Sitting at a desk in the middle row next to the window was
a cute little girl. She has a lean build and is the tallest in
her class. Not like that is saying much seeing that it is her
first day of kindergarten. The little girl has long wavy brown
hair and her eyes are a beautiful amber. One day, about a year
ago, she woke up and learned of her new situation. She was
a 3-year-old orphan just about to start preschool at the time.
Her new name is Lea Long. Of course, that was just the name
the orphanage gave her. No one knows Lea's birth name or
parents.
Though Lea was not an ordinary kindergartner, for she
remembers her previous life. A life where she lived in a
different world, our world. Not that she realizes that she is
currently in an all-new world together. She currently believes
she is just in the past. However, that is about to change.
Back to her first day of kindergarten, Lea looks out
the window while waiting for the teacher to call names.
Sometimes Lea wonders why she is here. Why was she sent to
the past? She was not good at history, so there wasn't anything
Lea wanted to change. Lea didn't know what she wanted in
her first life and ending up here did not change her stance. 'At
least I am better adjusted to my new life than I was last year'
Lea muses.
The teacher starts rounding up all the children and does roll
call. Lea looks around at her new classmates. No one seems
familiar to her. It seems none of her preschool classmates are
in her class. She had played with them every now and then,
but entertaining and acting like a young child became tiring
on the mind over time. Lea hopes the book selection will have
better books for her, but she doubts it. Maybe there will be a
library that any grade can enter.
The teacher calls out the name Lea Long. Lea raises her
hand and says "Here." in a normal tone, but loud enough the
teacher hears her. Lea goes back to looking out the window.
It's not like she suspects anything entertaining to happen. The
teacher calls out more names and Lea is only half listening.
She does not feel like memorizing everyone's names right
now. Eventually, the teacher calls out "Harry Potter" and a
skinny boy barely raises his hands and whispers a "here" very
quietly. Lea's mind halts. She goes over what she just heard in
her head to make sure she heard correctly. 'Harry Potter?' Lea
questions. Lea sneaks a look behind her to see a small boy in
oversized clothes. The boy pushes some hair out of his face
and Lea sees a lighting-shaped scar on his forehead. 'Well,
shit' Lea despairs, looking back to the front. It seems like
she was not in the past after all. She was in the story of Harry
Potter.
So many options of what she can do have opened up. Lea
thinks about how she could befriend Harry Potter and join him
on his journeys. Maybe she could be one with the shadows
and change things from the background. She could befriend
all her favorite characters. A whole new world to explore with
magic! Magic... Lea realized none of this would be possible if
she wasn't a wizard, or she guess she should say witch in her
case. Lea has never noticed any accidental magic around her.
Finally, Lea has her first goal: Find out if she has magic. Now
how to do that you ask... she has no idea.
Kindergarten continues and the children participate in an
activity that will let them get to know each other. Lea watches
some of the other kids trying to get to know Harry. She sees
Harry flinch away from the children, making up some kind
of excuse not to play. Harry tentatively looks toward another
kid, a chubby kid who is scowling towards Harry. Lea pays
attention to the chubby kid and overhears that his name is
Dudley Dursley. 'Ah,' Lea realizes, 'That is Harry's cousin. I
guess I was spacing out too much and didn't hear his name be
called. It seems he is the reason Harry isn't making friends."
Whether Dudley threatened Harry to not make friends or
Harry is keeping the others at arm's length to protect them
from Dudley doesn't really matter to Lea. It just shows that it
is not a good idea to befriend Harry at this time.
Time continues until it reaches recess time. Lea finds a
secluded spot where others cannot see her. Lea initially was
going to try lumos, but she didn't think her hiding spot was
good enough to hide a light if it got to bright. She ponders
over some spells that were said to be easier. Lea decides to try
reducio, a spell that makes an object smaller. She picks up a
rock and calls out "reducio." Nothing happens to the rock, but
Lea feels something inside her shift. She decides to focus on
the feeling and starts to meditate. Currently, it feels like a tiny
spec of something. She focuses on the spec until the end of
recess.
After Lea has eaten lunch, she goes to her secret spot and
tries the reducio spell again while holding a rock. Lea could
not see a difference, but it felt like the rock got smaller, or at
least moved. She starts to meditate again and realizes the spec
is slightly bigger than when she started meditating before. Lea
gets super excited since this means she has magic, probably.
