The Littlest Lion
Summary: No one questioned it out loud, despite being so curious. No one said anything against the girl...or even the teachers, but why? It was on everyone's mind; why? Why was a Gryffindor being spoiled by Professor Snape!? And why is she always in the dungeons after hours?!
Anime/Manga/Movie/Book: InuYasha/Harry Potter
Genre: Angst/Romance
Pairing: Kagome/?
Rated: M
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(December 21st, 1994)
"You look upset,"
Kagome turned away from the window in the Gryffindor common room. Her eyes met the familiar warm brown eyes of Fred, though George was nowhere to be seen. She watched him for a moment as he took a seat to her right. "Your other half out collecting coin?"
"Probably. We take turns when it's not the both of us making rounds together." Glancing outside, he noticed the graying clouds and frowned at the changing weather. "Looks like it may rain."
"Looks like it." Her attention brought back to the rainclouds, she sighed.
"Kagome, what is it? You look seriously depressed. It's not because of what happened in D.A.D.A, is it?"
"No, it's not that. Just me making a mess out of my life, same as usual." As an arm pulled her into a hug, the portrait to the Gryffindor common room swung open, and George came walking in with Harry next to him. The two were talking quietly before parting ways. George hopped onto the windowsill beside Kagome and Fred, grinning at the two. "Give any first or second years bloody-noses?"
"None today. I was talking with Alicia before I ran into Harry. What were you both going on about."
Her stomach dropped a bit, and she pushed away from Fred ever so slightly, "I was actually about to leave,"
"What?" George reached out and caught her hand, "no, wait! That is, Fred and I wanted to talk with you." Carefully pulling on her hand, locking his eyes with hers, he smiled when she lowered herself back down on the chair. "Look, we've been waiting for the right time to ask, but you always seem so busy, and neither of us wants to get in the way of your training. What with the next task taking place supposedly underwater, we were letting you figure out your next step, you know?"
"What my other half is trying to say is that we've been waiting to get you alone so that we might ask you to the Yule Ball."
'Wait,' shaking her head, Kagome frowned and glanced between the two, "aren't you both already going with someone? I thought for sure that you and Angelina..." she looked at Fred, who shook his head with a smile, "Alicia?" Turning to George, who smirked and lifted her hand to his lips, "I thought..."
"The both of us were never planning on going with Alicia or Angelina. It was always you. The problem was, would you think it's weird to go with the both of us, or maybe...neither of us." His eyes darted to Fred's, who was looking nervously down at his hands, wringing his fingers tightly into his sweater.
"I..." she stopped, smiled, flushed a bit, and then nodded, "yes, I would love to go with the both of you!" She leaned in closer to Fred and smiled into his warmth when he held her.
George moved close to her, rubbing his hand up along her arm, his thumb moving languidly as he looked on at the two with a warm smile. Grinning when she pulled away from Fred before turning to him and giving him a tight hug. It was quite the hug fest, but then he felt her start to tremble in his arms. "Love, what's the matter?"
"I've been making so many mistakes. I can't help but feel as if everything around me is starting to crumble."
The twins shared a look of confusion, not sure what mistakes Kagome was going on about. When Fred stood and knelt before her, taking her chin in his hand and pulling her away from his brothers' jumper. "Tell us what's going on, Kagome."
"We're here for you,"
She locked her eyes with Fred, not even sure where she should start. A couple of tears slipped down her cheeks before she sniffled and brought her cloak sleeve to her reddened cheeks. "Severus," she barely murmured, "you, this tournament, and... some family drama..."
"Wait, us?!"
"We're mistakes?" George looked taken aback, not sure how to take being referred to as a mistake, but Kagome's hair suddenly flaring in every direction as she shook her head drew his attention back to her.
