Lyra hadn't walked through the doors of Twelve Grimmauld Place since she was a teenager. She wasn't sure why anybody would want to either. She had always felt bad for Sirius and Regulus for growing up in that house when she lived in the open, yet cold, Black Manor on the countryside.
She hesitantly opened the door as Remus held up a finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet. It was dark, as it was still quite late. She knew she couldn't stay for long, as her husband would be wondering where she was, and she didn't want Draco to be alone in their house for too long.
The floor creaked as her heels made contact. She wasn't sure if anybody had been in that house since her Aunt Walburga died. Well, other than Kreacher the house-elf who hadn't wanted to leave the house, tied to it. But it looked quite clean, probably because he adored the house so much.
"Lyra? Remus?" a voice asked, though quietly as if someone were asleep and he didn't want to wake them. Sirius looked like he couldn't quite believe his eyes as he was illuminated by the light still coming from the dining room.
"Sirius." Lyra grinned at him. It didn't take him more than a few seconds before he opened his arms, allowing her to run into him and his embrace. She chuckled as he shook her a bit in his arms.
Remus smiled fondly as he watched them. This was the first time he'd seen them together in years without Sirius looking like death and Lyra being stressed beyond belief. If only James had been there, then everything would have been perfect. He supposed, that in some way he was always with them, watching over them. At least, he hoped so.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked, finally pulling away to look at her, though his smile was as wide as it had been in over a decade. He looked to Remus and shook his head happily. "Don't tell me you actually managed it. You convinced her?"
"She's not as difficult as she wants us to believe," Remus responded teasingly, making Lyra roll her eyes dramatically. "She's with us now. For good, I hope."
"As long as I've got you two dumbasses then I'm here to make sure you don't do anything stupid," Lyra retorted, glancing between them happily. They may have been older now, but they were still the same people deep down, despite everything.
Sirius scoffed, looking at her incredulously, wondering how she could think they were the stupid ones. "Coming from the biggest dumbass I know. I think it's more we who have to protect you from doing something stupid."
Lyra was about to tell him to shut up or something snarky like it, but then a slightly familiar house-elf started walking past, muttering softly, like he was up to something. "If my poor mistress could see Kreacher now. Serving her brat of a blood-traitor son and his filthy companions."
The blonde woman watched him strangely. If that was who she thought it was, then he had gotten even worse than when she had last seen him. "Is that-"
"Mistress Lyra is here!" Kreacher suddenly straightened up, his eyes filled with tears as he looked at her, until he saw how close she was to Sirius and started muttering darkly once again. "What is sweet and pure Mistress Lyra doing with that blood-traitor and the filthy half-breed. Perhaps she's come to take Kreacher away to serve the pure and respectable Malfoys."
"Hello, Kreacher. It's been a while," Lyra answered slowly, glancing at Sirius, confused at why he was muttering the way he was, as if they couldn't hear him at all. "Now, if anybody asks, I've never been here. I'm not a part of the Order of the Phoenix, I have no contact with any of its members. Understood?"
"Smart," Remus muttered to himself, looking at her in approval.
"Yes, Mistress Lyra," Kreacher said, as if he was heartbroken to hear these words. It meant that she, one of the only members of the House of Black he had had any respect for, was a part of the Order. "Has Mistress Lyra become a blood-traitor? Oh, if my Mistress could see her. Oh, my poor Mistress. She'd get her to see sense."
"I see perfect sense, Kreacher," said the blonde woman, a bit annoyed. She hadn't ever hated him as much as Sirius or cared for him as much as Regulus, but she thought he wouldn't be so rude. Perhaps he had gone mad after all these years. She wouldn't blame him.
"Go clean something up, Kreacher, before I kick you in the nose," Sirius hissed, angry as usually at the house-elf. Lyra was a bit surprised at the anger, but she supposed he'd had to live with him for a while. It was enough to drive anyone to a bit of anger.
Remus glanced around awkwardly as the house-elf walked off, muttering to himself once again. "Right. Well, now that that's settled, perhaps we should introduce you to the rest of the Order then, Lyra."
