Feathers: The tale of the forgotten Marauder

Chapter 4

Lyra couldn't help the frustrated sigh that escaped her chest. Turning around, she hides her fists in her robe pockets and tries to look somewhat tired.

"What exactly do I need to explain?" She asks slightly irritated, the faces of the marauders hurt and upset.

She couldn't tell if Lily stuttered or genuinely didn't have any words to say. Sirius pulled Lily behind him, knowing the look on Lyra's face and what might happen should Lily utter a single word that isn't right.

Sirius is the only one brave enough to face Lyra when she's like this, he's done it before. His normal smirk is completely non-existent and instead a frown has replaced it.

"How exactly do you think it is acceptable to snap at Remus and the rest of us for checking in on you?!" He asks diplomatically. He's trying to get her to talk, without blowing up at them in the midst of her frustration.

"When I say I'm fine and nobody listens, that's when I find it acceptable." Lyra states coldly. She is sick and tired of the others always thinking that she's happy and jolly.

Sirius wasn't about to back down and let her walk away from this conversation. As Lyra turned to leave and go to her dormitory, Sirius grabbed the back of her robes and dragged her to the sofa so that she couldn't escape.

"You don't get to just leave this conversation Potter." He said slightly pissed off. Lyra could see Lily and Dorcas hesitate slightly with the harshness of Sirius' plan.

"Don't you dare, talk to me and refer to me by my last name. You only do that in major situations, not all of you being pathetic about the fact that I snapped at you one time." Lyra said with a steely glare in Sirius' direction.

At this point, the boys finally had enough, James grabbed Lyra by the wrist and yanked her to her feet, dragging her to the entrance of the common room. Sirius and Remus followed, Peter stayed back with the girls.

"What in Merlin's Beard do you think you're doing?!" James said with a slightly raised voice. "You're acting all out of sorts and we don't understand it."

For a moment, words failed Lyra, she messed up majorly but she didn't know how to rectify something like this.

"I don't belong here, in this group. I'm not a troublemaker or mischief manager. I'm a typical student who would rather do anything else." Lyra sighed as she finally let go of what was on her mind.

The boys were shocked, they'd never heard Lyra completely doubt her abilities as a member of the marauders. They shared a look between the three of them and James pulled his sister in for a hug.

"What do you mean? You are the most crucial member of the marauders, you keep us all from killing each other and no one has quite the mischief level as you." He whispers as Lyra wraps her arms around her brother.

"I mean, I wouldn't have let you become an animagus illegally if you weren't a worthy member of the marauders." Remus' said as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Lyra couldn't help but laugh at his statement. It was very true, if she wasn't worthy, she wouldn't have been an animagus.

"Remus, I'm sorry I snapped at you, I was just tired of everyone asking if I was okay." Lyra said as they all went back into the common room to face the girls.

"Crisis averted ladies, Mount Lyra isn't going to erupt today." Sirius jokes as the four of them found Peter and the girls.

This made the others laugh and Lyra couldn't help but make a sarcastic comment back.

"No but if you aren't careful Black, I might just give you a dead arm." She says with a smirk. Sirius looked absolutely terrified.

The rest of the afternoon wore itself out and soon enough, all of them were on their way down to the Great Hall for dinner. As they all sat at the Gryffindor table, McGonagall felt a sense of relief as she watched Lyra from the Staff table.

Dinner was over almost as quickly as it started and by the time they got back to the common room, Lyra was exhausted. But before she could go to sleep she had one more thing to ask the boys.

"Sirius said you made some adjustments to the map, so, show me." Lyra whispered as they moved to a corner. Sirius was practically beaming with a smile so wide that they would've been caught had he not been facing the wall side.

Remus pulled out the map and muttered 'I Solemnly Swear That I'm Up To No Good'. Almost instantly, ink started to seep onto the page. The Marauders Map took form and Lyra saw what it was that they'd added. originally, the map had only shown the rough outline of Hogwarts, now....it showed every room in Hogwarts and who was where.

"That's incredible... this'll be so much easier to add the passages and anything else." Lyra whispered excitedly. Eventually she went back to bed, after adding a few new enchantments to the map.