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Chapter Text

The day she was born, a year after her brother Robb and half brother Jon, and after a year of peace since the Rebellion, The North rejoiced and celebrated the newest little she-wolf’s arrival. The moon shined bright in a clear night sky above Winterfell and the skies stayed clear for days after.

The day she was stolen from her bed the night before her eleventh nameday, the halls of the Northern holdfasts were dark, the Northerners walked with heavy hearts, and the Starks mourned and raged their lost daughter and sister. Even the Old Gods cried for the lost little wolf, the skies weeping for weeks in the North.

For the lost little wolf was beyond the sight of the Gods, and none in Westeros would be able to bring her home.

Years later though, when a father was imprisoned, a daughter captive, and another missing, when a son marched South to free his family determined to not lose any more of his pack, when a mother raged silently against the injustice to her family,

When all seemed to be threatened and lost, a lost little wolf would return home, and the wolves would howl in joy once more.

Magic will return.

_________________________

The little hammock she had claimed in the Room of Requirement sat in the tallest corner of the room. The Room had been kind enough to provide holes within the walls for her to climb up to it and it gave the watchful girl the ability to watch the younger students carefully. Watch for those who hid their injuries trying to be brave and those who might try to harm themselves out of desperation. Not that the situation wasn’t desperate. Many of them had been hiding in the Room of Requirement since before October, almost all had lost somebody, many were orphans now, and some didn’t know if they had family hiding or if they were orphans too.

Lya knew what it was like to be alone in the world as an orphan, but her situation could’ve been worse if Professor McGonagall hadn’t taken her in and told the world that Lya was her niece.

Though Lya still wasn’t sure if she was an orphan, she couldn’t remember anything before her eleventh birthday. Except that the day she arrived was her birthday and that her name was Lya – something – she wasn’t sure about the rest, not even six years later.

Sitting in the top of the room she could see all the doors as well. This included the portrait door Neville had headed through to the Hogshead down in Hogsmeade moments before, Lya wasn’t sure on the reasons but it wasn’t for food.

It was thirty minutes after Neville had left that he returned with the Golden Trio in tow. An hour later, Lya was helping Seamus and a few others load the wooden bridge up with explosives while everyone else strengthened the wards around the school.

“Lya, you still got that magic bag o’ yours?” Seamus asked as the converged at the front of the bridge, watching Neville walk to the other side.

“What about it, Seamus?” Lya asked looking at the wards light the sky above them. Wand at the ready.

“You don’t happen to have any firewhiskey in it do ya?”, the irish wizard asked looking at his classmate.

“Not anymore, you lot finished it weeks ago”, Lya cracked a small grin in his direction.

“Shame that, could do with some liquid courage right about now” Seamus said, right as the bottom fell out of the sky.

And the Battle began.

Chaos was the only way she could describe the battle of Hogwarts. Spells were ricocheting off shields and stones were falling from the castle walls. The bridge plan had worked so well, Neville had survived, but that was hours ago. Or maybe days. Lya wasn’t sure anymore. Her arm hurt, she knew that injury had come from the fight with the werewolf, Greyback, bastard was dead now, but so was Lavender Brown.

At least he hadn’t been shifted, she wasn’t keen on being a werewolf.

Time seemed to slow and speed up all at once in the fight. None of it made sense, didn’t really matter when spells are being thrown at you left and right.

So when Lya turned a corner and was hit by multiple different spells at once, the world around her didn’t make sense either.

For one, this was most definitely not Hogwarts. Two, she was wearing the wrong outfit. Dark purple sweater with black trousers, a silver wolf necklace, and combat boots, so not in fashion in medieval times for women.

She was at least in an empty alleyway area, except when she turned around there was a dirty dark-haired girl staring at her wide eyed behind her with a sword pointed at Lya.

“Lyarra?”, the little girl asked looking very confused.

“Lya, uh mind not point that at me?”, Lya asked keeping her hands in sight of the girl who was no older than a first year.

The girl slid the sword into her belt before, looking at Lya confused.

“How’d you do that?”

“Do what?”, Lya tried playing dumb.

“Appear out of thin air”, the girl said as if it should be obvious.

“Magic”, Lya said, “Though I don’t know where I am”

“You’re in King’s Landing”, the girl said slowly.

“Okay, uhm”, Lya watched the girl watch her for a minute before a ruckus off to the side grabbed her attention. And the girl’s.

Lya followed after the girl. Why, she wouldn’t have been able to tell someone had they asked, but she felt it was the right thing to do. She shoved through the crowd behind the girl and climbed up the statue the girl did. She looked ahead and noticed a man being led out of a church, religious looking building. The crowd jeered, calling him all types of names. Honestly the man looked defeated, maybe injured given the slight limp he had. Didn’t look like a traitor to Lya, but what did she know?

