The Black Sheep | George Weasley

Forty-Six

Bring back at Hogwarts wasn't as fun as she had once hoped. She sent a letter to Andromeda one late night, she wrote that she felt like she could no longer stay with her family after a traumatizing encounter with Voldemort. She told her aunt she didn't want to feel like a burden and would pay rent for her to stay. Lyra had visited her vault over the summer holiday and had collected enough money that should keep her afloat until she can get a job.

She had filled out most of her apprentice application, she was only waiting for her test scores from the NEWTs, then she can send it in and pray to hear back.

Lyra had become completely overwhelmed with studying for her NEWTs and her classes have been far in between and was shorter to give her more time to study but it was heavily demanding and the review was extensive. It was like her studying over the summer did nothing to help. She went to bed every night with a straining headache.

She went to the Slug Club meeting on the train and awkwardly sat beside her brother's friends. She tried to be polite and talk to Ginny who was there but she didn't seem keen on talking to her, she understood. But at least Harry was kind enough to talk to her, although it was only pleasantries.

It grew more uncomfortable when she sat in Professor Slughorn's office for his dinner. He had delicious dishes that Lyra enjoyed digging into but there was lots of awkward tension. She could tell when he was disappointed with an attendee. Especially with Marcus Belby, his uncle invented the Wolfsbane Potion, but Slughorn was disappointed to hear that Marcus had not spoken to him in a long time do to the fact that his father and uncle were not on good terms. But by the way he hounded down the ice cream, he didn't seem to notice the tension. All Lyra could feel was the tension, it was so thick, you could cut it.

Hermione Granger shared that her parents were dentists and one time a boy bit her father. No one seemed to find it as funny as her. But Lyra wanted to make her feel more at ease than the others did.

"Do dentists straighten teeth?" Lyra asked curiously.

Hermione seemed surprised to hear that question but quickly recovered. "Y-yes, Orthodontists are specialized in it."

"How do they fix them?"

"Er, they use metal wires to slowly pull them in line. It can take years to put them properly in place."

"Does it hurt?" Lyra continued to inquire.

"Yes, I-I haven't had them but my cousin had and complained a lot." Hermione answered with a nervous smile.

"I had a potion, it was awful." Lyra stated. "The pain is blinding. Mother made me have it during a course of a summer, it wasn't pleasant."

"Ah, Miss Malfoy, you are cousins with Timothée Beaumont, are you not?" Professor Slughorn inquired.

"I-I am, I saw him over the summer at my grandfather's funeral." Lyra replied, hoping that satisfied him. She noticed Ginny Weasley perked up at the mention of him.

"Those of you who don't know, Beaumont is a star quidditch player for The Quiberon Quafflepunchers, a French all-star team." Slughorn explained with a smile. "I was lucky enough to befriend Timothée's father, Clément, I get free tickets to their games, although I do love to support our British teams."

"You are really his cousin?" Ginny asked her, as if she was lying.

"Er, yes. Second cousins, actually. He is always nice to me, but never stops talking about quidditch. Draco and him can talk for hours about it." Lyra explained. "I was engaged to one of his friends from school, but the wedding was called off."

"Engaged?" Hermione gawked before she could stop herself. "S-sorry," she quickly looked back down at her plate.

Lyra let out a weak giggle. "Old obnoxious families like mine set up engagements at a young age. I've been engaged a few times, if I recall correctly. But I am thrilled to not be marrying a total stranger. I was overjoyed when he called it off."