Chapter 21

Harry Potter + A song of Ice and Fire Crossover

Chapter 21

Throughout the course of the next few days, Lily did her utmost to avoid Brandon Stark. Though Cat hadn't seemed fazed by the time they had spent together, she herself realized that she had made a momentary blunder and resolved for it to not happen again.

A part of why she was so flabbergasted at the occurrence of her own stupidity were her own vague reasons.

She couldn't figure out why she had agreed to do it and even more why she had lingered so long.

Well, she could chalk it up to a momentary bout of insanity and get on with her life in the adequate way that she should live it.

So in the week following her arrival, she wrote two letters to Elbert, spent a good deal of time sparring with her uncle and her brother, looked after Axel and oversaw his lessons and spent almost every afternoon with Lysa.

Petyr occupied some of her time too and she ensured that she went riding with him as well as spent some time in the library with Maester Vyman.

The only time she saw Brandon was at meals and they weren't sitting next to each other so she had the grace of not even having to look at him.

She ate quickly and always left the room, early not ever daring to look back into it.

It was if she had been burned and he was the fire.

But on the fourth day, as she was pacing her chamber, the chamber that she hadn't seen in years for what seemed the millionth time, the red head finally decided that enough was enough.

I'm not a prisoner in my own home and yet here I am acting like it. I've hidden away in the past in fear of powerful men….I will not do it again.

That was when she left her chambers and decided she was going to take a ride astride her horse, to see if she remembered well the rivers and forests she had loved so much as a child.

To her delight however, she had just entered the training yard when she glimpsed sight of Petyr talking quietly with her uncle.

"There you are!" she said striding towards them. "I was hoping I might run into you. Do you fancy a ride?"

Petyr glanced up from his conversation as if startled but gave her a small smile when he saw her. It was one of hesitant warmth but hinted at things that needed to be said.

It was a smile that seemed to ask if he still knew her as he once did, if everything had changed or if nothing had.

The one she gave back was a hopeful one.

It must have been all the answer that he needed for his smile grew slightly then and the green in his eyes lightened considerably.

"That would be nice," he said quietly and Lily smiled again, missing completely the cautioning look her uncle was sending her.

"Are you still riding Naridan?" she asked as the pair of them walked together towards the stables.

"Of course," Petyr scoffed. "I don't think I've ridden another horse since I was twelve."

"You were the only who could get close to him," Lily offered, causing her best friend to smile. "He did have an ornery temperament."

Petyr chuckled again. "Where shall we go? We could travel the river like we've always done."

"I'd like that," Lily said. "It's been such a long time since I've seen the rivers that I almost – "

"Lily!"

The red head blinked and glanced up in surprise to see her sister and Brandon Stark standing a few feet away from them. They had just entered the stables and were about to head for the respective horses, only to find her older sister and brother already there and having a conversation with the stable hand.

Lily smiled at her sister, doing her best not to notice the one Brandon was sending her way. Petyr must have however for his posture stiffened considerably.

Cat, as usual, was clueless.

"Were you about to go riding too?" she asked with a bright smile.

Too?!

"Er, that was the plan Petyr and I had decided on," the younger red head replied doing her best to indicate that her friend was beside her.

"Why don't you join us?" Cat asked excitedly. "I haven't had a chance to show Lord Brandon around our lands yet and you've been away for so long, it would be lovely to have you join us."

"What a marvelous idea," Lily muttered through gritted teeth. "We'll saddle our horses and meet you outside."

A deep clearing of the throat could be heard from just inside the door of the stable and the four young people turned to find Brynden Tully standing there, his eyes trained on them keenly. "Perhaps you could make room for one more niece? I am not certain how long I will be in Riverrun and I too have missed its lands."

"Of course Uncle Brynden," Catelyn replied with no small amount of delight. "I will see to it that the stable hands prepare your horse."

"No need," the Blackfish replied. "It's already waiting for me in the courtyard."

He cast Lily a meaningful look and directed what might have been a glare at Brandon before turning on his heel and striding out.