The boy with the crown spoke to the crowd but Lya ignored him in favor of looking at the man off to the side with a giant sword. His head was covered like a medieval executioner’s. Lya knew something bad was going to happen. She stepped down from the statue not entirely sure what she, a lost witch in a strange land could do, when the little girl said, “Father” only loud enough for Lya to hear and climbed off the statue.

Lya didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know this little girl either, but something told her that the girl was important. That the man on the steps was important.

Lya took a deep breath.

Grabbing the girl’s shoulder, she asked, “The red-haired girl is his daughter as well, right?”

Lya wasn’t sure how she knew that information.

The dark-haired girl looked startled, frightened but nodded anyway.

Lya closed her eyes and offered her hand to the girl. The girl took it, trusting Lya though they hadn’t met more than ten minutes ago.

Lya silently pointed her wand at the corner of the religious building, far enough away to minimize casualties, but close enough to cause a decent amount of panic and chaos.

Squeezing the girl’s hand tight, she whispered, “Confringo” pushing as much magic as she could into the blasting curse.

She tugged the girl close to her side, as the building exploded. A loud bang sounding over the crowd, shrieks for blood turned to cries of terror.

She apparated the girl to the empty place near where she had landed before quickly apparating back without her and sending a blasting spell to the other side of the church.

Moving quickly through the screams and the debris she apparated to the top, grabbed the red-haired girl who had been left unprotected as the guards worried about the King and maybe Queen, apparated to the empty alley again leaving the sisters and appearing back on the steps. Shooting a blasting curse towards the building at the back of the crowd, she diverted their attention long enough to grab the dropped sword, which was much lighter than she had expected for its size and moved to the man still kneeling.

Casting a bubble shield charm and a muffliato around herself and the man, she kneeled in front of him.

She looked him in the eye, her bright blue locking on his grey. “The girls are safe. Please trust me, I want to help.”

She held her hand to him and looked at him in desperation. They didn’t have much time she figured, with the feeling of swords banging on the shield around them.

His eyes flickered to her wolf locket which was hanging outside of her shirt. He looked at her, eyes hard, and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Lya” she answered desperately wincing as she felt the swords hitting the shield harder, pain ricocheting through her body.

“Lya what?”

“I don’t know, haven’t known since I was eleven. Dammit, please! I’m trying to save you”, She cried as the shield was slammed harder. Lya still wasn’t sure on the whys and hoped he didn’t ask.

That was apparently the right thing to say, though, as the man grabbed her hand. The shield dropped right as they apparated away, Lya’s shoulder getting nicked as they landed with the other two girls on the other side of the city. Out of sight from everyone.

Lya hissed, clasping a hand on her shoulder as she stepped away from the reunion between the daughters and their father. Looking around she found a decent length of rope and looked at the man before picking up the rope.

“um” She caught the man’s attention, his eyes narrowed on her before she refocused his attention to the rope in her hands. “I can make an instant transportation to anywhere, if I know what the place looks like, but um”

“What do you need?” The man asked earnestly. Why were these people trusting her so easily?

“I can look into a person’s mind, but I won’t without permission and if you were okay with it, then if you could think of a location that you think would be empty of people, that’s also safe, I could see it in your mind and take all of us there”, Lya rambled out.

“What distance?”, The man asked looking at her hand carefully.

“Any, ah – oh This is yours, I think, maybe not I don’t – “

“Lya”, the man said and Lya froze narrowing her eyes. She’d heard that tone of voice before.

Didn’t matter right now.

“Right, mind reading first”

Lya quickly, after gaining permission to put the sword in her extendable bag (And she would’ve relished the wide-eyed looks if they hadn’t been in a hurry), and carefully glanced in his mind at a set of ruins of a castle thing, before enchanting the rope for a portkey.

“Grab onto the rope and for the love of all that is good in the world, DON’T let go of it”, Lya said holding out the end of the scraggly rope.

“This will work?”, the man asked carefully.

“It has before”, Lya said before saying the activation word and yanking them out of King’s Landing.

Lya was not expecting to land in the middle of a bunch of tents with swords aimed at her.

Shouts of “Ned!” and “Lord Stark!” had the swords lowering except for the ones pointed at her.

Lya was smart enough to not move. None of the swords were touching her, but if the pain in her shoulder was anything to go by she didn’t want them to.

A red haired woman threw her arms around the man – Ned – as a curly dark brownish red-haired boy came over shouting, “Father! Sansa! Arya!”

