Disclaimer: All rights belong to J.K. Rowling.

"And that's the chapter." Sirius said. "Who else wants to read? The next chapter is called All Aboard the Hogwarts Express."

"Hey, Hogwarts Express!" George shouted. "That's when you met this fabulous twin!"

Leila raised an eyebrow. "Are you certain about that? Because I remember meeting tweedledum and tweedledee, not anyone fabulous."

"Ouch, that hurts, Leila." George sniggered. "Can I read? Pretty please?"

"You want to read your own entrance?" Angelina said. "So egotistical of you."

"I'm not egotistical when it's already a fact that I am the awesomest person in this room." George said.

"Hey." Fred said in a mock-affronted voice. "Please, everyone knows I'm the better twin."

When George opened his mouth to argue, McGonagall raised a hand with her eyes closed. "Read, Mister Weasley, before I turn the both of you into a gargoyle."

"Aww, Professor, it hurts my heart that you would turn these handsome faces into an ugly statue." George snickered, but caught the book that Sirius banished to him, and turned the page.

All Aboard the Hogwarts Express, he read.

"We're finally going to Hogwarts!" Terry shouted.

"Not yet, genius." Leila muttered. "I had to suffer through hours of your horrible people skills first."

Draco snickered. "I feel your pain, Princess. I really do."

"I should have kicked him off that train when I had the chance, shouldn't have I?" Leila agreed.

"Hey!" Terry protested.

Leila's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.

Most of the Hall made sympathetic noises.

Harry and Leila both twitched in their seats.

"I would have been surprised if it had been." A Hufflepuff muttered.

Lily gave Harry a sad smile.

True, Dudley was now so scared of the twins he wouldn't stay in the same room,

Ron sniggered.

"It's not funny, Ron." Hermione scolded, although the ends of her mouth twitched a little.

"It's poetic." Colin said. "He was a bully, and he got what was coming to him."

Colin got bullied often during his primary school too. For being a 'freak', like Harry and Leila's relatives called them-like a lot of magical kids, strange things happened around Colin a lot during his childhood. Add to that his small stature, and his hyper nature-well, people aren't always nice. And kids can be cruel.

Growing up, and even now, Colin hated all the bullies that used to pick on him. And he knew, that using magic on Muggles were a Very Bad Thing, but sometimes, he dreamt of being able to show those bullies what he could do-to show them that Colin wasn't the same little kid who was terrified of them, and give them a taste of their own medicine.

Maybe wishing that made him a bad person, but Colin was still human.

while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, or Leila in the shed, force her to do anything, or shout at him - in fact, they didn't speak to them at all.

Sirius sent a sympathetic look to his godson. During his teenage years, when he was still stuck in the Grimmauld Place with his Godric-awful family, his parents and Kreacher would always pretend like he didn't exist, either. In fact, during the last summer he ever stayed there, the summer before his fifth year, he had had a fight with Reggie about something he couldn't even remember anymore.

That summer, nobody in the house had acknowledged that he even existed, and that was one of the worst times in his childhood that he could remember, only topped by the time Dorea and Charlus died and the times after his horrible prank with Remus and Snivellus.

He would have preferred it if they had been fighting out loud-with his mother yelling with her dulcet tones, or if Reggie had shouted, cursed, anything. Shut in that house with people who refused to acknowledge his existence, with even the wards modified that he couldn't even send a letter to people who he knew cared-that messed with his head a lot, made him doubt things that he had been completely certain of, before.

If enough people refused to acknowledge that he was there, that he was important-did that make that true? Sirius was a Gryffindor through and through, stubborn to a fault, but that summer had planted doubts in places he did not even know existed. The only thing he had to hold onto, was that people existed who loved him, and when that summer had ended, Sirius had locked the doors to their compartment and clung onto James and Remus and Pe-as tightly as he could.

But Harry and Leila didn't have that certainty in anyone. Didn't have that hope. And Sirius knew how bad that treatment could be.

Sirius bit his lips, before he reached over and clung to Harry's hand, giving him comfort that he hadn't been able to give when Harry was a child.

Harry squeezed back and smiled reassuringly at him.

Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry or Leila in it were empty, as if they were like a ghost-invisible to the members of the household. Leila told herself that she much preferred it that way.

Several people in the Hall sent them a sympathetic look, that neither Harry or Leila acknowledged.

She did.

Draco reached out to briefly squeeze his arm around her shoulders. Leila shrugged his arm off, but the tension bled out of her.

Leila spent most of the time out of the house, jogging around the neighbourhood with Kairo or flipping through her new books behind her—the empty shed. Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company, completely ignoring her.

In fact, during the whole month of August, Harry didn't speak to Leila at all.

Harry winced, the expression getting stronger when he caught sight of Malfoy's glare at him. He'd been angry-he'd been angry with Leila for the past five years. But he'd been hurt, too, and that was what wouldn't let him speak to her.

Harry had spent nearly two years sneaking out of his cupboard every night after the Dursleys had gone to bed to unlock the backdoor and leave his cupboard door a crack open, despite how much his heart pounded whenever he woke up and heard Uncle Vernon's stomping footsteps coming down to watch the telly or get a midnight snack or go to the bathroom and all Harry could focus on was that sliver between the cupboard door and the frame, just so Leila would be able to get back in without making noise. Every morning, he would wake up earlier than Aunt Petunia did and lock the backdoor again so she wouldn't find out. He'd kept a small stash of crisps and a juice box he sneaked from Dudley's snacks so Leila would have food to eat once she came back before the two of them would leave together, and even on the worst of days when the hunger pains kept him up all night, Harry didn't touch them.

He'd never doubted for a single day, those two years, that Leila was coming back for him. Any voice in his head that said that Leila could be dead or worse-he'd shut away. Leila was his twin sister, he would have known if something really bad happened to her. Then Leila turned up on the doorstep in the middle of the day, when Harry was away at school. And when Harry came home, Leila didn't smile at him for the next five months. Didn't talk about anything, of what she'd been doing, what the world outside Little Whinging was like. For months, his big sister shut him out like Harry never existed.

The Dursleys pretended Harry didn't exist. The kids at school, the teachers, they all liked to pretend that the Potter twins didn't exist. Leila-Leila wasn't supposed to do that.

It was only halfway through July when Leila started getting better. Nodding to Harry in the mornings. Actually replying whenever Harry tried to talk to her. Still never answering any questions.

And when Harry was about to forgive Leila for leaving, he found out she'd been lying to him about everything. She'd known about their parents for months, more than a year maybe. And knowing how much Harry had wanted to know about their parents, how much they had both wanted to know about their parents once upon a time, she'd just… not told him. Not told him a lot of things.

Leila might be ten minutes older than him, something Aunt Petunia had let slip when they were both five years old, but they were still twins. Partners. Equals. Leila was supposed to have faith in him, not treat him like a little kid, like she wasn't only ten minutes, only six hundred seconds older than him.

Harry knew now that something bad had happened to Leila during those months. She'd been hurting and hurt and Harry hadn't known. Hadn't been there. But-the Leila who'd left wasn't the same Leila who'd come back.

Harry and Leila were getting along better now, might be able to smile at each other and talk to each other and show their care about each other without shouting or sniping or having a pit of anger in their stomachs, but Harry wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to forgive her for this.

At night, she spent time lying on the bed with her wand; swishing and flicking and jabbing.

Professor Flitwick smiled slightly, at the early interest his prized pupil had shown at Charms. In some ways, Leila was just like Lily.

But only with her eyes closed, not letting herself catch a glimpse of her wand.

Some nights, when the house was too quiet, her cupboard too dark and her thoughts too loud,

Sirius smiled sadly. He knew how that felt.

she sat curled up on her mattress, Kairo a heavy weight on her legs, and practiced spells in her head that Patrick had taught her once-spells to go invisible, create a light, glue people's legs together, slow down someone chasing after you, to make wands fly out of people's hands and to make things fly-

"You learned the disillusionment charm that young? But that's an OWL level charm!" Hermione said.

Leila shrugged. "It was hard. Took Patrick weeks to teach me and took me months to get it. Probably more like a year. But that spell was definitely worth it."

"That's an excellent repertoire for someone who hadn't even gone to Hogwarts yet." Remus said. "You must have been very talented to learn all that when you were so young."

"I had plenty of time to practice." Leila snorted. "Patrick was the prodigy. And he was a decent teacher."

"Only decent?" Patrick teased Leila.

Leila rolled her eyes. "You almost jabbed my eyes out, trying to teach me wingardium leviosa. It was a little hard to take you entirely serious after that."

"I'd been up for about thirty hours beforehand! I was tired!" Patrick protested.

"Well, you shouldn't have been doing magic, then." Leila returned. "You lit my hair on fire! It was already short enough!"

"Okay, true, but that only happened once." Patrick admitted.

"Thank Merlin." Leila muttered.

"Is that why your hair was so short when you came here?" Terry asked in a loud whisper.

Leila scowled. "I just have really bad luck with fire, alright?"

The people surrounding her laughed, hearing their exchange. Patrick looked apologetic.

and she silently went through the wand movements, but she never spoke the words out loud.

She told herself that it was because of the Trace that was bound to be on her wand after it had been in the "safekeeping" of the Ministry,

"It is, the law, after all." Shacklebolt said amusedly. "The wandmaker should never have sold it to you without the trace."

Patrick snorted. "It's the Knockturn, what did you expect?"

"Be that as it may, the Knockturn Alley is still under the jurisdiction of the Ministry." Percy stated.

"Like the Ministry actually puts effort or money into the place?" Patrick retorted, sounding bitter. "Knockturn receives no government funding, protection or services. You never send aurors there to protect us, you only send them there to arrest people. Most of the fireplaces there never get hooked up to the Floo network. Let's face it: you guys would rather pretend Knockturn doesn't exist, until it gets convenient for you to blame it as the source of every crime in the Wizarding Britain, or something."

Percy bristled, but he did not say anything. The rest of the Ministry workers stayed silent. Umbridge fumed, her body still paralyzed by Reyna's charm.

but she was careful not to catch a glimpse of her wand during the day, only taking it out from under her pillow when the night was the darkest.

Kairo whined from under the table.

Sirius, with a brittle turn to his mouth, ran a hand over his own wand. It wasn't his wand, of course, which had been broken when he was tossed into Azkaban. Mundungus had sneaked him this wand, probably from Knockturn, not that he had cared much at the time.

Ollivander had always said though, that the wand chose the wizard, and Sirius probably should have taken it a lot more seriously. Unlike his first wand, dogwood and dragon heartstring, which had been like second nature for him to command, this one was a lot more stubborn and disagreeable.

Sirius had to focus way too much on the spells than he had ever needed to. Already three times, he had almost burned down his house trying to clear off the table, not that that would have been too horrible.

Leila hated those nights-the four walls of the cupboard felt like they were closing in on her, the bed was too soft and the sound of her breath was too loud. The only thing she could do was focus on something else and hope it helped.

"That doesn't really help much." Sirius muttered. James sent him a concerned look.

(It never did)

Leila winced at the reminder of those nights. Reyna made eye contact with her, and made a ridiculous face.

Leila cracked a smile.

One day, after a string of those bad nights, Leila threw off her covers, stole a bunch of loose change from the Dursleys, snuck out the back door, and disappeared before the sun was even halfway to the horizon.

"Rebel." Tracey stage-whispered. Daphne snorted, before bumping her shoulder.

"Where were you going?" Lily asked.

Leila shrugged. "You'll see."

She left Kairo sleeping on her bed, but left out some water and scraps for him on the floor of her cupboard, leaving the door ajar.

Patrick blinked, having seemed to have guessed something. "You didn't take Kairo with you?"

Leila shook her head, her smile brittle. "Too soon."

She'd spent close to two years of her life with both her best friends with her-the wizard and the dog, then she spent eight months separated from both of them. Leila needed to put herself back together the way she broke, and having Kairo but not the other at the familiar place she was going would have made her feel even more out of step.

She spent the rest of the night sprawled out on her back on the metal bench at the bus stop across the town, and tried to count the stars she couldn't see.

"Poetic, weren't you?" Draco teased. "I wasn't aware you could be so dramatic."

Leila flushed. "Shut up, Dragon Boy."

Terry snickered, and didn't shut up until Leila discreetly flicked her middle finger at him.

When the sun finally began to rise and the sky was stained orange, she took the first bus to the train station.

Dumbledore began to frown. "Miss Potter, I sincerely hope you weren't going where I am thinking of."

Leila slowly blinked. "This was five years ago, professor."

She got to London in an hour, to one of the old cracks between the Muggle world and the Knockturn Alley in another half an hour.

Even James began to frown. "Maybe that's not the best place you could have been, Leila."

Years ago, when he was still alive and an auror, James and Sirius had chased a few dozen criminals into and out of the Knockturn Alley. James had seen a lot of crimes, a lot of victims, and a lot of desperate people willing to do anything for a few coins. Knockturn was where dark wizards and criminals went to hide-it wasn't a place he felt safe with his daughter being there alone.

"Knockturn's dangerous. It's no place for children." Mrs Weasley agreed.

Leila and Patrick exchanged a glance.

I will know if you ever step foot again inside the Knockturn Alley, Ms. Potter. This isn't the place for you to be.

"I still hold to that belief." Dumbledore said. "You gave your word to me, Miss Potter."

Leila blinked. "Technically, the deal was that I'd stay on house arrest and out of the magical world until someone came to get me. Hagrid came, and I got my wand. That was the deal."

Dumbledore still looked displeased.

"You were on house arrest?" Harry asked.

"Why were you on house arrest?" Hermione looked incredulous.

Leila scowled. "Long story."

Meanwhile, McGonagall looked around the Hall with her stern, disapproving look. "Knockturn Alley is a dangerous place, especially at these times. I would like to remind all of you thinking of 'exploring' there to stay away."

McGonagall specifically made eye contact with the troublemakers in the Hall, including the Weasley twins, Ginny Weasley, the Golden Trio and Leila and her friends. She also looked at all the First Years, scaring half of them to death.

Standing in that dark and dreary alley with the crack that lead to the Muggle world at her back, finally able to breathe again, Leila found it hard to care about the old man's warning.

"Leila." Leila flinched at Lily's voice, full of disappointment and disapproval.

Under the table, Lily's knuckles were white from worry.

No one knew what Unspeakables did—most thought it was just research, research into the obscure and arcane branches of magic, and that was true, a lot of research happened in the Department of Mysteries, but the Unspeakables dealt in information and knowledge, most of all. Research and experimentation, yes but also espionage, infiltration, rumors—all of them tools for information gathering for all sorts of purposes: both academic and practical.

When she was alive, she had been an Unspeakable-a junior agent, and on the more practical side of the department rather than the academic side but nonetheless. As soon as she made it past the recruit training, one of her very first jobs had been sorting out reports and information from their informants in the Knockturn Alley, and filtering those information carefully to the aurors and the hit-squads.

Eventually, she had gone on several missions to the Knockturn as well, as a part of a covert operation running parallel with the aurors' investigations, under guises of a smuggler, a waitress, and on one memorable occasion, a potion-dealer, during which she got interrogated and actually arrested by Sirius and her husband, who had never known it was her. That particular mission had turned out well, when she sneaked herself out of custody just in time to hand in all the evidence she had collected to her superior. James had come home that day, talking about the big crime-ring bust he and Sirius had participated in, while Lily had thankfully not burst out laughing.

Lily had experienced the criminal element of the Knockturn both first-hand and through mission reports, and it wasn't something she wanted her daughter to experience at ten, if ever. The constant looking over shoulder, fear and wariness for their lives, and crime everywhere hurting the vulnerable-Lily desperately wished that Leila would stay out of that Alley now that she could be free from that environment.

She walked briskly, her chin lifted, and avoiding eye contact with men and women and beings in hoods, who were standing on the filthy street and watching her, muttering at each other. She passed a clean-shaven man with glittering eyes, who had once tried to con her into selling her freedom away, until Stephanie passed by and nearly tore his throat out. The man sneered as she passed, and Leila bared her teeth in response.

Her hand grasped the hilt of her knife tightly, the blade hidden inside the sleeve of her oversized jacket.

"Why don't you just stay out, if you know how dangerous the place is?" Molly Weasley fussed. She did like and care for Leila, who had grown close with a few of her children, no matter how much she tried to avoid befriending new people. As much as Leila tried to push people away, the girl had a good heart and a capacity for kindness that her children were drawn to.

Molly never minded Leila's friendship with her children-how could she, when she loved Harry like her own child? Leila never allowed Molly to have the close relationship with her like how Molly and Arthur looked after Harry, but Molly owed her daughter's life to Leila, and she was fond of her. Unfortunately, Leila also tended to have a dangerously reckless streak in her-a fact that almost everyone meeting her learned sooner or later, and that seemed to be what drew Leila to the dangerous alley.

Leila clenched her jaw.

"How can I stay away?" Her voice was quiet, but everyone who was paying attention heard. Patrick held one of her hands for mutual comfort and support, and Leila desperately squeezed it. "That's the closest to home I'd ever had. It's where I grew up and spent a very important part of my life. It's where family is. How can I walk away?"

Of course Knockturn was dangerous-no one knew that better than Leila did herself. It was where she watched Patrick bleed out to death, where the blood of three people haunted her nights. Crime lords and gangs were rampant, the law didn't exist there, and if there ever was a bright centre of Magical Britain, this was the furthest one could ever get from it.

But there were still people in Knockturn, and they were hers. It was still the place where Stephanie and Luke had made a living and a home-and now where her godson was growing up. That was her family, and it was her home-every inch of it that was soul sucking and deadly.

She hated every single inch of it, but home was still home, and people were still people. How could she stay away?

She took the long way around, avoiding even going near one abandoned alleyway. She still noticed though, some buildings that looked even more collapsed than the last time she saw it.

As she got closer to the epicenter of the alley, a couple people she passed saw her walking by and stopped, giving her a wary look.

Lily and James exchanged a cautious look. Remus was staring at Leila with a puzzled look, looking as if he was trying to recall a long forgotten name.

Moody looked at Leila warily. He had been right, then.

Leila let out a slow breath, avoiding looking at anyone, especially Patrick.

In a matter of moments, she stood again in front of the familiar worn door-freshly painted since her last visit.

Both Patrick and Leila had wistful smiles on their faces. Draco's face was solemn, thinking of the woman that had been played a big part in his life in the very short time they had.

She raised her hand to knock before jerking it back, biting her lip. Half of the front wall had been rebuilt as well.

Maybe it was a bad idea to come here, back to Knockturn.

Lily and James both nodded, agreeing with the statement. Leila shouldn't be in Knockturn at all, anyplace would be safer.

Leila took a step back.

This had been a mistake. She shouldn't have come here. She had no right to be here.

"Leila-" Patrick trailed off. What had happened that night? He couldn't remember the last hour or so before he died, except that it had been cold and painful.

Yet still, this Leila five years ago was hesitating in front of Stephanie and Luke's place. The one place in the world that had been the safe base for both of them.

Leila avoided his eyes.

The door opened anyway, revealing a young woman with her messy hair tied up into a knot, her sharp, dark eyes widening in surprise.

"How did she know?" Dennis questioned.

Leila laughed, slightly wet. "Stephanie had the best wards this side of Gringotts. Some of her friends were really good at Ancient Runes and Defense, and she'd add little traps and curses of her own after that. Her door was deadly if you touched it wrong."

"Wicked." Dennis grinned.

"Leila?" Stephanie pulled her into the shop hurriedly. "What's wrong?"

Leila threw her arms around Stephanie, buried her face in her stomach, and shook silently. Not even a moment later, Stephanie's gentle but strong arms wrapped around her back.

Leila leaned into Draco. He wrapped an arm around her and the two seeked comfort from each other, remembering the vicious and fierce woman who had affected both of their lives so strongly.

"Steph? Is everything- Oh." Luke stepped out as well, his dark skin contrasting with his pink apron Stephanie had charmed as a joke. "Leila."

His voice was warm and so was his arms when he hugged her as soon as Stephanie let her go.

James had a slightly bittersweet smile on his face.

Draco gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, his arm still around her.

Against all odds, Leila felt the cold worry in the pits of her stomach melt, and she buried her face into Luke's apron before her tears could run down her face.

Some people in the hall, who were members of the Army of Hogwarts, were taken off guard at hearing that Leila had cried. They considered themselves to be friends with Leila, or at least close acquaintances. Ever since last year, they'd gotten closer to Leila and Draco and the rest of her best friends, had seen Leila smile, albeit on rare occasions and lose her temper at Draco and shout at people.

Never, even once had they seen Leila cry. It was unimaginable for them.

She was still safe here. Stephanie and Luke hadn't turned her away for last December. Wafting from the shop were the smell of potion ingredients and fire and soup, the closest smell to home that she had.

Leila had a wistful smile on her face.

Leila ended up spending most of the day at Stephanie's, helping her cook lunch and cleaning up after some of Stephanie and Luke's potions.

"Just like the old days, huh?" Patrick smiled softly at her.

Leila nodded, her smile nostalgic.

Several times, she turned around when she thought she heard a familiar laughter, or to tell a joke, or lean in for a hug, and faltered when she saw the blank space.

Lily smiled sadly. When Marlene died, a year or so after the twins' birth, she remembered thinking of jokes or funny stories to tell Lena about. It always took her a few seconds, before it all crashed down on her.

They had broken up just before their seventh year after a year of dating, but Lena had remained one of her closest friends and her most important people even after that. Lily loves James, but once upon a time, Lily had thought she was going to marry Lena-they would have continued to date if it weren't for Lena's parents and Lena's own status as the McKinnon heiress that necessitated her to get married and have a kid to stay in the family.

The times after Lena's death was one of the most painful moments in her life, up there with her parents' deaths and her estrangement with Tuney.

In the familiar shop and the closest thing to a home that she'd known, it was easier for her to slip back into the old habits of being a team of two, rather than just herself. Stephanie's gaze turned more and more cautious as the day went on, while Luke's hugs got tighter and tighter.

Patrick gripped Leila's hand tight. "I'm sorry."

Leila shook her head, but didn't let go.

Still, they didn't push her to talk, and Leila never volunteered.

Ron and Hermione both shared a look, before looking at an oblivious Harry. A tendency to bottle things up and never talk it out was a trait both twins shared, especially this year.

More than anything, being back in the familiar shop, breathing in scents of newt eyes and wolfsbane,

Remus's head jerked up, before catching himself. Still, he wondered if Leila's friend brewed Wolfsbane and if it was any cheaper in the Knockturn, away from the Ministry's overwhelming tariffs.

made the smile plastered on her face easiest to bear than it had been in a long while.

Harry nodded. He felt the same way at Hogwarts, though this year it was harder than usual.

A couple times, like when Luke made faces at her when Stephanie's back was turned, or when Stephanie smiled that dangerous smile right when Luke's eyebrows were burnt off due to a convenient potion explosion a few moments after, her smile even felt natural.

