I ended up outside, walking in bare feet on the dew wet grass under the light of the full moon. Some people are frightened by the dark, but for me there was a thrill that made me shiver of being the only one awake for miles. I breathed in the rich, dark scent of the Forest and the pure, clean smell of the impending rain. I reached the fringes of the Forest and climbed nimbly into a tree, seating myself about 10 meters up. I wrapped my arms around my knees and rested my chin on my knees, gazing at the full moon.

It was so much to think about. I felt so bad for Al; it was so much to lose at such a young age. He seemed perfectly normal when I met him, able to laugh with everyone else and smile along with the group. He had to have so many emotions running through him at once, which must be confusing. And speaking of confused, I had no idea how to feel about this. Should I be mad about him not being able to get over her? That didn’t feel right, but neither did simply moving on and trying to forget about him.

I sighed, and let my head fall back to rest against the trunk of the tree, closing my eyes. I decided to talk to Allison. Even though my father didn’t believe in Muggle religion, Mum had snuck me out to church once or twice and I loved the feeling of peace the resonated throughout the building.

Dear Allison I thought. I know you have no idea who I am, but my name is Lyra. Lyra Malfoy. Wonky name, right? It’s a family tradition to name your kids after the stars. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about Al. Yeah, I know Al. I met him here at school. But don’t worry, I didn’t try to steal him from you. I didn’t know about you until tonight. I met Al after- well, just after. I think you know what I’m talking about.

 This is where it gets freaky. When I thought that, a warm, gentle breeze blew across my face. That in and of itself could have been a coincidence. But normal breezes don’t make you feel like you just saw someone nod. That breeze carried a picture with it. It was a pretty girl, about 12, with light brown shoulder length hair and hazel eyes. She was nodding sadly at me. It was a brief flash, but almost made me fall out of my tree. 

Ok, Allison, if that was you, that was a little freaky. There was another breeze, another brief flash. This time the girl looked sheepish. Ok, well about Al. I kind of love him. But he’s not over you yet Allison. Lily told me about what happened, so I understand HIS feelings, but I have no idea what to feel. Are you ok with me and him? I don’t want to mess up what you have. This time, Allison was nodding vigorously, with her hands held in the shape of a heart. I took this to mean that she wanted him to move on because she loved him. Thanks Allison. I’m glad you feel that way. I hope I can get him back, but he’s still so sad. I can’t believe I never realized this before, but now I remember that his eyes have always been sad. Way in the back, where his eyes start to become endless, there’s always been a thought of you. Because I can’t make him forget you, I only might possibly be able to help him move on. And that’s scary. Because that’s a huge responsibility. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re not easily forgotten. She sent me a picture of her smiling on her faithful pet breeze. I suddenly had a thought. Allison, why haven’t you ever talked to Al or Lily or any of them? She shrugged and shook her head. She couldn’t, but she didn’t know why. Do you know why you can talk to me? To anyone at all? Allison shook her head again. Ok. It was nice to meet you Allison. This picture had a wry smile. My lips twitched up. I guess you’re right. It’s not exactly ‘meeting’ is it? Allison laughed and waved.

I sighed again and leaned back against the tree again. My body had been on high alert since Allison had sent the first picture. That was the weirdest and most awe inspiring thing I had ever experienced. I mean, how often do you have a conversation with a dead person? Then it hit me. Oh my Godric, I had just talked to someone who had been dead for 6 years. I started hyperventilating a little, clutching the branch in front of me as I leaned forward, trying to come to terms with that. I just talked to a dead person. I had a flipping conversation with someone who was no longer alive. I had even more to think about now than when I first came out.

_-_-_-_

I woke up at dawn, very, very stiff from falling asleep in a tree. Just so you know, my balance is impeccable, even when I’m asleep. Which is how I’m still alive. Also, I trained myself to do this in the forest around Malfoy Manor. If I fall asleep on something really narrow, I won’t roll over all night.

