A/N - First off i'd like to apologise for the abnormally long delay, vacations and illness had me away for far too long, followed by horrendous writer's block. Anyway, I hope you enjoy :D

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The Hogwarts Express & Sorting

The next week seemed to drag in Lyra's opinion. Although her days were filled with fun and excitement, namely getting to 'Crucio' more of her daddy's moronic followers, it still seemed to inch by at a snails pace. She spent a lot of time practicing on her new Nimbus 2000, hoping to be good enough to join the Quidditch team during her second year at Hogwarts. Draco routinely came over with Lucius and Narcissa, the former would join Lyra in the gardens with his own Nimbus 2000, whilst the latter had meetings with her father and mother.

Finally, after much anticipation, it was September 1st, and the wait was finally over. Bella strolled into Lyra's bedroom to rouse her only daughter. Bella was surprised to find that Lyra was fast asleep, the past week Lyra had barely slept. Once she was awake, dressed and eating her breakfast - pancakes with strawberries and raspberries - Bella finally indulged her child on the mysteries of Hogwarts.

"You don't even realise how lucky you are! Going in on a Saturday, you get a lovely lie in tomorrow without having to worry about going to classes, you can adjust to being away from home, and start to explore!" Bella grinned at her daughter, Lyra had the exact same inquisitive nature as her mother. "Oh that reminds me, your father got you a 'going away' present. He has some business to attend to this morning, but he said he'll be back in time to come with us to Kings Cross."

Bella summoned the mysterious package and placed it in front of Lyra. Having also gained her lack of patience from her mother, Lyra tore into the brown paper with gusto. Inside sat a cloak, it shimmered like spun silk and had the texture of water. "Your father thought it might help you get about Hogwarts when you know you shouldn't be out of bed" Bella gave Lyra a conspirital wink, then continued. "It will only last a couple of years and then we'll have to get you a new one, it's certainly not the one from the Deathly Hallows. However, it will do for now." She gave Lyra an adoring smile before summoning a house elf to clear up the dishes. "Come, let's get you dressed into your school robes my little witch."

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By 10:00am Tom had returned from his morning business, and by half past they were apparating to Platform 9 and 3/4's. It was already a little crowded with Pureblood parents who had to work, and Muggleborns that had to worked out how to get on the platform. Lyra looked at them with ill-disguised disgust. The sooner her father removed all of the disgusting filth the better.

Tom saw the look on his daughters face, and smirked.

"Oh look, there's the Malfoy's, shall we go and say hello before you have to get on the train my darling?" Tom asked his daughter, receiving a delighted nod, they made their way over to the family.

"Ah, Lyra, I was wondering when you'd be arriving. My lord, my lady." Lucius gave a polite nod to each of them respectfully. Narcissa gave a discreet curtsy, not wanting to give away who the Riddles were to those around them.

"Good morning, Lucius, Cissy, and how are you Draco? Excited to finally be going to Hogwarts?" Bella inquired to the young boy.

"Yes, thank you ma'am, I can't wait to be sorted into Slytherin. And I hear that imbecile Potter will be in our year as well!" Draco's lip curled in a fashion similar to Lucius' own sneer.

"Well, I'm quite sure he'll be in Gryffindor, the same as his mudblood mother, and blood-traiter father were." Tom hissed in disdain.

Harry Potter was an annoying little git in Tom's eyes. Had it not been for Bella's ingenuinty, Tom would be floating around the nether looking for a body to possess. She'd managed to find a spell that used the bones of Tom Riddle Sr., and a drop of their daughters blood that was able to give Tom his original body back. **

The sooner Harry's life was exstinguished, the sooner Tom could get over his fear of the prophecy coming true. During his recovery, which took several years, Tom had decided to lay low and let the world think he was dead. It enabled him to regain his strength, and ammass new followers.

"Now, I believe the train leaves in 15 minutes, so why don't you both get your trunks onboard, and then you can come back and say goodbye?" Tom suggest to his daughter and godson.

The two quickly dashed off to drop off their luggage, before coming back and receiving hugs all round from the adults.

"Remember Lyra, noone must find out who you really are!" Bella whispered into her daughter's ear whilst giving her a hug.

"Yes, mother, and I promise I'll write frequently." She smiled up at her father, before engulfing him in a hug. "I'll miss you daddy." she said softly, when he bent down to hug her back.

"I'll miss you too poppet, now go and enjoy your education, I may have to draft you and Draco into a task later in the year, but i'll let you know when the time comes!" He smiled down at her before urging her over to the Malfoy's to say goodbye to them.

Two minutes later, and the train whistled, alerting them to its impending departure. Lyra and Draco scurried on just in time, waving to their parents as they went. Once the train had turned around the corner, they both wandered down the carriages looking for their friends.

Lyra had met several of the Death Eater kids during the parties her mother held. The two finally found the others in the last carriage. It was filled with chatter and excitement until they heard Lyra give a loud and alerting cough.