"Stephanie is the best." Patrick smiled, remembering all the times she carried out her brand of revenge on Luke, Leila or himself.

Leila didn't correct his present tense. "That she is."

When the time came for her to leave, the sky outside streaked with orange and purple, Stephanie and Luke's hugs were close to crushing.

Leila curled her fingers in Kairo's fur, scratching his ear.

"I miss them." she whispered.

Draco kissed the top of her head. "I know."

"Take care of yourself, Leila." Luke ordered.

Leila nodded, burrowing her face into his robes a little more.

Despite the sadness, Draco smirked. Not counting Lady Hogwarts, who was complicated and not at all the same, Luke and Stephanie were probably the only people Leila would ever take orders from.

"Don't do anything stupid, and say hi to Kairo for me." Luke continued.

"How'd you know I had Kairo back?" Leila stepped back to look at him. "I left him at home sleeping."

"How did he know?" Colin asked, surprised.

"It's Luke." Leila said dryly. "He knows everything."

Luke snorted. "You've got dog hair all over your shoes."

"Typical." Patrick laughed. "When I was younger, I really was convinced that he was omniscient."

He'd been a kid, bratty and brash and willing to pick a fight with absolutely everything and everyone when Luke had found him trying to pick his pockets. Luke brought him to the apothecary, placed the fear of Stephanie into him, then fed him, taught him, and knocked some sense into him. He took a street kid no one wanted anything to do with, disregarded his name, his family, his parents, and turned him into someone that he was okay with being.

Luke and Stephanie taught him patience and kindness, taught him magic and survivor skills and how to take the least damage in a fight. Someone Knockturn called a prodigy and a genius, the hope for the neighbourhood's future. It had made him a target for those bastards to come after but also gave him the ability to survive until he found another orphan girl and gave back what Steph and Luke had given him,

For years, he'd had the awestruck worship for both of the couple, who had eyes and ears all over the Knockturn Alley, and who knew if he'd been hurt or not eating or picked a fight too big for him. He grew out of it somewhere between acquiring a small, redhaired shadow himself and the frantic weeks of desperately searching for his partner, raging that even Stephanie's extensive network couldn't find his best friend, but he supposed that growing up entailed falling out of that blind faith.

It wasn't until now, years after he died, that he realized that neither Stephanie or Luke had really been that much older than him either. At nine years old, nineteen seemed so old, but Patrick had died at thirteen, and time was weird after death. Leila was fifteen now, only four years younger than Stephanie or Luke had been when Patrick first met them, and Patrick felt like he was both thirteen and eighteen he ought to be and endlessly old all at the same time

Stephanie hip-bumped Luke out of the way, before she stepped in for her hug.

"Owl us when you get to Hogwarts, okay? Have some fun, terrorize half the school, and if anyone gives you any trouble, you have my permission to kick them in the face, kiddo." Stephanie mussed her hair.

"Of course that's what she said." Draco snorted, shaking his head.

"Did you really expect any less?" Leila grinned.

"So, did you ever kick anyone in the face, Munchkin?" Patrick poked her in the shoulder, giving her a crooked grin.

"No, I didn't." Leila raised an eyebrow, batting Patrick's hand away.

"Stop pretending you're innocent." Draco told Leila, mock-scowling. "She punched me in the face once."

"So did Hermione Granger." Leila said. "That doesn't mean anything, that just means you were an arse when we were kids."

"She also flipped me over her shoulder." Draco said to Patrick, who looked unmistakably amused.

"That was an accident!" Leila exclaimed, looking indignant. "I didn't mean to do it!"

A few people snickered, while others turned to look at the arguing couple curiously.

"That doesn't change the fact that you still did it." Draco taunted.

"We agreed to call it even with when you pushed me off my broom that one time." Leila retorted.

"I never pushed you off-you lost your balance." Draco said.

"Funny. I seem to distinctly remember your elbow in my kidney." Leila said.

"Okay, fine. I never meant to push you off." Draco conceded. "I suppose we can call that time you accidentally flipped me over your shoulder and slammed me into stone floors even."

"I'm glad we agree." Leila said, sticking out her tongue. Draco reached out and tugged it.

The rest of the Hall were staring, amused and taken slightly aback.

"Wow, are you guys sure you're even friends, let alone dating?" Hermione Granger demanded.

Leila smiled sharply. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Most people don't push their significant other off a broom, Leila." Terry teased. "Might say it's not healthy even."

Draco rolled his eyes. "First of all, we were enemies, not dating or even friends then, when I accidentally pushed her off a broom, or when Leila flipped me over her shoulder. Second of all, you of all people have known us since we were tiny little firsties picking a fight nearly every week, Terry."

"Did you really expect anything else?" Leila continued. "What about any of us is healthy to you?"

Terry snickered, while Reyna rolled her eyes at them.

Hermione shook her head.

"You are such a bad influence." Luke grinned at her.

"Stephanie is the best influence anyone could have." Patrick denied.

"When I grow up, I want to be her." Draco agreed.

"No one can ever be as amazing as Stephanie." Leila teased. "You'll just have to settle for being her weak successor."

"I mean, I don't mind." Draco shrugged.

"I'll write it on your gravestone." Leila said wryly. "Here likes Draco Black, Stephanie the Second. He tried."

"I want that exact quotation on my gravestone." Draco said. "You better carve it there with your own hands, or I'll come back and haunt you."

Leila snorted. "Like you could."

Patrick raised his eyebrows at both of them. "Are you done?"

"Not really." Draco argued. Leila nudged him with her elbow.

"We're done." Leila said. "Sorry George, go ahead."

George saluted at the three of them, before continuing.

Stephanie raised an eyebrow at him. "You're the one who taught her to kick people in the face, hot shot."

Patrick shrugged. "She's not wrong. Although it was really a group effort between the three of us."

Leila had a soft smile on her mouth.

"Good times?" Patrick asked softly.

"The best." Leila answered.

Leila snickered. After months of being miserable, being here with Stephanie and Luke, it was like before again.

James sent a sad smile at his daughter.

Losing people was difficult, and losing such an important person was even more so. When his parents died that summer, dragon pox and the war combining, it had taken James a long while before he felt he could feel okay again. Sirius had helped, as had the rest of the Marauders and Lily, but it had been hard to get there.

She didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay there, with Stephanie and Luke forever, safe, where she could forget about dead best friends and cold alleyways and her brother hating her.

Harry and Patrick both looked pained, though both for different reasons.

She turned away anyway.

Leila bit her lip. Sometimes, in the dead of the night after the worst days, she wished that she had stayed that day. That she could have let herself forget about people who'd wanted her dead, about constantly needing to look over her shoulder, about nightmares and loneliness and being so, so tired all the time.

Every time she went back to the shop, she had wished that this time, she could let herself stay. That she could let herself be safe, let herself relax, let herself be surrounded by the two people who cared about her.

And every time, it was so difficult to make herself leave again.

Stephanie and Luke would have let her stay, she knew, and that was perhaps the hardest fact to ignore. But this was Leila. She didn't get to have good things, and when she did, she never got to keep them.

Patrick had died trying to keep her alive. Her godfather had betrayed her family and tried to get her to kill Harry's. Percy had not spoken a word to her since a week after the graveyard, and had denounced her to all the press and his family.

So she'd only gone to the shop as rarely as she could make herself, once during the summer and once during the winter break, until her godson was born. Then when little Sebastian Anderson-Jenkins was born, she let herself stay a little longer, spending three whole days during the winter break he was born and spending a whole week the summer after. She spent all the precious days she allowed herself at the shop, and hoarded her memories deep inside her mind like the most precious of jewels.

And now, because of their connection to her, they were dead and the shop burnt down. The closest place to a home she'd had, gone, the fire too strong for all the wards that had been on the place. The closest people she'd had to an older sibling and parent combined, gone, with only her godson left as their legacy, history repeating again.

She'd hoped, the less time she'd spent there, the less painful it would be. But she was wrong.

That night, back at the Dursleys where no one asked where she'd been all day,

Harry winced in slight guilt. He legitimately had not noticed, but then, he hadn't gone outside his room that much all of that summer. That day was probably one of the many days he didn't step outside except to use the washroom.

she didn't have a nightmare for once.

Most people looked at her happily, glad that seeing her old friends made her feel a lot better, but Leila stared off into space, still remembering that dream vividly.

She dreamt of her and Patrick, Stephanie and Luke, with a beautiful red-haired woman and a messy, dark haired man, laughing and relaxing in a warm cottage. Harry was by her side, smiling brightly at her, and her dad ruffled her hair, his eyes crinkling in a smile.

"Oh." Harry said in a small voice. His dad ruffled his hair, and his mother smiled at him, but for once, he barely noticed.

Harry was reminded of his first Christmas at Hogwarts, of what he saw in the Mirror of Erised that night. His sister had the very similar idea of their greatest wishes-one perfect day with family that should have been impossible for them to have, except by some miracle, it wasn't.

His parents were here. No one was screaming at Sirius, and Harry wasn't the Boy Who Lived anymore. It all felt like some fantastical dream that he never wanted to wake up from, except thanks to the mysterious strangers, it was real. Harry, for once in years, had a chance of reconciling with his sister again, a chance to talk and fix what his anger had messed up.

If this was a dream, he never wanted to wake up again.

When she woke up, her chest hurting and her eyes wet, choking on the remnants of a laughter, she wasn't sure if it was better or worse than a nightmare.

She knew what to expect with the nightmares. They were horrible, and a constant reminder of her mistakes and what she'd lost, but she was used to them. A dream like that hurt so much more, when she woke up and realized that none of it was ever real.

Leila looked up to meet her brother's sympathetic eyes, and an understanding smile. Shakily, she smiled back.

Every night before she went to bed, she mentally counted off another day, counting down to September first.

Sirius smiled at his godson and Leila.

Every summer, when he had been stuck in that godric-awful house of his parents, he had done that too. He had purposely stuck up a muggle calendar full of things that were likely to piss his parents off the most-muggle cars, motorcycles, pictures of cute boys and girls in a swimsuit-and checked them off every day.

The only summer he remembered not doing that was the summer before Reggie started school where he'd inevitably be sorted into Slytherin, and things like house rivalries and peer expectations would likely separate them from each other. That summer, he spent doing the most things he could with Reggie, doing things they used to do to amuse themselves when they were younger, and taking his last chance at being an adored big brother.

Sure enough, when Reggie came along to Hogwarts, he was sorted into Slytherin, and dear Bella had staked her claim on him. The next morning, Reggie barely looked him in the eyes, and a few months after that, ignoring each other in the halls had become a routine. It had been just like what happened between himself and Bella after his sorting at eleven.

Sirius never regretted being sorted into Gryffindor. But if there was one thing about his sorting that he regretted, it was the distance it put between himself and his family. Not his parents-Sirius couldn't care less about his mother, selfish and prejudiced, or his father, forever distant until his death. But his brother, his cousins, who had once been his most important people-that hurt.

Especially Bella-the Bellatrix now, the Death Eater, the insane dark witch, was a person that he despised. But the Bella of his childhood? Bella Black, who had been the most adventurous of them five, who had loved Cissy and Andy fiercely, who had once been his best friend and a person he had wanted to grow up to be-Sirius couldn't help but regret losing her back then a little.

On the last day of August she went down to the living room where the Dursleys were watching a quiz show on television.

"Wow, they're actually watching something intellectual?" Marietta whispered to Cho, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Cho grinned at her best friend.

She caught a glimpse of her brother, who spun on his heels and walked back up the stairs as soon as he saw her.

Despite the mood, James couldn't help smirking at Lily. That tendency to give the silent treatment and utter disacknowledgement of their existence? That was Lily right there when she was mad.

Looks like Harry got her temper in more ways than one, not just in his vocal chords. Now, which of them was Leila like when she was well and proper angry?

She cleared her throat to let them know she was there and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.

Colin snickered. Oh, how he wished he had that effect on his bullies sometimes.

"Uncle Vernon, I would like to speak with you."

Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.

"I didn't know Leila could speak the language of grunting primitives." Lee said.

"Leila is a witch of surprising talents." George said.

"Hear, hear." Fred said.

Leila rolled her eyes at them all.

"I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow at eleven o'clock." Uncle Vernon grunted again.

"Would it be alright if you gave Harry and I a lift?" Grunt. Leila took that to mean yes.

"What if that wasn't what he meant? What would you have done?" Terry asked.

"I got up early enough the next day." Leila shrugged. "I probably would have taken a bus."

James looked at his daughter, amused. "You don't plan these things out very well, do you?"

"I'm very good at planning." Leila said with a serious face.

Draco snorted, before Leila elbowed him and he let out a grunt. "You remember what happened that time with the giant statues, right?"

Leila frowned. "There was nothing wrong with my plan-what happened was not my fault. Besides, I thought we agreed not to ever bring that up again?"

"You may be good at plans, Princess, but your plans never turn out well." Draco teased with a smile on his face. "I needed to make a point, and I didn't think you'd want me to bring up worse incidents."

Leila scowled.

"What are the worse incidents?" Neville asked, curious. "I was there for the statues. Are you telling me there were times when Leila's plans turned out worse than that? Is that possible?"

Leila stared at her godbrother, gobsmacked at the utterly unexpected betrayal. Next to her, Draco lit up with absolute glee.

"Oh, does she have worse plans." Draco snickered. "Like with the dragon, or with the troll. Get her to actually tell you the Bulgaria incident later-now that's spectacular planning for sure."

Patrick coughed back laughter, while Viktor's eyes were shining with mirth.

Leila frowned at her backstabbing boyfriend. "First of all, Bulgaria was actually Patrick's fault, with his stupid hero-worshipping crush, and second of all, Draco, I swear to everything you hold holy, if you open your mouth again-"

"What was the stone statues incident?" Lily asked. The majority of the Hall were also looking at them curiously.

Leila hurriedly slapped a hand over Draco's mouth and glared at Neville with intensity. Her face was flushed with embarrassment, clashing horribly with her red hair. "We are not talking about the statues. We are never talking about the statues, and there is nothing wrong with my plans."

"Aw, but-" Draco wriggled out of her grip.

"Nope." Leila flatly denied. "George, please start reading again."

"For anyone that is curious, Leila has had much worse plans than the incident we may not speak of, including the time she jumped off a dragon from fifty feet in the air." Draco told Lily and James, who looked disappointed by Leila's denial.

Everyone who was at Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament winced at the reminder.

"You what?" Lily asked, gobsmacked and concerned.

"I came out fine, alright?" Leila argued.

"You and I have a very different definition of fine, Commander." Justin said, who had had the front row viewing to the dubious honor of seeing Leila almost get burned to a crisp that day.

"George, read." Leila demanded.

As George began to read, Hannah murmured. "Didn't she pass out for three days after that? Gryffindors."

"Thank you." She was about to walk out of the living room, when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.

"Oh, so he speaks, after all." Anthony mocked.

He hated people like Vernon, who didn't treat their family the way they deserved to be treated. Family was sacred-something that at the darkest times of your life, was all you had. With the Potter twins, there was complicated history there that Anthony couldn't grasp, but with the Dursleys? What excuse could someone have to treat their 11 year old niece and nephew like rubbish?

To treat family so callously-the Dursleys just rubbed him wrong.

"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

"Illegal in Britain." Blaise sneered.

"Can you imagine if everyone showed up to school on a magic carpet, though?" Dennis exclaimed, his eyes wide.

"It would pose a great risk to the Statute of Secrecy, Mister Creevey." McGonagall said, amused. "There is a reason the magic carpets were banned in 1987, after the famous Friar case."

"What happened in 1987?" Colin asked.

"A group of extremist wizarding groups sold magic carpets as ordinary muggle carpets to families of Muggleborns. The students were away at Hogwarts for the year, and no one realized until it was too late." McGonagall said.

Colin's eyes widened. Hope, Dennis, Hermione, Terry and many others in the Hall shuddered at the implications.

"Luckily enough, there were no casualties, though several of the families ended up hospitalized at St. Mungo's. A Hufflepuff student, Mister Lucas Friar, advocated for the ban through several long court sessions. Nowadays, he works in the Ministry helping to legislate and carry out cases against Muggle baiting." McGonagall said.

The Hall fell silent.

"Do… do things like that still happen, professor?" Hope asked, her voice small. She avoided looking several of the older housemates in the eye.

McGonagall smiled thinly at the question, the frown lines in her face a little more prominent than usual. "Unfortunately, Muggle baiting and these other despicable acts still happen occasionally, despite all the legislation and policing against it."

"Statistically, the rate has fallen drastically-a proof that we are eradicating those uncivilized behaviour. The Ministry has practices and laws to ward off all criminal activities. There is no reason to worry." Percy said, his eyes for the briefest moment, flickering towards his father across the Hall.

Fred and Leila made brief eye contact.

She stayed silent.

"Where is this school, anyway?"

"Ask us no questions-" George said.

"-and we'll tell you no lies!" Fred finished, grinning.

The students snickered.

"Scotland," said Leila.

"Your Frosty Majesty, you weren't supposed to give it away!" George mock-scolded.

Leila rolled her eyes. "I was about to apologize, but the nickname made me change my mind."

Terry snickered. "Are you telling me Hogwarts wasn't on Mars, all this time? You let me believe a lie for so long!"

"Oops." Draco deadpanned. "The cat's out of the bag now."

"Betrayal!" Terry mock-fainted across Reyna's lap. "However will I recover?"

Reyna exchanged a grin with her cousin while she pet Terry's hair. "There, there. We'll build you a school on Mars, alright? Just for you. We'll name it in your honor, and you can transfer there as soon as it's built. All by yourself."

Terry draped himself over his girlfriend more dramatically. "Fine. I'm going to name it Secret Terry's Ravenclaw Academy For Genius, Incredibles and Perfections."

"Why is there only Ravenclaw in the name? That's discrimination!" Reyna argued playfully, shoving Terry off her lap onto the floor.

"Oof!" Terry grunted, before climbing back onto his chair. "Because I am a Ravenclaw, and it will be my school and what I say goes."

Leila snorted. "I didn't know you had such dictator tendencies."

"I am not a dictator-I'm just a genius." Terry mock-argued.

"For such a genius, your naming sense sucks." Reyna teased.

"No one appreciates me." Terry muttered. "Fine, I'll acronym it like Hogwarts, how's that?"

"So it would be S, T, R… are you sure that's a word?" Anthony, one of Terry's closest Ravenclaw friends added.

"It's a word if you reverse it." Terry raised his nose and mock-sniffed. Reyna reached out and pulled it.

Hermione frowned, before she groaned.

"If you reverse-" Anthony took a few moments to think it over, before he cut himself off, looking very done. "That's it. You are never allowed to name anything, ever."

Sirius and James both started snickering, as did Patrick, while Leila and Draco both exchanged glances, confused. Lily also took a few seconds to puzzle it out, before she facepalmed.

"What's the reverse? P, I... It's too long, I can't remember." Leila admitted.

Terry grinned. "It's P, I, G, F, A, R, T, S. Now put that all together and..."

Draco closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. "George, please continue before Terry starts to think he's actually funny."

"I'm hilarious, I'll have you know." Terry grumbled.

McGonagall pinched the bridge of nose.
"We are never going to finish this book," she muttered to Severus.

Severus's lips quirked. "Perhaps we can put a silencing spell on everyone."

"Don't tempt me." McGonagall groaned.

"King's Cross doesn't have a train to Scotland." Uncle Vernon scoffed.

"Sure they do." Terry said. "There's the Flying Scotsman, that goes to Edinburgh. It's been running since the late 1800s."

Ron Weasley gave him a look. "Why do you know that?"

"Why not?" Terry shrugged. "All knowledge is knowledge."

"Well said, Mister Boot." Professor Flitwick said. Terry tipped an imaginary hat.

"Sure they do." Leila shrugged.

"Jinx!" Terry shouted.

Leila rolled her eyes.

"I take the train from platform nine and three-quarters." she smirked.

Her aunt and uncle stared.

"Platform what?"

"It's a little surprising when you first hear it, isn't it?" Hestia Jones chuckled.

When Hestia had gotten her letter and her introduction during the First Wizarding War, she had been very surprised as well at the instructions McGonagall had given to her. As a muggleborn, she didn't have anyone in her family to help her make sense of everything, and it had ended up being the Prewett twins who helped her on the platform.

She could still remember the first time she had run through the platform to be faced with the scarlet Hogwarts express.

Lily scowled. Tuney had come to see her off her first year with their mum and dad, and knew damn well where the platform was, not to mention all the instructions Sev had given her and Tuney had eavesdropped on.

"Nine and three-quarters."

"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters."

"Maaaaaagic." Ginny drew out mockingly. "Do you not understand what it means?"

Leila snorted. "They're just really good at denial."

Leila wondered if they did not understand the meaning of magic.

Leila and Ginny exchanged glances.

Next to her, Patrick snickered.

"Sure there is."

"Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."

"So if he wasn't going up to London, he would have left two eleven year olds to make that trip by themselves?" Mrs Weasley pursed her lips.

Harry shrugged.

"We've already established that the Dursleys are awful people, mum." Ron said, shooting a worried glance at Harry, who was beginning to look worn out.

"Well, he's not going back there." Molly stated firmly. Several other people, both adults and students, nodded in agreement.

Albus Dumbledore sighed.

McGonagall frowned and turned to the Headmaster. "Albus-"

Dumbledore raised a hand to stall her. "Minerva, we will talk about this later."

"Albus, you can't mean you are sending them back there!" McGonagall argued in hushed voices.

"Minerva, I promise, we will have this discussion later. Just not now." Dumbledore said in the same volume.

"I am holding you to that." McGonagall narrowed her eyes.

"Why are you going to London?" Leila asked.

"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."

Several students snickered, reminded of what Hagrid had done a few chapters ago. Even the Slytherins, who normally disliked the Magical Creatures professor, couldn't help but snicker.

Leila woke the next morning even earlier than usual, cracked the cupboard door open, and before she got out of her bed, she stared up to the cobweb-ridden ceiling. Today, she was going to go to Hogwarts.

"Whoo!" The Weasley twins shouted. Many students cheered.

Leila sighed.

"Boo?" Fred cautiously suggested instead.

Leila rolled her eyes.

When a few hours passed and she could hear Harry moving around, she slipped inside the hall bathroom and began to get ready.

"How early did you get up?" Colin asked.

Leila shrugged. "I don't remember, but I don't think I would have slept much that night."

"Bad Leila." Terry teased, wagging his finger at her. "That's why you're so short-you don't sleep enough."

Leila narrowed her eyes. "Terry, get that finger out of my face before I hex it off."

Terry cradled his hand in his chest, mock-wounded. "Rude."

Leila flipped him off underneath the table.

Instead of robes, she put on her second-maybe third-hand jeans and an old shirt of Dudley that hung loose and long around her. She pulled her belt tightly around her waist, slipping her knife into it, before she pulled Patrick's jacket over everything and zipped it up.