"Not you, not specifically. I—it's the lying...or, no, not lying... keeping secrets. I don't particularly like it, and I'm rambling, but—"
"Kagome!" George smiled, "whatever you're keeping a secret, we've known for a couple of years. Well, we don't know what it is, but we knew you were keeping something from us, and—"
"—and that's okay," Fred smirked. "If we had a problem with it, we would have spoken up about it long before."
"Don't worry yourself so much. Now, move on to the next concern. Severus, what happened with Severus?"
"Need us to hex his hair red and gold?"
"Or change his robes to shimmer pink and flounce with every step he takes?"
George and Fred delighted in her laughter as they gave suggestions, but Kagome was quick to shake her head and dismiss the idea of humiliating her Potions Professor.
"No, I... I hurt him."
"Physically!?"
Narrowing her eyes, she watched the twins raise their hands in defense, "not physically! No, I—" Kagome blushed, "I hurt his heart."
"You hurt—"
"—his heart."
Fred and George, in that order, commented on their uncertainty before Fred cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Kagome, could you start at the beginning?"
"To explain how I hurt him, I would have to come clean about some of my secrets. I suppose I should start with the fact that I actually have been staying with Severus for years now. I visit my mother during the Holidays, but during the summer, I stay with Severus."
Nodding, Fred looked at George, who didn't seem to know what to say. "...okay, but why?"
"You're not gonna tell us that you're his daughter, are you?" Even as George chuckled lightly, Kagome could see he was nervous about the answer she would give. Most likely because of how they messed with their Potions Professor.
"No—" stopping as the portrait to the Gryffindor Common room swung open again, she watched as a few of the girls stampeded without any regard for those who might be studying. She watched them take a seat close to where she and the twins were. Pulling her wand out, she quickly whispered a notice-me-not spell and followed that up with the muffliatio. "Sorry. To answer your question, no. I'm not his daughter. Ah, but he knows my father."
"Is that why he's taking care of you?"
"Part of the reason," uncomfortable, Kagome stood up and stepped away from the twins for a moment. Her fingers searched out the sleeves of her cloak. "I'm sick." Turning, she looked back at George and Fred, "I've been very sick for a long time now, and there is no cure."
"That's why you didn't want to enter the tournament." Things suddenly began to make sense to the two gingers in front of her. "You said you might actually die. That wasn't a joke. You were serious?" George dropped his hands into his lap. His eyes following the motion, not sure what to say or where to go with the conversation.
"I was serious. Honestly, running around the castle speeds up my death. I didn't even know what would happen if I went up against a Dragon. My only saving grace was finding that book on Favorites. Bound, I may be to a Dragon, but I am alive, and that's all that matters. I made a promise to Severus and Dumbledore that I would live through this tournament, and I intend to stand by my word. I owe my life to them; I can't just throw it away."
Nodding, George sighed, "bloody hell. We pushed you into it."
"Shite."
Kagome laughed, "I wouldn't have done anything I didn't want to do. Part of me really wanted to compete. Certainly, you two pushed me to think about it more than I had planned, but I wanted to do this, not for you, but me. I want to live. I told Severus the same thing. It's not enough being alive. I want to live." She watched as Fred lifted his hand for hers, stepping closer; she set hers in his hand and let him pull her closer. His arms wrapped around her waist, and his head settled gently against her abdomen. He wasn't crying; he was just carefully breathing. Taking her in. Like the thought of her disappearing from his arms had suddenly become too real. There was a possibility of it in the tournament, but they'd always thought she'd be able to outsmart anything that it might throw at her. Now that there was some sickness thrown into the equation, they weren't sure of her survival rate. Kagome brought her hand to his head, running her fingers through the silky locks for a moment before she smiled sadly. "That's why he was so uptight about my joining the tournament."
"That doesn't explain how you hurt his heart." George brought his hands to his face as he found himself feeling more stressed than when he'd watched Kagome go up against the Hungarian she was now bonded to. Threading his fingers through his hair before he laced them together and shook his head. "You got into a fight with him?"
