The Little Lightning Girl

20- The Potter-Weasleys Vie for A Spot in the Theater

I froze. Of course I'd spent all of these months hoping that she'd wake up, had prayed to whatever gods were out there to help her wake up... but some part of me recognized the unlikelihood of it happening. But Kaley was a seer, and if she'd had a vision that Alana was going to wake up, who was I to doubt her?

"How... when?" The words came out as a broken stutter.

She gave a half-smile, "You should visit her, on December third."

December third. That was less than a month away. After all this time waiting for her, another few weeks would be nothing. Or they'd feel like eternity. But I could feel hope blooming in my chest again.

"Okay, I will." This time the words came out stronger.

"I've been recording our lessons for a while now. Alana remembers everything she hears, so I asked the teachers permission. They thought I was just holding onto false hope, but I think it's the least I can do to help her catch up."

I shook my head in disbelief, "You're a genius!"

Kaley's eyebrows furrowed as she leaned away from me slightly, "you're not, mad? That I hid this from you?"

So that was the reason for the guilt in her eyes. I shook my head, "No, I'm not mad. I understand the position your abilities put you in, and you never have to tell me anything if you think it's too important or dangerous."

She smiled, "Rose figured it out a week ago, and hasn't been hiding it well."

I did wonder why my cousin had been so smiley all of the sudden. She hadn't hidden it well, but I'd just excused it as excitement for the Quidditch game next week. I was an idiot. Now I was going to be just as obnoxiously happy, and I wouldn't be able to tell anyone why.

"I guess we'll have to hope I'm a better actor than Rose," I laughed.

Kaley grinned wickedly, "I've let her know that the theatre isn't a viable career option for her."

It seemed that my cousin and I would have to compete for the lead role in this play. 

I stood from the couch, "I have Quidditch in half an hour so I've got to go, but..."

I trailed off, my eyes locked on the blonde who still sat with her legs curled under her. She wasn't a big person, but she'd changed my life. Before I left, I leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. Hoping it wasn't awful but not brave enough to ask, I practically ran from the Room of Requirement.

Kaley's POV

It wasn't until he kissed me on the cheek that I realized what was happening. Over the last months at school and during the summer, James and I had grown close, and could safely consider each other good friends. We shared scars and stories and I hoped that it made him feel better, because I certainly felt... lighter.

When I'd had the vision of Alana waking up, I wasn't sure how to tell anyone about it. And then I wasn't sure if I should tell anyone about it. I was a teenager, I still didn't know the rules of being a seer that well. If I told someone and they did something could it mess up the future like it did so often in muggle movies? I didn't want to risk anything involving my best friend's coma. Or what if someone tried to wake her up too soon and got her stuck in there forever? So for two weeks, I kept it to myself. I was an excellent secret keeper, if nothing else. I was far better than Rose, who was elated after I finally told her about it. Her face lit up like Christmas, and had stayed that way ever since.

After some research in the library and through Professor McGonagall, I decided that it wasn't likely that me telling James Potter would have severe consequences. So the next time we met, I told him. I figured he'd be upset about it, and I didn't want to ruin everything we'd built, but he deserved to know. His reaction wasn't what I'd expected.

James was a much more rational person than everyone thought he was. I'd learned this over the last few weeks, but a part of me still expected him to throw something or smash something when I told him of the secret I'd been keeping. But he hadn't. He was excited. He smiled even wider than he had that day he'd pranked his friends.

That day, by the way, was beautiful. As hard as it had been to see Alana that morning, and as much as we'd been losing hope, it was a beautiful day as soon as I saw the prank James had played. Rose and I couldn't bear to play any pranks without Alana, and every other prankster in Hogwarts seemed to have taken a pause this year, until that moment. Rose and I followed James into the Great Hall and though we didn't sit with him and his friends, we sat close enough to hear their conversation... kind of. The best part was how James had laughed at his friends throwing food at him and cursing. It wasn't a sound I had heard from him recently. It was the closest to the old James Potter as any of us had seen in a long time. Even Rose and I laughed with him at his friends and his prank.

It was as if the tension between the Potter-Weasley family dissolved at the sound of James's laugh. And I understood why. That laugh could cure cancer.

But it was nothing compared to the quiet joy on his face just a few weeks later when I told him of my vision. And when he'd kissed me on the cheek...

I had felt keenly the softness of his lips, and the gentle pressure applied behind them. He'd practically run out of the room, leaving me on that couch, red as a tomato, and wishing he'd come back. It was then I realized the truth.

I had a crush on James Potter. Not the James Potter who had asked me out for two years straight, nor the one who had stolen my textbook for a week in third year. I had a crush on James Potter, the boy who survived hell and came out a better person. And because he was still healing, still recovering from that hell, I knew that I couldn't tell him what I felt.

He needed a friend, right now, and I would be that for as long as I could. This was also why I was letting him be the person who was there when Alana woke up. As much as I wanted to see her, he'd been through that hell with her, and he deserved to be the first person she hugged.

And me... I was dangerous. Anyone close to me was in danger of being hurt, because if I went out the same way my ancestors had, I would be leaving loved ones behind me just as they had. And I didn't want James to have to heal from anything else. He didn't deserve that.