Magical Exhaustion

20 September 1991. Hogwarts Library.

3.00 PM

More than a week passed since they had found that secret chamber and Lyra had already gathered most of the ingredients needed for the ritual. But she still needed one of the most important ingredients: Graphorn's Horn.

From what she'd known Graphorns were wildly hunted for their hides that have high magical resistance than Dragon Hide. Only a pair were seen during the 1920s in wizarding Circus Arcanus. But Zale said that he can get it for sure from their private magical reserve and thus they were waiting for its arrival.

Not to mention the fact that she can't perform the ritual carelessly, the only ritual she had ever participated in was during the Samhain (Halloween) of every year. But that too, only her mother had conducted it. So, she had to study the ritual carefully and thus she was at the Library reading books related to rituals.

Simultaneously, she was also searching for information about Silver Phoenixes. She knew that the Silver birds she saw down at the Secret Chamber were most likely the Silver Phoenixes, despite that, she needed to know more about them.

She had already finished searching every book in the Magical creatures section, but couldn't find anything about them. While she was pondering on what to do next, she heard a girl's voice.

"What are you searching for? Seems like you come every day to this section?" A brown-haired Slytherin girl sat next to her.

Lyra had seen this fourth-year girl many times in their common room and she was rather famous for being a loner.

Her name seemed to be... Tiana Huxley.

This was the first time Lyra had seen Huxley up close and saw that she had grey eyes. As far as she knew, only the Blacks had Grey eyes. Maybe she was a distant relative?

Anyway, she seemed like a cool person to befriend.

"Well, I need information on a magical creature, but I can't find it anywhere," Lyra answered. It was as good as not saying anything. After all, no one would come to the Magical Creatures section to search for something about Transfiguration, would they?

Nevertheless, Huxley didn't seem to mind it and earnestly offered her advice, "You can go consult either Professor Kettleburn or Hagrid. It would be easier for you that way."

Lyra's eyes brightened, "Why didn't I think of that! Thanks, Huxley!"

"Call me Tiana, if you don't mind," Tiana smiled at her and Lyra nodded in response and went to find Professor Kettleburn.

When she reached the Care Of Magical Creatures Classroom, there were a few students and they informed her that Professor Kettleburn had gone somewhere for the weekend, saying that he had the chance to see some rare creatures.

Hearing that, Lyra had no choice but to look for Hagrid. She was rather resigned to wait until Professor Kettleburn's return as she wasn't confident in Hagrid's knowledge on that part.

Arriving at Hagrid's Hut, she knocked on the door. Once the door opened, an oversized boarhound dog pounced on her and started licking her. Lyra was extremely afraid of dogs. She didn't know why, but ever since she could remember, except for her father's pet dog, she was afraid of all other dogs.

(A/N: She's assuming that Sirius' animagus form is his pet dog since she doesn't remember him transforming in front of her)

"Ah... Let go of me!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and started pushing the dog aside, but it didn't budge.

Seeing that she didn't like dogs Hagrid intervened, and pulled the dog away from Lyra, "Fang! s'ep aside"

Fang seemed disappointed but nevertheless stepped aside. He went insideHagrid's Hut and sat near the couch.

Lyra stood up and put the cleaning charm on herself and then greeted Hagrid, "Hello, Mr Hagrid"

" 'ello Lyra, come in," Hagrid invited her into his hut and let her sit, "wan' a rock cake?"

"Sure, Mr Hagrid" Lyra could do with a rock cake now as she had been spending so long reading books.

Hagrid handed her a big one and Lyra tried to nibble on it only to fail. Rock Cake's surface is supposed to be hard, but not as hard as Hagrid's. Lyra could only inwardly groan and pretend to eat.

"How's y'er mum?" Hagrid himself ate a few Rock Cakes by that time.

"Mum's good. Just that she's busy with the ministry," she sighed thinking of her mum. Even though she was busy, she didn't forget to write them letters every few days.

