"Finney bear! Come and walk with us, we need to tell you something," Blaise banged on Finley's door that one faithful morning. Hearing that she was kicked off the quidditch team was a large blow on Slytherin, she was one of the best beaters in the team since the last ones graduated. Flint argued with Snape for three days just to reconsider but it just got him no where near getting her back. But that wasn't at all why he wanted Finley to walk with him, no. It was about something else.
"Finley!" He yelled again knocking a bit louder this time, could've sworn that the hinges would be off by now. Theo stood behind him now worried, normally Finley would be opening the door for them and screaming at them for waking her. Something was wrong.
"Get your wand numbskull!" Theo scolds, And Blaise did as he was told, taking the wand from his robe pocket about to cast a spell. But the door opened gently revealing Finley with a large smile on her face.
"Getting impatient the both of you, didn't I tell you that barging in a girl's room is incredibly rude?" She says getting out the room, not letting the two boys in or a chance to see what was inside.
"Well we've been out here for the last fifteen minutes," Blaise rolled his eyes stuffing his wand back in his robes.
"If you must know, I was in the bathroom getting ready for class," Finley rolled her eyes at him, showing him her braided master piece. Braided with her hair was a pale pink ribbon that stood out on her dark hair on her back. Observing Finley further, her cheeks were back to their rosy glow, her dark bags were gone. This was the Finley they met, lively and smiling.
"Blaise!" The dark skinned boy blinked, feeling an arm link around his arm, Theo was laughing beside Finley while Finley was laughing with him.
"You've been spacing, did Pansy finally spoke of her undying feeling for you?" Finley jokes causing both boys to cringe and shiver. Clearly what was worst in everything was to have the worst girl to pledge their undying love for you. In this case Draco was holding that curse pretty damn well to is misfortune.
"Draco's holding that position for the longest, for all I care he can keep it," Blaise replied as they all walked out the common room with a few good mornings towards the older years. For once it felt like the two Slytherin boys were with their Finley Evans, the one who wasn't pressured by the head of house, the one who wasn't keeping her pain from them.
"So! Why did you two take me out of the safety of my room and take a walk?" Finley asked as her arms still linked with her two friends as they wandered the still empty halls. They had an hour to kill before breakfast, which was rare to the three of them, they never wake up early for a stroll. And if they do wake up, they would go in Finley's room and just chat, on in this years case, prevent Finley from thinking about her dreams.
"Is it a crime to not walk with our best friend in this fine morning?" Theo asked with a grin on his face, he wasn't the one willing to steal this very nice morning from them. But that wasn't easy.
"Cut the bull both of you, what is it?" Finley asked in a joking manner, getting slightly agitated.
Have they found out about her nightmares?
Her shaking?
The pain waves on her shoulder?
Finley was beyond her wits end, was this an intervention of some sort? Because if it was, were they going to dump her and leave? Hopefully not, she was doing so well at hiding the things that bothered her. For once her morning didn't consist of her writhing in pain on her room's floor praying that it would stop. She even had the time to do something nice to her hair and hide the severe imperfections on her face.
"I—well we," Theo began, nervous for some reason, they didn't know how Finley would take it. What they found out explained certain things that they found oddly familiar to Finley and one of her dear friends. But they didn't know if she was going to accept it or be outraged that they went behind her back and searched her parentage.
"What is it?"
"We looked through the Peverell's book of their family generations," Blaise said, and Finley saw it on her friends' eyes that this was just the beginning of what they were going to say.
"The one Snape gave you was a family short," Theo added. Both boys pulled Finley towards the library for two reasons, one was to show her the latest version of the Peverell's family book with the unmentioned family. And the other was to prevent Finley from yelling at them, hopefully.
"But what does this have to do with me?" Finley asked now looking at the book Snape gave her and the version that her two friends claimed to be the latest one with the family that hers didn't have.
"Well it stopped with Iolanthe Peverell," Theo pointed towards the picture of a woman on the last page of the book she had. "So?"
Blaise opened the book him and Theo took and placed it on the page where it left off. "Finney, Iolanthe married a Potter."
Finley's heart dropped, this has got to be a joke, some sort of sick joke. Right?
"Iolanthe married Howard Potter, their son Henry had another son," Theo pointed, flipping through pages from the son of a son until it reached a face that Finley only saw once and it was when Harry showed her a picture that Hagrid gave him in second year.
"Fleamont Potter was the founder of Sleakeazy hair potion, he and his wife Euphemia had a son named James."
"You're meaning to tell me that I'm related to Harry's dad? Is that what you're pointing at?" Finley asked preventing her voice from shaking.
"You're not just related to Harry," Theo mutters, flipping another page and she froze at the name listed under children.
"James Potter married Lily Evans, before they had Harry. They had a girl nine months before him, her name was—"
"Sage Finley Potter," the girl managed to whisper, not believing the name that was written on the book was actually hers. It was impossible, this wasn't real was it?