"...yeah," heaving a careful and controlled breath, she closed her eyes, "I yelled at him. I got upset because I felt like he was bouncing between an overbearing caregiver and an overbearing professor. I hurt him... he, he thinks of me as a daughter, and I hurt him because I was tired of him always yelling at me. Like his worrying was getting in my way... what's wrong with me!? You guys should have heard him. I can't begin to make it up to him. I don't even know what would have happened if not for his support over the years. Why was I so mad? Why did it bother me so much? I'm not upset anymore, but now, I feel like I somehow fractured my relationship with him. I don't want to push him away, I can't..." tears began to fall once more with a vengeance, "I can't breathe without Severus. It hurts too much."
Fred and George curled up on the settee, pulling Kagome in-between them; they held her while she cried. Several untold secrets were outed that night, and while there were many, there were still more to come. Unknown to the boys, she'd not told them everything, and she still feared for the moment those secrets came out.
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(December 24th, 1994)
Over the last few days, she had taken her time pulling herself together. Feeling a rather annoying sense of guilt for not telling the twins everything, she could only shake her head and move on. In the evenings, she would find comfort lying next to her dragon, though it was probably the other way around. Sure that the dragon didn't belong to her. Sure that she was, in fact, the property of the dragon that she'd tied herself to. Leisurely reading, catching up on schoolwork, or just relaxing by her fire-breathing companion—never too far out of sight, Charlie kept a close watch on her and her interactions with the large beast.
When she wasn't spending her leisurely time with the dragon, she practiced dancing with Charlie or out by the lake with Severus. Having promised to invite her caregiver during her training with self-transfiguration, he would join Charlie at the edge of the lake for idle conversation. At the same time, Kagome swam around the dark lake out of their vantage point. The chieftain under the lake was also careful of her. That was unexpected. He would take her along on what she assumed were patrols of the lake, and if other selkies grew close to her, he would move in closer so that he was near enough to stop them from hurting her if that were to happen. It was strange, for her at least. Someone always seemed to be worried about her, if not above the lake, below it. More than anything, she wished that she didn't cause so much worry. Severus continued to help her with whatever droughts he could, anything that would ease the pain after her transformation until she no longer felt the restructuring of her bones and body.
When Saturday rolled around, she found herself staring at the mirror in her shared room, eyeing the clothes scattered across her bed. Not ready for a ball. She could dance well enough now, but she had nothing to wear, which led her to where she was now.
Kagome knocked gently on the Headmaster's office; having gummy-beared her way past the enchanted stairway, she waited for her Headmaster to respond. Not disappointed, she entered at the softly spoken come-in. "Headmaster, would it be possible for me to talk you into a trip?"
Standing from behind his desk, Dumbledore looked on thoughtfully at Kagome, "whereto, may I ask?"
"I haven't gone dress shopping, and I was wondering if we could go see Madam Malkin. The Yule is tomorrow, and I don't think another witch could have a dress ready in time. I considered asking Severus...but..."
"Hm, I don't see why not. I would say that normally, it's frowned upon for professors to leave with students to expenditures such as these. However, I do believe that as a Champion, you are required to open in the dance at the Yule, and that would only be likely to happen if you were dressed for the event. Am I correct?"
She nodded as he talked himself into taking her. Not about to interrupt his train of thought, she just smiled and listened; an occasional nod was thrown in here and there. Technically speaking, it was Saturday, and she could go to Hogsmeade if she wanted. However, she found herself really wanting something special, and she felt as if Madam Malkin would be able to help her find what she was looking for. Dumbledore's permission was necessary, though. As his eyes settled on her, she noticed how they twinkled. Perhaps he was excited too.
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Me: Here is chapter 12. I recently started writing Harry Potter fics on Archive of Our Own, so if anyone wants to follow me there, it's the same name that I go by here. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Kagome is still too afraid to say anything about her father to the Twins, but now the twins are more aware that her health is not in good shape. Let me know your thoughts, and I'll get started on the Yule Ball~.