The Adventures of Lyra Potter Volume 1

Chapter One – The Dursleys

Lyra Marisa Potter was just an ordinary ten year old girl – or so people thought. You see on the outside she looked normal but on the inside she was anything but. Not that anyone can technically be described as 'normal', nevertheless within her society she would be considered as quite unique and not just by personality or appearance. Nobody seemed to notice her predominantly if she passed in the streets, though if you knew her in depth then you'd realise that she was diverse form others her own age, and others of many ages for that matter.

Lyra, a stubborn, lively and intellectual girl lived with her Aunt Petunia Dursley neé Evans, Uncle Vernon Dursley and their son Dudley Dursley at number four, Privet Drive in Surrey. They lived in quite a large, square and respectable house in a highly regarded area. What looked to other people as an ordinary nuclear family, living in a typical street, was not all it seemed. At the outset, the family Lyra lived with were not her parents and so unlike the majority of people living in their middle class area, they were not strictly a traditional nuclear family. However, in the time they were living, this in itself was hardly that unusual. Lyra's parents passed away when she was one in what she believed was a car accident. Though tragic and remarkably common, the Dursley's were not too impressed to have to feed another mouth and did not want to draw attention to the fact that she wasn't theirs. As it was, Lyra's Aunt and Uncle did not appear to have got on too well with her parents for reasons that she could not identify. In comparison to these petty differences this family held a much more unusual secret that the Dursley's were not proud of whatsoever and that Lyra didn't know anything about. She noticed that there were strange things that happened around her but couldn't place what these unusual events related to. She could do things the others couldn't but just assumed it was one of those things not everybody could do – everyone was different, right? In addition to these abnormalities when Lyra was six she got diagnosed with mild Asperger's Syndrome, otherwise known as high-functioning Autism. The Dursleys usually kept very quiet about this detail to the outside world unless absolutely necessary, however Dudley's Aunt Marge and Vernon's sister, frequently thrived in blaming everything on Lyra's abnormal behaviour and kept insisting to Vernon to place her in a mental institution of sorts.

"Why don't you send her to that mad house, Vernon? Would give her a good kick up the backside –none of this nonsense you have to deal with! It's not your fault her parents were irresponsible enough to get themselves killed. She'll be out of your hair and they'd straighten her up, you'll see! Asperger's Syndrome indeed: just pure naughtiness and attention-seeking if you ask me!"

Understanding of Autism and Asperger's Syndrome at the time were limited with many people believing people diagnosed with such disorders to simply be 'naughty', however with medical examination it had proved to be a condition of the brain and how one is able to view the world in a different way. One might describe it as being on a different wavelength to what is more common.

The Dursleys were a very interesting family on evaluation, quite obsessive about tiny details in fact. They were always very conscious about what others thought of them –particularly the neighbours and tended to hide Lyra from sight when they had visitors of particular importance. Vernon Dursley worked for a company called Grunnings as its director which was seen as a very respectable job. He met young Petunia Evans who was working in the office with him which resulted in a few traditional dates where he would impose his own views of the world onto her and talk primarily about himself. Naturally this led to him proposing to her in his mother's sitting room. Petunia was very pleased with her circumstances, after all, he had a nice car too. All very proper, thank you very much. Whilst Petunia used to spy over the hedge into the neighbour's gardens with her crane-like neck, Vernon supplied the family with everything they wanted, apart from Lyra. Aunt Petunia, was a thin woman with blond hair and a long neck, this made up for the little neck that her son and husband bore. They were both rather large and Uncle Vernon had a large mustache. Petunia kept the house spotlessly clean and their lives appeared to be very neat and tidy to the outside world.

One bright August morning Lyra woke with a start to find herself in her makeshift 'bedroom' cupboard under the stairs after having a nightmare. The Dursley's had taken to keeping her in there as she used to sleep walk into the garden. Furthermore they used Dudley's second bedroom as storage space for all his masses of toys because of course that was more important. Lyra's dream had been a stressful one; one that involved not being able to talk or run despite creatures yelling and chasing after her. Needless to say she hated dreams like that. To her great joy, she had just added to her collection of bruises on her forehead from where she frequently hit her head on the underside of the stairs. These dreams seemed to happen quite a lot. Perhaps it was because of the fact that Dudley tried to scare her out of her wits every day of her life, or maybe just that she was a troubled child. Either way she had them and nothing ever helped to prevent them; not even medicine from the doctors. She heard movement from above her and a cascade of thuds followed by plenty of unsettled dust greeted her as she automatically looked up. It must be Dudley, she thought as dust settled in her hair. Dudley – she'd just remembered; it was Dudley's birthday today.

