June to July 1994, 3rd year and summer
Lynea received a letter from her brother Thelus just a day before the first exam, formally inviting her to his wedding. Lynea hadn't even known he had acquired a partner since he had moved out, he certainly hadn't mentioned anything during Yule. In the end, she just shrugged it off and asked Harry whether he wanted to attend the wedding with her and Theodore.
The exams were mostly fine, except for the last part of Professor Lupin's obstacle course, which was a Boggart. Harry was one of the only few people with a perfect mark, not even Hermione managed that. The Slytherins weren't very happy, especially since Professor Lupin knew exactly what their Boggarts looked like, but they begrudgingly accepted his explanation that they needed to be prepared – and he had talked with each of them about their respective fears.
It didn't matter, in the end, because the Jinx on the Defence Against the Dark Arts post did not spare Professor Lupin. But it was kinder to him than it had been to Quirrel and Lockhart, who had both ended up dead.
"He resigned?" Pansy asked and Lynea wasn't sure whether her disappointment was caused by their first good Defence teacher leaving or the curse being less cruel. She had been disappointed about Lockhart's official fate of disappearing without a trace, after all, and Lynea knew Pansy would have been delighted (if a bit perturbed) to hear about the truth.
Harry nodded. "More and more people figured out that he is a Werewolf and he thinks the parents won't like that."
"But no one has demanded his resignation, yet," Lynea said. "Did he tell you more about his reasoning?"
Harry actually looked a bit sheepish at that. "I, er, got distracted a bit. He asked about my progress with the Patronus Charm and then told me a bit about my dad. His Animagus form was a stag."
Lynea blinked. "I already told you about that, though."
Harry ducked his head. "Sorry, I know. He did tell me more than that, though."
"Okay," Lynea said. "It wasn't important, anyway. And I do know how much your parents mean to you."
Pansy sighed. "I guess it's better this than having some unfortunate fate befall him." Her voice did not sound like she genuinely thought that. "He would have left us anyway, one way or another. You can always count on the Jinx."
"Do you think Professor Lupin will still participate in the Litha celebrations tonight, though?" Harry asked. "I would like to ask him more about my parents."
"His resignation shouldn't prevent him from coming," Lynea said. "But there is a full moon in two days."
Professor Lupin did not attend the Litha celebrations, which were similar to Beltane in that they erected a bonfire outside and had music and danced, but different in all the little ways and the personal rites. Lynea and Harry invited Hermione, Neville and Luna to set a wheel ablaze and let it roll into the lake with the others and then formed a small circle next to the bonfire to dance, ignoring the looks the other students were giving them because of the strange motions Luna was doing. Lynea thought there was an elegance to them that made the flickering light the fire cast at her let her appear like a star in the night sky, but they did look odd.
Some of the seventh years created two large figures out of oak and holly twigs respectively and then animated them and made them fight with each other. There was a tale passed down among some of the old pureblood families, that on Litha the Oak King and the Holly King fought each other, but Lynea had only heard about it in passing. She knew the Oak King represented summer and the light and the Holly King winter and the darkness and that they would fight each other twice a year – on Litha and Yule, the solstices.
The seventh years eventually got scolded by Professor McGonagall for making unnecessary racket and not being more careful with the twigs that had been flying in all directions, occasionally hitting a student or missing an eye. They apologized and were more subdued after that, but the evening was still a lot of fun.
On the last day of the term, the exam results came out. They were not much different from the previous years, only some improvements here and there. Hermione was still at the top, having achieved the best results in all but two subjects including their new electives – beaten in Defence Against the Dark Arts by Harry and in Potions by Lynea. Draco was the second-best in literally every single subject he took and therefore the second-best of their year and he complained very loudly and extensively about the unfairness of it all. Second-best was not enough, not after all his efforts and the troubles he went through, not at all.
Blaise and Theodore both beat Lynea by using the knowledge they had gained through her and knowing it by heart. Lynea was happy for them and it wasn't like she had invested any more time in studying other than tutoring her two study groups and listening to her friends' tutoring, which was perfectly sufficient for most subjects but barely enough for History of Magic and Astronomy. She had only done half well in Astronomy, because she needed the lunar cycles and some of the star movements for potions and potion ingredients.
The end-of-the-year feast that evening was decorated in black and yellow, because Hufflepuff won the House Cup through a set of odd circumstances no one could explain. There were nearly no complains about that, because the Hufflepuffs had never been so utterly happy before and not even the 'evil snakes' had the heart to begrudge them that. There were some grumbles from the Gryffindors, though, but the Gryffindors didn't meet the Hufflepuffs on their ways to and from the Common Room every day or have reason to experience their kind-heartedness that often came in the form of simply being the house that targeted the Slytherins the least and even going out of their way to help them occasionally. No, the Slytherins had no complaints. And the Ravenclaws had at least an inkling as to how the Hufflepuffs had reached the first place and seemed genuinely impressed by it.
Harry used the train ride to London to personally ask every one of his friends about their holiday plans and whether they had time on his birthday or the day after, coordinating the non-Slytherins with the ones that weren't allowed to associate with 'mudbloods and blood traitors' all on his own. He hadn't even asked Lynea for permission or whether he needed permission or anything that was really not necessary for him to ask, because it was his birthday and his home. Lynea smiled to herself, when she realized that and looked forward to what Harry was going to plan for his two parties. Maybe he would even allow her and Theodore to help.
The rest of the train ride was filled with talks and speculation about the upcoming Quidditch World Cup, which bored Lynea so much that she took out the book on Necromancy Naenia had sent her several months ago and began to read. Draco, Pansy and Harry never even bothered to scold her for it. After some silent deliberation, Theodore eventually followed her example and got absorbed into a book of his own, one about traditional Chinese magic.
o
The eyes of an undead being were actually not the same as the cloudy post-mortem eyes of regular corpses.
