward. He's a ghost. That's why you can't get rid of him. Good thing too, because he just helped save our butts."
"Thanks?"
"Not at all, Mr. Potter," the wall replied.
"So...since we're friends now, are still going to blow my hat off every time I walk in the front door?"
There was a pause.
"Probably," Marius replied.
Harry huffed out a dry laugh and Lyra helped pull him to his feet, dusting some fragments of wood off his shirt.
"Thanks for the tackle, Black," he said to her.
"Well Harry, you can always count on me to take you down a peg when you really need it," she smiled.
"Are you ok?" he asked, referring to the thin shard of wood sticking out of her forearm, oozing blood.
"Oh yeah. It was either that or your face. I promised Ginny that if you and I got trapped in a fight I'd try my hardest to keep you pretty, so I was really doing it for her."
They heard Ginny call from upstairs. They both yelled in unison that they were fine.
"Get your family off somewhere safe and...you know, intact, and get yourself dressed. We need to go to work."
Harry glanced over at the clock on the wall and frowned. "2AM. You're buying this round of coffee," he said pointing a finger in her face.
"Oh for sure," Lyra said sweetly.
Harry turned and trudged up the stairs to gather his family and send them somewhere safe while he, once again, went off to battle monsters.
Author's note - Lucius's spell is in pieces but it includes phrases like "destroy," "crush bone," "kill," and "love and violence." More on it next chapter.
