Dodgeball, Dungbombs & Filch

3 September 1991. Seventh-Floor Corridor, Hogwarts.

5:00 PM

"Harry, is he jinxed or something?" said Lyra looking at Zale who was walking back and forth in front of a stretch of a blank wall.

After their classes ended for the day, Zale pulled along the two of them, saying that he'll help them in their training. When Harry asked if they really could do well just in three months, Zale promised that if they couldn't and Amelia wasn't satisfied with the outcome, he would take the punishment in their place.

Instead of helping them train, there he was, acting weird after pulling them along all the way to the seventh-floor corridor.

When she didn't get any reply from Harry, she turned around and saw Harry looking at an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's attempt to train trolls for the ballet.

"Heh," Lyra giggled imagining trolls doing ballet, "This one here," she pointed at the tapestry, "certainly suits my sense of humour and it is more amusing than watching a jinxed Zale."

"Here it is!" Both Lyra and Harry turned around when they heard Zale exclaim. A door magically appeared in the place of the empty stretch of wall from before, making their jaws drop in surprise.

"Welcome to the Room of Requirement. And be careful not to let a fly in," Zale opened the door, entered it and motioned for the two of them to follow him. "In your mouths, I mean," he leered, making the two of them instantly close their mouth shut.

Entering the room, Lyra found that there was nothing inside except for a dodgeball course and a few water bottles. 'Dodgeball course' is nothing other than an enchanted ball attacking the wizards standing inside of a circle. Basically, it's the dodgeball game for wizards. But instead of one, there were more than 10 enchanted balls in the room.

"What are these many balls for?" Harry asked, still bewildered by the sudden appearance of the Room of Requirements.

"So, how are you going to help us train with a Dodgeball course, Professor Osmond?"

"We aren't training, dearies," Zale gave them a weird smile, it was written all over his face that he was up to nothing good, "we are here to play"

....

"This isn't—," Lyra dodged a ball that was coming from her right side and jumped over to avoid another one that came straight at her, "what I'd call playing."

Lyra had a few bruises on her arms from when she couldn't properly dodge the enchanted balls. Harry wasn't doing any better either.

"But this is exactly what I'd call playing," Lazily leaning on the wall, Zale watched them from outside of the circle with his arms folded. He seemed like he was enjoying seeing them in that state.

"If I knew it would be like this beforehand, I'd have never agreed to you helping us," Harry grumbled, panting, "And I can't see where this helps us in in a duel anyway."

"I told you that we aren't training," Zale was still watching them from near the walls in interest, "I've been counting points, you see. I'm reducing points for each hit you guys get. I wouldn't say you're winning, Harry. Lyra has the lead with 6 points more than you," making Harry snort.

He added, "And who says this won't help you in a duel?"

"Just you wait, Zale," Lyra was once again hit by a ball, "I'll get back at you for this one day!"

....

Fully exhausted, Lyra and Harry sat down on the floor taking deep breaths to calm down.

Finally, it was over.

"Care to explain, Osmond?" Lyra asked.

"You can't overwhelm them with spells in just three months. We don't even know if the two of you could master any protection spells within this short period, but even if you did what would you do if they had a spell so powerful that it breaks through your defence?" Zale paused, looking at the two who had thoughtful looks on their faces, "That's why you should know how to dodge. Even the deadliest spell isn't worth anything if you could dodge it."

"So, we are just going to dodge and we aren't going to learn any spells at all?" Asked Harry, a little disappointed. When he heard from Zale that he'd help them with the Duelling training, what he looked forward to the most was learning a few cool spells. He loved magic. But from the looks of it, that wasn't happening anytime soon.

"You are going to learn spells. To be exact, just master two important spells first: The Disarming Charm and the Shield Charm. And learn some hexes and jinxes too, if you could." said Zale while passing water to Lyra, "I won't be teaching those spells. The two of you should learn them by yourselves. What I am responsible for is to condition your reflexes. That is why we are playing this game, and we are playing this 'game' every day. So, don't forget to come here after your classes."

"You are right, we probably won't be able to know how to defend ourselves if they used non-verbal spells," Lyra nodded towards Zale. It was better to dodge their attacks in that case.

