Wow this needed some serious editing. It's not perfect, but it's better compared to 5 years ago when my 13 year old self thought she was a great writer (there was a freaking interrupting author note in the past version… just, ugh). This is a lot better I think. I really need to go through the whole thing and edit the first few chapters or so that I posted in the 2009-2010 range, because my 13/14 year old writing style does not agree with me haha.

For those of you who are just starting this, welcome! This is the story of Lydia Black. A bit of background trivia on her: She was the first true character I've ever created, and I've had her for a little over 10 years now; She's the daughter of Sirius Black and an OC, who will be introduced in the 3rd book!

Enjoy guys!

~o~

Chapter 1
Lydia's World

"Get up!"

My chocolate brown eyes snapped open as Petunia Dursley's voice screeched through my ears. She banged on the outside of the cupboard door to wake me and my best friend up. It definitely worked, the rude wakeup call method, just like it did every morning. My best friend, Harry Potter, now sat up in our tiny bed, wide awake. Sleepily, I mumbled something that even I didn't understand and brushed my pitch black out of my face, and lay back down while Harry put on his round glasses over his emerald green eyes.

Harry glanced back over at me and said quietly, "Time to get up, Lydia." I nodded and used all my strength to sit up. I yawned hugely just as we heard loud footsteps stomping down the stairs above us. Harry and I had managed to memorize who was bounding up and down the stairs just by their footsteps. These, in particular, were the footsteps of Harry's obnoxious cousin Dudley Dursley. Harry opened the door of the cupboard only to be pushed back inside by Dudley, causing him to almost fall on top of me.

"You all right?" I asked calmly although I was extremely angry. I don't like it when people bully me or my friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Lyd," Harry reassured me with a small smile. The anger still did not leave me.

"I really hate that boy," I stated furiously.

"Me too," Harry agreed.

Petunia Dursley came back to our door once again and shouted, "Are you two up yet?! You need to come and cook the bacon!" Harry and I both rolled our eyes in annoyance.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry replied to her.

"Good!"

Once we entered the overly clean kitchen, we immediately heard Vernon Dursley's demanding voice snap at us, "Watch the bacon and make sure it doesn't burn you two!" Harry and I just nodded, used to being yelled at by the Dursley family.

"Everything must be perfect for my little Dudley's special day!" Petunia almost sung. Harry and I glanced at each other and sighed. Every time Dudley's birthday came along, we were always put to work. Well, at least put to harder work.

"Girl, pour me my coffee!" Vernon demanded to me.

"Yes, Dursley." I had always refused to call him Mr. Dursley. I had a bit of a rebellious attitude since, well, my entire life. And more than anything, I acted this way towards Vernon Dursley. He was probably my least favorite of the family. I quickly began to pour the coffee.

Are there times when I wished I was with my own family instead of in this hellhole? Absolutely, yes! Pretty much every minute of everyday. If I ever knew my family, maybe I'd be able to run away from this place and drag Harry with me, and we'd never have to see the ugly Dursley family ever again. But, alas, I never knew my family. Harry is the closest I think I'll ever get to having family.

Harry's parents had died when he was younger just as mine disappeared. Where? I don't know. No one ever told me. All the Dursleys ever told me is that they were trouble makers and criminals. They told me that my father was in some kind of prison and my mother ran away. To where? Again, I have no idea. I decided not to question it any farther, but I still wonder each day about them. I wonder who they were and what happened to them.

I thought about myself and my best friend. Both Harry and I are very small and skinny from the lack of food we're given to eat. We are also Dudley's personal and favorite punching bags. Although, he doesn't like to pick on me as much as he does Harry because even though Dudley hates to admit it, I'm tougher than him and he was scared of me and boy, do I love that reality! I absolutely hate it when he picks on Harry though. Harry and I have a lot in common too. We both never knew our parents. That was a major one. We both each have one very unusual feature about us.

Harry's unusual feature was that he had a thin, lightning-shaped scar on his forehead that he had gotten when he was a baby. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley had told him that when he was little, his parents got in a car crash and he survived with just that scar. I, for one, never believed that story. I would say, "It's not true Harry! I just know it!" But, hey I have no evidence. There is just something about that scar though that's different. It doesn't seem like it would be caused by just an ordinary car crash. Vernon and Petunia rarely talked about Harry's mother, who was Mrs. Dursley's sister, or his father.

My feature is my hair. When Harry and I were both eight, Dudley had decided to chase us around the yard, and being that we were faster than him, we easily outran him. But as we hid, he said some pretty nasty stuff while looking for us. And I lost it. I emerged from my hiding place, and Dudley became so scared that he instantly bolted away, crying. Harry had told me that my hair had somehow turned bright red, and then back to black. That's how I discovered that when I get mad, all of my hair turns a bright, unnatural red. No one, including myself, knew why, but it doesn't matter to me because I love my hair. I absolutely hate it when people hurt my friend and, of course I do mostly anything to annoy the Dursleys.

Snapping back to reality, I realized the coffee was overflowing and burning my hand. Cursing silently, I poured some into the sink, gave the cup to Vernon and cleaned the spilled coffee up. Just then, Dudley came into the kitchen and scanned the piled of presents with his small, beady eyes. Finally he asked, "How many are there?"

