Memoirs of a Bad Girl

Author's Note: So yeah I know this wasn't supposed to come until after the epilogue of Love and Other Tragedies, but that's really fighting me so I figured might as well go ahead a post chapter two of MBG considering the great response I got for the last chapter.

Thank you for your reviews!

Chapter Two

The Great Progression of Mental Healers

The visitation with my family was postponed after my breakdown…indefinitely. I didn't want anyone seeing me, and my parents relented temporarily. I think they would have done anything to make me feel better. I couldn't blame them.

They'd never seen me like that. Frankly, I'd never been like that…Ever.

I wasn't prone to sadness. From the day I was born I'd been a force of nature- independent and self assured.

I didn't know how to be her anymore though. And Harry and Ginny were even more lost than I was as to how to handle the situation.

They agreed that I didn't have to see the entire family at first, but that once the wounds on my face had closed enough to go without plaster/potion constantly I would have to see my siblings and Tabatha.

I wondered what the house was like without me. After the second adoption (the third adopted child) I'd started calling it The Orphanage. It was fitting, especially after they'd taken in all four adopted children. Thankfully, we had enough room. Otherwise I really would have killed them.

Before it was The Orphanage, it had been the Potter Estate- a country manor in the sprawling English countryside that was renovated with magic and altered to perfectly fit the Potter's family of six (it was right after I'd been born and we'd gotten Tabatha). Around a dozen bedrooms were plenty to accommodate the extended Weasley family and friends. There was a three bedroom guesthouse for Tabatha, and a wooded area for the best games of hide and seek. When James had been old enough, Harry had splurged on a custom built Quidditch pitch that was only a short walk from the main house.

There was a pond behind the guesthouse on the west lawn where Ginny had taught us how to swim, and an old stable that I'd talked them into getting horses to fill.

After four years of lessons I'd told them they could sale the stinky creatures for all I cared because I was done, but Albus had taken a liking to them by that point, and Molly and Rose had started lessons so the horses got to stay. James hated the horses even more than I did. He would say 'Why would you want to ride a horse when you could ride a broom?'

I had been sure that Lily would return, but as the week passed I was so bombarded with Healers of all sorts that I doubted she could have squeezed in a visit before the next person was ushered in.

Harry and Ginny had even tried to make me talk with one of the Mental Healers, but I'd put my foot down on that one.

Given the state of my facial injury I thought I'd have a month before I'd have to face anyone. Apparently being Harry Potter's daughter meant that all the best resources and magical means were put to use on my account though, and the skin on my face was sealed. It was fragile, and much to my dismay, the easiest part of the healing process.

The Healers said that actually getting the wounds closed wasn't the problem. It would be erasing the seriously damaged scar tissue. 'That-.' They said with the most infuriatingly perky little smiles, '-would be when the real challenged began.'

One week after their last attempted visit, one of the nurses stuck her head in with a big smile on her face.

"Your brothers and sisters are here to see you!" She informed with one of those ecstatic smiles that made me want to slap her.

Harry and Ginny hadn't even warned me…cowards. They knew that I would come up with a million excuses to avoid this.

Predictably it was James who pushed past the nurse first, his tall frame bounding at me with open arms, blocking my view of the other Potters' entrance.

"Move your bum, James Potter." Tabatha commanded, using one bump of her healthy hips to maneuver past my oldest brother. She dumped Mia onto the hospital bed before suffocating me against her giant chest. She hugged me so tightly my ears buzzed from the pressure. "You scared me to death, Lyla Potter. Don't you do that again. I'll kill you m'self if you do- take you to a volcano and dump you in."

I rolled my eyes at her weird island sayings, but let her hug me again anyways. As usual Tabatha's hair was wrapped in a scarf and I breathed her in, relaxing at the distinct scent of home that clung to her soft dress.

Mia tugged at my hand and I turned to the toddler as she scuttled into my lap. Out of all my adopted siblings she annoyed me the least. Probably because she didn't talk…ever. The hands she used to grab my face with weren't sticky so I allowed the intimacy and didn't shoo her away when she laid a butterfly kiss on my lips.

I frowned at Mia's tangled brown hair.

