Daughter of the House of Black

The Letters, Hagrid, and the Leaky

Lyra Potter was considered an odd child. By who? The perfectly normal residents of Number 4 Privet Drive. Petunia was a perfect stay at home mom, with the perfect one son, and the perfect office job working husband.

Lyra was not a welcomed, planned or normal member of the ordinary household. The only she knew about how her current life came to be was that her parents died drunk in a car crash and she was quite literally dropped on the doorstep. Petunia loved to use this against her, going on rants, "Dropped off in the middle of the night, only a blanket in and a note. Not even the decency to knock. Found you with the milk."

That lead Petunia to call her as useful as milk-which was to say not. In order to make up for the unusual circumstance of arrival, she was put to use at a young age and given as little of the family's resources as possible. The four bedrooms in the house were used as such: one for the husband and wife, one for guests, one for Dudley to sleep, and one for Dudley's toys. The family's unwanted addition got the cupboard under the stairs. Food was rationed, but only for Lyra. Both Vernon and Dudley ate whenever they were hungry. Lyra was regularly hungry, both at night and during the day.

To make up for being a money drain, Lyra was put to work. From the young age of 3 she was expected to help with the cleaning; do the dishes, clean the pans, empty the trash, clean up Dudley's messes. As she aged she also helped cook, with breakfast and dessert being her specialty. Doing lawn maintenance was also expected. The neiborhood had a service that cut the grass and pulled weeds, but Petunia liked to have roses. It was Lyra's job to care for the roses.

Dudley never did anything. If Lyra failed to finish or do her chores she was punished. Loss of food and cupboard time were common with the occasionally a smack. A few times, upon a truly egregious mistake, such as dropping a vase or burning too much food, Petunia would go at her with the frying pan. Most times she managed to duck.

Once school began a new rule was quickly placed: Don't do better than Dudley. She learned the hard way. Dudley never did better than low Bs. If she did too well, the teachers soon learned about her cheating and compulsive lying problem. Despite her new found love of learning she hated school.

Dudley made it his mission to leave her miserable. He and his gang tormented her and anyone who tried to be friends with her. Standing up for herself was not allowed. The worst injuries she recived came from Dudley and his friends beating her up in a corner. They called in Lyra Lynching. They chased after her until they caught her and beat her up during recess. She was faster than them, but they had more stamina, a reust of being feed regularly. Vernon encouraged his son.

The worst thing that she could do was something weird. She didn't mean to do it, she really didn't. When she did something freaky though, it was the cupboard for sure, but only after Vernon got a hit or two in. This only happened a few times, when she ended up on the roof, when she turned the teacher's hair blue, growing her hair back. She learned to control it eventually.

One freedom she did have was the ability to wander around town. Petunia had the sense to know not to work her two much, especially while in school. This 'freedom' did leave her with much to do. She had to finish her chores and then make herself scarce. If she was caught around the house not working before nightime she was in trouble.

She had no friends to spend the time with, Dudley had scared them all off. Dudley had also mastered the art of finding her during her free time and going after her. She had mastered the countering art of speed. She had quite the motivation.

The solace that she found was the library. The hallowed halls of the building were her sanctuary. Dudley never dared to even enter the library, her library. It was in those rows that she let her intellect free. She studied everything from sports (she found the statistics interesting) to medieval nobility (what a culture) to law (had to know what she could and couldn't do).

Everything her relatives said, she fact checked. Vernon telling someone they were going to hell? Three weeks devouring everything on all religions, from ancient Greeks to modern pagans. A mention of rigid socio-economic norms in the Elizabethan era from a teacher? 5 weeks. By the end she could contact herself in manner befitting of a lady from many English and French time periods. Petunia talking about differences in flowers? One week.

She never knew it then, but this would be her saving grace.

When the letters first came Vernon and Petunia were secretive and furious. Vernon was more irritable than usual, going out of his way to be mad at her. She didn't exert to much of her energy trying to get one. If the sender of truly determined she would receive one, if not, it wasn't worth it.

The letters came flying in through the chimney on the seventh day. It was a Sunday and Uncle Vernon had been so pleased that the post didn't come on Sundays. The chimney was the last straw for Vernon. He packed his family up and settled them on a remote island for the week. Lyra honestly thought he had lost his mind. She wasn't a fan of letters either, they made Vernon madder, which meant more bruises, less food, and more time in the cupboard.

Then the giant came. Minutes after her eleventh birthday he broke down the front door to the hut. He didn't make a lot of sense. He knocked in the door and was as loud as could be. He looked around before settling on her face, specifically her scar, "Lyra, why yer all grown up. I remember when yer were jus a little baby and Dumbledore had me pick you up. Ya ready to go?"

Lyra was getting frustrated, no one would tell her anything, Vernon knew what the letters were about and so did Petunia. Rather than tell her they had hidden them on a tiny island in the middle of a storm. Then this man showed up talking about a man who probably left her on a doorstep to die,"Go where sir?"

Hagrid gave a deep chuckle as if she had made a joke, "Diagon o' course, and then it's off to Hogwarts. Where yer parents learned it all."

"Learned what?" Would nothing give her a straight answer?

"Why magic of course!" Hagrid tilted his head at her, "Didn't ya Aunt an Uncle tell ya? All about magic and the war and whatnot? Ya'know how yer parents die."

"No, I was informed that parents died in a car crash.," she said, casting a look at Petunia. An incomplete answer, but an answer nonthe less. She had the basis of an explanation for her powers. It seemed to be genetic.

"Lily, James!" Hagrid bellowed, "Car crash! How dare you dishonor great wizards such as that, they died fightin a dark wizard. You defeated 'em, yer a hero to."

Internally Lyra smiled, Lily and James, she knew their names now. And she was hero, how interesting. She wondered about the extent of her fame. It could make secrecy pain.

Hagrid took her from Vernon and Petunia and had them outside of a dank pub within an hour. He called it the Leaky Cauldron. It looked peculiar, to say the least. A mix of partons was inside from shady dealers to happy families and they all stopped to listen when Hagrid bellowed her name for all to hear, "Not today Tom, I'm here on Hogwarts business, Lyra Potter's gettin' her supplies."

Lyra fumed, did the man have no discretion? People swarmed her for something that she couldn't remember and all Hagrid wanted to do was talk. He explained on the boat ride how her parents had died in more detail. How widespread her name and deed was. Her theory was that her mother saved her somehow. Once Hagrid took her out to the wall in the alley she finally relaxed. As Hagrid opened the wall she had one important question, "How am I supposed to pay for all of this?"

"Yer parents left ya some money in Gringotts bank."