Sorry about the long break in updating this story. I'm really crap about getting things out in an orderly fashion. Please review cause I put a lot of work into this chapter about expanding Gus's character and I'd love to hear feedback about the story.

Thanks for viewing!

Meg

PS I just got a review for the 2nd chapter and part of it concerned a sentence screw up on my part; the other part mentioned the furry magical creature book, I know that the book is used by Harry and the other third years in the third book, but it was probably published before that year and possibly used in the school's curriculum before, so I put it in the used book pile. *shrugs* Just put it in as a bit of comedy. There was also a question about how Gus would be taking her GCSE's if she's only a year older than Harry, I plan on having Gus be very book smart, and in the US when you're young enough and show really good skills in all the basics they sometimes will have you skip a grade just so you "blossom" and aren't bugging the teachers about having no work to do. I've asked a few people in the UK and it's not common to sit all of your GCSE exams a year early, but I'm giving myself some artistic license for the sake of the story.


The Leaky Cauldron, it was a building that Gus had only been inside once in her life. It had been right after Harry had discovered that he was a wizard two years prior, and Hagrid had wooshed them away from a tiny hut on the coast of the Irish Sea.

She didn't particularly like the pub, like most holes in the wall places it was dingy and drab, with barely any light coming in from the smudged windows. Though it was the memory of being told about who had exactly killed their parents and why Harry was being treated like a sacred relic that gave her such bad connotations with it. It involved He-who-must-not-be-named, or Lord Voldermort, a wizard who had gone mad in his claim for power over the wizarding world. And somehow a one year old Harry had vanquished a man who seemed to have all the power in the world, resulting in his lightning bolt scar. Hagrid had mentioned finding Gus in the downstairs cupboard, but like Harry Gus had no recollection of the events that happened over a decade earlier.

Scotty was now ushering Gus into the decrepit looking building, "You and your brother will be staying at the Leaky Cauldron until the school year starts."

Gus turned to look back at Scotty who was now guiding her along with her hands on her shoulders, weaving her in between the bar patrons and furniture, "You said that I wouldn't be going back to Privet Drive, where will I be going to school?"

"You'll be studying at Hogwarts." Scotty sighed.

That made Gus laugh, "I can't do magic, what am I going to do? Learn the theory of turning a rat into a cup?"

They had ended up at the foot of a screwy looking staircase that Gus thought looked straight out of a haunted house in a Saturday morning cartoon. Scotty was now in front with her back to her and with a snap of her fingers the carpet bag was floating in front of Gus, as the woman began up the stairs the bag eagerly followed.

"No, Headmaster Dumbledore has acquired the books you'll need to study for the," Scotty looked down at her paper work again, "Gacse exams you'll be sitting."

Like how she explained the black hole Gus went on, "GCSE's. You don't say it as a word, you just use the initials."

"Odd," She responded uninterested. Unknowingly to both Gus and the carpet bag, Scotty had stopped in her ascension of the stairs. The trio was standing outside a door that led directly onto the stairs rather than onto a landing.

The bag slammed into Scotty's back, and in turn Gus slammed into the bag earning a glare from Scotty. As Gus righted herself, she said in a frustrated voice, "But I need a teacher to teach me these things."

In the narrow stairwell Scotty turned giving room for the cleaning witch who shuffled her way down the stairs, "From the information Headmaster Dumbledore was given by your teachers you are advanced enough in your studies that you usually comprehend any information given to you without any assistance."

Gus turned in the same manner, "You guys went to my school?"

"Well Headmaster Dumbledore did."

"Bloody hell." Gus whispered underneath her breath as she tried to imagine the man from the chocolate frog cards strolling around her school.

After another strained and silent minute of Scotty's foot taping, the door they were standing outside of opened to reveal a short gray haired man who had his arm around Harry's shoulders.

He nodded at Scotty in greeting, "Ah Auror Croop good to see you again."

In her all-business voice, Scotty swung her arm down in Gus's direction, "Minister, may I introduce Augusta Potter."

The gray haired "minister" stuck out his hand, "Nice to meet you young lady."