Lily released a deep breath, feeling a certain measure of relief that her uncle would be there to provide a buffer for her.

I need to write a letter to Elia, she thought absently to herself as she walked over to the horse she had ridden from King's Landing. The tension in the Red Keep would be less than what I am feeling here. Damn Brandon Stark!

Lily wasted no time in seeing to the saddling of her horse and immediately led the gentle creature out of the stall and towards people who seemed to be seeing to his own mount with more than necessary vigor.

"Are you alright?" she asked curiously.

"Perfectly well," the slender youth replied giving her a tight smile.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked. "Because you certainly seem a bit – "

"Lily?" Cat called from her place near the entrance by the door. "Are you coming?"

Several silent curses were released at her sister when the red head looked up to find that both horses belonging to her and Brandon were saddled and bridled and they were holding the reins.

"We'll be right there," she called back and Catelyn nodded before leading her betrothed out of the stables.

Brandon sent one more smile in Lily's direction which made her grind her teeth together and turned back to Petyr.

"Why does he look at you like that?" her friend asked and Lily blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"You know who I'm talking about?" Petyr replied tersely. "Brandon Stark, he's done nothing but stare at you since you got back. Why?"

"How should I know?" Lily shrugged. "He's a northerman, aren't they supposed to have little tact and self control?"

Petyr rolled his eyes. "You've always been smart Lily. Don't tell me you haven't noticed the way he looks at you. After the feast a few days ago he hardly took his eyes off you all evening!"

Lily was beginning to feel her cheeks burn and she didn't like it. "What are you asking me Petyr? We've been friends our whole lives, if you have something to say to me, just say it."

If it were possible, the youth's green eyes narrowed even further into slits. "Have you done anything to encourage him?"

Lily took a step back, almost feeling as if she had been slapped. "What did you just ask me?"

Petyr blinked and seemed to have realized his momentary blunder, "I – "

"Petyr Baelish," Lily ground out from between clenched teeth. "For you to even suggest that I would behave like a common strumpet shows just how little you know me. Brandon Stark is betrothed to my sister and if you ever thought that I would do something to hurt her, than you are not my friend and you never have been. How dare you? How dare you even ask me that question?"

She didn't even wait for an answer before snatching the reins of her horse and striding out with the creature in tow. She could feel her eyes stinging with angry tears but she hurriedly blinked them away before anyone saw.

The nerve, the utter nerve of that boy to ask if I've been going behind my sister's back! He doesn't know me, he doesn't know me at all!

She could feel her uncle's eyes on her as she walked across the courtyard toward them and swallowed hard several times. No one could know what had happened, least of all him.

She risked what she thought was an even keeled expression at the Blackfish who was already sitting astride his black charger, reins in hand.

He narrowed his eyes at her thoughtfully and she blinked before looking away.

Try as she might to guard her expression however, Cat was not as clueless as she was a moment ago, for she frowned at Lily when she caught sight of her emerging from the stables. "Are you alright sister?"

"Fine," Lily said tersely and mounted her horse. "Shall we go?"

"What about Petyr?" Cat asked with a frown. "I thought he was coming with us."

Lily turned in time to see her best friend emerging from the stables with horse in tow and a pale expression on his face. He glanced at her and quickly looked away as if ashamed.

Good, the red head thought furiously.

She turned to her sister. "He's a good rider, he'll catch up."

Without another word, she dug her heels into the side of her mount and galloped for the gates of Riverrun without looking back.

Ω

Despite her desire to spend as little time around Brandon Stark as possible, Lily did find that the ride did wonders to clear her head and by the time they stopped beside the river to give their horses a rest, she was feeling almost genial.

Not genial enough to talk to Petyr however whose eyes she could still feel on her as she dismounted from her horse.

Lily refused to look at him and instead busied herself with giving her mount a carrot from the saddle bag. She had named the gentle mare Mabel as it was the name of a horse from one of her favorite child hood books back in England.

The sudden memory made her clench her teeth together in longing, longing for a simpler time when politics didn't rule the day and there were no such things as marriage arrangements and king and lords.