"Is there a meeting now? Tonight?" Lyra asked, glancing at the dining room. She felt like she could hear muffled voices, but none she could recognize before she would walk in and greet them herself.
"You're just in time," Sirius winked, offering his arm like the perfect little pureblood gentleman he had been raised to be. It was obviously just a joke, so she chuckled and accepted his arm. "Let's go."
As they walked through the door, somebody else was watching over the railing. A group of five teenagers, all trying to hear something coming from the meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, tired of being kept in the dark.
A stocky redhead turned to look at his twin brother, his eyebrows raised in surprised. He had seen that woman before, both at the Quidditch World Cup and while watching his dad jump her husband. "Is that who I think it is, George?"
"I sure think it's who you think it is, Fred," his twin responded, looking equally surprised. They exchanged looked, both grinning without anything having to be funny. It was just who they were.
"What would a Malfoy be doing with the Order of the Phoenix?" George mused, raising his fingers to his chin to stroke it, pretending to be deep in thought.
"What would a Malfoy be doing except for trying to go around being a git?" Fred retorted, his grin widening even more. He didn't quite like the Malfoys, but he did remember her laughing at Lucius Malfoy being pummeled at Flourish and Botts.
"Hey, lay off," Ron scolded, looking quite happy that the blonde woman had appeared at Twelve Grimmauld Place. She'd been pretty nice to him, Harry and Hermione over the years. "Lyra's nice, alright? She's not like the Malfoys."
"You know her, Ron?" his little sister, Ginny, asked, confused. She hadn't ever heard much more about Lyra Malfoy other than the fact that she was Lucius Malfoy's wife and Draco Malfoy's mother. She'd made a bit of a judgment based on that, but perhaps there was more behind her exterior.
"We both do," Hermione added from next to her. Lyra had given her quite the tips for her Transfiguration O.W.L.s next year, and she was already looking for the books she had recommended. "We can vouch for her. Harry trusts her, too. More than any of us, I think."
Ginny looked at the only other teenager girl in the house, frowning. She hadn't ever heard of Harry and Lyra being in the same room. Maybe there was a reason behind that. "Strange. Then again, they let Snape be here for some reason."
"I'd trust almost anyone above old Snape," said George, still a bit bitter over how his old Professor (not current, as he hadn't gotten the O.W.L.-results to continue in his N.E.W.T.-level classes, which he wouldn't complain about) had always favored Slytherins.
"Even if it's a Malfoy," Fred agreed, feeling the exact same type of bitterness. They didn't pass their Potions O.W.L. because he hadn't taught them enough, they felt. They were perfectly satisfactory.
"Just trust us," said Ron, exchanging a smile with Hermione. They were the only ones who actually knew Lyra, after all. They didn't have a bad word to say. Well, other than her family. They weren't quite fond of them. "She's trustworthy."
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The usually cold and empty dining room of Twelve Grimmauld Place was filled with people, most of whom didn't have any connection to the House of Black, which was not a bad thing in Lyra's mind. One person was noticeably absent, though. The leader, Albus Dumbledore.
She scoured the room though, where everybody was suddenly stopping up and looking at her. She supposed everyone knew who she was, what family she came from. She would be surprised if anybody were going to trust her.
"Hello," she greeted, trying to smile. Everybody looked at her, some curiously and some with a bit of hatred behind their eyes. Not against her personally, but perhaps because they'd had some unfortunate run-ins with her older sister, Bellatrix, or with her husband.
"Everybody, this is Lyra. She's one of us now," said Sirius pointedly, as if daring anybody to challenge him. Nobody did so. "She may be married to Lucius Malfoy, but she knows he's a git better than anyone, so don't hold that against her. She's more me than she's him, I'd say."
"Right. So, introductions," said Remus, ready to gesture to different members. "That's Kingley Shacklebolt. You know Arthur and Molly, I suppose. That's Hestia Jones, Mundungus Fletcher, Elphias Doge, Emmeline Vance-"
"Sturgis Podmore," Lyra breathed as she looked at the next person, who she had met before. He didn't remember. She didn't want him to remember her watching him be tortured by Rabastan Lestrange, digging through his mind and forcing dangerous information away from him.
