Open Full of bad ideas

[Professor Lyra Potter]

Lyra Potter was thankful for the near empty streets as she walked through the Harbour. She hadn’t planned on ever being back here, but there was something she needed that she was almost positive she left in the apartment above Ollivander’s. Her green eyes scanned the crowd, really hoping she didn’t run into anyone she knew. She looked like the old Lyra. Her hair was back to its natural brown, and it was impossible to tell she had ever been pregnant. The twins were with Ezra today, so she didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing them. She wanted as little contact with the magical world as possible for them. She was glad she had finally let Ezra back into her life. It was nice to share some of the parenting responsibilities with another person. Lyra knew he would have run this errand for her, but she didn’t want to send him on a long search. The wind blew a strand of hair in her face as she quickly swept it back into her ponytail. It was still warm, but the air had a chill in it today. The young mother paused for a moment at the window of the shop next to her, looking at a magical camera. Despite her aversion to the magical world, it might be nice to have something to capture the twins in motion. They wouldn’t be little forever.

 

[Felix Styx]

It was never a good day when Felix was forced to go out after a Scitorari meeting. He always managed to get himself battered and bruised, but, given Lanithro was busy and he'd run out of the potions he needed, he was forced into a little shopping trip. he was getting better, most of what happened to him was completely his own fault and the fact that he was always so full of energy didn't really do anything to help, but he'd been feeling so great the last couple of months. After everything after school and even in school really, things just made more sense, it was much clearer than it had been before. Felix flicked his tongue over his teeth, the sunglasses he was wearing cutting down the glare of the sun from everything he walked past, hiding the slowly colouring bruises on his face. Sometimes he got a bit sensitive, but it was really nothing to worry too much about. It really was such great weather after all. Keye had him pulling extra shifts though and sometimes when he felt like it he would just tell her he wasn't coming in. She didn't really care it just meant the customers were more likely to not make it out of the restaurant alive if Keye got her hands on them. Felix was having such a good day in fact that when he noticed Lyra just standing in the middle of the path looking into the window of a shop, a body and face he would recognise anywhere, he'd almost thought he'd imagined her. He stopped to stare for a moment, concerned that he would have such a vivid imagination of her standing right in front of him. Last time he'd asked James, he'd said he hadn't heard anything, so, had that been a lie? He was an auror after all and surely Lyra Potter disappearing might have been something that they would have had on their radar after her dad. "Lyra?" She looked exactly as he remembered her... only there was something else too, that he couldn't quite place.​

 

[Professor Lyra Potter]

Lyra Potter would have known that voice calling her name in any lifetime. It called to her out of her darkest nightmares. It once spoke words of comfort and tenderness to her and for her, but those days were long since past. It was a voice she could never mistake as any other. She turned her head as her body responded automatically. Felix. Lyra let out a small sigh as she looked at him. Of course the first day she set foot back in New Zealand in over a year, Felix would find het without even trying. Lyra looked at him, noticing the differences in his features-the fading bruises- since the last time she saw him, and the brunette couldn’t help herself from thinking that he didn’t look well at all. “Hi Felix.” she said, knowing avoiding him was impossible, not that she wanted to. The brunette didn’t feel like she knew him at all these days. It had been over a year since their last meeting, and Lyra was pretty sure he hadn’t thought about her since. For the first time in years, it didn’t break Lyra’s heart to look at him. Instead, it felt like Lyra Potter was standing in front of a stranger.

 

[Felix Styx]

So it was her. He hadn't imagined it. He hadn't really thought he had, but, it had been... so very long, he almost thought it would have been wishful thinking. Why was she back in New Zealand? Had someone found her? Did she have the babies? He had so many questions, and no way to ask them. He hadn't seen her for such a long time it was like staring at a stranger, and yet she hadn't changed at all. Same old Lyra... yet not. He stepped forward abit, grinning. She looked amazing, but then she always did so it wasn't like that was a total surprise or anything. "I wasn't expecting to run into you today," he said, feeling pretty good, though he was a bit unsure of how he should approach this situation. The last time he'd seen her, he'd told her he wanted to be with Lanithro. In a way, he'd broken both of their hearts. "Or ever, actually." He felt like maybe if she'd seen him first, she might have tried to disappear, he wasn't sure he recognised the woman in front of him anymore. "How are you?"​

