As she walked toward the school grounds, Lyra could see three girls at the edge of the forest, and one of them, joy of joys, was identical to the picture she'd seen of Ne'os Emof's girlfriend.
She sped up, tried not to look where she was going, and deliberately tripped on a tree root. Immediately, she stood again and willed herself to cry. It didn't work and instead, she whipped out her wand to cast a pepper-breath jinx into her face. That was much more effective. She began to run again, and dragged her hand across the bark of a particularly wicked-looking tree, ripping off slivers of flesh and causing a livid purple rash to run up her arm.
Finally, Lyra stumbled up to the group of girls, weeping and sniffling. Sure, she didn't sound like Rose Weasley, but she doubted Rose Weasley would've sounded like herself if this happened to her. Fortunately, she came from that gigantic family. There was no doubt she had relatives at this school. Wasn't that Potter boy her cousin?
"M- my cousin..." Lyra stuttered. "We- we went into... the woods..."
She paused, gasping for breath through her tears, to gauge the girls' reaction.