Lyra Cassiopeia Malfoy (née Black) hadn't been able to stop smiling since the news broke. While the rest of the Wizarding World were flying around in a frenzy, she was having the time of her life. She was probably the only one who was happy that convicted (supposed) mass-murderer, Sirius Black, had escape from Azkaban.

Draco Lucius Malfoy had been a bit concerned, but knew he would be safe. He had grown up thinking that Sirius Black was a famed Death Eater from the stories he heard from his father, the ones he was only told when his mother wasn't around. He knew she was cousins with the man, but not much else about their relationship. He only supposed they hadn't been close.

Lucius Malfoy had been angry beyond belief. After all his efforts, he had not been able to contain the threat of Sirius Black. That man and his imprisonment had been a constant reminder he could hold over his wife's head when he needed to have some leverage over her. Now he didn't feel like he had any, other than the fact that he could still call upon the mysterious killing of someone she had once loved.

But even all the anger in the world hadn't been able to keep his wife from smiling brightly for days, nothing looking like it would be able to bring her down. Draco didn't know if he'd ever seen his mother so happy.

The only issue was that the Malfoys, a usually dysfunctional family, were fighting more than usual because of it. Draco was usually kept out of it, but he could hear them screaming at each other in the middle of the night when he was sleeping. He never mentioned that he heard. He didn't want to tell anyone.

"You know why this isn't good, Lyra! I don't care about your personal feelings on this matter," Lucius fought with her for the millionth time. "If anybody finds out the truth, then too many things can be found out!"

His blonde wife scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest. "Well, you may not care about my personal feelings but I also don't care about your dumb lies! I hope this will reveal the truth! He deserves the truth being revealed."

"He's a murderer!" the thirty-eight-year-old man exclaimed, looking at her incredulously. No matter what way they put it, it was true in the eyes of their entire world. They couldn't argue with it. "An evil murderer!"

"And you're not? We've all done horrible things, Lucius. Even me. Things I can't ever forget," Lyra said darkly, haunted by memories of screams and blood caused by a curse she was forced to cast against her will at only seventeen. "He has never been anything but a good person."

"Have you forgotten what he can be capable of?" he asked, having his own very biased opinion on the escaped convict, considering a close, personal friend of his had a childhood grudge against him. "Severus says he once tried to kill him."

"Did Severus ever mentioned that he tried to get me killed along with him?" asked Lyra, raising an eyebrow. She could remember that night very clearly, and even though she hadn't ever told her husband (because of secrets that weren't hers to tell), she still wasn't going to let him get away with using a just one side of the story against her.

"That doesn't matter!" Lucius retorted, though that was new information to him. He sounded a bit less sure, mentally noting that he should ask his good friend Severus about it the next time he saw him. "It still happened!"

"I'd say it matters. I call your sources into question. The day I trust a word that comes from the lips of Severus Snape is the day I fall in love with you!" she responded sarcastically, smirking smugly.

"How funny," Lucius rolled his eyes. "I'd trust Severus with my life."

"I'd trust Sirius with mine," said Lyra, her chin raised high in pride. For years, she hadn't wanted to stand up to him, knowing what he was capable of. But she was getting sick and tired of all of it, and she felt proud of herself for being able to actually argue.

Lucius wasn't quite as happy with her newfound defiance, not knowing how far it could go. "You don't know who he is now. Azkaban can ruin even the most innocent souls. He's surely a madman."

"The only reason I don't know is because you've refused to let me visit!" the woman reminded him. "I've tried many times. I've shown more kindness to you than you deserved because I've had hope that you would realize the errors of your ways. To let me see a man that was family."

"He was. Now, the only family you have lives in this very house!" Lucius hissed, pointing a finger in her face just to dramatically show off his anger. "You'd do well to remember that!"

"You never let me forget!" she yelled in return, so many years of anger being pent up. "You never let me forget any of what you have done, the way you have ruined everything and can ruin even more. What a family we are."

"However difficult our family is, we are still family. I appreciate that, I respect that. You did once, too." He could remember the times when they could almost seem like a happy family, until the day the Dark Lord disappeared.

"I have given you much more respect than you deserve!" Lyra retorted. "I was kind and sweet and trusting and you used that to your own benefit! I was eighteen when you convinced me that I should marry you. I was naive. A child."

"I never manipulated you," he scoffed, feeling like she kept villainizing him. "I gave you an opportunity, one which you took. Don't blame me for you accepting my proposal. You could have easily declined."

"If it weren't for the fact that you gave me Draco, I wish I would have," she responded coolly.

He stiffened at this words. He knew that it was how he felt and she had hinted at it many times, but she had never said them out loud. "How many times do we need to have this argument? How many years will it take for you to realize that what's done is done?"