"Whoop." She said to herself quite sarcastically.

She got up quickly, got dressed into her best clothes, attempted to tame her curly dirty-blonde coloured hair that annoyed Aunt Petunia so much and looked in the mirror that hung from a nail on the side of the cupboard. She may have had an awful nightmare but nothing had changed there – a heart-shaped face, standard nose, bright green eyes, curly hair and the usual annoying scar on her head that resembled a bolt of lightning that she tried to hide with her fringe. Sometimes that scar twinged when she had a particular nightmare that included bright green light, screaming and then an eerie silence and falling, at which time she would wake up in a cold sweat. For obvious reasons she hated the scar. Primarily it was ghastly to look at and it made Lyra feel very self-conscious about her appearance. It also targeted her for bullying – mainly by Dudley and his gang, however other girls at school would also avoid her as a result of her appearance. This left Lyra with very little friends. It also hurt now and then which gave her awful headaches.

Anyway, back to today, the day everyone had been dreading – Dudley's birthday trip to the zoo. Yes, his parents dreaded it too. This boy was so spoilt, greedy and intimidating that they had no choice but to make everything perfect for their son's 'special day'. That was the reason for her best clothes – best fitted that is. Lyra wore Dudley's old clothes that felt very much like wearing baggy elephant skin. Boys' for that matter. She often wished that she could be a normal, fashionable girl with nice loving parents that let her wear normal, new clothes; they were making her wear second-hand boys clothes for goodness sake! She may have been a tom-boy most of the time but it was still embarrassing for Lyra having to wear Dudley's hand-me-downs, not to mention overly large ones and she didn't like the way people looked at her when she had to wear them. She tried her best to make them look more fashionable – she was very creative after all. A few beads, a needle, thread and scissors and there you have it: a long, better-fitting, more stylish baggy shirt, much to the Dursley's annoyance. Although, sure enough they would not want her to look scruffy in public so accepted her customizing.

She opened her cupboard door and walked out straight into a Dudley stampede in the other direction. She got knocked back into the cupboard, scratching her arm on the side of the door in the process. All Dudley had to say was,

"Watch where you're going Potter!"

Before she could open her big mouth to say a winning retort (Dudley was not very bright at all), she was interrupted by Uncle Vernon exclaiming at her, by way of his usual morning greeting,

"Stop mucking around and get the breakfast done!"

She had no choice but to obey, after all she knew perfectly well that wouldn't help the situation so went to cook the eggs in the frying pan.

They all sat at the kitchen table in silence, looking at their ready laid eggs and bacon – except of course Dudley who was gobbling down his breakfast greedily already. When he had finished he belched loudly and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon glanced at each other before Aunt Petunia said, starting her breakfast,

"Gosh you're a growing boy Didikins, now that you're eleven and all grown up."

Lyra rolled her eyes. Dudley was ignoring his mum and had begun to count his presents laid out in the lounge. This was a big effort considering his thickness.

"Thirty-six! But last year I had thirty-seven!"

Just knowing that a Dudley tantrum was on its way her Aunt and Uncle tried to think up excuses to stop him raging and the final decision was to buy him extra presents when they went out later. To top it off apparently Dudley's mate was coming too. Great, she thought, one of her other primary school bullies coming too. Just what she needed.

By this point Dudley was onto his second helpings of egg and bacon. Looking down at her own she realised it wasn't there anymore – Dudley, the fat, greedy pig with five chins sitting next to her had eaten hers too. He was going to pay big time for that one!

"What's the matter with you?" He said staring down at her with his humongous body and small, fat-hidden piggy eyes.

"You've taken my breakfast!" Lyra retorted.

"Silence!" Uncle Vernon interjected and started lecturing Lyra, "You should be grateful for what you do have – you were not eating it therefore it shall not be wasted." Looking at him and then at his son she wanted to laugh regardless of her situation. There they both were, large pink faces, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and blonde hair that lay smoothly on their big fat heads. How Aunt Petunia could think of Dudley as her 'baby angel', Lyra would never know, she personally thought that he looked like a pig in a wig. Sometimes you had to laugh, Lyra sought to it. With that Lyra stalked off to the bathroom trying to sort out her mixed feelings of wanting to rant and burst into laughter at the same time.