Sitting at a desk in the middle row next to the window was a cute little girl. She has a lean build and is the tallest in her class. Not like that is saying much, seeing that it is her first day of kindergarten. The little girl has long, wavy brown hair, and her eyes are a beautiful amber. One day, about a year ago, she woke up and learned of her new situation. She was a 3-year-old orphan just about to start preschool at the time. Her new name is Lea Long. Of course, that was just the name the orphanage gave her. No one knows Lea's birth name or parents.
Though Lea was not an ordinary kindergartner, for she remembers her previous life. A life where she lived in a different world, our world. Not that she realizes that she is currently in an all-new world together. She currently believes she is just in the past. However, that is about to change.
Back to her first day of kindergarten, Lea looks out the window while waiting for the teacher to call names. Sometimes Lea wonders why she is here. Why was she sent to the past? She was not good at history, so there wasn't anything Lea wanted to change. Lea didn't know what she wanted in her first life, and ending up here did not change her stance. 'At least I am better adjusted to my new life than I was last year,' Lea muses.
The teacher starts rounding up all the children and does roll call. Lea looks around at her new classmates. No one seems familiar to her. It seems none of her preschool classmates are in her class. She had played with them every now and then, but entertaining and acting like a young child became tiring on the mind over time. Lea hopes the book selection will have better books for her, but she doubts it. Maybe there will be a library that any grade can enter.
The teacher calls out the name Lea Long. Lea raises her hand and says "Here," in a normal tone, but loud enough that the teacher hears her. Lea goes back to looking out the window. It's not like she suspects anything entertaining to happen. The teacher calls out more names, and Lea is only half listening. She does not feel like memorizing everyone's names right now. Eventually, the teacher calls out "Harry Potter," and a skinny boy barely raises his hands and whispers a "here" very quietly. Lea's mind halts. She goes over what she just heard in her head to make sure she heard correctly. 'Harry Potter?' Lea questions. Lea sneaks a look behind her to see a small boy in oversized clothes. The boy pushes some hair out of his face, and Lea sees a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. 'Well, shit,' Lea despairs, looking back to the front. It seems like she was not in the past after all. She was in the story of Harry Potter.
So many options of what she can do have opened up. Lea thinks about how she could befriend Harry Potter and join him on his journeys. Maybe she could be one with the shadows and change things from the background. She could befriend all her favorite characters. A whole new world to explore with magic! Magic... Lea realized none of this would be possible if she wasn't a wizard, or she guess she should say witch in her case. Lea has never noticed any accidental magic around her. Finally, Lea has her first goal: Find out if she has magic. Now, how to do that you ask? She has no idea.
Kindergarten continues, and the children participate in an activity that will let them get to know each other. Lea watches some of the other kids trying to get to know Harry. She sees Harry flinch away from the children, making up some kind of excuse not to play. Harry tentatively looks toward another kid, a chubby kid who is scowling at Harry. Lea pays attention to the chubby kid and overhears that his name is Dudley Dursley. 'Ah,' Lea realizes, 'That is Harry's cousin. I guess I was spacing out too much and didn't hear his name being called. It seems he is the reason Harry isn't making friends." Whether Dudley threatened Harry to not make friends or Harry is keeping the others at arm's length to protect them from Dudley doesn't really matter to Lea. It just shows that it is not a good idea to befriend Harry at this time.
Time continues until it reaches recess time. Lea finds a secluded spot where others cannot see her. Lea initially was going to try lumos, but she didn't think her hiding spot was good enough to hide a light if it got too bright. She ponders over some spells that were said to be easier. Lea decides to try reducio, a spell that makes an object smaller. She picks up a rock and calls out "reducio." Nothing happens to the rock, but Lea feels something inside her shift. She decides to focus on the feeling and starts to meditate. Currently, it feels like a tiny spec of something. She focuses on the spec until the end of recess.
