Chapter 2

"Who did this to her?" Lucius Malfoy asked in a broken voice, still kneeling on the stone floor.

Severus Snape sighed, "Antonin."

Lucius startled and looked up at his long-time friend in fear, "She was there?"

"Yes."

Lucius finally stood up and looked at his Lyra, trying to see any features that would make her look like one of the students present in the Department of Mysteries. He hadn't wanted to be there himself, but he wasn't given a choice, at least he had a Portkey on him for a quick escape, before anyone from the Ministry could see him there.

"The only girls there were the youngest Weasley, the Lovegood girl and the mudblood." He finally said.

Severus looked at his friend with something akin to pity before handing him the parentage parchment he had used.

"Hermione Jean Granger." Lucius whispered, "How?"

"I don't know. I was treating her for the curse done by Antonin, and the counter-curse cleansed her core, including a long-term glamour. I did the parentage charm after to check if my suspicions were correct." Severus explained.

"How long will she be asleep?"

"At least a couple of days."

Lucius nodded, "Let's move her to the Manor. I want a private Healer to look at her, can you tell Dumbledore she was moved to Saint Mungo's?"

"He told Madame Pomfrey not to, I'll come up with something as to why it's necessary. Let's move her now, so we don't have to stop for questions before she's safely at the Manor."

Lucius bent down and took her in his arms, cradling her to his chest as they moved from the infirmary down to the dungeons. Once in Severus Snape's quarters, they used his Floo and arrived in Malfoy Manor.

Lucius continued from the Floo room to the first floor where he deposited her in a bed, in the room that used to be hers. Narcissa Malfoy had kept it for her, despite their belief their little girl was dead, and had updated it from a crib to a small bed to a now large bed, colours changing with what her age was supposed to be. The walls were painted a soft lilac and the bed linens were shades of grey and purple. Lucius tucked her in the bed and sat down in the couch below the window to keep an eye on her.

"What can you tell me about her?" Lucius asked in the silence once Severus had sat himself on a plush armchair close by.

Severus sighed, "She's brilliant. Some even called her the Brightest Witch of her Age. No doubt her OWL scores will be impressive. She's adequate at Potions but doesn't have a natural ability with it, she follows instructions well but can't move away from it. Flitwick said her Charms work was the best he's seen in a long time though. Her closest friends are Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, they're not great friends to her, especially the Weasley boy. Often insulting her. She hadn't been educated in our culture and traditions at all, despite her friendships with the Weasleys."

"Blood traitors." Lucius muttered.

Severus nodded, "Yes. She had a whole thing about House-Elves being slaves and no one explained the bond or corrected her, her friends made fun of her."

"If she had been a Slytherin, they would have explained. Gryffindors have no loyalty." Lucius sneered.

"True. But she thinks she's a muggleborn, even if the hat had tried to place her she would have argued against it, out of fear."

"It wouldn't have mattered, she would have been a Slytherin."

"Yes, but she doesn't know that."

"Fine." Lucius sighed, "What about her home? The parchment listed no adopted parents, but her name was changed a few days after we thought we had lost her."

"I don't know. Minerva would be her magical guardian but I've never heard her say anything about Hermione Granger's home life."

"Lyra, Lyra Malfoy. Her name is Lyra Malfoy." Lucius said.

"I know, but she doesn't. What do you think she will make of her new identity when she wakes up?"

"Hopefully, she gives us the grace to explain." Lucius said with a frown.

Severus nodded, "I need to go back. I'll cover her disappearance as we said, and let you know if I hear anything more."

"Thank you Severus."

"She's family." He simply said and nodded a goodbye before leaving the room.


A few hours later, Lucius Malfoy was still on the couch, now joined by his wife Narcissa who had sobbed for a couple of hours before finally sitting down with a new determination. Draco wasn't set to be home until next week when the year at Hogwarts officially ended, so they were hoping to have at least some answers before having to explain anything to him.

Their quiet vigil was interrupted by a knock one the door, "Enter."

"Lord, Lady Malfoy, I came as soon as I could." A man in his early forties said as he entered.

"Thank you for coming Healer Thomas. As I explained, she was hit with a dark curse yesterday but the counter-curse was administrated quickly. We need to know of her injuries, old and new. I would also like a full check of charms and potions." Lucius said and the healer nodded before going to the bed and starting to cast diagnostics.

Lucius Malfoy grew increasingly worried as hours passed and Healer Thomas continued to cast and write down the results, Narcissa started quietly crying again once two hours had passed.

Once the third hour was done, Healer Thomas cleared his throat, "Right. It's a lot. I've looked at all injuries, and any charms and potions on her. Would you rather I give you the results as they happened or by priority?"