Gus shuffled past the flying carpet bag and placed her hand in the man's only receiving a light grip during the handshake, "Nice to meet you to sir."

"Well I must be off, got a country to run!"

Scotty gave a pinched smile as she waved to the man, "Goodbye sir."

Gus looked over at Harry and whispered from behind her hand, "Who was that?"

"The Minister of Magic." He responded.

"Oh. Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"Yes! That's the leader of the British and Irish Wizarding community."

"Oh, sorry." Gus mumbled as she rolled her eyes.

"Now I will lay down the rules for you two."

"You will not leave the confines of Diagon Alley or the Leaky Cauldron. We can't have the entire ministry out looking for two minors."

Gus looked at Scotty about to ask why she hadn't mentioned Sirius Black to Harry. But before she could ask Soctty shoved a key into her hand.

"You'll be staying in room 13, here are your keys." "And Harry, no more magic before the start of school."

"Yes mam."

"Who was that?"

"The Auror Scotty Croop."

"Oh, was I supposed to be impressed?"

"Shut it."

"Don't ever storm off like that again."

"Sorry."

"Wait for me to pack my bag as well okay?"

"Why did she bring you here?"

"To keep an eye out on you, of course." "No one better to watch a Potter, than a Potter."


After spending a half an hour or so disinterestedly examining their new room, Gus had dragged Harry downstairs after hearing his stomach growl. They now sat down with a good stew and warm bread in front of them. For the most part both of them had been silent, besides for muttered 'thank yous' to the waitress and a 'good stew' from Gus. Harry had abandoned his bowl half way through though and was currently toying with a crumpled piece of paper.

Sitting back, Gus read the upside down script. "Uncle Vernon didn't sign it?"

Harry shook his head, "No, he said after Marge was gone he would." He began to fold the paper back up before Gus's open hand was in front of him.

"Give it here."

He looked up at her confused, "What're you going to do?"

"This." Somehow Gus had procured a muggle pen and began to elegantly scrawl Uncle Vernon's onto the crinkled paper.

With a shrill whisper Harry leaned in to cover up the forged paper from the rest of the pub's clients, "You can't just forge a signature!"

With a sigh Gus capped the pen, and gave a bored look to her brother, "And you can't just go around making polyjuice potion, battling a giant snake, bunk off detention and sneak out after curfews can you?"

"How'd you know about that stuff?"

"Hogwarts might be a magical school, but it does send notes home when you act up."

"Wouldn't those go to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon?"

"Nah, they hate going near any owls, Petunia's actually got good aim when she throws gravel at them." "After the troll incident two years ago the owls started dropping the letters on me when I'd be walking to school."

"Oh."

"If you ever get bitten by a basilisk again I will drag you back from death and kill you myself."

"Good to know."


Gus had gotten bored reading through the various witch romance novels that the inn had lying around and decided that she'd give herself a treat. While the Potters had been staying at the Leaky Cauldron for two weeks, they had quickly found exploring Diagon Alley as dull as staring at the ceiling in their bedroom back in Privet Drive. She had wandered into Flourish and Blotts an hour or so earlier, when one of the old book keepers was attempting to stack the different year's assigned books. Though after hearing several avalanches of the different displays, the grumbling old man resorted to magically levitating the books so that they stood tall and proud in the front of the shop.

She gave the displays wide berth as she wanted to avoid knocking over the old man's hard work; after searching long and hard for something that she would understand with her basic understanding of magic Gus had decided on When Magic Became Masked and An Explanation for How and Why Magic Works. Finally after recalculating her path to the cash register Gus finally plopped the two worn and torn books onto the counter.

The old man looked at the titles, "Miss you do know that we have new copies of these books?"

Gus gave him a small smile, "Yeah, I'm just a bargain shopper is all."

After slamming the buttons of what seemed to be a prototype to one of the first muggle cash registers the old man stuck out his hand, "That'll be seven galleons please."

Gus triple checked that she had the correct amount before dropping the coins into his hand, "Here you go."

