Disclaimer: My initials are not even close to JKR.
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Sirius arrived about an hour later, groaning about something, and Lira went into the hallway to greet him, with Harry on her hip.
"Hello Sirius."
"Ah, Lira, still here? I though you would've gone home by now."
Lira sobered slightly at that, and Sirius noticed.
"Hey, is everything okay?"
"I can't."
"You can't what?"
"I can't go home. Time Turners go backwards, not forwards. I can't go back to my time."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Lira." Sirius rubbed her shoulder sympathetically, and Harry, not wanting his 'Lee-ra' to cry, patted her cheek.
"Lee-ra…?"
"I'm fine, Harry. Just a bit sad."
"So do you know where you're going to stay? Are you going to Hogwarts?"
"Mu-Lily and James said that I can stay here, seeing as I can't go to Hogwarts. I look just like my mother, so someone would be bound to recognise me."
"Well, James and Lily are great, really great, so I'm sure you'll be happy here."
"I hope so."
Harry held his hands out for Sirius, so Lira handed him over and walked into the kitchen, where Lily was washing up.
"Umm…Lily? Is there anything that you want me to do?"
"Not really, do you like to read?"
"Yeah, a lot."
"There are some books upstairs, if you want one. Go into my bedroom and get one off the shelf."
"Thanks."
Lira climbed the stairs and went into the bedroom next to Harry's, which she presumed was James and Lily's, and crouched in front of the big bookshelf that lined one of the walls. Running her finger along the spines of the books, Lira finally settled on A Little Princess, which was one of her favourite classics. Skipping down the stairs joyfully, Lira curled up in the huge armchair next to the window and began to read.
She had just finished the first chapter, when Harry came toddling towards her, hands outstretched, chuckling, closely followed by an unfamiliar black dog. You might know who this is, but Lira didn't, and started to panic.
Swooping down, Lira snatched Harry up, tickling his tummy so that he shrieked with laughter. Narrowing her eyes, she reached her hand out to the dog, and it butted her hand, as a dog does, when it wants to be stroked.
"Pad-foo!" Harry shrieked excitedly, and Lira sat very still for a minute, ruminating, before grinning.
"Alright, transform Sirius."
He did as she said, and sat down on the arm of the chair, combing his hair out of his face with his fingers.
"How did you know that it was me?"
"The hair," Lira mused, brushing her own light hair out of her eyes. "It was just as messy as when you were a person."
Sirius gasped in mock outrage.
"My hair is not messy!"
"Yeah, okay Sirius." Lira giggled, and then she opened her book.
"Should I read, Harry?" Lira asked, because the one-year old was looking up at her expectantly. When he didn't move, Lira cleared her throat and started to read aloud. Half way through chapter one, Harry was still sitting still, completely spellbound, and even Sirius had stopped fiddling with his wand and had started listening.
What Lira didn't know was that Lily and James were standing in the doorway, watching them, his arm around her shoulders.
Lira finished chapter one, then carefully marked her page before closing the book.
"Oh, don't stop!" Lily blurted out, and Lira looked up in surprise, blushing.
"I was just reading…"
"No, it was good!" Lily insisted. "It was nice to hear someone reading out loud."
A loud knock on the door made them all jump, and Lira stood up quickly, wanting to be helpful and hoping that it was Remus.
It wasn't.
A large, elderly lady stood at the door, wearing a ratty purple bathrobe and slippers, and she had pink curlers in her hair. Her mouth was lined and wrinkled from years of yelling at people, and her watery blue eyes were focused on a suddenly nervous Lira.
"Um, hello ma'am. How may I help you?"
Years of etiquette lessons from her mother had made Lira very well-mannered, and this fact softened the woman's face slightly.
"And who are you?"
"I'm…" Lira racked her brains for a believable lie. "Lily's niece. I'm staying here."
"Well, you can tell your aunt that that horrible dark-haired hooligan better not drive that infernal motorcycle-speak of the devil!"
Lira breathed an audible sigh of relief as Sirius slung his arm around her shoulders and smirked at the irate old woman standing on the doorstep.
"Hallo Miss Ainsley. Long time, no see."
"You!" Miss Ainsley seethed. "You drove your motorbike over my flowers!"
"That was an accident."
"You've done it twice now. You honestly can't be that bad at parking that thing."
"She's not a thing, she's a work of art. And the second time, you said something not so nice about Lily and James, and I couldn't just let that go!"
Miss Ainsley, seemingly unaware that Sirius had spoken, started rambling about the dangers of the wild youths in the quaint village of Godric's Hollow.
"Now you're going to pollute this poor girl with your risible notions of right and wrong!"
"Excuse me, ma'am?" Lira was getting frustrated now, and rightly so. "As much as I admire your impressive vocabulary, Sirius only killed your flowers, it's not like he killed your cat. And he's not going to 'pollute' me. If it matters to you that much, Sirius might fix your flowers."
"Or not," Sirius interjected, and Lira fought the urge to smile again.
The lady gave an almighty huff and started to retort, so Lira curtseyed prettily, and went to close the door. "Like the bathrobe!" Sirius called, and as soon as the door closed, Lira and him both started to laugh.