After Lea has eaten lunch, she goes to her secret spot and tries the reducio spell again while holding a rock. Lea could not see a difference, but it felt like the rock got smaller, or at least moved. She starts to meditate again and realizes the spec is slightly bigger than when she started meditating before. Lea gets super excited since this means she has magic, probably. She fantasizes about going to the leaky cauldron and going to Hogwarts... but now that she thinks about it, does she really want to get involved with that side of the world? Lea knows a war has ended recently and that a new one will come to pass. Hogwarts will be in the middle of it all. Is she willing to put herself in danger for no other reason than to learn magic? Lea does not even know where to start to change things without any support. She does not plan on telling anyone about her past life if she can help it. Without contacts, changing the story seems difficult. It does not feel like it is worth risking her life when she cannot do much to help anyway. However, she still would like to learn about the magic world. Lea has decided. Even though she is excited to learn magic, she will not enroll in Hogwarts but will accept an invitation to one of the other schools if they are offered. She is choosing safety over adventure. Anyways, she can still learn magic later in her life after the wizarding world gets its mess together. For now though, she will just figure out what she can herself. Lea will grow her magic on her own and practice magic on her own. Lea is just fine being all alone.
---
Lea spends almost all her free time meditating. She meditates at school and the orphanage. Occasionally, she will get bored and read a book or join one of the kids' group games. However, that is not often. Lea's speck, she named her magic core, grew leaps and bounds over the past couple of months. She kept experimenting with simpler spells, only with little success. Lea once tried a higher level spell in frustration and promptly passed out. She decided to treat her core like a muscle and assumed it was bad to overwork it. She held off on experimenting for a while and just focused on expanding her core.
Lea is in one of her hiding spots located in the forest near her orphanage. She has decided her core should have enough magic power to experiment a little. Lea wants to know what will happen if she moves her magic throughout her body. She has felt her magic move to her hand when she cast spells previously, and is now experimenting with what happens if she moves the magic to her hand without a spell. It takes some practice, but Lea is able to do it after a bit. She puts her hand on a rock without thinking of any spells. Nothing seems to happen. Lea frowns and decides to try to move the magic to her eyes, getting the idea from an anime. After she gets the hang of it enough to move and look around, she does not initially notice anything. However, when she looks down at her hands, she realizes she is glowing. The color is hard to describe since it is not a known color, but the closest color she thinks of is a silvery blue. Lea cut the magic connection to her eyes, and things went back to looking normal. Lea stares in wonder at what she just saw. It's one thing to feel her magic growing, but it's a whole other thing seeing it. Realizing she should probably give this technique a name, Lea decides to name it magic sight.
After a few minutes of rest, Lea wants to do one more experiment. She attempts to move her magic throughout her whole body at once... and then proceeds to black out.
-----
It is now the last month of school. Lea learned over time that she no longer had to meditate to expand her core. When she was meditating, all she was trying to do was manipulate her magic to expand. Now that Lea can move her magic while awake and moving around, she uses magic sight constantly instead of meditating. She uses her magic in short bursts, extending it longer each time it starts to feel easier. Now, Lea can hold magic sight the whole day, even when running. Sadly, she has not made much progress on her spell-casting.
Lea walks into school, magic sight on as she does every day to expand her core. She walks into class and freezes. The whole classroom is almost filled with magic, with the brightest point being Harry Potter. Now, Lea has seen Harry's magic before. However, it looked similar to her own when she first used magic sight. The key difference was that his magic was a color closer to green and gold.
After shaking herself out of her shock, Lea accidentally locks eyes with Harry. The magic blinding, so she turns off her magic sight. Lea quickly looks away and calmly heads to her seat, acting as if she wasn't seeing things and internally freaking out. She thinks back on how Harry looked. Well, technically, his features are the same, but he no longer seems like the meek boy he was. Harry held himself differently and had been sitting straighter, and looked more confident overall. He looked nothing like the Harry Lea that Harry had seen over the school year. Lea is confused about what is going on; people don't change overnight. She probably would have brushed his behavior off if it weren't for his sudden increase in magic.
'It is almost the end of the school year. I won't have to deal with whatever this is after that. I will avoid him as much as I can until then.' Lea tells herself to calm herself, 'I don't know what is going on... I don't know if I want to find out.'
