It was lonely at the Manor without her brothers.

She rarely saw her parents, who, when they weren't at the arcade, just rattled around the grounds - her father usually walking poor old Orion who look set to keel over at any point, and her mother always hidden behind some magazine.

How she missed Jack to pieces, the holidays never being long enough. He was so funny and made her giggle a lot. Sometimes, he even let her brush his hair out and braid it whilst he told her all about Hogwarts and the cool stuff he got up to with his friends.

Lyra longed to have friends... proper friends. She did have Little Witches but the girls there were not very nice. Only last week, poor Janis got booted from the annual Little Witches Christmas performance line up for refusing to take a scrunchie out of her hair.

Lyra did feel sorry for her, but Janis had to understand that they had certain standards that needed to be met.

But that was just one measly afternoon in the week, and the rest she could have simply died of boredom.

Occasionally, Aunt Pansy would pop by with Gregory in tow, and he was alright, she supposed. He was always kind to her and he did make her smile. But he was embarrassingly awkward at times, always tripping over his own feet, his big lumbering appearance making him look like a miniature of version of Uncle Vincent.

And then there was Hugo, but Lyra found him to be ever such a bore, always talking about his hero, Harry Potter, whoever he was. Some dork in glasses who got himself killed, apparently. Not exactly a hero in Lyra's eyes.

Now her father, he was a war hero. But he didn't like to talk about it, which was a shame because Lyra loved listening to him tell stories. He did all the voices and his grey eyes would sparkle brightly as he got into whatever tale he was telling, the scene evidently vivid in his mind.

She supposed his reluctance to bring up the war had something to do with Scorpius's mum actually being someone else. But she daren't ask too many questions about that due to it upsetting her father. Once, when she had tried to casually mention the lady in the photo in Scorp's bedroom, her father went all quiet and didn't talk to anyone in days.

It would explain why Scorpius looked different from herself and Jack. Lyra understood a bit about biology from Little Witches when they had a guest speaker come in one week to show them all a video which made them giggle behind their hands.

But alas, she no longer even had Scorpius for company. So, she holed herself up in her bedroom and listened to music until someone would inevitably come and knock on her door to announce a mealtime or a visitor, or even a trip to the arcade.

Going to the arcade was boring without her brothers, though. And it was full of these disgusting people who no doubt spread yucky germs with everything they touched.

Lyra made sure to carry her hand sanitizer with her at all times when she went there, and kept a safe distance from anyone who looked as though they might infect her with something. Ideally, she'd like to wear one of those surgical masks too, but her mother said that was a step too far.

And to make matters worse, they had to hide the fact that they were magic, which was stupid. It's not as though Lyra had anything against Muggles, as such, but they had pretty useless existences. And she couldn't understand why her parents loved them so much. The ones she came across in the arcade were often rude and self serving, showing little manners or respect, their greedy eyes solely on the tacky plastic prizes.

She liked her father's workshop in the back, though. He often let her work the badge press and help him choose designs. She was beginning to get quite the badge collection of her own, most of them reading along the lines of 'Daddy's Little Princess' and 'Little Lady of the Manor'.

Sometimes Gregory would come along with her, and she liked it when he did, because then she was allowed to go with him down the road to the ice cream parlour and he would buy her a large Mr Whippy topped with a flake and rainbow sprinkles.

So, Lyra found herself feeling a stab of disappointment when he announced he'd received his letter of acceptance to Hogwarts for the following year.

"Don't worry, Ly," he said, licking ice cream off his bulbous lips as they sat shivering on the beach and watched some brave surfers attempting to ride the October waves. "You'll get yours next year."

"I hate that everyone's leaving me behind," she scowled, brushing her windswept hair out of her face and trying not to get ice cream in it. "It's no fun just being me, Mummy and Daddy."

"You've still got Hugo, an' yer Little Witches," Gregory pointed out, annoyingly having an answer for everything. "An' Jack will be home next year, won't he?"

"He'll be a boring adult looking for a boring job by then," Lyra pouted, not even feeling cheered up when a large wave knocked a surfer sprawling from his board.

"I'll write ter yer," Gregory promised, popping the last of his cornet into his mouth.

Lyra frowned at him, wondering if he even knew how.

"Come on," he chuckled cheerfully, his beady eyes twinkling down at her as he lumbered to his feet and offered out a meaty hand, "let's go and see if I can beat yer on the dance machines. Loser buys the next ice cream."

Despite not having finished the one she already had, Lyra smiled and accepted his hand, already knowing there was no contest. But maybe this once she would let him win for taking pity on her and being so nice.

Although then again... she was her father's daughter.

*****