Red & White

twelve.

hi so um..if I started up my instagram again (previously was @niallfanficsx on IG if ya didn't know) would you guys follow? I dunno I'm considering it again.

To have a certain surname one day, and then the next day a different one was difficult for Angela Bates. The following morning after Prince Harry's annual birthday ball, Leah told her everything. That is, in small steps.

Ben and Cal were there as well to listen to the new information. Their young, avid brains absorbed everything. To them, it wasn't that big of a deal, which was an enormous gift to Leah.

Her mother, however, had to be reminded every ten minutes that her and the boys' surname was no longer Bates. It was now Potter.

Leah had come up with that on the carriage ride home from the palace the night prior. She knew it couldn't be anything too extravagant in fear of her mum's memory.

And Potter seemed to work well. After a few various times asking her mother what her new last name was, something in her worn-out mind clicked and it stuck like glue.

Leah, of course, was keeping Bates.

She still worried that people would catch her slipping inside her home and recognize the woman that would surely be in the public eye soon enough if the Prince continued to spend time with her.

That got her thinking on a deeper level. What if at one point Harry asks her to live in the castle? Only to play it safe? Or maybe he'd just like her to be there with him.

She didn't want to think over her head, but Leah smiled to herself when she recalled his words from the previous night. He wants to see where this leads to. Maybe he fancies me a tiny bit already. A prince!

This was still so peculiar to Leah. How could a royal figure admire a peasant? It was odd. But she didn't like to think that way. So she didn't.

Once her mother and siblings really understood what was going on, she was off to her trunk of clothes in search of an outfit acceptable for the eyes of the palace. She was going there again today.

It was easy for the young girl to become agitated and frustrated. There was nothing in her trunk of rags and cloths and long, tattered, beige skirts that were acceptable for taking a trip down to the castle. She knew if she were to be spending more time with Harry, she would have to invest in nicer clothes.

But there was no money to do that. And that only brought tears to her eyes. It wasn't just the clothes that upset Leah. It was the constant reminder that she was dirt. She couldn't afford to go out and purchase warm clothes or consume healthy foods.

Her tear ducts fully gave way, then. In Leah's eyes, her life was as valuable as cow manure. No one on the face of the planet would care or notice if her family just disappeared into thin air. Not a single person.

Leah hastily wiped at her eyes. There was still remnants of the makeup from last night that hadn't worn off already in her sleep.

She knew her eyes couldn't appear puffy or red and the boys or her mother could easily walk into this room any second. So she sat on the filthy ground and attempted to calm herself down. She focused on discarding the negative thoughts and breathing fluid breaths.

In a few minutes, the tears were dried and her pupils weren't as dilated as before. But she still had the challenge of selecting an outfit. Gazing out the window into the backyard where she could see her brothers picking the stems of vegetables, a pang of guilt struck the girl. She hadn't been helping the boys for the past few days. They had been left with all the work.

Again, Leah forced herself to calm her boiling emotions.

It was getting on noon by the time the eldest Bates child was ready to leave. She ended up settling on a slightly off-white blouse closed up with a crocheted, overlapping vest and paired with a maroon skirt that thankfully wasn't too unclean. It was the best she could do and she prayed that it wasn't too noticeable that she didn't own anything. Maybe if it was, Harry could lend her something when she got there.