Chapter Text
Waking up to two large amber eyes inches from her face caused Lya to yelp rather loudly and roll off the bed with her wand drawn. The whole of it was rather ungraceful given she landed on her bum and not her feet.
The large amber eyes of the wolf blinked at her as it tilted its head. Lya grumbled and sighed before looking across the bed.
Catelyn was back, looking at her, startled from whatever circle thing was in her hands.
Lya holstered her wand back on her arm before clearing her throat a bit.
“Hello”
“Are you alright?”, Catelyn asked concerned, glancing over what she could see of Lya with Lya still on the ground.
Honestly, her arm that Greyback scratched stung, her shoulder was tight, sore which means it was probably healing correctly, her ribs were killing her, and most of her muscles were sore, but from disuse or over use she wasn’t sure.
However, all she said was, “I’m fine”
Catelyn raised her eyebrow at the girl, who stood up holding her side wincing.
“Really, promise”, Lya said. Glancing down she noticed that she was dressed in a long night gown like thing. Weird.
“Did you know you bite the side of your mouth when you lie?”, Catelyn asked. Lya looked up and noticed Catelyn had set the circle thingy on the bed.
“Do I? That’s good to know, I guess”, Lya said glancing around the room before realizing her bag was on a little stand next to her.
“You did that when you were younger, as well”, Catelyn said with a melancholic fondness. Watching as Lya dug through the bag, Catelyn had to ask, “What are you doing?”, as Lya reached into the bag up to her shoulder.
“Looking for dittany”, Lya said. “Aha”, She said triumphant as she pulled the little bottle out of the bag.
“What is dittany?”, Catelyn asked, looking a little suspicious of the bottle.
“ Origanum is its other name, it’s a magical medicinal plant”, Lya said pulling the shoulder down a little before looking at the tent flap.
Glancing at the wolf who was still watching her, she gestured her head at the tent’s entrance and the wolf seemingly knowing what she wanted, moved to sit right in the way of the entrance.
“Origanum, the riverlands has a good amount of those, most use them for cooking”, Catelyn said watching as Lya began undoing the binding on her shoulder, “What in the Seven do you think you’re doing?”
“Healing my shoulder, whoever bandaged it knew what they were doing, but this will work faster.”, Lya answered calmly, uncorking the bottle with her teeth and putting a few drops on the wound.
“Work faster? Young lady, you will get an infect-“, Catelyn stopped and stared as the wound sizzled and hissed sealing up right in front of her eyes. Lya winced and recorked the bottle, setting it on the table next to her bag. Rolling her shoulder and casting a wandless scourgify over where the paste, that someone had applied, was on her shoulder.
Catelyn stood and made her way around the bed, taking Lya’s shoulder gently into her hands. She examined it before looking at Lya.
“I trained under a mediwitch when school wasn’t in session”, Lya said, “Unofficially, of course, officially I wasn’t supposed to be training with her until after I had finished at Hogwarts, but she was a good friend of Aunt Minerva’s.”
“You learned a lot where you were”, Catelyn stated quietly. Lya just shrugged a little, before sitting to undo the arm Greyback had scratched.
Catelyn watched her struggle before sitting on the bed next to Lya with a resigned sigh, gently taking her arm, and unwrapping the bandage for the struggling girl.
“Thanks”, Lya said quietly as she uncorked the dittany again and placed a few drops on the wound. The wound steamed more than the other had. Lya couldn’t hold the hiss from between her teeth as the cursed wound sealed itself, though stayed a set of bright pink claw mark scars wrapped on her arm.
“This one didn’t heal the same”, Catelyn said looking at it.
“It won’t, the wound itself was infected to an extent. It won’t be an issue, it’ll just stay scar tissue” Lya shrugged. She was expecting it and honestly wasn’t going to cry about it. She saw Bill Weasley’s scars from Greyback, it could be worse. She could’ve been a werewolf had it been a full moon the night of the battle.