And she suddenly found herself missing both Elia and Elbert terribly.

A sudden shadow fell over her and Lily turned, restraining a grimace when she saw that it was the Blackfish. "Uncle."

"Lilian," he replied and this time she did wince. "Is everything alright?"

"No," she said shortly. "But I hope it will be in time."

She declined to say any more and moved down closer by the river where a large rock sat in the shallows. Even though it had been a while she still remembered this place and how she and Petyr had skipped stones here. It was a small branch off of the Green Fork that had perfectly clear water and round smooth stones in its bed.

It was calm and Lily wondered if her uncle, who had taken the lead once they had gotten out of Riverrun had chosen it for a reason.

Lily hoped down into the shallow water, bent and selected a smooth stone from the river bed. She held it for a moment, turning it over and over in her hands as if wondering whether or not she could still do it.

A soft voice spoke from behind her. "I don't suppose you've been practicing in the capital?"

She turned to find Petyr standing there, both a hopeful and contrite expression on his face.

Lily regarded him for a long moment, watching him turn from expectant to nearly withering before she answered. "No, there wasn't time to practice skipping stones. I was too busy chasing after noble lords."

He flinched as if this time she had been the one to strike him. He didn't back down however and instead took a step towards her. "Lily, please listen. I'm sorry

I didn't mean to say those things. I was just upset."

"Upset about what?" Lily demanded. "What do you have to be upset about? I've been gone from home for nearly two years and now that I'm back, you make snide remarks, watch me all the time and pick fights for no reason! Why?"

She glanced back up the bank of the river at the rest of the party and was relieved to see that her uncle was distracting Brandon and Cat with some sort of story about the capital.

Good, no one else needed to hear this.

Petyr shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers and stared hard at the ground, refusing to look at her.

"I missed you," he muttered in a low voice and she almost had to lean forward to hear him. "We grew up together and then all of a sudden, you were just gone. The princess asked you to stay with her in the capital and you didn't even think twice before saying yes. We fought before I left too, don't you remember?"

Lily chewed on her lower lip. "Yes I do."

"And do you remember what I said?" Petyr asked taking a step closer. "I told you I didn't want to be the one to tell Axel that you weren't coming home."

"And then you stormed off," Lily said with a sigh.

"I was angry," Petyr went on as if she hadn't spoken. "I was angry because I felt like you left us all behind, left me behind."

"You could have stayed if you wanted to," Lily shot back.

"Me? Stay in the capital?" Petyr scoffed. "I belong there about as much as a fish belongs in a flower arrangement. I didn't want to be around all those pompous nobles. But you didn't even think. You didn't even know the princess before she asked you to stay. Why did you stay with her instead of coming back with us?"

Lily swallowed hard. Finally she looked up and met her best friend's eyes. "Why are you bringing the rest of my siblings into this? I know they missed me and I missed them…but not one of them told me to come back with them. Not one of them were upset about the fact that I decided to stay. They were surprised certainly…but no one was as upset as you."

She paused here and sighed, running a hand through her long red curls that had been perpetually unruly in the last few days. "We're not children anymore Petyr, I don't want to fight with you. It's not going to be long before you go back to the Fingers to be a lord and I won't be in the riverlands for much longer either. We'll both be adults soon, at some point, I'm going to marry and be the Lady of the Vale, there's nothing we can do to change that."

Petyr stared at her for a long time, his eyes growing darker and darker until they didn't look green at all anymore.

His posture grew so rigid that one stiff breeze might have been enough to blow him over.

"Would you even want to?" he asked in a low tight voice and Lily blinked. "Would I even want to do what?"

"Do you want to marry him?" Petyr asked. "That pompous lord of the vale who has his head so far up in the clouds that he can't see anyone around him? I didn't take you for someone who looked down on others Lily but I can see now that you really don't care about the rest of us. I thought you were different than other girls but you're just like Cat after all, never looking past her own nose."

And then he turned and stalked off before Lily could even offer up a rebuttal, leaving her to stare after him in shock and rage.