"Oh good, I was wondering when you'd all decide to pay attention. I will say this and I will say it only once. Noone at this school is to know of my parentage. They are to simply think I'm one of you. The story is this, I am Lyra Black, the daughter of Sirius Black, he got some poor witch knocked up and I am the result. She died whilst giving birth to me, her sister and brother in law are my guardians. It is simple, and to the point. Should my true heritage be found out, I can guarantee you that my father will NOT be happy. Am I understood?" Even at just 11, Lyra was formidable. The other children knew that she made the rules, it was evident that her and Draco would be the King and Queen of Slytherin house, and even the older students knew it.

After the rest of the children and students bowed and curtsied, Lyra and Draco sat down and waited for the first couple of hours to pass by.

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Several hours later, and Draco was well and truly bored. They had spent time playing exploding snap; wizard's chess; those who knew how to, even played wizard's poker. They gossiped about classes, and speculated about teachers. But in the end, they were all rather bored. Lyra decided she'd had enough of this and decided to be nosy.

"Come on Draco, let's go and see Potter! I want to see if he's really got the moronic scar!" Lyra announced. So Draco and Lyra, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, wandered down the train in search of The-Boy-Who-Lived.

It didn't take them very long to find him. The sounds of obnoxious and disreputable chatter seemed like the obvious thing to follow; there were several Weasley's on the train after all. And, if Severus's information on the Order was to be believed, then it was entirely likely that the infamous Potter boy would probably be with one of them.

They came across a compartment with yet another blood-traitor Weasley in it, as well as a girl with the most ridiculous hair Lyra had ever seen. It also held none other than Neville Longbottom: idiot extrordinaire and generic wimp, and the one and only Harry Potter.

Draco took the lead, by slamming the door to the compartment open suddenly, which made the moronic Longbottom fall out of his seat with surprise, and let go of the hideous toad in his hands. Weasley glared at Lyra and Draco, before helping Longbottom back into his seat. Lyra chuckled at the pathetic ginger freak in front of her, which resulted in Harry's gaze falling directly upon her.

When Lyra's gaze matched his, he suddenly squeaked and pressed his hand to his forehead in pain. The frizzy haired witch started attacking the Potter boy with a barrage of incessant questions.

"So what do we have here then? Two Blood-traitors, 'The Boy Who Lived', and a witch who witch who hasn't heard of conditioner!" What a motley crew you all are, I'm ashamed at the company you keep Mr Potter. You should know that someone like yourself shouldn't be associating yourself with morons like these three, you need some true friends! We can help you there.." Lyra stated proudly.

Harry's gaze, which had fallen when his scar started to hurt, returned back to meet Lyra's. Although he did wince at the evident pain it caused him.

"I think I can make that judgement for myself, thanks!" He said in a snotty and obnoxious way. It was evidently clear that the two blood-traitors had already gotten to the Potter boy, and what could have been a lucrative advancement towards Tom Riddle's plans, had now been temporarily destroyed. But for now that didn't matter, there were other things in the works that would pull Harry over to the right side of the upcoming war.

Lyra barely contained her disgust. "Well I can hardly blame your moronic decision, when you've had low lives like these filling your head with lies. You there, with the ridiculous hair, what's your name!" She pointed a slender finger at Hermione, waiting for the girl to pay attention.

"I'm Hermione Granger, and who might you be?" The Granger girl said pompously. Lyra rolled her eyes at the pathetic twit before a malicious gleam appeared in her eyes.

"Ah, so you're a Mudblood, definitely corrupting Mr Potter it appears. I'm Lyra, Lyra Black. Pureblood and Heiress. So naturally, I'll be a Slytherin. As will Draco here." Lyra stuck her nose up in the air, before descretely pulling out her wand and shoot a silent 'Calvario' at Granger. With a barely concelaed smirk, Draco and Lyra sauntered off back to their fellow Slytherins, Granger's shrieks of Hair-loss induced terror permeating the air.

"I think it was an improvement if you ask me!" Draco piped up once they'd reached their friends. "Although you might want to wipe the last spell from your wand, you know full well one of them will blab to a prefect."

Lyra nodded in response and tapped her finger on the tip of her wand. "There we go, all clear." She gave a sly grin at Draco, just as the train started to pull into Hogsmeade Station.

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The minute Lyra and her friends were on the platform, their ears were assaulted by the bellows of a Half-Giant man. From the ridiculous waving, it appeared that The-Boy-Who-Wouldn't-Die seemed to know him. Lyra rolled her eyes, as the bellowing continued.

"FIRS' YE'RS THIS WA'! OVER T' ME NOW! THA'S IT! FIRS' YE'RS!"

Lyra indignantly followed, as the monstrosity led them over to an enormous lake, and commanded them to get into the boats, four per boat. Draco and Lyra were joined by Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass, much to Draco's relief and Pansy's consternation.