She looked up from the old man to the wanted poster for Sirius Black. In his picture he was laughing madly at the camera before he began to struggle against the chains that were holding him to the wall, and then the photo would loop back to the beginning of his manic laughter. As the man handed her the books back she finally asked, "I was wondering, what's all the fuss about this Sirius Black fellow?"

"You don't know?" The man's bushy white eyebrows were now raised high on his forehead in shock.

To show that she wasn't totally ignorant Gus began, "He was on the tele-"

"Oh you're a muggle born?" His voice now had a more understanding tone to it.

"Yeah." Rather than sharing the fact that she was the other Potter child Gus went with the man's idea of her.

He leaned across the counter and lowered his voice, "Well, he was in cahoots with You-Know-Who."

Gus nodded to show that she knew who that was and the man continued, "He was the man that betrayed the Potters. Didn't matter that they were his best friends, and then he went after the man who knew the truth about him, Peter Pettigrew, poor bastard tried to run."

The old man shook his head and then with a disgusted tone finished, "Black just took out a whole street of muggles along with him to get his revenge. All they could find of him was a finger." The man held up his own index finger to add to the effect of the story, and Gus glanced between the finger and the Black's wanted sign.

"Wow." She gulped, though it didn't help cancel out the strain in her voice, "Hope they catch him."

The man leaned back from Gus now and gave a curt nod, "We all 'ope that. No one should get away with a betrayal like that."

"Thanks."

Gus had already turned her back to make her way out the store, in hopes to be able to get away from the feeling of dread that had settled over her, when the man called her back, "No problem doll, you sure you don't want to pick up some second hand school books as well? Got the whole set for fourth years at Hogwarts."

She turned back and attempted a smile to show her thanks for the man's help, but instead of looking at the man all she could do was stare at the poster. "No thank you already got a set at home."


When she tripped over the entry way to the Leaky Cauldron, Gus spotted Harry sitting on an overstuffed arm chair that was near one of the many fireplaces in the pub. Harry was reading through a quidditch book that Hermione had given him for his birthday, so far that summer it was the only book Gus had seen Harry pick up that summer. Even though she was more than sure that he probably had summer work that he would need to complete before they left for Hogwarts on September 1st.

Maneuvering around some occupied tables, Gus made her way over to Harry where she sat across from him, her purchases sitting on her knees. Harry only gave her a glance when he looked up to see who had sat across from him, allowing for Gus to look over her brother.

Harry was adventurous, brave and acted usually without any second thought on what he was about to do. And knowing his past record at Hogwarts, Gus knew that it got him into not just trouble with school rules, but trouble with risking his life. She had heard the stories about the quests Hermione, Ron and himself would task themselves with, like protecting a stone that could give someone immortality and vanquishing the monster that was inside the chamber of secrets.

Now gifted, or cursed, Gus wasn't sure yet, with the knowledge that Sirius Black was the key to the fact that her parents were know dead, her mind was racing. Was she the one who should tell Harry that Sirius Black was the man who was responsible for their parent's death, or to keep him the dark? Harry had told her that the main reason he and his trio had gone off on their fact finding was that because things had been kept from them. But unlike most children, including Gus, who had important information constantly kept from them they went looking into this information, and usually almost getting them killed in the process.

She doubted that Harry would leave Hogwarts and go out looking for Black on his own, but if the opportunity to face Black was placed before him… Well Gus wasn't really sure what he'd do. While Harry did go off and challenge himself with finding answers and saving the day, she didn't know how he'd respond to seeing the man that killed their parents. They had never really discussed the topic much.

The title of orphan she knew affected her very much, unlike most children who had proud parents looking at their highly marked book reports and math tests Gus only got to share the good news of her high grades to Harry through infrequent letters by owl post. And even then the long distance relationship her and Harry had to adapt to didn't fill that hole that she sometimes felt.

Her and Harry were only used to each other's awkward hugs that they share if one had been given a good slap or two by their aunt and uncle, or if someone's taunts in the school yard had been especially cruel that day. They didn't get to feel the kisses from their parents when they would come in to check them while they slept. They didn't have any idea what the comforting sound of their mother's voice was like. They didn't have the memories of sitting on their father's strong shoulders, getting to see the world from way up high.

