"All I wished for was to not be a Slytherin. Pure blood supremacy was woven into the material of those jade coloured ties and I would rather strangle myself with one than wear it."
After returning from her time spent on the run, Lyra, unruly, sarcas...
Authors note: Hey guys, hope you are all well<3 Please enjoy this chapter and remember to vote and comment! Would recommend 100 recommend listening to: THE CALL BY REGINA SPEKTOR
Strike them before they strike you
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The fighting stopped as I fell into his arms, throwing myself at him. We didn't talk in those initial moments, words seemed to count for nothing as the heat of his body spoke for him. His scent, his entire being, taking over me. Love, and relief, hurt, happiness and emotions I had never felt before washed through me. He was mine and I was his again.
"How...I...I thought you were dead...I.." Draco stopped my sobbing words with a kiss, his lips gentle but possessive on mine. And as he kissed me, a part of me that had been lost years ago, the hole deep inside of my hollow being was filled, overflowing even.
My hands found his face, his hair, touching him just to reassure me that it was real, that he was real. His eyes scanned my body for any sign of injury, any sign of hurt. But I was fine, I was more than fine now that he was by my side. I flinched a little as his thumb brushed over the cut on my cheek, but the pain stopped as his fingers seemed to heal it, his magic so strong and embedded in him that his wand was not even needed.
"I tried so much....I tore apart, every dungeon I could find, every manor that I knew. But I couldn't so much as trace you. I made a deal, and he put restraints on my magic...on...on my mind...I." His voice was soft and angry and all those feelings in-between. I could feel him shudder under my fingertips. But it was like music as he spoke, like soft notes of a calming lullaby flowing from his mouth.
He was a man now, I could see. The slivers of boyishness that he had left with long since outgrown, and his cheekbones and jaw were stronger than before, his grey eyes cloudy with too much worry, too much stress. They were too heavy to be a boys eyes, they had seen too much, witnessed too much to hold any essence of childhood. A worn and weathered face told me that he had lived, and fought, struggled for that year we had been apart. And I loved him for it.
Tears dampened my hands that still clung to his cheeks, those eyes now wet and gleaming, those tears seemed to melt away a little of the hardship, glowing with water like the presence of his youth slowly making itself alive again.
His face fell at the sight of how thin I was, now much light I had lost- we had both lost. But those sorts of things didn't mean anything anymore. The entire world was caving in around us and all I wanted was for us to make it.
The numbness and pain, the isolated suffering that I had endured, didn't seem to matter now. I would have spent endless years of endless night in that damp, dark cell if it meant he was still alive, his heart beating just as mine did, his eyes watching the same moon that rose above my head each night, even as I could not see it.
He had made me whole, and full, and utterly endless. His presence, his life was the beginning and end and middle of my entire existence. There had been times where I thought my life was pointless, why live when he was no longer alive to walk beside me in times of hardship or times of joy. But I always remembered how he called Juliet a fool, thought her weak for taking her life in knowledge that Romeo was not hers, but dead. And I knew that even when he was not near me in that year, he tugged on a little part of my heart, yearning for me, urging me not to give in to those dark dark parts of my own devouring mind. As he stood before me now, grown and strong, I knew that fighting had been worth it, that all the pain and aloneness had been worth it, even just to hold his head in my hands again.
The purple sky grew red with blood as Draco took my hand, the sudden noise of the battle flooding back into my ears. The horror, the pain, it was too much. Too much death and hurt.
"Lyra." Theo, who had been protecting us while we reconnected spoke now, his words soft like I had never heard them before. I gave him nod, but he hugged me before I had the chance to even speak. How I had missed Nott.
"I'm so glad...I..." Nott struggled to form words. Willow came running before he had the chance to process his sentence and she hugged him also, throwing her loving arms around her boyfriend, who gripped the back of her neck, holding her so tightly that I thought he may never let go. Her eyes were only designed to behold him, I was sure from the way she looked at the brunette boy. She loved him more than life itself, consumed by her utter adoration.
"Hey...beautiful." Theo stroked her pale cheek, so pure and innocent amidst the violence. She really was as bright, living, blooming as the plants she tended to.
Just as I turned to Willow, a different voice called to me, one I had not heard in a long time.
"Lyra!" Hermione shouted across the carnage, her face bruised but her smile bright all the same. But before she could hug me, spells were cast and shouts sounded, the battle amplified to and extent I was yet to witness.
Spells were flying in our direction, fast and fierce and unforgiving. Draco stepped in front of me but I could hold my own well enough, he knew it, but he was wary in the knowledge I was out of practice.
"Where have you been?" Granger asked, her voice straining as she ducked from a curse that flew straight over her head.
"It's a long story." The brunette girl beside me answered for me, the three of us now almost back to back, covering each other's weak spots, while the boys fought off some huge creature that had appeared from the rubble. It looked like a massive spider.
"I see." Hermione replied to Willow, casting another charm at the masked being before her.
"And where's Fabian, I haven't seen him anywhere?"
The death eater I had been fighting fell to the ground dead, the smell of potent death filling the air. My stomach sank as I froze, sinking, sinking, until it hit the bottom of the murky pit of my stomach. Something sticky formed in gut, travelling up my throat but getting caught in my breath. Willow turned to face me with sorry eyes.
"He's dead." I answered bluntly. Too bluntly.
"Oh." I could feel Hermione's heart lurching, dragging itself across the flagstone we stood upon.
"I'm sorry. We assumed you knew." Silence filled my ears for a moment, as if Fabians shadow had walked over me, filling my senses with his scent of smoke and cedar, filling my mind with peace and smoothness. He consumed me in that split second and I knew he was here, and he didn't want me to be afraid. It was then I knew that it was much more than a petty fuck between them. And I smiled, for I had known as much.
"I have to find Harry." Those were her last words, before Hermione disappeared back into the battle, like something had twigged, and Fabians death meant more than just heartbreak, it meant something powerful and wilful and strong. Then I thought about the diadem, and his valiant effort in its destruction. Perhaps it meant more to their side, our side, than I had anticipated. Her face had frozen before she uttered her last words to us, and I hoped that she had felt him too.
Skilfully, my wand repelled two curses that flew at me together, sending them hurling back towards the two death eaters who had cast them. There was more now, seeking revenge for the deaths of their brothers that had just occurred. Willow sent me a look as if to say she felt guilty for not telling Granger, it wasn't her fault, I knew it. My bones ached with her as we both gave each other a knowing look of raised brows and hollow eyes, and we took a moment to remember our old friend.
I didn't have time to think again as I duelled. All I knew was that I had sacrificed too much, cared too little at times, and now I was not giving up on the chance of a future for Draco and I, one like we had always planned, with apple trees and cottages, and springs, and books, and endless summer days and peace and-
A sound so horrible filled the air between us and the boys. And I felt it in my bones. A shout, a cry of pain too real, too close.
My eyes dragged from Theo, who was falling, falling, falling, to the boy who had cast the curse. Then they painfully glanced towards Willow, her face a picture of true horror.
"I did it. I did what you said Willow. I didn't hesitate, I took him down for you. Struck him before he struck you. Like you taught us." The second year boy from earlier in the common room, said proudly. His eyes were gleaming of something deeper than pride. He had no idea what he had done. The boy didn't take a second look before scampering off into the battle to take down another unknowingly innocent soul. And he thought he had saved her. I vomited onto the flagstone.
