It was hard to believe Mad-Eye was dead. I had never known him very well, but he had always been a figure of strength to me. If it was Mad-Eye now, who was next? This was certainly not the first of the many dangerous Order tasks that would be carried out.

But as always, other events went on. Dora and I had both been invited to the wedding of Bill and Fleur, and she insisted on going. She said it would be good for me to get out of the house for a while. I hoped she was right.

It was the day of the wedding. Dora had forced me into a pair of her old dress robes, which were bright blue and not too extravagant, just how I liked them. Nevertheless, wearing dress robes did not suit my mood at all, and I went to the wedding wanting nothing more than to get it over with.

Remus met up with us at the house and together the three of us Apparated to the Burrow. Once there, we lined up outside a marquee entrance with a large group of people. I saw Ron, Fred, George (my stomach flipped when I saw his missing ear), and a curly-haired redheaded boy who looked like another Weasley.

"Oh, that must be Harry," Dora said. "Arthur said he was here in disguise."

Remus grunted in reply; I looked at him and saw that he was looking unhappy and down. We walked up in the queue; the Harry-in-disguise greeted us and showed us where to go. As we walked to our seats, which were in rows of golden chairs, I looked around to see who was there. Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, the rest of the Weasleys, and several veela-looking girls stood out  in the crowd.

There was a face I hadn't been expecting. I pointed him out to Dora.

"Look, Dora; there's Krum."

"Krum? The Krum, the Quidditch player?"

"Yes, look, he's over there. See him talking to Hermione?"

"Oh ... yeah, that is him. Hey, Lyra, I'm going to talk to Mrs. Weasley. Stay here and I'll be back in a second. Come on, Remus."

She walked off with Remus behind her. I was almost tempted to laugh. The fact that Krum was here had not affected her one bit. With longing I remembered the Quidditch World Cup three years ago, back when everything had been all right. Why couldn't it have stayed like that? It had been before Voldemort's return, when everything had been peaceful, calm, quiet ... the way I wished it was now. Three years ago had never seemed so far away.

I realized that I was staring at the ground with my face in my hands; my elbows on my knees. I felt someone staring at me and looked up. Three of the veela-girls in the row in front were looking down at me with unreadable expressions. When they noticed me looking, they turned away quickly and began to whisper among themselves in French. I gave a huffy, annoyed sigh and leaned back in my chair with my arms crossed.

Dora and Remus returned and the wedding began shortly after. I wasn't focused on the ceremonial words that linked Bill and Fleur together for life because I was thinking about the girls who had whispered about me. They weren't doing anything of the sort now - in fact, they were wrapped up in the ceremony.

After Bill and Fleur were officially linked, we were told to stand up. The chairs vanished and the place turned into a dance floor. Tables and waiters with trays of food and beverages appeared.

Dora turned to Remus. "Ooh, we should dance!"

Remus looked reluctant but still walked to the dance floor with her. I left the area and sat down at a table, grabbing a pumpkin juice from a waiter. I sipped it slowly as I observed the area. For some reason, I didn't like what I saw. Like always, everything was too joyful. I questioned myself - was I so determined to allow any sort of light to be pushed away by darkness? Shouldn't I have enjoyed the wedding while it lasts?

Well, there was no one for me to dance with and I wouldn't dance on my own like Luna Lovegood. I knew that if Theodore had been here with me, we would have danced, even though I was an awful dancer. The thought of him made my heart ache.

As I was lost in thought, I saw the three veela-girls pass me. One of them leered; the other two looked frightened. They hurried away, whispering to each other again.

"That's it!" I snarled to myself, startling the group of people at the next table. I nearly spilled my pumpkin juice as I stood up and hurried over to the girls with my wand out. They heard me approaching and spun around gracefully, though there was fear etched into their beautiful faces.

One of them gasped and whispered something to the others in French. Fortunately for me, I had picked up some French from Dora when she had returned from a two-month trip to France for Auror training and had recently began studying it in-depth (alongside advanced Transfiguration, Muggle literature, wizard cuisine, Healing, and of course, Astronomy - there was little else to do with so much time on my hands and Andromeda had a library full of books at home).

I pointed my wand at the middle girl's throat. "Parlez-vous anglais?"

All three exchanged shocked glances.

"Yeah, I speak a little French," I growled. "Big surprise, right? I heard you talking about me and I want you to know that if you have anything to say, you can say it without all the whispering. Go on."

"No, no!" one of the girls cried. "Nothing!"

I glowered at them, trying to decide whether I should leave, when a voice in the back of my head spoke.

"Leave them alone, Lyra."

I gasped. The three girls jumped, but I ignored them. I spun around, looking for him, but he wasn't there. It must have been my conscience speaking to me ... but it had spoken in Theodore's voice.

Slowly, I lowered my wand. "I'm ... sorry. I'll ... um ... leave now."