"36, counted them myself," Mr. Dursley said smiling at his spoiled son, completely ignoring me and Harry.

Suddenly, Dudley grew red in the face and he exploded into a fit, "36, but last year I had 37!" I rolled my eyes. I swear they're going to get stuck up in my head eventually.

"36 presents is enough, Dursley! Harry and I don't even get any at all!" I snapped at him, almost feeling the red at the roots of my hair spreading slightly.

"Well, that's because you aren't important," Dudley said coldly. Oh, that's it!

I clenched my teeth and narrowed my eyes but said calmly yet dangerously, "You wanna try saying that again, Dursley?" Dudley whimpered and replied a soft no and I smiled in satisfactory. That's what I thought!

Yet, Mr. Dursley tried to reason with his son about the number of presents which added to my annoyance. Finally Mrs. Dursley went over saying, "Listen to me, when we go to the zoo, we're going to buy you two more presents."

Harry rolled his eyes while my expression read complete irritation. After a few minutes, the Dursleys, Harry and I went out to the car. Before we could get inside, Mr. Dursley closed the door of the car. Oh dear, here comes another warning. Don't do anything that'll embarrass us or were going to turn you to dust; every, single, time. He actually still thinks he scares me. Now that's funny!

"I'm warning you two, any funny business and you won't get any meals for a week, now get in," Mr. Dursley said as he pushed past us and around the car. No meals for a week, how original.

We finally arrived at the zoo and as weird as it sounds, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in person. Harry and I smiled at each other, silently agreeing. When we got into the zoo, we stared at everything in wonder and awe as if we were tourist seeing something like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Grand Canyon in Arizona, or Niagara Falls in Canada. It was almost like that to us, seeing as neither Harry nor I ever left that stupid house, except for school in which we were of course, the outsiders. Some people I noticed stared at us questionably but neither of us really cared. We were just grateful that we got to go. We never get to this!

Moving on, I was particularly interested in the petting zoo. It was set up like a farm, and like farms, they needed dogs that were able to herd some of the animals. I was overjoyed to be able to pet them. Dogs are my favorite animals. I love them! A while after, I rested on the bench while I chuckled at the goat trying to eat a piece of candy out of Dudley's back pocket. Sweet karma.

I clutched my necklace that I never took off in my right hand. A small, black dog with diamond eyes shone under the sun still looking like it was brand new even though it was around as old as I was, 10 years old (I'm almost 11! My birthday is in two months!). On the back it had my full name (Lydia Andromeda Black), and my birth date (September 5, 1980). I'm not entirely sure what "S. Black & S. Black" meant but I'm almost sure that it's the initials of my parents' names. If only I knew their whole first names…

"Come on, Lyd! We're leaving!" Harry called out to me, snapping me out of my thoughts. Oh yeah, I also daydream a lot. I have my own little world. I caught up with Harry and the Dursleys. Everything was going great. That is until we reached the Reptile House.

Harry, the Dursleys and I gazed at a giant, unmoving snake. Mr. Dursley banged on the glass crying, "Hey move, come on move!"

"He's asleep," Harry put in quickly, feeling quite sorry for the snake that probably faced this daily. The Dursleys looked at him for a moment before moving on.

After approximately two seconds, I said, "Well, this boring. I'm going to look at the lizards… Bye!" And I raced to the lizards' pen, leaving Harry alone with the snake. I was still within hearing range though so I could hear what he was saying.

"Lydia has a short attention span. And sorry about Dudley… he's a little spoiled some times. Well, actually all the time," Harry spoke softly to the snake. I smiled a bit. "Can… you hear me?" Harry asked softly. This made me look over at him.

Harry gulped and stammered, "You're… from Bermuda?" Wow, he's having a conversation with… a snake. Who doesn't talk back. I'm really starting to worry about him. He looked over at a sign next to the snake pen. "I see. I never knew my parents either," Harry said softly.

Just then Dudley ran over to the snake again yelling, "Mum, Dad, you won't believe what the snake's doing!"

He pushed past Harry causing him to fall on the floor and scrape his hand on the concrete. I saw Harry's blood drip on the floor. I was coming over just as this happened and I shot a death glare at Dudley. That stupid pig!

Then, splash! Dudley was all of a sudden in the snake pen, dripping wet from the pond he crashed into. Just the slight glance of this made me bite my lip hard in an effort not to laugh. The snake slithered its way out slowly. Once on the ground, it turned and I could have sworn that it looked straight at Harry. Ok maybe I'm the one that's going crazy. I heard it hiss slightly. Harry looked surprised.

He managed to say, "Any time." Ok, never mind, Harry is the one going crazy.

The snake slithered past him and out of the reptile house. People were screaming all around them. On the other hand, Harry and I—especially I—were in hysterics. Mr. Dursley turned sharply to us to give us a look of death, and we both stopped laughing at once. Oh yeah, we're in deep trouble.

The minute we got home, the largest Dursley pushed us inside and started screaming at us. "What happened back there!?" he shouted pulling Harry and I's hair back, which hurt.