She fantasizes about going to the leaky cauldron and going to
Hogwarts... but now that she thinks about it, does she really
want to get involved with that side of the world? Lea knows a
war has ended recently and that a new one will come to pass.
Hogwarts will be in the middle of it all. Is she willing to put
herself in danger for no other reason than to learn magic? Lea
does not even know where to start to change things without
any support. She does not plan on telling anyone about her
past life if she can help it. Without contacts, changing the story
seems difficult. It does not feel like it is worth risking her life
when she cannot do much to help anyways. However, she still
would like to learn about the magic world. Lea has decided.
Even though she is exited to learn magic, she will not enroll in
Hogwarts but will accept an invite to one of the other schools
if they are offered. She is choosing safety over adventure.
Anyways, she can still learn magic later in her life after the
wizarding world gets its mess together. For now though, she
will just figure out what she can herself. Lea will grow her
magic on her own and practice magic on her own. Lea is just
fine being all alone.
---
Lea spends almost all her free time meditating. She
meditates at school and the orphanage. Occasionally she
will get bored and read a book or join one of the kids groups
games. However, that is not often. Lea's speck, she named
her magic core, grew leaps and bounds over the past couple
months. She kept experimenting with more simple spells,
only with little success. Lea once tried a higher level spell in
frustration and promptly passed out. She decided to treat her
core like a muscle, and assumed it was bad to overwork it.
She held off on experimenting for a while and just focused on
expanding her core.
Lea is in one of her hiding spots located in the forest near
her orphanage. She has decided her core should have enough
magic power to experiment a little. Lea wants to know what
will happed if she moves her magic throughout her body. She
has felt her magic move to her hand when she casted spells
previously, and is now experimenting what happens if she
moves the magic to her hand without a spell. It takes some
practice, but Lea is able to do it after a bit. She puts her hand
on a rock without thinking of any spells. Nothing seems to
happen. Lea frowns and decides to try and move the magic
to her eyes, getting the idea from an anime. After she gets
the hang of it enough to move and look around, she does not
initially notice anything. However when she looks down at
her hands, she realizes she is glowing. The color is hard to
describe since it is not a known color, but the closest color
she thinks of is a silvery blue. Lea cuts the magic connection
to here eyes and things went back to looking normal. Lea
stares in wonder from what she just saw. It's one thing to
feel her magic growing, but it's a whole other thing seeing it.
Realizing she should probably give this technique a name, Lea
decides to name it magic sight.
After a few minutes of rest, Lea wants to do one more
experiment. She attempts to move her magic throughout her
whole body at once... and then proceeds to black out.
-----
It is now the last month of school. Lea learned over time
that she no longer had to meditate to expand her core. When
she was meditating, all she was trying to do is manipulate her
magic to expand. Now that Lea can move her magic while
awake and moving around, she uses magic sight constantly
instead of meditating. She uses her magic in short bursts,
extending it longer each time it starts to feel easier. Now, Lea
can hold magic sight the whole day, even when running. Sadly,
she has not made much progress on her spellcasting.
Lea walks into school, magic sight on as she does every
day to expand her core. She walks into class and freezes. The
whole classroom is almost filled with magic, with the brightest
point being Harry Potter. Now, Lea has seen Harry's magic
before. However, it looked similar to her own when she first
used magic sight. The key difference being his magic was a
color closer to green and gold.
After shaking herself out of her shock, Lea accidentally
locks eyes with Harry. The magic blinding so she turns off
her magic sight. Lea quickly looks away and calmly heads to
her seat, acting as if she wasn't seeing things and internally
freaking out. She thinks back on how Harry looked. Well,
technically his features are the same, but he no longer seemed
like the meek boy he was. Harry held himself differently and
had been sitting straighter and looked more confident overall.
He looked nothing like the Harry Lea has seen over the school
year. Lea is confused on what is going on, people don't change
overnight. She probably would have brushed his behavior off
if it wasn't for his sudden increase of magic.
'It is almost the end of the school year. I won't have to deal
with whatever this after that. I will avoid him as much as I
can until then.' Lea tells herself to calm herself, 'I don't know
what is going on... I don't know if I want to find out.'
