The Daughter of Sirius Black

Chapter 4

Leona's first year at Hogwarts and flown by.

She and the twins had every class together, from flying lessons to Herbology to Charms. All three of them had learned what excellent flyers they were within the first lesson, having had a little practice when Charlie and Bill let them ride around on their brooms when their parents and Percy weren't looking. And all three were eager to try out for the Quidditch team next year, still debating what positions they'd like to play.

Leona had also learned that she was quite adept at Potions, better than the twins surprisingly, seeing as they were the ones that used mainly the art of potions in the creation of their pranking products. Potions and a little Charms. But Professor Snape still hated her. He loathed her. Only because of who her father was and what her last name was.

She was the first first-year to successfully brew a forgetfulness potion. It had been perfect but Professor Snape had still managed to find fault in it enough to deduct two points from Gryffindor.

But she and the twins more than made up for it in Charms. All three were eager to learn new charms, jinxes and hexes that they could incorporate into their products.

History of Magic was downright boring to the point where the trio either fell asleep along with most of the class or were planning their next product, along with Herbology. But Herbology, they paid more attention to as some of the plants would be useful for their products.

Transfiguration was hard, but kind of fun when you got the hang of it. Leona still hadn't gotten the hang of it yet.

Astronomy was just fun.

Leona had always had a fascination with the stars so she was the one helping the twins in the Astronomy tower. Helping them when she wasn't laughing as they made funny pictures in the stars.

Defence against the Dark Arts however was something else. Seeing as the position was cursed and no professor seemed to last longer than a year, they didn't bother listening to the professor, but found fun in practicing the spells they were supposed to learn in class outside.

They were the perfect mix of fun and work. But by work, they meant the bare minimum in the boring classes and the best they could do in the classes they found fun.

Where Leona was weak in one subject, the twins were strong, and where they were weak, she was strong. They balanced each other out.

And the week they spent at home in the Burrow for Christmas was a good break from the hustle of the castle.

Granted she still got strange looks and people tended to avoid her rather than talk to her, but she'd befriended a couple of girls in her year. One being Angelina Johnson, who Leona had started talking to in their flying lessons when she corrected the girls' technique and helped her perfect a straight pass that Chasers normally used in games.

The duo had found that they made quite the affective pair, and by the end of the Christmas holidays had promised to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team together.

Molly hadn't been happier when she found out all three of them were in Gryffindor, that being the theme of the sweaters she made for them that Christmas.

Ginny hadn't left Leona's side, begging the girl to tell her everything and anything about Hogwarts seeing as she still had three years to go before her first year.

For Christmas, the twins surprised Leona with a necklace, a locket they'd made themselves. The front was inscribed with the Gryffindor lion while the back was engraved with Ravenclaw eagle. Her parents' houses and the two halves of her.

On the inside, however, were pictures of Leona with each twin.

She'd squeezed them both into a hug before giving them their presents.

She'd marvelled, jaw on the floor marvelled at the amount of gold in the Black family vault. So not only had she put it to use in buying her school equipment herself, despite Molly and Arthur's protests that they could afford it, she'd bought both the twins brand new brooms. Thunderbolt V's, the newest ones that had just come out. She also bought one for herself for when they made the Quidditch team together.

Leona was definitely the twin's favourite person right now, even if their parents had demanded that the brooms stay at home until they started their second year.

She'd decided to splurge on Molly and Arthur as well, a thank you for taking care of her for all those years.

To Arthur she gifted a muggle device she found in a store on Diagon Alley when she went school shopping, a thing they called a toaster. They actually burned bread with the machine to make toast.

He was fascinated by it.

To Molly, she'd given a pair of slippers that were charmed to keep her feet at just the right temperature seeing as the older woman was always complaining of cold feet no matter how many pairs of socks she knitted.

But the greatest adventure came when the trio returned to school.

The boys had been busted by Mr Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker and the target of most of the trio's pranks as he seemed to instantly hate them as he hated most of the children there.

So while they sat at his desk, Leona had caused a distraction by setting off a dung bomb nearby, a teacher calling for the caretaker's assistance as she snuck into his office and the twins nabbed something from his bottom draw in the file cabinet before running out with their friend.

"What is it?" Leona asked as they eyed the old piece of parchment in George's hand.

"Dunno," he answered.

"But it must be something if Filch had it in a draw that was locked and marked 'confiscated and highly dangerous,'" Fred answered once they'd gotten to the Gryffindor common room.

"Let me see it," Leona said as George handed her the parchment.

There was something familiar about the parchment to Leona and there was something familiar about Leona to the parchment.

As if in a trance, Leona pulled out her wand and pointed it at the parchment and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And ink began to appear as the twins watched in wonder.

"Messrs, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, present the Marauder's map," the twins read over Leona's shoulder before her knees buckled and she fell back on the sofa, the twins moving down next to her.

"You alright, Lena?" Fred asked.

"Did you know those blokes or something?" George asked as they watched her finger trace the name Padfoot.

"I remember these names. Two of them really. This was my father's nickname when he was at Hogwarts."

Their eyes widened slightly.

"Sirius Black made this map?" George asked in disbelief. She'd told them part of what his letter had contained, the part where he was innocent and what really happened that night, but she kept the parts about her parents to herself.

"He and his three best friends were the us of their generation," she explained. "Moony, is my godfather Remus Lupin. And I suspect that one of these other two names was James Potter."

Their eyes grew even bigger.

"You mean, we're touching something that James Potter touched?! The James Potter?!" Fred asked in shock and Leona chuckled.

"Got a little crush do you Freddy?" she teased, George chuckling as his brother's face grew red.

"No. But I can appreciate one of the finest wizards and Seekers in Gryffindor history," he defended.

"Lena, you haven't told us. What is this parchment anyway?" George asked.

"Oh," she said as she began to unfold it after making certain that no one was around. "It's a map of Hogwarts. You can see who's where when, and where they're going and the seven secret passages out of the castle."

"Out of the castle?" the twins asked in unison as Leona pointed them out.

"Yep," she grinned as the twins mirrored her smile and said in unison,

"Wicked."

Oh, Filch was in trouble now.