𝐭𝐰𝐨
no.12 Grimmauld Place, London, England, 2015
"You should have seen the look on Mr. D's face, I don't think I've ever seen it turn that purple, and he's the god of wine." Sirius barked out a laugh, he hadn't felt this carefree in years. Sitting on this couch, listening to the stories Lyra was telling him about her childhood at camp, he felt normal again.
"And you were how old when this happened?" He asked, referring to the small accident with Lyra's charmspeak she'd just described
"Seven!" Lyra chirped, a bright smile on her face.
"You really are my daughter," Sirius ruffles her hair like he'd done when she was a child, "using your gifts for mischief."
Lyra rests her head on his shoulder. It had been so long since she'd spent time with him, all of her memories of their time together were vague. She was glad to have him back, yet something had been weighing heavily on her mind. Staring into the fire, she finally plucked up the courage to bring it up.
"Dad?" Her voice was hesitant.
Sirius hummed quietly, stroking his daughter's hair, "yes, Little Star?"
"Why-"
The sound of a door opening and closing cut Lyra off, jolting the father-daughter duo out of their little world. Muffled voices could be heard from downstairs, barely carrying up toward the sitting room, a floor above.
"Lyra!" Percy's voice called from below them. Before she even comprehended it, her hands had reached for Skyfall, unsheathing it. "Paul's here!"
Sirius watched sadly as his daughter slumped in relief, saddened by her need to be alert all the time. What had she been through that caused her to react like that?
"C'mon Dad," Lyra spoke, gesturing toward the door, "I'll introduce you to Paul, Percy's stepdad. He's great, killed some monsters during the-" She abruptly cut herself off, realizing she hadn't told her father anything about her quests. Neglecting to tell him about either of the wars she'd fought in during the past two years.
Sirius raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to finish, but she just gestured toward the door again, he made a mental note to bring it up again.
As soon as the door had been opened, Lyra could make out Paul's voice among the other familiar ones downstairs. She slid down the banister, ignoring her father's worried muttering.
"Blowfish!" Lyra grinned, flinging her arms around Percy's stepfather. Next to the pair, Poseidon stifled a snort, knowing he was the reason Lyra called the mortal that nickname.
"Hello, Lyra," The salt and pepper-haired man smiled, patting the girl gently on her back.
"Oh! Paul! Can you look over my essays for college? I've never been to mortal school before, so I have no idea if I did them right. Percy said I did, but I don't trust his opinion," her boyfriend made a noise of offense, "Percy you didn't even read them properly."
"Yes, I did!" Lyra raised an unimpressed eyebrow as all the adults stifled their laughter. "Fine, I didn't but, I'm sure they're amazing."
"Of course I'll look over them Lyra, when do you need them in by?"
"End of July." She grins, "I'm applying for the spring semester at NYU, I would have gone for fall, but I didn't have time to complete the applications."
Paul nodded understandingly, "and what's your major?"
"Fashion and design."
"You are your mother's daughter," Poseidon smiled down at Lyra.
"She's my mom for a reason."
✶✷✶
Paul settled into Grimmauld Place easily. Poseidon had left a few hours after Paul's arrival, godly duties couldn't be ignored for very long.
Everything had been very quiet since his departure. Lyra had spent most of her time baking in the kitchen with Sally, it had been months since the two had seen each other and Sally wanted to hear about every embarrassing thing Percy had done during their stay at Hogwarts.
Naturally, when Sally discovered that Percy had proposed she was ecstatic. She'd baked a celebratory cake for the couple, and cried. Paul would never admit it, but he teared up a little too when they told him about it.
Sirius and Remus of course already knew of the engagement, due to eavesdropping on conversations between the two, which wasn't creepy at all, but were still glad to share in the excitement. Even if Sirius had pulled Percy aside to 'talk to -more like threaten- him', which had been amusing, for everyone but Percy at least.
Lyra and Percy had decided to get married at camp, they'd met there, had so many firsts at camp, it was only fitting that their wedding was there as well. Sally and Lyra had begun planning. Aphrodite had even showed up on occasion to add her input, but left it mostly to Lyra, knowing she liked to be very independent.
The two spent hours going over guest lists, writing invitations, and finalizing details. Percy had decided to stay out of the two women's way, opting to help Sirius, Remus, and Paul clean up Grimmauld Place. The group as a whole was blissfully unaware of the chaos that would ensue, days from now, with the imminent arrival of Molly Weasley and her clan of redheads.
✶✷✶
Lyra woke to her grandmother's lovely screeching. She groaned quietly as shrieks of "Blood traitors, freaks, Half-breeds! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-!" carried under the crack in the door to their room.