The child hadn't looked polished a day since she'd been left on The Orphanage's doorstep nearly three years ago. No matter how expensive the clothes were that draped her tiny little frame or how many detangling charms they placed on her hair, Mia always ended up looking like a lost little gypsy child.

"Move over, Tabby. I want to see her." Rumer squeezed between Tabatha and my bed.

"Don't call her that." I snapped at the nine year old. "Are you too dim to remember three syllables; Ta-BA-tha?"

I thought Harry and Ginny were nutters after the first adoption.

The chubby balding man we knew as Uncle Dudley (though I seriously questioned any blood relation to the man) had made an unexpected appearance on our door step in the middle of March. It was the year before I started Hogwarts, and my peak of boredom without my brothers.

I was shocked to see Uncle Dudley, and even more alarmed by the plaid shorts he wore. His knees looked like squashed cupcakes.

The only times I'd ever encountered him before had been in the strange unmoving cards he sent us every Christmas, and rare visits around the same time of year. I'd thought he looked bad enough in a jumper (like a sausage wrapped in yarn), so my horror was understandable to be presented with the visual of him with actual skin showing.

For the sake of my eyesight, I decided I had better uses for my time. Like going to spy on Tabatha's niece who was my age and had just moved into the guest house with her aunt.

An hour later and armed with the knowledge that our new house guest was the most boring ten year old alive, I rejoined Mum in the kitchen. She took no notice of me with her brows furrowed as she kneaded at a fistful of dough on the counter.

Tense lines showed the old muscles in her arms and just how much frustration she was taking out on the innocent meal.

"Where'd Harry go?" I asked, noting the silence. "Uncle Dudley get hungry and eat him?"

Ginny looked up at me startled. She really hadn't noticed me at all!

"You father went to meet some of Uncle Dudley's friends."

"Muggles?!" I asked surprised. The few times we'd been to see Uncle Dudley and his pear shaped wife, James, Albus, and I had endured long winded speeches about not exposing our magic- accidental or otherwise.

"Lyla." Mum snapped. "Why don't you go see if Bonnie wants to play?"

Bonnie being Tabatha's niece and Ginny's suggestion being highly unlikely. I'd already learned everything I needed to know about that little swot Bonnie Morgan. But Mum never called me Lyla so I knew something wasn't right. She didn't even look pleased that I'd left the room as she asked without any cheek (a rarity).

Something was very very wrong.

I was right (I almost always was). Late that night when Dad came home, he wasn't alone.

"Look, let's not make any rash decisions." I appealed to their logical sides the next day when they sat me down for a 'talk.' "You're just about to finally get me out of the house and you want to do THIS?"

Mum and Dad stared at me blankly, accustomed to my outburst. I cringed at the sounds emitting from where the twin two year olds played in the old play pin that Tabatha had pulled out of the attic.

How could they even be considering doing this to me? Weren't they the ones always telling me what a 'handful' I was? What did they think two new babies were going to be like- a ride on a kiddie broom?

It was time to call in reinforcements.

I turned to Tabatha, who had remained uncharacteristically silent thus far in the family dispute. My eyes pleaded for help, but she stayed focused on her lap. I knew she could feel my gaze though as I watched her shift uncomfortably.

For a split second her gaze slid microscopically to her left where Bonnie sat just as silently as her aunt. I seethed with rage, betrayed by my most trusted confidante.

E tu, Tabatha? E tu?

I knew she saw this plan as the madness it was, but she wouldn't say anything. She wouldn't dare speak out against the people who had just allowed her family member to come live with us permanently.

My glare turned on the girl who had just ruined my life.

She shivered under the hefty weight of my fierce gaze. Yes, I would hate Bonnie Morgan forever. She'd gotten me saddled with more siblings.

"You are all completely barking mad!" I declared dramatically before stomping out of the high ceilinged living room.

Alone in my bedroom I decided that when they all came begging for my forgiveness that I'd at least consider hearing them out. I'd even help them pack those little imposter siblings' things to ship them back to their muggle parents.

I just couldn't comprehend why I was being punished because some horrid muggles didn't want anything to do with magic, even if it meant giving up their own children.