-----
Lea's plan went up in flames almost right away. Lea goes
to her hiding spot like she always does during recess. She
turns back on magic sight since she should be far enough
from Harry Potter. She sees Harry's huge cloud of magic, but
this time it was much closer. The magic indicated that Harry
is right behind some shrubbery. "Come out here. I know
you are there." Lea commands. The bushes rustle and Harry
sheepishly comes out into the open. Lea turns off her magic
sight now that she can see him normally. She is still not used
to the blinding light Harry's magic gives off.
"How did you know I was there?" Harry asks.
"Why did you follow and spy on me?" Lea counters. They
both stare at each other for a bit. Lea doesn't want her to
reveal any of her secrets, however she suspects that Harry
already knows.
"When we were in the classroom, your eyes were glowing.
Though it stopped quickly after I saw it. The same thing
happened just now as well." Harry says tentatively.
'Glowing?' Lea thinks, 'I have been using magic sight for
most of the school year. Someone would have mentioned it
sooner if it could be seen. It would have freaked people out
and caused a commotion. However, he said my eyes stopped
glowing at the same time that I turned off my magic sight. I
guess that means only Harry can see it, and he can only see it
now when his magic spiked.' Lea concluded.
Lea turns on her magic sight and looks at Harry straight into
his eyes. "Do you mean like this?" Lea asks.
"Yeah, exactly like that! How do you do that?" Harry asks.
Lea sighs, "I'll tell you if you tell me why only you see my
eyes glow."
Harry seems to think for a moment. Luckily, he decides
to tell Lea about magic and the wizarding society, and lets
her know that she is not alone. Lea nods along, she already
knew the basics because she watched the Harry Potter movies,
though, she acts like she doesn't know anything. Lea never
read the book, but she read a lot of fanfiction. This made her
mind more open to changes and getting rid of preconceived
notions. As Lea listens to Harry, the wizarding world starts to
feel more real. Wizards are no longer just from a story, they
are living beings.
It was clear that Harry already knows about magic for some
reason, and seems to already knows Lea is a wizard. So, she
decided not to hold back. She told Harry everything about how
she found her own magic, how it feels, and how she controls it.
However, she never said anything about her first life and the
story that describes a version of his life.
Harry was very intrigued since he has not heard anything
like Lea's story before. They talked for the rest of recess,
asking each other questions back and forth. Harry teaching
Lea about the wizarding world like about wands, the Statute
of Secrecy, and Hogwarts. Lea explaining and teaching Harry
how she perceives magic. Both so were absorbed with their
conversation, they did not realize that neither of them are
talking like a normal kindergartner.
-----
Lea's and Harry's decided to meet at the same location
for lunch. During class, Lea thought about how Harry acted
during recess. She was surprised they were able to have a
proper conversation. She hadn't been able to talk like an adult
since she fore she found herself in this world. 'But this doesn't
make sense. Why has Harry suddenly gone from a meek little
boy to talking confidently like an adult? Also, what happened
to his magic? It was so bright, and he could see when I used
magic sight.' Though Harry talked about the wizarding world,
he did not say how he new about it. Lea could tell Harry was
about as cautious as she is. Though he did take a chance
telling Lea about magic, trusting her to keep the Statute of
Secrecy. Lea believes it is her turn to take a risk telling Harry
something if she wants answers from him. Harry will wonder
why Lea talked like an adult anyways. The question is how
much to tell him. They have only just met, so Lea does not
want to trust Harry with the whole story. This Harry is not the
same one from the stories anymore.
Lea and Harry meet back up at their hiding spot after
quickly finishing their food. Lea starts, "I think both of us
have realized that we both act older than a kindergartner
normally acts. I'll tell you my story as long as you explain
yours after." Harry agrees and Lea begins, "I was twenty-five
before I suddenly ended up in the past, before a time I was
even born." Harry gasps but stays quiet. "I didn't believe
in magic. Magic was just a thing in storybooks. Last thing I
knew was that I had gone to bed for the night, then suddenly I
was in the front of a bunch of preschoolers who were singing
happy birthday to me. That was over a year ago. I learned that
my name is Lia Long and later learned that I was an orphan.
My name was chosen by the orphanage since I was found at
their doorsteps without even a note. The orphanage's older
kids makes sure of us get three meals a day, the orphanage
negligent in every way. They don't supervise what the
children do at all, though that was nice for me because I could
get away from everyone to work my feelings out. Losing
everything was devastating for me."
