In a weird way, it was nice to be back at Hogwarts. Lyra didn't think she'd feel that way, with everything that had been happening but besides the horrible pink tyrant, things seemed to find some kind of normal.
It wasn't until halfway through January that George seemed to notice Lyra hadn't been going to her lessons with Snape. They were sprawled out in an abandoned classroom with a combination of products from the joke shop and Lyras classwork laid out haphazardly around them.
"Hey wait a minute." George said causing both Lyra and Fred to look up, "It's Tuesday. You've got extra lessons with Snape on Tuesday's don't you?"
Fred and Lyra shared a smirk. "Did you just notice this now?" She asked amused.
"Yeah," he said and then paused for a second, "Wait what do you mean?"
"George I haven't been going to my lessons with Professor Snape since the beginning of the new term."
"Really? How come?"
She turned back to her scroll "He canceled them, he's teaching Harry Occlemency now. I suppose it would be too much to teach us both."
George sat up now, "Well that's bull, why should you have to stop learning just because Harry needs lessons? You were first."
"It's more important Harry learns, I suspect Dumbledore hopes learning Occlemency will help Harry with his strange dreams. If he's successful it could help him to keep you know who out."
George's eyebrows knitted together in frustration, and she knew he wanted to say "what about your strange dreams?" She was glad he didn't. He seemed to sense that pushing the subject would upset her, so he let it go for now.
There was another thing that went unspoken between the two. Lyra had this growing awareness of a great shift in George as time went on. He seemed to become more restless, and although he did his best to hide it from her, unhappy. It hurt her to know he felt that way, more so because he seemed determined to hide it, making it difficult to know if it was just because of everything happening around them... or because of something more.
"Earth to Lyra," George said waving his hand in front of her face.
She jumped and quickly banished such thoughts from her head. "Oh, hey George, sorry I must have spaced out," she said forcing a smile onto her lips.
He slid into the seat next to her, "No worries... you okay though? You looked like you were about to cry."
"Hm? Oh no, just tired is all."
She knew he didn't believe her, but he didn't push it. That was how they were as of late, too afraid that opening one can of worms, would open all of them. "Well Listen, there's a Hogsmeade trip coming up soon... it's on Valentine's day, and I was wondering if you'd like to go on a date?"
She felt her heart race at the word and her cheeks flush. "A date?"
"Yeah," he said warmly, "It's been a while since we went on a real date, so I thought it would be nice."
she was about to respond when Lee came crashing down into the seat across from them, shoving a disheveled first year out of the way. He threw a daily profit down onto the table. "Have you two seen this yet?"
Lyra's breath hitched as she scanned the headline. She stood.
George who had been in the process of picking up the paper froze. "Lyra, you okay?"
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, "I've got to run."
He went beat red, "What about-"
"Of course George. I would love to."
She kissed him on the cheek once more and then hurried off. George turned back to the newspaper. "What's got into-" he was cut off by reading the headline for himself. "Oh. That's why she's in a panic."
"Not just her." Lee sighed, "The whole schools worked up."
"Has Fred seen this yet?"
"Yeah, I got the copy of the newspaper from him."
George nodded in understanding, and then looked longingly at the great hall doors. Where was she off too?
Lyra had stopped in the hall, catching her breath. She closed her eyes and reached out, desperate to find him and make sure he was okay. It took a minute, but she thought she felt him in the library and took off running.
Neville was exiting the library when she arrived. She slid to a stop a little ways down the hall. His head was down, so he didn't see her.
"Neville!" she said and started towards him again. He looked up just in time for her to collide with him in a fierce hug.
He stumbled back, a bit shocked before hugging her back. "L-Lyra?"
"You don't have to worry," she said into his chest.
His mood shifted, realizing what was going on. His shame and frustration were iron hot burning her heart painfully as she clung to him tightly. "Ly-"
"Shut up," she said cutting him off and stunning him into silence. "I don't pity you, or are ashamed, or anything stupid like that so if that's what you're going to say just shut up Longbottom."
He was silent, not knowing what to say. The burning within him cooled, and simply wrapped his arms tighter around her and hugged her back. "I'm sorry Lyra... I didn't mean to keep pushing you away."
"It's my fault too," she sighed. "Neville, there's something I have to tell you... and apologize for."
"You don't have anything-"
"No. I do... Earlier this year, Fred and George told me that you had a crush on me... and instead of asking you about it, or being honest with how I felt about you, I just ran away from it. I distanced myself first... and that wasn't right. I should have told you that I knew when I did. I just didn't want to make things awkward between us and most of all I didn't want to hurt you more than you were already hurting." tears were in her eyes now, but she blinked them away.
He leaned away breaking their hug and gave her a sad smile. "You don't need to say sorry Lyra, It's not like I ever told you how I felt. It's not a big deal anyway, I'm just happy we're friends so don't get upset about it."
