Magical Bonds

I. The man in black

March 17, 1989

"I'M GOING TO GET YOU!"

The caretaker's shouts amused the little brown-haired girl terribly. She couldn't have been older than eight, and she ran down the corridors lined with students. It was almost lunchtime, and she had already managed to play three pranks on him, as well as a few on his disliked cat, Mrs. Norris, who had the annoying habit of following her everywhere. Of course, she managed to escape her every time.

The girl turned right into a hallway where a few older boys were looking at her in amazement. Everyone knew the little one, often saying she was the soul of the school with how adorable and clever she was. It was no wonder she was like this; her mother had been known as one of the biggest troublemakers during her school years, though her mind had always been sharp and envied. That was until she faked her death seven years ago.

The girl knew some of her mother's secrets, the biggest being her direct connection to the Potters, who were killed by Voldemort, a dark wizard defeated by their son. Her mother was Lily Potter's stepsister, Harry's aunt, and the next queen of the Vampire Kingdom.

This meant that she, the little troublemaker currently being searched for by Filch, was the cousin of the Boy Who Lived and the vampire princess. At her age, she didn't feel the weight of the responsibilities and worries her mother had, but she perhaps suffered more than anyone else when she saw her mother's deplorable health and the sadness in her dark chocolate-colored eyes.

The girl considered her mother a fighter, having gone through a war and losing many loved ones, then feeling like she couldn't go on and faking her own death, only to hide in the place she loved most on this planet: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The brown-haired girl had grown up here, staying nine or ten months a year, and she wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. She had made many friends among both students and teachers, not to mention the ghosts who visited her daily in the room she shared with her mother. She enjoyed the atmosphere as much as she could, knowing that in the year she turned eleven, when she received her letter of acceptance to Hogwarts, everything might change.

But she preferred not to think about that now and continued to have fun as if it were the last day. Perhaps that's why she didn't notice the person she bumped into when she turned right down a corridor, landing on them with a few books falling on top of them.

"Were you not looking where you were going, or was it me? Or both?" asked a quiet female voice that made the brown-haired girl lift herself up on her hands.

The child smiled innocently and got off the twenty-eight-year-old woman with similar brown hair tied in a ponytail, a bit dazed from the fall. The brown eyes scanned her figure, and a small smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"I think it was both, Mommy," said the girl quietly.

"What did you do this time, Lyra? Another prank on Filch?"

She knew her too well, but the thought didn't stop her from giggling.

"What do you think?"

"What's the reason now?" her mother asked, getting up from the floor and dusting off her black cloth pants.

Lyra had never seen her wear anything other than black, suspecting it was due to the death of her uncle and aunt. Nevertheless, it suited her, and she couldn't deny that the woman she called "mom" was beautiful.

"He started punishing two first-year students for talking a bit too loudly. Did you expect me to sit idly by?"

Her mother let a small smile escape the corner of her mouth, then shook her head amusedly at her daughter's adorable expression. With a movement of her long, pale fingers, she lifted the books she had been carrying a few moments before their little accident. Lyra had always been fascinated by her mother's powers, but now even more so, wishing she could do the same things.