"How did you deal with those feelings?" Harry inquires,
seemingly a little emotional.
"I think I mostly just dealt with it over time. The more I did,
the more this all felt real and not just a dream. I didn't interact
with the other children often besides conversations during
meal time, but I entertained myself in my own way. There is a
forest near the orphanage and I often went to explore in there.
It is fun being able to climb trees again. I know I will never
completely get over loosing my family, but I know they would
want me to try to be happy... Anyways, you can ask me more
questions later. What is your story?"
Harry pauses for a moment, collecting himself before saying,
"Well, the basics of it is that I died. But you are going to need
some background information to learn how." Harry explained,
"I did not grow up with magic. I learned about it from my
Hogwarts letter when I was eleven. I went to Hogwarts and it
felt like home. However, I also learned of an Evil Dark Lord
named Voldemort. Apparently, my parents did not die in a car
accident, but was killed by Voldemort. He killed my parents
when I was a baby and tried to kill me. Somehow, I lived and
Voldemort died. Everyone hailed me as "The Boy Who Lived."
I never liked the fame I got.
Near the end of my first year, I learned the hard way that
Voldemort was not fully dead. He was some kind of wraith. He
got resurrected and regained his body during my fourth year,
not that anyone besides my friends, my godfather, and the
headmaster believed me until near the end of my fifth year. It
took having a battle with Voldemort at the ministry for people
to listen. I lost Sirius, my godfather, that day.
Hogwarts got taken over by Voldemort and his followers
near the end of my sixth year. Dumbledore's death was the
beginning of Voldemort's takeover of Hogwarts. Me and my
friends went on the run and hunted for the remaining objects
called Horcruxes, for these things are the reason Voldemort
can come back to life. We had destroyed all but one of the
Horcruxes. The last one was in Voldemort's snake and they
always were together. So, we went back to Hogwarts to
kill the last Horcrux and then Voldemort. However, due to
the death of a teacher, who we thought was on Voldemort's
side due to being the murderer of Dumbledore, I gained said
teacher's memories. He gave them to me with magic as he
was dying. First, it showed that Snape, the teacher, was a
double agent and he worked for Dumbledore the whole time.
Dumbledore ordered Snape to kill him since Dumbledore
was dying anyways and it would help further Dumbledore's
plans. But the most important thing I learned from Snape's
memories is that there was one more Horcrux that Voldemort
didn't know about. I was the last Horcrux, and the only way
to destroy it was to let Voldemort kill me. And so, when
Voldemort was trying to lure me out using one of my friends
as a hostage, I willingly walked to my death. I was 17 years
old when Voldemort murdered me.
Then suddenly, I woke up over the weekend before the
first day we met at this hiding spot. I was a child again and
was... am very confused and depressed. I needed a distraction.
So, when I saw you with your glowing eyes, I decided to
investigate. I think talking with you has helped a little for
now. Things don't feel as hopeless anymore. You helped me
remember that things are different now. I don't even remember
talking to you last time and that is already a difference. This is
a second chance. I can change things and save everyone."
"You could also have a better childhood this time around."
Lea included.
"I-I don't know what you mean." Harry nervously says
without looking Lea's eyes.
Lea sighs, "Come on, it's obvious that you get bullied by
Dudley and his friends. I also know Dudley is your cousin
and you live together. Even on the slim chance that he doesn't
bully you at home, it must be hard to live with him."
"If you noticed, why didn't you help me? I was very lonely,
not having any friends until Hogwarts." Harry sadly questions
with a hint of anger.
Lea starts, "On the first day of school I planned on at least
going over to talk to you, but some other kids beat me to it.
I watched the interaction from my seat. I noticed you flinch
and make excuses for not accepting their offer to play. I also
saw you sneaking peaks at Dudley like you were waiting for
a bomb to go off. I figured he threatened you to not make
friends. Though, I don't know whether the threat was to harm
you or the people you make friends with."
Harry furrows his brow, trying to remember details of
his childhood. "Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that." Harry
admits. "But that doesn't explain why teachers never helped
me."
"I tried to lead teachers to where Dudley was bullying you.