"Good move, lassie." Mad-Eye grunted, startling some students around him. "Armed and blending in-at least you've got some basic sense."

In his years as both a trainee and an auror, Alastor had seen countless Hogwarts students show up to the Platform in wizarding robes. To stop people from asking too many questions, there had been several years when the Ministry had to call in Obliviators when too much students lost their common sense and people began to notice.

Leila snorted. Mad-Eye was probably the first person who actually congratulated her for her (admittedly) overly paranoid actions.

The familiar weight of her knife and the loose jacket didn't comfort her as much as it reminded her of Patrick, but Leila kept them both on.

Underneath the table, Leila began to fiddle with the aforementioned knife, before she realized what she was doing. Patrick tugged at his (or the after-life manifestation of) jacket.

Inside her cupboard, she slipped her spare knife and her wand in her worn out boots, before she laced them up tight and grabbed Patrick's ragged backpack.

Terry frowned. "I feel like you use your boots a lot more than you use your actual pockets to store stuff."

Leila shrugged. "People tend to search pockets a lot more than they search your shoes."

"You're paranoid." Zachariah Smith said.

"It's not paranoia if it's justified." Patrick said, smile at his lips. He couldn't recall the amount of times Luke and Stephanie had repeated that to both of them.

"Besides, until you learn space-expansion charms, muggle clothing have pretty small pockets. Especially girls' muggle clothes." Leila added. "A wand was definitely not going to fit in the pockets of my jacket or my jeans."

All the muggle-raised girls nodded in agreement.

Leila paused briefly, feeling as though she was heading off to war, before she shook the ridiculous thought from her head.

Leila glanced around the Hall at the members of Army of Hogwarts.

"Maybe not so ridiculous after all." Leila whispered.

"It's not fair." Draco muttered.

"There's no such thing as fair." Leila muttered back, with the cadence of memorization. "There's what you want, there's what you need-"

"-and there's what you get and what you make happen with it." Draco finished the quote, a favourite of Lady Hogwarts.

They clutched each other's' hands.

She grabbed her trunk that she packed last night and ducked out of her cupboard.

Three and a half hours later, the twins' huge, heavy trunks had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry,

Lily snorted loudly.

"How can you call yourself family?" Anthony muttered, sneering at the Dursleys inside the book.

Kairo was crushing her feet and growling at everyone else in the car,

"Hope your cousin was terrified of your dog." Terry muttered at Leila.

"No, that's just you." Leila quirked her lips.

Terry scowled at Leila.

"Besides, Dudley was probably more scared of us then Kairo." Leila said quietly.

and they had set off.

They reached King's Cross at forty five minutes past ten.

"Pushing it, aren't you?" George teased.

"At this rate, you might even be late enough to run into these awesome twins!" Fred said. "Oh wait-"

Leila and Harry rolled their eyes together.

Uncle Vernon dumped Harry and Leila's trunks onto two different carts and wheeled them into the station for them, Leila carrying her backpack and Harry carrying his owl.

"Why is he being so nice?" Ginny asked, suspicious.

"Maybe he was infected by Umgubular Slashkilters." Luna suggested.

Ginny smiled at Luna. "Maybe."

Lisa Turpin rolled her eyes, tapping her temples. Ginny and Neville both narrowed their eyes at her, having noticed, as did some of the younger members of the Army of Hogwarts and the Dumbledore's Army.

She was suspicious of this strangely kind move until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.

"Uh oh." Dennis muttered.

"Well, there you are, boy, girl. Platform nine - platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"
Uncle Vernon sounded very smug.

"Git." Ron Weasley said.

Molly Weasley pointedly ignored her son's language, just this once.

"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile.

"Bastard." Lily said under her breath. "That ignorant, bigoted, arsehole."

"You said it, Lily-pad." James agreed.

He left without another word. Harry and Leila turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing.

Lily was fuming. "All three of them. Petunia too."

Harry smiled at hearing his mum so angry in his defense, even if this all happened years ago.

Leila clenched her fists, before she caught sight of the barrier again out of the corner of her eyes.

"You knew how to get through?" Hope asked.

Leila nodded, while Patrick grinned.

"All the Wizarding train stations work the same way." Patrick said. "We took a train to Bulgaria once."

"Are you ever going to tell that story?" Terry asked Leila.

Leila shook her head quickly, several times. "Nope. No way. Never."

Draco smirked. "I already know."

Leila kicked him hard. "I told you under duress. I'm not making the same mistake again."

Draco raised an eyebrow, glancing at Reyna.

"Reyna knows everything, she doesn't count." Leila protested.

"It might come up in these 'books', Princess." Draco teased.

"I'll throw myself off the Astronomy tower first." Leila said.

If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost hear Patrick jabbering on and on about nothing, snickering, while several angry people chased after them.

Patrick scowled. "It's not jabbering, it's bantering."

"No, I think my description was completely accurate." Leila shook her head.

Patrick narrowed his eyes, before he poked her in the sides. Leila poked him back.

She could almost see the back of the familiar head in the crowds around her, weaving and dodging the tails after the two of them.

The tiniest of smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, when Leila remembered how shocked Patrick had looked, when Leila fell backwards through a solid wall into an empty platform with a clunky-looking train, when she leaned against it in an attempt to catch her breath.

"Maybe not your best idea ever." Reyna said.

"It's not like I knew." Leila grumbled.

That intercontinental ride they had stowed away on on the industrial train had been among the most terrifying, sore and nerve-wrecking days of her life,

"You don't know pain until you've braced yourself against the roof of a train using only your own strength while praying no one sees you." Patrick grumbled.

Leila nodded.

but they also hadn't come after them for almost a month.

"That was a long month." Leila grumbled.

Viktor grinned. "But it was a fun month."

"Maybe for you." Leila bit out.

A passerby almost bumped into Leila, shaking her from her remembrance, and she moved out of the way automatically.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Students jumped, whipping their eyes at Moody, but Padma Patil, sitting at the next table shook her head, signaling that Moody hadn't been the one to shout this time.

Laughters broke out from the table closer to the front of the room, where an exact copy of Mad-Eye Moody was in stitches from laughter. Moody lookalike slowly turned back to Nymphadora Tonks, while Charlie Weasley sitting next to her gave her a high five.

Real Moody looked unimpressed.

The platform looked completely normal, like it wasn't hiding a completely separate train station on the other side. The platform was probably hidden in the same way as the inter-continental one was; the only thing they needed to do was walk through it. She spun around to tell Harry what to do only to find him and his trunk and owl gone.

Lily groaned. "Harry…"

Harry smiled sheepishly. "Err… in my defense, this was years ago?"

Lily gave him an unimpressed look.

Harry flattened his hair over his scar, while Ron leaned over to whisper, "If your mum's already acting like this now, imagine what will happen when we're actually at Hogwarts."

Harry groaned. "Not helping, Ron."

Leila's stomach dropped.

"That doesn't sound very healthy." Luna said. "You should get that checked out by Madam Pomfrey."

Leila snorted. "You're right, Luna. Harry's not the best for my health."

"Hey!" Harry exclaimed.

The twins exchanged playful glances.

Leila swept her gaze back and forth the large station, but with the large groups of people and her short height, she couldn't get a glimpse of his dark messy hair anywhere.

Terry grinned and opened his mouth to speak, when Leila cut him off. "One word about my height, Boot, and I swear to Merlin-"

"You are pretty short though, Princess." Draco leaned into tease her, exchanging grins with Terry.

Leila kicked him.

"Harry!" Leila shouted. "Harry James Potter!"

There was no reply. A couple people turned to stare at her, but soon kept on walking.

Next to her, Draco snickered. "You were lucky there weren't any of your fans around, Princess. You might have ended up swamped."

Leila shuddered. "Thank Merlin for small mercies."

According to the large clock over the arrivals board, she had ten minutes left to find her brother and get on the train to Hogwarts. She was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk she could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money and a giant dog, and her brother was nowhere to be found in a crowd of strangers.

"You make it sound so dramatic." Terry teased.

"It felt pretty dramatic at the time." Leila muttered.

Okay, this is no time to freak out. Leila thought to herself.

"I don't know, it sounds like a perfect timing to freak out to me." George teased.

Leila scowled.

"Harry!" Leila shouted. "Harry!"

Draco snorted. "Oh, she was freaking out."

"Shut up." Leila bit out.

All she could see around her was a sea of faceless strangers swimming past her.

"What's with all the metaphors this chapter?" Terry teased. "Are you certain you're not a Ravenclaw?"

Neville caught her eye, Leila moments away from trying to strangle anyone.

"Are you saying Gryffindors aren't allowed to be poetic?" Neville said.

Dean laughed. "He's clearly never read any of Seamus's letters, then."

Neville and Ron, who had been the ones most often around Seamus when he started scribbling on parchment late at night, laughed.

Seamus flushed, and his face got brighter when Dean winked at him.

No sign of a scrawny boy with messy hair could be seen.

Harry scowled. "I'm not scrawny."

"Mate, you were scrawny five years ago, and you're still scrawny now." Ron said bluntly.

She took a deep breath, and shoved the trolley with her trunk ahead of her, her eyes frantically searching the crowd.

"Excuse me," Leila stopped a passing guard. He looked surprised to be accosted by an eleven year old girl and a giant scary dog.

Terry snickered. "See, even your subconscious admits it!"

"You're just projecting." Leila teased. "Kairo's adorable."

A few tables away, Harry muttered to Ron. "Maybe if you're Hagrid, and you're judging on the scales of Cerberus to Blast-Ended Skrewts. Yeah, that dog's adorable."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Your sister's dog's not that bad, Harry."

Ron snorted. "Clearly your sense of 'not bad' is already skewed, Hermione. You call your monster cat adorable, too."

"Well, he is!" Hermione insisted, a smile at her lips.

"have you seen my brother anywhere? He's my height, scrawny with dark messy hair… He wears glasses!"

"You were actually panicking, weren't you?" Terry said, a little awed.

Even after having been friends with her for years, Terry count count on one hand the number of times he'd seen her panic this badly. Then again, this Leila had been much younger, and a lot different from the Leila he knew now.

The man blinked several times, before his professionalism seemed to kick in. "A kid with dark hair and glasses… As a matter of fact, I did see him a few minutes ago, asking me some nonsensical questions. That your brother, kid?"

"What kind of questions did you ask this man, Harry?" Hermione asked.

Harry flushed. "That's not important."

Ron narrowed his eyes for a moment, considering. "You didn't ask a muggle how to get on the Platform, did you?"

Harry didn't answer, his face getting redder and redder.

Ron started to chortle. "Merlin, good thing we found you when we did."

Even Lily and James were grinning, though Lily was making a considerable effort to hide it.

"Harry, baby." Lily said. "You're lucky the Ministry didn't have to send out the Obliviators."

"I know." Harry mumbled.

Leila forced herself to swallow. "Yes, do you know where he is?"

The man shook his head. "Sorry, the kid disappeared after I told him to get lost. Why don't you come with me and I'll direct you to the proper authorities, kid? They can help you find him. Or show me to your parents, a kid shouldn't be wandering out the station alone."

Patrick winced.

They had run into these kinds of adults often, in their time in and out of the Muggle world. Well-meaning people, who was genuinely concerned for them. If it weren't for the fact that getting taken to 'proper authorities' would have been very troublesome for both of them, and the fact that they had been trying to stay as far away from any kind of authorities for as long as possible, Patrick would have appreciated these adults a lot more.

Leila caught a glimpse of a clock on the station wall. 5 minutes to 11.

"Really pushing it, aren't you?" Even Reyna began to join in on the teasing.

Leila began to panic. "Thanks for your help." Turning on her heel, she took off into the crowd, ignoring the shout coming from the guard behind her.

Terry couldn't help but snicker. "The guard must have been pretty annoyed."

"I'm glad I never ran into him again." Leila nodded.

"Harry!" Her voice took on a tinge of hysteria. "Harry! Where are you?"

Justin blinked. He understood, of course, the situation Leila must have been in, but it was still surprising to hear his Commander freaking out to the point of hysteria.

"Oof!" A male voice cried out as she crashed into a taller boy. Her arms windmilling, she barely regained her balance, as the other boy tripped over Kairo and fell on his arse. Her trolley spun away until it hit platform 9 wall.

"Leila Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, and a human wrecking ball, everybody." Terry gestured.

Leila, realizing what was about to come up, took a sharp breath, ignoring even Terry's teasing. Draco, after a cautious look, nudged her softly, but Leila barely looked in his direction.

"Sorry, sorry!" Leila gasped, her eyes still searching for the telltale hair of her brother.

Harry winced. It was a while ago, and it's not like he knew that his sister knew how to get on the platform, or that she cared so much, but he still felt a bit guilty at the worry he had caused her.

"Are you alright, Percy?" A plump woman rushed to her son, a girl following behind her. They, including the boy Leila tripped over, were all red heads, although a shade more orange than Leila's hair was.

"Oh." Ginny whispered, as George stumbled over their brother's name while reading.

Across the Hall, where all the Ministry employees were sitting together with the exception of Umbridge, Percy tensed up. If looked closely, one could see his hands shaking slightly, but the rest of the Weasleys or Leila were too far away for that to happen.

"I'm fine, mum." The boy, several years older than Leila, she could see now, climbed back onto his feet. He was dressed in worn robes, with a shiny badge that looked like the crest of Hogwarts with a P on it.

Fred's lips curled at the mention of the prefect badge, at the brief reminder of all the pranks they used to pull on Percy and his badge, but the smile was quickly wiped away.

The pile of trolleys each with a trunk like hers were left behind them when the mother rushed to the boy-Percy's help. "I'll catch up to you on the pl-er, train."

Leila's friends, who realized why she was suddenly so quiet, stopped their teasing. Draco shuffled closer to her, and put his arm back around her shoulders.

Leila didn't shrug it off this time.

Harry scowled, his old anger and bitterness rising again at the reminder of the estranged Weasley-and the letter. He glanced at Ron, whose ears were turning redder and redder, and pushed down his anger, nudging his best mate instead.

"Okay sweetheart," the woman said. "Do hurry." She left with the girl, approximately Leila's age if not younger, hurrying after her.

Even Ginny was quiet at her first mention in this 'book', due to the continued mention of their estranged brother.

"I'm sorry," Leila apologized half-heartedly as she continued scanning the station subtly. "I was in a rush and I didn't see you there."

"I'd guessed." Percy spoke with a grin.

Molly looked across the hall at her son, who seemed a lot thinner and paler since last summer. She tried to catch his eyes, but he was looking down at the ground, his mouth stubbornly set in that expression she knew too well.

When was the last time she had even seen Percy smile?

Molly dabbed at her eyes before tears could even form, and turned back towards the book with one last glance at her son.

"Are you okay? You seemed to be in a bit of a panic when you ran me over."

Terry glanced at Leila, who looked pained.

Percy had been an important person to him too, before he graduated and disappeared from their lives. Maybe not as much as he had been to Leila-Percy had broken her out of her family's house twice, Terry knew, and Leila had mumbled something about cupboards and spiders and rooms at the time that Terry hadn't paid too much attention to.

(Terry now had a sneaking suspicion about what Percy had done.)

Percy had been a brother to him, too. Seeing him denounce them like that… Terry clenched his fists.

"I'm-" Leila swallowed the automatic fine that seemed to come out

Fred snorted. "An entire year trying to get her to open up to me, or any of us," he muttered to George, "and Percy manages to do it within a minute of meeting her. Typical."

George gave him a wary look, but patted him on his shoulder.

and instead, re-cast her eyes over the trunks and the cages of owls on their trolleys.

"The owls are kind of conspicuous, aren't they?" Lily smiled at her daughter, hoping to diffuse the tension in the room.

She didn't completely understand the history of everyone here, much less her daughter, but it was clear that her children had both been friends of a sort of the Weasley boy sitting apart from his family.

Leila didn't smile back, but Harry did.

"Actually, have you seen my brother? He has dark hair and glasses. We need to catch a train at 11, but I can't find him anywhere." She said with an air of frustration.

"Harry, where were you, anyway?" Hermione asked.

Harry flushed. "Uh… I think I may have already crossed over with Ron by then."

Hermione snorted and shook her head. "Of course, you did."

Harry smiled sheepishly, searching the Hall to meet his sister's gaze. His smile fell off the face when he saw her not even looking in his direction, but looking wistfully towards Percy Weasley instead.

Percy frowned. "I may have seen your brother, actually. He came to us asking for directions to-" he cut himself off.

"Platform 9 and a 3/4?" Leila hazarded a guess. They were wizards, Leila was sure of it.

"You like to live on the edge, huh?" Tonks said, her hair turning blue.

Leila snorted. "The trunks and the owls made it very obvious."

Percy nodded. "That's right-we helped him get on with the twins-my younger brothers. He was carrying a snowy owl, is that your brother?"

Leila sighed, the panic leaving her in floods. "That's him, that idiot."

"Hey." Harry protested half-heartedly.

"It wasn't the smartest thing you could have done." James pointed out. "At the very least, you could have let your sister know."

Harry flushed. "Well, I was a bit of an idiot when I was eleven, I suppose."

"No kidding, scarhead." Draco said.

Leila swore with a bit of relish.

James and Sirius snickered again, looking towards Lily. James couldn't remember how many new words he'd learnt from Lily and Remus combined during his Hogwarts years, especially around the exam times.

It figured one of their children inherited that tendency.

"Had to bloody go off on his own and cause me to bloody panic. He could have just stayed bloody still and let me tell him I knew how to get on the bloody platform."

Ginny started snickering. She'd heard worse from Leila, of course, during their training nights for the Army, or down in that chamber, it was just funnier listening to her panicked swearing when there weren't any life-threatening danger, or curses being thrown around.

Percy watched her with a slight raise of eyebrow.

"No kidding." Tracey muttered.

"Not a muggleborn then?"

"It's complicated." Leila cut him off dismissively.

"It's not that complicated." Parkinson snorted. "Either you're a mudblood, or you're not."

"Watch your language, Miss Parkinson." Mcgonagall warned, her face turning stern.

"Anyway, thanks for all your help, but I need to run. Train leaves in five minutes."

"He would have been taking the same train as you though." Cho pointed out.

Leila shrugged.

"I'll accompany you, make sure you don't run over any more people." Percy said. "We take the same train, after all."

A couple people chuckled.

Leila grimaced, before she glanced down at Kairo, but he was calm, his fangs only bared in a warning sort of a way.

Leila sighed, reaching down to pet Kairo. Kairo had taken well to Percy from the start, more than he had ever liked Patrick or even Terry.

Kairo whimpered.

Across the Hall, Percy's eyes lingered on Leila for a few seconds. Percy looked away, but his hands continued shaking.

"Alright," Leila said. She reached down to place a hand on Kairo's head.

Leila gave Kairo one last scratch, before she straightened back up.

Draco wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Together, she and Percy ran towards the barrier. It looked very solid. She closed her eyes, automatically anticipating the crash which never came.

Harry winced, remembering the year he crashed into the barrier, thanks to an overenthusiastic house elf. He looked up to see Ron giving him an understanding look.

Ever since the crash, Harry started to flinch every time he ran onto the platform. It was unlikely that he would crash into the barrier again, but the crash had been painful. He doubted that anyone other than Ron or Hermione had noticed.

When she opened her eyes again, she was standing in front of a scarlet steam engine. The platform was packed with people, and a sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock.

"All aboard the Hogwarts Express!" George shouted, repeating the name of the chapter.

The Hall cheered.

She could hear conversation and laughter coming from every direction of her, and she momentarily closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

Many of the adults had a smile on their faces, remembering their Hogwarts years, and how the first days had felt like. For many of them, it had been the start of the best years of their lives.

Remus's smile was nostalgic, as he looked at the occupants of his table. He had met James and Sirius and Pe-Wormta-the Marauders on that train. Eleven year old Remus had been a well-disguised wreck, terribly lonely, afraid of rejection and hating the monster inside, but he had met three boys in a train compartment and he had been less lonely and less afraid.

Sirius met his eyes and smiled, and Remus knew they were both thinking of the same times, when their lives had been brighter and reckless and whole. Now, they had holes shaped like dead friends and traitors in their hearts, but James and Lily had been returned to them, even if it was only for a short time, and that made things a little better.

Leila felt Percy nudging her slightly and looked at him.

"Here, we'd better move, there will be more people coming through." Percy said.

James smiled ruefully. "Yeah, you don't want to stand in front of the barrier."

"That sounds like there's a story." Harry said, eyebrows raised. He watched Remus grin and his eyes were brighter than they ever had been during Harry's entire third year.

"James was standing right in front of the barrier in his fifth year, trying to work up enough courage to go talk to Lily when Mary McDonald ran through the barrier." Remus said.

Sirius laughed. "Mary ran into James by accident, and he tripped, fell and broke a tooth."

"Best part was, James had been made the Quidditch captain that year, and he was obsessed with the badge-shining it all the time and such. Well, James was shining the badge when Mary ran into him, and the badge flew out of his hands and onto the tracks, under the Express. James had to tell McGonagall that he lost his Captain badge on the first day of the year." Remus finished.

Harry frowned in confusion, though he was still smiling at the story. "Couldn't you have just summoned the badge back?" he asked James.

James shook his head, smiling sheepishly. "The school badges like the Quidditch Captains and prefect badges are charmed so people can't summon them or destroy them. Prevents them from getting stolen or something, I'm not quite certain. McGonagall had to go all the way down to London to fetch the thing."

Leila spoke up. "That's because they are a part of Hogwarts-they carry some of Her magic within them. They help anchor the wards using the magic of people wearing them, as well as a few other functions. They're very powerful, and they protect themselves, and the people wearing them. It would be very bad if they got into the wrong hands."

The Hall was quiet, taking in the information. The prefects and the Quidditch captains re-examined their badges as if they hadn't seen them before.

"Uh, Leila." Terry said, blinking. "Not that I don't trust you utmostly, but should you really reveal that information with everyone in this room?"

Leila smiled sardonically, looking around at the greedy eyes of certain people in the Hall-students, Ministry Officials, Umbridge, still petrified, and shrugged. "What Lady Hogwarts wants, her wish is my command."

Terry's face turned understanding, and Leila leaned back into Draco, sighing.

"Does that mean the badges use us as batteries?" Frowning, Hermione whispered to Ron and Harry, who both shrugged.

Seamus blinked. "I didn't know my mum went to school with Professor Lupin and Sirius Black." he whispered to Dean. "They must have been housemates."

"I don't think your mum would have wanted it to get out that she went to school with a mass murderer." Dean's eyes were careful as he watched Sirius Black whispering to Professor Lupin, as well as Harry Potter's dead parents, apparently. "At least, that's what the rest of Britain still thinks."

"Are you telling me that Sirius Black is innocent?" Seamus hissed.

