Okay, firstly this story features 2 original characters, with one as the main character so there's a lot you're not going to know about them. But hopefully I'll fill most of the background in with this first chapter, however if there's any questions then feel free to ask. The main character, Sienna, is basically like a female Harry and I guess she's quite like him in a way. I'd better warn you though, I'm what you call an Idealist, so I like to make the story fit the character instead of vice versa, so there's going to be a few things in my story that don't quite fit the explanations and descriptions given in the Harry Potter books. I know I shouldn't do it, but I like my character to be almost perfect, and most of the time that means changing a few facts from the HP books and inventing a few things to make the story more exciting. I'll give you a quick example of my Idealism - in my story, Sienna is a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team whereas we all know that in fact the Gryffindor Chasers are Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet. It isn't exactly world changing stuff. So this is just a warning, if you don't want to see parts of the HP books changed then I wouldn't read this…. If you want to read then go ahead, but remember you have been warned! Lol
Secondly, this story is starting after Order of the Phoenix, but as well as this first sort of Prologue-like Chapter 1; there will most probably be some flashbacks of things that have happened to give more detail. This is what I believe happens after the events in Order of the Phoenix, and I'm not planning on this story having anything to do with The Half Blood Prince as no-one knows who the HBP is and I don't even want to speculate.
Lastly, however much I want to I do not own or claim to own any of the Harry Potter books, characters or magical creatures etc. But any original characters, theories or spells are devised entirely by me and any relationship to anybody else's characters etc is purely coincidental.
Now with all that rambling over with, I hope you enjoy the story! Please R & R!
Chapter 1
Summer break had never been the most exciting of holidays, but to Sienna Hartley, this year's holiday had to be the worst. Last year's summer was appallingly poor, what with the secret meetings and constant rebuttals of "You're too young!" But after the horrific school year she'd just had, Sienna's abysmal mood was still very much present one week into the holidays, and showed no signs of letting up. The weather wasn't exactly helping either and now, as she lay on her bed, the rain pounded constantly on her window and thunder rumbled menacingly in the distance.
Rolling over on her side, Sienna reached over for her alarm clock just as the grandfather clock downstairs began to chime two in the morning. Groaning, she sat up and pulled her covers around her, her eyes roaming aimlessly around the room. They landed on her walk in wardrobe, and all of the clothes she took so much pride in. Some people would give anything to be me, she thought, smiling. She lived in a huge house, had all the clothes and money she could ever want yet she still wasn't satisfied. She should've been happy, especially when considering what Harry had to put up with; a horrible aunt and uncle and hand me down clothes for starters. She was lucky compared to him, but she still couldn't help feeling like there was something missing. Shaking her head as to try and rid herself of the thought, she glanced over at her alarm clock again but her eyes were instead drawn to a framed photograph at the side of her bed. The picture had been taken when she had just been born, and her parents were waving happily as she lay sleeping in her mother's arms. Her dad hadn't changed a bit in fifteen years, and still looked the same today; handsome, tall and charming. But the years seemed to have taken their toll on him, as the wrinkles around his eyes were much more pronounced and the twinkle in his eyes had been replaced by constant fear and worry that seemed to afflict most members of the Order of the Phoenix. What a difference one person can make, Sienna thought, as her eyes moved onto her mum. Her mother looked stunning, her blue eyes sparkling and her ice blonde hair bouncing gently on her shoulders as she waved. People often told her how much Sienna looked like her mother; even Harry had said they looked almost identical. Course she hadn't told anybody what Harry had said, to her that day, not even her father even though she was desperate to tell him. Closing her eyes, she thought back to the conversation she had with Harry.
It had been the day before they finished school, and Harry had wandered off by himself for the umpteenth time and this time Sienna followed, intending to cheer him up or give some moral support at the very least. He was sat down by the lake, and seemed immersed in his own thoughts when she sat down next to him.
"Hi Harry." She said, smiling and waving her hand in front of his face to gain his attention.
"Oh hi Sienna. What are you doing here?" He asked his voice emotionless as he continued to stare at the lake.
"I'm doing the same thing you are," She replied, looking over at the other students milling around the grounds, "Not talking and trying to ignore everybody. So I figured if we're both doing the same thing, we might as well do it together."
He glanced over at her, trying to make out whether she was serious. Seeing she wasn't going to elaborate, Harry turned back to the lake.
They had sat in silence for a while, Harry staring out at the lake whilst she looked in disgust at Draco Malfoy and his band of Slytherins tormenting a group of first years. Shaking her head, she looked back over at Harry and realised her was staring at her.
