Chapter one
“You owe me you twat!”
“What? Why?” exclaimed my brother.
“Helping you not bloody die in this tournament meant I missed a potions lesson, and now Snape’s forcing me to make a potion at the weekend to make up for it!”
“Oh”
Oh, oh, that’s all he has to say. Bloody hell, Harry.
Leah Potter, elder of the Potter siblings revisits the frequent thought of making herself the only Potter, but alas, if she could not kill him, the Triwizard Tournament couldn’t either.
Harry had made her stay in the library with him, Ron and Hermione until late the past few weeks, attempting to prepare for the final task in June, it was mid-May now.
“You’re lucky I love you; you know that?” She states.
“I know,” Harry says. Leah thought she might need to retract that previous restraint after his smug tone.
Leah watches as Harry walks away, leaving her alone in the corridor. But she was used to it by now. Despite being the other half of the Potter’s who lived, she was… well not hated exactly, but not well liked. Due to her being a Slytherin and not afraid to curse your bollocks off, if you hurt someone she cares about.
As she walks down the corridor to the Great Hall, students tend to avoid looking at her face, both due to fear and disgust. After that fateful night in Godric’s Hollow, whilst Harry was left with the Lightning bolt scar across his forehead, Leah felt as if she got the short end of the straw with her scar. The right side of her face was covered in scars looking like a lightning explosion on her face. She likes to think that without the scars, she looks okay with her green eyes, much like her brothers, maybe just slightly darker, freckles covering her cheeks and dark blonde hair. Everyone says she looks like her mum, Lily, apart from her hair, though that does still come from her mum, apparently, she looks just like her Grandma, though Leah never got to meet her.
After thirteen years of dealing with people reacting to her scar, she was used to it. Plus, that wasn’t the worst to come from that night. Other than the death of her parents, Leah and Harry dealt with the side effects of the killing curse.
Harry found out earlier on that he shared gifts with Voldemort. Cough, Cough, Parseltongue. Leah Lily Potter, however, acquired the ability to see and talk to the dead, and not the normal ghosts like Nearly Headless Nick or the Bloody Baron. Nope, she sees the dead that have moved on, who others cannot see. Let her tell you it was confusing growing up and seeing people others can’t, got a few (a lot) of slaps within the Dursley Household. But after spending nearly ten years believing that Regulus Black was an imaginary friend, you learn to accept the weird truths of the world.
Ever since Leah could remember, Regulus has always been there, as she's grown up, she could see others but he was the only constant one, helping her with bullies and telling her how to protect Harry. She has not told Sirius that she could see his brother, mostly because he doesn’t know about her ability and Leah doesn't know how to bring it up. Bit of a weird conversation to be honest. Anyway, if she did tell him, he might want to try and see if Leah could let him talk to Reg or her mum and dad, but she couldn't figure out how to get others to see what she could, she has tried, but not even she could talk to her mum or dad. Occasionally, Leah caught glimpses of them but they went away again once she blinked, making it seem like a trick of the light. Whilst Leah's “power” was there it was slowly progressing and was considerably useless and morbid right now.
As she neared the Great Hall, Leah heard someone call out her name. “Leah!” She turned around to see who it was, and saw two of her only friends at Hogwarts, Ron, and Hermione, also Harry’s best friends. Leah and Ron became friends on the train to Hogwarts in first year, once Scabbers had bitten Goyle causing them to laugh, leading the two to bond over jokes and various other things. Ron slowly became one of the most important people in Leah’s life after sticking with her and Harry through thick and thin, whilst also being her shoulder to lean on when things got too tough and punching anyone he knew of who said anything about her scars. Though many people thought Ron was just someone to have a laugh with, Leah had learnt over the years that he was observant and emotionally smart, when it came to others, that is, he still could not figure out how to handle this crush on Hermione.
But Ron always seemed to know when something was bothering Leah and always took her to one of the secluded hallways on the fifth floor, just to sit down and relax. He never forced her to talk and instead waited and listened when she did. Over the years, Leah wanted to tell him everything, but always refrained because though he was amazing at keeping secrets, he would never hide her biggest secret from Harry. That and when he finds out the reason why he would be out for blood. But what he does not know is that he was there to witness the cause of the constant tightness in her chest. Though he has suspected that there is something wrong for a while now. She listened to him as well, over the years she listened to his fears that he would never be as great as his brothers and how he wanted to prove himself to everyone. Leah wishes that Ron; the rest of the school and his family would see him for the awesome person that he is.
Hermione was the second friend Leah made. They became friends in the first month of First year, when Leah was on her way to the library to get a book on Transfiguration, when she heard soft crying from a classroom. As she peaked in, she saw Hermione crying alone, hugging herself.
“Are you okay?” Leah asked quietly, trying to not scare the girl.
Hermione looked up, recognising her and quickly tried to hide her tears, turning away to pick up her bag, “Oh yes, I’m fine, just on my way to the library.” Trying not to look at Leah, Hermione tried to leave the room, but Leah grabbed her.
“Hey, I’m not gonna tell anyone, it’s not like anyone talks to me anyway, being a Slytherin and a Potter. You can tell me” Leah spoke softly, smiling gently when Hermione looked at her hopefully.
When she realised that she was serious, Hermione took a deep breath and looked away from Leah again feeling embarrassed.
“It’s my birthday today, and it's my first time away from my parents. It’s hard being away from them and having no one to talk to.” A tear escapes Hermione’s eye again as she speaks.
After listening to her, Leah started searching her pockets. Once she found one of many chocolate frogs Harry had given her as a birthday present, she pulled it out and handed it to Hermione.
