Serious Black stood at the end of the hall. Their eyes met, and she could tell at first he didn't find anything strange about her being there. She thought about slipping back into the room before he pieced it together, but the sheer panic in her eyes gave her away.
He grinned at her. "Morning Lyra, your up early."
She nodded. Her hand still on the door. Her heart beating rapidly against her chest. She felt like an animal trapped in a cage.
He started toward her. "The twins up too?"
She nodded again, without thinking.
His grin widened. "Why don't we all head down and I'll cook breakfast?"
She felt the door open wider behind her and two redheads popped out. "That sounds great, I'm starving!"
"Yeah me too, how about you Lyra?" George said placing a hand on her shoulder. She noticed that he hadn't had the sense to put a shirt on. Serious seemed to notice too.
"Alright well Lyra and I will go down and get started and why don't you two finish getting dressed?"
She placed a hand over her beat red face and nodded. These boys really were going to be the death of her. They really were.
Lyra followed Serious down into the kitchen. She went to go grab a pan from the cabinet but he scolded her to sit and pulled out his wand. With a wave at the fridge and the stove, breakfast began to cook itself.
He slid in the seat across from her and she looked down at her hands, anxious to not have anything to do. She could feel his eyes on her.
"S-serious?"
"Yes?"
She could feel his amusement. "You're not going to tell Mrs. Weasley and my parents about this morning are you? Because I know what it may seem like but-"
Serious's face spilt into a wolfish grin and he leaned back in his chair. "Relax Stone I'm not going to tell anyone's mother. Plus it's pretty obvious what was going on."
"I-it was?"
He flicked his wand again cracking some eggs into a pan. "The one night your not screaming in your sleep and I find you sneaking out of the twins' room. Yeah, I pieced it together."
She relaxed. "O-oh."
"Plus it's not like I'd expect you two to go at it with Fred right there in the room."
Lyra was so startled she almost fell out of her seat. Then there was a loud crack making her jump again. She grabbed her heart as Fred grabbed her elbow, steadying her.
"Easy there Lyra." He said with a chuckle. "My brother will kill me if you keel over dead."
She glared at him trying to calm herself. There was another crack as George apparated into the room, but she was ready for it this time and did not jump.
"Why dont you two just use the stairs?"
"Because time is money Stone," Fred said pouring himself a glass of orange juice. Lyra reached over and snatched the juice.
Serious watched them for a moment sipping his coffee. Lyra looked over feeling his eyes, she could tell he wanted to ask something. She raised an eyebrow to say go ahead.
"I was just curious if you filled them in on last night's meeting."
The twin's eyes were on her now and she placed the juice down. Studying Serious closely.
"They haven't asked me, so I figure they already have a pretty good idea." She said simply.
George grinned sheepishly, and Fred smacked her arm lightly. "Oi don't go giving all of our secrets away!"
That rare but wonderful wolfish grin appeared on Serious's face again. He leaned back in his chair satisfied.
"Lupin and I figured as much. It's a good thing you boys know." He looked at Lyra pointedly, "Dumbledore was thinking of having Snape teach you, if that's the case then I think it wise for them to know."
Lyra looked confused.
The rest of breakfast went pretty smoothly. Slowly people from the order and the family began to make their way into the kitchen. All a bit surprised that Lyra and the Twins were awake. Mrs. Weasley was immediately suspicious, not that Lyra could blame her. She wondered the last time the twins were up before their mother and doubted it was because they were up to any good. Lyra was quick thinking though.
"I woke them up." She said bustling by the stove now cooking, "I couldn't sleep. Bad dreams. I didn't know Serious was already up and I didn't really feel like being alone, so I woke them up to join me for breakfast."
"Much to my disliking," Fred grumbled impressively, catching onto Lyra's lie quickly.
She watched George and Serious out the corner of her eye. Even if Serious did end up ratting them out, which she didn't think he would, their stories would add up. Mrs. Weasley watched her taking this all in, Lyra could feel her worry and care grow.
"Why don't you sit down dear," She coaxed "you must be exhausted, let me know if you want me to talk to Professor Snape. Maybe he could whip something up for you to help you sleep."
Lyra felt a pang of guilt but held strong. "That's alright Mrs. Weasley, It's not that bad, they just make me a bit restless is all."
"If you say so dear."
"Smart girl, I wouldn't take any potion from Snivellus either," Serious said sipping his coffee.
Mrs. Wesley glared at him "Honestly Serious don't go putting bad ideas about Severus in the poor girl's head."
He winked at a Lyra "Oh I wouldn't worry Molly, the girls far to smart for me to be a bad influence on her."
She blushed and her guilt resurfaced tenfold.
