Lyra hadn't been sure what to say to make Harry, Ron and Hermione realize just how horrible life had been during the war. She had suppressed a bit of the fear and pain they'd all felt, all the tension she was surrounded by. She knew it wasn't easier for anybody else, either. Actually, she'd had it quite easy compared to many others.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, seeing that Sirius didn't seem sure of what to say yet. The three teenagers were all looking at them quite expectantly, wanting to know what they were in for if things would continue like it had been during the Quidditch World Cup.

"It was a dark time," Lyra started hesitantly. "There was a lot of pressure on everyone from the Dark Side. People were dying and being tortured. A lot of people who were raised in the same community as Sirius and I didn't have much of a choice to join them. I never did, not officially. Got to know a lot about it though, tried to stay out of it but the war didn't let anybody stay innocent."

"That's how it was for you," Sirius nodded. "It was a bit different from me after I left home. Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves."

"You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends," he continued. "Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing. the Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere... panic... confusion... that's how it used to be. Well, times like that bring out the best in some people, and the worst in others."

"No one's a better example of that then Crouch," Lyra added. "He used to be like any one of us, trying to do good and with strong morals. But he was so against the Dark Side that he lost all of them. Those around me weren't scared of a lot of people, but a few were scared of him. He was the one who went to the most extreme measures against them."

Sirius nodded grimly. "The Aurors were given new powers. Powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to the Dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark side."

"There were a lot of mixed emotions about Crouch," she said. "A lot of people thought he was the only one who had the guts to do what was needed to stop the war. It had been going on for years, people were sick and tired of having to look over their shoulders and sleep with one eye open."

"There were a lot of witches and wizards clamouring for him to take over as Minister for Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until Crouch got the top job. But then something rather unfortunate happened," Sirius said. "Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power."

Lyra looked away, knowing exactly who those Death Eaters had been. She had watched one of them run off to do it after all and hadn't seen him since. "Good old Barty Crouch Jr. Two years below us at school. Slytherin, of course."

Sirius threw a chicken bone to Buckbeak, grabbing a loaf of bread instead. "Nasty little shock for old Barty, I'd imagine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with his family, shouldn't he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while, got to know his own son."

"Was his son a Death Eater?"

"Definitely. There's no doubt in my mind. Was taken under the wing of Sirius's brother, Regulus, at school. Was introduced to it there. Regulus is long dead now, but..." Lyra trailed off, exchanging saddened glances with her cousin.

"I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in," Sirius added, trying to remove all thoughts of his late brother. "This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out. The boy was definitely caught in the company of people I'd bet my life were Death Eaters."

"Did Crouch try and get his son off?" asked Hermione quietly, her voice almost just a whisper.

"Crouch let his son off?" Sirius scoffed. "I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione? Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go, he had dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister for Magic. You saw him dismiss a devoted house-elf because she associated him with the Dark Mark again. Doesn't that tell you what he's like?"

"Crouch's fatherly affection stretched just far enough to give his son a trial and, by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show how much he hated the boy..." He shook his head. "Then he sent him straight to Azkaban."

Harry, who'd had a fear of Dementors for over a year, frowned. He couldn't imagine anyone wishing those horrible creatures on someone they had once cared about. "He gave his own son to the Dementors?"

"That's right," Sirius nodded. "I saw the Dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can't have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet after a few days, though... they all went quiet in the end, except when they shrieked in their sleep."

"So he's still in Azkaban?" the bespectacled boy asked.

"No." Lyra looked to Sirius, hoping for some help. She hadn't thought about these things in years, so her memory was getting a bit fuzzy. "Died, didn't he? About a year after they brought him in?"

Sirius nodded at Lyra, which only made Harry more surprised. "He died?"

Sirius pursed his lips. "He wasn't the only one. "Most go mad in there, and plenty stop eating in the end. They lose the will to live. You could always tell when a death was coming, because the Dementors could sense it, they got excited. That boy looked pretty sickly when he arrived. Crouch being an important Ministry member, he and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit."

He closed his eyes for a moment at the memory. "That was the last time I saw Barty Crouch, half carrying his wife past my cell. She died herself, apparently, shortly afterwards. Grief. Wasted away just like the boy. Crouch never came for his son's body. The Dementors buried him outside the fortress, I watched them do it."

"Crouch's whole life was slowly falling apart..." Lyra trailed off, remembering how much of a scandal it was. While she had other things to focus on back then, she could still remember it well. "Well, he didn't become Minister, as you well know."

Sirius nodded briefly. "One moment, a hero, poised to become Minister for Magic. Next, his son dead, his wife dead, the family name dishonoured, and, so I've heard since I escaped, a big drop in popularity. Once the boy had died, people started feeling a bit more sympathetic towards him, and started asking how a nice young lad from a good family had gone so badly astray. The conclusion was that his father never cared much for him."