"Lovely woman," Percy murmured, wiping the sleep away from his eyes. "Reminds me of a certain queen of the heaven's we're all too familiar with."
She hummed in agreement, rolling over to bury her face in his chest. "Why is she screaming this early anyways, it's way too early for anyone to be awake but Sally, and she's always quiet."
"I guess we should go find out." Percy shifted as if to get up, but Lyra tightened her grip on his shirt.
"No, 'm comfy," her voice was muffled by his chest, which vibrated as he chuckled in amusement.
"I am too, but I'm now curious as to what caused your grandmother's shrieking." He gently pried her hands from his shirt before standing. "Come on Baby, let's go face the music."
Lyra lifted her arms, clenching and unclenching her fists, silently asking for Percy to pull her up. He rolled his eyes but complied anyway, pulling her up off the bed and into his arms, placing a gentle kiss on her lips.
There was a soft knock at the door, "Ly? Percy?" Sally's voice came from the other side.
"Yeah Mom?"
"Breakfast is ready, and we have some... guests." Lyra furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"Guests? But we didn't invite anyone over. How do they know the secret?" Sally let out an audible sigh.
"Just come down stairs to find out."
✶✷✶
The door to the kitchen was ajar by the time Lyra and Percy made their way downstairs. Clanging of pots and pans could be heard through the small crack in the door. Muffled voices floated towards the couple who exchanged a look before pushing the door open all the way.
Lyra was immediately tugged into a strong embrace, she inhaled the strong scent of cologne, cigarettes, and firewhiskey. Dad. She thought to herself, wrapping her arms around his midsection.
"Good morning my star." He pressed a small kiss to the crown of her forehead, "slept well?"
"Good morning Dad, I slept okay." Lyra pulled back from the hug to smile at her father, "Sally said we have guests?"
Her father gestures behind himself. There, around the table were seven redheads. Lyra' eyes found her father's again in question.
"The order has offered them a place to stay while we hold meetings here." She could almost taste the bitterness in his tone, only because she'd used that voice when speaking to some of the more, unkind -Hera- Gods and Goddesses.
"That's nice of the order," Lyra slipped a smile onto her face and turned toward everyone else in the room, "good morning everyone."
There was an echo of her sentiment as she took her usual place at the kitchen table.
"Good morning Ly," Sally said, placing a kiss on the girl's hair and a plate of blue pancakes on the table in front of her.
"Thank you Mama Jackson," Lyra smiled, picking up a fork.
"It's so nice to see you again Lyra dear," Molly Weasley smiled from her place at the stove, "I do hope you're feeling better. I'm sorry we were never properly introduced, my name is Molly Weasley, Ronald's mother."
"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Weasley," she sent a polite smile in the woman's direction. "I'm feeling loads better"
"This is my husband Arthur," Molly pointed to a tall man with reddish gray hair. "And this is Bill, our eldest, whom you've already met. Fred and George are the twins. Then you of course know Ronald, and Ginerva is the youngest and our only girl."
"It's nice to meet you Arthur, and it's nice to see you all again," the Wealsey clan all sent Lyra a small wave. Except for Ron, he just stared gloomily at her. Percy shot the boy a withering look when no one was looking, obviously not pleased with his attitude toward Lyra.
"So, Lyra, Percy. What are you two thinking about doing today? I know you spent all day yesterday cleaning out the room you're sleeping in." Remus smiled at the couple.
"Lyra and I figured we could clean out some more of the upstairs rooms," Percy shrugged, "we might go into London and do some shopping, a lot of our friends have summer birthdays." Lyra nodded, lacing her finger's with his under the table.
"If you do go out, you need to be careful. Death Eaters are bound to be looking for you Lyra."
✶✷✶
"Hey Love?" Percy's voice broke the girl out of her focus.
"Yeah Babe?"
"Can you come here really quick?" Lyra tucked the wand she was using to clean out her Uncle Regulus's bookshelf with, before maneuvering toward the side of the room Percy was sorting through.
"What's up?" She asked, eyes falling on a small leather bound book resting in her boyfriend's hands. "What's that?"
"I think it's a diary of some sort, it has Regulus's name on it." He passed the book over to her. "He's your uncle, you should have it."
"Do you think Dad would want it?" She stared at the gold lettering of her uncle's initials.
"I don't know, Ly. But did you say Silena mentioned your uncle knowing about Horcruxes, maybe he wrote something in there about where he hid the one he found."
"I guess we should keep it and look through it later, it could be helpful."
She placed the diary gently on the side table. The golden detailing seemed to glint tauntingly at her, as if warning her to stay away. It could be the key to returning a soul who'd cheated death in the most horrific way possible once and for all.