Eventually, everyone trickled down for breakfast, and once everyone had eaten they got back to work with cleaning. Mrs. Weasley had sent her and the twins up to the top floor to investigate what needed to be cleaned and if there was anything dangerous. Lyra figured this was mostly because the twins could use magic and would be able to hinder anything that may attack.
Once they had entered the first room and checked to make sure nothing dangerous or spying was present Fred flopped down onto the bed and Lyra a George took seats on the floor. "So!" said Fred grinning, "Now that Lyra's successfully gotten mum off of our backs with the most brilliant lie, shall we continue business as usual?"
"Oh stop, I already feel bad enough for Lying." She grumbled.
"Don't know why," said George, "You were a natural. Quite impressive really, I've never seen you lie that well."
She stuck her tongue out at him and picked at the carpet under her legs. "So what's the grand plan? You've got a lot of the products made, how do you plan to sell them?"
"Well, we haven't had a chance to really look for a storefront because of mum. I think she's on to us. I don't think she's even going to bring us to Diagon alley this year."
"Bloody Stubborn women," Fred muttered.
Lyra let out a musical laugh "says the stubbornest boy I've ever met."
"Anyways," George continued "We were thinking of doing a mail-order system until we can find a place."
Lyra nodded that was a good idea. "That could work, especially since your parents stopped reading the daily profit."
"That's what we were thinking," Said Fred.
"I could probably scout a place out in Diagon alley too, your mum would probably be okay with me going."
"You sure?" George asked and Fred sat up.
"That would just brilliant Stone!" He said a wicked grin on his face.
"Yes, she knows I support your joke shop, but she also knows I'm completely against you two dropping out. So I think it would be pretty safe. I wanted to go anyway, and I need to talk to your mum as well."
They narrowed their eyes, suspicious now. "What are you going to talk to our mum about Stone?"
"So untrustworthy." She said teasingly "I wanted to ask her for some tips on healing, she seems very good at it. I really want to start practicing and learning what I can."
"Is that what your thinking of doing?" George asked lightly taking her hand.
"Lord knows she's smart enough, Miss Perfect Grades," Fred said snarkily.
She stuck her tongue out at him and then looked over at George. "Yes, I wanted to be a nurse or doctor when I was little, they're like healers but for muggles, once I learned of my ability I thought the passion would change but, I still want to help people.
"I think it's an amazing idea," George said, he could feel her passion and it ignited his, "Let me know if I can-"
"If WE can help thank you very much." Fred said cutting him off "It surely wouldn't hinder having a healer around."
"I mostly just need practice. But don't use that as an excuse to go and hurt yourselves." She scolded. "I'm not entirely sure how well I'd be able to patch you up yet."
"Right," said Fred, "So we'll definitely make sure mums around until we know for sure."
"Sounds like a plan."
After their talk, they got to investigating the upstairs. It was mostly just cobwebs and dust they found, there were a couple locked rooms and they thought it better not to open any of them. They talked and planned for the joke shop, and ways to help Lyra practice for her newts this year. Before they knew it Mrs. Weasley was calling them down for lunch.
Lyra lingered back, waiting for everyone to grab sandwiches from the tray and sit down. Once everyone else had she walked up to Mrs. Weasley. She grabbed a sandwich and cleared her throat quietly. "Mrs. Weasley, I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor?"
Mrs. Weasley turned giving Lyra her full attention, worry-filled her and Lyra smiled to try and show nothing was wrong. "Of course dear, how can I help?"
"Well, I've decided that I want to peruse a career in healing, I've already studied a lot of the basics, but I don't have any physical practice and I know you're a really good at healing, having to patch up the twins so much. Would you mind helping me practice?"
Mrs. Weasley lit up like a Christmas tree. "Oh, Lyra dear that's wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! I heard from your parents how well you did on your owls and so young too!" She glared at the twins "I'm glad to see you not letting such talent go to waste, and you're pursuing a real job."
The words stung and Lyra took a step back. "Well it's really a passion of mine, a lot of my teachers really wanted me to peruse a career in the ministry, especially as an arour. They thought me being a run of the mill healer was a bit of a waste."
"Well, that's just ridiculous." She scoffed and Lyra nodded in agreement.
"I thought so too, but you know, some people just care far too much about status," she took a step closer "They don't see the true potential someone can become when they are doing something they truly love."
She saw it click and Mrs. Weasley turned a bit red. The twins were watching the two closely now, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were too busy chatting to have noticed the odd exchange. She cleared her throat awkwardly and studied Lyra with a bit more care. Maybe she had underestimated the girl's similarities to her boys. "Right, well we better get back to cleaning, I'll go see what I can dig up to help you practice. We'll talk later."
The rest of the day flew by and before any of them knew it the sun was setting. The sky was abnormally clear painting the old grey house in a pink and orange glow. There was no gloom to foreshadow what was to come. There was no warning at all.