Lyra could often be found with a Weasley. Other than Charlie, she spent most of her time with Ron. But Charlie's closest friend was his brother Bill, and so Lyra and Charlie often spent time with Bill and his wife, Fleur. So Lyra was used to Weasleys, but it wasn't often that she found herself spending time with each and every one of them at once.
They were all standing in an old estate, grass surrounding them and a pebbled drive half covered in weeds wended it's way from some rusty iron gates to a ruin that lay three miles down the lane. The ruins that were centred in the land were all that remained of the house Lyra's father had grown up in. Just some bricks, some ash, some wood. The outline of the house was still etched into the ground, the foundations still partially visible.
But there was nothing else left. Nothing left of James' childhood remained, nothing of Lyra's ancestry. There was a house no more. What could be salvaged had been placed in the Potter vault years ago, but many pieces of history that Lyra would have treasured were still missing, irreplaceable pieces of the past gone, never to be retrieved.
Lyra and Charlie stood together within the group, their fingers linked together as they surveyed the land. Their land. Beside them stood Bill, stood Fleur. Stood Ron and Hermione, stood Fred and George, Percy, Ginny, and their parents.
"Why isn't Sirius here, Lyra dear?" Molly asked, as she stared around at the place that would soon be her son's home.
"He didn't want to", Lyra's voice was hesitant when she finally replied, clear among the silence and the leaves whispering to one another. "He couldn't, couldn't face it. Once our house is done, he'll be here, you won't be able to stop him... But he refused to come until it's done."
"Why not?" Asked Molly incredulously, the others looking questioningly at Lyra and Charlie as well. Ron and Hermione knew, had known for days after Lyra told them soon after Sirius had told her, but the others didn't understand.
"Because.." Lyra spoke quietly, "because he lived here, moved here after his fifth year and moved in with my dad and my grandparents and he knew the house like the back of his hand, knew the land as well as my dad did. He said that he wouldn't come until we're done because he thought he might influence us either accidentally or purposefully to recreate the house he knew."
"And we're not doing that" Charlie added, "we don't want it, Sirius doesn't want us to either. This is our home now, it's not a museum. We know what we want and Sirius can only imagine the house he knew so he's staying away to stop us changing the house back to how it was."
"Oh!" Molly replied, "that's actually a fair point." Arthur, beside her, agreed, before asking them how their new home was going to be. Lyra lifted her and Charlie's linked hands to point out an area that was close to where the remains of the old house still lay.
"This is where our house is going to be. It faces a different direction, but it overlaps slightly. The drive can stay in the same place then, but the back of the house looks over Dartmoor instead of over the outhouses."
"The outhouses?" Ron asked, the jealousy that used to crowd his voice whenever he came face to face with wealth now completely gone.
"Yeah" Charlie said, "there used to be some sheds and stables and barns, but we're going to have a garage instead." Bill nodded, his eyes scanning the landscape before them. He could imagine Charlie here, could imagine the house that was about to be built, and could also visualise the differences to what had been.
Bill was a curse breaker. Although he was much more accustomed to the curses used by Ancient Egyptians, early on in his studying he had come across pictures of the Potter estate - what it had looked like then, what curses were used to destroy it and how long it had taken to remove the building from existence. It had been a case study, and he couldn't believe he was now standing on the land it had once sat in.
The twins just stared, stared at the great expanse of land that soon would occupy a rather grander house than they were used to and become a place that they were familiar with. They could both easily imagine running around with fireworks and some of their Wheezes being tested here. Percy was quietly studying his older brother, the way Charlie's hand was linked to Lyra's as they stood together, looking over the place that would be their home.
But it was Ginny who asked the question they were dreading.
"It's going to take a while to build through, isn't it? Where will you live until it's done?"
The entire group turned to look at the slightly anxious looks that graced both Charlie and Lyra's faces. Suddenly, and for reasons they couldn't quite understand, most felt an inexplicable instinct to get away, out of the line of fire. Lyra squeezed Charlie's hand that was still interlocked with hers. Charlie squeezed back. Lyra swallowed. The silence went on a few beats more before Lyra glared at Charlie and eventually spoke.
"We're going to stay at Grimmauld Place."