Word Count: 2,455.
Warnings: None.
For the next couple of days, the only topic of conversation in the old halls of Hogwarts was that of Sirius Black. The whispers and looks around me increased and soon, it was odd to find a corridor where the name of my father wasn't mentioned.
We were no longer sleeping in the Great Hall and had returned to our Common Rooms, but not all of us had returned to our old selves.
I hadn't left my room in three days. Dumbledore had excused me from classes for the rest of the week and I took full advantage of that. I knew why he had let me stay off. It was pity. Everyone was giving me pity since the start of the year and now that things had gotten worse, it was obvious what everyone was doing.
I didn't want to walk down the halls of the school with everybody looking at me. I was able to manage it before, just being Sirius Black's daughter, but now I was the daughter of Sirius Black, the mass murderer of the castle. I didn't want to face them. Any of them.
"Lyra?" a soft female voice entered the room. I watched Pansy slowly make her way to my bed.
I had been wearing the same clothes for the past three days and my hair was simply tied up in a loose bun on the top of my head.
She gave me a sympathetic look. Pity. "Are you coming to class today?" she asked, moving a book from the end of the bed so she could sit down.
"Dumbledore gave me the week. Might as well see it through."
Pansy sighed, taking my hands in hers. "What's wrong baby?" she asked.
I pulled my hand away roughly, crossing them over my chest. "I told you. I'm taking a week to myself." She sighed.
This was becoming a running theme for the past three days. One by one, each of my friends had tried to get me out of my room, and each of them have all looked at me in the same away and asked me the same question.
"I'm fine. You better get to class," I dismissed her. Pansy nodded, quickly leaving the room.
I knew I was being cruel, ignoring them when they simply wanted to help, but they're help didn't seem like it would make any difference. Especially since I myself had no idea on the reason for my isolation.
It had only taken a couple of moment the morning after Sirius Black attacked the Fat Lady and I had retreated back to my room. The prying eyes of the entire school seemed to just feel too heavy on me. What was I scared of?
A knock came at the door. I jumped. No one ever knocked. "Lyra?" the voice asked. "It's Riddle." I didn't reply.
"I'm off to class. Don't want to keep Snape waiting." I heard him laugh.
Getting off the bed, I padded across the room towards the door, "You don't want to get detention again." I answered, leaning against the cold wall beside the wooden entrance.
"It wouldn't be any fun without you."
"I'm okay, Mattheo," I told him before he could ask, earning a sigh from the other side of the door.
"I know." I heard him move, footsteps heading away from the room.
I opened the lock of the door, swinging it open. Mattheo turned at the noise, watching my messy state walk out of the dorm room.
I took large steps across the hall, wrapping my arms around his torso and squeezing tightly. Mattheo yelped, jumping slightly at the contact. After a moments of hesitation, he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, one hand on the back of my head as I dug my face into his chest.
It was only a short hug, pulling away after only a few moments. "I needed a hug." I explained, "I just-"
"You never have to explain why you need a hug Lyra. I'll always give you one." He smiled warmly, pulling me back into his arms once again.
This time I was the one who hesitated, slowly wrapping my arms back around his torso, clasping them together across his back.
"You never have to explain."
I felt myself begin to tear up as I sniffled. Closing my eyes, I buried my face into his chest. He smelled of the kind of trees that are in the air during the winter. There was cinnamon on his clothes, reminding me of a tradition. There was another smell, something that was unrecognizable to me. Something that was familiar, and yet not.
"You never have to explain." Mattheo repeated, and tears fell.
ᵜᵜᵜᵜᵜ
That night, Pansy had decided that she wanted to go to one of Gryffindors famous after curfew parties. She had invited me, as she had done every time, but I politely declined, telling her that I had a lot of work to catch up on since I wasn't going to class. I didn't.
"Lyra Black! Get your ass out of that room!" a stern voice shouted from behind the door.
I jumped at the noise, the food I had just began to eat flying from my grasp and sticking to one of the mirrors.
"My poor toast." I moaned, my mouth still in a pout when Nika Lupa barged her way into the room.
She stood just past the entrance of the door, hands placed firmly on either hip. "Stop being such a slob," she ordered.
"You look like a superhero with that stance," I observed.
"That," she stuttered, "wasn't what I was going for."
I looked towards my toast sadly. "You made me drop my toast."
"Seriously Lyra, what the fuck is going on with you?" Nika asked.
"I'm fine. I'm just taking a few days to myself."
"Miss Lupa, you cannot be in here. Curfew is about to start and if I'm not mistaken, you are not a Slytherin," someone spat.
I looked to the door, finding the Slytherin Prefect stood there. Nika nodded, looking over my expression.
"Miss Lupa."
"Give me a fucking minute to analyse my best friend!" Nika snapped, the Slytherin Prefect jumping.
She looked at me again, placing a hand on either side of my face. I sighed, giving her the best smile I could.
"Okay," Nika muttered, giving me a small nod. She quickly left the room, not passing me another glance.
"Sorry," I apologized to the Fifth Year.
She waved me off, closing the door of my room. I heard her footsteps lead away. I sighed, my eyes closing as I stood.
When they opened again, my gaze went to my toast that was now face down on the dorm room floor.
"I need food."
ᵜᵜᵜᵜᵜ
The corridors of Hogwarts became dead after curfew, making it easy for me to sneak through the halls unnoticed. Many of the students were scared of the Dementors, but it seemed that none of them knew that the creatures couldn't enter the school grounds.
I didn't make a big effort to being quiet on my journey, knowing that there would be no teachers patrolling the halls tonight. The teachers were just as afraid as the students. It seemed that even Peeves wasn't out on his usual travels.
