Chapter 5
The trio left the bedroom so Lyra could rest, while she had finally woken up, she still had weeks of bed rest to completely heal from the curse of Antonin Dolohov, but also the counter charms and purging potion. Beyond physically healing, she was also going to go through something mentally that few people could fully understand, having years of her free will stolen from her.
They made their way to a sitting parlour downstairs and Lucius Malfoy poured a glass of firewhiskey for Severus Snape and himself, while he gave Narcissa Malfoy a glass of elf made red wine.
"What's next?" Narcissa cut into the silence.
"The Dark Lord is too unstable to know for now, but Dolohov has to go, he tried to kill her and would have, had he not be silenced." Lucius replied.
"Agreed." Narcissa said with a nod.
"Where is the Dark Lord?" Severus wondered.
"He's back at Riddle Manor in Little Hangleton, he tried to move here but the wards are too ancient to allow him free movement as he wished." Lucius said with a smirk.
"Let's table the issue of his stability until we know how to bring back to man we used to know. Dolohov is a given, who else is too far gone to bring back onside?" Severus asked.
"Bella, I feel terrible saying it but what she did to the Longbottom all those years ago was truly insane. Azkaban did her no favour, her bloodlust is limitless. She killed our own cousin." Narcissa said with glassy eyes but a determined shake of her head.
"Is Lyra aware of that? It didn't seem like it when we talked." Severus wondered.
"I don't think so. If I recall what happened right, she was already cursed by the time it happened so she wouldn't have known." Lucius said.
"Right. She'll need to be told. Do we also get rid of Rabastan and Rodolphus alongside Bella?" Severus asked.
"We have to. They both went along with her then, and they're barely there mentally now, there's nothing to bring back with them." Narcissa said with a shrug, having never really cared about them.
"Right, so Dolohov and all three Lestrange." Severus concluded.
"Do you think Lyra will go for that sort of decisions?" Narcissa inquired softly.
Severus snorted, "She might be a Gryffindor but she has a vicious streak. The girl that ratted out the defence group she set up with Potter now has the word sneak across her forehead for life, and I'm pretty sure she was behind the hiatus Rita Skeeter took until recently."
"There's a lot to discuss I see. It's almost 7 pm, we need to go to the station to pick up Draco." Narcissa said as she got up.
"Father, mother." Draco Malfoy said stoically once he had found his parents on Platform 3/4 and said goodbye to his friends.
"Draco, how was the trip?" Narcissa asked after a brief kiss to her son's cheek.
Draco shrugged, "Fine."
"Let's go home." Lucius cut in, no wanting to have any conversations that mattered out in the open, and the trio made their way to the apparition point before materialising back at the Manor.
"We need to talk to you Draco." Lucius said immediately once back home, with a hand on his shoulder to guide him towards the same sitting parlour they had been in before leaving for the station.
"What's going on?" Draco wondered as he sat down on armchair and was surrounded by his parents and his godfather, Severus Snape, who he was surprised to see wasn't currently at Hogwarts.
Lucius sighed, "Do you remember Lyra?"
"Of course, my sister." Draco replied immediately with a frown. While he had never met her, he still loved her and often visited her grave on the grounds, he had been told his entire life about the eldest sister that passed before he could meet her and loved her.
"She's here." Lucius continued.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, she's in her room right now. Alive."
Draco simply gaped for a couple of minutes before finally spluttering, "How?"
"It appears her death was faked. She grew up in a Muggle orphanage completely unaware of her origins, she didn't even know she was a witch until Dumbledore came to pay her a visit." Lucius started explaining.
"McGonagall should have been the one to go to a presumed muggleborn student." Draco cut in.
Lucius hummed in acknowledgement, "Yes, she should have. Anyway, she spent 5 years in Hogwarts thinking she was muggleborn until she was hurt recently and while being treated her long-term glamour was taken off."
"Five years? She should have just finished her 6th year." Draco cut in again.
"Her birthday was changed to September, therefore she was already 12 years old when she started Hogwarts." Severus explained.
"Who is she?" Draco finally asked, knowing she was in his year but not being very familiar with the muggleborns, bar one.
"Hermione Granger." Narcissa said softly.
"Fuck." Draco muttered.
"The glamour wasn't the only thing that was found." Lucius said without reacting to Draco's shock.
"What else?" Draco asked in a plaintive voice, he was reeling from the shock of his sister being alive and in the same place as him for years.
"Charms and potions for loyalty, disregarding her origins, to study non stop. A love potion was the last one, a few weeks old, keyed to the youngest male Weasley." Severus explained.
"Of fucking course. How long hasn't she been herself?"
