Chapter 6: We Thought You Had Died
Lyra was still engaged in a row with her mother, both of them with their hair sparking as they tried to get an edge word wise. Rationally, Lyra knew that her mother was right to be as pissed off as she was, but Lyra's adrenaline was still running high from the events that had just taken place and her truly fearing for her life. Everything was just bubbling over and being thrown at her mother, because Lyra did not know how else to process everything raging inside her.
She knew that by this evening that she and her mother would be curled up together sobbing over what could have happened and eating their way through takeout and ice cream. But right now, they fight. First they fight, then they cry and makeup while they apologise for said fighting.
"If I hadn't been there, I wouldn't have been able to save him!" Lyra yelled, pointing in the direction of what's his name sitting on the ground hiding behind a chair. She couldn't even blame the poor sod for hiding from Hermione, once she got on a roll she was a bit terrifying.
"Save who?" Her mother came up short looking around the room, clearly not even having noticed… fuck, Lyra couldn't remember his name.
"Him, there on the floor. Your shouting fucking scared him." Lyra said, waving her arms wildly towards the floor. She directed her mother to where he was, but the boy was no longer looking at Lyra and her mother. His full attention was on the open entrance to the cubical. "He's a–"
"Malfoy…" Hermione whispered. Though that wasn't what Lyra was about to tell her. She had been about to explain that he was a squib, but now she was completely sidetracked by how her mother knew his last name.
"Scorpius!" A blonde man exclaimed, bursting into the cramped space with another man following closely on his heels. "Are you alright? Where are Astoria and Anita?"
Lyra was staring open mouthed at the two men who were completely opposite in looks, both running their hands over Scorpius and apparently checking him for injuries.
The man who had yet to speak had tanned skin that was nearly glowing and chestnut brown curls were tousled on the top of his head while the sides were shaved short showing off one earring with a dragon dangling from it. He had thick arms that were completely covered in tattoos that were obviously magical because they were clearly moving over his skin, as if they too were trying to get closer to Scorpius. He had glasses, but they were haphazardly placed on the top of his head, showing off some of the deepest blue eyes Lyra had ever seen in her life.
The other man – who was rapidly talking and asking questions – was the one who had really caught her attention though. He was clearly Scorpius' father, because they looked exactly alike. Only he was older, possibly about her mother's age. His straight white hair was longer than his partners, though perfectly styled and pushed out of his face. In fact, where the other man nearly looked like he belonged in a biker gang, the only edgy thing about the blonde man was the otter tattoo on his left forearm.
Lyra was so caught up in studying the men who were obviously Scorpius' parents that when her own mother grabbed her arm and began to pull her towards the exit Lyra stumbled over her own feet in a most ungraceful manner. The commotion caused the men and Scorpius to finally look in their direction.
The flash of recognition on their faces when they laid eyes on her mother morphed into something between a mixture of seeing a ghost and fury. Lyra tried to look around her mother's torso to get a better look at them, but her mother was making sure to keep Scorpius' family from seeing her.
"Malfoy, Nott," she greeted them, confusing Lyra even more. She'd known that her mother had grown up in England and moved to France because her life in England had been 'unfulfilling', as the Goblins she'd worked for held a grudge against her for some accident she'd been involved in. She knew it'd had something to do with the second wizarding war that had plagued England for most of the 90's, but Lyra didn't really know much about the details aside from her mother had lived there during it.
"Who the fuck are you," the blonde man hissed, and Lyra was taken a bit aback by the tone of his voice and that he had a wand drawn on her mother. "What do you want with my son?"
Her own mother was no wallflower, and before Lyra could really comprehend what had morphed from her getting yelled at for being a bit careless had come to her mum going up against two wizards. In the middle of the DMLE. All three adults were in a bit of a standoff, and Lyra looked past them and towards Scorpius who looked just as confused as she was.
"Where did you get Hermione's hair?" The brunette growled, obviously recognizing her mother since he'd used her name.
"Are you two fucking daft?" Hermione spat, sparks fly off her curls even more than they had been while she'd been yelling at her daughter. "Where did someone get my fucking hair? Unless you want charges pressed against you for attacking a ministry employee – who happens to be the head curse breaker – in the middle of the fucking Auror department, I'd suggest the two of you lower your wands."
"How did we meet?" The brunette, who Lyra assumed was Nott, asked.
"How did we…what the fuck are you asking that for!" Her mother sounded close to her breaking point before spells would start flying. "Have you gone completely mad?"