"Grumpy old bat." Sirius grumbled, a smile on his face, and Lira giggled at the thought of him running tiny flowers over with a huge motorbike.
"Do you really own a motorcycle?"
"You bet I do! She's my pride and joy, she is."
"That's so cool! I've always wanted to ride on a motorbike."
"I'm sure you'd love it. I'll ask Lily, see if she'll let me take you out on it."
'No' was going to be the answer, Lira knew, so she wasn't surprised when that was exactly what Lily said.
"Why not?"
"Because…just no."
Sirius pouted childishly. "Come on, Lily-pad…"
Lily rolled her eyes at the nickname. "Did Miss Ainsley come to complain again?"
"I may have run over her flowerbed."
"Sirius!"
"Apparently he's going to pollute me."
"That sounds like Miss Ainsley." Lily sighed. "Bathilda said that she was always like that, even when she was young."
Lira must have looked confused, because Lily addressed her questioning look.
"Bathilda Bagshot. Author of-"
"A History of Magic! You know her?"
"Yeah, she comes around for tea quite a bit."
"Bathilda Bagshot, the author of one of the most bestselling books of all time, comes around here for tea?"
"I'll introduce you, if you want."
"If I want? That would be great!"
"That's settled, then. Bathilda absolutely dotes on Harry, and she's got some excellent stories about the folk around here, so I'll invite her for dinner tomorrow. Sirius, will you be staying?"
"Sorry Lils, Mad-Eye wants to see me.
"Ah, shame. Would you mind asking Remus if he wants to come?"
"I'll ask him when I see him."
"Thanks Sirius."
"Lira!" A shout came from upstairs, and the girl in question looked inquiringly at Lily, who shrugged, before walking through into the hallway and running up the stairs.
"Yeah?"
"What colour do you want your room? I was thinking green," James was standing in the middle of the spare room, flicking his wand so that the walls changed colour accordingly. "Or red, or blue. What do you think?"
"Umm…I like the green?"
"Good choice." James said approvingly, turning around to face her. "Useful spell, that is. Colour Changing Charm. Have you learnt it yet?"
"No, not yet. We were going to be starting them next term."
"OK, here we go, I'll show you. That way you'll have learnt something useful today."
"Great!"
"OK, so Lily is better at Charms, but I practised for a while in fifth year for when I turned my hair red…but that's another story. The incantation is Color mutatio, and when you cast the charm, give your wand a flick and visualise the colour you want the object to be. If you do it right, the object will change to the colour. Do you want to give it a go?"
"OK." Lira searched the room, until her gaze fell onto a black mug on the bedside table. "Color mutatio!" The originally black mug went a shocking bright pink, and James clapped encouragingly.
"That's it, now shall we go and practise on something a bit more…interesting?"
"Yeah!"
Lira followed James down the stairs, and they ran into the living room, Lira bumping into James as he stopped suddenly, staring resolutely at Sirius' hair. Grinning, Lira nudged him with her elbow. "What colour?"
"Slytherin green!" James whispered, Lira flicked her wand, and they both collapsed into laughter as Sirius' hair turned a rather obnoxious green colour.
"What?" Sirius turned, and they both laughed louder, Lily starting to giggle too.
"But it's…it's his…the eyebrows…" Lira gasped, and James conjured a mirror to pass to Sirius, still sniggering at the ridiculous sight.
"What have you done to my hair, James Potter?" Sirius shrieked, and Harry chuckled at the sound.
"It wasn't me!" James laughed.
"Who was it then?"
James pointed to Lira, who tried to look apologetic while laughing, and failed.
"James was teaching me how to do the Colour Changing Charm, and he said that it was important to practise...?"
With that, Lira flicked her wand, muttered the charm and turned Sirius' hair back to normal.
"Well I've got something I can teach you!" Sirius exclaimed loudly, and Lily raised her eyebrows. "Really?"
"Yeah! It's called the Bat Bogey Hex!" James swore under his breath at that, and ignoring Lily's shocked, "James!" gave a slightly girlish squeal and ran up the stairs.
"How about some lunch?" Lily suggested, swishing her wand so that plates flew out of the kitchen and landed on the table.
"I'll help!" Lira added, stowing her wand back in her pocket, and Sirius placed Harry back down on the sofa, running his hand through his no-longer green hair.
"Argh, we've run out of bread." Lily groaned, rummaging through the cupboards, and Sirius piped up with an idea.
"Lira and I could pop down to the shops? She hasn't been out into the village yet, and she should probably get some air."
"Lira? Is that okay?"
"Yeah! I'd really like to stretch my legs."
Lily smiled, and waved. "See you in a bit, then."
Grinning, Sirius and Lira departed the cottage, Lira pulling her purple coat more firmly around her, and they set off down the path to where Sirius said that the shop was, him pointing out key things as they entered the square.
"See, there's the church, and there's the graveyard, next to that big tree. There's the post office, there's a nice pub, just there, called the Wonky Cross, does great beer that place, not that you need to know that. There's the butcher's, the grocer's, and right there's the baker's, that's where we're going."
