Chapter 35

Harry Potter + A song of Ice and Fire Crossover

Chapter 35

It took a considerable amount of effort to leave her chambers over the next few days since the letter had come.

Elia had snapped out of the stupor that her husband's absence had placed her in to quietly care for her friend, ensuring that they supped in Lily's chambers and weren't seen by too many servants while the other girl was grieving.

Lily absently acknowledged the treatment, but found herself in a fog too deep to appreciate it. It was the not the first loss that she had experience in her existence but they were never easy to bear every time they happened.

It was also another bitter reminder that happiness, true happiness, was still just a little too far out of reach.

After the letter had been taken from her, Lily remembered it being placed in her desk drawer and had not looked at it again.

The ring that she had been given however, now hung on a chain around her neck. It would never grace one of her fingers and though she thought about sending it back to Jon as it wouldn't represent a marriage, she found she didn't have the heart to do it.

She deserved to be a little bit selfish, to carry just a small piece of Elbert with her forever, even though his body would crumble to dust.

After a few days, the sadness was replaced with an anger so deep and so fierce that her skin felt hot from it.

Though she had hated the war before and the selfishness that had caused it, Lily now felt apoplectic. Two people and their unbelievable stupidity and arrogance had caused the deaths of far too many people, one of whom she deeply cared for.

If she ever saw Lyanna Stark or Rhaegar Targaryen again, she would take pleasure in them knowing just what she thought and felt about them.

She didn't want them to die in this war.

She wanted them humiliated. She wanted them to lose everything down to their very reputations so that no one would ever trust them or offer them power again.

She wanted the very foundations of their world torn down around them and only when that had happened, did she want to explain to them that they deserved every bit of damage that they had done to others.

If she knew where they were, Lily was quite certain that she would have apparated to their location and dragged both of them back to the capital before returning Lyanna to her family and stringing Rhaegar up by his fingernails from the keep's walls.

Elia seemed to sense her seething anger and kept her conversation and words to a minimum while Lily worked through all of it.

"I feel I should apologize," she said one day when they were sitting in the gardens with the children.

Lily looked up from where she was watching Visenya play with one of her toys. "What on earth for?"

Elia twisted her hands together in her lap. "My husband is the one who started this entire mess. He ran off with a child, started a war, is currently getting hundreds of men killed including your betrothed and there is not a single thing anyone can do about it."

Lily forced herself to relax. She wasn't angry with Elia in the least, but she also didn't really want to talk about her reasons for being angry yet. Elbert's death was still raw and even though she hadn't loved him as a wife should love her husband, she could see how easy it would have been to. Elbert was patient and kind, he didn't try to hold her back or restrict her with this world's expectations. He admired her and supported her desires, made sure that they stayed connected and helped her talk through her worries and fears.

But perhaps the thing she had liked the most about him was his level of respect. He didn't respect just her however, but his uncle, his friends, the bannermen he would one day be lord of and he had never had an unkind word for anyone. In all the letters that he had sent her, Daenerys found that she too respected him greatly and was looking forward to spending more time with him as the years went on.

And now here she was, seventeen years of age and having lost two romantic partners.

That had to be a record.

She gave her friend a tight smile. "It is not for you to apologize for the actions of others your grace. If the prince survives this war, I fear that there will be reparations to make on every side. You however, have none to offer."

Elia's face fell and Lily felt a twinge of guilt. She had been speaking more formally of late, and she knew that she was doing it to avoid the pain of being frank, but she just couldn't help it. She wasn't quite ready to let someone see all of the hurt parts of her yet.

"When all of this is over," the princess said slowly, eyes still on her friends face, her words careful. "We should do something honor him. All of the fallen and slain in this senseless war. Their deaths will not be in vain. We must make them mean something."

Lily looked up at her sharply. "You do realize that if the Targaryens emerge the victor that will be a sign of treason, to honor rebels and dissenters."

Elia waved a hand dismissively. "I find that I do not care my friend. "There are very few Targaryens that I have warm feelings towards and I have given up enough in service to them to be easy with them now. My daughters are the only thing that matter to me."