“Most girls I know would have a fit, with scars like that”, Catelyn said watching Lya, probably trying to figure her out.
Maybe she had been different before her memory loss, oh well.
“Most girls you know probably haven’t spent the last year fighting a war”, Lya answered simply standing to place the dittany back in the bag. She kept her back to Catelyn as she dug around for clothes.
“What are you looking for now?”, Catelyn asked watching Lya from the bed.
“Clothes, can’t wander out of here in a nightgown, I mean I could, but I feel that would not be appropriate given the situation”, Lya answered pulling out another set of black fitted trousers (She preferred them to the school skirts most of the time) and a light blue sweater.
It was cold.
“And trousers are appropriate?”, Catelyn asked incredulously.
Lya looked over at Catelyn and saw a disapproving stare to match the tone.
“It is back where I was”, Lya argued pulling out her wand. “They’re easier to fight in anyways.”
“You won’t be doing any fighting”, Catelyn argued standing next to Lya now.
Lya turned so that they were facing each other. Lya realized she got her eyes from this woman, her dark hair most likely coming from Ned.
“Funny, that’s what I was told before the war began”, Lya said flicking her wand to change her clothes.
Catelyn didn’t have anything to say to that, Lya wondered if she had been this argumentative when she was younger. Maybe the personality difference was the reason for Catelyn’s shock.
Might not be the best time to ask.
Lya did transfigure the sweater a little to make it more like a short dress that ended just above her knees with a belt over the top and the dark trousers underneath, which made Catelyn look less disapproving so Lya figured she could work with this compromise.
At least she could still fight in this. She found her boots by the front of the cot and sat on the ground to put them on.
“So, am I confined to the tent or can I go elsewhere?”, Lya asked as she finished tying up the last boot.
“What about your hair?”, Catelyn asked staring pointedly at Lya’s loose black curls.
Lya just shrugged. Sometimes she’d tie it back with a ribbon or a hairband to keep it out of her face, Aunt Minerva had taught her to put it in a cute low bun or chignon, but Lavender had been the queen of hair spells not Lya. Most of the time, Lya didn’t do much to it.
“I can do it for you, if you’d like”, Catelyn offered quietly.
“Will it look like Sansa’s”, Lya asked warily. If that was normal for hairstyles here, then Lya would happily stand out.
Catelyn gave her a small smile and shook her head, “No, that’s a popular style amongst Highborn ladies in King’s Landing but not in the North”
“Okay”
Either Northern hairstyles were just simple combinations of braids or Catelyn went easy on her. The top was French braided leaving half her hair down while keeping the rest out of her face. French braids she could do. Thank you, Gryffindor girls’ night.
The entire time, Lya kept her eyes closed, feeling Catelyn’s fingers twist and tug her hair, never too hard. She could swear she saw a stone walled room as Catelyn did her hair. Stones larger in shape than Hogwarts’s own, covered with furs on the floor and the bed, a fire roaring off to the side. There was a decorative trunk, with what looked like wolves in a forest, but it blurred like someone had smudged a picture with water on accident. She could swear she smelled a winter snow storm as well, along with leather and rose that was almost the same as the rose scented perfume she had used at Hogwarts. She never knew why but the roses always made her mind tug, like it was searching for something but wasn’t sure where to look.
“Thanks”, she said quietly after Catelyn had finished.
Catelyn nodded looking at Lya’s hair with a melancholic smile.
Lya watched her for a moment before asking, “Did you used to do my hair?”
“I did”, Catelyn said trying hard to not look overly hopeful. “Did you remember something?”
Lya stayed quiet for a moment, trying to decide whether she should tell her or not. What if it was just a fluke, a once off that wouldn’t happen again? Or a memory she wanted that wasn’t actually real.
Finally, she answered.