"Have you got any Muggle money?" Lira asked, confused; this was, after all, a Muggle village.
"Yeah, when we moved here, Lily made sure that I stocked up." At her confused look, he continued to explain. "I live just over the hill. I'll show you, here."
He led to the left of the square, where there was another street full of houses.
"I live at the end of his street, just over there. Number fifteen. There we go, now you know, if there's ever an emergency, like if James is driving you mad, come and give me a visit." Lira smiled at the excited look on his face, and they crossed the square to the baker's.
"Hello Artie," Sirius said, speaking to a friendly looking man with a ruddy, smiling face.
"Hello Sirius, what can I get you?"
"One loaf of bread please, and a cake too."
"Alright, one loaf of bread," Artie said, wrapping it up in paper. "And what cake would you like?"
"What do you think, Lira? Which one shall we get?"
Lira, surprised at being asked for her opinion, went up on her tip-toes to see the cakes on the counter. "Maybe the chocolate one?"
"Good choice." Artie said approvingly, and Sirius smiled.
"We'll have the chocolate one then, please."
Artie wrapped them both up in brown paper, and put them in a brown paper bag.
"That'll be seven pounds then, please."
Sirius paid, and they said goodbye to the nice baker.
"Does Remus live around here as well?"
"Nah, Remus lives in a flat up in London. Wanted to be close to his mum. She's sick, see, but don't tell him that I told you that."
"Can I ask why Remus has so many scars?"
Sirius took a deep breath. "That's probably for him to tell you, not me. Ask him, and see what he says. He might tell you, he might not. It's his choice."
"Of course. I was just wondering-"
"No, its fine for you to be curious. I was like that when I was your age."
"And you're not anymore?" Lira asked shrewdly, and Sirius frowned at her, but he wasn't angry with her. He seemed to be thinking about his answer.
"I am still curious, I still want to know about things, I still like to learn, but now? Now I learn through experiences. I learnt not to underestimate people. I learnt to trust my friends, and I learnt to not be as reckless. I know that they've probably said this to you already, but life is so different when you leave Hogwarts. There are still lessons, but it's almost like you have to fail a test to get that lesson. You have to be beaten down to get higher."
"I guess now that I've left Hogwarts, I'll learn through experiences too."
"And that's not a bad thing! I remember, when I was in fourth year, I wanted to slide down the banister in the Entrance Hall. Everyone told me not to, but I was determined to, and I did. I slid down the banister and fell off at the bottom and broke my arm."
"So now you won't slide down banisters anymore?"
"No, I'll make sure that I do a Cushioning Charm before I start."
Sirius winks, and Lira laughs.
"I mean it though. We'll help you, we'll make sure that you know everything that you need to know, and life can do the rest."
They'd reached Lily and James' cottage, and Lira smiled as Sirius put his arm around her shoulders.
"Hola, Lily-flower!"
"Did you get the bread, Sirius?"
"Yep, and cake!"
"Oooh, what flavour?"
"Lira picked chocolate."
"Good choice, Lira."
"Did someone say cake?"
"Yes, we bought cake, but you aren't allowed any."
"What? Why not?"
"You turned my hair green!"
"No, I just showed Lira how to do it."
"Ah, well, you taught her how to do it."
"Hang on, she's getting cake!"
"Of course she is. She picked it!"
"Oh, come on…"
They sat down around the table, and Sirius grabbed the cake.
"Cake first!"
"No, Sirius, we're eating lunch now."
"Oh, come on, that cake looks so nice, and we don't really need lunch."
"Sirius-"
"Please, Tiger-Lily!"
Lily sighed. "Fine. But Lira, you should really have something proper to eat."
"I'm okay, Lily, really. I'd like some cake, if that's okay."
Lily cut the cake and gave each of them a piece, and Harry toddled over to the table, hands outstretched. "Mama! Cake!"
She picked him up and sat him on her lap, moving her plate into the middle of the table so that it was out of Harry's reach as Lira took a spoon and delved into the cake.
"Mm…" Sirius mumbled. "So good…"
"Yum!" Lira smiled, licking her lips as she finished her piece. "Thanks Sirius."
"You're very welcome. Now, I'm going to go and taunt James about the fact that I ate cake and he didn't, and then I'm going to slide down the banister." He winked at Lira, and she brandished her wand like a torch.
"Don't forget the Cushioning Charm!"
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Here's a sneak peek from the next chapter:
Lira opened the door, and an unfamiliar man stood there.
Lira's first thought was that the man was sweating, even though the weather was cool and breezy. Her second thought was that he needed to brush his hair, and brush his teeth, and wash his hands. His watery blue eyes were darting around like he'd been caught doing something that he shouldn't, which, as a matter fact, he had. Despite the fact that Lira didn't know this about this, she still took an instant dislike to him, as he stood there, sweating like a pig, eyeing her like she was the one who looked out of place.
"Um…hi?" The man looked almost as nervous as Lira felt.
"Who are you?"
"I'm P-Peter, I'm here to see Lily and James. Who are you?"
Hope you liked it!
Danke,
She-who-loves-fanfiction xx