....

05 September 1991. Hogwarts Castle Grounds.

3:35 PM

"I say, Does the school not have enough funds?" Lyra glanced down at her broom which was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles, "If this is going to be the case, then I might even find myself on the same page as Draco..."

"On what?" Daphane and Zale, her two Slytherin friends looked at her.

"On why exactly the first years can't have their own broom."

As Madam Hooch told them to summon brooms, the trio did just fine, but a few students in Gryffindor struggled. Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once. Lyra was glad that Harry wasn't met with any trouble.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off at the end and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Lyra snickered to herself when she heard her telling Draco how he had been doing it wrong for years.

Lyra felt that it was weird that Draco hadn't caused trouble in the past few days. Perhaps he hit his head and changed for the better?

At this time, Daphane was faced with a problem. She fell to the ground as she was too caught up in being the 'perfect lady' that she wanted to be and didn't have the right posture while mounting the broom.

After Lyra helped her up, she heard Madam Hooch say, "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle — twelve feet — twenty feet. Lyra saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and — WHAM — a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay with his face down on the grass in a heap.

His broomstick was still rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight. Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist," Madam Hooch muttered, "Come on, boy — it's all right, up you get."

She turned to the rest of the class.

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."

Oh boy. How she was so wrong about Draco Malfoy turning good. Lyra wanted to bang her head on the walls for even having that thought.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" Draco smiled nastily and many of her fellow Slytherins joined in.

While Parvati Patil and Parkinson were having a confrontation, "Look!" said Draco Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

It was a Remembrall.

"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly.

'Uh Oh, another trouble.' Lyra wanted to facepalm at Harry.

Everyone stopped talking to watch the show and Draco Malfoy smiled nastily.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find — how about — up a tree?"

"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Draco had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"

Harry grabbed his broom.

"How crazy can this get?" Lyra felt a headache coming on witnessing the scene unravelling before her, "Is he trying to prove that he's a Gryffindor or something?"

"I'll be convinced that he is," Zale said and saw that Lyra was glaring at him. He gulped and added hurriedly in his defence, "Your brother is impulsive which you can't deny and that bloody proves that he's Gryffindor!"

A little while later the whole fiasco ended when Harry caught the Remembrall mid-air and Professor McGonagall came storming in and took Harry with her.

'Probably for punishment,' Lyra sighed. Zale was right indeed. Harry was impulsive and this happened just when her mum wanted them not to get into trouble.

But Lyra was pleasantly surprised that she was wrong. Harry had been rewarded instead! He made it into the Gryffindor Quidditch team as the Seeker.

....

06 September 1991. Second-floor Corridor, Hogwarts.

4.00 PM

"Thank Merlin that I escaped his Dungbombs. If I had gotten hit with it, as Harry did, you'd be dead already." Said Lyra as she tried to wipe off the Ink on her robes.

"Wait a minute," Daphane interrupted, "Am I missing something? It was Peeves who threw Ink at you, so why would you want to kill Zale?"

"No, you didn't miss anything," Lyra huffed, "Nothing. at. all."

Zale chuckled at this which earned a glare from Lyra, "You're enjoying this way too much aren't you?"

"I am. I am. I admit," Zale looked at Lyra who was covered in Ink trying to control his laughter only to terribly fail at the attempt, "It really is too funny seeing the two of you escaping from Peeves."

Zale had teamed up with Peeves to randomly throw Dungbombs and Ink at Lyra and Harry. In his words, they had to be 'alert all the time'. So, he instructed Peeves to attack them in unexpected situations. Needless to say, Peeves was all too happy to have this opportunity. That was exactly what happened, and although Lyra had managed to escape from Dungbombs, she got splashed with a bottle of ink!

Seeing Zale in his laughing fit, all she wanted to do was spike his pumpkin juice, so that he will not be able to speak at all for the whole day.

But that was for another time, she needed to get changed and thus, the trio walked towards their common room.

Just as the trio uttered the password and entered, they overheard Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Zabini discussing. As the four of them were the only ones in the common room before Lyra and her friends came combined with the fact that they weren't aware of their presence, it wasn't surprising that they were discussing loudly.