And then she knew what she had to do. Gus knew exactly what she would do if she was face to face with the man who had robbed all that from her. She couldn't tell Harry.


The next day she dragged Harry to the book shop. Lying through her teeth that she wanted to get all his school books before the shops got too busy when it became closer to term time. Though with the alley abandoned in the heat of mid-summer Harry just glared at her as he went around the store picking up the various books he needed. Going back up to the bushy eyebrowed old man, she gave a bright smile.

"Hi, I was wondering what would be the best books to read about Sirius Black?"

"Let me lead you over to the history section."

Gus had read through many of Harry's school books the previous summer, mainly out of curiosity as the only entertainment she had most of the summer after Harry's first year at school was listening to him retell his adventures with his friends; and most of what he mentioned was absolutely foreign to her. Like Harry and most other Hogwarts students she could barely get through A History of Magic as the book was riddled with in depth details of various witches and wizards now long dead. Though she was intrigued with his potions book, with many of the various brews the ingredients seemed to have the reactions they ought without any magical help. It made her wonder what would happen if she ever tried her hand at some of the potions if they would work or not. But she doubted she'd ever get close enough to Harry's cauldron and ingredients when she was under the Dursley's roof, let alone brew an entire potion.

But nothing she had ever read ever mentioned He-who-must-not-be-named, Harry or the night her parents died, mainly because those books discussed things that happened in the thirteenth century. Now she had the three books that mentioned all of those things. And she couldn't put them down.

They all basically told the same story; Lord Volde- You-Know-Who had gained many followers on the basis of ridding the world of the muggle and muggle born populations. During this time of great fear the young family of Lily and James Potter, with their baby daughter Augusta went into hiding, like many families did during that era of fear. But on Halloween 1981 their hiding came to an end as they were betrayed by their close friend and confidant Sirius Black who had revealed were they were hiding to You-Know-Who. That was the night that Gus lost her parents, the night Harry gained his scar, and the night You-Know-Who was vanquished.

The story was so straight forward and understandable, and Gus didn't like it. She never really liked history, it was always put so straight forward and understandable, but it never told the full story. And none of these books told the full story of what happened that night. They never mentioned that she was found hiding in a downstairs cupboard; they didn't mention why You-Know-Who was personally visiting the Potter household if they were just like any other wizarding family.

The three books had the same picture of the happy little family. It was slightly burnt around the edges, making Gus guess that it might have been taken from the Potter house after her and Harry had been evacuated. Her father was holding her hands as she sat on his shoulders, a big grin coming from her ginger head. Harry was in their mothers arm, somehow managing to sleep through the giggles that the rest of the Potter clan seemed to be making. Their mother was looking up at Gus and giving a small wave; Gus's hands wildly trying to escape her father's grip and catch her mother's wave.

While many of the ways wizards did things confused Gus, she understood the moving pictures. It made the moment feel more real. As if it could be brought to life at any moment. And every time Gus would flick back to the pages in those books with the identical photo it felt like for a second she would be able to look up and see her mother waving at her.

But the fact that the books were so distant with the idea that the four people in that photo are real, or for her parents who were real, made the topic even more painful. They listed out the family's birthdays, Lily Potter nee Evans born the 31st of January 1960, James Potter born the 27th of March 1960, Augusta Eliana Potter born the 13th of March 1979, and Harry James Potter born the 31st of July 1980. They listed out her parent's accomplishments during their times at Hogwarts, the head boy and girl of their year. They had a photo of the burnt out Potter cottage in Godric's Hollow as well as the memorial statue of the Potter family that immortalized the infant images of Gus and Harry as they sat on their dead parent's laps.

History made Gus disgusted.


It took her four days to rip through all three books; she had holed herself up in her and Harry's bedroom in the Leaky Cauldron, leaving him to his own devices. When she finally finished the books mid-day two weeks into their stay, nearing their upcoming departure for Hogwarts she descended the stairs down into the main area of the pub finding Harry sitting at one of the outside tables of the pub, with Hedwig perched on the back of one of the empty chairs.

