Feathers: The tale of the forgotten Marauder

Chapter 3

It was a restless night that night, Lyra was asleep but many things wandered her mind. Thoughts that made her second guess herself, and if she really was meant to be a part of this group.

When she woke up the next morning, it was obvious that she didn't sleep well. Dorcas and Marlene both saw the fatigue etched into her face but decided not to bring it up for fear of bringing up an unwelcome topic.

"Merlin's beard!" Lyra exclaimed as she hit the bedpost of Lily's bed for the third time in five minutes. Rubbing her forehead slightly, she feels the lightest of touches on her shoulder. Marlene turns her around to face her.

"You're not okay, are you Lyra?" She asks softly, which is rare for Marlene, considering she looks like she would beat you up half the time.

"I just didn't sleep well, that's all." Lyra explains as she finally grabs her bag and heads down into the common room.

When she gets down there, she avoids making any eye contact with the boys. James and Sirius both know the signs of when something is wrong with her, so she doesn't want them to have another talk with her.

"Hey, L, we have some adjustments to show you on the map." Sirius whispers excitedly. He starts to pull out a large piece of parchment paper but Remus stops him quickly.

"Are you insane, not here Sirius!" He snaps in a hushed whisper. The map is sacred property to the marauders, primarily the boys. It shows all the passages in hogwarts that the five of them know of, and they're constantly adding to it everyday.

Lyra could barely see anything within ten meters of her eyeline, so trying to read the map would prove difficult.

"Listen Pads, this isn't the greatest time to show me anything to do with you-know-what." She says whilst rubbing her eyes, today was going to be interesting.

A look of concern circles the marauders but no one says a word. Lyra doesn't go to the hall for breakfast with the others, she instead makes her way to transfiguration early so that she has time to recover from her bad night.

It's safe to say that Professor McGonagall was greatly surprised to find Lyra leaning against the wall earlier than the rest of the class. She seemed out of breath and had no energy, which was highly unlike her.

"Miss Potter, would you care to step inside for a moment?" Professor McGonagall asks as she opens the door ajar.

Lyra looks up and pushes herself off the wall to follow her professor into the classroom. Once inside, McGonagall indicates for her to sit down at a small desk in the front row.

"Now, Miss Potter, I understand that I haven't seen you since before the summer, however I sense that something is troubling you and making you restless." She asks as she crouches in front of Lyra.

"It's nothing Professor, just a bit of a restless night that's all." Lyra explains quietly as she looks down at the desk.

McGonagall looks Lyra up and down, examining her face. She isn't even a tiny bit convinced with Lyra's half enthusiastic explanation.

"I'm not oblivious Miss Potter, something is clearly troubling you, it is better to tell someone about it than to let it stew about in your mind." She says comfortingly. Before she could say anything else, the loud babble of students outside the door cuts her off.

Lyra moves to her normal desk as the door opens and Remus walks in along with the other students. Out of all the marauders, Lyra and Remus are the only ones who share a transfiguration class with each other. Remus' seat is next to Lyra's so when he sees she's already in the classroom, he's obviously worried.

"Hey, are you alright, I saw something was wrong earlier." He asks gently, knowing that one wrong word could end in disaster.

By this point, Lyra was tired of everyone asking if she was okay. Clearly she wasn't but she didn't want to talk about it, this time she snapped.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?! I'm fine, end of discussion." She snaps in a whisper, so that no one else heard her.

That clearly hurt Remus a bit, throughout the rest of the lesson he gave up trying to talk to Lyra. She felt bad but couldn't work up the courage to apologise. Throughout the lesson, McGonagall was keeping an eye on Lyra and when class ended, she felt the need to find Lyra at the end of the day.

Throughout the rest of her lessons, Lyra avoided the marauders like the plague. She didn't want to talk about what was going on in her head, she was too scared. By the time she reached the common room after all her lessons, she was too exhausted for social interaction.

"Lyra Olivia Potter! You have some explaining to do." Unfortunately, she couldn't escape the angry call of her best friend, who was tired of her ignoring everyone.