As the boats finally pulled away, they started to make their way towards Hogwarts, after 15 long minutes, the Castle finally appeared, and Lyra couldn't help but smirk at the gasps from all the morons in the other boats. Hogwarts was only marginally bigger than Riddle Manor.

Watching Draco's mouth fall open slightly, had her snorting out loud. By most people's standards, Malfoy Manor was huge, the fact that Riddle Manor dwarfed Malfoy Manor wasn't a well known fact. But she still expected Draco to have far more decorum than to stare at Hogwarts with his mouth open wide enough to catch flies. She delicately placed a hand beneath his jaw to close his mouth for him, whilst he blushed at being caught gawping.

Lyra spied Harry Potter sat with the blood traitor Weasley, the useless Longbottom, and the Granger girl who was now sporting a ridiculous bobble hat. She smirked over at them, before preparing to alight onto the docks. Once they reached the docks, they noticed a tight lipped scowling woman staring down at them. The Half-breed oaf seemed surprised at her unexpected appearance.

"Thank you Hagrid, I was alerted by a prefect that one of the students would require Poppy's immediate attention upon their arrival, so I will need to take Miss Granger with me, and we will then meet you in the Anti-chamber off the Entrance Hall. Please lead the children there whilst I deal with this matter." Professor McGonagall explained.

"Will do, p'fessor, you can coun' on me!" Hagrid replied proudly. He received a curt nod from the witch, before leading Granger off to the infirmary.

Whilst Granger was having her hair re-grown in the infirmary, Hagrid led the rest of the new first years to the Anti-chamber, and kept watch over them waiting for McGonagall to return. Eventually it was professor Flitwick who appeared instead.

"Minerva has just asked me to give our new first years the speech instead, before leading them into the Hall, apparently some complications turned up that she wasn't expecting, you can go and join the rest of the staff now Hagrid." The short professor beamed at the enormous man he stood beside.

After the short professor, who turned out to be Filius Flitwick - Charms master and Dueling Master, had finished giving them the usual explanation of the four houses, he led them into the Great Hall. Lyra realised her mother had intentionally downplayed how beautiful the Great Hall actually was. Possibly so as not to ruin the surprise, but Lyra's pureblood mask was clamped firmly on, and her face remained impassively neutral.

The tiny professor brought out a stool and placed a scruffy old hat down on top of it, which promptly began to sing a song about house unity. Once the hat had finished, it received a round of applause, and then Flitwick started the sorting. As her name had been changed in the 'Book of Names', her name was called out fairly early. Unfortunately due to her last name now being Black, the annoying old fool of a headmaster tried to peer into her mind as she made her way up to the stool. Thanks to the training from both her parents and her godfather, Lyra was able to firmly rebuff him, forcing him back into his chair with such force, that it rocked onto its back legs before tipping over, with Dumbledore still sat in it.

"I would like to remind you Headmaster, that Occlumency on a minor is illegal!" Lyra glared at the man as he staggered back onto his feet, red faced and unhappy. "So please keep your unwanted intrusions to yourself, before I bring the full weight of the law down upon your head!" Lyra contined, making the headmaster turn purple with anger, before he dropped down into his now righted chair, with a manner similar of that expected to be displayed by a stropping toddler.

Lyra continued on her short walk up to the raised dais, and perched on the chair. The hat slid down over her eyes and rested on the bridge of her straight nose.

"Ah! Miss Riddle, I see you have come to Hogwarts under a different name, but alas do not worry, your secret is safe with me. I know exactly where I shall be putting you, but first there are a few matters you need to be made aware of. Firstly, the Headmaster is up to some seriously malicious things, so he is to be avoided at all costs. Secondly, there is an item you will need to obtain, hidden behind several defences on the out of bounds third floor corridor. Dumbledore expects your father to come and try to steal it, he isn't expecting it to be you, therefore you should be able to obtain it without too much difficulty. Thirdly, there is an entrance to the hidden Chamber of Secrets in the girls bathroom on the second floor, look for the snake and speak Parseltongue. There are many things that I can only tell a true heir of one of the founders. As you are the only decedent of Salazar Slytherin currently in the school, I can share these secrets with you. Even the Headmaster isnt allowed to know these secrets. Come and have a conversation with me at some point in the future, and I can share even more with you. But for now, let's put you in; SLYTHERIN!"

Lyra was too shocked by the sudden influx on information, to respond to the hat before it was whipped off her head, and she was nudged towards the students clapping and smiling proudly at her new house table. She was the first student to be sorted into the house of the snakes, so was welcomed by the higher years whilst she saved a space beside her for Draco. Hell would freeze over long before a Malfoy was sorted into any other house than Slytherin.

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A/N

** The difference between this spell/potion and the one in canon during Harry's fourth year, is that because Lyra's blood is that of a willingly given family member, he was able to regain his true looks, rather than the weird snake-like looks he had in canon.