Chapter 8: Half-Siblings, but still, Siblings, Nonetheless
After getting the results of the potion, Lyra and the rest of the teens had been in shock at the results and stood around looking at each other. After it had started to settle in, she'd begun to pepper her brother with questions about his parents, specifically his – their – father and the boy had obliged. He'd in turn had his own questions, some regarding her mother, but mostly just wanting to know more about her.
It was surreal. She and Scorpius were siblings. Half-siblings, but still, siblings, nonetheless. And Lyra had a suspicion that her mother had known all along.
Despite the fact that it was her birthday, Lyra just felt defeated as her Aunt Gabby and Vivienne dropped her off at the small home, she'd grown up in. She knew that when her mother had moved to France she had started completely over, bringing no one from her old life with her. Hell, it wasn't even until Lyra was nearly two that Hermione had introduced Lyra to her grandparents because her mother hadn't thought to tell them about her.
Instead, she'd just accepted the fact that they'd been upset with her for erasing their memories and worked under the assumption that they wouldn't have wanted anything to do with Lyra. The opposite had been true. While they'd been angry with her for what she'd done, they'd never stopped loving her or wanting to be in her life. They'd just needed time after their memories had been restored, which had just been mere months before Hermione had left for France.
Lyra dropped face first onto her bed, feeling Matilda rubbing her head against Lyra's arm trying to get her attention. As her new familiar meowed and kneaded her arm, Lyra looked up at the cat, her bright green eyes blinking.
"I don't have any treats for you," Lyra deadpanned, to which Matilda huffed before wandering off and leaving her alone.
"Lyra? Honey?" She could hear her mother's voice as the front door opened and Lyra shoved her head under her pillow. What she wouldn't give to have a while longer to try and process what she'd just learned without her mother hoovering.
It was too much to ask though, because all too soon Hermione was standing in Lyra's doorway, her eyes were tired and her shoulders were sagging forwards, but all Lyra could see was the woman that had hurt her. Just as she'd denied Lyra and her grandparents of a relationship for two years, she'd done the same with her father and brother. This time, the betrayal cut much deeper.
"How did your meeting go with Draco and Theo? That's who I'm assuming you went to spend all day with," Lyra said sitting up, swiping at the tears pooling in her eyes.
"How do you know their names?" Hermione asked instead, deflecting the question with one of her own. Only, Lyra was too tired to keep up with her mother's charade. Too tired and too bloody sad.
"I met with Scorpius and his friend James today. Asked them to meet me and Vivi in Lyon." Hermione looked shocked, blinking a few times while she registered that her daughter had gone behind her back and set up a meeting with a boy that Hermione most likely would like Lyra to completely forget about. Only, that was impossible for Lyra to do. "I brewed a paternity potion and tested our hairs. Turns out, we're half-siblings and that we have the same father."
Lyra let this simmer a moment, the truth of the situation hanging in the air, and Hermione at least had the decency looked ashamed. "How could you keep them from me, mum?" Lyra didn't even try to hide her tears, instead letting her mother see plainly just how much hurt she'd caused her daughter.
"Lyra, honey, you don't understand. The things Draco did, they were unforgivable." Hermione said, stepping into the room, but stopped when Lyra held up her hand.
"Was Draco a danger to my physical or mental wellbeing?" She asked, her heart breaking.
"No, but he got engaged–"
"So, he broke up with you and broke your heart?" Lyra knew she was being rude, cutting her mother off, but honestly, she didn't want to hear what she had to say until her mother understood why she was upset. "Because you were hurt, you decided to deny a perfectly suitable father a relationship with his child and me a relationship with my father. You lied, mum. All these years, you lied to me telling me that my father was some muggle man that you met for a one time thing and could never find. You've kept an entire half of who I am hidden from me because he hurt your feelings." Lyra didn't shout, she couldn't, her voice was hardly above a whisper as she spoke her truths to her mother.
"I was going to tell him, but then…then I found out he and Astoria were expecting and due around the same time I was with you. I thought we would be better off without him." Hermione said, shuffling her feet, though she at least tried to maintain eye contact with Lyra.
"You thought we'd be better off without him, or you would be? Mum, I just…Gran and Grandad, how would you have felt if you'd never known one of them?" She brushed away the tears blurring her vision, but it did no good as they were quickly replaced.
"I wouldn't be very happy about it," Hermione confessed, and Lyra knew that her mother understood just how wrong she'd been in her decision to flee England. "I didn't want Astoria in your life."
"Astoria is a fucking cow! Scorpius told me that as soon as his grandfather died his parents were divorced because without the old Lord Malfoy, they didn't have to stay in their awful marriage! Mum, Astoria wouldn't have wanted to be in my life! She doesn't even want to be in her own son's! She left Scorpius that day in Night Alley, she told him off and treated him like a fucking dog. Then, when he called her from the ministry, she never showed up! Did it never cross your mind to question why Draco would have left you for her? From what Scorpius has told me, she's always been that selfish and vapid."
