The Secret Unspeakable

Leah sighed and pressed her face into her hands. Leave me alone.

"You need to have this finished by tonight, do you understand? Don't sigh at me. You would have had this finished if you hadn't come in so late. And you-"

"Dad! I had homework. I'd say right now that school is pretty important, I'm graduating next year!"

"Wrong. Your job is more important. Do you understand that? Or is that too hard for you to comprehend, too? Like everything else I ask you to do. Your sister would kill to be in your position right now. I could give her the job just as easily as I could take it away from you." He glared down at her.

"No," she said quickly. "I just don't understand why I haven't been able to do anything but deskwork since I've been chosen for this. I thought I was supposed to be able to help with the-"

"Leah, you're too young," he said exasperatedly.

Leah groaned, threw her hands up in the air and stormed out of her office. Then what is the point of having me here? In her fit of anger she left her office, turned a corner and ran straight into Vaughn Minetti, one of her father's main associates and one of his best friends since school. Vaughn had always been the smarter of the two, something that had always privately bothered Terrance, but they had both landed jobs in the Department of Mysteries and were now two very important members. He had also been very fatherly to Terrence's children, but more so to Leah since she had started working.

"What's the matter?" he asked, taking her by the arms.

"I don't understand any of this anymore. I really don't," Leah said quietly. She didn't quite meet his eyes.

"Leah you just have to be patient alright? Things have been acting up lately and-"

"Acting up?"

He gently kissed her forehead and let go of her arms. "Patience," he said.

Leah forced a smile at him and turned away. She was still fuming from her father's retort about giving her sister, Gwen, the job.

Gwen was Leah's older sister. She had always been spoiled and the obvious favorite of her family. It actually seemed like it was often like this, Gwen and Thomas (her other brother) were the better of the children while Leah and Michael were forgotten and looked down upon. But then Leah had been chosen to be the Secret Unspeakable and her father was forced to actually pay attention to her. It had hurt Leah's feelings more than anything to hear her father say he wished that Gwen would have been chosen for the job rather than her. The painful memory stung her heart each time she reminisced.

She remembered that night so clearly. Terrence had just received the letter from the Department of Mysteries announcing their choice of Leah to be the next Secret Unspeakable. He explained everything to Leah and she had accepted after a long and heated discussion. Terrence had left the room rather awkwardly. Leah, who was happy at the time couldn't figure out why he would act so strangely. His daughter had just been chosen to be the Secret Unspeakable! It also made her feel better about herself. Someone other than her professors were noticing her high marks and exemplary achievements.

She wandered down the hall to her parents' room and pressed her ear against the door.

"...I don't know, Anne, I just thought that they wouldn't have picked her. It seems like Gwen would have been more suitable but....," he trailed off.

"They would have chosen her three years ago if that was the case, Terrence," said her mother.

"Yes, I know but it just seems like Gwen would be better at something like this. I think she might be a little more sensible than Leah. I'm just not sure they made the right choice."

"Well, Leah does have very good marks. There have never been any reports of misbehavior or-

"I know, I know...but still."

Silence. Leah felt a hot tear run down her cheek.

"Maybe you're right, but there's not much you can do about it, Terrence. Owl the Department and tell them Leah's accepted."

She heard the muffled scratching of a quill. So that explained the awkward posture and actions. He didn't even want her to be the Secret Unspeakable. He wanted Gwen. It was always Gwen.

Leah ran into Michael's room nearly sobbing. She told him everything; she always had. He did the best he could to comfort her but Leah knew the only real thing that would comfort her would be to show her father she could be "sensible" and do the job right. She would have to.

***

On her way back to school Leah passed by James, Sirius and Peter under James invisibility cloak. Every once and awhile, on her way back from the ministry, Leah could hear them quietly sneaking down the hall together.

The first time they had seen her had made them suspicious, like she was following them. Leah, honestly, didn't care that much whether or not they were sneaking around the castle at night, it wasn't her business. So as she began to see them more frequently, they had a made a silent mutual agreement to not bother one another if they were to see each other in the hallways past curfew and to never bring it up at school. In fact, Leah had never spoken to any of the boys genuinely.

This was one of the reasons she found it so strange Sirius had become interested in her. She was nothing special, after all.

***

Later that same night, Leah woke, unable to sleep and surprisingly very hungry. She wondered down through Hogwarts as inaudibly as she could and had almost made it to the kitchens when she saw Mrs. Norris come around the corner.

Leah froze and began to slowly inch away. Then suddenly she felt someone grab her around the waste and pull her behind a suit of armor. She felt something heavy and soft being thrown over her. Instinctively she reached for her wand but found her arms bound tightly to her sides. She turned around to come face to face with her captor only to see Sirius Black. She gasped in irritation and tried to move away but she felt herself being whisked into a secret passage behind the suit of armor and then suddenly they were entering the dim lighting of the kitchen.

Finally, Sirius let go of her. An awkward silence passed between them. Leah, thoroughly annoyed and definitely not hungy any longer, turned around to leave

"Wait!" Sirius moved towards her. "Don't leave yet..."

This was, in fact, the first time they had ever been alone together. And whether they were talking or not, Sirius didn't want it to end.

Leah turned around reluctantly and stared deeply into Sirius' eyes. Expecting to see teenage lust and exhaustive confidence she instead saw a twinkling reassurance. Her expression softened.

Taking his queue, Sirius spoke again, not quite sure of what to say. "Why are you going?" Nice, he though to himself.

Leah retained herself from rolling her eyes. "Um...because I'm tired and...yeah."

Not convinced, Sirius tried yet unsuccessfully. "Will you go out with me?"

"What?!" Leah was slightly staggered.

Sirius clasped a hand over his mouth, now having lost any of his previous composure. "I mean...we could go to Hogsmeade."

"Um...no that's ok." Leah began to leave again.

Sirius took a step closer, "Why not?"

Taking a deep breath and doing her best to remain calm (she was good at that right?) Leah turned to face him. He smiled instantly, thinking he had won. "Why me, huh?"

He raised his eyes in disbelief. "Why you?! First of all you're beautiful and..."

"See? You don't know anything about me-"

"But I want to!" he exclaimed. "I want to know why you're always sneaking around at night and why you try to act so tough around everyone and I want to know all your secrets." God I sound positively like an idiot, he thought to himself.

Leah felt her heart leap at the word secret. Did he really think her "tough act" was just a cover (he had, in fact, gotten that right)..did he really want to know anything about her? No, probably not.

"Look, thanks for 'saving' me, or whatever you want to call it, but I really think I should go to bed. I'm obviously just wasting your precious beauty sleep hours, so good-bye."

"Beauty sleep," he said, slightly amused. "Let me guess, you think I'm the insensitive and cocky, yet attractive jerk like half the girls do, right? Or do you agree with the other half who thinks I'm a sexy beast?"

"Most likely the first half. Ugh, whatever it doesn't even matter does it? I mean say I do accept your invitation" (at this his eyes lit up) "how do I know you won't chuck me in a month like the rest of your girls?"

He didn't know where it came from, heart or head, but suddenly he felt his mouth form the words, "Because you're different."

Leah threw her head back and straight up laughed. "I'm nothing special, Sirius, you can be sure of that. I'm going to bed now, good night it was nice talking to you."

And with that she turned on her heel and left.