I groaned and sat up, stretching as I straddled the branch. I was right, it had rained and my hair was damp. I ran my hands through it, fluffing it up.

“Lyra! What the devil are you doin’ out ‘ere at this time o’ the mornin’?”

I jumped about a foot as a voice sounded from directly below me. I started slipping off the branch and ended up hanging upside-down by one leg from a tree branch approximately 2 and a half stories off the ground.

“Hagrid, don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry.” I guess I couldn’t talk about being scared; Hagrid’s face was milk white. He probably thought I was going to fall. Ok, so I did too, but that’s beside the point!

I swung up to put my hands on the branch and pulled myself back onto the branch. I then climbed down and sat on a branch at Hagrid’s eye level, which was still about 2½ meters off the ground. He’s a tall man.

“So what’re you doin’ out ‘ere anyways?” he asked, returning to his original question.

“I needed time and space to think. I do it best out in nature where there’s nothing else to clog my thinking, like other people.”

“Well you know yer not supposed ta be ‘ere, especially late at night.”

I put on my puppy dog eyes, the ones I know Hagrid can’t resist. “Come on Hagrid; let me off, just this once.” I tried not to laugh. Hagrid had let me off more times than I could count. He just can’t resist the eyes. I widened them a little more and pouted my bottom lip a bit.

“I really shouldn’t… oh, all right, get up ter the castle afore I change my mind!”

I grinned widely and gave him a light kiss on his whiskery cheek before swinging down to the ground. “Thanks Hagrid, you’re the best!”

“Alright, alright, jus’ get on back quickly now an’ don’ let Filch see ya.”

Still grinning, I ran off up to the castle. As I slipped through the front doors, my smile faded. I had a few questions to ask Lily.

_-_-_-_

“Lily! Lily, wake up!” I shook Lily’s shoulder. She was laying on a couch in the common room, I guess waiting for me to come back.

She sat up blearily, then caught sight of me. “Lyra Caelum Malfoy, do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?!?!”

“I knew I shouldn’t have told you my middle name. You sound like my mother.”

“I waited for hours for you to come back, I had no idea where you were, and I had no way of knowing if you were ok! I was worried sick and freaking out, because I didn’t know what you’d do!” Lily continued to freak out at me, but I tuned her out. I did feel bad, but it’s really hard to pay attention when you know she’s going to be ranting for at least 5 minutes. I glanced at her red face. Maybe 10, she’s pretty mad at me.

When Lily finally stopped yelling at me, I said, “Lily, I have a question about Allison. Did she have light brown hair, down to about her shoulders, and hazel eyes? Slender and lightly tanned, with a scar on her right arm?” I tried to recount everything I could remember about Allison’s appearance.

She looked shocked. “H-How did you know that?”

I sat back hard on the couch. “Merlin’s beard, I just had a conversation with a dead person.” I had been harboring the suspicion that I’d made the entire thing up and I was looking for the reassurance that I was still sane. Although being able to talk to dead people might not be considered sane per se.

Lily gripped my arm. “What do you mean you had a conversation with a dead person? Lyra, what’s going on?!”

I looked around. It was about 7 in the morning and people might start coming down anytime. “Not here.” I grabbed her arm and ignored her protests, dragging her down the hallway into the first abandoned classroom I found.

“Ok, so I went outside to think-“

“You went outside at 3 in the morning?!”

“Yes Lily,” I continued patiently. “It’s where I think best. Anyway, I went out to the Forest- yes Lily, I went to the Forbidden Forest at 3 in the morning- and climbed a tree to think. And when I was thinking, I decided to send a prayer to Allison. Only thing is, Allison answered bask. This light breeze blew across my face and it was like it carried an image. She couldn’t actually talk to me, but I could read her emotions easily and she could gesture things to me. So yeah, I had a conversation with a dead person. And it freaked me out too.”