Stopping at one of the windows, I watched as the floating figures circled the borders of the school grounds. They were all Dementors, all bony and frail figures, cloaked in black as they floated several feet off the ground. Each was like a clone of the other.
"Grrr," something growled.
I first assumed it had come from outside the school. Among the Dementors. My eyes scanned for a creature in the darkness, but there was nothing there.
The noise sounded again and turning my head to the source, I realized that the creature wasn't outside, it was in the castle.
The Dementor's let out an inhumane screech, the sound echoing through my ears. I jumped, twirling around in my spot. That was when I saw it, my heart quickening.
A yellow-eyed dog was stood beside me, only a couple paces away. Its hind legs were reared, and its face was positioned in a snarl. The creature's teeth were bared, looking ready to tear into someone's flesh. But it wasn't looking at me. It was looking at the Dementors.
When its gaze moved from the horrid creatures and instead to me, the black dog's face turned. It's eyes were no longer angry, like they previously had, and the animal simply tilted its head, watching me with an expression that could be explained as calm.
The noise of the Dementors faded, the only thing in my view being the dog in front of me. The creature moved closer, but I didn't. I had spent my entire life watching Moony turn from wolf to man, I knew what a dangerous one looked like, and I knew that this wasn't one of them. The dog seemed to be almost kind to me, a distinct difference to its attitude towards the Dementors.
It brushed its head along my side, the tips of its ears reaching just above my hip. I tensed as it touched me, but didn't move. A feeling blossomed in my chest, and I didn't know whether it was fear, or interest. Why wasn't it trying to kill me?
It turned around to face me again, letting down its hind legs and sitting calmly in front of me. It tilted its head again, looking up at me, blinking. I took a deep breath, my heart no longer beating as fast.
Bending my knees, I leaned down so that I was now eye-level with the animal in front of me. Its head straightened, and if the creature was human, I would say that it looked surprised at my movement. It was familiar. The dog. It's eyes looking at me with something unique, and yet unrecognizable to me in that moment.
Before its eyes could fix on me fully, another screech sounded through the halls, my head turning from it to watch a Dementor surge towards us. I pressed into the wall behind me, the creature continuing to move closer.
"Grrr." The dog growled, and the cloaked figure moved itself, this time flying after the black dog, that was now running out of the grounds of Hogwarts and towards the Forbidden Forest.
I ran towards it, bracing myself against the pillar. I didn't step outside the castle, my eyes simply following the black animal. I watched it weave in and out of the bony monsters, almost teasing them. I laughed, feeling my eyes well with tears. I smiled.
"Who are you?" I asked out loud, but if I was being honest, I already knew the answer to my question.
"Black?" I heard someone spoke in a hurried whisper.
There was no one else in the hallway, and the whisper simply faded away. I backed away from the exit, scanning my surroundings.
"Over here," they spoke again. I turned to the voice, finding Harry standing there, positioned in a guarded stance.
"Potter," I breathed a sigh of relief, "where the fuck did you come from?" I asked.
He held up his hand, the weight of something clearly in his grasp, but there was nothing there.
"Invisibility Cloak." He stated and I sighed again.
"Right. You know Dementors can see through that?"
"I know. I'm not sneaking out of the castle. I'm just sneaking around it. What are you doing out of your room? You've been in there for days."
"I needed food," I answered, "but it seems that I am no longer hungry."
"That's odd." Harry shook his head at me.
"It's not as odd as you think. The longer you go without food, the less hungry you become."
"Lets' go get food." He spoke suddenly, wrapping the cloak around his shoulders so that now only his head was visible.
"I just said I wasn't hungry."
"You just said that you have gone without food so long, you have stopped being hungry."
"What's the difference?"
Wrapping an arm around my shoulder and throwing the invisibility cloak over the two of us, Harry laughed lightly. "There's a difference."
ᵜᵜᵜᵜᵜ
"So Dumbledore gave you the week off?" Harry asked from the other side of the kitchen, where he was sat against the wall.
"Yeah," I replied, sat on the opposite side of the room, our bodies mirroring each other.
"Can I ask why?" He threw a grape into his mouth.
My hand froze, the nut I was about to eat not looking appealing anymore, "I'm not sure actually. I walked two steps through the halls, and I just froze, turned around and went right back up."
He nodded, placing the bowl of fruit he was holding down, "do you know why?"
"Everyone is asking me that question. I keep getting angry at them." I moved the small bowl of nuts away from me and leaned my head back against the wall, looking to the ceiling. "I tell Theo everything, but I can't tell him this." I laughed.
"Can you tell me?" Harry asked.
"You were there for the Boggart. It turned into my father, but I'm not scared of him. I'm scared of becoming him." I revealed, "and walking down those halls with everyone looking at me, and judging me was always something I could handle, but I'm not the girl whose father is Sirius Black anymore. I'm the daughter of Sirius Black and without realizing it, those comments that I would throw away as nothing, became something."
Potter nodded, not replying to what I had said, "was that so hard to say?"
"To you, no, but for some reason I just can't tell them. I can't reveal why I'm locking myself in my room or why I'm cutting myself off. I tell myself that I don't know the reason, but I do, and I just can't say it out loud."
"You just did Lyra."
"That's one person down. Lots more to go." I smiled, closing my eyes.
"You've admitted it to yourself, now you just to admit it to the people who care about you."
"Admit what?"
"That you're scared." I stopped smiling, bringing my head forward to look at Harry, but finding that he was no longer there.
The bowl of fruit that he had been holding was back on the counter and anything that he had eaten had magically been replaced. No, it wasn't replaced. Harry never ate it. He was never here.
I sat alone in the kitchen, now knowing what it was that had locked me away. I now knew what it was that was bothering me since the Boggart. Since the start of the year really. I was scared. I was terrified. Completely scared shitless.