Chapter 2
Tears streak her cheeks as the hooded figure nears her, Harry’s wails overwhelming Leah as she cries for “Daddy” to help.
A wand is lifted towards the Green-eyed baby, a cold shiver runs over Leah, waking her as green light fills the room.
“Ah” Leah sits up suddenly fighting the panic attack threatening to take her. A new tightening in her chest makes it difficult for her to breathe, her chest stuttering as she leans forward, resting her head on her knees as her mind replays the images from her nightmare. The cold shiver occurs again pulling her back to reality as she regulates her breathing, “Merlin, just breathe, you’ll be fine. In and out”, states Leah’s very own ghost, Regulus.
“Yeah, because telling me is gonna help.” Leah answers, a secret smile on her face.
“Well you wouldn’t need my help waking up if you tried to get help.”
“What use will I have for you then?” The answering bitch face is enough to make her laugh.
Regulus had always been there to help her, from bullies, magic, dreams and whatever Leah needed, he was her closest friend, and someone she thought of as an older brother. Regulus and every other ghost that only she could see were different to the ghosts that inhabit Hogwarts. While the Hogwarts ghosts have a silvery element to their transparent forms, Regulus’ form just seemed dimmed and slightly see-through compared to other ghosts. Leah can see him standing over her bed, because he doesn’t float, no he walks as if he was still alive. His black robes seemed like a dark grey instead due to his form, his translucent skin extraordinarily pale. But his eyes were still bright, the same grey that Sirius’ were, compared to the rest of his form, they were shocking, like they could peer into her soul, not that that would surprise her, he knew her better than anyone, so it was like he could do that anyway.
The first time Leah remembered having the dream she was five, back then it made no sense and didn’t fit into the story her and Harry were told about their parents death, a mere muggle car accident. When it woke her up crying, Leah could not get back to sleep, but knew better than to wake her aunt and uncle. So she waited until morning to ask about the dream, the resulting shrieks from her aunt and purple faced shouts from Uncle Vernon convinced her that the dream was just a dream and that she shouldn’t ask questions.
That night Regulus showed up and woke her up from the dream for the first time, but as a child she thought that she was still dreaming. The dreams stopped but Regulus kept showing up, when Leah needed him he was always there, he helped her with her first prank and they really caused mischief together. He became a comforting chill when someone bullied her about her scars or being an orphan, and he always found ways to help her protect Harry. It wasn’t until she was eleven when the wizarding world was revealed to her and Harry, and they were told the real story about how their parents died by Hagrid that she remembered the dream she had and realised it was a memory, since then the dream has occurred nearly every night since. Over the years the dream has revealed more of the memory and right now Leah could remember nearly everything from that night.
After Hagrid told them about the wizarding world and magic, Leah was going to ask him about Reg, but just as she was about to he put his finger to his lips, telling her not to. When Harry and Hagrid fell asleep that night, she asked Reg why he didn't want her asking, that’s when he told her that if people found out then she would be treated differently and that it was frowned upon in the wizarding world to communicate with the dead. This left her with no one to tell about her power, as people found out about Harry’s parseltongue they started to question whether she could do it and when she couldn’t this furthered everyone’s suspicion of her and what she was capable of. Lucky for her, no one has any clue that she could do this, not even Harry, he seems to have forgotten about Leah’s old ‘imaginary friend’.
Leah did consider telling Sirius and Remus, but it's not something that can be explained in a letter and it didn’t feel as if there was time last year nor this year with the tournament and trying to protect Harry. One day she'll tell them and her friends, but not now we have other things to worry about.
As she gets ready to face the day in Snape’s dungeon, ‘Merlin that sounds disgusting’, Leah looks into the mirror, acknowledging how sick she looked, pasty and sweaty. She could see Reg’s look of concern as he looked at her, unlike everyone else, it’s hard to lie to him about how she was really doing, especially after she coughed up blood along with the four petals. It’s getting worse, as last year she could go two months without an episode of coughing something up, now Leah is lucky if she could go a week. As she got dressed, she thought about a list of what she was going to have to do today:
1. Talk to Snape and do my extra potion
2. Find Madam Pomfrey and ask for healing lessons
3. Talk to Harry into hiding the invisibility cloak in the Owlery, for my next prank (not that he needs to know what for)
4. Avoid him
Leah thought it was fun being a secret prankster, listening to the teachers and students speculate about who it is, everyone is always wrong. But she swore Professor McGonagall knew it’s her, but didn't say anything. Once Leah thought she winked at her when she talked to Snape about it being a Gryffindor. Minnie is definitely Leah’s favourite teacher, as she doesn’t treat anyone differently or displays favouritism. Back in first year, she also sat Leah down and told her all about Leah’s father at school, when she heard some older students state that the ‘old Gryffindor king’ would be disappointed in having a Slytherin daughter. Boy, watching her scream at them was awesome.