"Listen, I know you're not going to believe me, but I need to tell you anyway." she grabbed his hand, and he looked at her shocked and a bit frightened. Not sure exactly what was happening as her emotions flowed into him. "You aren't how you see yourself, Neville Longbottom. From the moment I met you I knew who you were even if you didn't. I could feel it within you, certain greatness similar to what your parents had before you, but entirely your own. Your brave, and kind, and one of the first real friends I ever made here."
Neville turned pink, and he knew she meant it. She wasn't saying it to make him feel better, she said it because she believed it. "T-Thanks Lyra."
she let go of his hand, blushing a bit herself. "Of course, and listen, you don't have to do this alone okay? We'll get stronger together, I'll work twice as hard at DA meetings too okay?"
He smiled "Y-yeah."
Lyra was in a much better mood when George found her again later studying in a nook of the library. "You seem a lot more cheerful than at breakfast."
She looked up, oh so they were addressing each other's moods now? "Yeah, do you remember how I got into a fight with a friend over the break?"
"You mean Neville?"
She sat up straighter, "How'd you know it was Neville?"
George smirked, "Well you don't have many friends outside of the ones that were vacationing with us, and I doubted you ran into Viktor Krum at saint mungos, so it was most likely Neville."
She slouched back down, "Oh, and here I thought I was keeping his secrets safe."
George sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her waist pulling her close to him. She was happy to feel that he was also in a better mood than usual, his mind not as lost as it usually was lately. "So you two made up then?"
"Yeah, we're all good now."
He kissed the top of her head, "I'm really glad, I was worried about you today."
"I'm worried about you," is what she wanted to say, but she didn't. "How come?"
"Well, just with all those death eaters escaping... I wasn't sure if you'd be afraid."
She sighed, "I'm fine, no doubt my nightmares will get a bit worse with all this stress, but beyond that, it doesn't change much. I mean, this why we've been learning to defend ourselves isn't it? Realistically we knew this was only a matter of time."
"mmm maybe" he leaned closer now, reaching up and tilting her face up to his, "I'll have to start sneaking up into Ravenclaw tower."
"W-why?"
"To keep your mind off of those pesky bad dreams." He leaned in and closed the gap between them, and just like that all of Lyra's worries and fears melted away. Her worries about the death eaters, about the future, and about George. Whatever he was hiding, it was hard to say it had anything to do with their relationship when he kissed her like this. She moved quickly, and hungrily, shifting from the chair she had been sitting into his lap. As soon as he felt her shift closer he grabbed her and pulled her up greedily.
"Hem, Hem, Hem."
Lyra jumped away from him, and if he hadn't had a hold of her, she would have fallen onto the floor. She looked up bewildered and terrified, as Professor Umbridge stood over them. A sickly sweet smile on her face. Lyra scrambled away from George as fast as she could, her face beat red.
"S-Sorry professor, I-I'm not sure what we were thinking."
But Umbridge was looking at George, he glared back, not sorry at all. Her eyes still locked on him she spoke. "Detention Mrs. Stone, I expect you tonight right after dinner."
George seethed in annoyance. "It was my fault don't punish her!"
she chuckled closing her eyes, "Let's make it three nights of detention for Mrs. Stone then, would you like to make it a week for her Mr. Weasley?"
Lyra hopped up, as he turned towards the evil women seething. She wrapped an arm around his chest and placed her other hand firmly over his mouth. "Of course not Professor." she said quickly "We're both sorry, it won't happen again. Right George?" she asked tightening her grip on him. George, still glaring up at the women, nodded.
"Good," she said her tone sickly sweet, before turning and walking away.
As soon as she was out of sight, Lyra let him go, and he turned towards her, his anger overflowing. "There's no reason she should-"
Lyra leaned in and kissed him again, causing his anger to melt away almost immediately. Once he was calm she pulled away again. He glared at her but she could tell her didn't mean it. "If you get angry you'll be doing exactly what she wants. She knows giving you detention won't do anything but fuel your fire. If she takes it out on me though, she might just be able to keep you in line."
"First of all," He said reaching up and running his thumb across her lower lip. "That was cheating. Secondly, if she thinks giving me detention is going to fuel my fire, she has no idea what's coming by punishing you."
"Relax George, I'm a big girl I can take it. Sure the first time around her cutting quill threw me off, but it's nothing but a scrape now, the less I let it get to me the quicker it heals, the less control she has."
"How'd you figure that one out?"
She held up her writing hand, her scar from before barely visible. "It healed really quickly after I told you and Fred about it. I couldn't speed the process along no matter how many different magical remedies I tried. But when I told you, and I didn't carry the burden of it alone anymore. It healed almost right away. So I think maybe, how much impact she has, affects how bad the cut is."
George swept a flyaway hair from her face. "You really are brilliant," he sighed, "Even so though I'm not sure how I feel about this."
"Well, it's not your say love. Only I get to decide what's worth shedding my blood over. I'm not going to be the reason she gets to you, I'm not going to be your weakness. You understand?"
He sighed again, clearly not liking this at all "For now, but if this escalates-"
"If you keep your cool, and pretend it doesn't get to you, it won't."
"Fine."