"Then perhaps it would be best to withdraw from the capital your grace."

At the unexpected voice of Jaime Lannister, Lily jumped, having almost forgotten that he was there.

Though he was Elia's sworn sword and the same age as Lily, there were times when he knew how to move so silently that his steps couldn't be detected.

Lily didn't know why the king had chosen such a young guard for the future of his house but she had taken it as one final insult on Aerys part, his discontent with Elia being the one thing to provide her with the basest amount of protection.

"I am a prisoner here Ser Jaime," Elia said glancing up at the young man with a tired smile on her face. "I cannot leave no more than a bird can swim."

Lily glanced sharply at her friend, wondering if that was truly how she felt and whether or not she had forgotten about the magic at her fingertips that would enable them to travel anywhere at a moment's notice.

"And what's more, I do not wish to retreat yet," the Dornish woman went on. "To withdraw from the capital now would be to concede defeat. My husband may have abandoned me, but I will not abandon the throne that will be my daughters. They are the future of House Targaryen and I will see this war through to ensure that their futures are secure."

"And if Rhaegar is not victorious?" Lily asked in a faint whisper. "What then?"

Elia's face blanched. "Well then we had all better pray to the Seven for their mercy. For House Targaryen will burn."

W

Lily would not consider herself a paranoid person. But it would be fair to say that the many terrible events in her life had given her a healthy respect for the necessity of contingency plans.

She had been uniquely equipped to handle the attempted assassinations on Elia and even though those dissenters and would be murderers had disappeared in the last few years, Lily's disaster radar had not.

It did help a bit to have Ser Jaime around all the time.

In the last little while, her consternation of the knight had slowly begun to bleed away into cautious acceptance. She still harbored some reservations about him strictly due to his attitude alone but she was beginning to realize that she could not judge him solely based on the reputation of his family.

Perhaps in time, she thought she might even begin to grow fond of him. He was originally mean to be her sister's husband. Now that that would no longer happen, the pressure of getting to know him was off, but given their close proximity to Elia, Lily had no choice but to spend time with him.

Although as time went on, she was beginning to find that she did not mind it so much.

He was clever and charming in a way that reminded her a bit of Sirius. He was also quite adept at making Elia laugh and these days, they all seemed to need to be amused more than often.

The war was not going well for the crown.

After losing numerous conflicts, including the highly contested Battle of the Bells where Elbert had lost his life, the royal army had had been forced to retreat deep into the riverlands.

But the rebel side was not without their losses as well.

Lily had received a somewhat numb letter from her elder sister, claiming that Brandon Stark had fallen during one of the battles, his brother picking up his sword and laying waste to the crown forces.

Lily too had felt a curious numbness hearing that Brandon Stark was dead. Though he would have been family, she had not liked his freeness with her, feeling it improper. And yet her sister would feel pain for his loss, not completely unlike her grief with Elbert.

Now all three of the Tully daughters felt the pain of losing someone that they cared for; for Catelyn however, Lily had no doubt that there would be unconscious relief as well.

Her sister knew that Brandon's eyes were prone to wander and to not have to worry about that anymore would be something to ease her heart, despite the horrible nature of his death.

The knowledge that her sister had been swiftly betrothed to Eddard Stark instead as he was now the heir to Winterfell was a shock in and of itself.

It had been a small wedding, with only her two brothers present and their father and Ned's father, along with Jon Arryn and Robert Baratheon, but Lily still felt sad that she hadn't had a chance to see it.

Her sister had been talking about her wedding for as long as she could remember so for it to be a small and quiet affair with only half her family around her, must have been a bitter pill for her to swallow.

It seemed as if they were all swallowing bitter draughts these days.

Lily wondered absently what would be done about her own marriage but then shoved the thought to the side, uncaring.

Perhaps when all of this was over, she would go to Dorne and spend the rest of her life with Lysa and the Dornish Lord Prince Oberyn had introduced her to.

They would all need to survive first though.

And if she was concerned about her own chances to see the end of this war completely unscathed, everyone else in King's Landing seemed to be having thoughts of the same calibre.