She told Leah a lot about him, and how although he pulled a lot of pranks against Slytherin, he would of loved her anyways, and mentioned how he adopted wayward friends all the time and that there wasn’t a hateful bone in his body, unless it involved the dark arts. McGonagall spent the better part of an hour comparing Leah and her Dad’s Quidditch abilities. Similar to Harry, Leah made the quidditch team in first year, but like her Dad, she was a chaser. One of the best Hogwarts has seen in years, she already had quidditch professionals watching her games to see if they want her on their teams. But after that talk with McGonagall, Leah swore to never be disrespectful to her and to prank anyone who says anything bad about her. Minnie will be protected. Not that she would ever need it, Merlin knows the woman can protect herself.
Leah makes her way to the Great Hall to catch a quick bite to eat before heading to Snape’s classroom to find out what torture he has in store for her. As she heads into the hall towards the table, she notices that there were a lot of Slytherins this morning, usually saturdays at the table were pretty dead. As she finds an empty space away from people, she notices some glances towards her. Even though she’s a Slytherin, and friends with Malfoy, the Prince of Slytherin, she doesn’t have any other friends in her house. All the older ones hate her on the principle of being a Potter, they say things behind her back, stuff like “Traitor”, “half-blood scum” and things like that. The people in her year are the same as well, but treat her slightly better because they will have conversations with her occasionally but they don’t make an effort to help her or be her friend, most likely due to their families. The younger kids, she can’t blame them for not talking to her, they’re just following what the older kids are doing and trying to fit it, though that would not stop her from magically tying their shoelaces together if they say anything offensive about her or her friends.
As Leah eats her scrambled eggs and toast, she ignores the stares and whispers from her peers, trying to have a peaceful morning before spending the day in the dungeon. Suddenly, there’s a shadow standing over her, when she looks up, she notices that it was a seventh year Gryffindor, Aaron Waters. Some dickhead who’s had it out for her since day one, ever since she was sorted into Slytherin Leah’s had to deal with idiots from other houses trying to antagonise her. You’d think after four years of not getting a reaction other than a few jinxes and spells they’d stop, but alas, some people are just too dim-witted for that, Aaron Waters included. This particular dude had not left her alone after she transfigured the fabric of his robes into poison ivy, leaving him with a really bad rash all over his body for a couple of days. He deserved it though, he’d decided to draw her lightning scars onto his face and stand on the table in the hall to make fun of her. Since then he’s tried to up his game, key word: tried. But unfortunately for him he will never have the intelligence to be able to gain a better reaction than annoyance at the mere sight of his face.
“Hey Potter, got any plans today?” he asks, leaning his hands on the table to look at her better.
“Yes, lucky for me, it means that I won’t have to look at your ugly mug for the rest of the day.” Leah smirks.
She sees his eyes narrow with anger, jaw clenching.
“That’s a shame, because I managed to get an appointment for you with a healer who specialises in scars. Maybe he’ll be able to make you look better.” Leah hears the hall gasp as they hear what he’s saying, Leah doesn’t pay them any attention, just focuses on the moron in front of her.
“Aww, is this you trying to be nice? Are you trying to get an excuse to look at my face more? Is there something you want to tell me, Aaron?” Leah says smirking as the hall fills with everyone laughing at how red Waters face is. She doesn’t even get a response as he turns and walks away, red faced and mumbling insults under his breath.
Going back to finishing her breakfast, the hall slowly fills back up with the usual chatter, she still feels some stares on her but she continues to ignore them. After finishing her breakfast, Leah stands up and starts heading towards the dungeon.
As Leah starts walking to Snape’s classroom she hears some commotion ahead. Thinking better about whether she wants to deal with whoever, or whatever, probably Peeves, Leah turns around to find the shortcut to potions, but unfortunately, she is too late, and the people causing the noise turn the corner towards her and see her. Shit.
“Leah, hey!”
Double shit, guess task number four is invalid.
Leah turns back and sees him smiling.
The reason she was dying.
Fred Weasley.