Hey, an update!! Yeah, I figured I should, so anyways time for Dumbledore to talk to them (just so there's no confusion, Harry and Leila don't know Dumbledore yet, I put the name in there cause it was pretty obvious it was him), and I'll add in more Ron in these chapters, I just thought that since Fred and George are more outgoing, they would have talked more when they met Harry and Leila. Hope you enjoy!!

Dobby's Polka-Dotted Sock

"Good afternoon, Mr. and Ms. Potter," stated Albus Dumbledore.

Chapter Five:

Friends and Discoveries

The group of children stared up at the man, while Remus walked over, brushing soot from his tattered robes and Mrs. Weasley quickly stood and greeted this eccentric looking person which strongly reminded Leila of what was her idea of wizards.

Percy whirled about and hissed, "Stop staring at the headmaster, it's not polite!" and then stood stock-still with his chest puffed out at full maximum so it looked as though he was trying to see how large it would expand. Meanwhile, the older wizard was looking down his crooked nose at the children.

"It is a pleasure to see you, Harry Potter, and also to see you alive and well, Leila." The man turned his attention back to the adults, and Leila scrunched up her nose slightly. It was getting a little annoying, everyone referring to Harry first, and almost adding Leila as an after-thought. She focused in on what the three grownups were talking about.

"And they have no idea even what Hogwarts is!" Mrs. Weasley was saying while shaking her head. "It seems like they don't even know anything about our world at all!"

The tall man nodded solemnly, as Lupin interjected, "I thought their relatives were supposed to tell them everything?" Harry and Leila looked at each other in surprise. The Dursley's had known about magic? Then, the man beckoned over the bartender.

"Tom? A private parlor for my guests and I if you please?" he inquired pleasantly. Tom the bartender nodded, and shuffled away, leading them up a flight of stairs, down a hall, and into a room. It had a few sofas and chairs, with a grand fireplace, majestic drapes and portraits, along with a small table in the center. Tom shuffled back out with a bow and wave at the children. Leila sat down on a sofa, having to squish in beside Harry who was sitting next to Ron. The twins sat on a couch on either side of Percy, who looked a little uncomfortable with this arrangement. Mrs. Weasley and Lupin sat in chairs, with Ginny on her mother's lap, as there wasn't much room left. "Now," said the man, who remained standing, "we're all settled, so I suppose I should introduce myself." He smiled briefly at Harry and Leila and continued. "My name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. You may refer to me as Professor if you wish."

"Wow," Leila whispered to Harry. "He has a lot of middle names." They both tried to keep straight faces as Dumbledore reached into his pocket and pulled out…a stick. That was a little confusing. With a wave of the stick suddenly a revolving tea tray appeared in the air, complete with teapot, cups, a sugar bowl, and a saucer of cream. It landed gently on the table along with a plate of cookies. (A/N: Biscuits, whatever you want to call them. I don't really care.) After waving his apparently magical stick a second time, the teapot poured tea into each cup by itself. Leila blinked and shook her head, opening her eyes to see the tea was still in the cups. Harry was staring at it wide-eyed in shock.

"Whoa," they both said at the same time. Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling.

"I believe this is rather new to you?" he questioned politely. Both nodded, still in awe of what they had seen. Apparently, the Weasley children were quite used to these types of feats as Percy was already pouring some cream in his cup and Fred and George were fighting over the sugar bowl.

"I want the sugar!"

"No me!"

Dumbledore raised his hand and the set the bowl down on the table, and then began spooning huge amounts of sugar into their cups.

"Stop it!" Their mother hissed, and placed their hands in their laps. Dumbledore waited until he had complete silence (which didn't take long, he's Dumbledore for goodness sake people) and took a breath.

"Now, I assume that you do not know what happened to your parents when you were young children?"

"Yeah we do," Harry interrupted, "Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia said they died in a car crash." As soon as he said this Lupin seemed to look livid and Mrs. Weasley shocked.

"A car crash?" the woman said.

"How could they?" Lupin was saying rather angrily. Dumbledore raised his hands again. Silence fell.

"As you may have guessed by now, that is not the case. Your parents died fighting the Dark Lord Voldemort." A shiver seemed to run through the group. Ginny looked completely terrified.

"What? What's the matter? All he said was Voldemort. I think the name's rather silly, really." Leila said, ignoring the flinches or jumps of the others, excluding Dumbledore and Lupin.

"Don't say the name!" Percy hissed fearfully.

"There's hardly anything funny about it," Lupin said seriously.

"Are parents were…killed?" Harry asked quietly. Dumbledore nodded somberly.

"Why?" Leila asked equally as quiet. The truth seemed to be slowly leaking into her brain. All this time she had thought her parents' deaths were accident when it had really been murder.