I mean, obviously, they hadn't ever been overly fond of them. Otherwise they wouldn't have named them Rumer and Rowan, but that wasn't my problem.

Neither Harry nor Ginny ever did show up at my door ready to evict their adopted children, but I did eventually get used to my new brother and sister. They were nine years old now, and six years after that day when Harry and Ginny adopted Mia, Rumer had pitched an even bigger fit than I had.

We'll call it karma.

Rumer took no notice of the insult I just thrown at her. She never did. Instead her face had frozen with sudden distracted terror. "What happened to your hair?"

"You be quiet, Rumer Hinton." Tabatha had her by the hand yanking her away, scooping Mia off the bed as she went.

"Hinton-Potter." Rumer grumbled obliviously.

Her twin hid behind Albus' legs. Rowan had always been terrified of me. At least one of them was smart enough to understand the way things worked around here.

Trey stood beside Al. He was fifteen now and despite looking the most like a Potter naturally, I was pretty sure he'd never capture James or Al's height.

There was a eighth child in the room, and for a horrified second I thought that my ridiculous parents had managed to acquire another child, but then his Weasley red hair caught my eye.

I sighed in relief. No doubt about it, the bloke who looked around my age was a Weasley, a very familiar looking one at that.

It wouldn't be the first time I'd forgotten one of my cousins' names. I mean, for Merlin's sake there were enough of them, but it was strange that he was here. This was supposed to be Potters (even the imposter ones) only.

I stared at him obnoxiously, waiting for someone to explain his presence.

"Don't get fussed up over your hair, Lyles." Albus grinned, perfectly happy to let Rowan cling to him like a fungus. "Knowing you, it'll be all the rage when Hogwarts starts back. You'll start a new trend."

I ignored him and continued my pointed gaze right at the ginger haired boy standing with my brothers. If he hadn't winked at me I would have let it go, but now it was a battle of wills.

"Er…Lyles, everything okay?" Albus' smile struggled to hold even in the awkward silence I'd sentenced the room to.

The ginger's grin grew which only incensed me further. Who did he think he was? I narrowed me eyes.

"What you glaring at, Lyla Potter?" Tabatha demanded glancing between me and the boy. "Your brothers been worried about you and now you just gonna ignore them? I didn't raise you like that, Lyla Potter. No, I didn't."

I huffed in exasperation and raised a condemning finger to point at the boy. "Why the bloody hell is he here?"

"Now, you've done it." The boy said throwing his head back to laugh.

"Who, dear?" Ginny asked from the doorway as she and Harry came further into the room. I hadn't even noticed them enter after the others.

"Don't you remember Trey?" Harry walked to stand beside my bed, staring at me with caution. He'd been doing that ever since I woke up. Every time I did or said anything he didn't instantly understand, he went into Auror mode like I was a big clue to unraveling some mystery. "He came to live us after your second year. He was an orphan just like me and he'd never heard of wizards or witches until he got his Hogwarts letter. He's your brother too, just like James, and Albus, and Rowan."

Did he think I was daft? Of course, I knew my own ruddy brother.

Trey was only a year younger than me, and excellent at keeping a few of my secrets that he'd stumbled upon, like when I'd been sneaking out and got hung up on his window (lucky bastard had a room on the first floor of The Orphanage) or the Firewhiskey that I'd hidden in his room when Molly had tattled on me.

"Not Trey!" I exclaimed irritated. "The Weasley standing right beside him. You promised this would only be immediate family!"

The Weasley in question was practically cackling with mischievous glee. "Oh, little Lily Potter, do you know how long it's been since I've gotten to play a decent prank on someone? You might be my favorite niece by default from this point further."

"Oh!" I glared at him, and then threw my hands up at all of them, ignoring the pain it cause in my wrists. "A prank is it? I bet you all think you're quite clever for taking the mickey from a girl with amnesia! And my name is Lyla. I'd like to know who you are so I can correctly distribute my retribution."

"Lyla, no one is playing a prank on you." Harry said very slow and calmly.

No one was looking at the boy. They were all looking at me, their expressions filling rapidly with alarm. Tabatha was easing towards the door with Mia, Rumer, and Rowan in tow. James, Albus, and Trey were casting wild looks around the room.