Dean shrugged. "Dumbledore wouldn't have let him in the school with the rest of us if he actually killed all those people, would he? 'Sides, remember that conversation we heard in the dorm last year? Harry seemed pretty certain that Black was innocent, didn't he?"

Seamus looked troubled.

Dean squeezed his shoulder. He hoped Seamus would think it over quickly. With their differing political views, even when they spent time together, things were strained in the ways that they hadn't been before. Dean believed Harry, and he had faith in Leila, and Dean wasn't going to bend his beliefs even for Seamus.

But still, Dean missed Seamus, even when he was sitting right next to him.

"I'm Percy, by the way. Percy Weasley, fifth year prefect." Percy extended his right hand towards her, and Leila shook it after a moment's hesitation.

Fred sent an ugly sneer to Percy, and rolled his eyes when George shot him a sharp look.

"Leila. Just Leila." She saw Percy's eyebrows jolt, but he recovered quickly.

"Nice to meet you, Just Leila." He smiled.

Leila's lips tilted up slightly, though she quickly squashed the smile. For all his faults, Percy had never made a big deal about her fame, and that was perhaps one of the reasons that she had taken to him so quickly.

"I'd better go find my family, then. Do you want any help with finding yours?"

"It's fine." replied Leila, fed up with the loud noise of the platform and wanting a bit of quiet.

Remus nodded, completely understanding. With his enhanced senses, the platform was hell for him sometimes.

"Thanks for your help with my brother."

"It was no problem. I'll be patrolling the train later on, since I'm a prefect. If you need anything, don't be afraid to come find me."

Fred rolled his eyes. Typical Prefect Percy.

George frowned at his twin. Sure, George was angry at Percy for abandoning them, and the constant mention of Percy was like rubbing salt in an open wound, but it wasn't like Fred to get this worked up.

Leila scrutinized him for a moment. "Sure."

She picked up her trunk, waving aside his offers to carry it to the train for her, and dragged it up the steps. All of the compartments were busy, full of rowdy older kids, or arrogant-looking kids with blank ties.

A few people snorted at the description.

Finally, she stopped at the doors of the last compartment on the car, which was the quietest.

Kairo sat up from under the table and laid his head on Leila's lap.

Idly, Leila began petting him.

Leila hesitated at the doors for a moment, seeing her brother alone in the compartment looking out the window. At the sight of him, the remaining ball of panic dissolved, leaving her a strong desire to sit.

Harry bit his lips. He was sorry, even more so when he saw the sympathetic looks on Hermione's face that she aimed towards Leila. Harry looked towards Leila's table again, but she wasn't looking up, only looking down at the monster dog she was petting.

She squared her shoulders

Patrick often thought Leila was like a housecat, which made it so much more ironic that her pet and her animagus form were both canine, though neither were exactly of her own choice. When she was scared or frightened, Leila would square her shoulders, lift her chin and straighten her posture to make herself look bigger. Being a small child, smaller than most of her age group had been, she hadn't looked any intimidating at all, but she kept trying, anyway.

It was adorable sometimes, especially when she had been younger.

then opened the doors, and walked in. Her brother looked up, then turned his head back out the window.

Lily shook her head. Of course both her children had to inherit her stubbornness.

Theo Nott grinned slightly. "I guess it's been cold war in Pottersville from then on." he whispered to Daphne. "I hadn't realized the cold war has started that early. I was hoping for a few more loud, screaming arguments."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "You are actually the worst."

Leila jutted her chin up and threw herself down on the other end of the bench after shoving her trunk on the overhead rack. Kairo jumped on the bench between her and her brother and settled down.

Harry gave Kairo a wary look, before he shifted away from her.

"See, at least your brother has some common sense." Terry said. "That's the proper response to seeing a dog who could rip your throat out."

"I'd love to see Kairo rip your throat out." Leila said. "You want to keep going?"

Terry mock-widened his eyes. "Do you see how mean she's to me?" he turned to Reyna. "Her Majesty's actually so mean. Can we impeach her from the throne?"

"Somehow, I don't think Lady Hogwarts would go for that, Terry." Reyna smiled.

Leila bared her teeth at Terry.

Draco snickered.

"Did Boot just say you had common sense?" Ron whispered to Harry. "He clearly doesn't pay attention to you, then."

"Hey!" Harry protested.

Hermione grinned. "You know it's true, Harry. Most people's response to seeing a troll or a three-headed dog is to run away from it, not towards."

"You guys were also running towards with me, so clearly your argument is wrong." Harry shot back.

"Clearly, hanging out with you has messed up our panic response as well." Hermione retorted.

Sirius frowned. "What was that about a troll and a three-headed dog?"

"Nothing!" Harry grinned at his godfather, attempting to look innocent.

"Oh, I heard that story from Minerva." Remus said mildly, not fooling anyone. "I didn't realize that was all true."

Sirius frowned harder.

Harry groaned.

"So this is where you disappeared to." Leila commented carelessly. "I'd wondered where you were."

There was only silence, to which Leila huffed and shrank back.

Terry snickered. "You really suck at people. You should probably work on that."

"No need to be rude." Leila scowled.

"Hey, it's not my fault you have a compulsive need to pick fights everywhere you go." Terry held up his hands.

"I will sic Kairo on you, I swear." Leila muttered.

Kairo growled.

Leila saw Harry finally turn his head away from the window as the train started moving, but he continually ignored her presence.

The Evans Treatment, Severus thought distantly. It looked like Potter Jr. had inherited more from Lily than he had originally thought.

The two sat in silence, Leila contemplating taking her book back out, when the compartment doors slid open and the youngest redheaded boy with a black mark on his nose came in.

"Aw, ickle Ronniekins is here." Fred teased.

Ron's ears turned pink, and he ignored Hermione's teasing grin, or Harry's snigger.

Leila shrunk back into the corner, tugging Kairo back under the table.

"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry, completely ignoring Leila. "Everywhere else is full."

"Don't be rude, Ronald!" Mrs Weasley said.

Ron's ears reddened. "I didn't actually see her when I walked in."

Leila frowned. "Seriously?"

Ron nodded. "That corner's kind of dark, you know. And you can't see the corners right by the entrance when you first open the door. Besides, when I first saw Harry, I didn't really notice anyone else. Gave me a bloody fright when Fred pointed you out."

Leila blinked slowly, while next to her, Draco was dying with laughter.

"This is hilarious." Draco said, eyes full of mirth.

"Laugh it up, Dragon Boy." Leila grumbled, though it made her oddly happy that her brother's best friend hadn't just ignored her that day for no reason.

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked.

"Look at Ron being all fanboy-ish." Fred grinned.

"Adorable." George agreed.

"Shut up, you two." Ron huffed.

"Hey, Ron." A pair of red-headed twins were standing at the open doorway.

"That's us!" George stopped his own reading to shout.

"The fabulous twins are here!" Fred raised a wand and purple smoke filled the Hall.

Simultaneously, two loud BANGs sounded in the Hall, and the smoke cleared to show Fred and George holding things shaped like muggle pistols, while red and gold confetti fell on everyone.

Minerva brushed the confetti off her clothes and turned to look at Severus, who was glowering at the Weasley twins. She concealed a smile, and swept her wand in front of her, vanishing the confetti in the room.

"Aww, professor!" George Weasley whined, though a smile was on his face.

Minerva raised an eyebrow at him. "That will be enough, Mister Weasley."

They beared some resemblance to Percy Weasley, who had helped her earlier. "Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

Ron shuddered.

Across the Hall, so did Daphne Greengrass, though her sister Astoria beamed at the sound of a giant spider.

"Wicked." Astoria breathed.

"We are not getting a spider, Astoria." Daphne said, as firmly as she could.

Her sister was an expert at emotional manipulation, but Daphne had been in Slytherin for two years longer than Astoria. She wasn't going to give in to her puppy eyes.

"But tarantulas." Astoria sighed wistfully.

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"You sound so enthusiastic." Sirius said.

Ron scowled. "Don't start."

Harry leaned over to Ron. "Do spiders freak you out more after Aragog, or less?"

"Definitely more." Ron shuddered.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron Weasley, our brother."

"I guess you're the other twin, Georgie!" Fred snickered.

George rolled his eyes.

The first twin turned to Leila. "And who might be this lovely young lady be?" he asked.

"Like I said, scared the crap out of me." Ron muttered.

Harry snickered, but slowly started to frown. "Leave it to Fred to be the first one of you three to notice her."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You didn't care about Leila and Fred the entire time they dated last year, Harry. Don't tell me you're getting overprotective now?"

Harry scowled. "I never said that I didn't care about her. We were fighting, but she was still my sister, you know."

Ron snickered. "Harry, you've spent the last four years avoiding being in the same room as your sister."

"That's because whenever we're in the same room for too long, we start shouting at the top of our lungs." Harry raised an eyebrow. "It's just common sense."

"Whatever you say, Harry." Ginny said. "Besides, Commander can take care of herself."

"Commander?" Harry asked, sounding confused.

"Leila." Ginny clarified. When Harry still looked confused, she shrugged. "You'll see."

Ron scowled. "I'm beginning to hate that word."

Ginny snickered, enjoying knowing something more than the Golden Trio did for the first time in her life.

"Leila," she introduced herself.

Twin 1 extended his hand, which Leila took.

"Twin 1 and Twin 2 reminds me of Doctor Seuss." Colin said.

"Imagine the twins with blue hair." Terry said gleefully.

The students familiar with the muggle culture snickered.

"An incredible pleasure to meet you." He said in a joking tone. "I'm Fred, and this is George, my twin, identical, of course."

"No, really?" Draco muttered.

Terry grinned.

"I noticed." Leila said dryly.

"You don't sound like you were too impressed with them." Terry said.

Leila rolled her eyes.

"Well, we'll see you later, then," said George.

"We'll see you at the feast." Fred added. The twins waved one last time, then stepped outside.

"Bringers of chaos, exit stage left." Fred said dramatically.

"On their way to bring mischief everywhere." George said.

"Colour and mischief." Fred continued. "And feathers, of course."

"Feathers?" Dennis mumbled.

"That was you?" Tonks shouted, hair turning red, and eyes wide.

Fred and George grinned in unison.

"Bye," said Harry and Ron.

The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

Leila absently petted Kairo for a while, before she dug through her backpack with a huff. Her hand closed around a hard covered book and after brief contemplation, started reading, drowning out the voices around her.

"What were you reading?" Remus asked.

Leila shrugged. "I can't remember." she said. "A potions book, I think."

"Intricacies of Potions Making." Terry said. "I remember it looking super boring."

Lily's eyebrows rose. "That's not a beginner's book."

Leila shrugged.

Patrick frowned as if he was remembering something. "That's one of Stephanie's, isn't it?"

Leila shrugged again. "I bought it at Flourish and Blotts', but yeah. It was in one of her collections. She used to read it to me sometimes when you and Luke were busy."

She had just finished a chapter when she heard the compartment door opening. Leila ignored it, thinking that it was probably her brother or his rude friend leaving to the loo or something, when someone plopped down on the seat right in front of her.

"This is Terry, isn't it?" Draco nudged Leila.

She nodded. "Unfortunately."

"Hey!" Terry scowled. "No need to be rude."

Draco grinned. "This should be good." he sounded gleeful.

Lily blinked. "I'm going to guess that this first meeting didn't go all that well, either?"

Leila hummed. "Well, looking back, it was probably the easiest friendship or first meeting that I'd had. It definitely could have gone worse."

Terry grinned.

"Hello." He said.

Leila raised her eyes to scrutinize him, who had messy brown hair and a grey jumper, before she focused back on her book.

"Don't just ignore people when they talk to you." Terry huffed.

"Don't just barge into random people's compartments and expect to talk to them either." Leila rolled her eyes.

"This is already getting off to a great start." Draco said wryly.

Leila shook her head. "You don't have much room to talk."

Draco winced. "Yeah, okay I'll give you that."

"You have interesting friends, Rey." Tonks said.

Reyna smiled wryly. "Oh, wait until third year. It gets better."

Terry snickered.

There was silence for approximately half a minute.

"Really, it's amazing you stayed quiet for that long." Leila raised an eyebrow at Terry.

Terry threw up his hands dramatically. "I was waiting to see if you would begin conversation like a normal person. Apparently I was wrong."

The Hall snickered.

"It'd be good manners to greet someone in front of you, you know." The boy finally said.

"It'd be better manners to ask before barging into an occupied compartment." Leila didn't look up from her book.

"I see this is an argument you've been having several times." Sirius teased.

Leila rolled her eyes. "Terry doesn't have much room to criticize other people's social skills."

"If I can make fun of anyone's ability to talk to people, it's you, Frosty Majesty." Terry crossed his arms.

Leila muttered uncomplimentary phrases in Bulgarian. Viktor and Patrick burst out laughing.

"Or even, introducing yourself first before demanding greetings from a stranger."

"You know, Leila, sitting in a compartment and talking to new people isn't a crime, sweetheart." Lily said, eyes amused, but mouth also set in a firm line.

"On Hogwarts Express, it's even encouraged." James said, eyebrows high. "Imagine that, making friends in the first year and sitting with them on the train."

"The legend goes, you make friends with people you sit with on the train the first day." Sirius gasped dramatically.

Leila rolled her eyes. "So maybe I wasn't the friendliest eleven year old, but this was five years ago."

"You're not the friendliest person now." Draco muttered in her ears. "Far from it, in fact. I love you and everything, but I can't let you live with such delusion, Princess."

Leila huffed, shoving an elbow into Draco's ribs. "Fuck you, Dragon Boy."

Draco snickered.

"But I asked first. Besides, being polite has never really been my thing. What's the fun in that?" There was a rustle and the boy leaned forward into her space, pushing the book aside with a hand. She scowled and slammed her book shut, glaring at the grin on the boy's face.

"Play nice, children." Reyna teased.

Leila bared her teeth at her, which only made Reyna grin harder.

"Perhaps the other person, whose peace you disturbed would appreciate knowing who they're dealing with?" Leila said, her icy eyes boring into the other boy's gaze. "Or maybe I'll just throw you off this train instead if you keep bothering me."

"Well, that went from pixies to dragons real fast." Ernie said to Susan.

"So that's where her habit of threatening to throw people out the window came from." Neville said, nodding as if it explained quite a bit. "Or statues."

"I really want to hear the story behind that." Ginny muttered.

Neville smiled innocently at her.

Her tone was curt, but to her disappointment, it didn't look like it bothered the other boy.

"Never knew the Ravenclaw was so brave." Seamus muttered to Dean.

Dean cracked a smile.

In fact, the boy's smile only widened as he leaned forward and picked up the the book she had previously been reading. Leila clenched her teeth and grabbed at the book, but he leaned away, holding the book out of her reach.

"Hermione would have killed us if we did that." Ron teased.

Harry nodded solemnly. "I guess it's a good thing my sister's nicer than she is."

Hermione groaned. "I swear, you two, cut it out."

Sirius grinned, and ruffled both Harry and Hermione's hair. "You know, Lily would have been pretty mad if we did that to her."

"If I recall, you did do that. Multiple times." Lily rolled her eyes, but winked at Harry. "Your father and godfather are absolute pests when they get bored. Poor Remus and I were never able to read peacefully without one of those two interrupting us."

Harry laughed.

"Intricacies of Potion Making?" He read aloud. He threw the book back on the table between them. "Looks boring."

"Just because you have no talent in Potions." Draco taunted.

Terry crossed his arms, though he was still smiling. "Out of all of us at this table, who's blown up three cauldrons in the last month?"

Leila and Draco exchanged glances.

Draco sniffed, nose in the air. "One would think you out of anyone would understand blowing things up in the name of progress."

"After all," Leila said, her smile sharp. "the western wall of our office seems to have a mysterious hole in it, that still haven't disappeared after a week. Though, maybe I'm wrong and it's just a natural occurrence."

"Haha…" Terry laughed nervously. "I wonder how that happened."

Leila blinked. "I'd very much like to find out myself."

Terry winced.

Leila gritted her teeth. The boy's endless talking was starting to grate on her nerves. "Maybe your brain's too small to keep up with it."

"Five minutes into compartment sharing, and you've already annoyed her." Draco said.

Terry sent an angelic smile at Leila. "Golly, I wonder how that happened. Though, if I hadn't annoyed her, she would have ignored me for hours, so I think it was a great work on my part, actually."

Leila rolled her eyes.

The boy snickered. "Please, I'm a certified genius. I just don't like paying attention to useless things."

"Maybe that's why you're failing Potions, Mr Certified Genius." Draco said under his breath.

Leila bit her lips to hold back a smile.

Terry cast a suspicious look at them, but looked away when Draco smiled innocently.

"Certified genius?" Leila raised an eyebrow. As if.

"You sounded so unimpressed." Terry faked crying.

"Wow, I wonder why." Leila said.

"Then, why don't you just leave and let me read this useless, boring book in peace?"

"Did you really think that would work on him?" Reyna asked.

"I had hoped." Leila grumbled.

"Hey!" Terry said, mock-pouting.

Patrick grinned at all of them.

"Nah, I'm good right here." The boy said, leaning back and placing his feet on the table between them. Leila's hands twitched in the direction of her dagger.

"Careful, Munchkin." Patrick said. "You can't kill someone before you even get to school."

"You're not my mom." Leila muttered, before she suddenly tensed up.

"Don't kill people on the first day of school, Leila!" Lily said, seeming not to have noticed Leila's sudden tenseness.

Leila scowled, relaxing a little. "Don't tell me what to do."

James bit down on his smile as Sirius laughed loudly at Lily's face.

Kairo lifted his head and snarled at the boy.

"Good boy, Kairo." Leila said.

Kairo's tail wagged enthusiastically, as Terry made a face at Leila.

His eyes widened and stared at Leila. "Hey, I think your dog wants to eat me."

Leila sniffed. "As if Kairo would eat you. You'd give him indigestion."

Draco snickered. "Hear that, Boot? He has higher tastes than you."

"I'd be delicious, thank you!" Terry exclaimed before he caught himself. "Not that I want him to kill me and eat my corpse or anything, but-"

Reyna put a hand over his mouth and cut him off. "Quit while you're behind, Terry."

Terry made a face at her, before Reyna's eyes widened and hurriedly took her hand back.

"Did you lick me, Terry Boot?" Reyna scowled.

Terry grinned. "Everything's fair in love and war."

"I'll give you war." Reyna muttered.

Leila pointedly glanced at his feet. The boy hurriedly put them back on the floor.

"Now, now, fear shouldn't be your first way of getting people to listen to you." George teased.

Leila poked her nose up in the air. "I prefer the term 'aggressive negotiation', actually."

George shook his head mourningly.

"Like that's any different from what the twins do on a regular basis?" Tracey muttered, too low to be heard by anyone other than Daphne and Millicent.

"Shush, Trace, we're Slytherins." Daphne muttered back, a mocking tone in her voice. "We're not supposed to be cowed by anyone other than our inner selves, remember?"

The three of them chuckled lightly.

Leila scratched Kairo behind his ears. "Good boy, Kairo."

Kairo's ears pricked up, and his tail started wagging again.

The boy swallowed hard. "Hey, um… your dog won't eat me, right? Because I'm way too handsome and smart and witty to die this early."

"Very humble too, I see." James joked.

"He still sounds like he has a smaller ego than you, Potter." Lily said.

James faked being wounded, while Lily and Sirius exchanged high-fives.

At the front of the room, Severus hid his smile behind his hand.

Leila didn't hide her smirk. "Why don't you get out and leave me alone, and I promise I won't sic Kairo on you?"

"You've got to stop threatening to use your dog as a weapon, Leila." Terry muttered.

"Why mess with what works?" Leila shrugged.

"Why did you want to sit with Leila so badly, anyway?" Reyna asked.

"Thanks." Leila muttered.

Reyna rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

Terry shrugged and grinned slightly. "Mostly because she was getting so annoyed and looked so desperate to kick me out."

Leila scowled and aimed a kick at him that he dodged.

"Besides," Terry continued, "everyone else in that car that I already talked to was either too cheerful, too much of a prick, or a bunch of upperclassmen. It's not like I had too much of a choice."

Reyna laughed.

"Oh come on," The boy groaned. "everyone else on this train is way too cheerful and friendly, or they have a massive stick up you-know-where.

Leila scowled. "Stop repeating yourself, Terry." she muttered.

"You're repeating myself, Leila." Terry muttered back.

"That doesn't even make sense!" Leila huffed.

At least you're a bit more interesting than that, even if you keep trying to ignore me for a book.

"Laying on some good old-fashioned flattery there, Boot?" Draco asked, amused.

"There is a reason they call me Silvertongue, you know." Terry said.

"Literally no one calls you that." Leila said, deadpan.

"Well, they should!" Terry said. "See how good at bargaining I am? You didn't even kick me out!"

Everyone else keeps doing small talk and which family they come from and Potter twins this and Potter twins that. Why the hell are they such a big deal, anyway?"

"Jealous, Boot?" Leila teased.

"In your dreams, Potter." Terry shot back.

"You really weren't jealous?" Harry asked softly.

Terry shrugged. "Why would I have been? I'm Terry Boot."

Everyone blinked, trying to understand what the connection was, though some Muggleborns looked like they understood.

Leila's eyes widened, but she soon composed her expression back into a blank mask. "You seriously don't know who they are?" Leila scrutinized the boy.

"Shocking." Terry said. "Not everyone knows your name, you know."

"You did." Leila pointed out.

"I'm not everyone." Terry said.

Percy rolled his eyes at the conversation.

"Of course I know who they are!" The boy seemed offended at her assumptions of his ignorance.

"That's because I do, in fact, know everything." Terry said.

"Please stop lying." Leila said.

The Weasley Twins snickered.

"They're like, the celebrities here, right? Like, the Bill Gates of the Magical world or whatever?

"Slightly smaller scale than Bill Gates." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"It was an hyperbole." Terry rolled his eyes back, mocking her.

Hermione sniffed.

I'm just saying, I hate gossip and weird paparazzi and making polite small talk, I've had enough of them back home. I'm not putting up with them here, I can't have a single interesting conversation with anyone!"

"Here is the moment that she decided she preferred you better alive." Draco said to Terry.

Leila raised an eyebrow at them. "I still thought about defenestrating him a few times after that, you know."

Draco sniggered. "Yeah, but you wouldn't have actually done it, Princess."

Leila huffed. "Call my bluff, why don't you."

Terry grinned widely. "I knew you loved me under that cold, cold heart."

Leila crossed her arms. "Careful, Boot, I can still change my mind."

Patrick reached over and ruffled her hair. "You guys are adorable."

Leila's ears flushed pink.

Draco bit his lips to avoid laughing too loudly, but Leila glared at him anyway.

"What experiences would you have with paparazzi, Boot?" Zacharias Smith sneered.

Terry sniffed. "Why wouldn't I? I'm wonderful."