"Fudge got the job then." the blonde explained. "Had connections and no scandals to his name. These connections, including Lucius, all convinced him to shove Crouch in a less than stellar position. That's why he's been sent into the Department of Magical Cooperation."

They were all silent for a good minute, taking in all the new information. Finally, Harry spoke up, having more to say about Crouch. "Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark wizards."

"It's become more a mania, actually," Lyra corrected, nodding while deep in thought. "He's always making people knock on doors, looking for information about the Dark Arts. He wants to get back his popularity, thinks getting the Death Eaters once and for all will do it for him."

"And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" Ron exclaimed, just glad to have contributed.

Sirius nodded slowly, as if he heard about that before. Lyra hadn't, but she supposed that was just Lucius trying to keep things from her as usual. "Yes, and that doesn't make any sense at all."

The Weasley boy nodded eagerly, seeming very excited at the idea of their Potions Master being that one big arrest. Maybe he'd get better marks in the subject then. "Yes, it does!"

The Black man didn't seem to agree. "Listen, if Crouch wants to investigate Snape, why hasn't he been coming to judge the Tournament? It would be an ideal excuse to make regular visits to Hogwarts and keep an eye on him."

"So you think Snape could be up to something then?" Harry asked, though not exactly disliking the idea of their teacher getting lost and possibly arrested after all the bullying he'd been doing to Gryffindor.

Hermione sighed, annoyed. She didn't care much for Snape, but she wasn't about to accuse him of being a dark wizard that they could get locked up. "Look, I don't care what you say, Dumbledore trusts Snape-"

"Oh, come off it, Hermione," Ron rolled his eyes, seeming quite impatient, "I know Dumbledore's brilliant and everything, but that doesn't mean a really clever Dark wizard couldn't fool him-"

"Why did Snape save Harry's life in the first year, then? Why didn't he just let him die?" the young girl retorted, though surprising Lyra who hadn't heard anything about Harry's life being in danger during the kids' first year.

"I dunno. Maybe he thought Dumbledore would kick him out-"

"What d'you think, Sirius, Lyra?" Harry cut them off, having enough of their bickering in his every day life. This was one of the only moments he'd had with either of them and he'd like to actually spend them talking to them, especially when one of them was his godfather.

"I don't trust Snape any further than I can throw him," Lyra said firmly, shaking her head. "He's always been a bit shady, but... I'd say we can trust Dumbledore more than we can mistrust him."

'I think they've both got a point. Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was," Sirius muttered, which only made Harry and Ron exchange grins.

"Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters." He looked to his cousin. "Your gang of friends, wasn't it, Lyra?"

"I didn't know they'd be Death Eaters, Sirius," she said coolly, knowing he'd never liked her hanging around with them. "They were just my friends, my housemates. I didn't realize most of them would end up like them did. I would have stopped them if I did."

"Rosier- you remember him, I'm sure, and Wilkes. They were killed a year before Voldemort fell," Sirius informed the teenagers, making Lyra frown at the memory of the creep known as Evan Rosier. "The Lestranges, they're a married couple, they're in Azkaban. Lyra's sister and her husband."

"Your sister?" Harry asked, looking at Lyra. He could faintly remember hearing something about a sister when they were in the Shrieking Shack. What he heard wasn't good. "Wait, not the sister who..."

The blonde clenched her jaw, remembering mentioning the torture she had received at her sister's hand once she told her she was in love. "That's one. There's three Lestranges, actually. My brother-in-law's brother. Rabastan, old friend of mine."

"Always hated that git," Sirius muttered, but continued before anybody could say something. "There's also Avery. From what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius curse, he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater."

"A lot of them were never caught, actually. More than you'd think," Lyra told the three teenagers. "Snape's got cunning, though. Clever too, though I don't like to admit it. He's got connections in high places. That's enough to keep him out of any trouble."

"Snape knows Karkaroff pretty well, but he wants to keep that quiet," Ron said, adding in the name of another well-known Death Eater, though one Lyra hadn't ever really talked to, thankfully.

"Yeah, you should've seen Snape's face when Karkaroff turned up in Potions yesterday!" Harry added eagerly. "Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape's been avoiding him. Karkaroff looked really worried. He showed Snape something on his arm, but I couldn't see what it was."

"His arm?" Lyra asked quickly, exchanging worried glances with Sirius at the fact that he showed him his arm of all things. She was sure it had been the left. He raised an eyebrow at her, as if to ask if Snape had ever gotten the Dark Mark. She nodded slowly. She had been there herself when he had gotten it.

"Well, I've no idea what that's about," Sirius quickly said, thinking it wasn't the best idea to tell them about Snape, especially if seemed to be distancing himself from it. "But if Karkaroff's genuinely worried, and he's going to Snape for answers..."

Lyra didn't know what to think of Snape nowadays, if he was still on the Dark side or not. It had't ever been easy, not even with him to see where someone's true alliance was. Lyra knew that better than most. "I'd say you should try to trust Dumbledore. If he trusts Snape, then we have no other choice than to do the same."