The Lémures were marked by the white streak in their hair that grew more and more the deeper they delved into the Forbidden Arts, until eventually all of their hair was white or their death slowed down the process infinitely. Naenia still had some dark brown amidst her mostly white hair. Orcus did not.
But that wasn't the only feature that marked the Lémures. They also, with the exception of those that married into the family of course, all had perfectly white irises. After Death granted them immortality, their pupils clouded over and the outer ring of their irises lost all darkness, so that you could barely make out the blurry, slightly silvery iris from the sclera. From a distance, they seemed to be completely white.
Lynea's eyes were green and not white and she wondered, sometimes, how her eyes would look, should He be so kind and grant her immortality. (The Lémures never called it 'achieving immortality'. It was a gift bestowed by Death, if he deemed them worthy and nothing his humble servants acquired by hard work and effort.)
Naenia usually hid her eyes behind dark sunglasses and either didn't let her Undead out in public or made them conceal their eyes, too, somehow. Orcus, Naenia's eldest brother and current Head of House Lémure, did not do that. Orcus' gaze, although having the same eyes as Naenia, was very, very scary.
He had dismissed Harry and Theodore and even Phyllida with just a slight sniff and then turned his full attention on Lynea, while they waited for Naenia to return.
"I hear you are having doubts regarding your affiliation with the Lémure family," he said, his voice and expression void of any emotions, those frightening eyes focused solely on Lynea.
Everything about Orcus seemed out of place – from the way he was sitting in the armchair of their living room – back ramrod straight, feet perfectly parallel, arms lying on the armrests at a right angle, embroidered black robe arranged carefully – to his absolutely blank face and toneless voice.
The others had all excused themselves the moment Orcus' eyes had swept right over them, as if they weren't even there in the first place, and Lynea slightly envied them for that.
"Yes," she answered quietly, wondering not for the first time how she was supposed to address him.
'Grand-uncle' or simply 'Orcus' seemed too informal, but 'sir' was not a word she would ascribe to him, despite his title as the Head of House of the Lémure family. He had never specified anything in that regard, either.
"I would have drowned the very notion, had this issue arisen when you were first presented to me," Orcus said and Lynea silently marvelled at how he didn't even sound bored, despite the flatness of his tone. "But as you are now, having grown and flourished under my dear sister's guidance, I think you are worthy of our name, after all. Your father may have tried to repress your potential, but I see now that it has not diminished the power of our blood. You will still have to prove your abilities, of course."
Lynea inclined her head and tried not to avert her eyes. Necromancers, especially the undead ones, where either absolutely detached from any forms of empathy and understanding of emotions in general, or acutely aware of every little change in body language and magical aura. Orcus belonged to the former, but he could still interpret the more obvious gestures such as shrinking back or averting your eyes.
Orcus was silent for a while, watching Lynea with unblinking eyes. His chest didn't rise and fall, his magic did not swirl around – he was, for all appearances, perfectly still.
"You are unsure of yourself, child," Orcus eventually said and Lynea only managed not to flinch, because the motion of Orcus taking a breath before speaking had warned her in time.
He looked at her with his blank face and Lynea wondered whether he expected an answer from her.
"The Lémure name is not a name one bears lightly," she said carefully.
His lips thinned into a small, barely noticeable smile. "Indeed. But you have been touched by Death and there is nothing the living can offer you that He cannot. You need not cling to the mistaken believes of those that simply cannot understand, those that cannot comprehend the truth that lies beyond the veil." He paused, his head frozen in the middle of tilting to the side. "You are hesitant. You are reluctant to sever all that connects you to life and the living."
"There is no Death without Life," Lynea replied tentatively.
Orcus nodded slightly. "And there is no Life without Death. Das Leben ist nur ein Moment, doch der Tod währt ewig."[1] Then he turned his head to the side. "Welcome home, dearest sister."
"I see that you have made yourself comfortable," Naenia said from the door to the hallway, "to the discomfort of everyone else."
Lynea had not heard the front door opening and closing – or any other door for that matter. Neither had she noticed a shift in the magic around her. For some reason, it made her all the more uneasy than she had already been.
Naenia slowly entered the living room and came to a halt right next to Lynea. She did not sit down.
"Alchys has fallen pregnant," Orcus said, in that same monotonous voice he had been using the whole time. "It is unfortunate that we cannot expect the child by the end of October, but we have waited long enough."
Naenia gave him a sharp smile. "At least no one can pretend the child was born on Samhain, then."
The corner of his lips quirked up. "Are you still holding that against our parents?"
"I do not hold grudges, brother."
Orcus widened his eyes. "As you say. In any case, Alchys is now eligible to take over the title of Head of House from me, but she has, no less than expected, decided not to do so until Death has granted her immortality."
"Please extend our congratulations, then," Naenia said. "And do not forget that no child should grow up disconnected from the world of the living, even a Necromancer's."
"Of course," Orcus replied in a pleasant voice that made Lynea doubt it's sincerity for the sole reason that he had given his voice a different tone in the first place.
He rose from his seat, in one silent and fluid motion, and then strode forwards to take both of Naenia's hands in his for a moment. He left the house without another word shortly after that.
"Well, then," Naenia said and there was amusement laced with her words. "Let's tell the others that the scary Necromancer has left, shall we? I have news regarding the will of Sirius Black that I am sure Harry would like to hear."
[1] Life is but a moment in time; death, however, lasts forever.
AN
Art of Naenia & her brother:
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