We only miss those we have lost

2. The Letter

15th of July 1971, 12 Grimmauld Place London

The day started in the same way it always does for the twins. Wake up to the screeching of their mother then head down to breakfast with their younger brother Regulus and deal with the talk of pureblood nonsense that their parents try to make them believe. It seemed like an ordinary day until something small and fast interrupted their wonderful breakfast by dropping a letter onto each of the twin's plates. They slowly turned their heads to look at each other and smirked before suddenly grabbing their envelope and starting to roughly open them with joy. Their parents looked up at the noise and glared at the both of them respectively for the way they were opening the letters, the twins reacted differently to the glare from their parents. Sirius looked back at them, continuing to rip open his letter while on the other hand Lyra looked at her parents and stopped opening the letter, waiting for their permission to continue, the playfulness in her eyes gone and replaced with an emotionless face.

Their parents looked at her gratefully and approvingly, Well as grateful as the emotionless Black family could be. But once they looked at their heir and son anger rose in their eyes, scaring Lyra slightly remembering the last time she saw this look in her parent's eyes and that did not go well for the twins. She had to stop Sirius before the situation got too out of hand and dangerous.

'Sirius.' Lyra murmured to her brother trying to get him to stop. Her smirk was completely gone and replaced with a pleading look.

'It's fine Ly, I know what I'm doing. It's not the first time I've read a letter' Did he just wink at me? She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Firstly he has never gotten a letter ever and secondly, he was ignoring all of the warning signs from their parents even Regulus knew better and he just turned ten last month. She wished Sirius would stop being so rebellious for once so her and Regulus could have this one happy memory. But instead, he started to read his letter ignoring all of the warning signs to stop and rethink what he was doing. She saw her father start to stand up and knew what was coming. He grabbed her twin by the ear causing him to yelp in pain and took him to the hell hole that they call the study. Why did Sirius do this to himself?

She heard the slam of the door closing and it took all of her self control not to jump at the sound, she felt her mother's eyes on her gauging her reaction to the events occurring around her. Knowing exactly what her mother wanted Lyra schooled her features and just kept looking straight at her mother showing no sign of rebelling against them as her brother did. Walburga creepily smiled and reached out her hand, palm up waiting for Lyra to give her the letter just as a muffled bang happened in the background making Regulus flinch. Keeping her face blank and ignoring the muffled bangs and yells of her brother in the background she slowly handed over her letter for her mother to see. Walburga looked at the letter and let out a barely noticeable sigh of relief as she read on making Lyra relax slightly. That was a mistake.

'You've been accepted into Hogwarts.' Walburga says calmly, still staring at Lyra making her squirm in her seat.

'Excellent, I'm sure you know that your father and I expect you to keep an eye on your brother and make sure neither of you diminishes the Black name. If you do there will be consequences. Do you understand that Lyra?' she questioned just as Orion came back in, with Sirius dragging behind him. Lyra slightly looked at Sirius, he seemed like he had just been thrown into hell and climbed back out and it possibly wasn't quite far off of what had happened in that study. She looked back at her mother and nodded wanting this moment to end

'Yes mother, I understand. If we fail to do so I will take the punishment.' She answered looking at Sirius as she spoke the last sentence seeing his confusion at her words.