"Since she started school basically. A lot of it started in first year." Severus said.
"Can I go see her?" Draco wondered, now hopeful she might be more receptive of his apologies and him as a brother knowing her behaviour the last few years wasn't fully her own and likely her eyes has been opened to the behaviour of blood traitors.
"Not right now. She's sleeping, she's to stay on bed rest for a few weeks at least, I cast the counter curse that unravelled this current shit show." Severus explained.
"She was cursed?"
"By Dolohov, it was meant to kill, she silenced him and casting non verbally saved her but she's still going to have scar from shoulder to hip." Lucius said with haunted eyes.
"When is he dying?" Draco inquired.
"Soon." Narcissa said before taking a sip of her wine, which had already been refilled three times since they left Lyra's bedroom.
A few hours later, laying in bed Draco thought back to his interactions with his sister at Hogwarts. Plagued by guilt but also an understanding of why he wanted to interact with her so badly over the years, while he didn't understand before, he knew now he was feeling the sibling bond.
The first time they had met, in the train to Hogwarts, he had wanted to get to know her immediately, they had talked and laughed together. The next time he ran into her, he had strong negative feelings towards her he didn't understand, her being sorted into Gryffindor and a muggleborn was his internal explanation at the time but with the charm against Slytherins he now knew about, things made a lot more sense.
He cringed when he remembered calling her a mudblood in second year, even now he still disliked her reaction but he was now old enough to realise she wouldn't have known about the tradition, despite one of her best friend coming from a pureblood family. The Weasleys were blood traitors for a reason and likely did not feel like they had to explain anything about wizarding traditions to someone who didn't know, based on how much they disliked them themselves. Ronald Weasley probably didn't even know about it himself, likely didn't even know what mudblood was supposed to mean beyond a slur. The Weasley patriarch's obsession with muggles while disregarding his own family traditions chafed, and he remembered how annoyed he was Granger didn't see how condescending the man was when it came to muggles.
Even though he could explain his own reactions based on his age, the charm on her and her bad taste in friends, he still wished her dead that year. He never meant to, he didn't actually mean it as he said it but he felt weirdly compelled.
With that thought, he suddenly jumped out of bed and ran towards the parlour he was sure his parents and godfather were still in.
Without stopping for breath as he barrelled in he said, "Check me for charms and potions."
"Why?" Severus inquired.
"A lot of my behaviour could be explained by the charm against Slytherins and my own brashness but some things I can't explain. Please check." Draco pleaded.
With an understanding nod, Severus stood up and started casting.
Narcissa clutched her husband's hand for support, even though she couldn't read the diagnostics Severus was using, she could see by the look on his face that Draco had been right.
Less than five minutes later, Severus finally stopped and took a breath, "Alright. No potions in your system, but there are a couple of charms cast on you, unlike an actual healer, I can only say it was cast about five to six years ago but not much else. The first one is to incite an obsession towards Harry Potter and the second one is meant to incite a slow building hatred towards your sister."
"Take them off." Draco begged and Severus started casting the counter charms immediately.
At some point he had sat down on his previously vacated armchair and roughly ten minutes later he felt something leave him.
"I feel lighter?" He wondered aloud.
"That makes sense. The charms were working against your own feelings and personality for the most part, a constant war within yourself. You should go rest, like Lyra, you're going to be exhausted by the removal." Severus explained.
Draco nodded wearily, slowly stood up and left the room.
"Lyra and Draco are likely not the only ones being controlled and manipulated in that school." Lucius finally said once the trio was alone once again.
"Children and teenagers wouldn't know how to check themselves for charms and potions, most adults wouldn't to be honest unless they're paranoid." Severus said.
"Like you?" Narcissa asked.
"Yes." Severus replied with a smirk, "Regardless, school is set to open in less than 3 months, that leaves me time to cast wards in the common rooms when both Dumbledore and Minerva are gone. I'll place a purging ward and a few counter charms ones for the most likely results."
"Be careful. The purging ward must exclude contraception potions and similar health related ones." Narcissa added.
"Of course." Severus replied inclining his head.
"Don't you think Dumbledore will notice?" Lucius asked.
"I doubt it. He never goes to the common rooms, only the Heads of House do and I'll make sure to key a notice me not charm to Filius, Minerva and Pomona. It should be fine, I'll make sure to have a parchment take notes on who had potions or charms controlling them." Severus replied.
"Who do you expect to see on the parchment?" Narcissa inquired.
"I think Harry Potter is likely, even my own hatred for him seems overblown. Likely a few other students as well, Dumbledore has been playing chess master for decades now. I wonder how many adults he also has under his control." Severus replied.