"No, I… Look, the night before his wedding, he came over to explain. Only, we'd been drinking, and the conversation never happened. The next morning, he was married and that was that I decided to save myself and to start a new life here." Hermione had her hands clasped behind her back as she toed the area rug on Lyra's floor. "I assumed it had something to do with his inheritance and needing to marry a pureblood witch and have a pureblood heir. We didn't fit that mould, so I decided keeping us away was the best move."
"But you based this all off assumptions and not facts?" Lyra confirmed, wanting to make sure that she wasn't walking into this without all the information.
"Yes," Hermione answered, keeping her head down and unable to look Lyra in the eye. "For what it's worth, I thought I was doing what was best. Though, now I realise that I was wrong."
Lyra looked at her mother, with her head hung and felt a pang of guilt that she was contributing to the hurt that her mother was feeling. Only, that small amount of guilt was nothing compared to the furry that she felt towards her mother for keeping her from knowing her father all her life. From the sounds of it, they'd had a bad breakup, but it still didn't give her mother the right to keep Lyra away from Draco. Not if Draco truly wasn't a danger, and from what little she'd learned from Scorpius that afternoon, Draco wouldn't ever put her in harm's way.
"Please, leave," Lyra said, turning back to her pillow and hugging it to her chest. When she heard Hermione begin to protest, she shook her head and looked over her shoulder at the witch. "I love you, but I'm really mad at you right now. You…you took someone from me who you had no right to. I'm just as much his daughter as I am yours, and you made the decision for everyone to keep me for yourself to protect your heart, not me."
Hermione didn't say anything more, just watched Lyra for another moment before nodding her head and walking out the door. Turning back into her pillow, Lyra cried for the fifteen years she'd lost with her father and hoped that he'd somehow want to know her as much as she wanted to get to know him.
ooo
Scorpius and James were positioned outside the foyer of the penthouse and could hear the chatter of his dads, James' father, and his aunts just on the other side of the door. The two teens shared a look, James shrugging his shoulders giving Scorpius the lead on how to proceed with this.
With his best mate by his side, Scorpius pushed the door open in the middle of one of Theo's rants. "We need to go and get a confirmed paternity so that you can file to amend her birth certificate to be named her father. Get visitation set up, pay whatever backed child support would be due as well, Fuck waiting around to see what Hermione will do!"
"Shouldn't we consider what Lyra might want in all of this?" His dad was asking, his head dropped in his hands and his shoulders sagged. "It's not like she's a little girl, what if she's happy to have a life without her seemingly deadbeat father coming out of nowhere fifteen years later?"
"So, you didn't know about her?" Scorpius asked, drawing the attention of all five adults in the room, looking at each of them. "My sister, I mean."
James' father, Harry, pushed his glasses up his nose and ran a hand through his already unruly black hair. His Aunt Pansy's posture was stiff, and her arms crossed over her chest as if she were ready to defend herself at any moment, whereas his Aunt Daph was silently crying and dabbing away tears. Theo was ready for war and his dad just seemed defeated.
"No," Draco finally answered, not moving from his place on the couch. "I had no idea about Lyra. We, all of us, thought that her mum had died after we searched for her for two years and came up empty handed."
"Why?" This time it was James who was asking, looking not at Draco, but at Harry. "I recognise her mum's name, that's the woman Uncle Ron dated and was horrible to, right? Like the same woman helped you save the world and saved your life countless times. Why would you possibly have thought she was dead?"
Harry looked around at the other's, his face turning red at his son's direct questioning. Though it was Theo who answered instead. "Lucius threatened her life. He had a werewolf stalking her, brought Draco evidence of having been in her home and said that if Draco didn't end things, her life would be the next thing he took."
"Lucius did…that?" Scorpius asked, completely in shock as he fell into the chair next to his father. "That's how you really ended up married to Astoria?"
"Yeah," his dad admitted, still not looking in his direction as if he were ashamed of what had happened. Not that he ought to be, it wasn't his fault that his grandfather had been a blood purist. "I tried to tell her, but when he had me sign the betrothal contract it barred me from speaking of his threats. When he died it broke and I was able to tell Theo, Harry, and your aunts."
"That's bloody mental," James stated as he squeezed into the chair next to Scorpius. "So, what, you thought this werewolf guy had killed her when you couldn't find her?"
"Essentially," Pansy cleared her throat, stepping forwards. "We searched everywhere. Overturned every stone, paid bribes, contacted Viktor fucking Krum. We were her best bloody friends, and that witch didn't answer any letters we wrote explaining what we thought might have happened."
"I think I might do better if you tell me the whole story. You know, from the beginning." Scorpius looked between the adults, ready to find out exactly what had happened. The mystery of what had happened to Hermione Granger and why she would have hidden Lyra away.