Swaying, Lily gripped the desk in front of her. “Ok, so you talked to a dead person. No big deal right? I mean it happens all the time! Oh who am I kidding, Lyra I am freaking out right now!” She began hyperventilating and I rubbed circles gently on her back, trying to calm her. “Ok, ok I’m dealing, I’m good, I’m handling this.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much how I felt.”

“Lyra,” she looked at me. “What are we going to do?”

About Allison, about Al, about life in general? “I don’t know.”

_-_-_-_

After we’d both calmed down enough to appear normal, we returned to the Tower to get dressed and go to breakfast, where my day just got that much better. (Read: got a whole lot worse.)

When an owl dropped the Sunday Prophet in front of Lily in the middle of eating, she took one look at the headline and gasped, her eyes widening and her face draining to white. “Oh. My. God.”

“What? WHAT?!” I scooted over next to her and read over her shoulder.

I gasped to and quickly read the article underneath.

Pictures accompanied the article at the bottom of the page, showing the escapees, but I barely glanced at them. My head swam and my eyes kept getting pulled back to one name. Lucius Malfoy. My grandfather. We had visited him a few times in prison, Father dragging me along though I protested. He had barely paid attention to us and had sat in the corner of his cell, mumbling and cackling insanely. He represented to me everything I hated about my family’s past.

I breathed out heavily and realized that I’d been holding my breath ever since I began reading the article. Lily looked at me sympathetically. “I’m sorry Lyra. It must be hard when one of them is your-“

She stopped suddenly, not wanting to offend me I guess. I laughed harshly.

“Grandfather. He’s my grandfather Lily, and he was put there for a reason. And I hate him for it. He’s everything about my family’s past that I want to forget. He’s the reason people hear the name Malfoy and sneer or shudder or hate it for no reason other than they know we were bad people. If he hadn’t existed, Grandmum would never have joined the Death Eaters. Their marriage was arranged you know. She never loved him and she never wanted to join Voldemort, but he convinced her to, reluctantly. He pushed Father into joining too, although I’m not sure he wouldn’t have anyway. He’s the reason I want to be anything but a Slytherin, the reason I have to prove myself every day and the reason I feel ashamed of my heritage. I hate him!” I stopped, breathing hard after my tirade against my grandfather. Lily was staring at me with wide eyes. I looked at her and said quietly “We might be related, but we’re not family.”

I got up. “I need to think Lily, I’ll be back. I promise.”

“I’ll come with you,” she said immediately, standing up. “You don’t need to do everything alone Lyra. It’s ok to need a friend.”

I smiled at her sadly.  “Alright, come on. We’ll go to the kitchens first and get food. I don’t particularly want to come back today.”

We headed off to the kitchens and asked a house elf to put together a picnic basket for us. While she hurried off to do what we asked, I saw Lily scribbling furiously on a parchment. I assumed she was telling the others where we were going so James and Fred wouldn’t send out a search party. They were a little overprotective of the females of the family, including me. While she was doing that, I summoned my Lightning 360 from the dorms. This way we didn’t have to walk. I could skim the broom along the ground so it wouldn’t scare Lily. When we were ready, we headed out into the sunshine of a perfect Sunday in late May. I slung our picnic basket on the front of my broom and hopped on, kicking off my converse and tying them around my neck.

“Come on Lily, I’ll fly low.” She took a deep breath and swung her leg on behind me. We took off, gliding barely a foot off the ground. I headed out over the Black Lake and let my bare feet dangle down, skimming the surface of the lake gently. I threw back my head and laughed. Feeling the warmth of the sunshine and Lily relaxing behind me, I decided this was just what I needed, a day in nature with my best friend. It was really relaxing.

We ended up on the far side of the vast lake, near a more innocent branch of the Forest where not nearly as many monsters lurked. Just an occasional wild hippogriff or unicorn, things more likely to run or hide from us than attack. If only I’d known there were other monsters lurking, far more dangerous than anything we’d ever learn in Care of Magical Creatures.

