Chapter 9

"That's Black, isn't it?"

"Why is she there?"

"Is she asleep?"

"Of course she's asleep, you-"

"Oi!" Lyra's eyes fluttered open. She blinked in surprise, seeing strange three faces leaning over her. They scattered, seeing her awake, and Lyra sat up. She was in the Gryffindor common room.

"What?" Lyra muttered under her breath. The last thing she remembered was…falling asleep in an abandoned corridor. How had she gotten there? Then she reeled back as the events of the previous night came rushing back to her.

"No. No!" Lyra wrapped her arms around her torso, needing something, anything to hold onto. She looked around the common room. It was mostly empty, and after deducing that, she buried her face in her hands, expecting tears to come. They didn't. Last night she had been devastated, now she just felt…hollow, empty.

She stood up, her hair falling forward to curtain her face. Making her way to her dormitory, she ducked inside.

All the bed hangings were drawn closed, and Lyra heard snores coming from the bed next to hers. She breathed a sigh of relief. Hurrying to her trunk, she changed out of the uniform she slept in into Muggle jeans and a grey jumper. She looked out the window: still dark. Deciding to go back to bed, Lyra opened her hangings and slipped under her covers, pulling the hangings closed behind her. She curled up and squeezed her eyes shut, expecting to fall into the darkness of sleep.

Two hours later, all of her roommates had left for breakfast, and Lyra still hadn't managed to fall asleep. Her mind was too busy, repeating McGonagall's words over and over again, and she was too…confused over the emotions she was feeling. She sighed, and sat up, pushing her blankets off. Clambering out of her bed, she began to pace, walking along the red carpet that lay on the stone floor.

"Aughh!" Lyra yelled. She was angry, she realized. She needed to calm down, somehow. Rounding on the wall, she slammed her shoulder against it and slid to the floor.

Why? Why?! she screamed in her mind. After all my dreams of the perfect family, I get a murderer for a father!

"I don't deserve this!" she screamed.

"Deserve what?" Ginny was standing in the doorway, and Lyra realized she had spoken aloud.

"Nothing."

It definitely isn't nothing, that's for sure, she thought.

"Are you sure?" Ginny asked, moving to sit next to Lyra, her concern evident. Lyra groaned inwardly. She wanted, needed, to tell someone, but she couldn't. Not yet. Trying her hardest to smile, Lyra nodded. Ginny seemed reassured, and Lyra breathed a sigh of relief. Standing up, she offered Ginny a hand and the other girl joined her.

"Why'd you come up here?" Lyra asked as they left the room.

"To check on you. You missed breakfast, you weren't in the library, and Romilda said she hadn't seen you at all last night." Lyra scowled. Stupid Romilda, she thought. "Plus, Hermione said you guys were going to study together and then you didn't show up." Cursing inwardly, Lyra turned the corner to the library.

"Oh, then I better go do that. Bye!" She waved and continued down the corridor, noticing Ginny's hurt look but ignoring it. She had to get away from the redhead, who would surely keep questioning her.

Walking into the library, she found Hermione sitting at one of the tables near the back with books scattered across it.

"Lyra, there you are!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Here I am." She sat down and pulled one of Hermione's books toward her. "Arithmancy?"

"Yes, it's fascinating. Maybe you can take it when you're in third year."

"Yes, maybe. It sounds wonderful," Lyra responded, if not a bit sarcastically. She saw Hermione glance at her strangely, and knew she was being difficult, but she couldn't help it. She was mad, and her anger was going to come out in one way or another.

"Alright then, why don't we begin with Charms? You guys are learning Wingardium Leviosa, aren't you?" Lyra nodded. "So, swish and flick. Get out your wand and we'll practice."

An hour and thirteen unnecessary snide comments from Lyra later, she had managed to levitate a book for 15 seconds, causing Hermione to glow with pride and Lyra to say, "Well, that's very anti-climactic, isn't it?" (Fourteen unnecessary snide comments). Hermione's smile faded.

"Are you alright, Lyra?"

"Yes, I'm fine! Why does everybody keep asking me that?" Lyra yelled. Madam Pince poked her head around the corner, giving them a stern look.