"I swear, we don't know," Harry started, but Vernon shoved him into the closet and turned on me. Great. I kept a straight face trying to be or at least look brave.

"What happened?" he asked sharply. "You better tell me, girl."

I sighed trying to let out the fear I felt and quietly answered firmly, "I don't know! The glass was there one minute then in the next blink… it was gone! It was just like… like magic!"

Suddenly, there was a deep pain in my cheek as Vernon slapped me across the cheek. Yeah, that hurt too. I clenched my teeth together tightly, trying to hide any trace of tears and pain. "There's no such thing as magic, girl," he sneered.

Well, he's already mad, might as well try to make him madder, I thought as a smart remark passed through her mind. I all of a sudden smirked and said smartly, "Of course there is. You're just too empty headed to believe it." As soon as I said this, I darted right past him and managed to dodge his large, purple fist and sped into the cupboard.

"You two will be sorry about this!" Mr. Dursley cried. "Especially you, girl," he added with a dangerous edge to his voice. And then he was gone. I looked at Harry and burst into the tears that I had been keeping back. Harry rushed to my side and embraced me comfortingly. I sobbed onto his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Lyd," he began, "we're going to get out of here as soon as we can. I promise you."

I looked up and smiled slightly and mouthed, "Thank you." He smiled back, wiped away my tears and hugged me again. It had been like this for a while. We supported each other as much as we could. We were pretty much like twins, brother and sister, even though we weren't actually twins, of course. Just acted like it, and I was thankful for that.

In the next few days, Harry and I were only allowed to come out of our small cupboard if we needed to use the bathroom. We were rarely giving anything to eat and when we were, Aunt Petunia would give us just a small serving of soup. It was better than nothing though. Maybe I should try to fling it at her the next time she serves it to us…

After about a week of that, the two of us were able to come out of our room but we were still under deep punishment.

Presently, Harry had gone out to get the mail while I was sitting at the kitchen table listening to the Dursley's rant about something on the news. I saw Harry slowly walk into the kitchen with his eyes glued to the mail. He handed Uncle Vernon a small stack of letters, with two letters still in his hand and sat down next to me. He took one of them and gave it to me. I gave him a shocked look to which he just shrugged. We never got mail, ever.

Before either of us could get our letters open, they were snatched from our hands by none other than Dudley. He ran around the kitchen screaming, "Dad, look! Harry and Lydia got letters!" Harry and I hopped out of our seats.

"Give them back!" we shouted in unison as we tried to get a slight hold on the letters. I could tell that my hair was bright red because one, I was extremely angry at the moment and two, I felt the familiar, short-lived prickling on my head. We paused for a moment and I said sharply, "Give them back, they're ours!"

Uncle Vernon chuckled and asked, "Yours? Who would possibly want to write either of you?" He flipped the letter over in his hand and then the kitchen went silent as Vernon and Petunia's eyes widened as to where they looked as if they were going to pop out of their heads.

"Out of here… all of you," Petunia ordered in a shaky voice indicating to Harry, Dudley and I. We all obeyed and strolled out into the hallway.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Harry asked me curiously. My hair had gone back to its normal color, by the way.

"Don't know. Then again, who really cares… besides piggy over there," I nodded my head over to where Dudley was. Dudley had his ear pressed up against the kitchen door trying to hear anything if possible. Harry and I glanced at each other and laughed quietly, then headed back to the cupboard.

Everything was crazy over the next few days. Vernon had sealed up the mail door since more and more letters for Harry and I had flowed in, each the same exact one. But they didn't stop at the mail slot. In everywhere you could think of, intruding letters burst in. They came through the windows, through the cracks in the doors and through the chimney! They wouldn't stop. The three Dursley's, especially Vernon, were overwhelmed when Sunday came. Harry and I… not very.

"Ah," Vernon sighed, "Sunday. The best day of the week, in my opinion. Does anyone know why?" Here we go again, I thought with a sigh.

"Because there is no post on Sunday's, Uncle Vernon," Harry answered with a hint of disappointment in his voice. He and I had been doing anything we possibly could to get our hands on a single letter, but we had no luck.

"Right you are, Harry!" Vernon cheered. "No letters! No one single bloody letter is going to slip through our-"

Before he could finish his rant, he was cut off by a large amount of flapping outside. Then, a low rumbling came throughout the house. The three Dursleys looked frightened to death while Harry and I smiled at one another knowing what was going to happen.

Dudley whimpered and as if on cue over a hundred letters for Harry and me came bursting through every part of the home that they had sealed up. To Harry and me, it felt like it was snowing. Just like on a beautiful winter day, only in the summer and crisp, white-ish yellow letters pouring down instead of snow.

We jumped up and down, trying to catch one of our own. It was actually impossible not to with all of the letters scattered around the house. We, of course did catch quite a few of the letters, but whenever we did, the biggest Dursley knocked it out of our hands which was quite annoying.

Suddenly Vernon yelled, "That's it! We are leaving! We are going to go so far away that not one blasted letter can reach us!"

And with that, we were all packing without picking up any of the letters, and the letters slipping out of mine and my best friend's reach once again.