-----
Lea's plan went up in flames almost right away. Lea goes to her hiding spot like she always does during recess. She turns back on magic sight since she should be far enough from Harry Potter. She sees Harry's huge cloud of magic, but this time it is much closer. The magic indicated that Harry is right behind some shrubbery. "Come out here. I know you are there." Lea commands. The bushes rustle, and Harry sheepishly comes out into the open. Lea turns off her magic sight now that she can see him normally. She is still not used to the blinding light Harry's magic gives off.
"How did you know I was there?" Harry asks.
"Why did you follow and spy on me?" Lea counters. They both stare at each other for a bit. Lea doesn't want her to reveal any of her secrets; however, she suspects that Harry already knows.
"When we were in the classroom, your eyes were glowing. Though it stopped quickly after I saw it. The same thing happened just now as well." Harry says tentatively.
'Glowing?' Lea thinks, 'I have been using magic sight for most of the school year. Someone would have mentioned it sooner if it could be seen. It would have freaked people out and caused a commotion. However, he said my eyes stopped glowing at the same time that I turned off my magic sight. I guess that means only Harry can see it, and he can only see it now when his magic spiked.' Lea concluded.
Lea turns on her magic sight and looks at Harry straight into his eyes. "Do you mean like this?" Lea asks.
"Yeah, exactly like that! How do you do that?" Harry asks.
Lea sighs, "I'll tell you if you tell me why only you see my eyes glow."
Harry seems to think for a moment. Luckily, he decides to tell Lea about magic and the wizarding society, and lets her know that she is not alone. Lea nods along, she already knew the basics because she watched the Harry Potter movies, though she acts like she doesn't know anything. Lea never read the book, but she read a lot of fanfiction. This made her mind more open to changes and getting rid of preconceived notions. As Lea listens to Harry, the wizarding world starts to feel more real. Wizards are no longer just from a story; they are living beings.
It was clear that Harry already knows about magic for some reason, and seems to already know Lea is a wizard. So, she decided not to hold back. She told Harry everything about how she found her own magic, how it feels, and how she controls it. However, she never said anything about her first life and the story that describes a version of his life.
Harry was very intrigued since he had not heard anything like Lea's story before. They talked for the rest of recess, asking each other questions back and forth. Harry teaches Lea about the wizarding world, like about wands, the Statute of Secrecy, and Hogwarts. Lea explains and teaches Harry how she perceives magic. Both were so absorbed with their conversation that they did not realize that neither of them was talking like a normal kindergartner.
-----
Lea and Harry decided to meet at the same location for lunch. During class, Lea thought about how Harry acted during recess. She was surprised they were able to have a proper conversation. She hadn't been able to talk like an adult since she found herself in this world. 'But this doesn't make sense. Why has Harry suddenly gone from a meek little boy to talking confidently like an adult? Also, what happened to his magic? It was so bright, and he could see when I used magic sight.' Though Harry talked about the wizarding world, he did not say how he knew about it. Lea could tell Harry was about as cautious as she is. Though he did take a chance telling Lea about magic, trusting her to keep the Statute of Secrecy. Lea believes it is her turn to take a risk telling Harry something if she wants answers from him. Harry will wonder why Lea talked like an adult anyway. The question is how much to tell him. They have only just met, so Lea does not want to trust Harry with the whole story. This Harry is not the same one from the stories anymore.
Lea and Harry meet back up at their hiding spot after quickly finishing their food. Lea starts, "I think both of us have realized that we both act older than a kindergartner normally acts. I'll tell you my story as long as you explain yours after." Harry agrees and Lea begins, "I was twenty-five before I suddenly ended up in the past, before a time I was even born." Harry gasps but stays quiet. "I didn't believe in magic. Magic was just a thing in storybooks. Last thing I knew was that I had gone to bed for the night, then suddenly I was in the front of a bunch of preschoolers who were singing Happy Birthday to me. That was over a year ago. I learned that my name is Lia Long, and later learned that I was an orphan. My name was chosen by the orphanage since I was found at their doorstep without even a note. The orphanage's older kids make sure that we get three meals a day, but the orphanage is negligent in every way. They don't supervise what the children do at all, though that was nice for me because I could get away from everyone to work my feelings out. Losing everything was devastating for me."