Lyra looked right into his eyes. "Until I die, I'd say."

Lucius clenched his jaw, annoyed. Things had been perfectly alright until all this had happened as a reminder of the worst thing he had done to her. "Just because you helped that horrid man escape from Azkaban-"

"How many times do I have to say it? I had nothing to do with it! I have no idea how he escaped," she cut him off, frustrated. "How could I even do that? You know where I am at basically all times. I'm not exactly doing anything with my life."

"Stop being bitter, Lyra," the blond man spat, glaring heatedly. He showed clear disdain against her, or just her attitude against him if nothing else. "You knew what you were getting into by marrying me."

Just because he told Lyra to stop being bitter didn't mean that she would stop being bitter. Bitterness had been her closest friend since she had graduated Hogwarts. "Fourteen years of misery, you mean."

"That's enough," he said firmly, trying to use all the authority he naturally emitted to silence her. He wasn't sure if it would be enough. "You're being hysterical. Things were alright until all this happened. I know you blame me for Sirius Black's fate-"

"Because it was your fault! Who else is to blame?" she asked rhetorically. They both knew that Sirius would have had a fairer chance if it wasn't for him. "And things may have been alright but they haven't ever been good. That's not what a marriage is supposed to be."

"What do you want from me? Done is done! Life is what it is." Lucius knew their marriage was far from perfect, and definitely not what he had imagined when he had proposed to the pretty, young girl who seemed desperate for protection. "You are my wife and you will never stop being my wife."

Lyra gaped at the question. He hadn't ever asked her that before, so she hadn't ever thought about it. She didn't think she would ever get so far as to make him ask what she wanted. "I don't know."

"I can't do this anymore. I'm tired of having this argument," he sighed, uncharacteristically running his hands through his slick, blond hair. "Tomorrow, when you bring Draco to the station, I won't be going with you."

Lyra's anger then faded as her face fell, turning into sadness for their son. "You can't do that. Draco will be heartbroken that you're not going to support him. You won't get to see him until Christmas. Don't take your anger with me out on our son. He's innocent in all this."

"I'm doing this for Draco! I know I won't be able to keep myself from arguing with you and I don't want to do so in front of him." Lucius wasn't in the mood for any more of this, only turning to walk away. "I'll sleep in one of the guest rooms tonight. Good night, Lyra."

Lyra cursed to herself at this. It was the exact reason she hadn't ever wanted to pick a fight with her husband before, because she didn't want it to affect Draco. Now it did, and she already regretted it.

She had just been so angry, because she shouldn't have to be happy that Sirius had escaped from the horrible prison. He wasn't supposed to have been in there in the first place. He was innocent, she was sure of it. She just didn't really know what to do when her defending him would turn into pain for her son.

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Lyra felt bad, being the only one following a thirteen-year-old Draco into King Cross Station, where most children were led in by both parents, perhaps even with an array of siblings. Draco didn't have any siblings. She had always felt that was the best choice for the family, until she caught him longingly looking at the Greengrass sisters, who were giggling together and looking quite happy to go into their third/second year at school.

She tried to focus on her son's sadness, although it hurt. It was better than to constantly be reminded of her own pain as she saw all the wanted posters, asking for information about crazed murderer Sirius Black. The man in the picture didn't look like the boy she had known. The boy she grew up with, who she played hide and seek with, who gave her her first cigarette.

She sighed and turned back to her look at her son, to make sure he had everything before boarding the train. They usually came a bit earlier than most families, just so Draco could get his favorite compartment. It was the same thing her and her family used to do when she was his age.

But as she did, she caught sight of a person she thought she would never see again. She was sure her face fell quite dramatically, all blood draining from her cheeks. He hadn't seen her, because he didn't seem to react to her presence. No matter, what he should react when seeing her. She just didn't know if it would a positive or negative reaction.

Lyra hurried to turn back to Draco, who seemed quite unbothered and hadn't noticed what she was looking at. She knew he was faking his nonchalance, probably wondering why his father hadn't come but not daring to ask. "Right, well, you better get on the train."

Draco looked at her strangely. She hadn't ever seemed so stressed for him to board the Hogwarts Express. "I have plenty of time before the train leaves, mother. And none of my friends are even here yet."

"Just go!" the woman snapped at him, but instantly regretting it. She took a breath to calm down, quickly kissing his head and smiling sweetly. "Go and get a good compartment, more people seemed to have come early this year. Go on and have fun this year. I love you."

She watched Draco mutter to himself about how must be going mad. She didn't quite appreciate the rudeness, but she didn't have time to scold him about it if she was going to catch the person she had seen before they left.

Lyra hurried towards the person, who was wearing tattered, old robes and holding a battered old suitcase. But there was no way for her to mistake who was standing in front of her. "Remus? Is that you?"