“Stones, a fire, lot of fur blankets and rugs, the smell of roses and leather mixed with what it smells like after snow falls.”, Lya said quietly, “There was a trunk with maybe wolves or trees
Catelyn gave her a fond smile, eyes still sad watching Lya struggle through her thoughts, “It sounds like your room at Winterfell”
“Oh”, Lya said, fiddling with the ends of her sleeve before reaching and grabbing her bag and crossing it over her shoulders. Lya had never had a memory like that before.
“So, elsewhere?”, Lya asked perking up a little.
Catelyn struggled to hide her smile.
**********************************
“Oof”, Lya said as a tiny little thing slammed into her.
“Arya”, Catelyn scolded gently.
The girl stepped back from where she was hugging Lya around the waist, “Do you really not remember us?”
“No, sorry”, Lya said with a wince.
“It’s alright, we’ll just make new memories”, the girl said determinedly, grabbing Lya’s hand and tugging her in the direction she had come from.
Lya couldn’t help smiling at the young girl’s positive attitude that her older sister had no clue who she was. The girl had obviously recognized her in King’s Landing, so Arya must remember Lya rather well, despite being pretty young.
“Hi, Red”, Arya says looking at the direwolf still following them. The wolf ignored the greeting.
“I think she needs a new name”, Arya said, “But none of us could figure one out that we all agreed on except for Red and even then, it didn’t feel right”
Lya looked back at the wolf that was following close behind, “maybe Athena”
That got a reaction out of the wolf, who looked directly at Lya when she said that. The red wolf moved closer and nudged Lya’s side, licking her empty hand in reply.
“Athena? I’ve never heard that name before”, Arya said before they arrived at a partially open tent where the other Starks were eating.
Ned and Robb were discussing what sounded like battle plans or maybe retreat plans. Sansa was pouting into her food.
She still had her hair up in that weird crescent roll style.
Arya dragged Lya to the opposite side of the table from Sansa, tugging her into sitting next to Arya. Athena/ Red slid in, dropping to lay behind Lya, followed by Catelyn who took the seat between Ned and Sansa.
The three who had been there already glanced up at the new arrivals. Most seemed shocked to see Lya there.
“We weren’t expecting to see you up just yet, Lyarra”, Ned said sending a curious look to his wife.
“Lya, and it was just a few flesh wounds” and a werewolf scratch, “It’s all healed, just took a little dittany is all”, she said nonchalantly, grabbing pieces of food off plates that Arya grabbed from as well. Best to trust a child’s taste buds for now. Most of the first years tended to be pickier than the older years.
“How could it be healed already? Your shoulder was cut deep, and your arm was shredded”, Robb asked brow furrowed looking over Arya’s head.
“Magic”, Lya shrugged biting a piece of what appeared to be dried meat.
“Magic? Your arm took the Maester hours to bandage without it bleeding through, how could it possibly be…. healed..”, Robb slowed as he stared at the now visible scarred arm that Lya had pushed the sleeve up on during his little rant.
“See? Healed.” Lya took another bite as Sansa finally spoke.
“Will you be stuck with the scar”
“Yep”, Lya said.
“That’s terrible”, Sansa said with big blue eyes watching Lya.
“Could be worse”, Lya said rolling the sleeve down.
“Worse?”, Sansa asked wide eyed like she couldn’t possibly imagine such a thing.
“Yea, I could be dead”, Lya said shortly thinking of Lavender who hadn’t been as lucky fighting Greyback.
“Lya”, Catelyn said using the same warning tone she had towards Arya earlier.
Lya looked at Catelyn but didn’t say anything. She wasn’t out to traumatize the girl but given the situation she could do with a bit of a reality check, in Lya’s opinion.
“What caused it”, Arya asked reaching to tug at the sleeve wanting to see the scars again.
“Arya, that is enough”, Catelyn said with a stern look that had half the power of Professor McGonagall’s. Her and Ned were whispering to each other, but Lya figured they had an ear on her and their kids. Or was it just their kids? Lya’s head was starting to hurt thinking about it.
