July 1992, summer of 1st year

The Lémure estate was a very impressive piece of land in the countryside located somewhere on the British Isles, although Lynea didn't have the slightest idea where exactly that was. It consisted of a cemetery with a funeral parlour right next to the official entrance, a huge forest and a hill roughly in the centre on which a large house stood.

The house was split into two parts, the South Wing with the general living quarters, a library in the middle, and the empty North Wing, under which the Necromancy laboratories were located.

There was a very strong resemblance between the Lémure estate and Naenia's smaller property, but Lynea supposed that was only natural. The only thing she, personally, missed was the Thestral herd living in the Lémure forest. Otherwise, Lynea preferred Naenia's home any day.

But Naenia was a Lémure and when the Head of House, her brother Orcus, requested her presence, she usually complied. She always asked Lynea whether the girl was alright with accompanying her to the Lémure estate, but they both knew there would be consequences if Lynea refused. Still, Naenia would have let her and dealt with the issue, herself. It was nice knowing that.

The Lémures weren't bad people, by any means. Lynea didn't even find them scary or anything. They were just … extremely strange. Then again, they were nearly all Undead and Lynea knew that Death changed a person greatly. The only two living people of the Lémure estate were Alchys Lémure and her husband Noé, Lynea's first cousins once removed. Alchys was the daughter of Orcus and the reason he was the Head of House, because the Lémures gave that title to the one who ensured the continuation of their bloodline – with a partner that met all the requirements. Which was why Lynea's biological grandfather, Veiovis, couldn't have taken over, even if he hadn't died permanently. Evangeline did not meet the requirements.

Lynea sometimes wondered who Alchys' mother was and what had happened to her, because Orcus ruled the family with his husband (whose name Lynea had never actually learned). But that was one of the topics no one ever talked about and Lynea couldn't even say whether it was a taboo or just something no one really cared about enough to even mention it.

In any case, the Lémures were strange, with the exception of Alchys and Noé, who were fairly alright – Naenia was only mostly alright, but at least she tried. And the overall rules of the family were even stranger. Worst of all, somehow, everyone just knew them and Lynea did not. There was this thing with giving children a coin and sending them down to the family's mausoleum, whenever the adults were having a discussion, they didn't want the young ones to overhear. Lynea was currently the only child of the household, because Alchys and Noé were still trying for children, and she had not quite understood what she was supposed to do the first time this had happened.

Lethis saying "Just do what the magic is telling you." hadn't helped in the slightest, because, back then, Lynea had barely been able to even perceive the magic around her, let alone 'listen to it'. Alchys had thankfully taken mercy on her and explained what the coin meant.

By now she had done this so often that she could probably walk from the house to the cemetery and through the graves with closed eyes. It was something they did nearly every time Naenia had to visit the estate, because they usually only called her over for important matters that weren't suited for children's ears. Lynea still had to tag along, because she was an official part of the family and the elders liked to take a look at her progress once they were done with their 'adult stuff'.

The sky was overcast and the lands cast in a gloomy light as Lynea made her way to the mausoleum that had once been the centre of the cemetery, but was now somewhat off-centre, because the cemetery had grown quite a bit in the last decades. There were some lone visitors weaving through the graves or standing in front of a headstone, heads bowed in respect. They recognized Lynea as one of the Lémures by the white strand in her hair – wizards, witches and Muggles alike – and nodded respectfully at her, when she passed by. Lynea returned the gesture, before moving on.

The mausoleum was a small, round building of dark stones that had been carved ornamentally. The entrance was, of course, sealed and could only be opened by paying the price in blood, Lémure blood. This was where Lynea had to start using her seventh sense, because the right place to press her bloody palm to could not be perceived visibly and had to be found by following the magic patterns surrounding the mausoleum.

Because the entrance closed right behind her, there was no light inside. The air was nicely cool and dry and Lynea carefully wrapped a bandage around her hand, before descending the stairs down to where her ancestors lay. She had never actually seen the inside of the mausoleum, nor had she dared to feel her way around it. The only things she had ever touched where the walls encasing the stairs and whatever place the magic chose for her to put the gold coin.