"Alright, so," Theo began when no one else spoke up, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "Your dad and Lyra's mum started dating in secret when they went back to school for their eighth year. Though at the time, she was also dating the prat."
"Uncle Ron," James supplied.
"Yes, that," Theo confirmed, turning back to Scorpius. "So, they are dating in secret and when they had a pregnancy scare towards the end of the year, your mum," Theo pointed in James' direction, "overheard and told this guy" Theo clasped Harry on the shoulders, "and her brother."
"So, they were having an affair for the entire year and were shocked when Potter and the Weasleys got upset with her for lying." Pansy supplied, "though it shouldn't have mattered because by then me and Daph were her best friends and supported her decision in ditching dead weight."
"Hey!" Harry chimed up but quieted down when Pansy looked in his direction.
"So, you stopped speaking?" Scorpius confirmed, to which Harry nodded, his face red.
"To be fair," Harry said, scratching the back of his neck, "I was engaged to Ginny, and Hermione made Molly feel slighted. It was honestly a mess and not my best move."
"You and mum never got married though?" James, who was trying to keep up with the wild conversation, replied.
"No, because we knew that would be a bloody mistake, but Molly, well, she's a bit mental and we just sort of did what she asked, trying to make her happy. Anyway, that meant no longer speaking with Hermione, which I regretted as soon as I stopped hanging around Ron and me and Gin went our separate ways," Harry held up his hands defensively.
"Okay, anyway," Scorpius said, turning his attention back to his dad. "Then what happened? Grandfather threatened her life?"
"Well, we were happy together for the next four years. I was cut off from the family vaults and we were poor, but we were happy." Draco said, smiling softly at the fond memories. "Then one day he invited me to lunch, and I thought it was to discuss all the work I'd done trying to repair our family's name. I was wrong.
"Instead, he threatened her life and gave me the picture she had of us on her bedside table. As soon as he was done letting me know that her life was in danger, Astoria showed up and we signed the betrothal. A picture was in the paper right after and she stopped speaking to me. I went to see her the night before the wedding, and that was the last I ever heard from Hermione Granger."
Scorpius looked around at the adults gathered, each filled with a different reaction to finding out that Lyra's mum was actually alive. It was apparent that they'd all cared for her, but even from what little Lyra had told him about her mother was that besides her Aunt Gabby, Hermione had kept people at an arm's distance her whole life.
"Why did you stop looking for her?" Scorpius looked towards his dad, who'd just accepted a drink from Theo, taking a sip while his leg bounced. "If she was so important, I just can't imagine you just gave up."
"We searched for three years, and after that we just had feelers out for her. But there was no trail. No Hermione, no Greyback, and no proof of Lucius' connection to bring up any charges against him. Trust me, we tried." His father set his firewhisky aside and reached out for Scorpius next to him, taking his hands.
"Son, you have to believe me, if I'd known about Lyra, you would have grown up with your sister." He promised, and Scorpius knew that he was telling the truth. His father, while he and his mother hadn't had a loving relationship by any means, he'd always been dedicated to him. He'd found his stride in parenting, and always wanting to be around for everything Scorpius did. Even when he had to learn what polo and football was, he'd been all in, despite the challenges that came with having a squib for a son.
"I know," Scorpius whispered, letting his dad pull him into a hug. "Lyra's brilliant, and a bit scary if I'm being honest. She's really curious about you, and I think you'd like her."
Draco pulled away from his son, looking into his matching silver eyes before letting out a laugh. He shook his head, looking away from Scorpius and over to where Theo was standing with Pansy and Daph, all smiling softly at that bit of information.
"She's also fit," James stated, to which Harry lunged at his son and smothered him. "What, she is!" Scorpius could hear his friend's muffled commentary, while next to him his dad narrowed his eyes.
"I swear you have a death wish," Harry muttered.
Notes: Alright, so this is going to be a bit of a rant.
Lyra is not a brat, and her reaction to finding out that her father has been kept from her and she's been lied to her whole life is very valid. Hermione is completely in the wrong here. Lyra made all the points I wanted to, but I'll still outline it.
1. Lyra is not a brat. She's reacting age appropriately to finding out she's been lied to her entire life and denied a parent.
2. Just because you have a shitty break up does not mean that you get to cut your ex out of THEIR child's life
3. Hermione knowingly slept with a man she knew was getting married the following day. She made that decision and Draco went there, but she didn't have to sleep with him. He was there to talk to her and explain best he could. However, they were young, drunk, and horny.
4. Hermione knew Draco was in love with her and should have been suspicious about why he was marrying someone else.
So, anyway, this is just a bit of an update for this story. I'm planning on it being about 25-30 chapters, not an exact count yet. I'm going to continue trying to post twice a week updates until the 21st of this month when school starts back up again for me. After that, I'm not entirely sure what I will be able to keep up with.
I have recently completed a handful of fics, so if you are enjoying this make sure you check out the rest of my works.