After a long time, she turned around, nothing but white noise in her ears and sat down hard on the rock, leaning forward slightly so her long hair could cover her face.

Angry tears stung her eyes and she scrubbed at them furiously, cursing both Petyr and herself for feeling this way.

Her thoughts were a jumble of incomplete sentences and furious exclamations. The rock she had been squeezing in her hand so hard she thought it might crack suddenly fell from her grasp and landed with a splash in the river below.

Lily closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. How dare he!? How dare he say all those horrible things!? Where was the boy who was my best friend, who did everything with me and who I thought I could tell anything to! What happened to him?! I don't even know who he is!

"Lily?"

The red head scrubbed at her eyes, and muttered a quick spell to clean her face so it wouldn't look as if she had been crying. A slight tingling sensation licked at her eyes and cheeks and she blinked hard a few times.

After a moment it went away and she was able to turn around and find her uncle standing several feet away. His expression was neutral but she could read concern in his eyes and wondered how much he had heard. "Yes?"

"We're going to move on," he said. "I thought we would merge back with the Green Fork before turning around and going back to Riverrun, but we can return now if – "

"No," Lily fairly snapped. "It's a beautiful day. Let's continue our ride by all means."

The Blackfish regarded her for a long while before nodding. "Very well."

Lily got to her feet and climbed back onto the bank before striding up it towards her horse. Anger charged every step she took, anger at Petyr for his insensitive and hurtful words, anger at herself for not being a better friend, angry at the politics of this new world for being so unforgiving and demanding that she give more than she wasn't sure she wanted too.

And at that moment, all she wanted to do was apparate herself back to the Red Keep and spend an afternoon with Elia and Ashara where she didn't have to worry about managing people's feelings.

No, whispered a defiant stubborn little voice from the back of her mind. If you run away now, Petyr's only going to think it was because of what he said. You are not going to give him the satisfaction of thinking that he's right.

She had just neared her horse however when something happened to draw her attention away from the fireworks going off in her own head.

There was a startled whinny and a surprised cry and Lily jerked her head in the direction of the noise.

She had just enough time to register Cat sitting on her very restless horse before her animal reared up on its hind legs nearly throwing her.

Somehow she managed to grab hold of the reins and keep her seat but only just.

As fast as it had reared, the horse came back to earth with a thud and then bolted down the path they had come, taking a terrified Cat who was crying out with it.

There was half a second of silence before Lily launched herself into the saddle and tore off after her sister, waiting for no one else to follow her.

"Lilian wait!" she heard her uncle bellow from somewhere behind but the red head merely dug her heels into the side of Mabel and urged the mare on faster.

The path they had come through was dirt and well worn from many years of riding with many different horses but nature would have its way with the land one way or another and there were still thick roots sticking out of the ground and large rocks strewn about the path as well as divots in the earth from the weather.

The tree branches hung low in some places forcing riders to have to duck when they passed under them. If one straightened up too high they might connect with such a branch and have the misfortune to be thrown from their mount.

Which was exactly what Lily was fearing right now.

She could hear shouts behind her and the thunder of horses hooves but they were still a ways back and with the way Cat's horse was careening wildly down the path, they would never make it to her in time.

Mabel was a fast horse, groomed to be ridden in tourneys and Lily had had plenty of practice in taking the mare as fast as she would go.

But a tourney rider she wasn't and so she too had to use every glance and instinct to avoid rocks and roots that seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

Cat's cries reached, her carried by the wind and Lily leaned even farther over the neck of Mabel, urging the mare to go even faster.

"Someone help!" Catelyn was screaming.

"Holy on Cat!" Lily shouted as loud as she could. "Just hold on, I'm coming!"

All of a sudden, her sister's horse took a sharp left turn away from the beaten path they were on and barreled down a rocky slope that was full of roots and brambles.

A stream of curses poured from Lily's mouth as she had to yank the reins to the right and took Mabel and herself down the slope after Cat.

There were cries from the rest of their party behind them, but Lily didn't dare look back.

