CHAPTER 4
PRETTY UNEVENTFUL MORNING

Lyra knew exactly one person who liked mornings. It was her.

Even Hermione found it hard to get out of bed sometimes.

But Lyra would wake up with the sun. By 6 am she was dressed in yoga pants and a loose shirt and she went out for a run on the Quidditch field.

Sometimes she could count on Zara to come with her but usually she slept in and when she did come she ran one lap before giving up and sitting in the middle of the field waiting for Lyra to finish.

When she finished, she would take a quick shower, cold water. Also the only person to do that. And change into her robes, using a spell to dry her hair.

By the time she was done some of the girls in the dorm began waking up. Lavender had woken when Lyra had gotten back and was changed when she got out of the shower. Hermione began to get out of bed and Parvati went towards the shower. Fay, however was still passed out in bed.

Lyra jumped on the sleeping girl's bed and began bouncing making the bed move until Fay finally groaned.

"Ok, ok. I'm up. You are the worst, you know that Knight?"

Lyra giggled, "I've been told. Alright loves, I'm heading off to the Great Hall. Don't miss me to much."

Fay grunted in response, Hermione chuckled, and Lavender sent her a kissy face.

Smiling, Lyra left the Common room and headed straight for the Great Hall. Instead of going to the Gryffindor table she walked to the Ravenclaw one and plopped down next to Zara, who still looked half asleep.

The blue eyed girl had her head rested on her elbow and her eyes drooping. Her hair was messy, as if she had rolled out of bed and had runs brush through it but then gave up.

"Good morning, sunshine!" Lyra smiles brightly.

"Screw the sunshine! Let me go back to bed." Zara whined.

The Gryffindor huffed a laugh before grabbing eggs and toast. "It's not that bad."

"Not for you because you wake up with enough energy to light up a mansion. Us normal people  barely have enough energy to get through breakfast."

"Don't be suck a downer and eat your nasty oatmeal." Lyra grimaced at the plate in front of Zara.

"You are ridiculous, how can you not like oatmeal? It's egg you shouldn't eat. Ughh, the smell is nauseating."

The two girls continued their bickering about food when professors began walking around handing out schedules.

"Dougherty, Zara" Flitwick's squeaky voice called.

Zara lifted her hand and he handed her the roll of parchment.

"Knight, Lyra"

Lyra quickly stood and reached across the Hufflepuff table to accept the scroll from McGonagall.

"What do you have?"

"Defense with the Slytherins, Herbology with the Slytherins, Magical Creatures and History with Hufflepuff, Ancient Runes with all, Charms with the Gryffindors, Astronomy with Hufflepuff, Potions with the Slytherin and then Hufflepuff. And Transfiguration with half Slytherin and half Gryffindor," Zara recited her weekly schedule, "You?"

"Herbology with Hufflepuff, Magic Creatures with Slytherin, Charms with Ravenclaw, History with Slytherin, Ancient Runes with all houses, Astronomy with Slytherin, Defense with Hufflepuff, Potions with Slytherin, and Transfiguration with Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Not too bad. Most of my classes today are outside."

"Lucky. I'm gonna be stuck in the dungeons for double Potions today and then History of Magic."

"At least we're have Ancient Runes in the afternoon." Lyra shrugged.

The owls began to soar in from the open windows scattering letters to their owners. Lyra's owl perched herself on the pumpkin juice goblet in front of her.

"Hello Sunflower," Sunflower was a small Ural Owl with mixes of dark brown, light brown, and white feathers. "How's dad?"

Hello dear,

Hope your year started of great. Everything's been pretty calm over here. Midnight misses you, I made sure to take her out and let her run around  the field for a while. So, did you find out about the surprise? How great is it? Anyway, good luck on your first day back, have fun, and don't die. 

Love,

Dad

Lyra chuckled and pulled a quill and parchment from her bag. 

Hey Dad, 

First day is starting off pretty great! I miss you and Midnight too. I can't believe the Triwizards Tournament is going to be here! I'm so excited. Can't wait to find out who our participant is.

Love, 

Lyra

"Here you go Sunflower," She said, wrapping the letter to the owl after it has eaten some of her food. Sunflower took off again, flying out of the window and the girls finished their food before heading to class.

When breakfast was over Lyra headed to Herbology with the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. And Zara headed for the dungeons for Potions. 

Professor Sprout began their class with ugly, slug looking plants that squirmed and had large swellings filled with liquid. 

"Bubotubers," Professor Sprout told them. "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus -"

"The what?" Seamus's accent thickened as he asked, disgusted.

"Pus, Finnigan, pus," answered Professor Sprout, "and it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves, it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted, Bubotuber pus."

