6 Week Before Hogwarts

After Harry left, Lyra had been lying on her soft bed, trying to sleep only to fail terribly. Her thoughts kept on wandering to her father then to Harry and then back to her father. She had just made friends with Harry a few days ago, and she felt so close to him than any other person.

The reason? Of course, it was because they had been playmates when they were infants. Although she couldn't recollect everything, she could remember bits and pieces of those times. So, technically, she had known him for 11 years already. Only two people had ever called her 'star'. One was her father. He would always call her, 'little star' and the other one was Harry, her close friend. Well, now he's almost like a brother to her.

She was thinking, if her father had been here, he would have been just like Harry, right?

She could still remember the day on which she asked her mother about her father for the first time. It was a little while after she had turned five.

>>>>>A little flashback<<<<<

(August, 1985)

Lyra had always been wondering why had all the children in her age had both parents, but she didn't have a father? Wait, she had a father and she still could remember her father's face from when she was little, but where was he? Who was he? Even Susan knew her parents' name, even though they weren't alive. Her mother could have at least told her her father's name right?

She decided to ask her mother about it and asked her, "Mum, who is my father?"

Although Amelia had always known that this moment would come sooner or later, she was still taken aback when Lyra asked her.

It was not that she wanted to hide her marriage with Sirius, rather it would affect Lyra if it was revealed before Sirius' name was cleared.

She had wanted to get him out of Azkaban, but Sirius declined the offer. When he had been arrested, he was put in Azkaban without trial, and Amelia was furious. She used her connections to visit him at Azkaban. But that idiot had refused to come out. He told her that they had to catch Peter before he comes out, else that guy would hide forever. This was the reason that Sirius had used to convince her to let him stay at Azkaban.

But had he ever thought about her?

She had just lost her whole family: her parents, brothers, and her nephew and niece. Except for him, Lyra and Susan she didn't have anyone in this world. Had he ever thought about it? Had he ever thought about their baby, Lyra? What they would do without him?

She was so angry and frustrated that she cried for a week. But she held it together after that. She couldn't be like that. She had two children to raise.

And she wasn't some weak woman who was always dependant on her husband.

She touched her daughter's head gently and told Lyra her husband's name with pride, "Your father is Sirius Black, little Lyra. But please remember this: No matter what others might say about him, have faith in him. Have faith in your father, okay?"

Of course, she would be proud of her husband.

But, that didn't mean she would want him in Azkaban though. She was still angry at him for refusing the trial, at the same time she was also worried too.

She also took out an old-looking box and gave it to Lyra. It was the gift Sirius had told her to give to their daughter.

"Here Lyra, this is your dad's gift for you. This could only be opened when you reach Hogwarts. Though I highly recommend you to not use it, it was still his gift to you, and I have the responsibility of handing this over to you. Keep it safe."

>>>>> End of Flashback <<<<<

'No. Stop thinking. Or else you would cry again, Lyra', she thought to herself. Crying twice in a single day. Such humiliation, she couldn't let that happen.

But Lyra had an odd feeling when she hugged Harry earlier. Did she felt somewhat repulsed? Why was that? Harry was her friend, her godbrother. But why did she feel like that?

As she was thinking about it, she suddenly felt a gaze on her. It was as if someone was watching her. Thus, she abruptly sat up in her bed and turned to look out of the window, but there wasn't anything or anyone suspicious out there. She had this feeling of being watched very frequently in the past year. But, maybe it could very well be her imagination.

She spaced out for a few minutes, but suddenly, she felt a chill down her spine. It gave her a very terrifying feel. She hugged her shoulders and convinced herself that it was all her imagination.

Maybe, instead of being paranoid, she should just use this time to do something productive. She then started practising her intent-based magic again. She was sure she was wrong somewhere, but if she kept on practising it, she could at least get better control over her magic, right?

She spent almost 3 hours doing this. Then she fell asleep, exhausted.

....

A week later.

It was a fine evening, quite suitable for one to play outdoor.

Quidditch was not the only sport in the wizarding world. There was more to wizarding sports, and Quidditch was just one of the many.