I walked toward Dora and Remus, my thoughts perplexed. Why had I heard his voice?

Dora switched her stare from Remus to me. She asked, "Is something wrong? You look upset."

"I'm fine. I'm just ready to go home."

"Well, I think we'll be leaving soon, so just - " She stopped unexpectedly and looked to where something bright and silver was appearing. It was that familiar lynx - Kingsley's Patronus.

"What's going on?" Dora whispered quietly. "That's Kingsley's - "

"Shhhh," Remus said softly. "Listen."

Everyone was staring at the silver animal now, which began to speak. "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming." [*]

They are coming ... who were 'they?' The Death Eaters? The Ministry workers who were for Voldemort?

I was immobilized as the scene around us changed. The Patronus disappeared and people began to scream and panic. Figures were beginning to Apparate everywhere, hooded figures in dark cloaks ...

Something heavy knocked me to the ground before I was crushed into darkness. A second later I was on the floor of the living room at home with Dora next to me.

"Dora - "

"No time, I have to go back and fight!"

"But wait - !"

"No! I'll be right back, I promise!"

She Disapparated just as Andromeda hurried into the room.

"Lyra, what's happening?"

"I don't know, but Kingsley's Patronus said the Ministry had fallen and that Scrimgeour was dead ... "

I trailed away. The Ministry, fallen, just as Andromeda had suspected.

Dora returned shortly after the attack and told us that they had evacuated everyone safely. Then time seemed to fly for the next few days as everything became darker and the Death Eaters took over more and more. Every day new guidelines were being issued in the papers. The Death Eaters had also taken over the Prophet.

"It's terrible," Andromeda moaned, nearly sobbing one afternoon. "How - how are we going to - ?"

She stopped; someone had knocked on the door.

"Get your wand out!" she demanded. "It could be them!"

I didn't hesitate for a second. We both walked to the door, expecting it to burst open and swarm with Death Eaters. But the voice on the other side was Ted's.

"'Dromeda, it's me," he said.

"Prove it," she said quietly but audibly.

"I'm Ted Tonks, Muggle-born, married to Andromeda Tonks, father of Nymphadora Tonks - "

"Anyone could give us that much!" I growled. "Give us real proof!"

"My Patronus is a walrus, and I learned how to conjure one in my seventh year at Hogwarts. Andromeda taught me how."

"It's him," Andromeda said as her trembling hands unlocked the door. Ted came in, pale and shaken, but happy nonetheless.

"Wow, Lyra ... " he said. "For a moment I thought you may have been a Death Eater on the other side of the door!" But he caught the look on my face and, clearing his throat, said, "But anyway ... I'm afraid I have some bad news regarding our daughter."

Andromeda's face went whiter than I had ever seen it go, and I had seen her worry almost every day of her life. "Ted, w - what ... you mean Nymphadora? Is she all right? What happened?"

"She's fine ... at least, I hope. I haven't seen her. No, I was talking about our other daughter."

"M - me?" I asked, pointing to myself. "But I'm not - "

"You're as good as, aren't ya?" he asked. "Lived with us for sixteen years ... but this is important. Look at this."

He placed a copy of the Daily Prophet on the kitchen table and smoothed it out. At the bottom of the first page was a list witches and wizards wanted by the Ministry. Harry Potter was first, but the fifth person listed was ...

"Me? But what did I do?"

"That's the thing - we don't know. It appears the Death Eaters want you, though."

"Oh, Lyra ... you must be terrified," Andromeda said as she pulled me into a hug. "I promise we'll protect you as best as we can. We'll put the Fidelius Charm on the house. You may not be able to leave for awhile - "

"I'm not scared," I lied, interrupting her rambling.

She released me and gave me an understanding but clearly concerned look. I broke away from her stare, not wanting my eyes to show my fear.

"You realize what this means, though, don't you?" Ted asked.

"Yeah," I groaned. "It means that if I'm caught anywhere outside this house, the Ministry will capture me and I'll be - "

"No, not that. You can't return to school if the Ministry's after you. The Death Eaters will take over Hogwarts, too, I'm sure. But even if they don't, the Ministry will know you're there and they'll come after you."

"Oh. That," I said. I had forgotten about returning to Hogwarts. It was going to be my seventh year, which was graduation year after all, and I did want to finish my magical education. I had never thought it would come to this.

"Lyra, if this war ends, then - "

"Yeah, but that's a long way off, isn't it?" I snapped. "Honestly, I couldn't care less about returning to school. Let everyone else graduate and go off into the world to get good jobs and I'll just ... I'll just ... "

"Lyra - "

"No. Forget about it. Forget everything. I can't return to Hogwarts, and that's that! Why would I want to anyway? You said the Death Eaters are going take over the school like they are with everything else!"

Andromeda and Ted exchanged dumbfounded expressions. I disregarded this and ran upstairs to my bedroom.