“Happy birthday, Hermione”
Hermione looked shocked at being handed the chocolate frog, looking at Leah, she took it and smiled gently in thanks.
“And hey, you can speak to me now, as I’m here and we both seem to be going to the library, wanna sit together?”
“Yes please.”
“And hey, we have something in common.”
Hermione's eyes shone with curiosity. “What?”
“Both our birthdays are on September 19th. Happy birthday!”
That was the start of a beautiful friendship between Leah and Hermione, as the years went on the girls got closer through making fun of the boys behind their backs, though Hermione did stop Leah from pulling pranks on them, she always won the bantering arguments with them. Watching Hermione and Ron argue was something that brought joy into Leah’s life, it was both fun and frustrating watching them both look at one another when the other wasn’t looking, it got significantly worse this year with Viktor Krum entering their lives. He definitely was not part of Leah’s plan to get Ron and Hermione together. Pretty much pulled a break on that, but the jealousy Ron was feeling might be pushing him to accept what he feels for Hermione, though he’d never admit it. Hermione had already accepted her feelings for Ron, but she refused to be the one to make the first move and was convinced that nothing was ever going to happen.
As Leah currently looks at them, she thinks that they were both idiots and needed to come clean. “Hey, what’s up you guys?”
“Have you gone to the library today to check out the magical herb section?” asked Hermione. Over the past weeks, the group had been scouting the sections in the library trying to find anything useful to prepare Harry for the final task.
“No, I hadn’t gotten round to it today, I was planning on doing it Sunday.”
“Nah, it’s fine, we can do it after dinner, leave you to prepare for Snape’s detention tomorrow” Ron says with a grimace, having experienced many of Snape’s detentions.
“Don’t even mention it, I'm really not looking forward to it, having to deal with the greasy loner for hours is making me feel queasy.” Leah says with a laugh.
Ron laughs with her, but Hermione only smiles, making fun of teachers still makes her uncomfortable even though she's set fire to the greasy fucker. They get to the entrance of the Great Hall, and they say bye to each other and go to the opposite sides of the room.
As she heads towards the Slytherin table intending to dig into the best Shepherd’s Pie the world has to offer, the tightening of her chest increases as she senses a certain Gryffindor sitting on the opposite side of the hall. Concentrating on her breathing, Leah fails to notice Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Prince and her friend sitting next to her.
“Hey Potter, what’s wrong with you? You look ghastly!” He started with his usual sneer.
Jumping in her seat, feeling her heartbeat frantically against her chest, she jokes “Well, if that's how you treat girls, I'm shocked you don’t get dates more often.” The following glare is expected.
Her and Draco’s friendship has been a rocky one, considering him and her brother hate each other and what he says to Ron and Hermione, which has caused Leah to jinx his hair red and gold for a week in third year, and have ‘I love Muggle Borns’ across his forehead for a month in second year after he called Hermione a mudblood. Hey, Leah was her father’s daughter, pranks were her legacy, and after everything Remus and Sirius told Leah about the Marauders she was determined to live up to her dad’s reputation, but also be smart enough to not get caught. The Weasley Twins have been blamed for a lot of her pranks including charming Snape and Dumbledore’s robes to force them to do the Irish jig at the Yule Ball. That was amazing, Snape’s face was priceless.
As we continued to eat, Leah could feel her chest become worse and the need to cough became overwhelming. She subtly tells Draco she needs to leave. He came with her, having seen what’s about to happen and knowing that she’s going to need someone. Draco led Leah to the nearest bathroom, locking the door and casting a silencing charm so no one would hear. Leah ran to the sink, not making it to the toilet, starting to dry heave waiting for the pain to stop.
Blood starts streaking the sink, decorating the porcelain. Her throat was clogged up with what’s stuck in her throat stopping oxygen entering Leah’s body. Eye’s blurring with tears and ears filled with the drumming of her own heartbeat, she doesn’t notice Malfoy standing behind her and raising his hand. Suddenly, she felt a thump on her back, shocking the object in her throat to exit her mouth, allowing air to enter her lungs. Tears streaming down the girl’s face, Leah collapses against the ground leaning on the sink, not looking into it, already knowing what she’ll find. Trying to catch her breath, she felt weaker than she had in months.
“I thought it was getting better” he states whilst kneeling in front of Leah trying to determine whether or not he needs to take his friend to Madam Pomfrey.
“It’s fine, I told you it is gonna get harder as time goes on, but I promise that this is the first time this month. The potion is helping”
Leah was only slightly lying when she said this, it’s the second time this month, and the potion only lowers the pain for brief periods.
“That was four full petals, this time. It’s going to get worse if you don’t tell him.”
“Tell him what, that I’m dying of a magical disease because he doesn’t love me, no thanks I don’t feel like dying humiliated, thank you very much.”
It’s the usual argument, every other day they talk about why she hasn't told anyone other than certain teachers, and him. But it’s difficult, how do you tell the guy you love that you're dying because he doesn’t love you back? And how do you tell the only family you have left you’re dying?
Hanahaki is a deadly ancient Japanese disease-causing flower petals to fill one's lungs if their feelings are unrequited. Now you would think that after everything she’s been through fate would cut her some slack, but no, clearly the universe despised her.
Apart from chastising her about not telling Harry (not that he calls him Harry, usually Specky twat), Draco doesn’t say much and helps Leah to the common room to sleep as she reached her dorm, Leah fell into bed awaiting sleep, hoping to not have the same nightmare she’s had every night for the past four years.
But since when do we get what we wish for.