And our very own Lyra was a big fan of Broom racing. In her words, "Quiddich is no fun, no danger at all". But the main point was that it was a team sport. And Lyra wasn't sure that she would perform well in a team.

So, here she was, competing with Susan.

When Lyra was in the sky with her broom, she felt as if she was free from the shackles of the world, as if she had nothing to worry about. She felt carefree as her hair waved around the wind.

Susan was no less excited to fly. She sped through the air as she aimed for the win.

Harry was watching them from below. Even though he would like to have a go at it, he had never ridden a broom before, so he first wanted to watch them for a while.

Eventually, both Susan and Lyra ended up in a tie, as there was no proper obstacle course or anything like that.

Then Harry picked up the broom and he kicked it off into the sky and after he had a good hang of it, he flew around freely for a while. Susan and Lyra joined him and the three of them just flew around without a care.

That was when Lyra remembered that there was no official Broom Racing competition held at Hogwarts. The only few sports which were even played there were only Gobstones, Wizard Chess and Quidditch.

She wanted to try suggesting it to Professor Dumbledore. Maybe it would work. After all, not many people got into their house's Quidditch team in the tryouts.

And he had told her that he would send her something to hide her phoenix mark and wand. But until now she hasn't heard anything about it. Maybe, he forgot?

After it began to get dark, they got back to the ground and went to each of their rooms to freshen up.

....

Lyra came out from her bath, feeling quite refreshed. With water dripping down her hair, she put a towel on her head and changed into her pyjamas. At that time, Minny suddenly popped into her room and informed her that her mother wanted to meet her in her study.

She walked out of her room casually drying her hair wondering why her mother would have wanted to meet her.

Amelia's study and the Bones manor's library both were on the second floor. So, Lyra had to climb a floor.

She knocked on the door as soon as she reached there, and heard her mother say, "Come in Lyra"

"What happened, mum?"

"Letter from Dumbledore", she replied as she handed Lyra a letter and a parcel.

It seemed that he hadn't forgotten about the things that he mentioned.

Lyra opened the parcel and saw a ring and a bracelet. Both of them had a unique phoenix design and they were made of silver.

Then she opened the letter.

Dear Lyra,

Both the ring and the bracelet are personally enchanted by me. The ring is to be worn for your wand, and the bracelet is for your phoenix mark. They cannot be removed by anyone other than you. And, you must never remove them. Take care.

~A.D

After reading it, she handed over the letter back to her mother and called for Minny and requested her to undo the concealment charms that she had asked Minny to place on her wand and Phoenix mark. She could have continued using Minny's charms, but they had to be cast daily. What would she do, when she goes to Hogwarts or if she was in an emergency?

That was why Dumbledore suggested making enchanted jewellery to conceal them.

She first took the ring and slid it on the wand, then the ring adjusted itself to fit the wand's thickness. Then her wand just looked like any other wand only with a single decorative ring.

She took out the bracelet and wore it on her right hand, it also adjusted itself to her wrist size and the phoenix mark couldn't be seen.

Then she showed them both to her mother then said bye to her and left the room.

She had an idea. She could write a thank you letter for this and in passing, she could request Dumbledore to hold official Broom Racing competitions!

She ran off to her room in a hurry and then wrote the letter and had Chione deliver the letter.

'It would be excellent if this could be done', she thought.

....

31 August 1991.

It was the last day, and by tomorrow they'd be leaving for Hogwarts. So, Lyra, Susan and Harry decided to enjoy the whole day and Amelia even gave her approval so Harry didn't need to attend his penmanship and etiquette classes that day.

All three of them were dressed in muggle clothing. Lyra wore a grey top with white pants, while Susan wore a pink top with a skirt with flowery designs. Harry was dressed in a striped t-shirt paired with denim pants.

(A/N: I know, I suck at descriptions...)

They roamed around the neighbourhood; both muggle and magical. Since they tried various muggle things, and it was an eye-opener for both Lyra and Susan. This made Lyra even more curious than she already was towards Muggle education. She decided to give it a try if it was somehow possible.