When Ned looked over just enough, after the little reunion, he told the men around Lya, “lower your blades”

“Lord Stark, she’s a witch”, A voice somewhere behind her said.

“She saved the lives of me and mine, if not for her, my youngest daughters would be lost and I’d be beheaded, GreatJon. sheathed your weapons”, Lord Stark, Ned, almost growled out.

Everyone, Lya included was watching him carefully as the blades around her fell. She shifted her hand to touch her slowly bleeding shoulder, when she noticed the red-haired woman approaching her. The woman started to say something then froze, looking at Lya’s wolf locket (and what was up with everyone looking at that?), before examining Lya intensely.

The woman with eyes that almost matched Lya’s asked quietly, “What’s your name?”

“Lya”, she said shifting a little, everyone’s eyes had fallen back on her, she never liked eyes on her.

“Lya what?”

“I don’t know”

“How old are you?”, the lady asked stepping closer. Lya started playing with the strap of her bag, not liking how cornered she was feeling.

“Seventeen”

“Seven and ten?”, The lady asked for clarification, her eyes beginning to water looking over Lya hopefully.

“Um I- I guess”

“Cat”, Ned walked up and turned the woman gently towards him.

“Ned-“

“I know”, He whispered, probably not realizing Lya could hear him. How could Lya hear him? “But she doesn’t know us, not really”

“But Ned, she’s our daughter”, Cat hissed just as not quietly.

A voice drew all their attention, “Lyarra?”

Lya turned and looked at the curly haired boy who quickly approached and wrapped his arms around her. Lya froze keeping her arms down. He pulled back confused placing his hands on her shoulders.

“Lyarra?”

“Robb”, Ned said sternly looking at the boy in front of her.

Robb watched her confused before pulling his hands back.

“Who are you?” Lya asked watching the older boy warily.

“You don’t remember me?”, he asked slowly keeping his eyes on her.

Lya just shook her head no. She kept fidgeting watching the weird looks they kept giving her.

She had realized that they believed her to be their daughter, which would mean he was her older brother and the two girls were her sisters. Honestly it explained how Lya knew a few things without knowing how, but it was confusing nonetheless.

“Robb, what’s on your hand” the woman asked, concerned. Glancing at his hand herself, Lya realized it was bloody. Lya glanced back at her shoulder covered by her dark sweater, and realized she was still bleeding. Not his blood then.

She was starting to feel light headed.

“Oh, shit” Lya said.

“Go get a maester”, The woman said firmly, stepping to gently grab her uninjured shoulder. Lya stepped back unsteadily, trying to ignore the hurt look that crossed the woman’s face.

“No, no, I can fix this, I just gotta – gotta – “

Last thing she heard was a scream and felt arms catching her as she slipped into darkness.

Chapter Text

Lya woke up with the red-haired woman – Cat? – in the room with her. Or tent. It looked like a tent so probably was a tent.

It wasn’t a peaceful slow wake up, like what she had seen Harry do after getting injured and landing in the hospital wing. No, her mind decided to replay the battle and the torture she went through at Hogwarts, so when she woke up, she woke up screaming.

Lya felt the woman move onto her bed and wrap her arms around Lya. She could vaguely hear the woman gently shushing her, running her hands over Lya’s back and hair comforting her.

Lya’s chest was heaving, hands were trembling hard as she tried to force the memories away. It was the first time the memories had manifested in her dreams and the pain from the cruciatus curse felt just as real in her dreams as it did in real life.

She heard someone come into the tent and pulled back, the tremors in her hands still visible. Ned was the one who had come into the tent, followed by the boy, Robb. Both had swords drawn.

Why did she feel comfortable with these strangers?

Yes, they might be her real family, but they were still strangers to her.

It just doesn’t make sense to her.

She ran her hand through her hair, grimacing at the tangles matted in it. She moved back, away from Cat, who seemed reluctant to let her go.

“We heard screaming”, Ned said sheathing his sword, before moving closer. Lya pulled her knees up to her chest, the fur blanket on her staying put. She sat her arms on her knees and leaned her head on her not bandaged arm – when did her arm get treated? – and tried to ignore how her hands wouldn’t quit shaking.

“Sorry”, she mumbled

“It’s alright, darling bad dreams happen”, Cat said soothingly, watching Lya’s tremoring hands carefully.

“Memories”, Lya corrected with a humorless chuckle, “I wish they were just bad dreams”

Lya looked at each of them, the looks of pity and horror at the thought of what could make her scream like that forced Lya to look around the tent. It had a wolf on a banner that matched her locket, but it was empty other than that and a set of chairs. She couldn’t help the sigh that slipped out at the elephant in the room.