"There's got to be a reason why Moody and Crouch are so keen to get into Snape's office," said Ron, still holding onto the belief that Snape was evil incarnate.

"Well,' said Sirius slowly, 'I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to have searched every single teacher's office when he got to Hogwarts. He takes his Defence Against the Dark Arts seriously, Moody. I'm not sure he trusts anyone at all, and after the things he's seen, it's not surprising."

Lyra let him continue, having known Moody much better back in the day. "I'll say this for Moody, though, he never killed if he could help it. Always brought people in alive where possible. He was tough, but he never descended to the level of the Death Eaters."

"This thing with Crouch is a lot more curious though..." the blonde woman trailed off. "If he's as ill as everybody says he is, then I can't see why'd bother searching Snape's office. And if he's not then I don't get what he's up to, especially as he didn't show up in the Top Box at the World Cup and hasn't come to judge the Tournament. What's he been doing instead?"

"You say your brother's Crouch's personal assistant?" Sirius asked Ron, who looked a bit surprised at being the one he was talking to. "Any chance you could ask him if he's seen Crouch lately?"

"I can try," the redheaded boy responded, though not seeming to think it would be successful. "Better not make it sound like I reckon Crouch is up to anything dodgy, though. Percy loves Crouch."

"And you might try and find out whether they've got any leads on Bertha Jorkins while you're at it," Sirius added, gesturing to the other Daily Prophet they'd been looking at, talking about her disappearance.

"Bagman told me they hadn't," said Harry.

"Yes, he's quoted in the article in there," said Sirius, nodding at the paper. "Blustering on about how bad Bertha's memory is. Well, maybe she's changed since I knew her, but the Bertha I knew wasn't forgetful at all, quite the reverse. She was a bit dim, but she had an excellent memory for gossip. It used to get her into a lot of trouble, she never knew when to keep her mouth shut. I can see her being a bit of a liability at the Ministry of Magic... maybe that's why Bagman didn't bother to look for her for so long."

Lyra furrowed her brows, trying to remember the girl from her Hogwarts days, but she supposed she was probably some older Gryffindor she never crossed paths with. "I don't even remember her, honestly."

Sirius sighed deeply, rubbing his tired eyes. They'd been talking for a while, he realized, and he had forgotten that they didn't have all the time in the world. "What's the time?"

"It's half past three," Hermione informed them, glancing at her watch.

"You should be getting back to school soon, then. Don't want you to miss dinner," said Lyra, knowing that it'd be quite suspicious if they didn't get back the castle in time.

"Now listen," Sirius looked at them all, but particularly at Harry. "I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission, it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."

"No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of Grindylows," said Harry cheekily, once again reminding Lyra too much of his father. She smiled a bit at this.

"I don't care," the Black man stated sternly. "I'll breathe freely again when this Tournament's over, and that's not until June. And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?"

Lyra snickered a bit at the nickname, remembering how she'd called him that when they were fifteen-sixteen. "I'll just apparate home then. No need to take that walk again, my feet are still aching."

"Wait," Sirius stopped her. He glanced at the kids for a moment, but spoke in a soft voice, wanting to catch up to her and talk a bit before she left again. "You're alright? Everything's good? Malfoy's not acting like a git?"

"He's always a bit of a git," she chuckled, but saw he wasn't in the mood to joke. "He's better than usual, actually. Has stayed a bit out of my way. I've been in touch with Remus, though. Been a bit of difficulty with Draco lately, but we're working it out."

"Right. Good." Sirius nodded, though sad they didn't have more time to catch up, having spent most of the time talking to the three teenagers, but he thought it was less suspicious to have one meeting than several. He hadn't even gotten to send her any letters like he had with Remus. "I've missed you."

Lyra smiled softly at him, wishing they'd had more time as well. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a quick embrace. "I've missed you, too. You have no idea how much. I love you."

"Love you, too," he whispered before pulling away. He straighetened himself out, looking at the kids who had just been watching awkwardly, not having heard the conversation. "I'll walk to the edge of the village with you, see if I can scrounge another paper."

Lyra watched as he turned into his Animagus form, back to a great black dog, and realized that it was actually time to leave. "I'll see you all around. It was good to see you. Good luck in the Tournament, Harry. I'll see if I can come out to the last task if I have the time."

"Sounds good," Harry smiled politely, saying a quick goodbye before she would apparate away. "See you around."

Lyra pet Sirius's head one last time, nodding and smiling sweetly at both Ron and Hermione before having to go back home, not knowing the next time she'd get to see Sirius. She just hoped it would be soon.

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A/N: I really just wanted Lyra and Sirius to reunite before OotP, so that's mostly why I brought her into this conversation. I just think he'd want to see her again, especially as he hasn't gotten to send her any letters, to worried that Lucius would be looking at her mail. Hope you enjoyed anyway, even if this was just the second part of what was supposed to be a superduper long chapter.