The girl pouted and slouched down. Lya was grateful for Catelyn’s intervention, she didn’t really wanna discuss what caused her arm to be scarred like that. Especially not with someone Arya’s age.
“I see Red’s following you around”, Robb said trying to change the subject. Two sisters pouting must be hard for him.
He would be horrified to see the third and fourth-year girls’ dorms during a normal year. Someone was almost always crying about something there.
“You called her Athena earlier”, Arya piped up.
“Athena?”, Robb furrowed his brows again.
“She seemed to like it better than Red”, Lya said glancing at the wolf who had perked up a bit at hearing her new name twice.
“What does it mean?”, Sansa asked joining the conversation. Guess Lya was forgiven for her blunt statement, earlier.
“Athena was an ancient mythological goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and strategic warfare”, Lya answered.
Arya looked almost in awe at the name. “That’s a much better name than Red”, Arya said nodding vigorously.
Lya left out that Athena was the Grecian counterpart of the Roman goddess Minerva, not sure how that would be taken in this group.
Robb seemed to take offense to this but refused to comment outside of glaring at Lya when she whole heartedly agreed with Arya. It was easy for Lya to ignore.
They finished eating in silence after that, Lya occasionally slipping a piece down to Athena. Right as they all finished up, a man approached the tent with two teens showed up at the entrance.
“Howland”, Ned said standing up to face the man.
The three newcomers were dressed in primarily furs, instead of the armor that Lya had seen around. Howland was shorter than Ned, with a sandy brown beard and long hair that was tied back and ended a little past his shoulders.
The two with him were short as well, the girl being no taller than Lya and the boy being of a similar height.
“Ned”, the man greeted. “Thought I might make a trip, given how close you were.”
“Wish it was under better circumstances, old friend”, Ned said gruffly.
Howland nodded his assent before gesturing to the two next to him, “These are my children, My daughter, Meera Reed and my son, Jojen.”
Before Ned could introduce the rest of them, the boy turned to Lya. Staring at her with all-knowing eyes, Lya straightened and narrowed her eyes a little as he spoke quietly, “Hello, Lya McGonagall or is it Lyarra Stark?”
“Seer?”, Lya asked straight to the point. Sweet merlin please don’t be like Trelawney. Lya wasn’t even in the crazy bat’s class and she still managed to predict that Lya was going to die.
“Not like the one you met”, Jojen answered, solemn little guy.
“Not sure if I should be thrilled or wary”, Lya responded.
“I won’t falsely predict your death if that helps”, Jojen said giving a small smile.
“Thank you, I prefer not knowing”, Lya said dryly. She was not comfortable with this guy knowing things about her time in the other world when she didn’t even know who she was herself.
“Jojen, Sorry Ned, he’s being having dreams about her for a while.” Howland said trying to rein in his son.
“That’s not creepy at all”, Lya piped in sarcasm dripping off her tongue.
“At least I can’t invade a person’s thoughts”, Jojen fired back.
“No, just their privacy”, Lya said, “And for your information, I only do that with permission.”
“And-”
“Jojen” “Lyarra”
The pair of them went quiet turning to face Ned and Howland. Both men were looking disapproving at the pair.
“Apologies, Father”, Jojen said.
“Apologies”, Lya said towards Ned.
Both men accepted and turned back to each other.
“Could you keep an eye on anyone trying to come from the south? I feel the Lannisters aren’t done.” Ned looked graved at the idea. Lya was curious who the Lannisters were.
“We’ll keep them out but that still leaves your coastlines undefended.” Howland pointed out.
“We’ll be regrouping to see what we can do in that regard”, Ned said.
“Use Lya”, Jojen said.
“Use Lya how?”, Lya asked, staring hard at the seer-boy. His sister seemed to get a little twitchy with the glare Lya was shooting him.
“All I saw was stones with etchings.” Jojen said linking his hands behind his back, “Though I don’t know what they mean”
Stones with – “You mean like rune stones?”, Lya asked. If she could translate Luna speak, this kid should be easy.