"You see, about eleven years ago, Lord Voldemort was a very powerful wizard with many followers at his disposal. There were others, though, that objected to his methods of killing and torturing muggles. Your parents were among them."

Harry interrupted the old wizard. "What are muggles?"

"Muggles are people unable to do magic," Mrs. Weasley supplied.

"So he just killed them?" Leila asked, shocked. Just a few days ago the most they had had to worry about was getting locked in their cupboard.

"Yes." Dumbledore said, and they saw the sadness in his brilliant blue eyes. "And those who resisted him as well. On the night of Halloween ten years ago, he came to your home and killed your parents. I do not mean to seem cold," he said as both of them stared in horror at him, "but there is hardly any other way to say it; we must face challenges bravely." They nodded, but Leila distinctly heard Mrs. Weasley give a teary sniffle. "When he approached the crib in which you both lay, he attempted to kill you as well, but somehow you did not die and the curse rebounded upon him, ripping him from his body, and leaving you with the scars there on your head." He gestured at the lightning scars on each of the foreheads of the two. Leila reached up and touched the scar, Harry doing the same next to her. It seemed like her old life was so normal before now.

"So…you're saying we're famous and we can do magic?" Harry asked slowly, seeming to be trying to wrap his head around it.

"Yes. Your aunt and uncle do not approve of magic or similar things and so I believe they were attempting to somehow not let your powers develop."

"Meanies," Leila muttered sulkily. Lupin seemed to be trying not to laugh at that comment.

"Yes, I suppose so," Dumbledore admitted. "Now the question is where you shall be staying for the rest of the summer, but that shall be decided later. I must be off and I'm sure you will all need to be shopping, mostly for school supplies." Here he nodded at Molly. "Good day." With that he stood and swept from the room.

"Well, he is right. I suppose…if you would like to come with us Remus?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Uh, well, if that's alright with you, Molly," he replied.

"Of course, well we best be off." Ginny jumped off her mother's lap and her mother took her hand. The large group left the room, walking down the stairs. First was Mrs. Weasley with Ginny, the Percy, Fred and George who seemed to be attempting to steal the prefect's badge off their brother's head, next were Harry and Ron chatting to each other, then Leila, and Lupin brought up the rear. It was a strange and not on the whole a pleasant experience. She tried to get next to Harry, but the staircase was to narrow and he and Ron didn't seem to be paying attention her either. Then when they went out to the backyard of the pub and into Diagon Alley-- which was an amazing magical display. Leila watched with her mouth hung open as the brick moved aside so they could walk into the crowded hidden street --the street was to busy and full of people to get beside her twin. Leila felt almost empty or out of place, she always stood next to Harry and talked to him. Finally she stopped altogether. She felt a hand placed on her shoulder and she looked up into the kind scarred face of Remus Lupin.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't really matter, but golly Mr. Lupin, I just feel lonely. Harry always walks with me. We're unseparable."

"I used to feel the same way sometimes," he told her as the walked behind the group. "Your father and…a friend of his were like that to. But then I'd remember how nice they always were to me. They didn't always hang out by themselves, though. I'm sure Harry just wants to get to know a boy his age, they'll be going to Hogwarts together at any rate. Ron probably will talk to you too, he's a nice kid from what I see, all Weasleys are. And I believe the correct term is inseparable." He gave her a slight grin as they entered Flourish and Blotts.

"Gee, you're smart Mr. Lupin," Leila said.

"Alright now," Mrs. Weasley was saying. "Harry, Leila, Dumbledore told me to put you're books and other supplies on hold, and he'll send someone with the key to your vault at Gringotts later to buy them. Now we'll just buy the rest of you your things." The last part she addressed to her children, who were scrambling around the store like excited squirrels, except for Ginny, who stayed with her mother, and Percy, who was standing in the store looking important.

"I think Ginny's to young to go to Hogwarts," Lupin said in explanation to Leila's curious glance at the small redheaded girl. Mrs. Weasley went towards the back where a section of books were labeled 'Used'. "The Weasleys don't have a lot of money," he said quietly before Leila could loudly ask her question. "But they're some of the nicest people around." Leila nodded. In the half-hour of knowing them the Weasleys did seem very nice.

In no time, it seemed that the school shopping was done and they stood within the Leaky Cauldron. "Well," Lupin stated, "I suppose I should be going." Leila looked up in confusion.

"Why?" she asked.

"I do have to go home, you know," he said with a wry smile.

"But, Mr. Lupin, can't I stay with you? For the rest of the summer? You know?" Lupin stared down at the young witch in mild surprise and confusion.

