Hi! Thanks for taking a chance with my story!

This story is primarily about the OC and Background Characters that are being see in a different light on Harry's Journey. Not very Harry-centric. More OC, Severus and Draco-centric.

Chapter 1

The house of number four Privet Drive was quiet, almost too quiet. There lived an ordinary family with ordinary mundane lives. At least that's what the family would like you to believe. This family had skeletons in their closet and two children hidden in their walls.

Petunia Dursley always hated her sister, loathed her attention and the bloody magical world. When she met Vernon she thought she'd be rid of her good for nothing sibling forever and raise a family as quietly and as normal as possible. Dudley Dursley was born soon after the wedding and for a little over two years life was amazing. Until one night, when the ordinary routine of her evening was interrupted and turned into her worst nightmare.

After a single knock at the door she found a toddler and a baby no older that six months on her front porch. A note tucked with the boy's blanket told her they were her nephew Harry, a two year old with an ugly looking lightning scar, though then it looked like a fresh cut, on his pale forehead and her niece, Leahynna, no doubt her freak of a sister named her. The baby looked normal enough except for the fact she was shaking possibly from the cold of the fall air in Surrey.

The note said something about her sister's untimely death along with that man, the children's father, Potter and that she was the only living relative fit to take them, but most importantly they had to stay because of some protection spell or blood thing; something to that level of freaky.

Petunia did not grieve, she did not cry and she didn't even care to find more information about what happened to her sister; instead she tried to think of some way to make the two children left in her care disappear. She couldn't stand to have either of the freaks in her home much less near her darling Duddykins and that is why that night neither child could be heard from a cupboard under the stairs where they lay that night.

No light was shining from the tiny slivers left between the bottom of the cupboard door and the carpeted floor beneath Leah's feet. She had her knees against her chest and her head lay limply upon the top the small ball she was making of herself. Harry was asleep upstairs in his room, the small one down from Dudley's larger one, which left her to ponder the silence alone.

When Harry had been moved upstairs around five years old Leah had felt a new sense of loneliness; the Dursley's had decided the two couldn't stay in the same room together anymore to discuss and plan freakiness against their relatives. The first few days had been the worst. She missed his hand holding hers, his hug telling her that everything would be fine despite the hate spewing from either relatives mouths at all times and she missed the fact that someone was in the cupboard with her when the dark came. Now she is alone in the cupboard most of the time since Harry was told to stay in his room unless he was doing chores or they were allowed out back.

She thought she was about nine years old now since Harry was almost eleven like Dudley but she was never sure of when her birthday was, her Aunt and Uncle had never wanted to tell her. The only reason they knew Harry's birthday is because it was almost a week after Dudley's and somehow he remembered from a long time ago. Now every July 31st, they celebrate in a small way in the cupboard.

Right now, she assumed it was fairly early in the morning since Harry was still sleeping and hadn't woken up to start breakfast and say good morning to her like he did every single morning so she knew he was alright.

She soon realized that Harry had indeed overslept because she could hear Uncle Vernon's feet pounding upstairs in his bedroom before she could heard Harry's light footsteps on the stairs. She desperately needed to wake Harry up before he was punished for not having the food cooking before their uncle made it out of his room.

Harry.

Harry, wake up.

He made a grunt up in his room. Leah tried again to talk to him through his mind.

Harry, please. Uncle Vernon is already awake!

This time he heard her and made a mad scramble to get downstairs, quickly stopping by the cupboard to thank her for the warning.

It was after Harry's move upstairs she found she could communicate to Harry using her head. Most of the time she didn't mean to say anything to him but she found that when she was scared it happened almost automatically. The first time had been when Aunt Petunia was yelling at her for something she didn't do but was blamed for thanks to her bigger cousin and she was sure she'd be beaten unconscious. Leah was panicking inside her own mind when she heard Harry talk back aloud trying to calm her. They were both confused but were relieved as well to know they could now talk without being in the same room even though Harry had to still say everything out loud.

Like clockwork the stove clicked on and bacon started to simmer in a pan she couldn't see. More footsteps were heard coming down the stairs, one set briefly stopping and jumping on the stairs directly above Leah's head leaving a trail of new dust to float down onto her already dirty hair. Dudley yelled as he came down and kicked the cupboard door before going in and screaming at Harry to speed it up with his breakfast.

Soon the smell of food hit her like a dodgeball in a gym class she'd never been to. Her stomach mirrored Harry's with a loud rumble of displeasure from the lack of nourishment and the tease of the opportunity to satisfy it being so close.

"Boy, hurry up with the bacon!" The monstrous voice of their uncle boomed.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon." Harry's meek reply came soon after.

Breakfast was done soon with both males shoveling the piles of food cooked by Harry down their throats before rudely pushing away from the table. Leah could hear Dudley's maniacal laugh while pushing Harry into a wall to get to the television. Aunt Petunia came through the hallway, unlocked the cupboard's lock and left without saying anything; she knew she was to join Harry because this was what they did everyday.