 

[Professor Lyra Potter]

Lyra half-smiled, uncertainly, as Felix said he hadn't expected to see her today, or ever. "Sorry to disappoint." she murmured without animosity in her voice. She had spent so long avoiding New Zealand for this very reason. Lyra was different now though. No longer terrified of love or allowing someone to love her and depend on her. The internal change radiated out of her as confidence and poise. Much more like the Lyra before Kiera died, but more mature. "I'm good. Really good." she said, a real smile on her rose colored lips. She knew he was only being polite. Felix's thoughts and affections for Lyra were long since lost. "And you?" she asked, politely in return. While Lyra didn't harbor any ill-will towards Felix, she also didn't want to hear about Felix and Lanithro, if that was still something that was going on. She'd be happier not knowing. She would never forgive Lanithro for his betrayal, and she didn't want to discuss him. Felix didn't look well to her, and she couldn't connect the man in front of her with the boy she had been hopelessly in love with for years. Again, Lyra wished she had stayed out of New Zealand.

 

[Felix Styx]

"You could never be a disappointment, Lyra," Felix said, looking around at the wonder if she was here alone. It seemed like it. He wanted to ask, he had so many questions, but he wasn't sure just what rights he had to any of them, or her mood, or whether asking would send her away, so he settled for trying to use some of his new observational skills to glean as much information as he could from what she did and didn't say. It was amazing when you started getting into it. He wasn't an expert, but he was learning to read people, well, when he could focus enough. He yawned a little and ran his hand through his hair. "Well, been better, but you know, it is what it is," he said, turning to look over his shoulder again. He really did have to get back, but, he didn't want to leave right now. Besides, it wasn't like it couldn't wait, nothing was going to happen with out him. "Been really busy with different things. Falon's pretty good, Georgi and my Princess are doing really well," he said in reference to Victoria, "dunno how much you're across stuff, but I have a job at a restaurant. I met a girl, Keye, she used to go to school with us, but she was a bit older. When I was couch surfing a lot when we were... well, when we were us or before that, kind of in the middle a bit," he said, rambling a bit. "She gave me a job, said I was Management Material, imagine that, me as a manager, I told her she was a bit off in the head, but mostly she just trots me out when she needs to get people to leave," Felix had always been scrappy and good in a fight. He was a pacifist once, but he had to reconsider his choices after he'd joined the scitorari, so he was much more willing in a fight these days and gave as good as he got most of the time.​

 

[Professor Lyra Potter]

Lyra glanced up at Felix in surprise as he told her she'd never be a disappointment. She didn't expect to hear anything like that from him these days. The brunette listed as Felix filled her in on different details of his life. It was much more information then she offered him, and it made her wonder why he was so eager to talk to her when he hadn't thought about her since their last disastrous meeting. Lyra nodded her head as he rambled on. "I'm not across things much. This is the first time I've been to New Zealand in over a year, so naturally, you find me, like a moth to a flame." she said, slightly teasing him. Lyra was glad to know there was at least a legitimate reason for Felix's bruises even if she didn't like it. "Falon's with my brother, you know, like dating him. I think she still hates me. Probably always will." Lyra said with a shrug. It didn't matter anymore. Falon wasn't likely to be her sister-in-law. There would be no permanent connection between them so they didn't have to play nice. "I'm glad you're happy, Fee. Really. I am." she said, sincerely. Lyra knew a piece of her would always belong to him as her first real love. He would always be in her heart, but they weren't good for each other. Lyra had almost destroyed him, and Felix had almost destroyed her. Lyra would always love him, but it needed to be from a distance now. Otherwise, it would be too easy to fall into the same old habits.