"If you really are Hermione, you'll answer the bloody question!" Nott yelled, finally catching the attention of the Auror department. As Aurors started to wander over, Lyra was shocked when her mother lowered her wand, but still her posture stayed stiff and ready to defend herself at a moment's notice.
"Third year in the forbidden forest, your mum had just died. I was out looking for my cat and you were petting the Thestrals. I couldn't see them, but you could and you told me to fuck off when I asked who you'd seen die. After that I came back every week and watched you until you finally got tired of me watching and gave me a steak to feed them. After that we became friends until we dated in secret all of sixth year."
Lyra's jaw went slack at the new knowledge that her mother had actually dated the tattooed fucking body building model looking man in front of them. His eyes widened in shock and the wand he'd had pointing towards her dropped to his side at her apparent correct answer. The other man, however, still had a sneer on his face while he seemed to process that her mother had been with his husband . Well, Lyra was assuming it was his husband since they both wore rings and the way they were fawning over Scorpius equally.
"I suppose that will suffice," her mother spat, her full attention now turned on the blonde man glaring at her. "Now, if you'll excuse me," Hermione clipped, pushing Lyra so that she was forced to shuffle behind her mother.
"Oh no, oh fucking no you are not excused!" The blonde yelled, blocking their exit. The French Aurors were completely worthless, the ones who'd come to investigate just standing dumbly on the other side watching this apparent reunion run its course. "It's been nearly sixteen years, Granger! We thought you were fucking dead! We searched for you – for years – and yet you've been what, hiding in fucking France this whole time!"
Now that caught Lyra's attention, and honestly, these men were giving her more questions than answers. Truth be told, Lyra Madeline Granger had never exactly been known for being quiet and not speaking her mind, much like her mother. The longer the silence held, the more impatient Lyra got until it was just too much.
"Why would you think my mother was dead?" Lyra asked, causing her mother to stiffen, but still she didn't turn towards her. However, now that Lyra had spoken and drawn attention to herself, the men in the room finally took notice of her. "It's just a bit of an odd conclusion to come to, since clearly she is not deceased."
Poking her head around her mum's body, Lyra allowed the men to see her for the first time. Much like when they'd first seen her mother, the faces went slack with surprise, which was curious again.
"Well, why would you think she's dead? If you were truly as close to my mother as it seems you think you were, she would have told you she was moving." Lyra interjected, irritated with all the adults in the room.
"How old are you?" The brunette wizard asked, unable to take his comically wide eyes off Lyra.
"I'll be fifteen in four days, though I'm not sure why that's relevant. Are you going to tell us why you believed my mother to be dead for sixteen years or shall I start to guess?" Now that Lyra was fully engaged in a conversation with the men, her mother didn't even try to stop her as she stepped out from behind her. She was notoriously strong willed, something Hermione often in equal parts praised and complained about.
"My father," the blonde man started, wetting his lips as he seemed to be struggling with his own thoughts while looking at her. "Well, it's something we can discuss specifics at a later time. Let's just say we just assumed he'd gone against his word and an accident might have occurred. We searched for over two years and still couldn't find you. I can now see why you made sure you weren't found." His attention was fully on her mother and Lyra looked between the two of them trying to put the pieces together.
By that point, the juvenile Auror that they'd been waiting on to take their statements finally showed up, looking at the crowd gathered outside her cubicle completely bewildered. She had a wand sticking in her hair and a pair of glasses sliding down her nose with a stack of parchment that was nearly falling over in her arms.
"Ello," she greeted, looking between the three adults once she'd shooed her co-workers away. "I'm Auror Detective Morgane Strum, I'll be conducting the interviews with the children. The three of you must be their parents, I presume?" She said, shuffling through her notes. "Lyra and Scorpius?"
"Yes, we're the parents." The blonde man stated, taking another look in Hermione's direction with narrowed eyes. "How long do you suspect this will take?"
"Well, if you want your twins to just be interviewed together–"
"They aren't siblings. I'm Lyra's mother and they are the boy's fathers," her mother quickly interjected, taking Lyra's hand and pulling her towards the Auror. The woman looked between Lyra and Scorpius, glancing down at her paperwork, her eyebrows furrowing before looking at them again.
"Oh, well, I apologise. The same birthday and how similar they look," she stammered, but stopped when she saw the look on Hermione's face. "In that case, I suppose we can take Lyra first. Ladies, if you'll follow me, gentlemen, I won't be long."