"A wonderful pain in my arse, maybe." Leila grumbled.

Leila carefully bit back on a smile. "Back home?" she asked instead. "Why would you have to deal with them?"

"Leila," Terry whined. "Stop repeating Smith."

"Bugger off." Leila muttered.

The boy rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter. The point is, you're the only interesting one here that I can find, and I'm too lazy to switch train cars just for a conversation partner. So, you're stuck with entertaining me."

"Is it that you were too lazy to switch train cars, or that you didn't know how to switch cars and were too scared to find out?" Draco asked, with a face of complete innocence.

Terry scowled. "Too lazy, definitely."

"I think you were lying." Leila said.

"I have never told a lie in my life." Terry said.

"Now that's a lie." Reyna muttered.

Anthony laughed loudly. "She's got you there, mate."

"I hate everyone in this room." Terry said. "And that's the complete truth."

"You love us." Draco snorted.

Leila tilted her head and glanced down at Kairo. He was calm, slowly nodding back to sleep. She sighed. Traitor, she thought.

Terry snickered. Finally, one of the rare times when Kairo was on his side.

Leila mock-scowled down at her dog.

"Has anyone ever told you that you are the most annoying person I have ever met?"

"How would they tell me that I am the most annoying person you've ever met, if that was our first time meeting?" Terry grinned.

Leila rolled her eyes. "You're the one who first became friends with Reyna, you tell me. Maybe you met other people like her."

"What does that mean?" Patrick frowned, confused.

Reyna raised an eyebrow at him as Leila hummed. "Hmm, I wonder."

"That's helpful." Patrick muttered.

Leila's eyes drifted to her book, and sighed. It was looking like the peace and quiet she craved wasn't going to come.

Lily shot a wry grin at Leila. She completely understood what that felt like.

Leila fought to keep her face straight.

The boy grinned delightedly. "It's been told a couple times. Although, if we're going with descriptors, I highly prefer the words handsome, witty or genius instead."

"Your ego is showing." Leila said dryly.

"I speak nothing but the truth." Terry said. "It's not being egotistical if I'm not lying."

Draco made a face at him. "No, you're definitely being egotistical."

Terry made a face back. "You would know."

Draco sniffed. "I, unlike you, have grown up and matured."

"Are you sure about that?" Harry said under his breath, hearing his sister's friends' bickering from his table.

Ron snickered.

Leila snorted. "In your dreams.

"I agree." Draco said.

Leila smirked at him.

You still haven't introduced yourself. I'm going to drop kick you into another compartment if you don't give me your name."

"Do you only know violent ways to threaten people?" Terry slumped into his seat and crossed his arms.

Leila frowned. "How else do you threaten people?"

"Non-violently!" Terry said.

"That doesn't sound very effective." Leila said, raising both her eyebrows at him. "Why would you place such restrictions on yourself?"

Terry huffed. "Because it's the nice thing to do!"

Leila slowly blinked. "Since when have you ever cared about being nice?"

"When it's me being threatened all the time." Terry scowled at her.

"Sounds dull." Leila said, making a face back.

The boy smirked. "Terry Boot, at your service. What's your name?"

Leila raised an eyebrow and ignored his question. "Terry Boot, as in heir of the Boot Industries?"

"Wait, what?" Hermione said.

"You're the heir of BI?" Justin asked, sceptical.

Terry scowled. "It's been five years. I don't know how you guys didn't realize already, but it's not that big a deal."

"I already knew." Colin said smugly.

Terry rolled his eyes. "Good job, Colin."

"Is that a big deal? Boot Industries or whatever?" Lavender asked.

"It's one of the 25 largest companies in the muggle world." Hermione said. "It's on Forbes-that makes lists of things related to business or technology or economics and stuff-all the time. I think it's one of the biggest company in muggle Britain?"

"It is." Justin said. "My father invested in the company years ago and holds a share in it. It's the biggest company in Britain."

"What does it make?" Ernie asked.

Terry sighed. He was still scowling, but he unfolded himself a little from his seat. "BI dabbles in pretty much everything. Some stuff with the government for defense, as well as technology like computers and phones and headphones and things like that."

"And you're it's heir?" Cormac McLaggen asked, somewhat doubtfully.

"I-yeah."Terry sighed, closing his eyes. He now understood exactly why Leila had looked so stressed all day. He didn't want to talk about this, about any of his complicated relationship with his family business, but as his luck would have it, all that would eventually come out as well. Darn it.

"Wicked." MIchael Corner muttered.

Leila softly kicked Terry under their table, and gave him an understanding look.

Terry smiled back tightly, as he reached out to Reyna and clung onto her hand.

Reyna squeezed back reassuringly.

The boy scowled. "Figures." he muttered.

"Not even an hour onto that train ride and you got caught out, huh?" Patrick sent Terry a sympathetic smile.

Terry winced. "I suppose I was very lucky that it was just Leila who connected the dots."

Patrick nodded. "Leila had her own fame to worry about to care about any of yours."

"I can speak for myself." Leila muttered. "But yeah, you ended up leveraging my identity against me instead."

Terry cracked a small smile. "Sorry about that. I may have panicked."

"No kidding." Leila said.

"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said it was just a coincidence?"

"Nice try." Reyna said.

Terry shrugged. "It's not like Boot's a particularly uncommon last name. I had to try."

Justin nodded. "It's why I never really thought twice about it until today."

"Same." Hermione said, as did many other muggleborns and halfbloods in the Hall who didn't know until a moment ago.

"It may have worked better with me it didn't look so obvious that you were rich." Leila said. "Also, you need more confidence when you're bullshitting people."

Terry snickered.

"Judging by your fancy rich person headphones around your neck?" Leila said.

"Exhibit A." Draco said.

Terry shrugged. "I'm a little proud most people didn't really catch on until now, anyway. You guys knowing didn't really bother me after the first few months."

"Well, we're your friends, doofus." Reyna said.

Terry smiled at all of them.

She wasn't kidding, she had seen the exact same pair that Patrick had practically been salivating over last year. She'd also seen the price tag for them.

"How much were they?" Lily asked.

Patrick smiled sheepishly.

"Definitely out of our budget." Leila muttered.

"I can get you one if you'd like." Terry said to Patrick quietly.

Patrick looked tempted for a moment before he shook his head. "I'm dead. What would I do with a pair of headphones now?"

Leila suppressed a wince.

Boot sighed. "He's my father. The 'famous, billionaire' CEO. If you have a problem with that..."

"Merlin's pants, you're rich!" Ron said. "Are you richer than Malfoy?"

Terry scowled. "My father's rich, not me."

Ron shared a confused look with Harry.

"But yes, he's richer than Lucius Malfoy." Terry said.

Harry grinned.

Leila slowly nodded. "Ergo, you hate gossip and fans."

"Perfect compartment mate for you, Munchkin." Patrick said.

"Not that she appreciated it at the time." Terry teased.

Leila rolled her eyes.

"You got me." Terry Boot laughed, slightly bitterly. "So, what's your name, so we can get the whole introducing thing over with?"

Leila's jaws clenched, but she turned her expression blank quickly. "Leila." she shrugged.

Terry grinned. "Sharing and caring means you're supposed to share too, Leila."

"Don't make up arbitrary rules for yourself." Leila sniffed.

"Trying to avoid your moment of fame, Ice Majesty?" George teased.

"My fame can go bugger itself." Leila muttered. She raised her voice. "And so can you, if you keep calling me that."

Draco laughed.

Boot narrowed his eyes. "No last name?"

Leila sighed. "You suspected even then, didn't you?"

Terry shrugged theatrically. "What can I say? I'm a genius."

Leila rolled her eyes.

"Besides, your scar kind of does the giving away for you." Terry said perfectly reasonably.

Leila and Harry scowled at the same time.

"Great." She muttered.

"Hate this thing." Harry muttered.

Leila scowled. "Wouldn't you like to know."

"You're Leila Potter, aren't you?" Boot grinned like the cat that got the canary and the cream.

"Moment of truth!" Terry threw his arms up victoriously.

"You certainly seemed like you were excited to figure it out." Patrick laughed.

"Well, now I'm not the only one who need to keep their identity under wraps. In fact, no one was going to care about me when there was Leila Famous Potter there. The playing field just became a lot more even." Terry grinned.

"That you exploited immediately and thoroughly." Leila crossed her arms. "And still no guilt about that, I see."

Terry batted his eyes at Leila.

Leila kept her arms crossed, and raised an eyebrow at him.

"No I'm not." Leila said, her eyebrow raised.

"Did you really think you could get avay vith that?" Viktor said, amused.

"I had to try, didn't I?" Leila said. "It's not like you have any room to criticize me, if I remember correctly."

When Viktor looked away in embarrassment, Leila smirked with victory.

"I really want to hear that story." Terry muttered.

"Do you really hate your fame that much, Leila?" James gently asked his daughter whom he still didn't know too well. The books were helping, but he wanted to spend a long time talking to Leila, to comfort her when she was scared, to do all the family things and father things that he'd missed out on.

"Wouldn't you?" Leila reached up absently to run her hand through her hair.

Sirius smirked at her action. "Oh, if James had been your age and in your position, he would have basked in their adoration."

James's ears turned pink. "I was never that bad like you're making me out to be, Padfoot."

"Oh no." Remus said. "You were definitely worse."

"Moony!" James groaned as Sirius and Remus grinned at each other.

Harry and Leila both blinked in surprise.

Boot smirked. "Yes you are, you've even got the cute little lightning scar on your forehead."

Leila clenched her jaw. "Shut the bloody hell up, Boot."

"You've got to get better when you're bullshitting people." Terry smirked at Leila.

"Bugger off." Leila muttered.

Boot snickered. "Oh, this is poetic." he said. "So, hiding away from your adoring fans?"

"Is that why I couldn't find her?" A Hufflepuff seventh-year wondered to herself.

Her friends snickered.

Under the table, her hands twitched again for her knife.

"Leila, you can't stab people on your first day of school." Patrick said mock-sternly.

"How do you know?" Leila said. "You never went to school. Stephanie taught you."

"Just because Stephanie would have let you stab people-and only bad people-doesn't mean that rule is universal." Patrick said, tugging at the ends of her hair.

Leila batted his hand away.

"Don't tell me what to do." She said.

"You're such a brat." Patrick teased.

Leila bristled. "I'm older than you now, you can't call me that."

Draco sent Leila a worried look. Leila pretended she hadn't seen it.

Patrick frowned slightly.

She forcibly stilled them. "What adoring fans?" Leila snorted. "My brother's the Boy Who Lived, not me."

"Oh trust me, you had plenty of fans." Draco said dryly. "You still do, as a matter of fact."

Draco let his gaze travel throughout the Great Hall, making eye contact with several individuals.

Some people cleared their throat. Others giggled.

"Great." Leila scowled. "Just what I wanted to know."

Draco nudged her in apology. "I'm still your biggest fan, of course."

"Thanks, you creeper." Leila said dryly. "I'd say I appreciate the sentiment, but that would be a complete lie."

Reyna grinned at her cousin.

She glanced at Harry out of the corner of her eyes, but he was only focused on the red haired boy. Leila scowled.

"Potters and their redheads." Sirius said, winking at Lily and James.

"Sirius, no!" Harry groaned, burying his face in his hands. Ron's ears were red.

Sirius snickered.

"I don't know." Boot snickered. "I've heard some people squealing about "Ohh, I hope Leila Potter will be nice, I want to be her best friend, do you think she's pretty?"" He said the last three sentences in a falsetto sound.

Parvati pointedly looked at Lavender, who was decidedly looking away.

When Lavender shifted in her seat and their glances met, she flushed.

"What?" Lavender hissed. "This was when I thought she was going to be nice. Or friendly."

Parvati leaned in to whisper. "If I remember correctly, you were convinced that she was going to warm up to us and be our best friend forever soon enough our entire first year."

Lavender pouted at her. "Well, it was the first time I met someone famous. Besides, my parents used to buy me Leila Potter collectable dolls every year on Halloween." Her voice was wistful.

Parvati frowned. "Do you still have those?"

"Only in storage." Lavender muttered. "Now that I know the real person, it's kind of weird."

"I'll say." Parvati said.

Leila closed her eyes and inwardly groaned. Unfortunately, this did not help her ignore the fact that a, she apparently had fans,

"Did you really not know?" Reyna said.

Leila scowled. "It's not like I ever thought about it. I was famous by proxy. I knew Harry was proper famous but me- most magical interactions I had before then were with the ones who wanted to kill me."

"I mean, most Prophet articles were about Harry Potter, but apparently for books and comics and figurines and such- the really popular ones had both of you in them." Reyna said, smirking.

"Great." Leila groaned.

"Rey used to have those comics too, you know. " Tonks said, her grin wide. "The really rare one with just you in it. The Leila, the kid hero or whatever."

Reyna flushed red. "It was because of research reasons, not- anything else!"

"Still kind of disturbing." Leila shuddered. "Research?"

Reyna caught her eye. "You know." She tapped the side of her head.

"Oh." Leila said. "Even back then?"

Reyna shrugged. "Told you."

"Books? Figurines?" Harry groaned. "Seriously?"

Ron grimaced at him. "Yeah well, Ginny used to be a fan. She always made me take her figurines and play-"

"Shut up!" Ginny lunged to try and cover his mouth.

Hermione tugged her back down to her seat. "Ron, maybe you should stop talking." she said.

Harry was pale. "Err.. I get the idea, mate."

or b, the annoying boy in front of her.

"If I let you sit here quietly, will you just shut up now?" Leila groaned.

"C'mon, is that any way to treat your new best friend? Because I now declare myself your best friend." Boot said.

"Did you just annoy each other into becoming friends?" Sirius asked.

"Basically." Leila said.

"I annoyed her into tolerating me." Terry said. "Then we almost died together a lot of times and now we're best friends."

"Debatable." Leila muttered.

"That's basically the truth." Draco said to Sirius.

"First off, this isn't how you make friends." Leila snapped. "And second, I don't want a best friend. I don't want friends, I just want everyone to leave me the bloody hell alone."

"How would you know how to make friends?" Boot smirked. "C'mon, famous girl, it doesn't look like you have a lot of friends either."

"Famous girl." George said. "That's a good one."

"Thanks." Terry tipped an imaginary hat.

"Don't you start, George Frederick Weasley" Leila muttered.

"Wow, she middle-named me." George said.

"That's not your middle name." Fred said.

George grinned.

"Don't call me that." Leila said.

"The Twin Who Lived?" Boot grinned.

Leila gritted her teeth, and counted to ten. When she got to two, she gave up and kicked him hard.

"You should work on your patience more." Terry said.

"You'd test anybody's patience." Leila said.

"Ow!" Boot yelped. It was glorious.

"You're actually so mean." Terry mock-pouted.

"Well done, it's taken you five years to realize." Leila said dryly. "What a genius."

Draco and Reyna laughed at Terry's wounded face.

"What was that for?"

Leila shrugged. "You were being annoying."

"So mean."

Boot mouthed something silently, looking outraged. "You can't just physically assault me for that! It's-I'm pretty sure assault is illegal!"

"I don't think there's going to be a single court willing to charge me when they spend five minutes in the same room as you and your mouth." Leila said.

"Burn." Anthony said.

"Betrayed by my best friend." Terry sniffed in Anthony's direction.

"I thought Leila was your best friend." Anthony said.

"Betrayal." Terry muttered. "Betrayal everywhere."

"Maybe you should stop kicking your friends, Leila." Patrick said.

"Stephanie said I could do it." Leila said.

James and Lily exchanged a look.

"Wow, no wonder you don't have friends." Boot said. "That's cold, Leila."

Leila hid a flinch and squared her jaw.

Terry winced. "Sorry, Leils." He whispered.

"It's fine." Leila muttered. "I had that coming. Sorry for kicking you."

"I told you, I don't want friends, Boot. And I don't think we're good enough of a one for you to call me by my first name."

"Pshh, I'll call you whatever I want, miss Frosty the Famous." Boot said.

Leila scowled.

"Did you have zero self-preservation instincts back then?" Lisa Turpin asked. "Not that you have any now, but at least you've learned enough to keep yourself alive."

"I have excellent instincts. I don't know what you're talking about, Lisa." Terry said. "After all, Leila never tried to kill me yet, right?"

"I'm not a serial killer." Leila protested. "Stop making me out to be so violent."

"You are kind of violent." Reyna said.

"Is that really the standard you want to be looking for?" Anthony asked Terry.

"'Course it is. I'm still alive." Terry said. "I must be doing something right."

"I'll kick you again." Leila threatened.

"Oh, come on! We're compartment buddies." Boot said. "Is there any way for you to be more friendly towards me?"

"Are you bargaining with the Ice Queen right now?" George asked.

"I am the Silvertongue after all." Terry said. "Bargaining is my specialty."

"Extortion, he means." Leila said.

"Terry, stop trying to make 'Silvertongue' happen. It's not going to happen." Draco groaned.

"Yes, it will." Terry said.

"Do you make a habit out of annoying everyone you see?" Leila asked.

"Basically." Boot shrugged. "It's one of my greatest charms, I think."

"Charms." Leila said derisively.

"Well, I wouldn't be myself without them, right?" Terry grinned.

Leila scowled at sleeping Kairo. "Fine, if you stay quiet and you don't annoy me again, then I won't kick you."

Boot rolled his eyes. "That's not really fair a deal, Leila. What about… I'll stay as quiet as possible if you buy me some food?"

"Ah, I see what you mean by extortion." Remus said, amused.

"No. That part isn't the extortion." Leila groaned.

Remus looked confused.

"You'll see." Leila said.

Terry grinned. Reyna shook her head fondly.

"You're the son of one of the biggest company in England." Leila said. "Don't you have money to buy your own food?"

"Whoa." A Gryffindor muggleborn muttered.

"It's probably the biggest company in Europe, actually." Justin said.

"Whatever." Leila said.

Terry scowled. He wished people would stop focusing on his family.

So this must be how Leila's felt all day long…

"Don't judge people by their parentage." Boot scoffed.

"Excellent sentiment, Mister Boot." Professor Flitwick said, beaming.

"Er… Thanks Professor." Terry muttered.

"Maybe I ran away from home and I'm broke. You don't know that."

"Were you?" Dennis asked worriedly.

"No." Terry said shamelessly.

Draco snickered while Leila rolled her eyes at Terry.

"Did you?" Leila raised an eyebrow.

"No." Boot admitted shamelessly.

Leila shook her head.

"I have money, it's just in my trunk and under five layers of clothes."

"Then you can buy your own food." Leila said.

"Heartless." Terry whispered.

"It's not like you were broke." Leila said. "What if I had been broke?"

"Then I'd have braved my trunk to buy you candy, of course. I'm not a monster." Terry said.

Patrick quirked his lips. "You're alright, Boot."

Terry blinked. "Thanks?"

Leila hid a smile.

"Come on, take pity." Boot said. "If I opened my trunk right now, I think I might actually get buried in my stuff."

"You need to stop overpacking." Anthony groaned.

Whenever a new term started, half of their dorm would inevitably get taken over by Terry's books and gizmos and clothes and beauty-care products. At least once a month, Anthony always ended up tripping over something of Terry's while trying to sneak in or out or around the dorm.

And it made him shudder to even think about the end-of-year packing rush, when Terry would commandeer all three of their dorm-mates and Anthony himself in his panic to pack everything, for help.

Terry grinned sheepishly. "I've gotten better."

Anthony shook his head. "No, you really haven't."

"Why should I care?" Leila said.

"I thought you were supposed to be one of those heroic types, who spend their time rescuing kittens and small babies and help their friends out whenever asked?" Boot said.

Patrick raised an eyebrow as Reyna and Draco both laughed loudly.

"You read all the Kid Hero series, didn't you?" Reyna said to Terry. "You said you haven't- you liar!"

Terry flushed. "I was just scoping out my celebrity competition."

"Sure, Boot." Draco said.

Leila scowled. "I'm tracking down all those books and burning them all, I swear to Lady Hogwarts…"

Draco snickered slightly. "Yeah, I don't blame you, Princess."

Leila must have conveyed her skepticalness with her eyebrow, because he quickly spoke again. "Because you're kind of interesting and if you buy me food, I won't sell your location out to your lovely adoring fans?"

"That's what I meant by extortion." Leila said to Remus.

"I understand." Remus said, surprised and amused.

"That was surprisingly ruthless of Boot." Blaise said absently. "Nearly enough to be worthy of Slytherin."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Terry said.

"As you should." Blaise agreed.

He adjusted his mental calculation of Boot slightly. Blaise knew, from his tentative acquaintanceship and rivalry with Anthony Goldstein, that Ravenclaws could be almost as ruthless and cunning as Slytherins, but he'd always thought of Terry Boot as only a loud mouth genius. Apparently, he'd been wrong.

Leila's eyebrow raised higher. "That was surprisingly cold and ruthless." She said.

Boot smirked. "Surprise."

Leila looked at the boy with a new appraising eye.

Neville shook his head. "Why do you only respect him after he's tried to blackmail you?"

"I respect competency." Leila shrugged it off.

The complete truth though, was a bit more complicated to Leila. Sure, Leila did respected the fact that someone was smart and ruthless, like Stephanie was, but she appreciated it when someone was being honest and she didn't have to watch for anyone to stab her in the back-only from the front, after a fair warning has been given.

It was probably slightly messed up of her, but this way was better than being betrayed when she expected it the least.

That kind of blackmail was exactly the kind of thing Stephanie would have pulled on her.

Terry lit up. "I never knew you respected me so much that early, Leila."

"Who says I respected you?" Leila scowled.

"You just did." Terry snickered.

Leila flushed. "You're delusional."

Draco laughed at her, and Leila kicked his chair.

Which meant, making him leave would probably as easy as stopping Stephanie when she was determined-which was to say, completely impossible.

"I'm glad we came to an agreement." Terry grinned, forming a peace sign.

"Stop sounding so proud of yourself." Leila grumbled.

"Fine, Boot." She said. "But if you get any louder than what I tolerate, I'll throw you out of this moving train, fans or not."

"Leila sure likes to threaten people, doesn't she?" James was slightly amused and very much concerned at the same time.

Ginny laughed before loudly whispering, "Commander likes to make herself seem scary and threatening, but Leila's really just a big softie inside."

"I heard that, Weasley." Leila snarled, her friends snickering at her.

Ginny winked.

Boot grinned. "Sure, compartment-buddy."

Leila fixed him with a hard look.

"Seriously, self-preservation." Lisa groaned.

Taking a page out of Ginny's book, Terry winked at her as well.

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep.

Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

"The trolley witch!" Seamus lit up.

"Ah yes, the true love of Seamus's life." Dean said dryly.

"Shut up." Seamus pushed at Dean half-heartedly. Dean winked.

"She's terrifying!" A second year Hufflepuff said. "I once saw her hands turn into giant claws when she got mad."

