Harry's Light

Lainey got up the next morning about an hour before dawn. Quietly so as not to wake Lavender, Parvati, and Elia, the other girl who lived in her dorm, Lainey slipped into the robes she'd been provided at the last minute by McGonagall. Sliding open the door as softly as possible, she crept down the staircase and through the common room, where a faint flicker of fire was still burning in the hearth.

Just as Lainey thought she had escaped, she heard a familiar voice say, "You're up early." Freezing, she turned.

There in the chair sat Uncle Ron, watching her with a devilish smile on his face.

"Hey, Ron, I didn't expect you to be up. From what Hermione said, I thought you'd be the last person anyone would see on a Tuesday morning."

Big mistake.

"It's Thursday, Lainey." 'Darn,' she thought to herself, 'I didn't check the wall calendar next to McGonagall's desk.' Shutting her eyes, she made up the first lie that would slip off her tongue.

"Sorry, I must have gotten a bit confused about the day. Dad and I traveled for a few days and my internal clock must be off." She waited with bated breath, hoping beyond hope that he would believe her.

"Oh," he said. Then his grin returned. "Where are you off to at this time of morning?" Smiling, she sat down next to him for a second. Uncle Fred and Uncle George looked the way he did now often, especially when they were about to play a joke.

"What trick do you have up your sleeve, Ronald Weasley?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"You know, you look exactly like Hermione when you do that." Quickly, Lainey wiped the expression off her face. She couldn't take any chances of Uncle Ron finding out when he wasn't supposed to.

"Anyway, I'm going outside," she muttered. Stepping out the portrait hole door, she walked quickly down to the lake to watch the sun rise. It would be coming up at any moment, and she needed the clarity of knowing she was to begin another day. Plopping down on the grass under her favorite oak tree, she sat up and leaned against the trunk, facing the east. The barely peaking sun was a golden red, the same color as the Gryffindor lion. That reminded her of mum and dad, at home.

"I miss you, Daddy," she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek. "You'd tell me to be brave, that someone needs me. But I miss my friends, I miss home, and I miss playing Seeker in Quidditch." She remembered how proud he was of her when she had told him she'd made the Quidditch team. He hadn't said a word.

Mum had said it all. "Just like your father, Lainey Vita Potter."

The sun was coming up quickly now, like a rising phoenix. Lainey breathed in the glory of the new day. Wiping the fresh tears appearing in her eyes at the memory of Dad (or should she start reminding herself to call him Harry), she stood up and walked up to the castle, determined to do him proud.

After Lainey was gone, Harry popped out from behind the tree. "That's the same thing I'd probably say to my daughter," Harry thought to himself.

Shaking his head, he walked up the stairs to the front doors. "Stop imagining things, Potter," he said to himself. "You're losing your edge."

That afternoon, in Advanced Transfiguration...

"All right, class," Professor McGonagall said sharply. "Today we are going to begin your Animagi training. Mr. Potter, since you have decided not to take part, I will have an alternate assignment."

"Why not, Harry?" Lainey said softly. "I mean, you'd be really good at it." Harry gave her a smile.

"Well, it brings back all of the memories of my dad and the Marauders," he said sadly. "They were all Animagi, you know."

"Yeah, I know." She knocked herself in the head. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' she thought to herself. 'Now he'll know for sure who I am.' Using her brain, Lainey tried to pull herself out of suspicion. "Um, my mum met Sirius Black once and he told her. She's a mediwizard, and she was sent to Azkaban to examine him. She never believed it, but she is skeptical of a lot of things."

Harry laughed. "Yeah, Hermione is like that." But deep inside, he knew something was up. She knew about the Marauders? And Harry was quite certain wizards didn't send in mediwizards to deal with supposedly 'psychotic' murderers who had killed thirteen people with one curse. He had a sneaking suspicion this girl was more than she seemed.

Lainey took her notes quietly, watching Harry. 'Did he suspect her?' she wondered to herself. 'Did he already know, and just hadn't told her?'

Before she knew it, the bell had already rung and she only had a half of a page in notes. She decided to ask Hermione (or Mum) for help. [A/N: I just noticed that while she has trouble not calling Harry dad and Ron Uncle Ron, she has no trouble not calling Hermione mum]

"Hey, Hermie," she said, getting her attention. The brown eyes turned on her.

"What's up, Lainey?" Hermione asked, giving her a smile.

"Oh, you can call me Lain if you want. That's what my friends called me at home. And, can you help me? I only got down about a quarter of the Animagi notes, since Harry was pestering me all period."

Sighing, Hermione muttered to Lainey, "Harry's always like that. Want to go to the library after Charms?"

"Sure! I need all the help I can get, and not just in Transfiguration. We didn't learn any of that stuff at Miss Eleanor's." DARN it! she thought.

Can I not remember anything about myself?

Hermione, thankfully, seemed not to notice. "All right, let's get to class before we're late! We definitely don't want to pull a Harry and Ron

classic!" Giggling, Hermione ran down the hall.

Lainey followed, but thought, Mum? Giggling like a schoolgirl? Wait, Mum is a schoolgirl. Lainey had a lot to learn.