"A brilliant witch she is," Hagrid said, "and yer mum's job is kinda tough".

"Yeah, I know," Lyra said but didn't forget about the thing she wanted to ask him about, "By the way, Mr Hagrid—"

Before she could finish, she was interrupted by Hagrid, "Drop that 'Mr'."

"Um, okay Hagrid, do you by any chance know anything about Silver Phoenixes?"

"Why are ya askin 'bout that?" Hagrid hadn't expected her to ask about something this unusual.

"I just need to know it for something Hagrid. It is very important to me"

"Silver Phoenixes are just a myth, Lyra. No one knows if they exist. Because no one can see 'em other than Silver Phoenixes themselves. However..." Hagrid paused, as he was in a dilemma on whether or not to tell her.

"Is it confidential or what?"

"No, it is not. But... The story I'm 'bout to tell ya is a very cruel one," Hagrid explained the reason but Lyra urged him to tell her regardless of that and thus he gave in and decided to gloss over a few cruel details in the story.

"There was once a weak wizard who desired more power than anyone else. It is not evil to desire power, but what he did went beyond humanity. He conducted experiments on muggles, squibs and wizards all alike and tried to increase his magical power through cruel dark rituals that needed many live sacrifices. His power grew and he was on par with the most powerful wizard of that time, but he desired power even more and looked for the perfect sacrifice. And one day he finally found it: Silver Phoenixes. They were said to have a large amount of magic in their magic core. Although they couldn't be seen, he researched for a way to detect their presence and hunted them down. But no matter how many rituals he did, it all failed and he didn't know the reason."

"And then?" Lyra waited for the continuation. She couldn't believe someone could kill those many people and those creatures too. Just imagining the scene gave her goosebumps.

"Then it was said that the Silver Phoenixes went extinct and that evil wizard died due to one of his failed experiments," Hagrid sighed. There were always a few wizards who committed evil acts in every century.

Lyra knew that they weren't extinct. But if what Hagrid said was assumed to be true, then those two silver phoenixes she saw in the secret chamber should be one of the last few alive.

After chatting with Hagrid for a while more, Lyra joined her friends for dinner and returned to her dorm.

After curfew, she sneaked out alone to the room of requirements and summoned a few duelling dummies to practice the exploding charm.

If her guess was right, then the one she would have to face would be that evil wizard or his successor that Hagrid mentioned. And probably that wizard must be the head of the Reapers Organisation that Zale mentioned. She wasn't so idle as to fight against evil, but she had already been brought into this mess the moment the phoenix mark appeared on her arm. She didn't know the reason why he'd look for her, but it must be somehow related to that Silver Phoenix mark.

It was likely that, even if she kept her nose out of it, she'll be killed by that wizard regardless.

Why bother avoiding? She would try to keep herself out of his radar as long as possible, but she'd also be prepared to face him in case she caught his eye.

Therefore she kept on practising until late into the night and only returned to her dorm around 5.30 AM the next day drowsily and immediately fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed.

.....

Lyra was standing near a bed, and she could see a silhouette of a woman lying on the bed. She knew this was a dream. She had been having this for as long as she could remember. She glanced at the person lying sick on the bed. She only knew that this person was very dear to her and that she was going to die. But no matter how she couldn't remember who this person was no matter how hard she tried. She wanted to hug that person every time she had this dream, but couldn't do that too. Tears uncontrollably rolled down from her eyes.

And every time, that person would finally say in a hoarse voice, "The three of you... *cough* *cough* live safely..."

It was the last sentence that person spoke before dying.

Lyra woke up with tears in her eyes. This would happen every time, and she didn't want to see that person die each time she had this dream. She didn't even know why she was having this dream.

...

It was Saturday that day and they had no classes. She was exhausted due to her heavy workload. Although Zale and Daphne advised her to take more rest, she didn't and pushed herself more and more. Seeing that she wasn't listening, Zale simply stopped her 'dodgeball training', but she used that free time to hone up her potion-making skills.