"How did you deal with those feelings?" Harry inquires, seemingly a little emotional.
"I think I mostly just dealt with it over time. The more I did, the more this all felt real and not just a dream. I didn't interact with the other children often besides conversations during meal time, but I entertained myself in my own way. There is a forest near the orphanage, and I often went to explore inside it. It is fun being able to climb trees again. I know I will never completely get over losing my family, but I know they would want me to try to be happy... Anyways, you can ask me more questions later. What is your story?"
Harry pauses for a moment, collecting himself before saying, "Well, the basic explanation is that I died. But you are going to need some background information to learn how." Harry explained, "I did not grow up with magic. I learned about it from my Hogwarts letter when I was eleven. I went to Hogwarts and it felt like home. However, I also learned of an Evil Dark Lord named Voldemort. Apparently, my parents did not die in a car accident, but were killed by Voldemort. He killed my parents when I was a baby and tried to kill me. Somehow, I lived, and Voldemort died. Everyone hailed me as "The Boy Who Lived." I never liked the fame I got.
Near the end of my first year, I learned the hard way that Voldemort was not fully dead. He was some kind of wraith. He got resurrected and regained his body during my fourth year, not that anyone besides my friends, my godfather, and the headmaster believed me until near the end of my fifth year. It took having a battle with Voldemort at the Ministry for people to listen. I lost Sirius, my godfather, that day.
Hogwarts got taken over by Voldemort and his followers near the end of my sixth year. Dumbledore's death was the beginning of Voldemort's takeover of Hogwarts. My friends and I went on the run and hunted for the remaining objects called Horcruxes, for these things are the reason Voldemort can come back to life. We had destroyed all but one of the Horcruxes. The last one was in Voldemort's snake, and they were always together. So, we went back to Hogwarts to kill the last Horcrux and then Voldemort. However, due to the death of a teacher, who we thought was on Voldemort's side due to being the murderer of Dumbledore, I gained said teacher's memories. He gave them to me with magic as he was dying. First, it showed that Snape, the teacher, was a double agent and he worked for Dumbledore the whole time. Dumbledore ordered Snape to kill him since Dumbledore was dying anyway, and it would help further Dumbledore's plans. But the most important thing I learned from Snape's memories is that there was one more Horcrux that Voldemort didn't know about. I was the last Horcrux, and the only way to destroy it was to let Voldemort kill me. And so, when Voldemort was trying to lure me out using one of my friends as a hostage, I willingly walked to my death. I was 17 years old when Voldemort murdered me.
Then suddenly, I woke up over the weekend before the first day we met at this hiding spot. I was a child again and was... am very confused and depressed. I needed a distraction. So when I saw you with your glowing eyes, I decided to investigate. I think talking with you has helped a little for now. Things don't feel as hopeless anymore. You helped me remember that things are different now. I don't even remember talking to you last time, and that is already a difference. This is a second chance. I can change things and save everyone."
"You could also have a better childhood this time around." Lea included.
"I-I don't know what you mean." Harry nervously says without looking at Lea's eyes.
Lea sighs, "Come on, it's obvious that you get bullied by Dudley and his friends. I also know Dudley is your cousin, and you live together. Even on the slim chance that he doesn't bully you at home, it must be hard to live with him."
"If you noticed, why didn't you help me. I was very lonely, not having any friends until Hogwarts." Harry sadly questions with a hint of anger.
Lea starts, "On the first day of school, I planned on at least going over to talk to you, but some other kids beat me to it. I watched the interaction from my seat. I noticed you flinch and make excuses for not accepting their offer to play. I also saw you sneaking peeks at Dudley like you were waiting for a bomb to go off. I figured he threatened you to not make friends. Though I don't know whether the threat was to harm you or the people you make friends with."
Harry furrows his brow, trying to remember details of his childhood. "Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that," Harry admits. "But that doesn't explain why teachers never helped me."