The Weasley continued to smile charmingly, striking me again with a sense of undeniable familiarity. "The name is Fred and I guess you don't need my surname. It's the damndest thing- most people just instantly know."

"Fred Weasley?" I chortled at him. "You don't look a thing like him!"

"Boys, take Tabatha and the children to the Burrow." Ginny had gripped a stunned James and Trey by the arms as she forced them towards the door. "Now!"

"I'm highly offended." The imposter Fred dramatically placed a hand over his heart. "By right of birth order I'm quite sure the phrase you were looking for is that- Fred Weasley the Second doesn't look a thing like me'."

"Wha-." I stopped immediately with a squeak, covering my mouth with both hands.

"Who are you talking to dear?" Ginny's asked like she was talking to Mia instead of a perfectly intelligent seventeen year old. Fear loomed behind the brave front her eyes presented, but I could see the horror beneath. "It's okay, sweetheart. Is there someone else here with us right now?"

Yes. I didn't say. I had to fight very hard to look everywhere but at my dead relative who was standing close enough to my mother to touch. Your dead brother is haunting me.

"I…er- I was just a bit confused." I stumbled through my words. "It's just us- you, me, and dad…. Has been the whole time- I mean- just us and the others- not anyone else."

Harry looked doubtful, but gave me a brave face anyways. "Maybe it was just too soon. You've been through a terrible ordeal. We'll take things slower from now on."

I nodded and looked down, hoping beyond hope that was the end of it.

"And I think it's best for everyone that you finally talk to someone." Ginny crushed my hopes. I knew exactly what she meant when she said 'talk to someone.'

I would be talking to the Mental Healers whether I wanted to or not.

I nodded again, but with every intention of finding a way out of it. "I'm exhausted. It's been a busy morning."

They looked just as happy to be dismissed as I was to be alone. I couldn't even begin to imagine the kinds of theories they were producing and dying to share with one another. As soon as the door clicked shut behind them, I turned furiously towards Fred Weasley.

"Bloody fantastic!"

But he was gone in the same instant leaving nothing but a chuckle to float through the air and a buzz in my ears.

0000000

And so began the 'Great Progression of Mental Healers' as it shall be known from this point forth.

I flat out refused to see the first three, but then Harry had forced the fourth into the room and sealed the door behind him.

I decided to simply ignore the Healer's presence. Remaining completely stoic turned out to be just as boring for him as it had been for me, and the bald man had been snoring within half an hour.

I'd joined him, and for a little while I'd considered that this arrangement might actually work.

I decided to tell Harry that this was in fact the man who could help me, but dear old Da had checked on us early. Needlessly to say, the man didn't get any gold for his trouble.

The fifth was a woman with fake red hair who I thrilled with tales of my fantastic life until she'd realized I was just repeating the plot of a popular romance novel. She never showed up for our next session, which was really too bad because I'd been preparing with a new book I'd nicked from one of the nurses.

I'd thought the sixth had real potential.

He was young (couldn't have been older than Teddy), and cute in a baby face sort of way (I'll cut myself some slack considering for all I knew it had been over six months since I'd interacted with a bloke). I'd regaled to him (in graphic detail) how I'd lost my virginity to a foreign prince last summer (an absolutely true story).

He'd left blushing so badly I'd bet I could've warmed my hands on them in the middle of December. Harry had come in later confused with the sad news my favorite Healer would not be returning.

"You really are a character all on your own." Lily said appearing with a tingle behind my ears. "You're feisty like your mum and with the dry humor of your dad, but that unabashed cheek is a riot."

"Oh good, you're here. I've been wanting a word with you." I said carelessly, casting aside the Witch Weekly I'd been flipping through. "A little heads up on the fact that you WEREN'T ALONE would have been nice! It might have kept me from having a row with my dead uncle in front of my entire bleeding family!"

She stared at me innocently from her seat at the end of my bed. The sun cast in through window over her as if she really were an angel. "Fred Weasley came to see you?"

"Yes, and he's gotten me saddled with a parade of shrinks. I thought the plan was to get me out of here? Any more of you lot show up and I'll end up in a padded room for life!"

