The Black Sheep | George Weasley

Thirteen

School started soon. The next day Lyra did feel much better, she was able to make it to breakfast without being terribly out of breath. She had pancakes and drowned it in syrup.

The table was filled with tension. Lyra barely looked at her father and he barely looked at her. Her mother on the other hand looked at him darkly.

When Lucius raised the newspaper to read, Lyra read the back of it. A giant picture of Harry Potter over Cedric's dead body. She remembered it, she cringed at the sight. The sorrow was still in her heart for Harry, for Cedric's family and friends. Even his girlfriend, Cho Chang. It was all very sad.

"Father, I beat Crabbe in Quidditch." Draco said proudly.

"That's big feat, is it?" Lucius replied dully. "You should study for this year, don't need a mudblood to beat you again."

"Draco is smart." Lyra spoke up, forcing her father to lower his paper. His eyes were cold. "Draco is a top of all his classes, can't for once you be proud of anything? Or is it in your nature to belittle everyone, including your children?"

"Lyra, do not speak back to your father." Narcissa ordered.

"How dare you speak to Father that way! You blood traitor." Draco growled.

Lucius reached his cane around and hit Draco on the back of the head with it. Lyra could see the tears swimming in his eyes as he rubbed the back of his head, probably feeling a bump form.

Lyra looked at Lucius darkly. She wished to tell him she hated him. She wanted to throw a plate at his head, to scream at the top of her lungs. She wanted to hit him for once. He knew Lyra hated him in that moment. He felt it in his core.

"Look at you, so much fire." Lucius taunted.

"You can break my hand again if you like, lock me away. But I will never love you."

"Lyra!" Narcissa gasped.

"You are a unfeeling man. I hope you know that." Lyra got up and stormed away. She listened to her mother scream after her.

Lucius stayed put, looking at where she once sat. He felt something in his chest tighten, but he tried to fight it. He felt anger instead of sadness. She was ungrateful, spoiled brat.

He looked at Draco who was still holding the tears back. "Malfoys don't cry." He got up from the table and stormed away.

Lyra slammed her bedroom door shut and screamed at it at the top of her lungs. She kicked her ottoman. She hated it here. She hated it.

The door opened to her angry mother. "Lyra! You will apologize to him!"

"He deserved it!" She shouted as tears were brought to her eyes. "How could you marry him?"

"Your father is a complicated man, but he loves his family. He loves us dearly. In his own way." Narcissa replied. "You may not understand. But he cares about you the way he can. You hurt him. He has done nothing but-"

"Emotionally destroy me. These gifts mean nothing to me! He had never said he was proud of me! He has never been anything but offhanded. I am done being stressed trying to make him happy when it's not even worth it. I'd rather have a poor man be my father who was affectionate than the man I have right now. I am never good enough. I'm tired of being told that. I'm tired of working so hard to please him. Who am I living for?"

"He loves you, I love you! We just want you to be the best."

"I'm trying my best but it's never enough for you."

"You need to understand, you will always be under pressure to be the best. You are from an elite family. You must remember how others will view you. They admire us, they wish to be us. We must show we are better." 

"What makes us better?"

Narcissa staggered. "We are a pure family. We have no tainted blood."

"But that's a lie."

"No it isn't."

"It is. We've had squibs, we've married half-bloods to keep the blood from being too incestrous. We definitely have some who married muggles or even muggle-borns-"

Narcissa shook her head. "They are not related to us. We do not associate with them. They are not one of us."

"Andromeda is. Don't you miss her?"

"She made a choice!" Narcissa hissed. "We will not be discussing this. This conversation is over. " She walked over to the door and paused. "Who was the boy?"

"Terry Strickland," Lyra replied dryly. "A Slytherin boy. A year a head of me."

"Did he-"

"He groped me." She spat out.

Her mother nodded her head and left.

Lyra left her room and went outside in the large garden. She watched the albino peacocks roam freely. She sat on the edge of a fountain. She ran her fingers through the cool water. She missed the warm breeze, but the sun was behind thick clouds.

"Lyra," She heard a voice say behind her.

She turned around to see her father and his two hound dogs on a walk. Lyra tried not to roll her eyes. "Father," She replied coldly.

There was a moment of silence as he walked the dogs along the pavement around the great fountain.

He stopped to turn and look at his daughter. She sort of looked like Andromeda more than anything. And he feared for her future. "It will be wise for you to listen to me. Or you'll end up like the rest who don't." With that he turned on his heels and left. Lyra tried not to throw an insult at him but she had so many prepared.

Lyra wanted to Chuck a rock at his head maybe. Or punch him. Why must he be her father? Why must she have a cold hearted man as a father? She believed she deserved more. But of course, she wasn't going to get what she wanted.