 

[Felix Styx]

Felix has missed Lyra a great deal more than he’d ever let on to anyone. She’d been his first love and he loved her still, though it paled to the obsession they’d had with each other in school, he would always love her and that was no lie. Things were different now, of course they were, but she was safe and she looked well, that surely meant only good things from here. He smiled slightly at her comment about moths and flames, because honestly, it was true. If he’d really tried to find her, he believed he could have, but the reason he’d chosen not to do so was simple, Lyra needed to be on her own, and Felix needed her to be. It had mostly been out of some selfish want to try with Lanithro, which he knew would never have happened with her around so maybe he’d gotten something out of that too, but it had been better with them away from each other, they’d had some time to process everything now, it was better this way. “Moths and flames make terrible companions though. Magnetic and appealing, but get to close and the moth burns.” He wasn’t quite sure who he was talking about in that scenario, but it was the truth none-the-less. He’d known a little about Falon and Link, though he didn’t really want to know anymore and he held out his hands in protest for her to stop. “Please say no more, I absolutely do not want nor need to hear what they do together, dating or otherwise.” It was simpler this way. He smiled at her then as she told him she was glad he was happy, he returned her sentiments and sighed. “Thank you, you too... you are happy, aren’t you?” Really he wanted to know what had been going on but he knew she was under no obligations to explain anything, he just hoped she would. “I... was worried about you, for ages. I kept asking James if he’d heard anything...” he hadn’t wanted to find her, but he’d wanted to know she was safe.​

 

[Professor Lyra Potter]

Lyra smiled slightly at his comment about moths and flames being terrible companions. A part of Lyra had always thought they would end up together forever, like James and Maddie, and maybe they would have if her mother hadn't died. That felt like another life ago now. The brunette laughed at the comment about their twins and nodded her head. "Fair enough. I'd prefer not to think about it either." she said, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. It was unusually windy today. "This is the happiest I've been since before my mom died. You know, back when we were together at school. Last half of sixth year to the first half of seventh year was probably the happiest year of my life up until now." the brunette said, truthfully. She was sharing more of her heart with him than she had in years. Her green eyes looked at him sharply as he said he was worried about her. "Were you? Ezra says James was looking, but he couldn't find me. James didn't lie to you because he still doesn't know. I reached out to Ezra first, and really, that's the only way he found me. I only started talking to my family very recently." she said, her tone softening. "I've been living in the muggle world, and honestly, I prefer it that way. The place I live, my life, my world without magic, it's a much kinder place than what I've seen of the Wizarding world." she said, knowing Felix would understand what she meant. He was a muggleborn after all.

 

[Felix Styx]

bipolar id #95460​

Felix grinned widely at Lyra. There would never be a time where he didn't want to see Lyra, after all, she was his first love and that would never change no matter what happened with them. He was sad that they would probably never as close as they had once been, but perhaps that was for the best. If there was one thing they'd been good at together, it was burning each other when they got to close to the others flame, it had been what had started all of this after all. "Yeah let's skip that part," he agreed. It was bad enough he knew about Link and Falon, he didn't need any of the gory details too. He just assumed Falon was getting what she needed and that was all he cared about. Falon was a grown woman, she could deal with herself and would probably just get mad that he'd interfered anyway. Besides, she was a scary beater and all Felix's muscle was from making sure he was fit enough to last in a fight with aurors if he ever needed to. He'd learnt so any spells training with the other scitorari. Hearing her say that she was happier now than she had been in years was... oddly painful, but something inside Felix couldn't bring himself to show it. His eager smile stayed firmly in place and he made sure to nod enthusiastically. "Well that's amazing, Lyra! I'm so happy to see you happy and healthy and in control of your life, it's all I ever wanted for you, to be happy!" He told her, truthfully, fixing his sunglasses on his face. "I enjoyed those years too, live sucked for ages after though." He was carefully not bringing up his burning question, but was both afraid to hear the answer and afraid she wouldn't want to tell him. So really, this was just the easier option. "Of course I looked for you," once again hurt hearing that she didn't think she could trust him enough to reach out. He had to assume then that she just didn't care enough about him to let her know she was alive. The thought settled in the pit of his heart and he knew it would skew his thoughts of her, but hyper focusing on one small issue and blowing it up was almost his favourite pastime now and he just couldn't stop himself from doing it. "Right, of course. Imagine that. The muggleborn stayed and the non muggleborn left. Makes perfect sense really," he said, his demeaned changing pretty quickly from excited and enthusiastic to annoyed and angry. He rolled his eyes and blew out a puff of air, pushing his sunglasses up his nose. "Right, nice chat, I have things to do," Clearly Lyra wasn't interested enough in his life to even ask about Lanithro. He thought he was okay with that, but bringing up Ezra felt kind of like a low blow to be honest, especially since she'd almost left Ezra for him. If she loved Ezra that much, what had been the point of their relationship at all?​