Jojen nodded, “I think so, they were along a coastline creating a glowing wall.”
Boy wasn’t half bad if Lya ignored the whole peeping tom part. “You’re talking about warding stones, stones utilizing specific runes and magical energy in order to create a barrier”
“A barrier around what?”, Ned asked, finally breaking into the odd conversation Lya and Jojen were having. Glancing around every Stark except Ned was looking at her like she was speaking a foreign language.
“Anything, in theory”, Lya said, “Only limit’s time”
“Time?”, Ned asked. Lya figured he was thinking of how this might be able to work in their favor.
“I could probably carve a hundred ward stones in a day, but I’d only be able to complete fifteen to twenty within a day or two due to the amount of magic I’d have to weave into them.”
“Could it be used to keep enemies out?”, Ned asked furrowing his eyebrows.
“Yea, at least it would keep out those wanting to do harm. It would take a few calculations to make it so that associates were kept out as well”, Lya said.
“How long would something like that last?”, Ned asked.
“As is, as long as I’m alive. If I was to add three drops of blood from whatever family would be in charge of the wards, then it could last centuries to a few millennia if kept up properly.” Lya shrugged.
The looks of shock and slight disbelief was slightly enjoyable, if Lya thought about it long enough.
“How many would it take to cover 400 leagues?”
Thank Merlin warding books still used leagues and hadn’t switched to kilometers. It still took Lya a moment to do that math in her head, “I’d say anywhere between sixty to six hundred depending on the ward types. However, given that the people you’re wanting to keep out are not witches and wizards, I’d say closer to sixty or a hundred. Which would be one stone every .15 leagues to one stone every quarter league.” Lya explained.
Looking at her siblings, she realized they all had their mouths wide open.
“What?”
“How’d you do that?”, Arya asked breathily.
“Do what?”, Lya asked.
“Calculate all that in your head?”
“Practice?”, Lya answered uncertainly.
“Would you be willing to make some?”, Ned asked drawing her attention back to him.
“Yes, it’d take me a few weeks though”, Lya said.
“You have time”, Jojen assured. Lya scowled at the boy, who just gave her a small grin. Little brat knew he was irritating her.
“Ned, she doesn’t need to get involved with this”, Catelyn pleaded. Ned looked conflicted glancing at his wife.
“I want to help.” Lya looked at Catelyn before turning back to Ned. “I’ve made ward stones before, it’s not hard. It’s just time consuming.”
“Lya”, Catelyn started before Lya interrupted gently.
“If I’m focused on making warding stones, it’ll keep me out of any possible fighting. It’ll keep a lot of people from having to go to battle once they’re in place, as well.” Please listen, please listen, please listen.
“Very well” Thank you, Merlin! Lya did not want to have to go behind the woman’s back if she didn’t have to.
Ned and Howland continued discussing the situation, stepping away from the rest of the group. Jojen and his sister, Meera wondered away. Leaving Lya with the Stark mother and kids.
“Why do you know protective spells? Was it because of the war you mentioned?”, Robb asked looking at Lya.
Lya shook her head before realizing that she had every present Starks attention.
“There are spells to find people that you’re related to, however there are types of wards that can block any attempt at locating someone, really complex wards. The only way to figure out how to circumvent a ward is to know how the wards are made so I decided to learn how to make them myself.”, Lya explained not really looking at any of them. “Never worked out with the tracking spells but I learned a lot about wards in the process”
Arya wrapped her arms around Lya’s middle and buried her head into Lya’s shoulder. Lya wasn’t sure how, but the little girl seemed to know exactly why Lya learned without her having to say it. I learned them because I was trying to find you even when I didn’t know who I was looking for.
Lya wrapped an arm around the girl and buried her face in the girl’s wild black hair, almost identical to Lya’s own. Lya’s throat felt tight and her eyes stung a bit, but she managed to keep it under control, and enjoyed the comfort the hug brought her instead.
She’d have happily stayed there forever if she could’ve.