The air in the city was tense with each new piece of news and the air in the streets whenever Lily found the time to go out was quiet. The loudest avenue remained the Street of Steel, but now, instead of personifying the most active hub in the largest city in Westeros, the clanging metal and heat of the forge fires felt like they were heralding an omen.

Lily avoided that street as much as possible now.

If Elia ever needed something, she would take the long way around, making frequent use of her magic to ensure that she would not be seen by the unsavory.

More often than not though, she found herself in the company of Ser Jaime, who Elia insisted on for Lily's protection.

The red head was more inclined to think that her friend needed the shielding more than her but the princess would hear no argument.

And so, at least once a week, Lily would find herself hurrying through the capital's streets in search of some trinket or other that the princess fancied.

She didn't mind the tasks, seeing them as a way to get out of the palace and away from the oppressive air that had permeated the place for the last two months.

Though she could never tell, Lily was certain that Ser Jaime was glad for these brief interludes as well. There was a tightness on his face that seemed to loosen whenever they put the Red Keep behind them and he seemed more inclined to talk out of the hearing of the king.

On this particular venture, Lily had been assigned the task of tracking down a small shipment of oils that had been sent from Dorne. They were among Elia's favorite perfumes and the princess had explained that they too, along with the wine, reminded her of home.

Amongst many things, one of Lily's desires was to see her friend smile, even though she herself hadn't been doing much of that lately.

"Are you well my lady?"

Lily blinked and was forcibly pulled from her thoughts by Ser Jaime's voice.

She glanced up at him to find the tall knight scrutinizing her with something that almost looked like concern.

After a moment, she realized that they had come to a crossroads in the streets and that Jaime had stopped for a moment, causing her to nearly run into him.

"Of course," she said automatically. "Forgive me Ser, I find that I have been the victim of my own thoughts more than once lately."

He nodded and his expression smoothed out again. "You would not be the first I daresay."

It was then that Lily caught sight of the Sept of Baelor, a place she had not visited since the royal wedding and subsequent investigation a few years ago. She had no intention of entering the sept again just for the memories associated with it.

But she did find it a bit odd to see a large gathering of septons and septas together out of the of the main steps.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Jaime shrugged and somehow looked even more disinterested than he usually did. "From what I gather, the religious hub of King's Landing has been meeting frequently to pray for the sustaining of House Targaryen during the war."

Lily blinked. She hadn't thought that the religious sect would care all that much for who was the victor as long as they had enough funding and sway with the people. Out of all the places to care about the war, she was certain that this would not have been one of them. "How gracious of them."

Jaime snorted a laugh and turned as they walked down another side street. "Grace has nothing to do with it my lady. I am rather certain that the king is hoping for some sort of divine intervention and has ordered the clergy to pray."

Lily blinked at the sarcastic words and then shook her head. "That does sound a bit more accurate. I don't remember the Targaryens of old being so religious."

"It's all an act," Jaime said under his breath from just ahead of her as they neared the end of the alley. "If they pray on behalf of the king, they continue to pass beneath his notice."

"I find that many things in this city are," Lily commented, but the knight didn't answer.

The pair remained quiet until they returned to the keep, taking the lesser used streets and keeping away from the people that might gawk at a member of the Kingsguard out in public.

The closer they got to the keep, Lily began to feel her tense mood creep back in and for one wild moment, she wished that she could turn back.

She could go anywhere in the realm that she wanted and yet bound by duty and lack of connection, she was beginning to feel trapped.

Maybe I do need to go home…just for a little while.

They entered the keep and headed down one of the side corridors towards the royal apartments when all of a sudden the pair was confronted with a strange sight.

Princess Elia was pressed against one of the side doors which led into the throne room near the throne itself, her ear against a large crack in in the wood, a loo of concentration on her pretty face.

Lily realized instanty that her friend was trying to eavesdrop and quickly cast a muffliato upon her and them so that they would not be seen.

"Your grace?" Jaime asked, a look of confusion on his face.

Elia glanced at them and immediately pressed a finger to her lips. "The both of you come here, but for the love of all the gods, don't make a sound.