The trio looked at each other and Lyra put her finger on her mouth gesturing for her friends to remain silent.

"Are you sure that they would be tricked, Blaise?" Draco asked looking at Zabini who was playing with his wand.

"Of course, Potter and his friends are stupid enough."

Lyra wanted to go over and punch Zabini in his face but was held back by her friends.

"Saint Pottah" Draco snickered at the nickname that he had come up with, "Acting like a hero all time around"

"Funny that he and his Weaselbee friend would be caught out of bed tonight! Filch won't let go of a single opportunity to get back at troublemaking students" Zabini chuckled but turned to look at Draco as if he suddenly remembered something, "Ah...That reminds me... Why are you acting like that?"

"Like what?"

"You usually won't leave Bones out of this, would you?" Zabini tilted his head quizzically at the blonde boy, "You unexpectedly didn't do anything at all and even held back Parkinson from bothering Bones and her friends. Why is that?"

"Both mum and Carina don't want me to trouble her. I get it that Carina wants to protect her friend, but I don't know why mum is doing this either." Draco paused, "Surprisingly, these days, I realised that those three aren't that annoying. At least not as annoying as Potter and Weaselbee."

After that, they went back to talk about something else and the trio finally sneaked back to their dorms. Lyra changed her robes and took her books with her to Zale's room to meet up with her two friends.

"What do you think they are trying to do?" Daphane was quite worried for her friend's Godbrother. Both Daphane and Zale knew that Amelia was Harry's Godmother and Lily was Lyra's.

"No idea," Lyra shrugged and plopped onto the couch. She was way too tired these days. All those 'games' and now being Peeves' target, it took a toll on her. Remembering Peeves, she glared at Zale again. She knew he was doing this for their good, but there should be some way other than that.

"Maybe I should warn Harry during dinner," Lyra added and flipped open her potions textbook, "Also, when the two of you have finished your homework, lend it to me, okay?"

Lyra didn't want to do homework. It was just writing about the stuff they already knew about. So she decided to copy her friends' for everything other than potions. She had to leave a good impression on Snape after all.

Time went by and by the time the trio finished half of their homework, it was already 7:30 PM. The three Slytherins took off to the Great Hall.

....

"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying —" said Hermione, "— and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

"And it's really none of your business," said Harry.

"Goodbye," said Ron.

This was exactly the conversation that hit the Slytherin trio's ears when they approached the Gryffindor table. Lyra went ahead and pulled the two boys aside when they got up to leave, "What the hell was that all about?"

"Nothing," said Ron having a proud look on his face, "We are going to put Malfoy in his place tonight."

"And how exactly would you do that?" Daphane asked, with her arms crossed.

"Well, Malfoy challenged us on a Duel, it's going to be at the Trophy Room at midnight," Harry added.

"You are not going," Lyra had a stern look on her face when she looked at Harry.

"Why shouldn't we? It isn't like we are scared of Malfoy or anything," Harry had felt a little unsure about that until a moment ago, but two people in a row were telling him not to go. And what really riled him up was Malfoy's smug face.

"I say, you guys are really stupid if you actually believe what a Slytherin said," Zale said forgetting the fact that they themselves were Slytherin.

This made Harry snap at the trio, "Says who? And you—," he pointed at Zale, "Weren't you enjoying torturing me? Was it fun directing Peeves to throw Dungbombs at me? Not to mention the fact that you totally went easy on your little girlfriend over here!"

"ENOUGH!" Lyra actually wanted to tell him the reason why he shouldn't go, but when he put it like that, she didn't want to. She could understand that he was feeling overwhelmed at all these, but that didn't mean she should put up with his attitude.

"Oh, tell Peeves not to target me anymore and I'm not coming from tomorrow onwards either," said Harry when the trio walked away from the Gryffindor table.

....

"That insolent idiot!" Lyra wanted to punch someone to relieve her anger, "To think I wanted to warn him."

"Leave it Lyra. He's just stressed, he'll come around," Daphane patted Lyra's shoulders and tried to comfort her.

"You should eat Lyra," Zale piled up her plate with food.

