lyra | harry potter

twenty-one | sectumsempra

A COUPLE OF WEEKS LATER, LYRA WAS SITTING AT HER designated spot at the Slytherin table away from the rest of her House-mates. Her food sat mostly untouched in front of her, as she hadn't had much of an appetite due to nightmares that had been plaguing her sleep. Since Malfoy said those things about her parents targeting her friends, she'd been having horrid dreams about it.

The brunette was pulled away from her thoughts as Malfoy himself finally entered the Great Hall, extremely late and again by himself. She eyed him curiously, wondering what exactly Voldemort and the Death Eaters must have him up to; and not for the first time she wished things were different and he would just ask Dumbledore and the Order for help instead of listening to them.

Suddenly, Draco stopped in his tracks, his gaze widening at whatever he was looking at. Then he quickly turned on his heel and hurried out of the Great Hall. Moments later, Lyra saw Harry follow after him. She pushed herself out of her seat and ran after the boys, trying to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately Harry was already a fair distance ahead of her, and he didn't stop at her calls. If anything, he seemed to run faster.

Lyra finally turned the corner they had taken on one of the upper floors and realized they must have went into the lavatory. As she drew closer, she could hear running water and the tell-tale sounds of a duel. Drawing her own wand just for safety, she hurried inside and looked around for them. The sounds of running feet could be heard,water being sloshed due to the bathroom flooding. She finally caught sight of Harry ahead of her, his body turned to the right as he looked across to the other side of the lavatory. "Harry?"

He wasn't paying attention. "Sectumsempra!" He shouted, flourishing his wand angrily. There was a gasp, and then a thud, and then silence. Harry froze, his eyes widening as he noticed Lyra's presence, and she hurried past him to see what had happened.

Draco lay on the floor, his torso scattered with deep gashes as crimson blood spilled from his wounds and bled into the water flooding the room. "What did you do?" She gasped. "Harry, what did you do?"

"I... I didn't know it would do that, the spell was written in the potions book—"

"And you used it anyway? Harry, you should never cast a spell if you don't know what it does!" Lyra admonished. She drew her wand and tried to cast a healing spell, but none of the ones she knew would help wounds as deep as Draco's were. "Go get help!"

Snape appeared in the room then, stopping suddenly when he saw Draco sprawled on the floor. "Get out of here," he hissed at the two of them. "I'll see to him."

Lyra stood, grabbing Harry's arm and pulling him out of the bathroom when it seemed he could do nothing but stare in shock at what he had done.He walked along with her almost absentmindedly, not speaking even a word as she led him through the castle. It wasn't until they were outside the Fat Lady's portrait did Lyra finally sigh and turn her to face him. "You didn't mean it," she spoke softly. "You didn't know it would do that to him."

"But I... I almost killed someone," he whispered, unable to speak any louder.

"Listen to me." Lyra cupped his face in her hands to ensure she had his full attention. "You didn't mean it. And I know you'll never use that spell so recklessly again."

Harry blinked. "You don't... hate me? After seeing what I did?"

She shook her head and pulled him in for a hug. "I could never hate you, Harry Potter. Not even on your worst of days."

After Harry gained his composure somewhat, he spoke the password so the two of them could enter the common room. The Fat Lady had long since gotten used to Lyra being brought there more often than not, and had finally shut up about her distaste for a Slytherin being in the Gryffindor common room. (Not that anyone cared about her opinion,anyway.)

Hermione, Ron and Ginny sat in stunned silence as Harry told them what happened. Lyra had only arrived at the end of that afternoon's events, so she couldn't exactly tell them herself. They all just sort of stared, none of them really knowing what to say. "You have to get rid of it," Ginny said finally, gesturing toward the book that sat on the table in front of him. "Today."

"Yeah, but where?" Ron asked.

Lyra's head shot up, and she shared a look with Hermione. "I know just the place." She stood, reaching for Harry's hand and pulling him from the couch. "Come on. We'll do it together."

Ten minutes later, they were entering the Room of Requirement. Unlike their previous uses of the room, where it had provided them with a wide room to practice dueling and whatnot, this time it was stocked with countless items that had been long since forgotten. Lyra looked around the room in approval; it was the perfect place to hide the book.

"I want you to do something for me," she spoke up, turning to the green-eyed boy at her side. "Close your eyes."

Harry frowned. "Why?"

Lyra eased the book out of his hands. "Just do it for me."

He hesitated, but did as requested. She spared a moment to smile at the sight of him, standing with his eyes shut, quite literally trusting her blindly. It hit her then that Harry truly did trust her, and the revelation of that warmed her heart. The fact that he thought she was worthy of being trusted made her feel worthwhile.

Pushing the thoughts away, Lyra wove her way through the seemingly-endless piles and rows of lost things with the used potions book in her hands. Eventually she discarded it in what she felt like was an agreeable spot; somewhere Harry wouldn't see it in the time it took them to leave the room.

She was just turning to make her way back to where she'd left Harry when a strange thumping sound stole her attention. "Lyra?" Harry called out worriedly. He must have heard it, too.  "Lyra!?"

"I'm alright," she called out to him. The two of them both followed the sound until they found each other, as well as a tall item with a tapestry thrown across it. The thumping sound was coming from inside of it, and now that they were closer they could hear an odd chirping as well. Exchanging glances, Lyra pulled off the tapestry and Harry pulled the door open, releasing a small black bird as it flew over their heads. "It's a Vanishing Cabinet," Lyra realized in astonishment. She'd seen enough of the one in her family's shop to be able to point one of them out easily. "I wonder where its pair is."

Unfortunately, it never occurred to the blue-eyed girl that the cabinet's pair was the very one that had been sitting at Borgin & Burke's all her life. The reason her mother and uncle hadn't been able to sell it was because wherever its pair was, it didn't work; the theory had been that the cabinet had been destroyed during the First Wizarding War. The possibility of the two cabinets being linked never crossed her mind— something she would kick herself for later.

The two of them stood in silence for a moment, until the sound of Harry softly saying her name had her turning to him. "What is it?"

"I just— I wanted to ask..." Harry rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "What you said on the train, about Seamus, and wanting to mean more to someone than just the girl who became famous..." He swallowed thickly. "You know that, to me... you are more than that. Don't you? I mean, you just— I just don't want you to think that... that you're not important. That there isn't people who genuinely care about you. I mean, bloody hell, Lyra. I don't even know what I'd do without you anymore."

A smile bloomed across her face then, warm and inviting, something that made Harry's heart clench in his chest. She reached for his hands and squeezed them gently. "You don't know how much that means to me." He wanted to kiss her then, lost amongst the lost things in the Room of Requirement, where no one would ever find them. But then an oblivious Lyra turned and began leading the way out of there, and Harry's courage went away as quickly as it came, and the moment was just as lost as the objects around them.

Harry wondered if he would ever find it again.