Since it was time for lunch, and they returned home for lunch and went off again in the evening. They decided to play in a nearby park as there were many other children too, who were all muggles. Lyra wanted to see how knowledgeable the muggle children were since their inventions seemed pretty impressive. Thus, while playing with everyone, she tried asking about their schools and their curriculum. But all she got was weird looks.

As she wondered why these children were looking at her like that, she noticed Harry standing alone near the bushes, seemingly in a daze. She rushed towards him to ask what happened, only to be shushed by him to keep silent. He seemingly listened to something and pushed apart the bushes a bit to the side only to see a snake aiming to lunge at a rat.

The snake was startled as it turned to look at the human who disturbed its meal, and made sounds as if berating Harry. And Harry was baffled as he too made strange sounds. After the two made strange sounds back and forth at each other, the snake went off to find another rat to prey upon as its earlier prey ran off.

Lyra was surprised at what she saw. Her mind came to a conclusion, which was that Harry was a Parselmouth. The first thought that came to her mind after she concluded was that "It's so cool! Talking to snakes!"

She wasn't scared of Harry due to it, nor was she prejudiced against people who were parselmouths. She was just excited to see someone with such an amazing ability as she knew better than to judge someone without getting to know them. What more, she knew that in various countries outside of Europe, Parselmouths were even considered as powerful wizards and there were even some fabulous healers among them.

But soon, it hit her that even though she might not be prejudiced, she couldn't say the same to others, right? She decided that it was better to warn him about it and pull him to a corner to inform him.

"Whoah... Why are you pulling me? By the way, did you hear that snake too? I was really shocked. It seems it's pretty nice being a wizard, even without knowing any spells, one can even have the ability to talk to snakes!", only after Lyra pulled him aside from the bush was Harry came out of his shocked state, but he started to talk to Lyra in excitement.

"Harry! You're a Parselmouth! This has nothing to do with being a wizard. Not all wizards have this ability, it is very rare. And Parselmouths are very powerful wizards too!", Lyra said in an excited whisper.

"Wow... Really?"

"Yes. But, don't reveal this fact to anybody else. Most people think that Parselmouths are Evil Dark Wizards. But don't worry, it's not actually true because many healers use Parseltongue. Just make sure to not tell this to untrustworthy people."

"Oh... I'll be careful then. Why the prejudice though?"

"Because, Salazar Slytherin and Voldemort were both Parselmouths", Lyra explained.

"Voldemort, huh...", Harry's voice trailed off as he thought of the name of the monster who murdered his parents.

Lyra noticed Harry's anomaly and realised that he would be thinking of his parents at the mention of Voldemort's name and flinched at the thought of it. Losing ones' parents. How cruel was that... Seeing Harry, she swore that if she ever came face to face with that Oldie-Vody, she'd definitely hex him to oblivion (if she could that is).

After that, Lyra had no mood to play. The other two too were exhausted from playing all day and all of them called it a day.

Lyra took a bath as soon as they reached home and she made sure whether all her belongings were packed and just as she was wondering what to do next, it was time for dinner.

All the three children were a little more silent than normal as they wouldn't be home for the next few months. Even though attending Hogwarts was exciting enough, the thought of not being home was enough to make them sad. Even Harry felt a little sad for leaving the Bones Manor as he had come like Amelia. She was the first-ever adult who gave the feeling of a mother. Although she was strict about many things, she had her sweet moments too.

Sensing the atmosphere, Amelia chose to smoothen things out.

"Children, from tomorrow onwards you would start living in the Hogwarts dorms of whichever house you may get chosen to. Remember to take care of yourselves and your safety is the priority. Be sure to follow the rules and approach the Prefects or the Head of the House for whatever help you may need. It doesn't matter what house you are in. And be sure to look out for each other. Is that clear, children?"

"""Yes, Ma'am""", the three of them answered with a smile as they listened to Amelia's nag.

"Now then, Minny has prepared a Chocolate cake for you guys to enjoy. So, don't keep that long face anymore, alright?"

"Yay! Chocolate !" Lyra exclaimed as it was her favourite chocolate cake.