"Well, you've been nothing but rude to me, and I've just been trying to help you with school!" Hermione exclaimed. "That's all!"

"I didn't even need help in the first place! Besides, if you really wanted to help me, you would leave me alone!" Lyra stood up, and shoved her chair into the table. "Goodbye, Hermione!" She stormed from the library and walked mindlessly for quite a while, before finding herself in a corridor. Spotting a statue of a hunchbacked warlock, she squeezed behind it and curled up, fuming. Why couldn't people just leave her alone?

"Excuse me," a voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked up. A tall, redheaded boy was standing above her with his wand out.

"Do you mind?" she snapped. He pocketed his wand.

"Well, you're the one in the middle of the corridor," the boy responded. He grinned as he sat down beside her. "You're Lyra Black, right?"

"Of course you know who I am," she scoffed. "And you are?"

"Well, it's only fair," he responded. "George Weasley." He offered his hand and she shook it.

"Pleasure to meet you," she said sarcastically. He laughed.

"Cheeky, aren't you?"

"Any relation to Ron and Ginny?" she asked, ignoring his comment.

"Ron's my brother, unfortunately. Ginny's a great sister though." Lyra nodded. "So, are you sneaking out?" George remarked after a moment.

"What?" Lyra asked, confused. George shook his head.

"Nevermind. So, why would an ickle-firstie be here?"

"Pondering the tragedy of my life, I suppose."

"Ah, an existential crisis. And what events lead up to this? Maybe, I don't know, falling asleep in a corridor?" Lyra looked up sharply.

"How do you know about that?"

"How do you think you got back to the common room?" He smirked. "I managed to haul you back to my brother, Fred, and we got you all nice and cozy on one of those couches."

"Yeah, real cozy."

"A 'thank you' would suffice." Lyra blushed.

"Sorry. Thank you."

"There you go. No problem. And don't worry about…that. Surnames are fluid." The Weasley boy stood up to leave, but turned back. "Here, have some sweets. Fred and I have more than enough." Lyra accepted the wrapped candies from his outstretched hand and watched as he left the corridor. She sighed, leaning her head against the wall and unwrapping one of the candies. Lemon. It would have been better if it was chocolate. She loved chocolate.

What are you going to do about Hermione and Ginny? the voice in the back of her head asked.

Ignore them, she thought. I can't deal with anyone right now. I'll just ignore them.

That's a great idea, the voice exclaimed, sounding exactly like Mrs. Hinshaw when she was scolding Lyra for something or other. Lyra rolled her eyes and stood up. She would go to the library, hope that Hermione wouldn't be there, and work on her homework there until lunch. Then she would attend lunch after Ginny and the trio of third years had eaten, and return to the library to read. Having decided on that, she stood up and hurried to her dorm to grab her bag, then on to the library.

The rest of the weekend was spent like that: Lyra trying her hardest to avoid her friends and anyone else. She had run into Luna a few times in the library, but the blonde had somehow sensed that Lyra needed her space and left her alone. When Monday arrived, Lyra skipped breakfast for the library and went straight to Transfiguration from there. She sat down at a desk in the back of the room and pulled her Transfiguration essay and textbook from her bag. Opening the textbook, she skimmed the pages, waiting for the rest of the class to file in. She continued reading even as McGonagall began class by collecting their essays, and only stopped when McGonagall cleared her throat-rather loudly.

"Miss Black, if you would be so kind?" Lyra rolled her eyes as McGonagall started a lecture on the proper way to transfigure a needle into a match. During the duration of the class, McGonagall asked several questions, looking towards Lyra to answer them, but Lyra just shrugged and said, "I don't know. Why don't you ask someone else?"

By the end of class, McGonagall was obviously fed up with Lyra's antics and asked to see her when the rest of the first years had left the classroom.

"Yes, Professor?" she asked, throwing her bag onto the desk in front of McGonagall's.

"Miss Black, I understand that you've had a shock, but you are acting utterly ridiculous. Now-"

"Had a shock? Well, I've discovered my father is a murderer and might want to kill me, but I didn't even realize I'm acting utterly ridiculous. I'll stop immediately," Lyra snapped sarcastically. McGonagall's face seemed to soften. She tried a different approach, asking, "Would you like me to tell you about your mother?"