She suddenly realized what she'd done, seeing the confused expressions on everybody's faces. Nobody knew that the two had ever met, including Podmore himself. "I don't know how I knew that. Nice to meet you. For the first time."
"Right, okay," said Remus, glancing at her strangely. He decided to continue his round of introductions, trying to remember who he had already introduced. "Dedalus Diggle, Arabella Figg. You've probably heard of Alastor Moody. And then there's-"
"Don't worry, she knows me," a female voice cut off. A young woman with bubblegum pink hair grinned widely from her seat. Lyra didn't realize where she had seen her before, though she could see she was familiar. "Isn't that right, Auntie Lyra?"
"Wait..." she trailed off, only remembering one person ever having called her that. A young girl she had spent part of her summer with when she was seventeen. The best summer of her life. "Nymphadora?"
Somebody snickered at the name and Nymphadora glared at them heatedly. She tried not to be annoyed with her aunt, seeing her for the first time in years. "I don't really go by Nymphadora anymore. Just call me Tonks."
"Never. You're Nymphadora, I've known you since you were five," Lyra scoffed. Suddenly, everybody looking at them seemed to disappear from the room. This was Andromeda and Ted's daughter. She was quickly reminded of how much she missed them, not having seen them in seventeen years.
"Good to see that you two remember each other," Sirius smiled, remembering that hot summer day when he had first watched them be introduced to one another. He then looked at the last member present, one who hadn't been introduced. "Right. Snape's here, too."
The blonde quickly found the man standing in a corner, like he was going to dramatically blend with the shadows. "What are you doing here, Snape? Run out of children to torture now that it's the summer holidays or something?"
"How funny you are, Black," Snape drawled, continuing to refuse to call her by anything other than her maiden name. "I could ask you the same question. Did you finally get tired of being a bored housewife?"
"No arguing, please," Remus spoke up, looking sternly at Lyra, who looked ready to swing back (perhaps even hex). "Lyra's agreed to be a part of the Order, just like you, Severus. I'm sure she'll have some good insight into what goes on in Malfoy Manor, in places where not even you can get in. Through her husband, that is."
"We can't trust a Malfoy," Moody spoke up, his one good eye looking her up and down in suspicion, like he was trying to figure out if she had some well-hidden secrets from them. "We need to have constant vigilance, Lupin. There's no way to know if she's telling the truth."
"Veritaserum?" Sturgis Podmore suggested, making Lyra awkwardly glance his way one more time. She surely hoped she wouldn't have to interact with him too much, unless she wanted all the guilt from when she was seventeen years old to resurface.
"It doesn't work on her," said Moody lowly, as if he knew something most of them didn't. "She's an Occlumens, I can see it on her face. A natural one, I'd say. There's no way I'll trust a word that comes out of her mouth."
"I want to do this. I want to help end this war once and for all," Lyra said proudly, hoping someone would believe her. "We've all lived through this once, we don't want it to happen the same way again. We don't want to lose all that we've lost."
"What do you know about losing during the war?" asked Hestia Jones, obviously unconvinced. "You got everything you wanted, didn't you? Married a big, fancy fella and nobody went to Azkaban."
"You don't know anything about me," the blonde responded. "I lost the love of my life during the war. Maybe it was my fault, not having protected him as well as I thought I did, but I lost him nonetheless. And I lost Remus and Sirius for so long. I lost everything that made me who I am. I want it back. I don't want any of those kids out there to lose the things I did. None of them."
"Give her a chance," said Sirius, looking annoyed at how nobody could see all the good things he saw in his cousin. They didn't understand her the way he did, but he was going to make them. "This woman is strong and willing to fight for our cause. I stand by her. I'll vouch for her. I know that Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger will. And most importantly, I know Harry will."
"And I will, too," Remus spoke up, smiling comfortingly at his old best friend. "No matter what happens, I would trust Lyra with my life. So should all of you. She hates the Death Eaters as much as all of us."
"Stop it with this mush," Moody grunted, obviously not having thought their meeting was going to be about how much those two boys still loved and trusted the girl they had barely seen since their teens. "Take a seat, Malfoy. And Black, Lupin... if this doesn't work out, I'll personally hold you accountable."
