Feathers: The tale of the forgotten Marauder

Chapter 15

"Tell me now. I'm not messing around this time Feathers." He says, making sure that she can't leave until she tells him.

"Sirius, what part don't you understand. I can't. It's not just one person, there's three of them that are threatening violence on me." Lyra states as she moves under his arm and down the stairs.

She barely made it to the seating area again when he grabbed her by the elbow. His grip was firm but caring.

"Lyra Olivia Potter, you cannot walk away from this. Someone has put a long lasting curse on you and that won't leave for at least a month." He says as he looks her in the eyes.

He had used her full name. Sirius was adamant on the fact that he wasn't letting this go easily. But she wouldn't be able to protect him or anyone else this time. Not when Snape already had a story planned.

"What's going on? What curse?" James asked with concern as he joined them by Sirius.

"The Ardere curse. She has a long lasting burn that won't stop stinging for more than five minutes at a time. No antidote will fix it. She has to wait it out." Sirius explains.

Well now James looks equally as murderous as Sirius. He hated it whenever someone hurt his twin sister.

"What!? Lyra you will tell us." He says with shock.

"And I'll tell you what I told Sirius. I can't, because they have a story planned out." Lyra states for what feels like the millionth time.

Lily looks at her, remembering what happened in potions earlier that day.

"Lyra, did Snape do this to you?" Lily asks cautiously.

Looking at the carpet, Lyra sighs. She didn't want anyone to know, not if she couldn't protect them. She would feel so bad if they got in trouble because of her.

"Yes okay! Is that what you wanted to hear. Snape cursed me. He threatened me with violence as well as Lucius and Regulus." Lyra says exasperated.

Everyone knows now and she can't hide it. The looks she got from the others. They were a mixture of shocked and disgusted.

Marlene tried to speak but words seemed to fail her. It's not normal for that to happen to her.

"Marls, say something, you always have something to say." Lyra said, she felt like it was hopeless.

Snape had a plan, people he managed to bribe into doing his bidding. He had an entire story that would twist it so that Lyra was the bad guy.

There were tears in her eyes. Normally someone has something to say but the Marauders just held this awful, dead silence between them. If they were this quiet, it really was hopeless.

"There's nothing we can do...is there?" She whispered as she looked at them all. Her friends, her family who swore to protect each other.

"Not if he already has a plan." James said without looking at her.

"Dammit!" Marlene shouted as she hit the table.

For the next few days, they all felt hopeless. By the middle of the week, Lyra felt like there was nothing she could do. She was going to be walking around in fear for who knows how long.

It was lunchtime on Wednesday afternoon and the sting on her wrist was worse. Sitting at the Gryffindor table, she could feel people on the Slytherin table looking at her.

"Pay no attention to them. They haven't won anything yet okay." Remus calms her down.

She hadn't realised that her breathing had picked up and that she was shaking slightly.

"They know I'm scared of them. Snape knows that I can't report it otherwise it'll go back to me." Lyra whispers.

"And we will find someone who believes us. I promise." Remus responds, putting his hand on her shoulder.

By the end of lessons, Sirius and Lily had a plan. It's no exaggeration when they literally came speeding at Lyra almost knocking her over.

"Professor Dumbledore." They both say at the same time.

"Okay, headmaster to you as well." Lyra responds sarcastically.

"No silly, he'll believe us. He has to." Lily says with a smile.

Lyra rolled her eyes and started to walk away as she responded.

"He'll believe us about as much as the villagers believed the boy that cried wolf." She said with a snarky tone.

Lyra doubted very much that Professor Dumbledore or any other teacher for that matter, would believe them.

"So you're just willing to let him get away with this!?" Sirius calls out in disbelief.

"No one is ever going to believe us! We're troublemakers Sirius! We start the lies and manipulate others to believe them. It was sheer luck that Minnie believed my lie the first time." Lyra shouted back.

It was true. For years no one ever believed them because of how much trouble they caused. In some ways, it was very hypocritical.

"Snape has won this time. I'm too scared to go around the school in fear that someone from Slytherin is going to find me and do something worse. And it's your brother's fault." She replies with a resigned tone.

Sirius and Lily were looking behind her shoulder. Someone was behind her. Someone whose name was in that conversation. She was too scared to find out who it was.