Lyra and her mother began to trailbehind the witch to an interview room, but they hadn't gone more than a few steps when Mr. Malfoy called out to Hermione. Lyra turned with her mother, looking at a pair of intense silver eyes that she suspected were much like her own for a very specific reason.
"It appears we have much to discuss," he looked at Lyra again. "I'll be in touch. Make sure you don't try to disappear on me again. I can assure you, I'll find you if you do."
ooo
Walking through the floo with Theo, Scorpius was nearly tackled to the floor by a mass of golden blonde hair as his Aunt Daphne greeted him. With his father's help, Scorpius was able to stay upright in the foyer of his grandparents' villa soothingly patting his aunt on the back. Over her shoulder in the doorway stood her wife, Pansy, and Scorpius cringed at the look on her face.
"Where is she?" His father asked, stepping fully into the room and past where Daphne was choking the life out of Scorpius. "Don't try to fucking spare her, she's lucky to still be breathing after what she did."
"She's still out, never came back. Actually, I haven't even heard from her." Pansy answered, pushing herself off the wall and walking towards them. "So," she had her full attention on Scorpius, her mossy green eyes narrowed, "how did you end up in custody of the fucking Aurors just by going to lunch with Astoria and Anita?"
"Er, well, you see…" Scorpius trailed off, "Grandmother sort of left us together. Said we needed alone time to bond, and mum threw a bit of a fit and took me to go shopping. I got mad and wandered off," he answered, keeping some of the details to himself. While his mother was a piece of shit, he knew that if he gave a full account of what she'd said that his dads and aunts would likely harm her. Despite everything, she was his mother and he felt the need to still protect her.
"Goddamnit!" Theo shouted, turning towards his dad, "I told you that we should have never let him come! Anita is always pulling this shit, trying to give Astoria another chance. This time it could have gotten him killed!"
Daphne was still crying, checking him over for any injuries just as his dads had when they got to the Ministry to get him. The adrenaline that had carried him through the entire ordeal and then for the interview was finally starting to fade and Scorpius was exhausted. As much as he loved being fawned over, there was nothing else he wanted to do but to go climb into his giant bed and pass out until tomorrow.
"Well, Lyra was brilliant," he said, a yawn escaping him. "She didn't let a single spell come near us."
"Who's Lyra?" Pansy asked, looking confused and between Draco and Theo. "One of the Aurors?"
"Nah," Scorpius yawned again, freeing himself from Daphne at last. "Just some French Malfoy cousin that I ran into. She's actually wicked brilliant, but I'm beat. Can we skip the bit where you all yell at me and go straight to where I'm grounded for the rest of the summer holiday?"
He stretched his arms above his head, the aches in his body screaming at him for a hot bath first, but he was struggling to keep his eyes open.
"You're not grounded," his dad said, surprising him, not that Scorpius was going to argue with the decision to not punish him. "But yeah, I can't imagine how tired you must be. We'll move your stuff to the penthouse tomorrow."
Scorpius stopped, his weary body forgotten for a moment as he looked between his dads.
"Like the penthouse is Paris? We're not going home?"
"No, there's a few things that we just realised need our attention here." Theo answered for his father, giving Scorpius a kiss to his forehead. "Off to bed, we'll talk more tomorrow."
"Is this because you know Lyra's mum?" Scorpius asked, looking between his dads. "She didn't seem to like you nor likely that she's very interested in chatting it up."
Daphne and Pansy were clearly curious who he was talking about, but he was feeling slightly protective of Lyra and her mum. Lyra had saved his life and whatever his dads had done to slight her mum to make her leave England must have been pretty bad. Especially with the reaction that she'd had to them, he would bet that they'd been right shits to her.
"We can talk more tomorrow," his dad ground out, obviously not interested in what Scorpius had to say.
"All I'm saying," Scorpius said, walking backwards towards the staircase that led to his bedroom, "is maybe you should leave the Grangers alone." He heard both Daphne and Pansy gasp, but Scorpius turned on the balls of his feet and jogged up the stairs not wanting to hear anything else his dad might have to say.
Instead of heading towards his bedroom, however, Scorpius made a detour to his grandfather's office. Even if he wasn't a wizard, the owl the old man had brought with him would know how to get a message to Lyra. Perhaps if he was staying in France for a while longer, they could get together and try to sort out what had happened between their parents. If nothing else, he'd at least like to properly thank her for saving his life.