Hi there,
Your leather coral doesnt need to be close to light to grow, in fact leather corals will grow in quite dimly lit aquaria in comparison to other corals. It will grow just as well from the bottom of your tank as it does half way up!! My baby leathers are on a piece of rock on the sand at the bottom of the tank and are growing at an alarming rate! If your water quality is half decent and its not in tremendous flow (moderate is ideal) then your leather will be fine lower down. Bleaching is when the light "burns" the coral, normally something more associated with SPS or LPS corals as the secondary bacteria leave the hosted calcium skeleton due to incorrect conditions, thus leaving the white calcium skeleton (hence bleaching).
Your coral could go into shock if you suddenly move it near the light, but it should recover. More importantly what will likely happen is that the head of the coral will grow larger (as expected) and cause a shadow on everything below it, possibly putting other corals into darkness and depriving them of light, which will lead to their sad demise.
I would leave it growing from the bottom upward, and unless its your only coral, it should be fragged when it gets too big (like i did mine) or you could also end up with warfare problems!!
Hope this helps.
Regards, headsonfire!!!