"I already told you that I only know what is important at the time to help you. I didn't know about Fred, but I was trying to tell you that I wasn't the only visitor you'd be having when you so rudely dismissed me." Lily's lips soured. She even looked pretty when she did that. "And the Healers are the reason I'm here… You're seeing a new one today."

I cursed.

"Your foul mouth- now that I wholeheartedly believe you got from me." She smirked proudly. "…When the Healer comes today let her help you."

"You lot really need to get your wires straight. That's a bit of a mixed signal after our last conversation." Angrily, I resituated in the lumpy bed. I was so sick of the hospital, and this horrible bed, and especially this sack of a gown.

"I don't mean tell her about seeing dead people." Lily explained sensibly. "I would advise you avoiding that at all cost unless you want them to think you've gone completely round the bend… I meant really let her help you with the other stuff."

"What else would there to be to talk about?" I hardly thought my dilemma of choosing blue or black as my best color qualified needing assistance from a Healer. "The fact that I've been having discussions with dead relatives seems to be my one glaring mental instability."

Lily's brows drew together in confusion. It was funny that she actually looked like my mum when she did that.

"Lyla, you lost six months of your life. You were abused and injured to the point of death. Something horrific and life changing happened to you. Fred, the others, and I aren't the problem. We're here to help you. It's a gift…not a curse."

"So I'm just supposed to open up to this woman because you say so?" Their presence hadn't felt like a gift. So far all it had gotten me was trouble.

She reached out and took my hand. She felt so real. How could I doubt that? I could question what I could see, but to feel it? How could I discount that?

"If we're going to do our job the most important thing you have to do is listen to us. It might not make sense at the time and it might be the very last thing in the world you want to do, but our only job is to help you. You've got to trust that…

"This Healer can help you too… And if you give her a chance I bet you'll even like her."

"You say that like you know her." I grumbled. She was right. Opening up to this random woman was the last thing in the world I wanted to do.

Lily's emerald eyes sparked with mischievousness I was still getting used to. "She's coming. I'd better go- wouldn't want to disobey your orders about not being here while others are present."

I closed my eyes to avoid the stunning display of her other-worldly-ness, but the familiar tingle still encompassed my ears.

"Ms. Potter, are you awake?"

I considered faking sleep. I really did, but the "Great Progression of Mental Healers" would not end with this lady.

Harry and Ginny would have another one here by tomorrow, maybe sooner. My parents had a lot of faults, but they'd never quit trying to help me. Would it really be so horrible to let them think they'd done their job? Lily seemed to think it was important to talk to this woman. What could one honest conversation hurt?

"Just resting my eyes." I told her and took a moment to study the woman who had gotten a dead girl's stamp of approval.

She was of medium height, slim, and older than Harry or Ginny, but not as old as Grandmum. Her golden her hair was intricately streaked with silver, and she had smooth skin that was surprisingly sparse of wrinkles or blemishes. She walked with purpose on dainty heels with her back straight, and she didn't sit when she arrived at the chair beside my bed. It was like she floated into the seat. I'd never seen anything so graceful.

"Do you know why I am here?" She asked, her blue eyes gazing at me unflinchingly.

"I lost six months of my life. I was abused and injured. Something horrible and life changing happened to me." I parroted Lily's words with all the enthusiasm of a puppet.

The Healer's face remained oddly composed. I couldn't tell if she'd bought my statement or not. "How does that make you feel?"

How does that make me feel?

What a ridiculous question! This was the one that was supposed to help me? I felt outraged. "How do you think it makes me feel?!"

"I do not know." She acted like I hadn't just shot something sarcastic back at her. "I'd like you to tell me in your own words how it makes you feel."

"Are you nutters, lady? I was kidnapped, abused, and found running naked through a forest!"

"And?" She inquired as calm as ever.

"And…and- and-."

What did I feel? Six months of my life gone- pssh- disappeared in the blink of an eye. I was left with injuries that never happened to me, and scarred with proof of things that were covered with sandbanks in my mind. So how did I feel?

"I don't feel anything… I feel… numb."