So they started by doing the breakfast dishes and then broke off into their different chores. Harry had a lot of yard and house maintenance to do while Leah did most of the cleaning, which Aunt Petunia insisted upon since she believed Leah and Harry contaminated her house constantly, so it was up to Leah to fix it or there'd be severe punishment.

It was almost the end of the day before either child rested or even attempted to. Uncle Vernon was upset almost immediately after they were finished however, because Harry missed the small patch of grass on the side of the house when he was mowing. He blew a gasket and hit his nephew with the palm of his hand across his cheek. Harry frantically looked for a way to get out and Leah wanted to save him. She needed to. She always needed to save him like it was an instict.

Harry was always smarter when it came to avoiding Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia's wrath, he constantly could talke his way out of beatings or managed to get to his mistake and fix it before they became too belligerent.

Leah however had the opposite luck because she looked almost identical to her mom, Lily Potter, when she was this age. Her Aunt had an almost in-human hate for the small girl for almost just this fact. Uncle Vernon didn't like her at all either because she was unnaturally clumsy and was always tripping either on her own accord or her cousin's. At least Harry could manage to keep plates from falling and looked like their father whom neither had really met.

Harry was now using all he could to get away.

"I'll fix it right now, sir. Right now." Their uncle had his pudgy hand caught tightly in Harry's oversized shirt and was threatening to strike again. His face was red, changing to an ungodly shade of purple and Harry was paling.

They hated her more, she had to save him. She could stop them; Harry would be happy and that's all she wanted for her big brother. She just wanted to see that smile that so rarely crossed his face and those green eyes light up. She moved quickly and pushed Harry away from Uncle Vernon.

Harry knew what Leah was doing and almost just as quick tried to get her to not intervene because it was his fault and he didn't want her to be punished because of him, but instead Vernon took Harry by the shirt and threw him in the cupboard and kept Leah outside while he locked the door viciously.

"Want to be a bloody nuisance girl, you can be treated like one!" He screamed in her face before taking off his belt and began striking the child in front of him.

"Leah!" Harry struggled with trying to open the cupboard door, fumbling with the small door handle that he knew wouldn't turn even if he was trying to get to his little sister but like always the lock that stopped him was invincible.

Each hit made Leah's body more numb. Her Uncle was unrelenting and with every strike he screamed profanity at the nine year old. Aunt Petunia joined in shortly; tears springing to Leah's eyes despite all her will to not be a baby.

"You're a freak! Just like your parents! Clumsy! Stupid! Good. For. Nothing."

With one final blow, after what seemed like hours, he stopped abruptly. She got a kick in the side by Aunt Petunia and then was roughly thrown into the cupboard with her brother.

Several days later a letter with Harry's name neatly printed on the front came and Uncle Vernon was livid. He tore the letter and the next several that kept coming through the mail slot in front of Harry to be sure he got the message that he wasn't worth the mail. He covered the mail slot sloppily to stop the letters from streaming in, but that didn't seem to stop the owls that were oddly delivering them.

After about the fourth day of continual mail raining in, Aunt Petunia lost it and took it out on Leah while Harry was working on the garden outside. Soon after Harry also got a few bruises from her when one letter showed up in the living room almost instantaneously after the last batch was thrown out.

Finally after the sixth day Harry was able to sneak a handful of letters into the cupboard so that when they were both locked in there while the Dursley's went out to dinner that weekend they could read them without the fear of being hurt.

"Harry James Potter, it really is for me. Look there's one for you too Leah." Harry handed her a letter with her own name, Leahynna Faye Potter, printed neatly on the front with the same address. She looked at Harry quizzically because she shouldn't have also gotten a letter. Not yet.

"It's our Hogwarts letters! Leah, they finally came!" Harry's excitement was filling Leah with joy even if her body was in immense pain.

They had known they were a wizard and a witch for about four years now. When they found out, three year old Leah and five year old Harry had been more than happy to know why they were so different from their relatives and more importantly why they were always called freaks. The box that had told them the secret was hidden with her in the corner of the cupboard and held things about their parents, such as their wands and Hogwarts letters, things Aunt Petunia had tried to throw away before Leah had spotted the vintage looking box on top of the trash.

Harry didn't know much more than that he was a wizard so were their parents, but Leah knew so much more, she knew things she shouldn't an was too scared to tell him because she knew he would really think she was a freak. However even she knew it was too early for her letter, you had to be eleven like Harry or her parents, it must have been a mistake.

"Leah, aren't you happy? We can leave here now." Harry's jade eyes bore into hers as he waited for a silent answer.

"What if they don't let us go?" She whispered to him and looked down at her letter sadly.