This made Lyra turn around and face him directly, "You didn't actually go easy on me did you?". Harry's words made her doubt herself and her abilities.

"No, you did it with your own ability," Zale denied and said seriously, "I'm not that kind of person, Lyra. If I had actually gone easy on you, then that means I'm harming you. I would never do that."

"I see," Lyra picked up a pineapple tart from her plate and started munching on it, "Then it's alright. You guys should start eating too."

....

Slytherin Common room.

11:30 PM

"May I know why you are looking at this Advanced potions recipe for the past fifteen minutes?" Zale leaned over and took a peek at the parchment that Lyra was holding.

It was already beyond curfew and the trio was doing their homework in the common room. Daphane finished hers earlier and went off to bed. Zale too finished his a little later, but he was accompanying Lyra in the common room while she finished hers.

There was no one else besides the two of them at that time.

"Just because," Lyra shrugged and still kept on looking at it. It was her father's map and she was looking at what Harry was doing. Thankfully both Harry and Ron's dots remained at the Gryffindor dorms.

But soon enough, she saw Harry, Ron and Hermione moving out of the Gryffindor tower.

"Those insensible Gryffindors!" she took her wand along with her father's map and stood up to go out.

"And where do you think you are going?" Zale raised his eyebrows at her.

"Saving my idiot of a godbrother!"

"Even after what he said?"

Lyra nodded, "Of course. We might quarrel today and would make up someday, but I don't want to do something I regret over something as small as this."

She paused in her tracks, "You coming?"

"Of course," Zale said.

Lyra smiled at him mysteriously and motioned for him to stop. She pointed her wand at him and said, "Obculo Celo", and Zale disappeared from her sight. Then she put the charm on herself and she too disappeared.

But the two of them could see each other as the caster was the same person.

"When did you learn the Disillusionment Charm? It's a very advanced one!" Zale was surprised that Lyra already knew such an advanced charm.

"I spent a whole month on learning it, of course, it would work," Lyra had a smug look on her face.

She pulled Zale's hand and pricked it without a warning, drawing a few drops of blood, "Ow! What was that for?!"

"Don't yell!" she whispered and put the drop of blood on the parchment and said, "Reveal Mysteries"

Zale watched the map with his jaw dropped. He was too shocked to even berate Lyra for pricking him.

"Careful not to let a fly in, Zale," Lyra smirked, "I mean in your mouth"

"Payback, huh?" Zale snapped out of his daze and sheepishly scratched his head.

"Yes. Payback," Lyra victoriously smiled, "Now, shall we?"

Lyra looked at the map again and saw that the Gryffindor trio was joined by another person, Neville Longbottom.

She shook her head in exasperation and couldn't believe they were taking yet another person with them.

The duo hurried along the corridors and finally arrived on the third floor. They heard Filch say, "Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

Lyra dropped the Disillusionment charm that she had on herself and threw out a chocolate frog from her moleskin pouch towards Filch intending to distract him and started running away dragging the still invisible Zale along with her. Fortunately, Filch didn't see her face.

Lyra saw that Harry and the others went into a room that had something named 'Fluffy', which must be a harmless pet and sighed in relief. She decided that it was time to put on the Disillusionment charm again and stopped. The two of them hid behind a corner and Lyra put on the charm again, only to realise, it was starting to wear off on both of them, "Oh, no"

Zale pulled her behind a statue and took out a map himself, it was a fully detailed map of Hogwarts, only without the tracking charm that was in Lyra's map. He looked carefully and found that there was a secret corridor nearby. He pulled Lyra inside before the charm could fully wear off and closed the entrance.

"She's in here somewhere," they heard Filch mutter, "probably hiding."

Filch searched the whole floor only to find no one was there and finally went off.

The duo sighed in relief when they heard him gone and looked at each other with a smile.

"That was fun," Zale said, "But it was too Gryffindorish to my liking."

"Oh," Lyra smilingly raised her eyebrows, "So, in the Great Mr Osmond's words, what is worthy of a Slytherin's doing?"

"To have left them there to fend for themselves! They ought to learn the hard way if they don't listen" Zeke scoffed.

....

