Chapter One

A Daughter's Hope

It was early morning when Lyra woke. She wasn't usually an early riser, but the bright sunlight streaming in through the window meant that today she was. She'd forgotten to close the curtains. It wasn't the first time she'd done this and it wouldn't be the last. In fact, she knew for certain it happened once every month: the night of the full moon.

Last night had been no different than usual. It was the same routine every time; it was safer that way. The house would be locked up tight with magic, Lyra would transform into her Animagus form before the moon rose and then she would make her way to her godfather's room. After he had transformed, she would keep him company until he fell asleep and then she would leave. She would head back to her own room where she would fall asleep in her Animagus form and then wake up not long after the sun rose. She wanted to stay with him and keep him company for the whole night, but Remus didn't like her being there when he transformed back. She respected that, but that didn't mean she didn't hate the thought of him being all alone.

Lyra shifted back to her human form, dragged herself out of bed and shuffled over to the bathroom to take a shower. Lyra and Remus were complete opposites when it came to mornings. While Lyra was a late riser, Remus was an early one. The only time the opposite happened was when the full moon was involved and Remus would not rise till lunchtime. Today was no different. She glanced into the bathroom mirror as she tied her wet hair up, not being bothered to dry it. Remus said that she had the classic Black good looks: tall and thin with a certain beautiful elegance that could only be attributed to a member of the House of Black. She had the characteristic black hair, but instead of the dark eyes that most of the Black family had, she had grey eyes like her father. Staring at her reflection, Lyra didn't see what her godfather saw; she saw a pale, average-looking teenager with dark bags under her eyes. She rubbed the heels of her palms into her eyes, trying to wake them up a bit more. She shouldn't complain though; she'd much rather lose some sleep and look after Remus during the full moon, even if he insisted that it wasn't necessary. He was just being polite and she knew he appreciated what she did for him, however little it was.

She carried on doing the same thing she did every morning after the full moon. After having breakfast, she took a bar of chocolate and a mug full of hot, sugary tea and left them on Remus's bedside table. She pulled a blanket over Remus's sleeping form and then left him to sleep off the full moon.


A bell tinkled as Lyra entered the corner shop and the owner, Benji, looked up and smiled when he saw her. "Morning, Lyra," Benji greeted in his usual cheery tone, "how's Remus this morning?" Benji was tall, but thick set, and could be rather intimidating if you didn't know that he had one of the kindest hearts of anyone around. His brown hair was starting to grey and his green eyes suggested he was worldly wise. The village they lived in only housed around a hundred people, half of whom were magical. Benji, who was neither magical nor Muggle but was a Squib, had been living there longer than most. Certainly longer than anyone else Lyra knew there.

Lyra gave a half-shrug as she grabbed a large tin of chicken soup and a loaf of bread, "He's not up yet, so I don't know for sure, but I think last night was especially rough on him for some reason. He was distracted all night and I don't think it was just because of the moon."

Benji looked guilty. It was an odd look on him. Lyra and Remus had known him ever since they moved to the tiny village of Falcon's End in Falmouth and she had never once seen him anything less than honest, "What? What is it?" she asked, concerned.

"Lyra, have you read the Prophet recently?"

"No. You know we don't get it anymore."

"Then you don't know about…?"

"Know about what? Just tell me what's wrong, Benji."

Benji reached behind the counter and grabbed a copy of the Daily Prophet from a few days ago. The headline read Escape from Azkaban! and below was a picture of the escapee. Lyra stared into the manic eyes of her father. "Does Remus know about this?"

Benji nodded. "I showed him yesterday morning when he came in."

Lyra swallowed. "He didn't tell me." She couldn't tear her eyes away from the Prophet and the picture of her father. He looked every bit the Azkaban inmate: thin, gaunt and wild-eyed.

Benji gently prised the newspaper out of her hands. "It'll be alright. He was probably just trying to protect you."

Lyra snorted. "Protect me? I don't need protecting! It's not like I'm in any danger."

"Remus might not think that."

Lyra snorted again. "He thinks my Dad is guilty, which he isn't."

"Lyra…" Benji sighed. Benji knew exactly how Lyra felt about her father since she'd never kept her beliefs about his innocence a secret. Benji, however, tended to side with Remus on the matter. She could forgive Benji for that. He hadn't known Sirius, so it was easy for him to believe what the papers had reported. Remus had been Sirius's best friend though, and she'd thought he'd have a little more faith in their friendship.

"Don't!" Lyra interjected. "Don't try and convince me, Benji, because you know it's not going to work! He's innocent and nothing you or Remus say will ever convince me otherwise."

"Fine," Benji said, holding his hands up in surrender. It was far too early in the morning to argue and the middle of his shop was certainly not the place for it either.

"Can I have that?" Lyra asked, gesturing to the newspaper, "And any others from the past few days if you have them?"

"Course," he handed her the four papers he'd kept, and she handed him the money for the bread and soup.