"Lay off it, will you?" Her friend said. "I told you, it was the Weasley Twins that played a prank on you-dosed your sweets with something, I say."

"It was real! I saw it! Besides, the Twins weren't even near my food that day."

"You also said you saw her cauldron cakes explode like one of those muggle bombardas." They rolled their eyes. "Clearly you were hallucinating something. The trolley witch is a sweet old lady."

Leila and Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to their feet,

James looked like his heart was breaking, once more. Lily looked like she was fuming. Sirius and Remus looked an odd combination of sympathetic and angry.

Terry Boot strolling after Leila, but Ron Weasley's ears went pink and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches.

Ron's ears went pink again, and he avoided eye contact with his parents.

Fred and George exchanged a glance.

Harry, Leila and Boot went out into the corridor.

Leila had never really had any money for candy with the Dursleys or on the run,

Leila and Patrick glanced at each other.

She'd never had money for candy, but she'd had Patrick then. Leila missed that time of her life with painful fierceness, because it was a time that her best friend had been alive and breathing by her side, and she would trade a million things just to have that again.

She glanced at Patrick, now younger than her and forever 13, despite the fact that he looked older than when he died, again. She had him back, for hopefully however long these books would take, but then she was going to have to lose him again. Lose her parents too, who kept glancing over towards her with that painfully earnest and longing looks.

If she got one step closer to them than she was now, she wasn't strong enough to let them go. And she was definitely not strong enough to let Patrick go. Not without breaking again.

but now, with her pockets rattling with gold and silver, she was ready to indulge for the first time in her life. Occasionally Stephanie would buy them a cauldron cake, or Patrick would sneak a licorice wand or two from stores,

Not even Hermione looked like she wanted to scold Patrick for stealing. (If anyone had, Leila would have torn them apart.)

but that had been the limit of sweets she had eaten in her life.

"No one ever bought you a chocolate frog?" Neville asked softly.

Leila's lips dragged up in one corner. "They're pretty expensive, Nev. Besides, I hated chocolate when I was a kid."

"When did you start liking it?" Lily asked. She had loved chocolate ever since she had been a kid.

Leila shrugged. "I ate it a lot in my third year, and I just kind of got used to the taste, I think."

Lily and James looked a little confused, but Remus, as well as most of the professors, looked a little pained.

Leila thought of the small stack of galleons she'd left underneath Stephanie's favourite cauldron.

Stephanie would never let Leila buy her anything, but hopefully the galleons would help Stephanie and Luke if things got too hard, like they always did once or twice a year, or if they wanted a crate of chocolate frogs or two.

Leila smiled at the mention of the tradition she'd kept up until their death.

Stephanie and Luke had tried to give the galleons back, every time, and Leila pretended to take them, if only to leave even more of them hidden under a cauldron before she left again. She smiled when she noticed that Stephanie and Luke tried to give back only the galleons she left on her previous visit, when she noticed how Stephanie and Luke could always sit down and eat with her now whenever she visited rather than pretend that they needed to watch a potion and couldn't afford the time to eat. In the summers between her second and fourth years, she'd started to sneak into the alley before her visits to seek out their landlord to pay that month's rent, as a early and belated birthday gift combined to Luke and Stephanie respectively.

If Leila could have, she would have given Stephanie and Luke everything, the closest people she'd ever had to a parent or elder sibling. But Stephanie and Luke were both too stubborn to take anything from her when Leila could use it instead, so Leila had to be careful in how she helped. And now, her godson-Sebastian; Stephanie and Luke's only child-were being taken care of by their old landlord, the only person left on Knockturn now that Leila trusted enough to be a decent person.

Leila might have to take out loans from Gringotts to pay for her last year at Hogwarts, but it was worth having been able to help two people she loved the most, as well as being able to make sure that their only son grew up having his needs cared for. She'd known Stephanie and Luke's landlord for a long time, a squib from an old and rich family, cast out with only a bag of galleons to their name.

They were an honorable person, and for as long as Leila could provide the finances, would take care of her godson. And as soon as she graduated, she would take her godson and make sure he wasn't raised like her or Patrick were.

She peered into the cart, and picked out what looked like best. Next to her, Harry was taking some of everything the lady had, and Boot was looking through everything carefully, before choosing a giant pile of what he wanted.

"Taking advantage of Leila's generosity, huh?" Anthony teased.

"She is a very generous person!" Terry agreed with a smile too bright on his face.

"More like I got suckered into generosity, maybe." Leila muttered, unable to hide a small smile.

Leila took a couple packages of the Beans, three Cauldron Cakes, a few Pumpkin Pasties, and bunch of Licorice Wands.

"Great choices!" James complimented. "I love Pumpkin Pasties."

"He also likes the Beans." Lily muttered, making a face. "They're disgusting."

"They are for people with high tastes." James smiled playfully. "Nothing wrong if you dislike them, Lily-flower."

"You're calling me tasteless? Really?" Lily said.

"Might explain your choice in husbands." Sirius snickered. "Like why you married James, of all people."

"Betrayed by my own best friend!" James exclaimed.

Lily laughed.

A few tables away, Leila watched as her mother laughed, surrounded by her father and her brother and her father's best friends; looking like a perfect family, for all intents and purposes.

She'd had a bad experience with bubble gum before, and she hated chocolate.

At the mention of bubble gum, Patrick started giggling hysterically.

Leila glared, but it did not seem to deter his humour. If anything, he just laughed louder.

She paid the woman nine sickles (she treated Boot as well, as per their grudging, somewhat one-sided agreement),

"Story of my life." Leila muttered, still glaring at Patrick who had just managed to stop laughing.

"Lies and slander, Leila Potter." Terry singsonged.

and brought it back into the compartment, where Harry and Ron were already digging into the treats.

For the next while, Boot's mouth was full of chocolate and consequently, quiet.

"I see your ulterior motive." Draco quirked his lips.

"Just an unexpected side benefit." Leila demurred.

"But I got free chocolate, so who's the real winner here?" Terry said.

"Still not you." Leila said mildly.

For Leila, who generally hated people, crowds and loudness, not precisely in that order,

Everyone who knew Leila well snickered at the accurate statement.

"Your trip to Bulgaria must have been very fun for you, yes?" Viktor teased while Patrick started laughing again.

in the rare moment of respite ever since the loudmouthed hurricane entered the compartment, she acknowledged that Terry Boot probably wasn't the worst compartment-crasher she could have had.

Terry gasped theatrically. "Could it be-Ms Ice Leila Punk Queen Potter, admitting her love and admiration for someone this early? Alas, my heart is but taken by another-"

Suddenly, there was a loud crash as Terry found his chair kicked out from beneath him.

Leila's ears were slightly pink and her eyes had a vaguely murderous look in them. "You want to keep going, Boot?"

"Ah- no, I am certainly done. Carry on, marvelous narrator."

"Thank you." She growled out.

He was loud, annoying and obnoxious,

"Ouch." Terry muttered.

"I'm not apologizing." Leila muttered back.

"Double ouch." Terry muttered again.

but he also stayed relatively silent once he was occupied with catching the chocolate frogs before they escaped the compartment, and he did not make a loud scene out of her scar or her fame, which was really the only redeeming feature he had.

Anthony snickered.

Leila very carefully did not appreciate his hatred for fame and gossip.

"You definitely had a soft spot for him." Draco teased.

"I did not! He was just vaguely tolerable-" Leila's indignant response got cut off.

"You liked him! You wanted to make friends with him!" Draco said gleefully. "You liked us even then!"

Leila scowled. "If, and this is only hypothetical, even if I had appreciated Terry back then as a decent friend, I definitely did not like you until our second year."

Draco shrugged. "Well, nothing like dodging a giant murderous poisonous snake together to really cement that affectionate friendship bond."

Leila snickered. "You're the worst."

"You love it, Princess."

Instead, she stole the messy stack of cards Boot was building up while he was occupied on catching another chocolate frog,

"Hey." Terry protested half-heartedly.

"My money, my cards." Leila said.

and thumbed through the stack.

"What was your first card?" Lily asked.

Leila scowled at the reminder.

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, the first card said.

"A classic!" Neville said.

"Thank you, Mr Longbottom." Dumbledore said amusedly.

Neville blushed bright pink.

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

Harry, Hermione and Ron all groaned and looked at each other. One name on one card had given them so much trouble.

Ron leaned over to whisper to Harry and Hermione. "Didn't you say your first card was Dumbledore too? Blimey, isn't it weird you two got the same card on the same day?"

Harry and Hermione answered at the same time.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence, Ronald."

"We're twins? It happens sometimes."

Hermione blinked and looked at Harry. "It does? But that doesn't make sense."

Harry shrugged. "Used to happen all the time when we were younger. Not very often since she went away though."

Leila turned the card over to see a man wearing half-moon glasses, and had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and moustache.

She stiffened.

James and Lily exchanged a worried look.

That was the man who was at her trial, back in January.

"Trial?" James asked worriedly.

Leila shrugged. "How I got that house arrest. Don't worry about it."

James frowned. He wanted to say a lot of things-What happened? or Why would you have been under house arrest? or especially Of course I'm going to worry about you-but none of those words came out once he saw his daughter refusing to even look in his direction.

She had heard his name, but it had been a hectic day, and everything that happened afterwards had pushed him to the back of her mind.

She scowled, mood suddenly sour. He had been the one to suggest putting her back with her relatives. Apparently he was now her new headmaster.

"Why did you put her back with Petunia, professor? Surely you must have known-" Lily pleaded.

"I didn't have any other choice." Dumbledore said, softly. "I'm sorry."

"You had plenty of choices, Albus! You must have had some knowledge of how they were treating them!" McGonagall argued.

"Not if I wanted Miss Potter to live to see Hogwarts, Minerva." Dumbledore whispered harshly. "She was away from her brother for months and after December, it would have been a matter of weeks. And you know Miss and Mr Potter are stronger when they're together."

"Just what happened in that December Albus? Leila Potter is my student. If there was anything threatening her life, you should have told me when she started at Hogwarts."

"A great deal number of things." Dumbledore sighed. "I daresay we will hear about it soon enough."

McGonagall's lips pursed at Dumbledore's avoidance of the topic.

She flipped the card back around again and shoved the card back onto the stack, almost scattering the pile by accident, before she shoved the whole stack onto the table between them.

Terry gave Leila a sympathetic look.

She slumped back into her seat, accidentally nudging Kairo awake.

"Sorry, boy." Leila muttered, scratching between his ears. "Go back to sleep."

Leila, despite her mood, smiled in the direction of her currently sleeping dog.

Kairo whined, sniffing her fingers, before he nosed at the half-eaten cauldron cake in front of her. Leila rolled her eyes when after a second, Kairo gobbled it down.

"He's such a glutton." Terry grinned.

"That's because you keep spoiling him." Leila grumbled.

"You do what you have to do." Terry shrugged.

Leila rolled her eyes.

She pulled the dog biscuits out of her pocket instead.

"Here, you hog. These are probably better for you." Leila pushed them at Kairo.

"You spoil him too, you softie." Terry nudged Leila with his foot.

"Shut up." Leila said, flushing pink.

Kairo gobbled those up, too. Leila fondly scratched his head, a little smile pulling at her lips.

She looked up to see Boot staring at her, and her smile disappeared.

"What?" She asked.

"It was the first time I saw you smile that day." Terry explained.

"There was still no need to stare." Leila huffed.

"I was just surprised!" Terry defended himself. "I remember thinking you were sculpted entirely from stone, and I only just realized that that may sound vaguely insulting only after I finished saying that…"

Leila rolled her eyes. "Whatever, don't worry about it."

Boot blinked. "Nothing." He said. "Just seems like you're not completely an icicle, after all. Granted, your dog still looks like he's going to maul a grown man but still…"

Leila rolled her eyes, before she ripped a bag of the Beans open. "Bugger off, Boot. I fed you, like you wanted."

"I'm not a dog." Terry huffed.

"Yeah I know, Kairo's more civil than you are." Leila teased.

"Stop being mean to me!" Terry said, mock-scowling.

The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.

"Ouch, still mean." Boot said. "So it's just your monster of a dog that you're actually human to."

Terry winced but Leila rolled her eyes at him.

"Stop calling Kairo a monster, you monster." Leila huffed as if it was an afterthought.

Reyna snickered.

Leila stiffened before she relaxed. "Kairo's hell of a less annoying than you are, so…" she trailed off.

Draco snickered. "True statement."

"Oh shut up." Terry huffed.

She turned to look back out the window, ignoring his outraged reply, when there was a knock on the door of their compartment.

The round-faced boy Leila remembered passing on the platform walked in, looking tearful.

"Oh no." Neville muttered.

He cracked a smile when he saw Terry wink at him.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?" When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"Oh Neville." Ginny huffed exasperatedly, with a hint of smile.

Neville flushed a little. "It's not my fault. He's somehow gone every time I turn around."

"Don't worry too much, Neville." Luna said. "Even when the Nargles steal him, he's good at escaping. He'll always find his way back to you."

Neville smiled at her. "Thanks, Luna."

"He'll turn up," said Harry.

"I'll help you find him, if you like." Boot offered, standing up.

"That was very nice of you, Terry." Luna beamed.

"Thanks, Luna." Terry smiled cheerfully at her. "I couldn't just abandon a scared helpless animal to be lost alone."

"Thanks again, Terry." Neville said quietly.

"It's no big deal, Nev." Terry said, his smile turning a little more sincere. "You're a good friend. I'm always glad to help."

"Here, Leila will give us a hand too, won't you?"

Leila frowned at him, then frowned at the round-faced boy for the good measure.

Leila flushed a little. "Sorry, Neville." she said to her godbrother.

"It's okay!" Neville said cheerfully. "Terry shouldn't have volunteered you like that."

Leila smiled wryly. Even before knowing Neville's mother was her godmother and thus making him somewhat her family, he'd always been one of the few people who were genuinely nice to her, all the time-no second agendas, no hidden knives, nothing.

People like Neville, who was always genuine and nice and most importantly, kind, were rare. It made her want to be a little more soft around him, too.

That was what was inspiring about Neville: it took a special kind of bravery to be kind and soft and genuine. And he made her want to be that brave too, when she was around him.

"Come on, you're not going to leave a helpless animal wandering around the train, scared out of it's little mind, are you?" Boot asked. "Have some heart, O' Ice Queen. What if it was your monster of a dog that was lost?"

"Wow, how has she not killed you yet?" Lisa Turpin murmured.

Terry scoffed. "Leila loves me too much."

Leila shot him a skeptical look.

Leila crossed her arms. "Apparently I don't have a heart, as you seem to keep reminding me.

Terry winced.

Leila rolled her eyes at him.

Besides, Kairo is better than his toad, he doesn't get lost."

"There was that one time-" Patrick began.

Leila glared. "He wasn't lost! You lost him. He found us again, no thanks to you."

Patrick held up both hands in surrender. "In my defense, it was dark and we were in the woods and people were sending curses at you and me. Forgive me if I was trying to get to you."

Leila scowled. "You left Kairo in the middle of the woods! I had it handled."

"I thought dogs were supposed to run faster than humans." Patrick said.

"Dogs also tire out faster than humans." Leila said. "And remember how tiny Kairo was back then?"

"That dog was never tiny." Patrick said.

Leila huffed.

"Give us a hand, I even stayed quiet for a whole half-hour! That's practically a miracle for me-you can miraculously melt your own heart for your fellow pet-owner here, can't you?" Boot said.

"That is a miracle." Anthony agreed, teasing Terry.

"I am not an animal rescuer, Boot." Leila said.

Patrick raised a teasing eyebrow at Leila, then pointedly glanced down at the table towards Kairo.

Leila scowled. "I was in a bad mood, okay? Besides, Kairo's special."

Boot frowned, when the toad boy spoke up. "She-she doesn't have to come if she doesn't want to." He said. "You don't have to come either, I can just-"

Leila winced. "I'm sorry, Neville."

Neville grinned at her. "Nothing to be sorry about. Besides, you helped me anyways."

Draco smirked at her.

Boot cut him off. "Don't worry about it. I'll help, because I'm a nice and decent person unlike miss Icicle over there. Come on."

The compartment door slid shut behind the two, and Harry and Ron's conversation started again, leaving Leila to unexpectedly feel like shit.

Terry grinned. "Aw, you do care."

"Shut up, Boot." Leila flushed.

"I always knew you had a soft spot for Neville." Terry said.

"He's family. Besides, like anyone would ever be comfortable being mean to him. He's too nice." Leila scowled.

"True, I'm sure if it was my toad that had been lost, you would have felt no guilt at tossing me out the window." Terry teased.

Leila crossed her arms. "Or maybe you're just uselessly good at guilt tripping people."

Terry smirked. "Is it really useless if I'm good at it?"

"Don't know why he's so bothered," she heard Ron say. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

"Ron!" Hermione admonished.

Ron looked at her with a side of his lips quirked up. "What? It's true! If Scabbers had been a toad I definitely would have lost him on the first day."

Harry snickered and Hermione couldn't keep the disapproving look on her face, either.

Ron grinned at them, before he suddenly scowled. "Mind you, it might have been better if Scabbers had been a toad, the way things turned out."

She glanced down at Kairo, who was sending her a reproaching look.

"What do you want?" Leila grumbled half-heartedly.

Kairo whined.

Terry snickered.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not going to search the entire train for a toad, no matter how helpless and pitiful his owner looks." Leila said to her dog.

"Thanks, Leila." Neville said wryly.

Leila scowled at him. "You know what I mean."

Kairo whined again.

Leila mentally cursed the toad for getting lost, Boot for being annoying, and her dog for looking her with that reproving look, which she may or may not be imagining.

"Are you sure you're not just projecting, Leila?" Sirius teased.

Leila huffed.

Harry laughed softly, James and Lily smiling at her widely.

"Always knew Kairo was your better half." Terry snickered.

"Better than you, Boot." Leila said.

Reyna laughed.

Then for good measure, she repeated it in Bulgarian.

Patrick and Viktor both snickered at that.

She stood up.

"Well, come on." Leila muttered to Kairo. "Let's go make sure toad boy didn't off Boot for his sheer annoying factor."

"Gee, thanks." Terry muttered. "I'm glad you cared."

Leila smiled sweetly at him. "Oh no, I just figured Neville was too nice to get thrown into jail for homicide, no matter how justified it may have been."

Terry pouted while Neville grinned.

"Thanks, Leila."

"Anytime, Neville."

"Toad boy?" Seamus snickered to Dean.

Dean grinned and whispered back, "It's better than most of the nicknames I've heard Leila come up with over the years."

Boot and toad boy, as it turned out, had not gone far. They were only coming out of the compartment ahead of her when they saw her.

"Finally deigning to join us mortals on this marvelous rescue mission, your Frosty Majesty?" Boot smirked.

Reyna raised an eyebrow at Terry. "Did you want her to help or not, Terry?"

Terry crossed his arms. "I couldn't make it too easy for her."

Reyna shook her head fondly.

"Don't call me that. I'm only here to get a front row seat if toad boy decides to strangle you for being too annoying." Leila raised an eyebrow.

Draco snickered. "I bet Neville thought about it a few times."

Neville flushed lightly. "Not in first year!"

Leila's lip quirked up. "So definitely some time after our first year, then?"

"Betrayal from all sides." Terry muttered, dramatically draping himself over Reyna's shoulder. Reyna rolled her eyes at him.

Neville chuckled slightly. "Sorry, Terry, but you did hit me in the head with an ink pellet."

Terry pouted. "I'm sorry! I was aiming for Draco but he moved!"

Draco raised an eyebrow at him. "You should count yourself lucky, then. If you'd hit me in the head with an ink pellet, I would not have stopped at killing you once."

Terry rolled his eyes at him. "Please, you love me too much."

"Want to bet?" Draco asked.

"My-my name is Neville." The toad boy stuttered.

Leila cast a glance at him. "Leila."

Leila and Neville smiled at each other. Lily smiled at both of them.

"You um… didn't have to come if you didn't want to." Neville said. His shoulders were hunched.

"As if anyone can make Leila do anything she doesn't want to do." Patrick snorted.

"Stubbornness is her middle name." Reyna agreed.

Leila rolled her eyes. "I'm not that bad."

Draco made a face next to her.

She shrugged, before she stopped at the next door and kicked the door of the next compartment several times.

"That's not how you knock, Leilakins." George teased.

"I don't want to hear that from you, Weasley." Leila said.

Several compartments later, Percy Weasley, the red-haired prefect opened the door when they knocked.

Fred made a face again. George nudged him in his side.

"Good to see you again, Leila… and friends. Anything I can help you guys with?"

Neville stammered out a quiet greeting, blushing from head to toe, before Boot nudged Leila in the back. Leila stepped on his foot before she answered Percy.

Reyna rolled her eyes at both of them while Draco snickered.

Leila scowled at both of them.

"Neville here lost his toad. Have you seen him around the train or the compartment?"

"No, I haven't seen a toad around." Percy said, frowning. "Would you guys like some help searching?"

Molly smiled a little sadly.

Percy might have been a bit aloof as a child, but he had been a kind boy and had grown into a kind man.

She tried not to think about the last time they talked face to face, when Percy had thrown all those ugly accusations at her and Arthur.

"Uh, yeah, thanks." Boot said. "Do you know any spells or anything though, that would make this easier?"

"Whatever you do, don't summon it." Daphne muttered.

"Daphne!" Astoria hissed.

"Sure," said Percy. "What's your toad's name, Neville, was it?"

"Tre-Trevor." Neville said quietly.

"Trevor, huh? Alright." Percy said, winking at Leila and Boot. Leila gave him an unimpressed look, and Percy hurriedly cleared his throat.

Terry and Leila smiled weakly at each other, while Fred let out a small snort.

Across the hall, a very small hint of a smile flashed across Percy's face before it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

"Watch this. It's a simple spell, and it won't work if there are spells interfering with magical searches, but it should work on a toad. Revelio Locatio Trevor." A purple light emitted from the tip of the wand, swirling for a while before it left a trail of purple.

"It's not exactly simple." Remus said mildly. "It's still an advanced OWL level spell, after all, and a foundation for all the other searching charms you learn in NEWT years to build off of. It's impressive that someone who hadn't started their fifth year yet could cast it perfectly."

"Yeah well, Percy's always been a bit pigheaded about overachieving." Fred muttered.

Remus hummed, as George frowned at his twin.

"What is going on with you?" George hissed.

"I don't know what you mean." Fred said quietly. "Just keep reading, Georgie, everyone's waiting."

"Just follow that, and you'll find him." Percy said.

They thanked Percy, and rushed off to find him. Trevor safely ensconced in his hand, Neville kept stammering his thanks, and Percy merely replied that it was his job as a prefect to help the students.

Fred rolled his eyes.

Leila opened the doors to her compartment, and Leila walked right into the back of somebody's head, knocking him over to stumble.