When she had done so, Lynea sat on the ground, reached for the magic once more, felt it thrum and thrive and live, and she settled in to listen.

o

Seven letters were strewn across the table and they essentially all said the same. Harry was not answering anyone's letters and they were all worried that his Muggle relatives had done something to him. They were also all asking Lynea to do something about it, because apparently that was her responsibility. Well, she was one of Harry's closest friends and pretty worried, herself, but she didn't like the others pushing it on her. Then again, there had been rumours circulating the pureblood families about the Slytherins from Lynea's year befriending a 'mudblood' and tensions were currently a bit high. There was no way that Draco or the others could go and visit Harry in his Muggle home. Tracey and Millicent, being halfbloods, could have done it or maybe Daphne, but they had decided it was best that Lynea take charge.

Lynea had already asked her mother what to do and Phyllida had suggested paying Harry a visit on his birthday. They would normally inform the family beforehand, but since Lynea and the others suspected that something was wrong, her mother had agreed that it might be best to appear unannounced.

Harry's birthday was on a Friday and all of Lynea's family had to work on that day. As Naenia was the owner of a combined mortuary and funeral parlour, and Phyllida worked for her, that shouldn't have been a problem, though. Until Naenia decided that she wanted to see the Boy Who Lived for herself and left Phyllida in charge for the day. Thankfully, Naenia could pretend perfectly well to be a normal person or Lynea would have been very worried about that.

And so it came that on the thirty-first of July, Lynea took the arm of her grand-aunt and was apparated side-along to a deserted alleyway in Little Whinging from where Lynea and her grand-aunt set off together to wherever it was that Harry lived. The boy had never told his friends their address, not that he had any reason to, and Naenia had had to use some contacts in the Ministry to find out.

They were both dressed in Muggle clothes – which had been fairly easy, because they merely needed to put on dresses with short sleeves instead of the usual robes with sleeves that nearly reached the floor, and Naenia had also chosen a pair of elegant sunglasses to hide her undead eyes.

Number four, Privet Drive, looked exactly identical to the houses to the left, the right and across the street. There was not a single special thing that set the house apart from the others and Lynea suspected that it was intentionally kept that way. From the way Naenia paused and pensively looked at the house, there must have been something special about it, though – something to do with magic. Lynea tried to use her senses, but couldn't quite perceive whatever her grand-aunt had noticed.

A woman in her late thirties opened the door. She had blonde, elegantly styled hair, a long face and just as long neck and wore a simple dress with an apron.

"Hello, Mrs Dursley," Naenia greeted her in a pleasant tone, before the woman even had the chance to open her mouth. "My name is Naenia Lémure and this is my niece Lynea. We are here to see Harry. May we come in?" She finished with a gentle smile.

Mrs Dursley narrowed her eyes. "You're his lot, aren't you?"

Naenia's smile widened. "We are witches, yes."

"I don't want anything to do with you lot. Please leave."

"I am afraid that is simply not possible," Naenia said, still polite, and made a step forward.

Mrs Dursley instinctively leaned back. "What do you want?"

"To see Harry, of course. It is his birthday, after all."

"The boy is busy."

Naenia took another step forward and then simply entered the house, while Mrs Dursley stood in the doorway, frozen in place. Naenia didn't need a wand or incantation to work her magic, but Lynea didn't think she had actually done anything to Mrs Dursley, merely taken her by surprise. Lynea followed her grand-aunt inside and looked around. The house was just as boring inside as it had been outside. There were some pictures and paintings on the walls, but that was about it – the rest was plain, ordinary decorum you could find in any Muggle household.

"Lynea," Naenia said, "fetch Harry from the garden and help him pack his things. In the meantime, I shall have a little chat with Mrs Dursley."

Mrs Dursley looked like she might be ill, but Lynea only nodded and went through the hallway into the kitchen from where she could access the back garden. Just like the house, the garden was perfectly neat – from the trimmed hedges to the short grass and the pots of roses to either side of the door. It was the exact opposite to Naenia's wild herb gardens where everything grew the way it wanted to with some magical assistance here and there.

There were two boys in the garden – a large and round one with blonde hair that was lounging on a garden bench and a scrawny one with unruly black hair that was working some kind of muggle contraption meant to cut grass. At least that was what it looked like it was doing. It was rather loud and Lynea was very glad they had magic for things like that. (And servants to do it for them.)

She waited patiently until Harry noticed her and watched his eyes grow wide. Harry bend over the Muggle contraption and the loud noise stopped.