Squeezing out the pus was extremely disgusted, but in a way, also satisfying. It reminded Lyra of pimple popping, as gross as it was. Thick yellow green would expel from the Bubotubers, smelling strongly of petrol. By the end of the lesson Lyra had collected a few bottles. 

The bell finally rung, signaling the end of class. Lyra finally removed her gloves and walked with the Gryffindors towards Hagrid's cabin, where he stood outside waiting for them with his boarhound, Fang. There were several open wooden crates on the ground at his feet and as they drew nearer, Lyra noticed an odd rattling noise and minor explosions. 

"Mornin'!" Hagrid said, grinning at the Gryffindors, "Be'er wait fer the Slytherins, they won' want ter miss this - Blast-Ended Skrewts"

"Come again?" said Ron

Hagrid pointed down into the crates. 

"Eurgh!" squealed Lavender Brown, jumping backwards.

Lyra stepped forward to look inside. She couldn't help agree with Lavender. The creatures in the crates where pale and slimy looking, with odd legs and no head. They smelled strongly of rotting fish and would have sparks fly off from them. 

"On'y jus' hatched," said Hagrid proudly, 'so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"

"And why would we want to raise them?" said a cold voice. The Slytherins had arrived. 

The speaker was Draco Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle were chuckling at his words.

When Hagrid didn't answer, Malfoy continued, "I mean, what do they do?" asked Malfoy "What is the point of them?"

Hagrid opened his mouth, apparently thinking hard; there was a few seconds' pause, then he said roughly, "Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things – I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer - I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass-snake - just try 'em out with a bit of each."

Lyra heard the Slytherins behind her scoff and felt bad enough for Hagrid's effort to reach forward and lower the frog liver towards the creatures, who didn't even seem to have a mouth. 

"Ouch!" yelled Dean Thomas, after about ten minutes "It got me,"

Hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious. 

"Its end exploded!" said Dean angrily, showing Hagrid a burn on his hand.

"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off," said Hagrid, nodding. 

"Eurgh!" said Lavender Brown again "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?!"

"Ah, some of 'em have got stings," said Hagrid enthusiastically.

"I reckon they're the males... The females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies... I think they might be ter suck blood."

"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive," said Malfoy sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting and bite all at once?"

"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful," Hermione snapped. "Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"

Lyra smiled, giving her a thumbs up. Thankfully the class ended quickly. No one had much luck figuring out what the Skrewts ate but Lyra feared when they did figure it they would grow much larger than what was comfortable.

Finally back in the Great Hall she sat next to Hermione and across from Katie. Zara soon plopped down on Lyra's their side. 

"How was your morning?" Lyra smiled towards the Ravenclaw.

Zara sent her a side ways glance, "I already want to kill myself."

She rolled her eyes, "It couldn't have been that bad."

"Snape took 20 points from Ravenclaw because someone asked him to clarify what he had written. Then he gave me an A on my potion which was prefect by the way."

Lyra patted her back and passed a goblet of pumpkin juice to her. 

"What about you. How was your first day?"

"Squeezed pus in Herbology and fed Blast-Ended Skrewt. Pretty uneventful."

"Pretty uneventful?! That sounds worse than my morning. How are you still smiling?"

Lyra shrugged, "It wasn't too bad."

"You're a psychopath. Come on, we have Ancient Runes."

The two headed to the North Tower to the Runes classroom and took a seat.

"Take your parchment our ladies and gentlemen, we are taking notes today." Professor Vector called.

The door crashed open as Daphne Grenngrass, Theodore Nott, and Blaise Zabini waked in.

"Late; Greengrass, Nott, and Zabini. Detention tonight 7pm."

Nott and Greengrass smirked while Zabini scoffed before they took their seats behind Fay, Zara, and Lyra. 

"Oi, Dougherty, move your large head, I can't see."

Zara rolled here eyes, "Maybe if you grew a couple inches you wouldn't have that damn problem Parkinson."

"Filthy blood traitor," Theodore mumbled. 

Lyra turned, "Why don't you shut up, douchebag. If you were earlier you wouldn't be stuck behind us."

She glared at him before turning slightly to Blaise, who had a snarl on his own face. She held eye contact challenging him to reply before finally turning away.

"Thanks for that." Zara huffed.

Lyra smiled, contrasting the false one she had sent at the Slytherins a few seconds prior. "It's what I'm here for." she then lowered her voice to a whisper. "Plus, gives me great reasons to prank them later."

She winked before turning back to the board while Professor Vector explained the Graphorn rune.

*****

there wasn't much Blaise in this chapter but i will begin including him more in later chapters. the first few are gonna be more about Lyra and her character.

and maybe I'll do some on Blaise's perspective too.