Besides, she practised the exploding charm over and over for hours the previous day. Nevertheless, she also knew all of this wasn't enough. She needed to improve herself in every possible way.

Gulping down the sandwich that Daphne had brought earlier from the Great Hall, she looked on her special notes on"Magical Decoctions". It was the theory on how even simple magical flow affects the effects and efficacy of the potion. It was advanced reading, but she liked potion brewing so much that she wished to be Professor Snape's Apprentice. Whether he'd agree or not was another matter altogether, but still... it wasn't a crime to have goals like that.

It wasn't advisable to brew potions without supervision. What's more, if an explosion occurred in one's dorm room, then they're done for. But since Lyra had specially made her trunk with several anti-explosion spells and other spells for her safety, it was safe and she proceeded on with brewing with various ingredients.

After making sure that she can brew the potion by following the recipe given in the textbook, she thoroughly searched all the uses and effects of the ingredients used. Then according to their effects, she modified the way the ingredient was extracted and she studied the effects under various conditions like heating, cooling etc,...

She was fascinated by how stirring worked. Clockwise stirring had one effect while anti-clockwise stirring had another effect.

By the time she came back to her senses, it was already 4.00 PM and she had missed lunch. She was very tired, but she had to meet with her friends so that they can have some snacks together. She went out to the common room and saw Daphne and Zale working on transfiguration.

Lyra waved at them as soon as she saw them but, the two of them had a shocked look on their faces as they looked over.

"What the heck have you been doing? Your face is so pale! And where have you been all this time? We searched for you when we left for lunch, but couldn't find you anywhere!" Daphne stood up from her seat as she asked her.

"Ah, nothing. I was just... you know...," Lyra scratched her head and looked down to avoid their eyes.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell us, but at least look after yourself. Come sit and have some water," Zale passed some water and beckoned her over to sit near them.

But before she could even walk over to them, Lyra fainted.

....

21st September 1991. Department Of Magical Law Enforcement, Ministry Of Magic.

4.15 PM

Amelia had a headache handling the Reapers' case. They had attacked the Nyx family head once again. Normally, this should have been handled by the Aurors, but since this is an international matter, the DMLE also had to cooperate with the Aurors Office in the investigation and their capture.

The Greece Ministry of magic was oddly not very cooperative in this incident and thus the investigation cannot proceed any further. They had to make do with the clues they already have.

At this moment, a silver ball of light flew towards her through her window.

Her mood sank immediately. Mostly, only the Order members used Patronuses to send messages in case of emergencies. It only meant that something bad had happened.

The light shone and Severus' voice came, "Lyra fainted due to magical exhaustion, Headmaster has given permission and my floo is open."

Amelia put everything down immediately and flooed over to Severus' office at Hogwarts.

Severus Snape was standing near the floo place, clearly waiting for her. Seeing him, Amelia anxiously asked, "What happened to her? Why magical exhaustion?"

"Now you ask why?" Snape sneered, "You asked her to have a face-off duel during Christmas break. What else would she do other than practice? As of late, she seemed incredibly exhausted that I was worried it would affect her during potions class. And when I examined her wand a few minutes ago, she had been performing the Exploding Charm more than a thousand times. It was the most recent spell I could detect. And she hardly took any rest at all. She's either in the library or is in the Room Of Requirements."

Seeing that Amelia was silent the whole time, Severus continued, "I'm surprised that she was able to hold on until a thousand spells. As the Exploding Charm is rather an advanced one, n above-average person would sustain only for about 250 spells only. She has incredible potential."

Amelia didn't want Lyra to be exceptional. She just wanted her to be safe.

She also didn't expect that Lyra would push herself too hard. She was to blame for this. If only she hadn't told her to prepare for the duel, this wouldn't have happened. Even if Herpo really came for Lyra, she would hide Lyra away and protect her. With all the adults around, he wouldn't be able to hurt her. So what if the whole wizarding world was to be damned by him? To her, her child was more important.