4 Prophecies

Susan just returned home after spending the morning at Abbott's home with Hannah. Now, she was listening to Lyra about the happenings of the day.

"Unbelievable! Aunt really did that? Too bad I didn't get to witness it. If only I hadn't agreed to visit Hannah today, I would have come." Susan felt sad for not being able to witness Amelia tricking Vernon.

" We also let Minny take all his school stuff from there so that Harry can live here with us for the rest of this month. After that, we took him to buy him new clothes. He refused to let us pay and insisted on paying for it himself, so we also went to Gringotts to pick up money..."

"So, Harry's gonna stay with us huh? Then he must be here, right? Where is he?"

"Well... You see, Harry was very interested in reading our charms book, so he was kinda reading then he decided to write his name on the first page and mum saw that..." Lyra tried to explain.

" He was just writing his name, right? It's nothing wrong..."Susan didn't understand.

"He was just writing his name, but the thing is he isn't used to writing with a quill and kinda scribbled... You know how mum is about these kinds of things right? So... He's now with our old penmanship teacher. He has to practice it for this whole month... I think mum's gonna arrange an etiquette teacher for him too..." Lyra said.

"Poor Harry...", both the girls sighed.

"Yeah, poor me..." a voice interrupted the two of them and as expected, it was Harry.

"So Harry, how was your first Penmanship lesson?", Lyra asked playfully.

"Oh, it was absolutely wonderful you know", Harry didn't hide the sarcasm in his voice.

"Hello, Harry. I'm Susan, Lyra's cousin." Susan stood up and extended her hand.

Harry shook hands with her and introduced himself, "Although you know me, let me introduce myself, I'm Harry"

Harry happily chatted with the two of them, even though it was mostly, Susan exposing Lyra's embarrassingly stupid moments or the other way round.

After a while the subject took a shift towards magic and magical subjects, Susan got bored. While Lyra was studious Susan was not; although magic amazes her (it amazes everybody), she was not quite into studying and therefore bid goodbye and went into her room.

Harry was curious about everything in the magical world and naturally, Lyra explained everything that he wanted to hear about. And Lyra was also curious about the muggle world. While talking to Harry, she concluded that chemistry was like potions. And she quite liked both mathematics and science from what she had heard from Harry.

Both Lyra and Harry were happy to come to the same conclusion that they both liked all the Magical Subjects, except the History of the Wizarding world. While it was informative and if studied carefully one might even figure out the evolution of the world, the truth is that it is a boring subject.

They both agreed on studying together in the evenings (Harry's etiquette and Penmanship classes end by 2 pm) and competing with each other in mastering spells. Though this made Harry's schedule quite full, he didn't mind learning magic at all.

Since it was already evening when they finished their little talk, they had Minny bring in some snacks and left to each of their own rooms.

Lyra wanted to do three things before leaving for Hogwarts. The first one was mastering the Disillusionment Charm. Though it was a complex spell, she was going to spend most of her day practising that charm. So it should be possible. If she wanted to sneak out to explore the castle, that spell was necessary. She could sneak out without it too, but she was not gonna get caught. It would be absolutely shameful and would hurt her pride.

The second one was intent-based magic. Ever since her 11th birthday, she had been trying to lift books with only her intent. And she had seen only little success. But she wasn't going to give it up just like that. Maybe she could find some kind of book for it at Hogwarts.

Number three was, learning some hexes. She wasn't quite sure whether she could control her mouth in front of a certain blonde peacock boy.

What if he gets too irritated and suddenly hexes her? She should always be the one who first hexes someone, whoever they might be.

....

Dinner was very lively since they had Harry over. And Harry didn't feel like an outsider at all. He felt that this was what it would feel like to be in a family. He liked all of them already. Even though Amelia was the Head of DMLE, she wasn't that strict with the children. Yeah, Amelia was strict about certain things but open-minded about several rules like using magic at home and several other silly rules. Of course, she wouldn't allow the children to use magic in front of muggles, but since it is their home, she didn't mind.

Lyra was thinking of whether to tell her mother about the Phoenix mark or not. She decided it was better to tell her. She didn't know what it meant after all. When everyone went back Lyra pulled her mother over, "Um... Mother, I have something to tell you... Can we talk in your study?"

Lyra always addressed Amelia as 'mum', she would only call her 'mother' when it was something serious. Amelia felt conflicted, actually, she had to meet Dumbledore now. He also said that he had something important to talk about. After contemplating it for a few seconds, she asked her, "Lyra, Dumbledore has asked me to meet him now, can this wait? Or is this really serious?"