Lyra took the food, newspapers and change that Benji handed her, bid her goodbyes to him and left.

As expected, Remus was still in bed when Lyra got home. After putting the food away, Lyra took the four newspapers Benji had given her and spread them out over the kitchen table. The Prophet dated the day after the escape was speculating about where he was and where he would go and what to do if he was sighted. The one from the day before held nothing of interest. The fourth one, however, dated the 1st August, was the one that fascinated her the most. She must've been staring at the picture on the front page for a good long while and she didn't even realise that Remus had entered the room until he coughed.

Lyra tore her eyes away from the paper in front of her and looked up at her godfather. His hair was dishevelled, there were bags under his eyes and he looked unwell. Lyra hated how much the full moon took its toll on him and she hated that there was nothing she could do about it.

"Morning, Remus," Lyra said, getting up to make his usual chicken soup. She tried to quash the burning desire she had to question him about her father and his escape from Azkaban. Now was not the time. She'd wait until he was feeling less shitty. She put the soup in the microwave (despite them both being magical, they still preferred Muggle means of cooking) and started to shift the newspapers, hoping her godfather wouldn't question them.

"Morning," Remus muttered, his voice hoarse. "What are you reading?"

Damn. So much for not asking or talking about it. "Just the papers." Maybe she could pass them off as Muggle newspapers, though as soon as this thought had crossed her mind she realised that wasn't going to happen. Remus had already clocked the headlines and moving pictures.

He stiffened. "Oh."

Well, here we go, she thought, so much for waiting. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked softly, not wanting to cause an argument when Remus was still recovering from the night before.

Remus let out a deep sigh and then said, "Because I didn't want you to end up hurt."

Lyra spun round, unable to keep the accusatory tone out of her voice as she said, "Do you honestly believe my own father would want to cause me harm?"

Remus seemed genuinely shocked as he replied, "Merlin, no. You were the light of Sirius's life. Whatever I may believe about what he did I know for a fact that he would never do anything to hurt you. That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

Remus sighed. "You believe he's innocent. Maybe you're right and he didn't betray all of us. In my heart, I want to believe that you're right, but my head won't let me. But you, you still have that hope. Hope is a very powerful thing, Lyra, and I don't want you to get hurt by meeting your father and finding out you were wrong. Hope is a very dangerous thing to lose."

Lyra turned back to the microwave as it started to beep at her. "I understand where you're coming from, Remus, I really do. Maybe I don't know my father as well as you, but after everything you've told me about him, I just find it hard to believe that he would do something like that."

"I know, Lyra, I know. Sometimes I find it hard to believe too."

Lyra gathered up the papers and laid them to one side. "I'm gonna head over to Ade's house. You gonna be alright?"

"I'll be fine."

"Just make sure you eat and drink plenty. You need to get your energy back up."

There was an amused smile on Remus's face as he replied, "Yes, Mum."

Lyra gave him a slight shove on the arm. "You'd have something to complain about if I didn't care."

"Out of the two of us, who's supposed to be the parent?"

Lyra hummed. "Hmm, I sometimes wonder."

Remus picked up a Cheerio that must have escaped from Lyra's breakfast earlier and flicked it at her.

Lyra caught the Cheerio with the reflexes and skill only a Keeper could have. "See what I mean? You've just proved my point!"


Lyra knocked on the door of the Pucey household. Mr Pucey answered with a "Good morning, Lyra," and stepped aside to let her in.

"Morning, Gordon," Lyra replied, stepping into the hallway.

Gordon Pucey was tall, with dark hair, a greying beard and reading glasses perched on top of his head. Gordon had raised his son Adrian by himself, Adrian's mother having left when he was three; he hadn't seen her since. Lyra could sympathise with absentee mothers as her own mother had left not long after she was born. Lyra didn't even know who her mother was and everyone she asked either didn't know or wouldn't tell her. Not even Remus would divulge the information and he usually tried not to keep secrets from her. It made her think that her mother was someone she was better off not knowing anything about.

"Ade and Cas are upstairs," Gordon said.

Lyra nodded her thanks before heading up the flight of stairs that lead off the hallway. Adrian's bedroom was the first room on the right and she pushed open the door without even knocking. Adrian was slouched on an emerald green bean bag on the floor, while Cas was slumped back on Adrian's bed in the far corner, one leg dangling off and throwing an old tennis ball up and then catching it. As she said hello to them both, she gave Cas a gentle nudge and he shifted his other leg into a bent position to make room for Lyra to sit down.

Adrian Pucey and Cassius Warrington had known each other since birth, and Lyra had been best friends with the both of them since she and Remus moved to Falmouth when she was three. The three had been inseparable ever since, even when the boys were sorted into Slytherin and Lyra into Ravenclaw.