“I know this probably isn’t what any of you want to hear given what I heard before I passed out, but I don’t know where I am and I don’t really know who any of you are”, Lya said, chin still tucked against her knees. Her hands were still shaking a little but for the most part the tremors had calmed. It was similar to what happened after the crucio was stopped. The body would convulse then it would shrink down to minor tremors before disappearing almost completely.

“What do you remember?”, Ned asked moving to sit on the chair Cat had vacated, while Robb moved to sit in the chair on Lya’s opposite side. Robb currently reminded Lya of a kicked puppy, with how he just looked so sad . Lya, unfortunately, had a feeling she was doing the kicking.

“Nothing before my eleventh birthday”, Lya said. “Honestly, I don’t know how I got to King’s Landing in the first place. Went from the middle of the battle at Hogwarts in Scotland to there.” Lya started fiddling with her necklace somewhere in the middle of her answer.

“Hogwarts? Scotland? What are those?”, Robb asked at the same time that the older pair asked in equally horrified tones,

“ Battle?”

“Yea, probably why I collapsed. Hadn’t slept in a few days when I got to King’s Landing, been to busy fighting and trying not to, well, die.” Lya felt so uncomfortable under the very parental like stares.

Aunt Minerva’s looks of disapproval were the same she gave when teaching, these were a little different. More like Mrs. Weasley looking at Fred and George for whatever they did or Augusta Longbottom looking at Neville for whatever she thought he’d done. Or hadn’t done.

Lya wasn’t sure she liked having that look pointed at her.

“And places, it’s kind of where I’ve been for the last six years.”

“I’ve never heard of either”, Ned said furrowing his brow thoughtfully.

“I don’t think they’re in this world or universe”, Lya said slowly.

“Another world?”, Robb asked wide eyed.

“Only thing that makes sense to me” Lya shrugged, “Magic should’ve been able to identify my parents had they been in the same world, but it couldn’t. Aunt Minerva helped me try every year since I was eleven like maybe something would change.”

“Who is Aunt Minerva?”, Cat asked in what Lya thought was an obvious attempt to change the subject.

“Minerva McGonagall, she’s the one who took me in after I was found near Hogwarts with no memory”, Lya said before adding “Hogwarts is a school for children with magic, Aunt Minerva is one of the Professors there”

“It was kind of her to take you in”, Cat said softly.

“Taught me a lot of what I know about magic, wicked smart”, Lya said fondly before remembering that the woman would probably have heard she’d vanished. Aunt Minerva had lost enough without Lya adding to it.

“How long have I been unconscious?”, Lya asked before Cat could say something.

“A little over a day, you should have mentioned your injuries sooner”, Ned admonished gently, tone low.

“I was planning on healing it”, Lya defended sulkily. “I just hadn’t gotten to it yet”

The raised eyebrow of disbelief that he gave her was enough for her to shift to looking at Robb.

“So, where are we?”

“Moat Cailin, south of Winterfell”

Winterfell sounded familiar.

“What’s that?”

“Home”, Ned said firmly, “Where we will all be as soon as you’re well enough to travel”

“I’m fine, I promise.” Ned’s face and Cat’s showed very little belief in that statement.

Turning to look at Robb, his face also showed disbelief.

“I’ve had worse and continued on, I’m fine to travel”

Lya received the sad, shock, pity look again. Why did she keep saying things that got that look pointed at her?

It was worse than the disapproval.

Lya was going to say something when two large wolves tried to sneak their way into the tent. One was a dark grey color while the other was grey with red mixed around it in various spots. Lya watched as they both went around to Robb. The grey one stopping at him, while the other pushed past and stuck its decently large head on the bed, nudging at Lya’s side.

“Those direwolves don’t – ” Whatever protest Cat had died on her lips as Lya let out a giggle when the reddish one licked her hand. The wolf – or direwolf – pushed up to place its paws on the bed in order to get closer to Lya.

Lya just shifted to rubbing the direwolf’s fluffy head, focusing on the calm animal instead of the tension still in the room.

“Well, that proves you’re definitely a Stark”, Robb said with a grin.

“A Stark? How does me petting a wolf prove that?”, Lya raised an eyebrow looking at him.

“Direwolf, it’s the sigil of our house”, Robb explained pointing at one of the banners in the room.

“Oh”, Lya said playing with matching necklace.

“’sides, that one hasn’t bonded with any of us”, Robb said thoughtfully, “she must’ve been waiting for you.”