After lazing and talking of innocent things for a while, we ate lunch and decided to sleep a little. I woke up less than 20 minutes later, feeling restless. I glanced at Lily, and chose to leave her there seeing as she was sleeping so peacefully. I turned towards the forest and pulled out my wand, though I let it dangle from my fingers. No need to be stupid, it was still a part of the Forbidden Forest.

I walked into the tree line and smiled to hear ordinary song birds singing. I ghosted carefully between trees, careful not to disturb the delicate balance of Nature’s calm. I walked along the green lit forest floor for about 15 minutes when I suddenly noticed something was wrong. 

The birds had stopped singing.

I put my wand in ready position, backing up until my back was against a tree. I didn’t want to get surprised from behind. My eyes scanned the trees warily, searching for movement. Off to my left I saw a sudden flicker. I spun and pointed my wand in that direction. There was another quick dart to my right. I swung my wand that way. Great, I was being surrounded. But by what?

“Well, well ,well, what do we have here?” said a cold voice, arrogantly amused. It sent shivers down my spine. “A little Hogwarts brat, out for a walk? You’re a long way from home sweetheart.”

I looked to where the voice was coming from, straight in front of me. A skinny, dirty man with long, unkempt brown hair and yellow teeth sauntered forward. More men and a couple women emerged from the trees beside him, on the very edges of my vision. I was willing to bet that if I turned around, there would be more behind me, but I kept my eyes straight ahead, on the man I now recognized as Augustus Rookwood from the paper, the man who broke out the Death Eaters.

“I’m no one’s sweetheart,” I growled at him leveling my wand at his throat. “Why don’t you just back away and I won’t blast your head off your shoulders?”

He laughed an evil, blood chilling laugh, the laugh of a man more than slightly insane, sharing a look with those around him. “Look at this! She actually thinks she can hurt me! Let me tell you something sweetheart,” he said, turning his cold, ice blue eyes back to my face. “I have killed many more people than you’d care to count. I can handle one, jumped up Hogwarts brat in my sleep. Not to mention you’re heavily outnumbered. Why don’t you just play nice and we won’t hurt you too bad.”

I kept my voice low and threatening. “You hurt me and my father Draco Malfoy will hunt you down like the dog you are. Oops,” I said as his eyes flicked up to my hair and back down to my face. “Did I forget to mention that I’m a Malfoy? My bad.”

He suddenly laughed. “You think your heritage will stop me? Think again.”

He beckoned and two men walked into my field of vision. Looking at their faces, my knees nearly buckled beneath me. One was my grandfather. The other was my father.

Suddenly, a great fury rose up in me. “You know what? I take that back. I have no father. He’s dead to me.”

And I whipped my wand in the direction of the man I used to consider my father and yelled “STUPEFY!” Even Draco Malfoy couldn’t block my curses in time and he crumpled to the forest floor. Jets of light flew around me, even as I heard a distant voice yelling “Lyra?” constantly getting closer. It seemed like Lily had the broom to go faster.

I was disarmed and Rookwood caught my wand, simultaneously calling a halt on the curse casting. He grinned and turned in the direction of the voice. Recognizing that he was about to start cursing in the direction of Lily’s voice, I screamed “LILY, RUN!” before diving straight at Rookwood, tackling him to the ground as he grunted in surprise.

As we were wrestling for position of my wand, Lily completely disregarded what I told her, and burst into the clearing where we were fighting, on my broom as I suspected. She took in the entire scene- surprised Death Eaters, me fighting Rookwood, Draco Malfoy on the ground- in a split second. Then she flew into battle (literally) screaming battle cries and stunning Death Eaters.

Jets of green, red, and white light flew all around me, but I ignored them, concentrating on Rookwood. I finally managed to wrestle my wand away from him and pointed it at him, about to stun him, but before I could I felt something hit my ribs and I slumped to the side. My last conscious thought was that Lily had better get her arse out of here. Then the world went dark.