Lyra Black

Chapter 1

Lyra jumped off the couch, interrupting a serious family meeting about something strange, probably about how amazing the Black family was because they were pure-bloods, Lyra had tuned out long ago. But the reason for Lyra jumping up abruptly is because there was a knock on the door.

This knock was from Professor Albus Dumbledore, the kind headmaster of her new school. Lyra used attend Beauxbatons, but after her twin brother ran away, she was starting at Hogwarts, a feeble attempt by her parents to make her brother return. Idiots that they were, they didn't realise that Lyra would never do anything that they say.

Lyra and Sirius Black were two peas in a pod and they use to do everything together. Used to. On the twins' tenth Christmas, their parents forced Lyra to go to France, wanting to separate the two, who shared the opposite views of blood-purity to the rest of the family.

Lyra and Sirius hadn't talked faced to face since then, but they had communicated via their minds and letters. At least until Sirius ran away from home, only sending one letter, saying that he wasn't going to talk to her again to protect her. Protect her! Brothers were so annoying on so many levels.

Lyra was at the door in seconds and opened it just before the professor could knock again. "Ah, Miss Lyra," Dumbledore smiled down at the fifteen year old girl, and she felt slightly silly for her enthusiasm. "Would you be nearly ready for your first year at Hogwarts?"

"Yes, of course, Professor." Lyra responded and she felt ashamed of her fears, that maybe he wasn't coming after all. The time had just seemed to drag on and on. Dumbledore entered the house and Lyra subtly glanced at a grandfather clock in the corner of the room as she closed the front door. It showed the time 7:00. Dumbledore was right on time.

The headmaster seemed very official as he walked carefully into the sitting room which her parents currently occupied. Lyra bypassed the room completely, instead running up to her bedroom which lay on the third floor of the huge house. Although she felt like a child, she just wanted to get away from the toxic environment that existed anywhere within a square mile radius of Orion and Walburga Black.

She grabbed the trunk that she had packed that day and heaved it down the two flights of stairs, placing it not-so-gently at the front door. She tiptoed up to the door so that she might be able to eavesdrop a little bit.

"And you guarantee that she will be in Slytherin," her mother was saying and Lyra froze.

"It cannot be assured," Dumbledore said as she burst into the room, inwardly letting out a sigh of relief.

"So..." Lyra began awkwardly. "Are we going now?"

"Of course, Miss Lyra," the professor agreed, getting to his feet. He turned to her parents. "Lovely chat, Orion, Walburga. I'm afraid that we have to get to Hogwarts now. Curfew is in an hour and we still have to get her sorted."

Lyra grinned as she walked out of the room again, tripping over her own feet a bit in her haste to get to the school. She heard Walburga yell from behind her, "Do not disgrace us!"

Don't worry, Lyra thought savagely as she exited the house with Professor Dumbledore and latched onto his arm in preparation for side-along Apparation. I will.

Lyra keeled over, dropping her luggage to the floor as she tried to restrain herself from puking her guts up all over the floor. "Yes, sorry about that," the headmaster apologised. "Side-along Apparation does make you feel a bit sick the first time. It was over a long distance too, so that wouldn't of helped." He paused, then shoved a bowl of sweets under her nose. "Lemon drop?"

"No," she waved him away, still slightly breathless but feeling better now. "I'm fine now." She eyed the bowl of sweets. "Actually, yes, I will have one. Thank you."

She unwrapped the sticky lolly and shoved it in her mouth, retrieving her suitcase which, thankfully, hadn't spilled everywhere, and sat in a plush chair on the other side of the desk. "Now for the matter of your sorting. I suspect that Minerva -"

He was cut off as a middle-aged woman entered the room with a raggedy hat, her eyes widening as she saw Lyra. She gave the hat to Dumbledore and leaned in to quietly speak with him. "Spitting image of him . . . just a girl . . ." Lyra caught on to her line of thought immediately. She supposed that she did look like her brother, they were twins after all. She hadn't seen him for years so she don't really know what he looks like now. Lyra felt a small sense of satisfaction in the fact that their looks weren't something that had grown apart.

Minerva left the room as Lyra finished her lemon drop. Dumbledore gave the hat to her and she glanced, confused, first at the hat then at the headmaster. "Put it on," he urged.

Lyra did so cautiously, and almost jumped when the hat suddenly spoke into her ear. "Another Black," it stated, sounding lightly puzzled. "But older than the last one. Hmm..." Lyra shifted in her seat.

What's your name? she thought at the hat, feeling bored already.

The sensation of her mind being sifted through stopped suddenly and she wondered if she had done something wrong. "No, nothing wrong," the hat muttered. "You know, the last person to ask me that question was your brother."

Oh, Lyra hesitated. So what is your name? She felt a wave of annoyance ripple through her from the hat.

"I don't have one. Your brother decided on Hatty McHatface, but I do not acknowledge that." Lyra rolled her eyes. Of course her brother chose something dumb like that.

"Well, I think you sound kind of like a Sherman," she decided, laughing a bit.

"And you sound like a Gryffindor," the hat replied, and Lyra swore she heard the hat whisper a quiet thank you for the name as she took off the hat.

"Gryffindor," she informed Dumbledore, who had been watching her for the few minutes she had been buried under the hat's brim.

"Of course," he smiled again and then directed her to the door, where Minerva was waiting.

Lyra paused at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. She didn't know if her brother would be in there, and didn't know how she felt about potentially seeing him. On one hand, she hadn't seen him in five years, and she hadn't spoken with him in what seemed like eons after conversing nearly every day, but was only about a month.

Then Professor McGonagall, as she had been told to call Minerva, nudged her forward and the lady in the portrait peered imperiously down at them before saying in a high voice, "Password, please."

The professor responded in a firm voice, "Gillyweed." She then turned to Lyra and said, "There's a new one every week. Don't forget it or you'll be stuck out here until someone comes along who knows it."

Then the painting was swinging open and McGonagall was leading her into a large but cosy room that was mercifully sparse of students. A small group of girls sat in front of the fire and looked at her curiously as she followed Professor McGonagall up the right-hand flight of stairs. From what Sirius had told her, she knew that the left section belonged to the boys, and shivered at the thought that her brother, her twin, was less than a hundred metres away for the first time in over five years.

She squared her shoulders and entered one of the dorm rooms after the professor. "You're in here with all of the other fourth-year girls." Professor McGonagall informed the girl. "Go put your things over there. I dare say you want to sleep." She pointed to the only bed that wasn't surrounded by personal things and other luggage. It was by the window, and Lyra didn't mind that a sliver of moonlight would certainly catch her eye as she tried to fall asleep, or that the sun would wake her up early in the morning. She was just glad to be here, at Hogwarts, and seeing her brothers tomorrow for the first time in forever.