Upside Down Mirror: Free Falling (Harry Potter Fanfic)

Culmination

The thought of possibly finding herself in the fictional world she just read about did not in any way feel Lyra with elation. Instead, as the thirteen-year-old stood up straight, eyes clenched and the object she thought was a wand still clutched in her hand, Lyra felt absolute dread at the thought. The feelings she felt certainly weren't the type of feeling she read in online fanfics where some fans found themselves in their favorite fandom.

Lyra let her ears listen, hoping she simply imagined the object in her hand was in fact the wand of a wizard or witch, but the sound of water moving no longer sounded like rain pattering a window. Instead, the sound of water was distinctly that of water splashing, almost as if someone were struggling in the water, but the voice which she originally thought was one of her foster parents calling out from another room was instead someone calling out desperately.

Somehow, the young girl found herself able to open her eyes only to see the eerie green light coming from a basin she knew she read about, remembering every single morbid detail regarding the place she now found herself. The young teen couldn't help but stumble forward, clutching the sides of the basin and vomiting, still hearing the voice of someone in trouble ringing in her ears.

Wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her pajama, she turned and found herself staring at a storm of Inferi, but her blood ran cold upon seeing the creatures. The books didn't even begin to describe them, but perhaps the movies based on the books didn't capture truly the horrors she now saw in front of her. The wand she'd picked up nearly dropped from her hand as her entire body froze, her eyes glued on the reeling mass.

She didn't know how long it took her to realize that the Infiri were, in fact, clawing at someone, pulling someone into the water, but by the time her mind did register this she also found herself noticing the fact one or more of the Infiri turning their soulless eyes upon her, which in turn started the beings crawling towards her, their fingers scraping the wet, rocky surface of the cave.

Lyra backed away slowly, leaning into the basin while still lightly clutching the basin. "F...f..." The wand lifted, her mind attempting to remember what she needed to do so she might drive them back into the water as Harry and Dumbledore did in the books, yet her mind drew a blank, only remembering at that moment that fire was somehow involved which in turn made her brain trying to think of what fire spells she knew from the books.

Except, as the spell finally popped into her head, she found herself filling with self-doubt given the fact she was a Muggle and Muggles can't use magic. A few tears welled in Lyra's eyes as the Infiri came closer, but her eyes snapped shut as she pointed the wand. "I...In...Incendio!"

Fire sprung forth from the wand, but the Infiri backed off ever so slightly. With a little more confidence, Lyra said the word again, almost as if instinct kicked in, her young mind still not believing she was actually able to perform magic when she'd assumed she would instead be a Muggle, but then – she wasn't in her world. The Infiri started retreating, much, in the same manner, they had in the books, and yet she didn't have the ring of fire like Dumbledore.

Still, the flames which erupted from the wand in her hand did have the desired effect, forcing the Infiri backward, retreating into the water so they might escape what would destroy them, but in the back of her head, Lyra remembered how Dumbledore in an earlier book told Harry that Infiri, as creatures of the dark, feared light and feared heat because these were the things which could destroy them.

The fact the army of dead backtracked into the water didn't stop Lyra's heart from beating, her eyes closing, completely unsure of how she might end up getting out of the cave which reeked of death, that left a chill in every bone of her body. A sound escaped from her mouth, almost like a whimper while tears continued forming in the corners of her eyes. She stood there, unsure of what to do when she saw something move out of the water.

The scream which wanted to escape from her mouth remained strangled in her throat, meaning she couldn't throw off another Incendio spell at the Infiri.

Instead, she stood there, wrapping her thin arms around her cold frame while the chill of the cave dampened the pajamas and sock-clad feet, her eyes finally making out that the figure coming from the water wasn't actually an Infiri, but instead an actual living person. If, of course, one could call the state of their clothing living, for their black clothing was torn to shreds and there were places Lyra could see claw marks marring the palest skin she'd ever seen.

The person clawed their way up onto the rock in the middle of the cave, coughing up water while water also pooled around them. Eventually, Lyra saw the person in question pull themselves completely out only to roll over onto their back spreading their arms out wide, their breath sounding as if there was still some liquid in their lungs while their eyes remained shut, not seeing her there.

Lyra's eyes blinked, stepping forward while stammering out another spell she knew from the books. "Luminos!"

Her words made the person in question open their eyes, their mouth opening like a dying fish, but it looked to her thirteen-year-old eyes like the young man in front of her was dying, his silver-grey eyes now looking up into her own. Her stomach clenched while his silvery-grey eyes watched her, his black locks of hair glued to the sides of his face, but he looked young – very young.

More importantly, she knew exactly who was in front of her despite not having ever imagined he would look like he did. Instead of finding herself in the aftermath of the battle of Hogwarts, she found herself in the aftermath of Regulus Arcturus Black stealing the locket Horcrux in the first place. Her stomach lurched slightly, realizing her presence culminated in altering the consequences of that unpleasant event, but it was no less unpleasant.

"Regulus, I'm scared."