Hearing this Lyra became very happy and said, "Then take me with you, maybe he would know the answer to my question"

"What question?", Amelia was confused.

"You'll know it soon, it's about my wand actually"

"Let's go then, But you can't disturb us when we talk. " Amelia took hold of Lyra's hand and side-apparated.

....

Hogsmeade.

Amelia brought Lyra to a battered-looking place with the sign " Hog's Head" hanging over it. When Lyra saw that she really wondered about the sanity of the Hogwarts' Headmaster. What kind of important meeting would take place at a dirty old bar.

The two of them entered the bar to Dumbledore sitting at one of the tables drinking Mead( a sweet beverage).

"Hello, Amelia and..." he looked at Lyra, "Lyra, if I may".

"Um... hello headmaster, and yeah it's okay for you to call me that." Lyra was unsure of how to greet him since he was her future headmaster.

"Calling me headmaster already?", he chuckled as his eyes twinkled in amusement.

"She has something to ask, Albus. She is telling me it is important", Amelia informed him as the mother-daughter pair took their seats opposite the old Headmaster.

Dumbledore didn't object to it and nodded at Lyra indicating her to ask.

She didn't answer but took out her wand and gave it to him.

"Elder-Acacia hybrid? And Phoenix feather, silver embedded and moonstone?", he examined the wand curiously, "A unique wand, very unique"

"So, what do you want to ask about? "

"Headmaster, can you sense anything on my hand?", she asked showing him her right hand.

He took a glance at her hand and said, "I can see concealing magic here, an elf's actually"

"Can you undo it?"

He nodded and with a wave of his hand, the Phoenix mark was revealed.

Both Amelia and Dumbledore were shocked at the sight. It was a silver phoenix. Silver Phoenixes were unlike normal ones. They were always said to be invisible and said to be only seen by their kind. No one other than a silver phoenix can see the other silver phoenix. So, nobody actually knows if they exist or not. They were said to be blessed by both sun and moon. And they were born only on the day on which the day and night are of equal lengths, i.e the equinox.

And Lyra was also born on the equinox.

(A/N: Lyra's birthday is on 7th July and I know 7th July is not equinox. But this is AU, remember? In their world 7th July is the equinox. )

"When did this appear on your hand?", Dumbledore asked.

"At Ollivander's shop. When this wand chose me."

"While I do not know the reason for it, Lyra, I do believe this has something to do with your birth."

Lyra was disappointed at this. She thought, since he was the strongest wizard alive, he might know... But since even he didn't know, she didn't know what to do.

"I suggest you not to worry, after all, with time everything would be revealed, wouldn't it?" he said sensing Lyra's disappointment, "But a fair warning: you mustn't reveal this to anyone other than the people you'd trust your life with. I'm quite sure that you would have kept the mark a secret, but how about the wand? Have you shown your wand to anybody?"

"No, sir. I use my wand only in my room. Nobody has seen it. Even mother saw it only now. And our house elf has seen my mark, but I trust her."

He nodded at her answer, "I will try to get some enchanted things for you to hide both of them and send them to you within this month before you arrive at Hogwarts."

Lyra nodded and bid farewell to both of them, and with the help of Minny, she went back home.

....

After Lyra left, Amelia turned towards Dumbledore and asked "So, what is such an important matter for you to tell me personally? If it is regarding something from the ministry, please come to my office and deal with it officially."

"Amelia, this is not about anything else. This is about Lyra."

"What about Lyra...?" Amelia hesitated for a second as she had a very bad feeling about it, "Don't tell me this has something to do with that phoenix mark of hers"

Dumbledore sighed.

"Quite regretfully, yes, it does. All these years, I wasn't so sure, but after seeing that, I'm a hundred percent sure. First, you have to look into my memory...", he said as he took out a pensive. Then he pointed his wand at his forehead and took out a silver wisp and put it in the pensive.

"Why? Can't you just tell me?", Amelia was impatient, it was about her daughter, after all.

"Do you remember the day when Harry's prophecy was made?"

At that instant, Amelia's mind imagined the worst possible scenario, but her heart screamed 'It can't be, it shouldn't be'

But her rational mind reminded her not to be so impatient about it, "Don't tell me that it also mentions her... If it does, then it's the worst..."