"What?" She asked, looking at him curiously.
"You really do look like your mum, especially at this age," He said, turning away from her, "you look almost identical."
"How do you know that?" She asked, sitting up and looking at him attentively.
"I… I saw it… In the pensieve." He said, hesitating at first before realising he couldn't get out of this now.
After that, Harry had told her all about Snape's worst memory and how he had seen her parents as well as his sitting in the great hall and then out at the lake. He'd said they hadn't been going out then, but it had been obvious her father had liked her mother. "All through the exam, he'd been looking at her and hadn't stopped when they went out to the lake" Harry had said, and now as she sat in her bed, she smiled at the thought. Harry had then gone onto say that he had mistook her mother for her, and only realised it wasn't her when someone had called her "Diana" instead of "Sienna". She just wished she could've seen what Harry had seen, although maybe without the violent reaction from Snape.
As she lay back down, she found herself realising that she often wished she could've seen what Harry had seen or done what he had done. Sometimes she had done, but the majority of the time she had been stuck on the sidelines with Ron and Hermione. Even they saw more exciting things than she did occasionally. Like in their first year at school, they had solved all those tasks and puzzles to rescue the Philosopher's Stone whereas she had been lying unconscious in the hospital wing after being knocked off her broom at Gryffindor's final Quidditch match. In the second year, she had narrowly avoided having her memory obliterated by Professor Lockhart and had been rewarded by being trapped with him and Ron. Her third year had been a little better when she had finally found out the truth about the Marauders, but was a little disappointed to find that her father hadn't chosen to be an Animagi like James, Sirius and Peter but had taken the 'safe' job as a lookout. She was also a little annoyed at the fact that Harry, Ron and Hermione had dallied with werewolves and knocked out Snape whilst she had a conversation with her father's floating head in a fire. The fourth year was the only year she hadn't wished she had seen what Harry had seen, and had been very grateful for her seat in the crowd when Harry had duelled with Voldemort.
And then last year was most exciting year of them all in her eyes, although she doubted her friends would share quite the same view. She had flown on the Thestrals and gone to the Ministry of Magic with the other members of the DA, and honestly thought that duelling with Death Eaters was exciting instead of scary. But then something had gone wrong. She hadn't meant to follow Harry into the Atrium but she had found herself doing so all the same, and had come face to face with the wizard who had murdered her mother and Harry's parents fourteen years previously. The wizard who had spared her life for some unknown reason when she was a baby, hadn't been so generous that night in the Atrium and had intended to kill. Yet she had survived and all she had to prove such a story was a small diamond shaped scar directly above her heart. Not that she could ever forget those events; the flash of green light and the pain, followed by what seemed an age of nothingness. And then she had woken up and found herself lying on the polished floor of the Atrium.
Nobody could explain why she had survived, not even Dumbledore who had spent a lengthy period of time with her after talking with Harry. Sienna thought she knew why though, but she would never tell anybody, at least not yet. She had discovered something about herself last summer, something magical that she could use to her advantage. And she had done so last summer, and when they had visited the Ministry of Magic a month ago. She believed this was the reason why Voldemort had spared her life fourteen years ago, and why he had failed to kill her this year. Dumbledore suspected, of course he did. He had questioned her for a long time that night and seemed almost disappointed when she hadn't said anything. She should've told him, but she knew he would've told her dad and her dad's attitude towards her wasn't good at the best of times, so it would've just made the situation much worse.
Keeping such a secret isn't healthy and Sienna knew that if she kept quiet for much longer, the secret would kill her before Voldemort did. She thought of telling Harry, Ron and Hermione but immediately dismissed the idea. Harry and Ron would probably understand but she knew Hermione's reaction would be to tell her to go straight to Dumbledore or even worse, her father. And that she couldn't do.
Turning over on her side, Sienna looked at her alarm clock and was surprised to see that only half an hour had passed. Sighing, she tried to think of who she could talk to. There was always Lupin, but his reaction would probably be the same as Hermione's. No, I'll keep it to myself for now, she thought. Maybe later I'll tell Harry, but for now the best thing is to keep quiet.
Glancing over at the picture of her mother, she rested her head on the pillow. If only you were still here, she thought, things would've been different. She could think of a million "If only" statements, but none of them would change the past. None of them could bring her mother back, but there was one thing she could do. As she slowly drifted off to sleep, Sienna vowed to avenge the murder of her mother even at the cost of her own life.