"Hey! Why're you stopping?" the fat boy called.

Harry ignored him. "Lynea? What are you doing here?"

Lynea smiled and slowly approached her friend. "I came to visit you, of course. You haven't answered any of our letters and we have all been very worried about you. Happy Birthday, by the way."

"I –" Harry stared at her, as if he still couldn't believe she was really here. "I didn't receive any letters all summer."

Lynea tilted her head. "So the Muggles didn't intercept you mail?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so."

"I see. We will have to look into that later. Hello," Lynea smiled at the fat boy, who had finally decided to come closer. "You must be Harry's cousin, Dudley."

The boy screwed up his face for a moment, looking like thinking hurt him physically. "You're like him, aren't you?"

Lynea smiled widely, reminded of the way her grand-aunt had reacted to a similar question earlier. "Yes, I am a witch." Then she turned to Harry, ignoring the way Dudley's eyes widened in fear. "My grand-aunt is talking to your aunt right now. We originally only wanted to pay you a visit, but it seems like she changed her mind and we're taking you home with us now."

Harry's eyes widened. "Really? You're taking me with you?"

"I just said so, didn't I? Come on, we need to pack all your belongings." She grabbed Harry by the arm and dragged him inside, leaving Dudley to stand in the garden by himself.

They could hear voices coming from what Lynea presumed was the living room and Harry stopped in front of a small door under the stairs.

"All my school stuff is locked in here," he said. "I don't have the key."

"Oh, that's not a problem," Lynea said, before putting her hand on the lock and closing her eyes. She heard the click of the lock and smiled. "See? Easy."

"You can do wandless magic?" Harry asked in disbelief. "Wait, isn't underage magic outside of Hogwarts banned?"

"Old Magics, Harry. I have you told you about them before. Although I am not nearly as good as my grand-aunt is – and she's the reason I can get away with this. Normally, any magic performed around underage witches and wizards alerts the Ministry, but the trace doesn't really work around Naenia. Not that the Ministry would ever dare question a Lémure, anyway."

She opened the little door to reveal a cupboard where Harry's trunk was stored, his wand lying on top. Lynea gave Harry his wand and then levitated the trunk over to the stairs.

"Your bedroom is upstairs?"

Harry nodded wordlessly and went ahead to show her his room, where the two children collected the rest of Harry's rather meagre possessions as well as his snowy owl.

"Why are you holding your arms like that?" Harry asked at one point. "You look like a T. rex."

Lynea blinked. A tee-rex? "It's a habit I picked up from always wearing long sleeves – you know how they get in the way if you don't move your arms just the right way. What's a tee-rex?"

"Dinosaur," Harry said and at her blank look added, "Prehistoric reptiles. They went extinct several million years ago. Wait, let me draw it for you …"

He grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill and scribbled something onto it. Lynea took a look at Harry's drawing and frowned.

"That looks terrible, Harry. Maybe you should take some lessons in drawing."

"No, they really looked like that! Okay, maybe their heads weren't that round and their arms looked less like tree branches, but otherwise I think I got it about right."

"Mhm," Lynea said, eying the picture doubtfully. "Well, I certainly do not look anything like that."

Harry only laughed and went back to packing. Then they went back downstairs to wait for Naenia.

"Have you been working in the garden all day?" Lynea asked, noticing Harry's reddened skin.

Harry nodded.

Lynea furrowed her brows. "Do you actually enjoy gardening that much? No? But then why did – They forced you to do it."

Harry just shrugged. "They let me live here, the least I can do is repay them for their kindness."

It sounded like something he had heard and repeated so often, he didn't quite register what he was saying anymore. It sounded wrong.

The door to the living room opened and Naenia stepped into the hallway. She still wore her sunglasses. Lynea could see Mrs Dursley sitting on a couch, staring at nothing in particular.

"Let's go to the garden," Naenia said. "The street is too busy for apparating at this time of the day."

"Have you experienced side-along apparition before, Harry?" Lynea asked and Harry shook his head. "It's not the most comfortable feeling in the world, so better steel yourself."

Naenia led them to the garden, where Dudley was sitting on the bench, looking at them with wide eyes. She held out both of her arms and Lynea grabbed one, Harry the other and the next moment they were gone.

AN

Harry's 'tee-rex':
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