"Well," he finally said, "you see Leila, I can't take you to my place. I'm…too poor. Besides," he quickly added, seeing as the young girl was giving him the puppy dog eyes, "you'd like it much better at the Weasley's."

"But…you're my friend," she said quietly. It seemed to be causing Lupin some pain in leaving the girl, but he merely shook his head.

"We'll see each other again, I'm sure. It was wonderful getting to know you, Leila." With that, he shook her hand and walked over to Mrs. Weasley to tell her he was leaving. She nodded and he went and shook Harry's hand as well before exiting out the front door and into the busy London afternoon.

"Well then," Mrs. Weasley said. "I think we should be getting home. I hope you won't mind if it's a tad…cramped." The twins this time shook their heads; it didn't matter to them so long as they were not at the Dursley's. She showed them how to use Floo powder and had Percy go first as a demonstration. Leila went next. It was an odd sensation; she was spinning like a top and felt very warm. Finally she felt herself stop and being the klutz she was, tripped on the hearth and fell on her face. As she was checking to make sure her nose wasn't broken or something equally misfortunate, the fireplace came to life and someone stepped out. (She couldn't see who it was since she had her back to them, of course.) They walked around her and offered their hand. Satisfied that she hadn't damaged her nose, she took it and stood up, coming face-to-face with Ron.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Sure, I only tripped, you know," she replied with a grin.

"Just checking. So I guess you're going to be in my year," he acknowledged.

"Yep."

"So," he said as they moved aside and Harry sprung out of the fireplace (without tripping). "Harry said you two don't know what Quidditch is."

"Nope, never heard of it." She said.

"Well, just so you know, Fred and George say that if you don't know what Quidditch is at Hogwarts, you're considered a laughing-stock. I already told Harry about. Do you want to hear?"

Leila shrugged. "Eh, why not?" And she spent the next hour listening to Ron explain Quidditch which was apparently a sport played on flying brooms. Leila liked the concept of being able to fly especially. Lupin had been right; Ron was a pretty nice kid.

Soon, Mrs. Weasley assigned Leila and Harry their sleeping spaces. Harry would stay with Ron, and Leila was bunking with Ginny. She entered the room, finding Ginny putting away some laundry.

"Howdy," Leila said to the younger girl. Ginny's room was nice. It had a window with a view of the backyard and it was decorated with a couple posters of the Holy Head Harpies, a Quidditch team by the looks of it.

"Hi," Ginny said back, sitting down on her bed and Leila on her cot. "It's a little small, but it's ok," she amended, gesturing about her room.

"Are you kidding me? The cupboard under the stairs was way smaller. And it had spiders." Leila said with a grin. Ginny's eyes grew wide.

"You slept in a cupboard?"

"Yeah, I shared it with Harry. And just to tell you, he snores!"

"But, he is the Boy-Who-Lived," the young witch said, seeming to be in awe that Leila would dare insult him.

"So? I'm his twin, I'll say whatever I want," she said, jabbing a thumb at her chest. The two girls talked, Ginny telling her about what she'd heard about Hogwarts.

"I can't wait to go there!" she said energetically, just as Mrs. Weasley called them down to dinner, where Leila learned a valuable lesson.

Mrs. Weasley's cooking was the best in the world.

She also discovered that Ron, Fred, and George all shared her love for food. Of course, Leila was rather hungry after only having scraps of food the past week or so, and how could she resist the wonderful food prepared graciously by their hostess? Mr. Weasley was home now too, and he was delighted to find that Harry Potter and his twin Leila were staying at his house. Then he began to question them about things that were part of the everyday life of a muggle. Leila and Harry answered the best they could, while Mr. Weasley's children and wife rolled their eyes.

After dinner, Leila felt that life could hardly be better. She and Harry were free from the Dursleys, they were staying at a marvelous house, and both of them had made friends with several people. There was only one thing bothering her. Why was Harry the Boy-Who-Lived? She had lived too, hadn't she? It was unnerving how people would say they were happy she was alive, as if she was supposed to be dead. And how come they always talked to Harry first? Leila sighed and decided she was being ridiculous. Everything was already great enough; no one could have everything in life.

Now, more than ever, she wished her mother and father were still alive, especially now she knew what had really happened to them. Leila wanted someone she felt comfortable confiding in, and Harry wasn't an option, as he would just say she was being stupid. 'What's the matter with me?' she thought. 'I have to be tough. No sissy stuff for Leila Potter. If my parents aren't here to help, I'll just have to get by. Everything will be fine.'

Still, she lay awake in her cot for a while afterward before finally drifting to sleep.

I hope you guys liked. I made it kind of longer to make up for the wait. Now that school's out, I'll probably be able to update more. Yay no school!! Please review!