She nodded, accepting the honesty that had just exploded out of me without judgment. "I want to be upfront with you, Ms. Potter."

I nodded unsure of why we'd jumped subjects so suddenly.

"This is not a case I would normally take on. I am the foremost expert in the field of mental healing. My expertise is sought out all over the world." The Healer said without a smidge of shame at her perceived arrogance. "I am a certified Healer in the Wizarding World, but I have studied muggle medicine. I spent years in the muggle world learning the type of science they know as Psychology.

"My return to the Wizarding World almost seven years ago was with the single goal of revolutionizing the way wizards handle mental healing. My lab is set up in Greece right now, and I am on the verge of a major breakthrough."

I stared at her blankly. "How lucky I must be to have the name Potter."

"Your family is very influential, perhaps more powerful in the Wizarding World than the Minister herself." She seemed nonplussed by my snide remark. "It is not your surname that has earned you the right to my services though. Your parents named you after one of the only real friends I ever had. Lily Evans was a truly extraordinary witch. If she were alive she would ask me to help you and, for her, I would."

Lily hadn't asked her though. She'd asked me.

"Can you help someone who doesn't even know what's wrong with them?"

"I can try." There was nothing but honesty in her words. "I would like to speak with your parents as well if you don't mind. There are things we need to discuss together."

Harry and Ginny would just love that. They were all about sitting us down for 'talks'.

I shrugged, but remembered something as she reached the door. "I never got your name."

She smiled displaying two rows of perfectly straight and shiny teeth before opening the door and motioning for the people standing in the hallway to enter.

"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Potter." The Healer closed the door behind them. It was like in the few minutes she'd been there it had become her space- her office, her turf. She shook their hands staring them directly in the eye. "My name is Piper Prescott. I usually go by Dr. or Healer, but under the circumstances I think it's safe to say we're all going to be getting to know each beyond titles."

Harry looked back and forth between the older witch and me surprised and maybe a bit hesitant. "You've agreed to take Lyla on as your patient?"

"Certain arrangements will have to be made, but I think Lyla and I have decided that I am in a position to offer assistance in her recovery." Healer Prescott had slid elegantly back into her chair and summoned two more for my parents in the blink of an eye.

"Is that true?" Ginny peered at me hopefully through big brown doe eyes.

I stared at her blankly.

"I have something for you." Healer Prescott spoke digging through the tiny clutch that hung from her shoulder.

I'd have to get used to her abrupt speech patterns. I'd barely settled into one wave length when she was onto the next. The small leather bound book she produced was bigger than could naturally fit into the petite bag, and I knew she'd charmed it. What else did she have in there?

"It's a diary."

"A diary?" Ginny asked sharply, like the Healer had just suggested giving a functioning wand to a magically inclined infant.

Healer Prescott was unperturbed. Did anything rattle this woman? "Yes, it is the best way for Lyla to express her feelings in an environment where she is free from judgment."

Harry had placed a calming hand on Ginny's arm. Good, somebody needed to keep her under the control. Maybe, I wasn't the only one who was losing it. Harry held out a hand to Prescott and her diary. "Do you mind?"

She handed it to him without question, and he began to riffle through it purposefully allowing Mum to see his every move.

Healer Prescott paid them no heed, turning back to me. "We will meet three times a week at my laboratory in Greece. You will be honest, open-minded, and flexible to the methods of treatment I prescribe."

If my ears hadn't started buzzing the instant before she appeared, I would have screamed out loud and surely caused a scene.

Lily was standing by the window (it seemed to be her favorite place), and she placed a finger to her lips as if to tell me to be quiet.

Yes, thanks so much for the advice.

I wouldn't have had to worry if she wasn't there like I'd asked her. I couldn't glare at her though. Clueing the world renowned Healer Prescott into just how loony I was probably wasn't going to get me out of a hospital anytime soon.

"A diary seems like a good idea." Harry was now holding the book out to me. Apparently, they'd decided I was mature enough to handle a bunch of bound parchment.

"The Healers say that she'll be ready to released by the end of the week." Ginny said as I reached out for the book. That was news to me. Everyone spent so much time worrying over me that they often forgot to keep me informed about my own well-being. "We can figure out a method of transportation to get her to Greece from our home. The familiar environment will be good for her."