Leila and Draco both winced at the same time.

"Oh no." Draco muttered.

"Guess it's time for lovebirds take two." Theo whispered to Daphne. "This will be a show."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "You're awful."

She caught her balance and recognized him as the blonde from the robe shop. Her brother and his redhaired friend were glaring stiffly at the blonde and two goons flanking him. Candy was strewn all over the compartment and the atmosphere was silently tense.

She must have walked into a fight.

Lily and James exchanged glances.

"Does this go better or worse than the last time you met?" Sirius asked, sounding actually curious.

Leila and Draco glanced at each other quickly.

"Maybe about the same." Draco said.

"Worse, definitely." Leila said.

They glanced at each other again.

"Huh." Sirius raised both eyebrows, looking a bit surprised at the differing answers.

"Oh, it's you again." The blonde sneered. He seemed to have recognized her. "Watch where you're going, why don't you?"

Leila scoffed.

Patrick glanced back and forth between the two. Leila seemed tense, like she was bracing for something that she was dreading. Draco Malfoy? Black? just seemed miserable.

"I'd say sorry, but then I'd be lying. Shouldn't you know better than to stand in middle of a doorway?" she asked. "This is public property, you know."

Draco smiled weakly for a moment at that quip. He met Reyna's eyes, who was smiling at him reassuringly.

Blonde Boy sneered at her. "Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry and Leila Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

Leila scowled before she blanked her face out again.

"It depends," she replied. "What's it matter to you, blondie?" Leila glanced at Blonde Boy, and two other boys flanking him like bodyguards. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean.

On the more Slytherin side of the Hall, Crabbe and Goyle were both smirking, pleased.

Vince and Greg had been friends with Draco since they were kids, because their parents wanted them to be. But Draco had stopped having time to hang out with the both of them in fourth year, and now that Draco had been practically disowned by Lucius Malfoy, there was no real reason for them to be friends any longer.

Even before fourth year, ever since Draco had first laid eyes on Leila Potter, he'd had less and less time for them.

There were worse people then Girl Potter to think of them as extremely mean.

She could probably take them both without breaking any bones. Maybe if she threw either the blonde or Boot into one of them like a bowling ball while she took the other one out…

Draco raised both eyebrows, slightly surprised. "That's what you were thinking about at the moment?" he whispered.

"It's like you don't even know me." Leila drawled.

Patrick's lips quirked, reminded of how Stephanie and Luke had first taught him to fight, too. Unlike me, Leila's never been uncreative in using her surroundings...

Blonde Boy frowned. "My name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy," he said.

Colin and Dennis and a few other muggleborns snickered as other witches and wizards looked puzzled.

"Bond, James Bond." Hermione whispered quietly.

"Shaken, not stirred." Lily said as she smiled at her son's best friend. "Are they still making those movies? The last one I saw was Moonraker."

"I never really thought about how old that franchise is." Hermione said, looking sober at the subtle reminder of their deaths. "They've made a few more. One just came out a couple weeks ago, I think. My dad's a fan, but my parents didn't let me watch them until after my third year."

Lily nodded.

"and this is Crabbe and this is Goyle." Leila's eyes widened. Now she knew why she recognized him. He had Lucius Malfoy's hair. A different facial shape, but maybe his eyes too.

Leila watched Patrick carefully.

Blonde Boy must be his son.

Patrick noticed Leila's attention on him, and gave both her and Draco a reassuring smile.

"I'm sorry." Draco muttered to him.

Patrick shook his head, clapping Draco's shoulders gently. "It's okay. We don't choose our parents."

Draco flinched. "He hunted you both. He hurt Leila. He killed you."

Patrick's eyes were soft with understanding. "That wasn't your fault. Trust me, the guilt, the shame, all of that-I get it. I really do, I've been there. But what other people do, no matter who they are to you, no matter whether you love them or not, is on them. It's not your responsibility to single handedly have to clean up after other people's bad acts."

Leila held Draco's hand, and nodded at him. "Not your fault. Not your responsibility. Not on you."

Draco drew a shaky breath. "But-"

Leila shook her head.

"No." she said firmly. "I know I blamed you a lot, when we were young. I was angry, and terrified, and I was wrong to do that. None of what he did is ever your fault or your responsibility or your job. I'm sorry."

"Listen to her, kiddo." Patrick said softly.

Draco drew in another shaky breath.

James and Lily watched them, worried. James sent a questioning look at Sirius and Remus, but they both responded with a grimace and a shrug, showing that they didn't know anything.

Leila grew very still. She carefully let out a breath.

Draco's grip on her hand grew tighter, but Leila didn't show a sign of it outwardly, letting Draco have the comfort he needed.

Terry and Reyna exchanged a glance.

"Isn't Draco Latin for Dragon?" Terry asked.

"Yes." Draco Malfoy replied, pushing his chest out, like he was proud. "Yes, it is."

Reyna gave Draco a small teasing smile, hoping to lighten the mood. "The only person whose actual name is in the Hogwarts motto, too."

Draco let out a weak chuckle.

"Must be why he's so ticklish." Terry said with a grin.

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."

Draco winced.

At eleven, he hadn't cared about any of the Weasleys, or at twelve, or at thirteen. To be honest, he hadn't cared about any Gryffindors other than Leila and Harry Potter, both for very different reasons. But last year changed the game and Draco found himself surprisingly liking both Ginny and George Weasley, and even got along with Fred Weasley well enough when they both didn't mention any of the romance drama.

What he'd said had been mostly a weak insult, but Ginny Weasley had once set bats on him for talking shit about their family's financial situation, and Draco was trying to be a better person about those kind of things now.

Across the Hall, Ron and Harry both scowled, but Ginny and George both rolled their eyes and Fred let out a small snort. Ginny kicked Ron and Harry both before they could make the situation worse.

George gave Fred a pointed look before Fred sighed.

"You're going to have to do better than that if you really want to offend anyone, Black." Fred said loudly.

"Get a bit more creative, maybe." George added. "Borrow some of our genius and creativity. The only thing we're offended by is how sad that was, Lord of Ferrets."

Draco laughed weakly. "I'm sorry that the trash talking abilities of my eleven year old self aren't up to your standards."

"Apology accepted." Ginny said imperiously. "But next time, try harder. We only deserve the best quality that your banter can offer. You need to be unique about it, not throw some cheap shots and call it a day."

Draco smiled tentatively at Ginny and the Twins, glad that his roundabout apology had been accepted.

He turned to her. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

Ron clenched his jaw, but after what had just happened, he carefully and slowly unclenched it.

Sirius looked at Draco carefully.

When Leila first came to him one late night this summer, asking if Narcissa's son could use the Black name, he'd been skeptical. He'd hated his last name all his life, but he didn't want more death eaters and blood purists using it. And Sirius had heard of how much bad blood there was between his godson and Draco through Harry.

Add that to the fact that unlike Harry who was his godson as much as he was James and Lily's son, the last time Sirius saw Leila before the summer was in her third year, when Leila was ready to hand Sirius back to the dementors on Peter's say so, and the crushing broken-hearted look in Leila's eyes when she turned her wand on Peter instead. Leila never contacted Sirius back with Harry when he addressed his first letter to both of them, and because of the guilt, Sirius had never made an effort to contact Leila again afterwards.

Sirius hadn't known Leila at all beyond the toddler she'd been and the unhappy teenager he'd encountered, so he'd told Leila that he would think about it. But watching the stress pile up on Leila's face after every letter she'd receive and every Order meeting she managed to listen in on, Sirius had caved. He'd watched Leila as her face became slightly more eased and listened to Leila over a steaming cup of tea as she'd explained to him that Draco used to be prejudiced and mean and a total git but he was making every single effort to be better now. Better than what his father had taught him. And really, how could Sirius of all people belittle that?

Watching his nephew now, who had just winced at his past words, Sirius couldn't help but think that Leila was right. The kid was trying his very best to do better. He might be a much better person than Sirius had been at that age.

He held out his hand to shake Leila's, but Leila sneered at it, resisting the urge to do anything worse.

Despite everything, Draco smiled a little. Knowing Leila now, she definitely would have broken his hand if she'd took it then.

"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself," she spat bitterly, "without the help of any spawn of Lucius Malfoy."

Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.

Leila just held Draco's hand tighter, and Patrick leaned over to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly, stepping a little closer. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."

Draco winced hard. He had been eleven, repeating words he heard from his father and his father's friends, and hadn't really known the magnitude of what he was saying. But now he was older, and merlin, he'd really been horrid back then. Maybe even now, he might still be that horrible person, he just didn't know it yet.

There was a rise in volume as some students protested what had just been read out loud, a whole influx of people agreeing on how horrible he was, and Draco shut his eyes.

Leila clutched his hand even tighter, nearly cutting off the blood flow.

"I'm sorry." Draco whispered.

"I told you, you don't have to keep on apologizing for your eleven year old self." Leila said. "Not to me. Not to us. I know you are sorry. I know you changed and became better. You're trying to be better now. That's enough"

Leila flinched violently before she managed to subdue it.

Patrick looked at both of them worriedly.

Lily and James were both pale at the reminder of their death. Sirius looked at Draco, no sign of what he was thinking on his face.

When Draco Malfoy started to smirk, she realized three things very quickly.

"Where were you during all this?" Reyna asked Terry quietly

Terry pursed his lips. "Got roped into a standoff with Crabbe and Goyle instead by Potter and Weasley on the other side of the compartment. I didn't realize what was going on until Leila punched Draco in the face, then I got into another fight trying to hold Crabbe and Goyle back until a rat bit Goyle in the hand."

Reyna raised both eyebrows.

"It was a chaotic day, what can I say." Terry said.

One: She was trembling.

Draco winced, remembering what happened.

Two: There was a drop of liquid running down her hand, most likely blood caused by her nails digging into her palm when she clenched her hand.

Lily and James looked at Leila full of concern, while Patrick, who had known her when she was ten and more murderous, looked at her slightly warily.

Three: Lucius Malfoy's son absolutely terrified her.

Harry shot a deadly glare at Draco, while Ron and Hermione put a restraining hand on his shoulder each.

"Scared, Potter? You should realize—"

What exactly she was supposed to realize Leila didn't know, since it was at that moment she realized her hand was clenched into a fist and took the opportunity to punch the blonde in the face as hard as she could.

"HOLY SH-" The Hall exploded.

"Go, Leila!" A Gryffindor third year exclaimed.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" The Weasley twins cheered.

Sirius and Lily shot Leila proud looks while James looked like he was heavily debating whether he should reluctantly lecture her or give her a high five.

McGonagall pursed her lips, but the students couldn't tell whether it was due to disapproval or a smile.

Malfoy spawn flew back and crashed into the table between the benches of their train compartment.

Draco winced, his hand going up to his (whole, currently unbroken) nose at the reminder of the pain.

Patrick saw the gesture and winced with him in solidarity, having witnessed a lot of Leila's punches at people over the years.

"What the hell—" Malfoy began to say.

Leila stalked forward, unzipped and pulled off Patrick's jacket and slid her knife out of her belt. She grabbed a handful of the lapels of Malfoy's robes and pulled him up onto his feet at the same time she rested the point of her knife roughly where his kidney would be.

"That's fucking badass." Ginny muttered.

"I hardly think attempted murder or gratuituous violence is badass." Hermione said, disapproving. "Besides, I thought you were friends with him now?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You punched him too, in third year. You of all people don't get to disapprove. Besides, we're friends now because he's no longer a git but it doesn't change the fact that he was the worst then."

"I punched him! Leila's threatening him with a knife! I think there's a very big difference." Hermione said.

"Well, baby Draco threatened her first." Ginny said. "I think it's fair."

Leila's heart was pounding so loud she could hardly hear anything else and her hands felt like they were freezing.

Leila breathed in, then breathed out.

"If you ever make one threatening move towards me," Leila said quietly. "I will personally make sure there won't be enough of you for your father to bury."

"Merlin, you were a terrifying kid." Terry laughed.

"I'm still terrifying now." Leila said. "Also, I hope this isn't something you've only just realized."

"Yeah well, you've threatened me with death or disembowelment loads of times but this you sounds like you'll actually go through with it."

Leila quirked her lips humorlessly. "This me probably would have."

"Terrifying." Terry nodded.

Patrick reached out to hold Leila's hand softly.

"You wouldn't have the stomach for it." Malfoy scoffed, nose purpling rapidly.

Unable to help it, Ron snickered slightly at the mention of the injury.

"Ron." Hermione said disapprovingly.

"You'd be surprised." She said. "I've done far worse."

Snape's eyes focused on the Potter girl. Dumbledore and McGonagall exchanged glances while Mad Eye Moody's magical eyes zeroed in on her direction as well.

"What does that even mean?" Lisa Turpin complained.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Leila said. Terry shot Lisa a warning glance.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed. Leila kept her grip on his lapels tight. Her heart was still pounding.

Patrick squeezed Leila's hand slightly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Malfoy demanded.

Leila kept her face blank. "None of your business. Just give me your word you won't bother me again, and I'll let you go."

James quirked his lips into a smile that was only half hearted as he looked at his daughter. Despite all that Leila seemed to feel about herself, this right here reminded James of Lily. Of Lily's sense for justice, her willingness to stand down when she was the stronger person in the situation.

If she blinked, she felt like she could see the alleyway seared permanently into the back of her eyelids.

Patrick paled drastically. Now it was Leila who had a tight grip on Patrick's hand, grounding him.

Grey asphalt, blood, rain. Cold whipping wind. A terrifying voice of a terrifying man haunting her every nightmare every night.

Draco returned Patrick's earlier gesture and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Across the Hall, James and Lily were shooting heartbroken looks in the direction of the three kids who didn't notice their looks. Sirius looked very old and very tired, an odd look for someone who was not yet forty, but understandable for someone who lived every day, being reminded of his own personal hell.

Harry was staring at his sister. He'd wanted answers for so long, but with more and more pieces that got revealed, the more he wasn't sure if he wanted them or not. And now, with a lot of the important pieces revealed with only the need to connect the dots, Harry wasn't sure if he wanted to just forget all of this instead.

It didn't matter that this was a different blonde, a different Malfoy. That Dragon Boy Malfoy had never done anything to make her this threatened, that this Malfoy wasn't the Malfoy who'd once tried to kill her for a trap.

Leila bit her lip. It didn't matter anymore, because this Malfoy was now a Black, who also had the voice of a same man in his head now. It didn't matter anymore, because this Malfoy was probably the only one left still alive who knew what it was like to fear this terrifying man from a terrifying nightmare of a child. And wasn't that ironic, that the son of her greatest fear had the same fear as her now?

Families were hard, Leila knew, but looking at Draco and looking at Patrick, her boys on the opposite ends of the same spectrum, she was almost glad that hers was dead.

"I don't think so." Malfoy said.

Leila gritted her teeth as Malfoy twisted around her knifepoint and shoulder checked her harshly. When Leila blinked after getting her bearing, she found Malfoy's wand pointed to her neck.

Her knife was still pointed at Malfoy's side, but that didn't change the fact that there was a wand pointed at her throat.

"Hufflepuff's cup." Zacharias Smith swore in exasperation. "You guys just don't quit, do you?"

"Fuck off Smith." Reyna said on their behalf.

Her heart pounded.

Leila, Draco and Patrick were still curled together, trying to find comfort in the nightmares this chapter was bringing up.

"You think you can waltz in and threaten me like that, Potter?" Malfoy said. He had the same cold, terrifying eyes as his father. "My mother didn't send me off defenseless."

"Ah, Cissy." Sirius shook his head.

The cleverest, the most ruthless one out of their generation of the family. He was not at all surprised that his cousin had armed little Draco before she even sent him off to school. It sounded something exactly like his mother would have done, if Walburga Black had ever been bothered to care about her children. So perhaps truthfully it was the exact opposite of what his mother would have done, he supposed.

"You threatened me first." Leila said. "I'm just warning you off of trying that a second time."

To be honest, if Malfoy tried to kill her now, there wasn't much Leila could do to stop it. When things came down to it, a knife would never win in a wandfight.

"How are you so calm about this?" Marietta asked.

Leila smiled humorlessly. "I guess you get used to it."

James looked briefly furious.

Who knew what kind of spells Malfoy senior armed his spawn with before sending him to Hogwarts.

Draco quirked his lips slightly. "Wrong Malfoy senior, actually."

All Leila knew were a handful of spells that made it just a little bit easier to outrun people. To escape. To survive.

Patrick grimaced.

"You think you can do anything before I fire a spell?"

Patrick had never taught her spells to fight. He taught her to defend herself, and to run, but he'd wanted her to have a future at Hogwarts. Stephanie and Luke had agreed with him. They didn't want her to pick fights and end up killed.

"I don't want to apologize, Leila. But I-" Patrick started.

"I know." Leila cut him off.

She hadn't argued too much. She'd thought that she'd have time to convince them. When things came down to it, Leila hadn't particularly wanted to fight her whole life.

Sirius looked tired and sad. So did Lupin. For about a millionth time since this chapter began, James looked like his heart was breaking. Lily just looked quietly furious.

Patrick looked guilty and tired.

"I thought I'd have time too." he said quietly. "I didn't teach you to fight, but I didn't teach them to you under the assumption that I'd be here for you. I thought I could-I thought once the whole thing with Malfoy blew over, that we could be safe."

Leila felt numb and distant, the only thing grounding her Patrick's voice and his hand in hers, Draco's hand in her other hand.

"I'm sorry, Leila." Patrick said.

"It's-" Okay. Fine. Not your fault.

There were a thousand words Leila could have ended that sentence with, but she didn't know what the right choice was, so she just left the sentence unfinished.

That was the problem of it, Leila thought. There was never the right answers. There was only bad ones and slightly less bad ones, but the problem with life was that she still had to choose them.

That didn't change the fact that it had ended up being Patrick bleeding out to death in an alleyway months ago.

She hadn't wanted to fight, so she hadn't pushed to be taught to fight. Patrick died in an alleyway, bleeding out because he tried to keep her alive. A choice.

She'd wanted to have people that would care about her. She'd wanted to be safe and warm and not worried, so she'd gone to Stephanie and Luke's shop on days she couldn't stand it anymore. Stephanie and Luke died in a fire, despite the fact that they had ought to have been safe behind the wards that Stephanie designed herself, despite the fact that the only fire hot enough to break through the wards would have been fiendfyre, and the number of people powerful enough to cast that in Knockturn were virtually zero, and outside of Knockturn were limited to a very small group of people who had every reason to hold a grudge against her. A choice.

A lot of bad choices, and yet she'd made all the wrong ones. That was almost impressive.

"If I go down, I'm definitely taking you with me. I've escaped death before. Do you want to try your luck?"

Alastor didn't take his eyes, real or magical, off of the Potter girl.

For a while, he'd had an inkling of who exactly she could be, of how dangerous she was, not because of her power or her status, but because there was nothing more dangerous than someone who was desperate with nothing to lose. But it seemed that he'd underestimated-the Potter girl wasn't only desperate and backed into a corner, she was carrying a lot of guilt and a complex, angry at a lot of different people, and most of all, she was so, so terrified.

All she knew was that if she hesitated, this time it would be herself bleeding out in an alleyway or a train car or the hallways of Hogwarts.

Leila clenched her jaw.

When she thought back to her second year, or her first year, or those dark months after Patrick's death, the only thing Leila really remembered was being terrified that she'd die the same way he did. Nowhere had felt safe-not the streets she slept on alone for the month or so after his death, not Privet Drive, and certainly not Hogwarts, filled with children of dangerous men and women and headmasters with allegiances she did not know of.

It wasn't until third year that she'd grown out of that fear, but only because she'd found other, much worse things that she feared instead. Mostly, she'd accepted the fact that she likely wouldn't make it past seventeen, and it had made dealing with her fear of death a lot easier.

Although, maybe, seeing as how there were seven of these books in total, and if she was right in her assumption that each dealt with a year of her life, maybe she did get to make it to eighteen after all. That would be a laugh.

But that wasn't what mattered. Leila didn't have to win, she just had to take the other person with her.

Sirius made a sound like he'd been stabbed in the stomach.

Harry looked sick.

"I'll put my wand down if you put your knife away." Malfoy said.

She was so tired.

Leila closed her eyes, while George looked at her with concern.

"How do I know you won't kill me as soon as my knife is gone?"

Mad-Eye snorted.

"Too many witnesses." Malfoy snorted. "I don't fancy going to Azkaban before I've even started Hogwarts."

A few people let out weak snickers.

"Smart choice, kid." Sirius muttered. "Azkaban sucks."

Leila let out a slow breath.

"Put your wand away first." Leila said.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed. He took a step back, keeping his wand still pointed at her.

Terry snorted. "It's a miracle you two didn't kill each other."

Draco made a humorless smile. "I'd like to think it was our wonderous self-control."

"If that's what you want to think, cousin." Reyna said.

Draco rolled his eyes at them.

Leila tensed.

Malfoy continued stepping back until he was out of her immediate reach. As soon as he was far enough away, he stopped and holstered his wand.

Lily breathed out slowly in relief.

"Your turn." Malfoy said.

Leila narrowed her eyes but slowly put her knife away, holstering it back on her belt.

"Situation successfully deescalated!" Terry said, mock-cheerfully. "I'd call that one a win for the team."

"What team?" Leila snorted. "You weren't even paying attention to us."

"Was too." Terry grumbled. "Goyle just distracted us."

Keeping a careful eye on him, she reached towards the benches and grabbed the jacket she'd thrown there.

"Wait." Malfoy said, his eyes narrowed and focused. "What's that on your shoulder?"

Leila tensed rigidly, before she forcibly relaxed.

Unfortunately, her reaction had already drawn eyes from several aurors and professors.

"C'mon." Draco whispered to her, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. "Relax. It's going to be okay."

Leila snorted. "That's the biggest lie you've told me since we've known each other."

Leila flicked her gaze to her shoulder and felt the ground beneath her feet drop away.

Amelia Bones studied Leila Potter carefully.

As one of the few people who had been present at her hearing five years ago, she was one of the few in the room currently who knew what was about to be revealed. Most of the students here wouldn't realize anything of significance from what would be read aloud, but there were some in the auror division who'd had been the first on the scene that day, not to mention the paperwork that had to be handled quickly and discreetly afterwards.

It has always been of her opinion that the case of Leila Potter that winter should have been handled with more care, and more lenience, perhaps. She had been a ten year old who had been through trauma and loss and an immense danger, but most people at the hearing had preferred to focus on the act, rather than the circumstance. It was funny almost, how that worked-how many people would be able to plead leniency under the law as long as they were powerful and rich and influential, but as soon as it was a little girl with no one to protect her, the law changed.

In the end, Dumbledore had spoken up to offer his compromise of placing the child under house arrest in exchange for secrecy. Amelia had not agreed, pushed to place her in a safe home, under care of wizarding guardians of her choice, but she had been outvoted.