Her idea was to go fast enough to be able to come alongside Cat's horse and grab hold of the reins so that she might be able to slow it down and see what had spooked it.

Somehow Cat was still holding on but whether that was from training or fear Lily didn't know, perhaps both.

The thundering behind her had increased and she wondered how fast her uncle must have been going in order to make it down the slope. She thought she heard the voice of Brandon Stark faintly yelling something as well but the thought didn't last in her mind for longer than a second before disappearing.

But just as she began to gain ground on Cat's horse something else happened that no one intended.

For as wild as Cat's horse had become since bolting from the river bank, it had done an oddly good job of avoiding roots, rocks and divots in the ground.

That luck ran out in an instant.

One minute Cat was barely seated on her horse and the next there was a sickening crunch. Cat's screech of terror was only matched by the mount's own scream of pain as both horse and rider began to go down.

As the steed buckled, Cat was thrown over its head and hurled toward the ground.

There were shouts of alarm from the riders behind them but Lily barely heard them. All she was aware of was if she didn't do something in the next half second, her sister would be dead.

So she didn't think.

Lily didn't think about who might see or the fact that this secret that had been kept from all but her uncle for the last sixteen years was about to be revealed in front of a stranger.

She just lashed out a hand.

The words to the charm leapt to her tongue with her barely having to think of them, the words tearing through her lips.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

It was the most simple spell in the world and even though she didn't have to utter words to perform magic anymore, old habits still died hard.

It was also one of the first charms she had learned as Lily Evans and the memory that it evoked never ceased to shake her.

And it worked to great effect now.

In one instant Cat was flying through the air and the next she was hovering a foot above the ground.

There was a thunder of horses hooves behind Lily and startled exclamations at the phenomenon taking place but Lily hardly paid them any mind. She maintained the spell for a few seconds before gently lowering her sister onto the ground.

The silence in the clearing was deafening.

For a moment, the only sound was the heavy breathing of the horses and her sister's terrified sobs as she curled into a ball on the ground.

Lily hesitated only a moment before leaping down from her horse and hurrying over to her sister and wrapping her arms around her.

Cat didn't even hesitate to squeeze her back, her shoulders shaking with terror and relief.

"What…What happened?" her older sister was able to gasp between sobs. "How did….How did…."

"Hush now, it's alright you're safe," Lily said holding her tight. For a moment all she did was rock her sister like Cat had done a few times when they were small and like their mother had done a very long time ago.

After a long moment, Lily looked up to see their party in a half circle around them. Brynden Tully was down from his horse and standing only a few feet away with an expression that was as concerned and furious as the one he bore after the attack at the Great Sept.

Brandon Stark was halfway down from his horse but he was staring at Lily with an expression of utter shock and disbelief on his face.

And Petyr?

Well his eyes were gleaming in a way that Lily had never seen before and wasn't sure she entirely liked.

She glanced down at the quivering mess that was Cat in her arms and glanced back up at the Blackfish.

"Uncle," she said slowly. "I think that's enough riding for one day. It's time to go home now."

For once Brynden Tully had nothing to say. He ran a hand through his hair for a moment, clearly grasping for words before he nodded. "Indeed niece. "Let's go home."

Somehow, they managed to get Cat to her feet and Lily did her best to not look any member of their party in the eye.

They had seen, they had all seen what she had done and now she wasn't sure what was going to happen. Her magic had been a secret for so long that a part of her had never truly intended for it to get out.

And now it had.

Life was forever going to change.

Ω

Don't forget to subscribe to my Youtube Channel if you have not already. The channel name is Kaetie Mac, I really do appreciate it. Okay so the secret of Lily's magic is out. Her relationship with Petyr has begun to break down and we will see a boiling point in the next chapter. Also, I want to quickly address the concerns of a possible love triangle. There isn't going to be one. Lily is not interested romantically in either Petyr or Brandon. She would never want to hurt Cat and Petyr is her best friend, nothing more. What this is really turning into, is some manner of unrequited love. Let me know your thoughts, don't forget to review!