"Calm down Amelia, Lyra is not mentioned in the prophecy involving Voldemort and Harry."

Just as Amelia let out a sigh of relief, he said: "But you are right, this is the worst situation indeed."

"Since it doesn't involve Voldemort, how worse can it be?"

"Actually Amelia, if she was involved in Voldemort's prophecy, then it might have been fine. The situation is much worse than that. You better see it yourself..." Dumbledore said as he pointed at the pensive.

....

Inside of Dumbledore's memory, Amelia saw as Dumbledore interviewed Sybil Trelawney. She saw as Trelawney suddenly became eerie and heard her make Harry's prophecy.

Midway through the prophecy, Dumbledore noticed that someone was outside the door, the person ran away. That person must have only heard half of Harry's prophecy.

After that, Dumbledore informed Sybil that she had passed the interview and Sybil was overjoyed. Just as she was about to get up from her seat, She became eerie again... and in an awfully deep voice, she began to say...

"Born in the seventh month... blessed by both the sun and the moon... born as the star of the harp... she's the only hope... beware, the foul is still around... and she is what the foul seeks... for she's the most powerful of them all"

Then the memory ended.

....

"Everything matches, doesn't it? Until today I wasn't that sure about it. But her silver phoenix mark confirms it. She's the one"

"What does 'the foul' mean? The foul... as in -?"

"Yeah", Dumbledore confirmed Amelia's doubts. "Actually, I am more worried as we don't even know where he is, or what name he uses now"

"What does he want from my daughter? Why should she be the one that he seeks?"

"I also don't know Amelia... " Dumbledore said.

"Lyra and Harry... they are both just children. Why do they have to bear all these?" Amelia sighed.

"I know, I know... but we can't do anything other than supporting them by all means. Isn't that so? And one more thing, Amelia... no one knows about this other than me and you... The order members only know about Harry's Prophecy."

Amelia sat there silently, digesting the shocking news. Knowing that your young daughter has to face a millennium-old Dark Wizard was not something pleasant. It already didn't help that Harry had been involved with Voldemort, now her daughter was involved with some crazy power-hungry old monster.

Both her children were targeted by monsters. Yeah, you heard that right, she had come to consider Harry as one of her children too. How could she not? He was her friend Lily's son, and she herself had come to like the boy in the time she spent together with him, telling him stories about his mother.

After a while, she pulled herself together, then got up from her seat and said, "It's getting late, I'm leaving..."

"Please keep them safe by all means. Both Harry and Lyra...", Dumbledore said to her as she left.

....

Lyra sat near her window, letting the chilly night breeze hit her face. She was thinking about what Dumbledore might have said to her mum for her to act like that. Earlier, after Lyra came back, she was sitting on the couch and waiting for her mum to come back. She came back in around 20 minutes later, but her face was pale as paper, and as soon as she saw her she panicked. After that, she just said goodnight and left.

Could it be something about that Phoenix mark? Or was it something else? What kind of matter could actually shake her mum like that?

It would be nice if she could talk to someone about this. It was obvious that her mum was out of the list. Susan was... well, they always play with each other and all, but she didn't feel comfortable sharing these kinds of things with her. She has always told Susan only happy things. She had never told Susan or anyone else when she was feeling troubled. Not even her mum.

Lyra was someone who took others' feelings into account, although it was limited to only the people close to her, she never wished to tell them and kept on bottling up her feelings.

Whenever there was a social gathering, all those people talked behind her back. Though she had always pretended not to care, was it truly so? She has always told herself that 'It's okay, they can say whatever they can say, it doesn't affect me', but was it really okay?

She had always wondered if her father was here, would the situation be the same? If he was here, would he protect her? Would he comfort her? If her father was here, her mum probably wouldn't have been worried even in the worst kind of situations, right?

She never complained to her mum about these things, because she knew that her mum also had many problems. Her mum also missed her father, her mum also face such ridicule, and been more so, her mum had a very exhausting job which always kept her busy. So, how could Lyra complain?

She wasn't that close to Hannah, so she didn't even consider her. Meanwhile, Daphane was studious just like her and was also close to her, she couldn't tell her. She just couldn't. Because she has always hidden her lonely, crazy, and insecure self behind her somewhat cheerful personality.

Not even her mother can tell that she's sad if she decided to hide it. She had never wanted her mother to worry about her. It would only add to her troubles.