"You must be joking," Finley glared at her two friends. "If this is some kind if sick joke, it's not funny!" She sneered.
"We're not joking Finley, if we were this isn't the kind of joke we're going to pull on you and you know this," Blaise explained, the worst they feared was surfacing.
"I don't believe this," Finley mutters, standing up from her chair, eyes not leaving the names written on the book, below her was Harry's name. It can't be real.
"Finley, it's all there. You're a Potter—"
"I can't be! My parents were the worst people in their time, my father bullied students mercilessly sending students to the hospital wing left and right. My mother was a muggle-born," she choked.
"They were the best students of their time in Hogwarts," Theo says, attempting to hold Finley's hands to calm her down and yet she slapped them away in anger.
Finley's world was already a mess, now it was in shambles. "Finley—"
"Shut up," Finley snaps, she didn't want to hear another word, every word they spoke about her that she didn't know of. It was starting to become real, this was one thing she refused to acknowledge because she hated it to be a lie. She feared for it to be a lie, she didn't want to get her hopes up. She also didn't want to put more salt in Harry's wound of lost parents, much less telling him that he had a sister and she was her.
"Fin—"
"Just leave me alone," she coldly said before walking out the library, the two Slytherin boys were filled with dread and guilt, this was everything they feared.
Walking out must be the one thing Finley has been constantly doing for the whole year, she was avoiding every means of a confrontation. Her mind was in a boggling mess as it already was, being the sister of Harry Potter was a new unlikable theory she didn't want to dive into.
She eventually found herself outside the castle near the black lake, her heart hammering, hands shaking, her breathing was another story. 'Keep your emotions in check,' she reminded herself.
For the past month since her walk with the headmaster, he offered to teach her occlumency. The first step was to shut down her emotions, and so far she's been doing a good job. Casting herself a mask as she did her best to shut down the negative emotions in her system, replacing them with the positive ones.
Have the nightmares stopped? No. But they were less terrifying now than it has been the past few weeks, she learned to hide the fear in her system.
Did her shoulder stop hurting? No it did not stop, but like the dreams they were getting less painful, yet she was still finding herself wincing a few times every now and then.
Finley sat on the tree that faced the black lake, controlling her breathing as she slowly shuts her emotions once again. Her shaking hand slowly stopped shaking.
She was out right fucked, she wasn't normal anymore, Finley wasn't Finley since she stepped on the Hogwarts train.
She closed her eyes, now her heart was calm, she embraced the breeze that blew by. The scent of the water and the trees made the whole setting for Finley tranquil, she felt eyes on her. She opened her eyes, they were met by the large dog she saw a few months back, observing her it seemed like.
"Come here boy," she calls. Holding out her hand, letting the dog walk slowly towards her. And when the dog stopped in front of her, it nuzzled on her hand and eventually laid on her.
"I haven't seen you in a while," she began as she stroke the dog's head.
"Have you been eating?" She asked, her hand now stroking the dog's large body feeling it's ribs poking out. "I'm sorry, I didn't bring something for you to eat, I haven't had breakfast myself."
Finley was missing breakfast, she knew that much. But after what Blaise and Theo told her, she wished she was in her room instead. "I don't know anymore," she whispers. The dog's head perched up intrigued at her statement, Finley stared blankly at the lake and she was too lost to mind the dog's constant nuzzling on her hand.
"A few months back someone told me my parents were the worst pair of students to ever walk the school. And now my friends told me that they weren't," she chuckled, her mind still not accepting the point her friends told her.
"They told me that I had a brother, and my parents died protecting him."
The longer she thought about it, it all began sink in an yet she refused to accept it. Tears started falling down her cheeks, washing away the blush she tried so hard to blend. This was pathetic of her.
"I'm scared you see."
"I've been having these horrendous dreams, I start to question if this is the dream," Finley says leaning on the tree trunk sighing. "They feel so real."
Still stroking the dog's head softly, letting her mind wander, is she going to tell Harry? What if he doesn't take it well?
This wasn't funny at all, and the sad thing was, the look on her friends' faces says that they were dead serious. "I've been working on controlling my dreams," she says a little lighter now.
"Head master Dumbledore has been giving me proper lessons to block my mind, by doing so I needed to close my emotions."
She chuckled to herself, "It's easier said than done, but I'm getting a hang of it."
Soon she felt her hand shake, she cursed clenching it. "Most of the time I mean."
The dog barked before standing up, nuzzling her cheek, licking away the tears that she let slip. She held it's muzzle, "Thank you for listening."
From a far, Finley heard the clock tower's Bells signalling that it was time for class. Finley stood up from where she sat, patting her robes, giving the dog one last look. "Next time, I'll bring snacks," she says before walking back to the castle.
As she walked back, she couldn't help but feel even more lost.