They just brushed it off as 'rough housing' or 'That's just how
boys play.' I eventually gave up. Though, I had just learned
that I could do magic and focused almost all my time studying
it. There were probably some small things I could have done to
help, but I was engrossed in learning magic. I'm sorry I didn't
do anything that helped you." Lea sadly admits. She did not
think about helping Harry other ways until just this moment
besides some discarded plans of running away. She was an
adult, not that she ever felt like she was an adult. Still, Lea
believes she should have done something to help instead of
playing around with her new 'toy'.
Harry pats Lea's shoulder, "Hey, you tried to help. That is
more than anyone else did for me before Hogwarts." Harry
smiles, "Thank you."
Lea sadly smiles back at Harry. She is appreciative of
Harry's thanks, but is sad that was the most anyone did
for him. Lea knew Harry was bullied and pushed around.
However, she does not know the scale of how much Harry's
been bullied. It seems like the scale is on the worse end,
especially since if it was this bad in kindergarten.
Lea had been thinking about how to get Harry away from
the Dursley's for a while. Some thoughts came to her as she
was lying in bed. However, Lea's best plans always end up
with the need to go to the Wizarding World. Sadly, Lea doesn't
remember where Leaky Cauldron was located, if she ever
knew. Even if Lea did know where to go, she doesn't think
Harry would have been convinced to leave the Dursley's. He
was too scared to even imagine leaving, and Lea can't force
him. But now things are different. Harry is mentally an adult
and probably knows how to get to Leaky Cauldron.
The question is, does she go with him? In Lea's previous
plans, she had already planned to leave the orphanage. Now,
Harry probably doesn't need Lea to escape, besides maybe
convincing him to leave. The orphanage feeds their wards
properly, kind of. Other than that, they are negligent. They never
even notice that Lea was missing when she went to sneak into
the woods. It would be nice to leave, but that would mean
entering the Wizarding World. Lea would love to go, but is
she willing to risk becoming part of the war? It is not viable
to ask Harry, he will ignore what he wants, and only want to
keep Lea safe since he sounds like he is the same as the story's
older Harry Potter.
Ah fuck it. "Harry, pick one or two!" Lea suddenly demands.
If he picks one, Lea will go with him. Two means Lea stays at
the orphanage. Yes, she is leaving her fate up to a 'coin-flip.'
"Huh?" Harry questions, wondering why Lea suddenly went
from sad to determined, giving a random command.
"One or two." Lea repeats.
"Uhh one?" Harry hesitantly chooses.
Lea smiles happily. "Okay, let's run away to the wizarding
world together."
Harry makes a baffled face. "What?! Running away sounds
good but you don't need to come with me. You should think
about whether you want to leave more thoroughly, and why
did make me pick between one and two?"
"Doesn't matter." Lea waves off. "I have been thinking about
running away for a while, but I had nowhere to go," leaving
off the part where she planned to take Harry with her. "Now
we could go live in the wizarding world."
"You already know there is a war coming. Are you alright
with getting caught up in it? Also, where are we supposed to
live once in the wizarding world?"
"Staying with you, someone who is in a similar situation as
me and thus won't treat me as a child, as well as leaving the
orphanage, outweighs the negatives of the possibility of war.
Besides, you are going to change things, right? Things will be
different this time around. We don't know if the war will even
happen or not."
"And the living situation."
"I can't really plan that without you, I don't know enough
about the wizarding world."
Harry looks worried, but Lea tries to show how determined
she was while looking straight at him.
After a few moments, where it seemed like Harry was
thinking things over, Harry's shoulders drop and he sighs,
"Fine, we can runaway together. Originally, I was going to try
to keep things similar to how things were before so my future
knowledge doesn't become less useful. However, you are
right, why should I live in torment when I can give myself a
better childhood? Why do I have to wait for Hogwarts to start
making things better? I don't. I will be happier living away
from the Dursley's, and having a friend with me is a nice
bonus."
"A friend huh, not that I mind, and I would love for us to be
friends, but we just met today. Are you sure about trusting me
so easily?" Lea inquires.
"What do you mean? Don't all kindergartners become
friends after they first meet." Harry giggles causing Lea to
giggle as well. "Also, we have a month left of school. Let's
plan to leave on the final school day. Plenty of time to get to
know each other."
Lea smiles "I like that plan. Nice to meet you, I'm Lea
Long." Lea smirks while sticking out her hand.
Harry smirks back and shakes her hand, "Nice to meet you Lea, I am Harry
Potter.