Sirius Black's Twin

Only Death

Nick was protecting her at all sides, barely letting her fight on her own. Usually, this would be an issue for her, because she was like her brother, Sirius, in many ways, and both of them loved a good fight. But now was different, everything was changing. Loyalties were being tested and relationships tried. At this moment, Lyra didn't care about the thrill of battle, she needed her entire body and soul focused on finding her children, and Nick was keeping distractions from hurting her.

The burst through the front door of the castle. Bodies – children, some of them only first years who were in way over their heads, littered the ground. Lyra felt a motherly instinct overwhelm her at the sight of all those small, glassy eyes staring back up at her. She couldn't help but kick a dying Death Eater in the ribs when she saw one. Ruby red blood spilled from his pale lips, and his black eyes were swishing this way and that, as though he couldn't see what was right in front of him. Lyra doubted whether he felt her kick at all.

Hogwarts grounds was much more frightening than inside the castle. Giants were stamping their way through the crowd, stepping on bodies. Nick winced when they heard the snap and crunch of bones being smashed under the weighty feet.

“HAGGER!” One giant, smaller than the rest but big enough to kill a dozen of people with a small step, was tearing at the castle walls, his wide mouth hanging open and his meaty fists slashing through the windows. He looked young, like the children dead on the floor, but he also looked murderous.

“Lyra Black!” a woman Death Eater charged from the crowds, her ashy brown hair flying from it's high bond. She had a thin face and skinny lips. She was wearing the long black cloak most Death Eaters wore, and her shiny blue eyes were ecstatic. “I wished I'd be the one to kill you!”

“Let's not get ahead of ourselves,” Lyra snarled. She was beyond annoyed with all of the Death Eaters running up to her, wanting to murder her. She was annoyed that every fight filled her with a scary blood lust that she could barely control. And she was annoyed that her children wouldn't show themselves so that she could make sure that they were alive and okay.

Lyra's wand was in her hand in a flash. Her arm went in a long, smooth arc, as though she were cutting the air, and fire erupted from the tip of her wand. The woman Death Eater didn't even have time to flinch before the ray of blue flames scorched her; diagonally, from her left shoulder to her right hip.

The woman screamed in pain, conjuring water on herself to put the flames out. But Lyra's anger was stronger than her fear, and the flames continued to roar, growing larger and larger before the woman was engulfed in them, shrieking on the floor, rolling and rolling in pain.

“Lyra!” Nick gasped, he looked pale, the light cast from the fire making his sweaty features pop out even more. “Where – where did you learn that?”

He looked a little fearful when he turned to his wife. Lyra's heart ached at creating an emotion in him like that, but she brushed it off.

“Bellatrix was an experimenting witch,” she answered, smoothing out her features so that they showed no emotion. “She showed me a few things when we were little.”

Nick gulped, his shoulders stiff. He glanced around them, eyes racking the running and falling bodies, the bright spells soaring over their heads, the screams and the roars. He understood; the war was taking a tole on all of them. Lyra used to have a huge family, she used to have parties with them and the people she hated now – the family members like Bellatrix and Narcissa that she wanted to kill – used to dance and laugh with her at those parties. She used to have a twin brother, she used to have friends who were like siblings. Everything she held dear, those things she sometimes took for granted like a close relationship with her children and a husband who adored her, was being stripped from her. She was trying hard to keep all these things, but they were being torn from her arms, being kept too far away for her to grasp.