“What’s her name?” Lya said scratching right behind the wolf’s ears. Its eyes slid closed, relaxed with the attention.

“We’ve been calling her Red, but she doesn’t really listen. She doesn’t cause trouble, though, really calm that one, almost as behaved as Lady”, Robb said.

“Lady?”, Lya asked looking up from the direwolf.

“Sansa’s direwolf, her and Nymeria, Arya’s direwolf, are back at Winterfell”, Robb said before gesturing the wolf laid next to him, “this is Grey Wind”

Lya nodded before looking curiously between the wolves and Robb, “So you were the one to come up with the name Red then?”

“Yeah, how…” Robb trailed off with a small smile.

“ Grey wind, Red , do you have a white horse named White as well?”, Lya asked quirking a brow at him.

The older pair chuckled on her other side as Robb grumbled “no” pouting the entire time.

“You had a horse named Blue ”, Robb attempted to argue.

“Did I let you name it?”, Lya smiled sweetly.

It took a minute for the chuckles to die down. When they did, Lya felt it was as good a time as any to ask, “Who’s Sansa and Arya?”

“Our sisters, the ones you saved”, Robb answered simply. As if it should be obvious.

Amnesiac here.

“Didn’t really have a chance to exchange names in the chaos”, Lya responded. Robb had the decency to blush at his tone.

“You didn’t know who they were?”, Ned asked brow furrowed in confusion.

“Nope”

“Then why”, he trailed off looking at her as if he couldn’t comprehend what he was hearing. Was it so hard to believe that she would help a complete stranger?

“Felt like it was a good idea. Appeared in front of the dark-haired one in an alley, followed her after she called me Lyarra for some reason, then fifteen minutes later all of us were here”, Lya explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Which it was.

To her.

Apparently random kindness and rescuing is not common here and all three of them were looking at her like they had never met a creature like her, even though she had a feeling the older two had brought her into this world at birth.

“That explains Arya’s tale”, Robb started, “Said one minute she was alone and the next you were in front of her”

So, Arya’s the dark-haired one, making Sansa the little red. Got it now.

Lya hummed thoughtfully before asking, “So, what do I call you?”

The sad looks were back, but she got a better explanation on who was who in the room.

Dark-haired man she rescued from beheading was Eddard “Ned” Stark a.k.a. Father.

Red-haired woman was Catelyn Stark nee. Tully a.k.a. Mother. Nicknamed “Cat” by Ned. Lya assumed others that were not family or close friends were not permitted to calling her Cat.

Robb was not short for anything, he was the oldest of the siblings.

Lya tried to hide a yawn at the end of the explanation but the experienced parents caught on to the failed attempt easily.

“You need rest”, Ned said standing up from his chair

“I’ll keep an eye on her”, Robb offered looking more at his mother than at his father.

Lya would’ve argued that she didn’t need anyone watching her, but the dark circles under Catelyn’s eyes had her thinking the offer was less about Lya than he made it seem.

Catelyn nodded reluctantly and reached out a hand before stopping herself and allowing Ned to lead her out of the tent.

Lya waited before asking Robb, “So all of you keep calling me Lyarra, why?”

She had a feeling, but she wanted verbal confirmation.

“That’s your name”, Robb answered slowly, “Are you saying you forgot that as well?”

“Only thing I remembered was that my name might be Lya and my birthday”, she admitted still petting the wolf. It looked like it was almost asleep in the weird position. “Do we have more siblings?”

Robb nodded, “I’m the oldest, our half-brother Jon Snow is a moon younger than me, he’s father’s bastard.”

“Why’s his name Snow instead of Stark?”, Lya asked with a raised brow.

“Snow is a bastard last name”

“That’s bullshit”, Lya said honestly. Robb only chuckled.

“Best not say that towards Mother”

“Touchy subject then?”

Robb nodded before continuing, “You were next in age, then Sansa and Arya, then Bran who is at Winterfell, he’s a year younger than Arya. Rickon was born a few moons after you went missing”

Lya hummed looking down at the wolf. “I’d always wanted siblings, back on the other side”, she let out another yawn.

Robb settled his hand on hers squeezing. “Get some rest Lya”

“What if this is all a dream?”, she whispered quietly laying down on the cot rolling on her side to face her ‘brother’. “What if I wake up and I’m back in the battle?”

Robb’s hand tightened over her’s. “It’s not a dream, little sister. You’ll still be here tomorrow, I promise”

The wolf hoped up on the bed and rested at Lya’s feet, head facing the door. Realizing she was guarded instead of guarding for the first time in months, Lya let her eyes close, still clutching her brother’s hand tight.

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.