“We brought a little something for you”, Lyra smiled as she and Hermione unloaded two picnic baskets with wine, cheese, ham and fresh bread. “It’s small payback for feeding everybody since forever, but we had to start somewhere”.

Molly and Arthur stood in shock, because that wasn’t how things usually worked. “Ah. Oh. Thank you”, Molly smiled. “Please, sit down, make yourselves comfortable”, she managed.

“I guessed Ginny would be hanging out with her boyfriend and George would be busy and we didn’t want you to be alone now”, Lyra smiled at them warmly.

“The home does feel so empty now”, Molly whispered.

“That’s why we’re here”, Hermione came to hug the motherly woman.

…

“Anyway, does anyone know why Gamp’s law of elemental transfiguration has exceptions in the first place? I always wondered about that, lacking money and having to figure out food and housing and all that. I though you might know”, Arthur looked at the two young women.

“I’m afraid I don’t know”, Hermione shrugged. “I can tell you what they are, being a nerd and all, but I don’t know why”.

“I do”, Lyra whispered.

Everybody looked at her. “I thought nobody knows”, Hermione started.

“It’s because we refuse to live in a world where nothing matters”, she looked at her friends with those beautiful silver eyes that looked like two stars. “Or we are made by someone who refuses to have nothing matter. Pick either”, she smiled. “We refuse to accept a prize without a contest. If something is not deserved, we refuse to value it. If we value it, we want it to be precious, we want it to come as a result of a battle won, of choices well made”. She looked at Arthur. “If we can just wave a wand and produce gold, why would anyone accept it as payment for anything? If we can produce food and shelter, why would money be precious? If we want something other people have, what could we offer them as compensation?” She turned to Hermione. “And your list of exceptions is incomplete”, she smiled. “We also can’t raise people from the dead. We can’t replace body parts lost in battle with evil. We can’t produce children magically. We can’t cause true love magically – only a mockery of it. Loss needs to be real. Sacrifice needs to matter.” She kissed her friend’s hand. “Love needs to be earned”.

“Woah”, she rose up as she saw a dusty tome in the library. “You have it as well”. She picked up Annales by Tacitus. “My father used to read it to me before bed time”.

“You speak Latin?”, Hermione managed to gather her bearings.

“Latine expedite loquor, quod pater meus me ab aetate duorum annorum docuit”, Lyra smiled. “I speak fluent Latin, thanks to my father teaching me since I was two”, she translated.

They all looked at her with their mouths open. “My grandmother gave me this book, but nobody could ever read it since we didn’t know the language”, Molly managed.

“He would also read me from Cicero, Vitruvius and Plutarch”, Lyra’s eyes were soft with memory. “I especially liked the stories about Alexander’s conquest of India, and how they mocked Nero”.

“It is no wonder you were always so loyal to your parents”, Arthur mused. “I misunderstood. I always imagined you being united by common contempt and hatred of lesser families and lesser humans”, he grinned. “It would never occur to me that Lucius was a loving father who would read to his little girl in Latin”.

“He was, and I adored him”, Lyra smiled. “It was a hard blow when I found out that he could be wrong, and in such a grave matter. I think I grew up then, ceased to be a child and became a grown woman, who had to make her own choices and carve her own path. But I repaid them for their love, Arthur. I could have escaped that horrible dungeon at any moment. The price would be their death or terrible torture, so I stayed there to protect them, and I knew that I couldn’t defend myself or protect myself properly because it would expose them to repercussions. Terrible things kept crossing my mind – things like having to silently accept being gifted to some villain as a trophy, be raped in my own bed and not make a sound, because they would be punished for my disobedience. I am incredibly grateful to all of you who fought for us on the outside and won our freedom, and to God or fate or whatever for sparing me the worst of consequences. I am grateful to you, Molly, for killing aunt Bella for me, despite it being my job”, she looked at her with deep serenity and seriousness.

“We didn’t know”, Molly looked horrified. “We couldn’t even imagine what you had to endure”.

“Oh, we could; we just didn’t bother”, Arthur was repentant. “We didn’t see Death Eaters or anybody else on the other side as actual people, and we didn’t bother thinking about their children either. It would get in the way of business”, he sighed remorsefully.

“I didn’t say it to make you feel guilty, Arthur”, Lyra smiled. “I wanted to let you know that I repaid my parents for all the love and kindness they showed me in my childhood by enduring hell in order to save and protect them. I did it because I wanted to remind you that you, like my parents, gave everything to your children, and yet, I fail to remember Ron ever reciprocating. He consumed your love, care, shelter, food and other things you could barely afford, and he thought he repaid you by coming for more. In the end, he repaid you by becoming a terrible person and putting a stain on your family name. What I am saying is: please, don’t feel guilty. Your problem isn’t that you didn’t give enough; it’s that you received too little in return, and you ended up depleted. Will you allow us to love you, and take care of you, in his stead?”, Lyra looked at them pleadingly, with the eyes of a goddess, as they both burst into tears and came to embrace her.

…

“You learned Latin since you were two”, Hermione looked at her, as they were back home on their couch.

“Yes”, Lyra smiled. “Surprised?”

“Actually, no. I’m in awe”, she smiled as she massaged Lyra’s feet. “At two, I was proud of myself for speaking full sentences in English”.

“I wish we were born as sisters. We both seem to have been lonely little nerds”, Lyra laughed.

“True, but at least we now seem to be making up for lost time”, Hermione giggled.