And, Susan... was a child. Just like her. Moreover, when compared to Susan and Harry, Lyra considered herself lucky. The two of them lost both of their parents to Voldemort. Harry's condition was even worse than Susan's. He had been left to starve. But she has at least her mother's company and she had always lived in luxury. How could she complain? She must even be thankful that she had all of these.

But still, somewhere deep inside her heart, she longed for someone to be there for her, someone to whom she could complain.

She slapped herself hard.

What was she even thinking? She already had a good life, but not only she wasn't feeling thankful, but she was also thinking of being a burden to them.

At this point, she had already forgotten that she had left her room's door open. And her eyes were already brimming with tears.

Suddenly, she heard someone talk.

"Lyra, I wanted to thank you for all the things you've done to help me... That's why - Wait, what happened?" Harry came into her room and noticed that she was on the verge of tears.

Lyra tried to calm herself down. She couldn't let anyone see her crying. She shouldn't complain as there were people who were in an even more difficult situation than her. She had no right to complain to Harry who was in a worse situation than her.

And just at this moment, she felt someone's hand on her shoulder and raised her head to look at Harry; and she heard him say, "What's wrong?"

What's wrong?

It was just a single question. But, it was the very sentence she was secretly longing to hear.

When someone pents up their feelings for too long, even at the slightest trigger, they tend to break down. And Lyra did.

She cried.

She didn't make any sound, but the tears just silently flowed out.

Harry was baffled at this situation, he didn't know what to do. He never had someone to comfort him but he instinctually felt that he should hug her. And he did. He patted her back as she cried.

After a few minutes, Lyra finally calmed down. Lyra had always wondered if she had a brother what would he be like? Now it seems she had gotten the answer.

He'd just be like Harry.

She looked Harry straight in his eyes and with a weak smile she said, "Thanks Harry...". And she meant it.

"Hey... It's alright. Besides, you have helped me a lot already. This is nothing compared to what you've done."

They both were silent for some time, and then Harry decided to break the silence as he asked, "So, what happened?"

Lyra looked hesitant about telling him but finally decided to tell him.

After hearing all that, he said "It's nothing wrong. It's okay to cry, Lyra. And you are not a burden. Do you know something? Actually, when you helped me... You don't know how much it means to me... To know that your whole life until now was actually a lie until that moment. I was lost. At that time, you became my friend. Just your presence was enough to calm me down."

"So Lyra, remember this, you are not a burden and you are my star"

__________________________

Somewhere near Greece - Albania border.

A butterfly with large scaly wings covered with colourful and iridescent scales could be seen flying in a grassland. Soon it flew away towards a couple of wither trees. As soon as it entered the vicinity of the trees, it was burnt to a crisp and lost its life.

A gigantic manor stood alone in the groove of withered trees. With its expansive space, it could even be considered a castle. Whether it was the dark blue-grey walls or the lack of light source in the manor, made it feel like it was abandoned a long time ago. It was dark into the night leaving only a brightly lit moon as the source of light. Heavy droplets of rain and occasional thunder and lightning didn't help to alleviate the creepiness of the place.

At the entrance of the manor, there was a statue of an old man with a long beard and a gigantic snake near him.

Suddenly, from the inside of the building, a blinding light came and went off.

In a room inside the manor, a man who looked around the age of late thirties was sitting in the middle of a complicated rune formation. There were many circles drawn in blood. He opened his bloody red eyes slowly and got up from that place.

"Now that I'm healed again, I can perform the ritual to help me locate the right one. This matter cannot wait any longer", he muttered to himself and went into another room. This room also had ritual circles and runes but these were different from the ones from before. This one looked more complicated. In the middle of the ritual circle, an Orb was placed.

He walked to the centre of the room where the orb was kept and slowly placed both of his hands on it. Then he started to chant some words for the ritual. The crystal clear orb slowly turned cloudy and towards the end of the ritual, the orb began to clear out as it showed Diagon Alley, and then it showed the British ministry of magic building.

"So, this person lives somewhere near London? "

"It's decided, we are moving our base to London," he said as he wrote something on parchment and owled it to someone.

=======

(A/N: At this point, Harry is only touched and considers Lyra as his first friend. So, I don't want to hear something like, "They are only 11" or something like that. He didn't even realize that he said, "my star". He was just telling his honest opinion of her. And I'm more than 70% sure of Harry and Lyra come to see each other as siblings.

P.S: It was so hard describing that stupid creepy manor. And the poor butterfly...

Vote for the butterfly? 😅)

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