"Start at the beginning." Lucius commanded.

"Very well. A long-term glamour tied to her magical core was the first thing, as you're aware. While it has been removed, the traces of the magic indicate there was no time delay or any reason to assume it was ever meant to be removed. I found a magical signature but without something to compare it to, I don't know who did it." Healer Thomas started and the couple stood ramrod straight as they listened.

"Around the same time, a block was added on her magical core as well, not something the counter-curse used last night could have removed."

"What kind of block?" Lucius asked.

"It was meant to block her magic, it deteriorated overtime though as you can guess. But it's still blocking her natural ability to heal."

"Lyra is a natural Healer?" Narcissa asked with a gasp.

"She is. She will be able to access her gift once the block is removed, as well as her full magical power. At the moment, she's operating at around 40% of her full power. The magical signature of the block is the same as the glamour one." Healer Thomas finished.

"What else?"

"Nothing magical in origin after that for a few years, but I could detect a broken wrist, broken femur, broken collarbone, broken ribs multiple times, burns on her back. It occurred over a few years, the first one when she was three years old and the last one a little after she turned eleven." Healer Thomas explained with something akin to pity in his eyes.

"She was abused." Lucius stated.

"It looks that way, yes."

"She wasn't adopted, I really need to know where she grew up and kill them." Lucius continue in a tone that dared anyone to contradict him.

"Anyway, after that, I could see traces of petrification when she was 13 years old."

Lucius closed in eyes in shame, "The basilisk, what else?"

"It appears she had access to a device that made her age faster than she should have when she was around 14 years old. As you know, she should be 16 years old, but she's really almost 18 years old. The sped up aging seems to have happened in less than a year." Healer Thomas said with a frown.

Lucius gasped, "That fucking insane meddler! I remember, when Draco was in 3rd year, there was a small announcement made to the Board of Governors that a student was given a time-turner to take all the classes, I barely paid attention to it then, no name was added but I'm going to guess she had it."

"A time-turner would make sense." Healer Thomas nodded.

"Anything else?" Lucius asked

"In terms of injuries, that's pretty much it, except for the curse yesterday. The rest of my findings are charms and potions."

"Tell us." Lucius commanded.

"A loyalty potion keyed to Harry Potter, given for the first time when she was 12 years old, another one keyed to Ronald Weasley when she was 13 years old and given regularly since. An odium potion keyed to Draco Malfoy, given when she was 11 years old and regularly since. The last one is a love potion, keyed to Ronald Weasley, started a couple of weeks ago." Healer Thomas said.

"Whoever did this, they knew who she was the whole time. They've been controlling her." Narcissa stated.

"You mentioned charms?" Lucius inquired, feeling exhausted.

"Yes, a compulsion charm to study as much as possible, which would explain the request to take all the classes as you stated. It was cast when she was 12 years old and was long-term. Another compulsion charm to not think about her adoption and who her birth parents could be. The last charm is a rare one, it's meant to incite hatred and distrust for her, it's not keyed to anyone specific but is stronger when someone was sorted into Slytherin." He said.

"She was at Hogwarts when all those were cast, and the potions too, it's someone there." Narcissa said quietly.

Lucius nodded, "I have a good idea who, but it would need the collaboration of other people to pull it off. More than one person is responsible here."

"Can you undo everything?" Narcissa asked the Healer.

"Yes. I can cast the counter-charms, give her a purging potion and the spell to unblock her core is time-consuming but easy enough." Healer Thomas stated.

"Do it." Lucius instructed.

"Very well. It will put strain on her body, she won't wake up until a few days, longer than planned with just the injury from yesterday."


The next day, Lucius and Narcissa were still maintaining their vigil, Lyra was asleep and wouldn't wake for at least a couple more days but she had been freed from all the potions, block and charms she was under. They realised she would be herself for the first time in years, in addition to finding her birth family, it was likely to be a shock and they weren't sure how well she would be able to cope.

Their silence was interrupted by Severus Snape coming in, "What did the Healer say?"

Lucius sighed, unwilling to go over everything again so he simply added the results parchment to his friend.

Severus read the list with increasing dread and horror, "It was him, wasn't it?"

"I think so." Lucius replied.

Severus nodded, "Right, I accessed her file to see what her home life was."

"What did you find?"

Severus sighed and closed his eyes, "She was never adopted, as you know. I honestly expected her to have been fostered or something similar but she's registered at the same orphanage she was left at when she was a few months old."

"Lyra has been growing up in an orphanage?" Narcissa inquired in a small, terrified, voice.

"Yes, Wool's Orphanage in Muggle London." Severus confirmed.

"Why does the name sound familiar?" Lucius asked.

"Because it's the same place the Dark Lord grew up in." Severus said.