Lily and Jaime exchanged glances but did so and Lily was further surprised when her friend pulled them by their wrists into the small alcove away from the door.

Lily was about to ask what was the matter when she saw that her friend's face was white as a sheet.

"What is it?" she asked immediately. "What's wrong?"

Even Jaime looked similarly uneasy and for the laid back knight to show his disquiet, Lily knew that what they were about to hear was yet another piece of bad news added to the war that they had been living around for the last few months.

"I wasn't intending to eavesdrop," Elia began, her voice breathless. "But when I was walking past the doors of the throne room, I happened to see the king upon the throne, he was talking to a man that I did not recognize. They didn't speak very loudly but I could still make out a few words."

"Well?" Lily asked, exchanging a tense look with Jaime. "What did he say?"

"He said," Elia paused and took a breath. She had become somewhat more excitable in the last few months since Rhaegar had left and Lily couldn't help but feel that this was a reaction she would have for a long time to come.

Abandonment by one's husband was bound to make one paranoid.

Finally, Elia seemed to get her wits about her and faced them, a look of tense urgency on her pretty face. "He said that the final plans were in place…and that his grace only needed to breath the word…and it would be done."

W

"You've been very quiet," Ser Ryon observed. "Are you well?"

Lysa blinked and looked up at the knight walking beside her with his arm resting beneath her hand. They had been strolling the shore outside of the Water Gardens for the last hour, each of them barefoot and attired in loose fitting, comfortable clothing as befitting the climate.

Ser Ryon had spent the last few months in Sunspear, traveling back and forth as necessary between the city and Godsgrace.

He had confessed to Lysa a few weeks after their meeting that he split his time between both places not just because he was the heir and his mother was ailing, but because he had fathered a sun near his keep that he had named Daemon.

Lysa was surprised to hear the news but certainly not angry. What right did she have after all when she had been just as prepared to bring a child of illegitimate birth into the world?

She was rather surprised at Ser Ryon's devotion to his child who had been born only a year prior to her coming to Dorne. He allotted a certain amount of money for the boy's rearing and Lysa had found out when the boy's mother had died of a sudden illness only two months prior to her stay in Sunspear, Ryon had insisted that his bastard son be brought to Godsgrace and raised there.

She was even more shocked to learn that his mother Delonne was accepting of the child, going so far as to refer to him as her grandson. Even though he would not inherit his father's title, he would raised well and taken care of until he reached the age where he would be able to go off and make a name for himself elsewhere.

Lysa had been enormously comforted by Dorne's stance on bastards and it was one of the reasons why she would have been glad to raise a child here. But now she was glad for an entirely different reason.

Perhaps Ser Ryon would be one of those people who did not look at her like she was damaged goods.

It had taken some time but in the last few months she had confessed that the reason for her coming to Dorne was that she was pregnant with another man's child and had to flee from her father's wrath.

She then revealed one night when they had been walking on this same beach that she had lost the child not long after arriving and had been nearly despondent for weeks until they had been introduced.

It had certainly become easier to smile afterwards.

Ser Ryon was gentle, but he teased her in such a way that she had no choice but to come out of her shell in order to give his ribbing back to him. He didn't seem to care that she had been with another man and even went so far as to be offended on her behalf at the actions of Petyr.

Gods, Lysa didn't even know why she had thought she had loved that boy all this time later.

After his departure from Sunspear that first time, Ellaria had noted the look on her face and wouldn't stop smirking at her. "Don't look so peevish my friend. He'll be back soon. In fact I'm told that you've made quite an impression on him."

"I have?" Lysa had asked. "Did he say something to you?"

"Not to me, but you forget that he and Oberyn are friends and what Oberyn knows, I also know. Trust me Lysa…you'll be married before the year is out."

Lysa felt that that was being a bit too optimistic but she had blushed furiously when the paramour had uttered the words. Maybe…just maybe, she would get her happy ending after all.

And then her friend had proved a seer because Ser Ryon kept coming back, repeatedly until it was obvious to all those of House Martell that his purpose for visiting was single-minded.

She could no longer deny the flutters in her stomach when she saw him walking towards her or the way his smile made her own grow larger.

