LANDSLIDE, james potter [2]

Chapter Six

Summer was closing in, and so was the possible execution of Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Lyra felt bad for Hagrid, who had been fighting tooth and nail to get an appeal so that his poor, sweet Hippogriff could live to see another day. 

But it was difficult to fight against Lucius Malfoy. If anybody knew that, it was Lyra. She had spent years too scared to fight, because she knew what would happen if she did. Sirius had felt the consequences of her attempts to fight before. She didn't want anybody else to do so. 

Hagrid didn't have the safety of being Lucius's wife (even if imagining that situation could bring Lyra to tears of laughter). There was no holding back. But she supposed he didn't have to deal with the personal grudges to follow. He was lucky enough for that. 

But seeing as the appeal was happening, Lucius had wanted to go to Hogwarts to oversee it. He didn't want them to forget the influence he held and do something he would make them regret. There was no way he was going to let the Hippogriff get away with the damage it had caused his son. 

It was quite suspicious to him that when he was about to leave, his wife had approached him with the sugary sweet smile that she hadn't given him in years (if ever). "Lucius, my husband. Hello. Good day?"

He barely cast an annoyed glance her way as he was looking for the right cloak to show off his authoritative presence. "The key to the vault at Gringotts is in the parlor. Ask a house-elf if you can't find it."

"What?" Lyra frowned. She supposed it made sense for him to think of she needed the key to the vault. Lately, she had only acted nice to him when she needed money for something. "No, that's not what I'm talking to you for."

"Oh," he responded simply. He looked at her suspiciously, wondering what she wanted then. Usually, they had tried to avoid speaking more than need be because they were both getting tired or repeating the same arguments in their fight over Sirius Black. "What do you want then?"

"I'm just wondering if I could come along when you go to Hogwarts?" Lyra tried to ask with a charming tone of voice. She hadn't tried to charm him in at least a decade (well, she had tried to pretend to be charming towards him in front of others). 

"Why?" Lucius asked, though part of him felt like he knew the answer. It wasn't an answer he would enjoy.

"I'm your wife. I should be there to support you during the appeal." She grimaced as she saw the look on his face, telling her that he wasn't convinced. "And because of Draco. He's my son, too. He got hurt. I want to make sure that that Hippogriff gets what he deserves."

The blond man scoffed. Nothing she was saying was even close to convincing when he knew her better than she thought. "You don't care about the Hippogriff. You don't like it when anyone or anything has to die."

Lyra eyed him strangely. "How do you know that?"

"We've been married for fifteen years," he reminded her. They also had spent most of their time together during these years, even if they didn't always get along during them. "You get to know somebody quite well during that long a time."

"I just want to see Draco, alright?" she whined. "He sent me a letter seeming very upset. He lost the Quidditch Cup to Gryffindor after all. You know how much he loves Quidditch. And Marcus is the captain! He's my nephew, so I'd like to hear how he's doing with it, too."

"It's because of Lupin, isn't?" he asked, smirking smugly as she saw her eyes widen at his mention of the name. There was some malevolence in her eyes at hearing it come from his lips, it almost made him feel more sure he was right. "Remus Lupin, isn't that his full name?"

"What about him? I haven't seen him since I graduated Hogwarts. Which was..." Lyra quickly had to try to pretend  do the math in her head, trying to make him believe she hadn't been thinking about it all the time for years. "Sixteen years ago."