"What, and find out that she steals precious jewels for a living? I'd rather not." McGonagall stared at Lyra.

"Miss Black-"

"Professor, I have a Charms class to attend. See you tomorrow." With that, Lyra picked up her bag and walked from the classroom.

"Lyra!" someone called as Lyra walked down the hallway. "Lyr, please!" Lyra ignored them. "Lyr, I need to talk to you!" Lyra spun around.

"Sorry, Ginny, but I need to get to class," the black haired girl said sharply. Ginny stared.

"Why, Lyra? Why have you been avoiding me, avoiding everybody? Talk to me! I'm your friend!" Lyra turned so Ginny couldn't see the tears welling up in her eyes. "I have to go, Ginny. Bye."

She hurried to class, and luckily, the day seemed to fly by. When classes were over, she ran, heading to the statue she had hidden behind before. She crumpled to the floor, trying valiantly to avoid sobbing. Why was Ginny so...nice? She needed to talk to her friend, apologize, and get on with her life. She needed to stop acting like a prat.

"Are you following me? You're like Ginny. When she was younger, she followed me all the time." Lyra looked up. George was standing over her. She stood up, rubbing her cheeks.

"Why do you care?" she replied, her voice shakier than she expected.

"Are you okay, Lyra? I've found you here twice in the past three days and you've been...sad? Angry? I really don't understand the feelings of eleven year old girls. Anyway, you've been upset, we'll go with that, both times."

"I've been a prat," she blurted out, surprised by her openness. "To Ginny, and to Hermione, and to Luna, although I haven't seen her much lately."

"So apologize," George said simply. "I find that's the best thing to do when I'm being a prat, but I really never am. Normally that's Percy." Lyra gave a small smile.

"Yes, Ginny warned me about him."

"You and Ginny are very much alike," George commented, looking at Lyra.

"You can tell that already?"

"You act a lot like her, and I expect, if you guys are the friends you seem to be becoming, I'll be seeing a lot more of you, so I can always revise my opinion." George mock sighed. "But then of course I'll have two annoying younger sisters. Wonderful!" Lyra laughed. "Come on, I'll walk you back to the common room. Ginny's there."

"Thank you," Lyra said quietly. "I really do mean it." George nodded.

"Come on, now!" The two set off down the corridor, George chatting aimlessly, Lyra listening. When they arrived, Lyra immediately spotted Ginny and Hermione sitting by the fire, talking quietly. When they saw her, Ginny stood up, and Lyra walked over.

"I'm sorry I've been such a prat, there was a problem…back at the orphanage and it upset me, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you guys," she said quickly. Ginny seemed startled, but hugged Lyra fiercely.

"It's okay, Lyr." Hermione nodded in agreement, and hugged Lyra as well. Pulling away from them, Lyra's eyes found George. He nodded to her, smiling.

"Hey, Lyra, play Exploding Snap with us?" Hermione asked. Lyra was about to shake her head and say that she was tired, but remembered that she needed to spend time with them. She needed to make it up to them.

"Okay," she said instead.

A/N: So, that was Lyra's reaction. I LOVE writing sassy Lyra. As you can tell, when Lyra is upset in some way, her way to cope is to push away everyone around her. It brings out her worst qualities: pride, stubbornness, and argumentativeness (is that a word?) Anyway, she also meets George in this chapter, and as you hopefully can tell, they will eventually have a close friendship and he will be a brother figure to her, as well as a "mentor" with her mischievous antics. (Side note: does anyone know why George asked Lyra if she was sneaking out? If you do, comment, and if not, I'll tell you guys in the next chapter. Same for the Snape thing on chapter 6) I hope you guys liked this chapter! Reviews and constructive criticism is appreciated, flames are not!

~WildernessGirl

How could you not love this chapter? WildernessGirl put a lot of effort into it and I think she captured Lyra's devastation, along with the simplicity of a sixth grade girl. I love the Lyra-George dynamic, so I'm so glad that was included. My favourite line: "What, and find out that she steals precious jewels for a living? I'd rather not." Good job, WildernessGirl! She has chapter 10 as well, and then 11 (which is mine) is already done, so that will go up with 10.

~Cherry Mall