I was living in Jackson, Mississippi with my sister when she showed up.
Madame Tyler.
My mama had died not long after I was born so I was living with my sister who was working two jobs trying to make rent and put food on the table. I was eight. They start them younger over there. I had just walked home from school. Eager to cool off, I had dumped myself on the cool leather couch in the living room when I heard the doorbell chime. Frowning I got up. Our doorbell had been broken for several months now. I crept over to the window and peeked out onto the porch to see a pretty woman with long black hair standing there dressed all in black. She was staring directly at me. She seemed to besmoking a cigar. Embarrassed at being caught staring I rushed to the door and opened it. The woman looked down at me and smiled.
"Hi there, Lyra. Would you mind letting me in?" I paused. I was not supposed to let strangers in while my sister was at work but I couldn't help but open the door for her as she fixed me with a piercing gaze. She walked into the room and went directly to the couch and sat down. Looking at me expectantly she patted the couch beside her and I moved towards her and sat down as if moved by an invisible force. She said nothing as she sat there. Finally I turned to her and asked, "Are you waitin for Bree, ma'am? Cause she ain't gon be home till six."
"I know that, child." She replied. She said nothing more.
"Then why you here?" I burst out suddenly. This time she smiled softly at me. Then she grabbed my hand and turned it over so my palm was facing up and traced a small line that travelled across my palm.
"Me an your sis got to talk somthings over. Some things about you. You got magic in your blood." I stared at her wide-eyed when I heard the screen door swing on its hinges and my sister's voice as she came in.
"Lyra! Why is la puerta no cerrada? Lyra?" She called in the ménage of spanglish that we usually spoke to each other in. The woman smiled at my sister as she came into the living room glancing bewildered at me and the strange woman on the couch.
It was that night that I leaned that I was a witch. My sister and I moved to New Orleans not long after Madame Tyler's visit. There I attended Serpentinoir Academy for the Magically Gifted in New Orleans. There I discovered a secret world that I had not dared to hope possible. Madame Tyler ran the school which took up a stately block in the French Quarter amidsts tick curtains of spanish moss. There was never a dull day at the Academy. Surrounded by red velvet curtains and seated on plush purple cushions I learned Divination, History of Ancient Magic. I took Shop of Magical Instruments and at Eleven I was presented with my very own wand. Hickory with a base of hair of Rougarou. I continued my lessons at the Academy and my sister picked up a job in a hotel not far from the school. In my first year out of elementary magic my sister got promoted to Hospitality manager at the hotel. Then she met John.
I liked John well enough. He was nice to my sister and she really liked him. Though I think this was mostly due to his long black hair and singsong British accent. Bree knew he was like me. She said she saw the signs. I could see it too when I met him. I t was nice to have another person like me that I could look up to other than my teachers at the Academy. Bree and John started going steady. Around my fifteenth birthday I could see something was troubling John. He kept sending letters off with some Roseate Spoonbills and looking tired and stressed. Then one day John told my sister some shocking news. His actual name was not John, it was Sirius. He was a convicted criminal in my world. And he had to return to England because of his god son who happened to be Harry Potter. I'd heard quite a bit bout this boy at the Academy. Unfortunately, it turned out that my sister loved Sirius. Evan after he confessed all that. Even worse he was filthy rich and had a house back in London. He wanted my sister to come and she accepted. The flight over was exhausting and it was apparent that Sirius' house needed some working on when we arrived but despite all of it I'd never seen my sister happier. For me; however, it was a completely different story.