A/N this just pulled itself gradually in to my mind tonight, so I wanted to get it down before it disappeared again.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter completely belongs to JK Rowling
Once, oh, such a long time ago, Lyra Potter had been a myth. A legend. Proof that innocence overcame corruption and light triumphed over evil. She had disappeared from their world the night she broke Voldemort, and though rumour had it that she had been with Hagrid, that was merely a rumour. She had not been seen again for nearly ten years.
Every year on Halloween, people celebrated the downfall of Voldemort, and not one gave thought on that day to the girl lost everything. She was merely The Girl Who Lived. And so it was, that as the years went on, Lyra Potter meant instant recognition. Hatred from some, admiration from others, gratefulness from the rest. There was one wizard though, that the name Lyra meant more to. It didn't mean salvation. It meant love. Longing. Want for the little girl who had been the child of his best friends. Remus Lupin spent years thinking of her. Wanting to get near her. To see her and know, truly know she was safe.
For the Weasleys, Lyra Potter was a bedtime story, passed down from the parents to the older siblings to their younger siblings. They created a character that aged as she aged, one who was truly a hero. And so, the Weasley siblings respected Lyra. They never thought that they would meet her. That someone who had been present in their lives as a fairy tale would come down from the realms of imagination and step in to their lives as a friend. A sister. One who had lost all and yet loved regardless. And they respected not just her past and her title, instead, they mainly respected her personality. Her character. Her friendship they valued above all else.
The first time Charlie met her, a young girl stepped nervously from the fireplace and blushed as she took him and his older brother in - the only two siblings she had not yet met. The heroine from his mothers tales, from his own that he told the others, from his younger siblings tales from her first three years at Hogwarts, met together and combined with friend.
And now, here she was, sitting beside him as they laughed together in Grimmauld Place. The myth of his childhood, now his best friend, and now his lover. The real Lyra Lily Potter he had the pleasure of knowing. It was the real Lyra Potter he had fallen in love with.
It was with shock that Charlie recalled those years where he had heard about this child who had saved them all. Those years where he had heard about the girl who had willingly risked her life to save the school. To save his sister. That distant person.. The one who he owed his little sisters life to. He had sent her a long letter expressing his gratitude, and remembered the polite letter she had sent back.
He remembered meeting her. He remembered falling in love with her. He remembered their first kisses. He remembered not existing for a year in her absence, every day had gone by in a blur. She had saved their world. She had saved him.
But this Lyra Potter, this one right here, she was much more tangible than any myth. Any legend. Any bedtime story, any fairy tale. And yet, she was just even more wondrous than any being could understand. For somehow, she held his heart. And even more bewilderingly, he held hers.
Wow - I had been planning to write the first paragraph.. And then go to bed. And then this happened and it's now really late. Oops.