There was nothing else for it, she was falling for him.

"You can have this," Ellaria had whispered to her at dinner the night before. "You could love him if you let yourself. You want to, I can tell. So why don't you?"

Why indeed?

"I'm fine my lord," she said softly and she truly was, better than she had been for a while. "I suppose I'm just restless."

"Oh," he asked as a wave rolled up onto the shore and soaked their bare feet. "And what is the cause of this disquiet?"

"The war," Lysa said softly and his face turned understanding. "My sister is in the thick of it, staying to be Princess Elia's companion, my oldest sister has had one engagement broken and then reforged, I haven't seen my little brothers in months and I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never see the riverlands again. Everything feels unsettled."

"Aye, I know the feeling," the Dornishman said. "I have not been touched by war so singularly as you, but I am a sworn bannerman to House Martell, should they call their swords to march to the battles, I will be honor bound to comply."

Lysa flinched, in truth she had forgotten about his oaths to the Princess' house. Out here on the shore it was so easy to think of him as just a man and her as just a woman.

She had foolishly been under the mindset that war would not trouble them here, none of the forces, royal or otherwise would venture this far south for they would have no need to.

Dorne had not sent its soldiers north, in something of a protest for how Rhaegar had treated their princess, but Lysa knew that the King still had a hold of Elia and her daughters.

Lily will get them out, she thought fiercely. If worse comes to worst, she will save them…just like she did for me.

She was again interrupted in her thoughts when Ser Ryon reached down and gently turned her face toward his. Unresisting, but her cheeks still aflame, she allowed him to move her.

"You need not fear my lady," he said softly, his dark eyes watching her blue ones intently. "Should war ever call for my sword…I will return to you."

Lysa swallowed hard at the sudden intent she saw burning in his eyes. It had only been a few months since she had lost her child and yet, Ryon had been there nearly the entire time to take her mind off of the pain.

If I were to lose him too….

"I wish you would not make promises that you cannot keep my lord," she said softly. "I've had one too many over the years."

His thumb stroked the skin of her cheek almost reverently. "Ah, but you have not received a promise yet from me. And if I were to make you a solemn oath, it would be one that I both intended to keep, and to make lasting."

At the none too subtle implication, Lysa's jaw dropped. They hadn't spoken of the future or of anything particularly serious if one discounted the past, but she had certainly been thinking about it. Her father wasn't here, he had no say in her decisions anymore and if she wished to marry, than she could, with or without his blessing.

She didn't even have to tell him about it.

For once, she was free.

"And would you?" she heard herself asking, "make me this solemn oath?"

Perhaps it was the Dornish aspect of him, but he only smiled and brought his head lower to hers, lips pausing just above her own. "I would. And the oath that I would make to you, would be to keep you here, by my side forever. You would be mine and mine alone and I would be yours and yours alone. Is that not a good oath?"

Speechless at the quiet but impassioned words, Lysa could do nothing else but odd.

It would occur to her later that she had all but accepted a marriage proposal but in the moment, the red head could concentrate on nothing else as her knight lowered his head all the way and their lips met in a sweet and tender kiss.

W

GOOD. GRIEF. DID I STRUGGLE TO WRITE THIS CHAPTER. The war is almost over but there are still so many things that need to be addressed before I finally bring Lily and Robert together that I got a bit overwhelmed and avoided writing this chapter. The result is that I really did not like this so much.

At the very least, we ended on a good note with Lysa falling for Ser Ryon. At the very least, I had fun writing their interactions, it's about time that she had some happiness in her life and I plan to keep her in Dorne for the future.

As for Jaime, Elia and Lily's discovery, well that will be brought to a head in the next chapter as well as we finally get to the end of the war and see about the aftermath, which I am very much looking forward to.

Also, I realize that I just kind of brushed over Brandon's death in this chapter. In the next one, we will be going to a perspective that felt his demise a lot more viscerally. I don't want you guys to think he was a convenient plot devise that was just discarded and that no one really cares about. His death will be addressed later on, including the fallout of it.

Don't forget to review and I'll see you guys next time!