"How's Remus?" Cas asked, as he threw the tennis ball up and caught it again. Cas wasn't much taller than Lyra and he had dark blond hair and hazel eyes. He had a much stockier build than Chasers usually had, but he was a quicker flier than he looked which made up for the fact that his reflexes weren't especially sharp.

Lyra shrugged her shoulders, adjusting a cushion behind her as she leaned against the wall, "Same as usual."

Ade and Cas, as well as their parents, both knew about Remus's lycanthropy. It was hard to keep something like that a secret when you lived in such a small village, if not for the howls that could be heard coming from their house (they'd tried to use silencing charms, but Remus often broke them anyway, so there was no point anymore) then for how haggard and run-down Remus looked once a month. It wasn't a difficult thing to figure out once you put all the pieces together. No one had an issue with it though and Gordon and Samantha, Cas's mum, liked to help anyway they could. Remus wasn't usually one for accepting charity, but he was too polite to refuse the pies and cakes Gordon baked for them and Samantha absolutely insisted on doing their cleaning, arguing that Remus didn't even do it properly anyway. They got by. It was tough with Remus never sticking to one job for very long, but they managed. That would all change this year and now that Remus was going to be teaching at Hogwarts, things were starting to look up for them.

Lyra shot a wistful glance to the sunny, cloud-free sky outside. "Can we do something? You know I hate being stuck inside when it's nice out."

"Quidditch?" Adrian suggested, already knowing the answer. Ade had dark hair and dark eyes and, in contrast to Cas, had a much more typical Chaser's build: he was agile and lithe, but though he was quick, he wasn't as quick as Cas was. He did have better reflexes though. If Lyra had a galleon for every time Ade and Cas argued over who was the better Chaser then Remus would never have to work again.

"Of course," Lyra and Cas said, as if there was anything else the three would rather be doing on a day like this.

As he sat up, Cas chucked the tennis ball to Ade, who skilfully caught it and placed it on the desk behind him. Grabbing his Nimbus 2001, along with the training Quaffle he owned (which was slightly smaller than a normal Quaffle) he led the way outside.

After stopping by Cas's house to pick up his Nimbus 2001 and Lyra's to pick up her Nimbus 2000 and Keeper's gloves, they made their way though the forest at the back of Remus and Lyra's house to the clearing they used to play Quidditch in. It was kind of perfect really, with Ade and Cas both Chasers and Lyra being a Keeper, it meant they could get a headstart on training for the matches at school. The fact that Lyra was in a different house to them only made them all the more competitive.

The clearing was far enough away from the village that they didn't have to worry about being seen by Muggles, though they still had to be careful not to fly too high. In lieu of the golden hoops that usually flanked either end of a Quidditch pitch, Ade and Cas tried to score through a gap between two trees, a gap which Lyra never failed to defend well.

After spending a good few hours in the air, the three decided to call it a day. They'd spent about an hour or so actually playing Quidditch and the rest of the time was spent playing broomstick tag (which was essentially the same as ordinary Muggle tag, just in the air) and generally being silly. Cas invited them both round for tea, but Lyra politely declined, wanting to check on Remus. Once they got back to her house, she gave them both a hug and said she'd see them tomorrow.

Remus was sat at the kitchen table when she got back inside, reading one of the newspapers from earlier. He looked much better, though Lyra could tell he was still tired. "You look a lot better," she commented as she rested her Nimbus against the kitchen door. She loved her broom and it was the single most expensive thing either of them owned apart from the house. Remus had bought it for her fourteenth birthday last year. He must've been saving up for the whole year since it'd had come out, because Lyra knew the Nimbus brooms weren't cheap.

"Thanks," Remus replied, glancing up from the paper briefly, "still feel like shit though. What do you want for dinner?"

Lyra frowned. "I'll sort that out, you should rest. Just let me go take a shower first."

Remus nodded, but Lyra still found him making a start on dinner when she came down from her shower. She chastised him and then ushered him away with a wooden spoon, telling him to put his feet up and that dinner was under control. She shook her head as Remus begrudgingly left the room.


After dinner, Lyra sat on her bed with the four Daily Prophet newspapers spread out in front of her once again. Her grey eyes kept being drawn back to the photo of the Weasley family in Egypt, specifically the rat on the youngest boy's shoulders. Her eyes narrowed and she brought the paper closer to get a better look. She couldn't be sure, but…

She leaned over the side of her bed, her hand reaching underneath to grab the box Remus had given her full of photos of her father and the Marauders. She rifled through them till she found the one she was looking for. A-ha! It was a bit ratty and yellowing round the edges, but the picture was still as clear as ever; her father, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew all in their Animagus forms. To anyone else it would look like a rather odd photo of three unlikely animals. She honed in on Peter, the rat, and her eyes flickered from the newspaper to the photo and back again. She couldn't be a hundred percent sure, because the rat in the Prophet photo wasn't completely clear, but in her heart there was no doubt about it. It was the same rat. Peter Pettigrew wasn't dead. Her father was innocent.


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