"Someone came for mom right? Since her mom and dad weren't magic, someone had to help her. Well, we don't have anyone magic either so someone will come for us too, right? It said the name of who was going to come for her on her letter so let's check our letters for a name." Harry held up his letter and read all he could.

Leah did the same and searched for name in the same area that was on her mom's letter and found none. She sighed and looked over to Harry in desperation before hearing the familiar roll of an engine. They quickly stashed the letters away and hid the box back where it belonged under some discarded broken toys in the far corner.

The car doors slammed outside and soon the front door was being unlocked. The Dursley's came in loudly and Dudley began talking.

"That's was a horrible dinner! I wanted a hamburger not a some bloody steak! You never do anything I want!" his shrieks made Harry want to shove something in his own ears.

"Duddykins! I'm so sorry! We'll go to your favorite place tomorrow and it'll be the hamburgers all day!" Aunt Petunia's shrill voice yelled up the stairs as Dudley stomped up to his room to sulk.

Seconds later Uncle Vernon was pounding on the cupboard for them to wake up, though they didn't fall asleep, and unlocked the door.

"Clean up the bloody hallway and then to your room boy!" He cuffed Harry in the back of the head while he went away to clean the coats from the walkway. Uncle left and now Aunt Petunia came into view.

"You are going to go upstairs and clean the bathroom, it's filthy! Go! Now!" Leah had only cleaned the bathroom two days ago but she practically ran up the stairs to begin in case she was corrected harshly for laziness.

She was only beginning when Harry came up the stairs and glanced in.

"Hey, I think I can help you, Uncle Vernon said to not disturb Dudley but he wasn't going to come up these stairs to lock me in yet, he was too tired. So if you don't mid I''ll help you clean until he does come." Harry smiled.

Thank you. I answered back silently.

We worked quietly for about an hour before Dudley came into the doorway.

"Freaks! You missed a spot! Right over there." He pointed to the corner Leah had just cleaned before taking off his muddy shoe and throwing it at it.

"Dudley, leave us alone." Harry said to him as calm as he could.

"Or what? You'll get me? I'm so scared! Maybe I should call my dad up here?" He smirked with his smug pudgy face.

Harry. Leave it. Just ignore him.

"Leah how can I ignore him? He's a jerk!"

Dudley's face changed to a grimace.

Don't upset him, you'll get in trouble.

Sure enough Dudley called for Uncle Vernon the next heartbeat and ran back downstairs.

Leah backed herself in the corner with Harry before they heard the thundering feet make there way up the stairs and into the doorframe of the bathroom.

"Were you two bothering my boy?!" Uncle Vernon had been drinking since he got home.

"No sir, we were just cleaning the bathroom and Dudley came in and we talked. That's all, sir." Harry answered politely to avoid conflict since he had already gotten them into this situation.

"You did too! He called my a jerk and the girl even pushed me!" Dudley yelled from the stairs where he'd probably been eavesdropping.

Trouble. Run.

Leah told him after a long silence drew out between them and their uncle. She knew he was mad and drunk and it was even worse when he was both.

Harry grabbed her hand instantly and made a beeline for the door. Vernon blocked them with his enormous stomach and hit Harry's face before he could dodge. Next he launched his leg out and hit Leah in the left side of her stomach before stomping again so she would fall to the floor.

Before Harry was able to stand up again, his uncle and brought the broom he had swiped from the cleaning kit and began to deliver blow after blow. She couldn't let him hurt Harry anymore, it cut into her soul to see him crying.

She ran into Uncle Vernon with the bucket as fast as she could. Now the attention was on her and the broom was hitting her body. He was merciless and Leah could feel sleep welcoming her. Soon though she could see Harry waking and latching onto Vernon's leg.

"You little shit!" He swung at Harry, kicking out to get him off. Leah needed to get help. She ran out of the room since currently Harry was losing and she couldn't see straight. She made it to the top of the stairs and went to run down but she was yanked from behind and an evil looking uncle stared right at her.

"I'll teach you! I will." The fist connected with her cheekbone and she went soaring down but instead of hitting the floor she kept going until she felt the hard jab of a step, then more steps came and soon she couldn't hear anything. Everything was in pain and yet she felt so empty. She didn't want to open her eyes, she was scared Uncle Vernon wasn't done or she was dead.

"Le-" Someone was calling for her.

"Leah!" It was Harry and he was coming closer. A hand clasped hers and shook her slightly. Harry was crying.

"Please stop!" he was yelling. Uncle Vernon was coming closer, she could tell he was getting really scared. She was too, terrified. Harry couldn't die. She just knew he couldn't.

Safe.

She whispered in Harry's head before they were both gone from the Dursley's stairs and whirling through the air in a sensation neither had ever felt before and suddenly they were dumped unceremoniously on the ground with a castle in the distance. Neither one of them were moving.