AN - Following the big reveal from JKR on Ilvermorny, I updated the last para of this chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter 1 - We Rise Again
Mrs Harland was making herself a cup of tea, ready to enjoy the latest novel she had purchased when there were three knocks at her door. Humming to herself and guessing that it was her neighbour, she went to open.
"Anika, it is so nice to see you," she greeted the woman. Anika Johnston had moved to the flat in front of hers a bit more than two years ago and had been a great neighbour so far, usually quiet and always nice. The only noise to come from her apartment were typically her daughter's laughter, and she could certainly not complain about that. "What can I do for you today?"
"Mrs Harland, would you mind babysitting Lyra for a couple of hours? Max until tomorrow morning. Something came up and I really need to go sort it out," the younger woman asked after biting her lower lip. Perched on her right hip was her daughter and at her feet was a bag with the essentials for the toddler and some toys.
"It is no problem dear, you know I love babysitting the little angel. Pass her over and you can drop the bag on the kitchen table," she instructed. It didn't take long that the mother was gone, almost as if she was fleeing for her life, thought Mrs Harland looking at the retreating back of the woman going down the street.
Elizabeth Harland was in her fifties, living off her dead husband's pension and her wages as a part-time music teacher at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. She loved her work, teaching piano to the Junior Academy students, kids under the age of 18 who shared so much her passion for music that they didn't mind spending their Saturday honing their skills. Elizabeth considered all those children as hers since she had never had the chance to have one with her late husband before he died in the Korean War. She had never remarried either. John had been her soul mate, taken too early from her side. She looked down at the little girl on her hip and decided that they could do something fun: maybe a walk to the park, play a little piano and watch a movie if Anika was not back by the evening and if the child was not asleep by then.
It was the next day after noon that Elizabeth started to worry. Anika had never been late to pick up Lyra. Not even that time she had learnt of her mother's death and had had to go deal with the lawyers. Considering her options, she decided to call the police. It didn't take long that two officers were at her door to take her statement and the description of the woman. They then went to knock on Anika's door, but it's when they checked the door handle that they were shocked: it was unlocked. They announced themselves as they walked in, Mrs Harland following them to the doorway. Elizabeth couldn't believe her eyes, the flat was empty. There was no furniture, no sign of life, except for a piece of paper on the kitchen counter. The police officers, after checking each room and confirming that they were all as empty as the first one, took the document, read it and showed it to Elizabeth.
"It's Lyra's birth certificate," she stated though it was obvious. "Why would she leave that here?" she wondered aloud.
"We think she might have intended to abandon her daughter with you and run away. Do you have any idea how we could contact the father?" one of them asked, pointing to the name on the paper.
"No," replied the older woman, "I didn't even know his name until now."
One of the officer took note of the names on the form and gave it to her. "Keep it for now. We'll have to contact social services about this. We will give them your information so they can contact you, if you don't mind keeping the girl until then." Elizabeth simply shook her head and went back to her apartment, thinking. What would happen to poor Lyra now? Would they send her to an orphanage if they could not find her father? She knew the child didn't have grand-parents or any other living relatives. Anika did not have any siblings, at least not that she was aware of. She would keep wondering about Lyra's future until the social services came to visit her the next day.
The news had not been what she had expected. They had been unable to locate anyone with the name of Sirius Black, so they had assumed he had been a fling, probably from another country and that was why Anika Johnston had been raising her daughter on her own. They had also tried to take Lyra away, but supposedly the child had kept crying for two days straight until they had asked her to come visit the girl. As soon as she had picked her, she had quieted down and fell asleep. But when the social worker had tried to take her back, the child had woken up so fast it had almost felt unnatural and then she had started crying again. Having reached the end of their rope, the social workers had decided to throw the rulebook out the window and had asked Mrs Harland if she would mind officially adopting the girl even though she had no husband and was a bit older. The woman, who had constantly thought about it during the last couple of days, though she had assumed it to be an impossibility due to her situation, jumped at the chance. The paperwork had taken a couple more weeks to be finalized with more visits from social services and the requirement for her to get all the proper furniture for a child, but soon enough she was a proud parent. She had debated on changing the girl's name, but had decided against it. She figured that Anika must have loved the father's child very much to give her his last name instead of hers and if that might increase their chances of finding him, wherever he was, she refused to take those odds away from her adoptive daughter. Soon the both of them settled in a routine of reading books, playing piano, visiting the park and spending their Saturdays at the Academy, where Lyra would quietly play with her toys. Elizabeth was sure the girl was musically inclined, but she would have to wait a few years before she could start teaching her.
And so went their life, as normally as could be with sometimes strange events happening around Lyra, though nothing that worried her new mother, until the girl turned seven. Five and a half years after Lyra's adoption, Elizabeth found a job opportunity that she could not refuse: an exchange program for teachers had opened up with The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Canada. The position was for a five-year contract. She had applied and had, surprisingly, gotten the job. By the start of the summer 1988, Mrs Elizabeth Harland and Miss Lyra Black had moved to Toronto and were ready for their new adventure. It would just happen that the last year of Elizabeth's contract, they would be visited by a representative of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the North American boarding school for magicals, which was taking students from the age of eleven. Mrs Harland had ensured that Ilvermorny's curriculum included mundane subjects as well as magical ones, especially music as Lyra had indeed showed a great aptitude for the piano as well as singing, before being agreeing to Lyra's attendance, not that she really had a choice. And this was the beginning of a new chapter in Lyra's life.