Seeing her enthusiasm everyone couldn't help but shake their heads with a smile.

"Do you like chocolates that much?" Harry asked.

"Don't even mention that, Harry. She's crazy about chocolates. She likes them so much that a year ago she researched how to make perfumes and made a unique one with a chocolate-basil flavour..." Susan ranted on as Lyra embarrassedly scratched her head.

"Is that the one she always wears?"

"Yup, that's it. She even made her whole room smell like it. I think she even added some in her ink bottles"

"Alright, that's enough children. Go to bed earlier, you have to get ready early tomorrow.", Amelia waved them off to go to their rooms and she too went to handle some official paper works in her study.

Susan and Harry went to sleep, but Lyra wanted to meet her mother so she walked to her Study and knocked on the door.

"Come in"

"Mom... I'm a little nervous", Lyra said as she entered the room.

"What are you nervous about? Just follow the rules and study. And you already have a few friends, right? With them around, you surely won't feel bored. Don't be scared of anything. Hogwarts is a school full of mysteries, but be careful on what you do, that's all and you'll be alright Little Lyra.", Amelia patted Lyra's head.

"I'll miss you, mom", Lyra said as she embraced her mother.

Amelia went stiff for a moment, but consoled her with a smile, " You're going to write to me every week right? We just won't be able to see each other for a few months."

The two enjoyed the silence for a few minutes before Amelia broke the silence, "Did you remember to take the box that your father gave?"

"Yes, mom... What is there in it, though?"

"You'll know when you reach Hogwarts. But I'll suggest you not get into trouble. Your father... He... was such a troublemaker when he was your age. If I get any report on you making trouble... you know what would happen then."

"Mom, even if I do any kind of mischief, I'll not get caught, hehe~", Lyra stuck out her tongue.

"You... Leave it. Just be safe. That's all I can say. I should have expected this", Amelia said with a sigh.

"Did you actually read your Hogwarts Letter?"

"No... It'd be the same as Susan's except for the Name. So I didn't even open it"

"That's the problem. Your name in the school registry is 'Lyra Regina Black' and the letter was addressed as 'Ms. Black'. You didn't even take a glance at your letter did you?"

"No, mum I just copied the list of things needed from Susan... Will my name become a problem?"

"Don't worry, Dumbledore took care of it and changed everything to Ms Bones. Until your father's name is cleared, it's not good for you to use the Black surname, understand?"

"Even if others scorn me, I don't care mom. If I do this, it's like I am ashamed of dad. I don't want to..."

"No Lyra. I know what you feel. I can't even acknowledge him as my husband. But we are not ashamed of him. We are doing this just to protect you. Also, imagine what would happen if we tell them the truth? They'll just keep on gossiping about your dad and our family. At least, for now, they're leaving him out of it. If we tell them, he'll be dragged in too. So, it's for the best."

"Mom, Dad loves us right? When can I see him? Would they ever let him out, mom? I hear that Azkaban is the cruellest prison out there... Will he be alright?" Lyra asked as she looked at a moving picture of her father holding her one-year-old self.

In Amelia's study, there were quite a few pictures of their family. Amelia's parents, her brothers, everyone's photos were there. But most of them were Sirius and Lyra(one-year-old) together doing some comical poses together.

"He loves us Lyra. He does.", Amelia answered, but left out the other parts so as not to disappoint Lyra.

"Remember Lyra, if you need any help, look for Professor Snape. I guess he teaches Potions. We could be considered acquaintances. But there's a huge possibility that he might not like you, but don't mind him. He's just a stubborn and irrational idiot. But don't be intimidated by him. I won't say he's a good person. But I guess, after all this time, he won't support the wrong side and could be considered trustworthy. If he's not available, then directly look for Dumbledore. Don't be afraid of disturbing that old man at all, alright?"

"Okay, mom. I will. Don't worry"

The two talked for a bit and then Lyra went to bed after the long day as a whole year of interesting things (a few dangerous, of course) awaited her at Hogwarts.

=======

(A/N: I know my writing style for this chapter is not good, I guess. Please forgive me for it)