Lyra smiled slightly, watching as Nymphadora forced Mundungus Fletcher out of the seat next to her with a fierce glare. Her niece patted the chair, gesturing for Lyra to sit next to her. The aunt gladly complied, exchanging happy glances with her.
Moody looked over every single one of them, as if to make sure everybody was who they said they were. She wondered how much he could see through his glass eye. "Right, so here's what's on the agenda for today."
Lyra carefully looked to where Sirius and Remus were standing together and exchanged smiles with them. This was hopefully the start of something better for her, for all of them. Perhaps the Order of the Phoenix could right some of her old mistakes.
Maybe she couldn't ever bring James back from the dead, but she could honor him. He could have loved to see her where she was, working with the Order of the Phoenix, trying to protect his son, sticking with Remus and Sirius, plotting ways to find Peter and punch him in the face. He did think it was quite attractive when she wanted to punch someone in the face.
This would be good. She had decided it would be so. Because she knew that he was watching over them, and he would be proud. That was enough to convince her that this was the right thing. Even after all these years, she did so many things for James. Then again, she did this for herself, too. It felt like she hadn't done much for herself in so long. It was kind of nice, actually.
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Lyra found herself in the parlor of the Flint house in London, where they had just moved around a year before. Narcissa was making a cup of tea, though seeming to be eager to know why she had randomly showed up in the middle of the night.
"Why are you here, Lyra?" the older sister asked, sipping her tea as she finally sat down on the sofa, across from the younger blonde. "It's not like you to show up out of nowhere in the middle of the night."
Lyra knew there was no reason to beat around the bush. It was late, she was tired. It had been quite the life-changing day, and she needed to make sure she'd cover up all her tracks. She'd done it with Kreacher, now she needed Narcissa's help. "I need you to do me a favor, Cissy. No questions asked, ever."
"What favor?"
"If Lucius or anybody asks you where I am or where I've been, I want you to say that I've been with you. Make Hector say the same if needed. Just do it. Every single time," Lyra answered, looking quite strict.
"Why would I do that?" Narcissa frowned, putting her tea cup on the table. She couldn't be very interested in drinking tea with what her sister was asking her to do. She was just curious. "What are you doing?"
"I said no questions," Lyra said coolly. "And you owe me. You said you regretted telling Bella about my relationship with James Potter and all that followed. You stood by and watched me be tortured, saying you agreed with why she did this."
The older sister shifted in her seat at the mention of that day. She didn't like thinking of it, only ever having brought it up that night the two went out and got drunk. "Why do you have to bring this up? It's been so long."
"It feels like it happened just yesterday for me. It must be nice to be able to forget." She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as the memories seemed to flash before her mind once again. "I'll never be able to."
"I've said I'm sorry," Narcissa reminded her, not knowing she had been thinking of that day for so long. Then again, she didn't know what it was like to be tortured by her own sister. It must have had a significant impact on her.
"Then prove it. Do this for me, for your little sister," Lyra pleaded, knowing she was her only opportunity. If she needed to use old experiences to manipulate her help, then she would do it without hesitation. "This is important to me. You're a good person, deep down. You've once been a good sister, too. Prove to me that you still can be."
"Is it dangerous?" Narcissa asked, only needing to know that before making her final judgement. She wanted to atone for her mistake, but she couldn't make a greater one trying to do so. "I can't stand by and watch you get hurt."
"You won't. It's not," Lyra said, though not sure if she was lying or not. "Just promise me. Or... I'll never be able to forgive you for what you did. I still haven't, but maybe I will if you do this and never tell anybody that I asked this of you."
"Fine," Narcissa sighed in defeat, hoping she knew why she would be willing to do such a thing. Not only because of old mistakes, but because of the bond they had as sisters. "Because I love you, Lyra."
Lyra gladly took a sip of her tea, knowing things were working out. For now, at least. "Good."
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A/N: Sorry this took so long! I've just been a lot busier than usual. I hope you enjoyed though, Harry will be coming to Twelve Grimmauld Place soon and that will spice things up a bit, as always.