Gus plopped herself down in a chair across from Hedwig, "What you got there?"

Looking up from the messily scribbled on parchment Harry answered, "A letter from Ron, says him and his family are going to come tomorrow so that they can get there school supplies and get to the train on time."

"Ron is the friend that kidnapped you right?" Gus asked as she opened the owl treats container that was on the table.

Rolling his eyes, Harry looked back down to the parchment and began reading again, "It wasn't really kidnapping."

"Trust me, a brief letter of 'I love you and I'm fine' to ensure your safety to me does not help unclassify what they did from kidnapping." Gus flinched as Hedwig took at treat from her hand, she had never really gotten used to the appreciatively little pecks that the bird would give, "Why would they be coming to stay here anyways?"

"Well we do leave for Hogwarts in two days."


Gus had purposely taken her time that morning getting ready. Today the Weasley clan was arriving. And from the three gingers in her bedroom at midnight last summer she had no idea what to expect from them. She usually didn't mind what her hair or her clothes looked like. It wasn't like anyone at Diagon Alley would take notice if she looked 'nice' by muggle standards, but for some reason she felt that it was important to look her best for the family that had taken her little brother under their wing. Finally after what she decided was enough stalling, as she had missed the end of breakfast at ten, she started to slowly make her way down the rickety stairs of the Leaky Cauldron.

When she finally reached the balcony of the staircase that overlooked the bar room she stood petrified. There was so many of them, all running around, ginger and chaotic. At the head of the table there was a woman obviously trying to keep control over the family, she was barking orders at two identical boys who were apparently playing a prank of some sort on a curly haired, gangly boy. Besides the woman was a skinny girl with long hair watching in quiet delight as her brother tormented one of her siblings. Gus couldn't see the boy who had stuck his head into her and Harry's room last summer; she also couldn't see the mop of unruly black hair that belonged to her brother either. So she was going to have to face them alone.

After a few moments of looking on the scene she decided that she was going to have to go down eventually.

The moment that Gus's foot hit the bottom of the landing the ginger woman's head whipped around at her, "There you are!" Gus jumped at the booming and welcoming tone directed at her.

The young girl was now looking at her as well; looking between the two ginger females Gus gulped and asked hesitantly, "Do I know you?"

The woman gave an understanding smile as she made her way from the table, "Molly Weasley dear."

Gus gave a weak nod, "Nice to meet you," she took a few more wary steps towards the crowded table.

"And you dear, now come on over, didn't see you at breakfast, must be starving." The woman waved over for Gus to join them.

Making an attempt to seem less terrified Gus forced a smile as she finished making her way to the table full of gingers, "I'm fine thank you."

All of a sudden though the woman pounced on Gus, stepping up to Gus and placing her hand's on her cheeks, "Look at you, you and Harry both are just skin and bones. We'll need to get some meat on you."

Releasing a shocked Gus, Mrs Weasley turned to the group at the table, her hand first went to her side where a young girl sat, "Now this is Ginny, my youngest this is her second year at Hogwarts."

The woman spoke so quickly that Gus had to whip her head to the opposite end of the table as she moved her hand to point to a gangly older boy, "This is Percy, he's head boy! We're so proud of him."

"So proud." Turning to find where the paired voices had come from, Gus saw two twin boys with large smirks on their freckled faces.

"And those are the twins, Fred and George." Mrs. Weasley introduced the twins with a more critical tone, "They'll be going into their fifth year."

After a moment of staring at the mirrored faces, realization hit Gus, "You two helped kidnap Harry last summer."

"It wasn't kidnapping," the boy on the left spoke first.

He was finished by his twin on the right, "It was a valiant rescue."

"Sure." Gus rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms, "When you go in through someone's bedroom window it's a valiant rescue."

"But-"started the boy on the right."

"You two said you went through the front door!" Ginny and Percy both flinched as their mother's voice had risen by what seemed to Gus several octaves as she interrupted one of the twins.


Thanks for reading!