"I tried to lead teachers to where Dudley was bullying you. They just brushed it off as 'rough-housing' or 'That's just how boys play.' I eventually gave up. Though I had just learned that I could do magic and focused almost all my time studying it. There are probably some small things I could have done to help, but I was engrossed in learning magic. I'm sorry I didn't do anything that helped you." Lea sadly admits. She did not think about helping Harry in other ways until just this moment, besides some discarded plans of running away. She was an adult, not that she ever felt like she was an adult. Still, Lea believes she should have done something to help instead of playing around with her new 'toy'.
Harry pats Lea's shoulder, "Hey, you tried to help. That is more than anyone else did for me before Hogwarts." Harry smiles, "Thank you."
Lea sadly smiles back at Harry. She is appreciative of Harry's thanks, but is sad that that was the most anyone did for him. Lea knew Harry was bullied and pushed around. However, she does not know the scale of how much Harry's been bullied. It seems like the scale is on the worse end, especially if it was this bad in kindergarten.
Lea had been thinking about how to get Harry away from the Dursley's for a while. Some thoughts came to her as she was lying in bed. However, Lea's best plans always end up with the need to go to the Wizarding World. Sadly, Lea doesn't remember where the Leaky Cauldron was located, if she ever knew. Even if Lea did know where to go, she doesn't think Harry would have been convinced to leave the Dursley's. He was too scared to even imagine leaving, and Lea couldn't force him. But now things are different. Harry is mentally an adult and probably knows how to get to the Leaky Cauldron.
The question is, does she go with him? In Lea's previous plans, she had already planned to leave the orphanage. Now, Harry probably doesn't need Lea to escape, besides maybe convincing him to leave. The orphanage feeds its wards properly, kinda. Other than that, they are negligent. They never even noticed that Lea was missing when she went to sneak into the woods. It would be nice to leave, but that would mean entering the Wizarding World. Lea would love to go, but is she willing to risk becoming part of the war? It is not viable to ask Harry, he will ignore what he wants, and will only want to keep Lea safe since he sounds like he is the same as the story's older Harry Potter.
Ah fuck it. "Harry, pick one or two!" Lea suddenly demands. If he picks one, Lea will go with him. Two means Lea stays at the orphanage. Yes, she is leaving it up to a 'coin flip.'
"Huh?" Harry questions, wondering why Lea suddenly went from sad to determined, giving a random command.
"One or two," Lea repeats.
"Uhh, one?" Harry hesitantly chooses.
Lea smiles happily. "Okay, let's run away to the wizarding world together."
Harry makes a baffled face. "What?! Running away sounds good, but you don't need to come with me. You should think about whether you want to leave more thoroughly, and why did you make me pick between one and two?"
"Doesn't matter." Lea waves off. "I have been thinking about running away for a while, but I had nowhere to go," leaving off the part where she planned to take Harry with her. "Now we could go live in the wizarding world."
"You already know there is a war coming, are you alright with getting caught up in it? Also, where are we supposed to live once in the wizarding world?"
"Staying with you, someone who is in a similar situation to me and thus won't treat me as a child, as well as leaving the orphanage, outweighs the negatives of the possibility of war. Besides, you are going to change things, right? Things will be different this time around. We don't know if the war will even happen or not."
"And the living situation."
"I can't really plan that without you, I don't know enough about the wizarding world."
Harry looks worried, but Lea tries to show how determined she is while looking straight at him.
After a few moments, where it seemed like Harry was thinking things over, Harry's shoulders drop and he sighs, "Fine, we can run away together. Originally, I was going to try to keep things similar to how things were before, so my future knowledge doesn't become less useful. However, you are right, why should I live in torment when I can give myself a better childhood? Why do I have to wait for Hogwarts to start making things better? I don't. I will be happier living away from the Dursley's, and having a friend with me is a nice bonus."
"A friend huh, not that I mind, and I would love for us to be friends, but we just met today. Are you sure about trusting me so easily?" Lea inquires.
"What do you mean? Don't all kindergartners become friends after they first meet?" Harry giggles, causing Lea to giggle as well. "Also, we have a month left of school. Let's plan to leave on the final school day. Plenty of time to get to know each other."
Lea smiles, "I like that plan. Nice to meet you, I'm Lea Long." Lea smirks while sticking out her hand.
Harry smirks back, "Nice to meet you Lea, I am Harry Potter.