It really was just a huge coincidence. That's the only way the next series of events could have played out with perfect synchronization.

Just as Ginny told Healer Prescott that I could go home, I happened to open my new diary and fan through the blank pages absently.

By the beginning of her second sentence about the environment being good for me, the smell of the parchment had wafted to my nose, and just as she finished with a pleased smile, I leaned over and wretched all over six very expensive looking shoes

The room came alive with sudden activity as nurses were called and puke was vanished. In all of the commotion, Lily Evans skidded to my side and spoke in a clear voice that only I could here. "Say everything I tell you to."

I wanted to shoot her an annoyed glance, but just as soon as it had happened the room was clear again except for the other three living inhabitants.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked caressing my forehead like he'd done when I'd been feverish as a child.

"It was the sme-." I started only to have Lily grip my other hand.

Now Harry had my right hand and Lily the left. It would have been really sweet family moment in any other situation.

"Tell them that every time you think of being with your family again that you suddenly feel overwhelmed and sick."

I paused. It wasn't really true at all.

I'd gotten sick because the parchment smelled wrong or something. I hadn't wanted anyone to see me at first because I looked so gross, and then I hadn't minded seeing my siblings so much but stupid Fred Weasley had to show up and make everyone think I was bonkers.

Lily squeezed my hand painfully, urging me to do her bidding.

I repeated what she said like a good little puppet.

"I understand you have a rather large family, Mr. and Mrs. Potter." I focused on the Healer. She was the only one not looking at me with sympathy. "And you mentioned that all her outbursts have been when Lyla was confronted with her family."

They nodded, and I imagined them replaying the unconnected events in their heads again like it all made sense.

"Is there someone you trust that lives near Greece? Someone that could take Lyla in during our treatments? I think the pressure of home might be too much for her right now. Getting away to a fresh setting might be best."

I began to dispute this. I didn't want to go anywhere! I wanted to go to my nice bed at The Orphanage and roll around in all my expensive clothes. The long days that waited for me sunbathing by the pond were the only thing that had gotten me through this never ending nightmare of a hospital.

Lily pinched me so hard I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out, reminding me that I was only suppose to be saying what she told me to.

Ginny's eyes were frazzled, and she clenched her hands together with distraught fervor. "We couldn't send her to live with just anyone. I don't trust anyone besides family right now. Hogwarts is supposed to be the safest place in the world and they managed to steal her from right under our noses… And I couldn't leave the little ones."

"Remind them of your Uncle Charlie." Lily whispered urgently in my ear.

"Uncle Charlie!?" I accidentally exclaimed out loud while brushing her away from my ear, hoping it looked like I was dismissing an errant fly… But come on? He was a bloody Dragonologist who lived on some shotty little dragon sanctuary in the middle of nowhere. It was far from my ideal summer location. Besides, it'd been ages since I'd seen that particular uncle.

He'd had a falling out with Grandmum about seven years ago when he'd gotten a girl pregnant and hadn't bothered to marry her. Not that I ever got the full story, I'd been ten when the scandal had broken, after all. Uncle Charlie started coming round to Christmas again about five years ago, but that was the most I saw of him.

"Charlie?" Ginny said surprised, obviously not having considered him herself.

Harry's face had gone still and his eyes focused in the way it did when he was trying to think on something very hard. "Romania is a sight quicker trip to Greece than London, and we could trust Charlie to look after her."

What? Pardon me? They weren't really considering this were they? Hello, there were dragons there! This couldn't possibly actually happen, right?

No bloody way was I moving to some squatty little village where they probably didn't even have indoor plumbing.

No fucking way

0000000

Dear Diary

No, that was lame. Scratch that.

Dear

I can't believe I'm even giving this stupid diary a chance. Okay, whatever. Here goes.

June 21st

I leave for Romania in approximately twenty-four hours.

Bullocks,

Lyla Potter

0000000

Author's Note: I know there are certain characters that you are more looking forward to getting a visit from, and I can promise you they are showing up very soon (as in the next chapter). Hope to hear from you by way of review.