Dudley's shirt, which had always been large on her, had slipped partway down her shoulder to reveal the scar.

Harry's forehead wrinkled. "What scar?"

It was the second or third time that his sister's scar had been brought up, and no one had given him a straight answer yet.

Leila's heart felt like it was pounding again.

She yanked her shirt back up. Everything was fine. There was no way for Malfoy to know what his sentence meant.

Except this was Lucius Malfoy's son.

"Merlin damn it." Amelia muttered.

Similarly, Dumbledore also looked displeased.

"The scar, the knife. An upstart streetrat with the nerve to stand up to a noble pureblood. Only to be taken back down at the end." Malfoy said. "I've heard about you."

"Oh." Theodore Nott said slowly, staring at Potter, whose spine was so straight it seemed like it would break at the lightest of taps. "I never expected it to be her."

"What are you talking about?" Daphne said in a low voice.

Theo smirked. "Interesting."

Leila was trembling again.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said.

"It's funny." Malfoy said almost mildly. "Never thought the street rat would be anyone important, just some trash from Knockturn. Then again, should I say the Princess of Knockturn?"

Leila bit her lip strong enough to draw blood, trying to stop herself from throwing up.

It was ridiculous, how after all these years, that name, which had only been a throwaway comment from that man in a weak attempt to get under her skin, still made her taste bile in her throat. She'd thought-she'd thought that by letting Draco call her 'Princess', by changing the meaning in one simple english word, she'd owned the name, outgrew the weakness, the trigger.

But it had never been the name, perhaps.

The truth behind the name that no one, not Draco, not the aurors, no one else in this room was aware of. It was the reminder of the worst month of her life, the reminder of the worst mistake she'd ever made, of when her body refused to listen to her and her mind refused to obey her. She'd promised herself that she would never be controlled anymore, but the name was always the reminder, the chain on her ankle.

Leila's heart stopped. At that moment, the only thing she wanted to do was claw Malfoy's mouth off. Anything to stop him from talking.

Leila's hand was trembling in Draco's. Draco continued to run his thumb along her knuckles, but Leila didn't even spare him a glance, her gaze too faraway.

Maybe it was not at all the same, but he wished he could spare Leila this pain. Draco would give an awful lot to stop the reading, to stop every single private thought in Leila's head from being broadcast to the world, but Leila's duty and her conscience were too great to give up this sole avenue in which the correct answer could be found to stop the war, to save lives of her brother and her friends and her army.

Still, Draco thought, they could have made it slightly less personal. This was cruel.

"Don't you dare call me that." Leila said quietly.

Listen to her, Draco pleaded to his younger self, though he knew it wouldn't change anything.

"Thought you said it wasn't you, Princess." Malfoy smirked.

Leila wanted to scream and run and puke all at once. She wanted to rewind the clock so Malfoy had never seen her scar. She should have hemmed the shirt to actually fit her, but she'd always been too tired to bother.

George kept a concerned eye on Leila as he read.

She wanted to rewind the last nine months so the alleyway never happened.

Patrick gave Leila's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"The street rat princess of Knockturn." Malfoy just kept talking. "Heard you blew up the entire alley and killed the only promising talent to emerge from the place."

"What?" Some students gasped, while others gave her a wary look.

Leila didn't look around to see their reactions. She was so tired.

That wasn't even remotely close to what had happened, but she didn't care about that. All she cared about was a taunt that should have remained forgotten, that had survived nine months and come to haunt her.

How much did Malfoy know? How much had his father told him? Who else in Hogwarts knew, would know now that Malfoy knew what she'd done?

"What the bloody hell happened?" A third year Ravenclaw muttered. "Wish the book would stop bloody dragging this out. I want to know."

"Shut up!" His friend hissed.

Leila clenched her teeth, not certain whether she would spit out some insult or punch the blonde again or really run him through with her knife this time when a horrible yell interrupted them.

Ron made a face that was half of a grin and half of a grimace at the same time as he remembered what had happened.

Leila's head whipped around to see the rat Leila had seen snoozing on the windowsill hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle.

"Brilliant!" Seamus grinned.

"Brilliant if you forget that it was Scabbers." Ron muttered to Hermione and Harry, who smiled in agreement.

In front of her, Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung the rat round and round, howling when it finally flew off and hit the window.

"Animal cruelty!" Astoria shouted.

"Astoria, I'm begging you." Daphne said, weary. "Please behave yourself."

Astoria glared at her sister.

There were sweets all over the floor- it seemed that Goyle was trying to steal a piece, when the rat bit him.

Sirius's mouth was twisted in some semblance of mirth, as he was reminded of what, or who exactly the rat was.

Crabbe and Goyle disappeared at once, and Boot wandered over to her side.

"You okay over here?" Boot asked.

Leila sent Terry a small smile. Terry smiled back brightly, noticing the shadows still in her eyes.

Kairo growled at everyone in the compartment.

"Good boy." James muttered. Sirius gave him a look.

"I'm fine, Boot." Leila said. "Dragon Boy here was about to shut up and leave right now."

Ginny snorted.

"So that's how the nickname started, huh?" George said.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed again, before his lips twitched up into a smirk. "Sure I was." He said. "I'll see you at Hogwarts, Princess."

"And so it began." Terry said, faking an ominous voice.

Leila didn't roll her eyes, the tension still not entirely gone.

Malfoy bumped her shoulder-that shoulder-on his way out the compartment, and as soon as the door closed, Leila groaned before she ran a hand through her hair.

Leila sighed, allowing herself to lean back on Draco slightly.

A second later, a bushy, brown haired girl came running in.

"Here comes… the one and only Hermione Granger!" Fred and George cheered.

"The brightest witch of her age!" Fred sang in a horrible, off key tone.

"Punched Draco Malfoy in the face!" George continued singing in the same melody.

Hermione flushed. "That's enough, you too."

Ron and Harry grinned at each other, before they nudged her shoulders at the same time.

"We love you Hermione." Harry said.

"What he said." Ron flushed.

Hermione laughed and wrapped an arm around each of them, giving them a short hug.

"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Weasley picking up the rat by his tail.

"That's not how you hold a rat!" Astoria grumbled.

"I think he's been knocked out," Weasley said to Harry. He looked closer at it. "No - I don't believe it - he's gone back to sleep-"

"Typical." Sirius grumbled.

James gave him a questioning look. "Something wrong, Padfoot?"

Sirius and Remus froze in their seats, heads jerking up to stare at each other. He doesn't know, was the thought running through both of their heads at the same time.

"'Course not, Prongs." Sirius said.

"We'll tell you later." Remus said.

James looked between them, a light frown on his face. "Alright then, if you're sure."

Weasley turned to the bushy-haired girl. "Can we help you with something?"

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

Harry grinned. "Classic Hermione."

Hermione scowled at him.

"It's not us who have been fighting," said Weasley, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"

"All right - I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said the bushy-haired girl in a stuffy voice.

"And you've got dirt on your nose." Harry couldn't help but say, mimicking Hermione. Ron laughed, remembering.

"How do you even remember what I said?" Hermione flushed.

"What can I say?" Ron said. "You're a very memorable person."

"And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"

The people who were listening to the Trio's conversation laughed.

Weasley glared at her as she left.

Leila peered out of the window. It was getting dark. She could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.

Leila scratched Kairo behind his ears absentmindedly.

"You alright?" Boot said. "Dragon Boy over there didn't shake you up that badly, did he?"

Draco started to tense again, remembering what was read aloud just a few minutes before. This time, Leila took his hand and started rubbing her thumb over his knuckles.

Leila clenched her teeth, wanting desperately to hit something.

Despite himself, Patrick smiled at that.

"I am not shaken up by Dragon Boy."

Boot eyed her warily. "You… sure you're alright?"

Leila rolled her eyes.

"I'm fine." Leila sounded blank, even to her ears.

"You sure about that?" Boot said.

"Maybe you should stop asking people if they're sure about something." Anthony said, wryly. "Especially if they look like they're about to kill you. Learn to read the mood, Terry."

Terry huffed.

Leila breathed in, then out slowly. "Stay away from him, Boot. He's bad news. And don't listen to anything he tells you."

Draco closed his eyes, tired. "You know, I didn't realize how bad-how bad some of the things I thought as a kid was, until we started reading this thing. How much poison he poured into my mind. I thought I was done with all this, that I could be done with him," he muttered. "And this me, in the book, he just keeps opening his mouth and every single word that comes out is his. I can't get away from him. And I know he's done so much worse to you, but-"

"But nothing. It's not a competition, Dragon Boy." Leila said. "And we've got seven of these books. Things are going to get so much worse before they get better, we both know that. But this time… I don't know, this time, everything's already done now. We survived living it. We'll survive this, too."

"You making me a promise, Princess?" Draco asked drily, in a much different tone of voice than the first time Draco ever called Leila by that name.

"You know it." Leila said. "Have I ever broken a promise to you?"

Draco shook his head, smiling softly. "You are a woman of your word."

Boot gave her a serious look. "He must be really bad news if you're warning me about him."

"What's that supposed to mean." Leila said half-heartedly.

"Only that you are utmostly generous and free with your words and affections always." Terry said.

Patrick snorted.

Leila's hand was still shaking. She hoped that no one would notice, because she couldn't make it stop.

Leila let out a slow breath, while she focused on continuing to rub her thumb on Draco's knuckles.

Draco squeezed her hand for a short second.

"His name is Draco Malfoy, and he's from one of the old pureblood families. His father is even worse news and his mother comes from one of the darkest families around.

Sirius snorted, a wry smile on his face. "Change that to 'the darkest family' maybe."

Don't be alone with him and be on your guard around him."

Draco shut his eyes.

He hadn't known that Leila had warned Terry about him, that first day, but he was glad that she had. He would have liked to say that his younger self would never have hurt Terry like that, but he was all too aware that it was a lie-he had been ignorant and stubborn at eleven, and thus all the more dangerous because of it.

"Potter?" Boot looked quizzical, though still serious.

Leila looked him in the eyes. "You're a muggleborn. There's some people who'd kill you just for that.

Lily let out a shaky breath, remembering the last few years of war, the last few years of her Hogwarts schooling. Remembered all the name calling, the hexes from dark corners of the corridors, the obituaries in the newspapers of all the witches and wizards that died or went missing, many of them muggleborns and halfbloods.

She wished that something had changed in eleven years, that the end of her war that the book had talked about so far had been enough to make the wizarding world a safe place for every other muggleborn kids. She wished that the people like her son's friend Hermione or Leila's friend Terry didn't have to go through what she did, but it was all too clear from the first few chapters she'd sat through that that wasn't the case.

Her chest ached.

Some of them have kids in this school. Some of them might be a student in this school"

A lot of the students looked at the Slytherins in the Great Hall, while the Slytherins in return pretended not to see the glances.

"Well, now I'm scared." Boot said.

"You should be." Patrick said, wearily. "If you're scared, you're careful."

"Unfortunately, Terry's never been careful a day in his entire life." Leila grumbled.

"You should be." Leila said darkly.

Patrick and Leila exchanged glances.

Her hand twitched, before she yanked her backpack out from under the train seat, and spun back out the door.

"Where are you going?" Boot shouted.

"To get changed!" Leila shouted back. "Kairo, stay there!"

Draco's lips quirked. "You left the dog with Terry?"

"You're a terrible person." Terry groaned. "Do you know how many times I almost got my hand bitten off that day?"

Leila's mouth tilted up. "You still have all ten of your fingers attached, don't you?"

Terry's face spasmed. "That is not the response I was looking for!"

Leila ignored him.

The moment Leila made it into the loo and shut the door closed, she leaned against it, before she absently rubbed the scar on her shoulder.

Leila grimaced. hand aborted midway in reaching up to her shoulder.

Her heart was racing too fast, some dim part of her recognized. She felt like her lungs were crushed-she couldn't breathe properly. Panic turned into fire burning through her veins.

"Oh." Sirius said. "You're having a panic attack."

James sent Leila a worried look, while Lily looked tense.

She couldn't figure out how to breathe.

Leila's face was flushed with humiliation and half hidden with her hair. Her posture was straight, her shoulders squared and her teeth clenched.

Patrick looked at her warily.

She took a step back and stumbled as her body had forgotten about the wall behind her back. Her feet got tangled and Leila lost her balance and fell on her behind, the impact and the pain jolting her slightly out of her panic.

Leila focused only on Draco's hand in hers.

Oh, her eyes were closed, she recognized. Leila opened them, and her lungs started remembering how to breathe again.

Leila became even tenser, somehow feeling like she could sense all the pitying looks being thrown at her.

Breathe in, two, three, four.

Breathe out, two, three, four.

Leila matched her breathing to the count being read aloud.

Ten fingers, ten toes, nothing broken, she reminded herself. There was a door behind her back, a knife in her belt and another in her boot. She was alone in the loo, on the train to Hogwarts.

Breathe in, two, three, four.

Breathe out, two, three, four.

Patrick rubbed a hand across her back, grounding her.

After regaining her breath, the chocolate frog picture of Dumbledore floated into her mind and she scoffed out loud.

"What's the use of secrecy if Lucius Malfoy still manages to tell his spawn enough?"

"I apologize, Miss Potter." Dumbledore said quietly.

Leila scoffed. Fuck his apology.

She would have given everything she had to pretend that last winter never happened. Would have given everything for no one at Hogwarts to know anything about the worst months of her life. Would have given anything for her dignity to remain.

What's worth dignity? Sirius thought, reminded of years within Azkaban, surrounded by guards who only thought of him as food.

What's worth knowledge? Remus thought, thinking of a name long thought dead on a piece of parchment, of a truth of a betrayer and a friend he unknowingly abandoned, of green eyes filled with anguish after the truth was revealed.

What's worth ignorance? Patrick thought, remembering pedestals crashing down, blankness in Leila's eyes after she was found, of screams in the night and holes in memories, of parentage that he couldn't erase even with death, of threats and running and nightmares.

She couldn't have any weaknesses on display—not at Hogwarts, where there was no Patrick or Stephanie or Luke to look out for her, her first foray into the Wizarding world where she would have absolutely no one on her side.

Patrick looked sad, but he looked around the table at Leila's friends, at people who, despite all the odds, had managed to worm themselves into Leila's heart, had managed to win her trust.

"I'm so glad you found them, Munchkin." Patrick whispered.

Leila's eyes stared at some unseen place far away, but she smiled slightly. "Yeah, me too."

Last winter, was a weakness. Lucius Malfoy and his fucking son, was a weakness.

Draco let out a slow breath.

Forgetting how to breathe sometimes, was a weakness.

"That's not a weakness." Luna said. "It's the Nargles that are making your brain confused. You just have to remind it again. I have a necklace that can help"

Leila made a wan smile. "Thanks, Luna."

She couldn't afford to slip again.

Not like in the train carriage. Not like the alleyway, cold and windy and blood on the pavement. Not like the trial, surrounded by strangers who would rip her apart for what they wanted to see.

Amelia sighed.

She had never thought the Ministry infalliable-the Ministry had failed a lot of people in a lot of creative different ways. But it was hard realizing that one of the people they had failed had been a ten year old girl, and even harder thinking that if Amelia had tried just a bit harder that day, she could have avoided this.

She took Dumbledore on his deal, and now she knew that the other side of the deal hadn't been held up.

Dumbledore shut his eyes, looking regretful, while McGonagall sighed silently.

It was no wonder her most troublesome Gryffindor still had trouble trusting her. She'd thought that it was just an aspect carried over from Potter's childhood with those muggles-McGonagall had had students before from troubled homes, who had problems with trust and authority figures, and as sad as it was, thought that that had been all the case for Potter.

Now she knew that Potter's lack of trust was more personal.

Six months at Privet Drive, for nothing. Bitterness filled her mouth and her veins and it was enough to fight off her fatigue and get her to stand back up.

George looked at Leila, who looked drawn and tired and pale.

The bags under her eyes, which had been there since the summer, looked like they had gotten darker during this chapter, despite what was surely his imagination.

Leaning back against the door, she let out a breath, eyes closed, before she straightened back up.

She took off her jacket and her belt and put on her robe over the rest of her clothes, with her belt over her waist. She put on her Hogwarts crest, which would change to her house crest after she got sorted, but kept the tie in her pocket.

"You're supposed to wear your tie, Princess." Draco teased.

Leila rolled her eyes. "Didn't feel like having a noose around my throat."

Her table laughed while Mad-Eye looked approving and James sent Leila a sad look.

"What do you want?" Leila said, when she noticed Patrick staring at her with suspicion.

"Be honest." Patrick leaned forward to whisper. "You didn't wear the tie because you didn't know how to tie it, did you?"

Leila froze for half a moment, before slumping back in her seat. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Patrick laughed.

She stuck her knife back through her belt, put her jacket back on and slipped back into her compartment.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Hermione sniffed. "Taken to school by House Elves, I suppose, without compensating them for their labour properly."

Ron and Harry pretended not to hear, but James met her eyes and gave her a sympathetic look.

Leila scratched Kairo's ears absentmindedly, and Harry, she saw, looked pretty pale as well. Her brother and the Weasley were cramming their pockets with the last of the sweets when she and Boot joined the crowd thronging the corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform.

"You're almost here!" Colin said, grinning.

"Hogwarts! Hogwarts! Hoggy Warty Hogwarts!" Fred and George chorused.

Leila breathed in the fresh cold night air.

Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Leila heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Alright there, Harry? Leila?"

Harry and Leila each sent a smile to Hagrid.

Hagrid gave a wide smile back.

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

"Yeah Sirius, mind your step." Remus muttered.

Sirius scowled at him. "Shut your mouth, Lupin."

"You'd miss my witty commentary too much." Remus said.

"In your dreams." Sirius snorted.

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Leila thought there must be thick trees there.

Nobody spoke much. Neville, the toad boy, sniffed once or twice.

Neville groaned slightly at the resurgence of the nickname.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

Many people held their breaths in anticipation for the Potter twins' first time seeing Hogwarts.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

So this was the Hogwarts she had heard so much about.

"It sounds… magical." Tracey said with a straight face, while Daphne looked to the ceiling, pleading.

"You never forget the first time you see it." Hestia said, smiling fondly.

James, Sirius and Remus grinned at each other, while Lily and Severus locked eyes for a brief moment, all of them remembering.

Leila felt like molten fire was flowing through her veins as Lady Hogwarts reacted in her own way. She grimaced.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and the bushy-haired girl. Leila slipped into a boat followed by Boot, with a girl with long dark hair and grey eyes resembling Patrick's,

Reyna blinked in surprise, before she, Leila and Terry exchanged glances.

and a dark-skinned boy grinning like a loon.

"Oof." Dean Thomas muttered. "Thanks, Leila."

Seamus bumped his shoulder. "To be fair, I'm sure you had your crazy eyes on that day."

"I don't have crazy eyes." Dean scowled at Seamus.

"You absolutely do, sometimes." Seamus said.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

Around the Hall, people were grinning.

The students didn't get to see that view approaching from the lake anymore, since everyone got to Hogwarts on the carriages after their first year. This was nostalgic.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff;

Dennis's friends snickered at him, as Dennis blushed brightly.

they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"When it's put like that, it sounds like another of the hidden passageways." Astoria said.

They clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"How did you know what wood the door was made of?" Terry squinted at Leila.

"I looked at it." Leila deadpanned.

"Everyone here?"

"You've got to make sure you haven't lost anyone over the lake, Hagrid." Sirius snickered.

"The last time, you boys were the ones who stole 'em." Hagrid scowled jokingly.

"You did what?" Harry said, eyes wide.

Remus laughed. "Oh yeah, that was hilarious."

On the dais, McGonagall pursed her lips, but some students could tell that she was trying not to laugh.

Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door."

"The chapter's over." George said, "Who wants to read next? The next chapter is called,

What the Hat Said."

"Oh, it's your sorting!" James said. "I'd like to read, if you don't mind."

AN: Ahaha, I guess this update is four years overdue. Thank you for everyone who supported this fic through the really long hiatus. I'm sorry this update is so late, but I promise I've been working on this chapter for a really long time now, and I'm glad to see it finally up. This monstrosity has come out to 125 pages in google docs, so I hope you guys had fun.

I can't believe it's already 2019, it kind of feels like I've lost track of time since 2016, but I hope this year is going well for you guys. Everything in the world is kind of sucking right now, but despite everything bad, I hope there's still good things happening in your lives for you.

Big thanks to Individuality26, Tigeress24, Gwendolyn Montrose, Me1371, jument fiere, creampuffs-and-fluff, FlamingStar1, Rachel Beckett, NRMania, maggilamb, just-go-with-it7, Just2aw3s0me, vartikajain14, , Rose099, miketheklym, lonelylight, Shewolf-skittles-twist14, Olaf74, Lady Fon Slytherin, MakoLooneygirl, tinlawia, classyjazz93, Br0ken-wishes, Hime2700Tsuna, MysticalLights, agalaxyinyoureyes, BarbieHale, EdenEzraHiddleston, DolphinDelight, LenaMiaH, Someone's Bastard, .dawnstar, WAR0032, InnerGeek, PrincessJennyQueen, Carolynn993, Douseemehere16, killer4853, Aviva West, .33, Piepieoj00, , makaylamiller490, XXX-Rose-of-deathXXX, ZaiSouto, VickyMM, Foxy chibi, Jungkookie16, 7, TheRoarOfTheLioness, celestelyralestrange, Sofia Grace, Irene malfoys, Alice Maya Kitagawa, ParkYRN, angela340278, Padfootette, SilverMoon100, GoldenPheonix25, shadosakushi, Eisak18, PleaseStopYourScaringMe, Zackmadness, Law226, pokemonaora, stellarglassroses, Dyeness, Swati Aole, JustThatMultiFandomFreak, Nic Stormborn, Ymae12, Cut-throught, cong3054, CreepyLolita, iHogwarts, nonymous h, ShadowWolfReturns, . .seas, Cara098 for following/favouriting this story!

And a very special thank you to HermioneandMarcus, Guest, Autumnassasin, takemeup15, Rose099, Someone's Bastard, Asexual Potato, jenn, PrincessJennyQueen, Padfootette and Law226 for your encouraging reviews! You rock.

To all the readers, you guys are the reason why I felt too guilty to give up halfway through when this chapter started turning out to be monstrously out of control in length. Thanks for helping me guilt trip myself, guys.

As always, feel free to drop me a PM if you want to talk. If you have any comments or criticisms, please leave a review. Even if you don't, feel free to leave a review anyway, but no pressure.

I will do my utmost best to update the next chapter as soon as I can, but as you can clearly see from my haphazard updating schedule, when exactly the next update will be is kind of questionable.

I'm also on tumblr (at least until the site goes crashing down someday in the inevitable future) with the same url and responds to stuff there too if you feel like yelling at me or with me.

Take care of yourselves.

Much love,

thatclichedwriter