"Lyra?" Remus Lupin breathed, frowning. It was strange, seeing her again, older than he remembered her. Older than she was in any of the pictures of their youth together. "What are you doing talking to me?"

The blonde woman looked almost concerned as she looked at him. He had always been scarred, but looked like he had been punishing himself for his own loneliness for last fourteen years since she had seen him. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I'm not the right sort for you and your... kind of wizard, am I?" he asked. She winced at this, not used to hearing that sort of poison in Remus's voice. At least, not directed towards her. "Where's your husband?"

The way he referred to Lucius didn't make her feel any better either. She knew full well that he didn't support her choice in marrying him. She didn't support the choice she had made when she was younger either. "We're not really in a good place. Not that we ever have been."

"I'm sorry," Remus responded, though not seeming very sorry at all. It almost looked like he wanted to say that their friends had all told her that marrying him would be a horrible idea. They had been right, obviously.

"That's not your fault. It's no one's fault but mine if I'm being honest," she chuckled softly, not knowing what to say. "So, what are you doing here? Is there an eleven-year-old Lupin somewhere that I don't know about?"

He suddenly looked much older than she had first thought. They were only in their early thirties, and due to stress it looked like he was nearing forty. She, due to her nice lotions and fancy ointments, looked younger than most their age. "No. Actually, I'm the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor."

"Just like you've always wanted," Lyra said, beaming with pride. She then realized that Remus thought it was quite awkwardly said of her and she looked away. "You'll be very good at it, I know you will. You taught me some important lessons in the subject. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have gotten an O in my N.E.W.T.s."

Remus, who up until now had seemed strangely cold towards her, smiled a bit, fondly recalling some of his best memories with Lyra. When he had been teaching her the Patronus Charm, telling her to believe in herself. He wished she had. "Do you still know how to cast it?"

"I don't know. I haven't tried in years," she sighed. She had often thought about attempting it, to prove to herself that she hadn't become a horrible person just because she had become colder throughout the years. She had to become colder to adjust to her life. She wasn't sure if she would be able to find those happy memories she had once thought of, anyway.

"Right," he nodded, realizing he should have expected that answer. He had seen her face in an odd news article in the Daily Prophet over the years. He could see that she didn't have the same happiness behind her eyes that she had when she finally managed the charm. "Of course you haven't."

"My son's in third year now. A Slytherin, of course. I hope he won't cause you too much trouble. He's a bit too much like his father sometimes," Lyra said just to change the subject. "Harry's in the same year. Harry Potter."

Memories of being a young man, meeting a little baby with bright green eyes and messy dark hair flashed before Remus's eyes. But those memories were also accompanied with images of those he had lost that fateful night in 1981. "You've met him?"

"A few times," the blonde revealed honestly. She sort of regretted it, seeing a dark shadow cast across his face. The same shadow that only used to come when someone would mention his condition when they were teens. His scars always looked more prominent then. "He's a good kid."

"Right. Of course you have." Remus quite obviously didn't want to discuss the Potter boy with her, which she thought was understandable. She supposed he blamed her for James, the boy's father, for how he hadn't survived. Maybe he would have lived if she hadn't left him. "I, uh, should board the train. Don't want it to leave without me. It wouldn't be very teacher-like."

The train wasn't leaving for a long time. Lyra was a bit hurt, because that meant he just didn't want to talk to her. She did understand why, but that didn't mean it hurt any less. This man had once been her best friend, one of her favorite people in the world. Now they were nothing but strangers passing by at a train station. "Right. Eh, good luck."

"Thank you," he answered shortly, looking at her for a few second. He looked like he was hesitating, wanting to say something more. Because it had been clear she had missed him. Perhaps he had missed her, too.

There were so many things Lyra wanted to say in that moment. The things she didn't know if he knew. That she knew the path she had taken wasn't the one she was meant for. All parts of her life since she had met him pointed her towards happiness.

Because Lyra had fought, screaming and crying to be released from all the darkness within her life. But then the darkness returned, whispering empty promises of safety for her and those she loved. And, finally, she gave in.

She wanted to scream in face that she realized the lies of the darkness too late. That it helped nobody for her to choose the darkness. But it was truly too late. Not even the returning light of Remus Lupin could save her when it had had its hold on her for fifteen years.

As he turned to walked onto the train, Lyra sighed sadly. He had looked so old, so tired, so in pain. She was cruelly reminded of the time he had opened up to her, saying that there wasn't a moment he hadn't felt lonely until he met his best friends at school, the boys. Now they were all gone, and so was she.

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A/N: Sike to everyone who thought Lyra and Remus were gonna have a happy reunion. But this isn't the last time they'll see each other during POA. I love drama too much for that to be it.