When the two of them returned to their common room, there was still no one there. So they comfortably sat on the couch to relax.

"What was that map about?" Zale asked Lyra and Lyra reflected the same question at him, "And what exactly was your map about?"

"You probably have too many questions to ask me, right?" Zale looked at her and sighed, "How about this then? You ask me everything you want to know and in exchange for that, you'll keep no secrets from me. Also, bring me along too, if you plan on going somewhere, you'll probably get into trouble if you go alone. Is that okay?"

Lyra considered her options. Well, it was certainly fine with her that he wanted to follow along, having one more person with her was certainly safer. But what she didn't know was whether to tell him her secrets. Dumbledore certainly told her to be careful in trusting people after all.

After pondering over it, she decided to take up the offer. In her opinion, it was worth it, "I agree, but on one condition. We are going to swear on our lives and magic that neither of us must reveal the other person's secrets to someone else without their concern and we must never lie to each other and finally, neither of us must harm the other, ever. Is that clear?"

"No problem," Zale said as both of them took out their wands and stood up.

""I, Zale Amory Osmond/Lyra Regina Black, swear on my life and magic that I will, not reveal Lyra's / Zale's secrets to anyone without her/his consent. I swear not to lie to her/him and that I will never harm her/him intentionally."" Just as they finished, a beam of light went out from each of their wands.

The two of them sat down and stared at each other in silence before Lyra broke it, "Alright, I'll first start with the map, it was my father's. He gave it to me."

Zale looked at Lyra as if she was an idiot, "Tell me a lie that I could believe, could you? You are Sirius Black's daughter. I knew that you were a Black from the beginning. And your father is in Azkaban for Merlin's sake! No offence, but how could he give it to you?"

"I don't know, but mum passed it along and told me father wanted to give it to me. He had written a letter to me too! I guess my mum somehow went to see him. Wait," Lyra paused, "How did you know about my real surname?"

"My father and your mother were childhood friends apparently and he had been there to their Wedding," Zale shrugged popping a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans into his mouth, "Care to take one?"

"No," Lyra declined his offer, "It's too risky. And now, what about your map? It has too many details that I almost suspected it belonged to one of the founders!"

"Indeed," Zeke said making Lyra shocked, "It belonged to Salazar Slytherin himself. It was given to me by my father too. But don't ask me how he got it, I don't know"

"Next question, why did you say that it was your 'duty' when I thanked you for that day?"

"You see... That is a long story, but I'll try to keep it brief, my father is the head of an organisation, called 'Dormants' and it's been around for centuries. And every head of the Osmond family would take over the organisation too. I don't know the reason for the organisation's existence, but they absolutely hate the group of dark wizards who calls themselves 'Reapers'. Father told me that they'll come after you one day and that I have to keep an eye on you if I could."

"I actually wanted to refuse but he said I can decide after meeting you," Zeke smiled, "And when I met you, your personality was very much to my liking that I decided instantly to take upon the offer if you were in Slytherin. And here you are, in Slytherin."

"Anything else?" He asked looking at Lyra who was still taking in the information that Zale just dumped upon her.

It took her a little while but she finally decided to show him her wand's real appearance and her mark, "Look, this is the secret that no one else other than my mum and Dumbledore knows. This is very important. If you reveal it—"

"I'd be dead before you even try to kill me. We made a vow, remember?" Zale interrupted her and she just nodded at him and proceeded to remove the wand ring and her bracelet.

Zale observed both, "So what exactly does this mean? What is so special about these two that they should be hidden?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out too. But the Sorting hat seems to know something," Lyra proceeded to tell him about the 'things', and Silver Phoenixes.

=======

A/N:

This chapter might seem like a filler, but it is not. It is necessary. Every little change is necessary.

There was no way other than this to stop Harry from becoming powerful earlier on & to stop Lyra from getting involved in the whole Philosopher's Stone business. I feel bad for ruining the relationship between Lyra & Harry, but they'll make up later.

And I needed a trigger so that Zale would tell Lyra a little about his origin and they needed to know each others' secrets for the plot to progress. So there it is...

As for why I needed Peeves in the equation, you guys will know that in a few chapters.