The Odd One
Summary: Harriet Lilly Potter wasn't suppose to live on October 31st 1981. But apparently she wasn't suppose to be able to do a lot of other things either. /AU/
Harriet always knew that there was something a little off about herself. Others seemed to notice it as well. It wasn't that she wore clothes too big, or that she was too small and scrawny for her age. It was her too big and too bright green eyes that seemed to absorb everything going on around her. Her too bright mind that worked too fast and understood things that were suppose to be years beyond her comprehension.
She first noticed that she was different from others when she was only five years old and her aunt caught her doing her chores with only a flick of her wrist.
She was spinning around dancing with the flow of the energy she could feel around herself (she didn't know it yet but it was magic). The untamable flames of curls on her head seeming to defy gravity as she asked the energy to help her with her chores, and her brilliantly green eyes were alight with happiness.
It wasn't until her aunt walked into the living room and froze in her tracks and started to screech at her that she realized that normal people were not suppose to be able to do the thing she did. So she was thrown into her cupboard under the stairs with out lunch or dinner to reflect and stop doing "freakish" things.
So she sat on her poor excuse of a bed and realized that she had never seen her aunt, or uncle, or cousin, or anyone for that matter, do the things that she did. They always did things by hand and she never understood why when they could just ask the energy for help.
Her vivid green eyes widened with realization that only SHE could feel and manipulate the energy. It certainly explained why her uncle always threw a fit and locked her in the cupboard when odd things happened around her.
Like that time when Dudley shoved her to the ground so hard that almost broke her wrist. She didn't make a peep. She thought that if only Dudley could feel the same pain that she was feeling at that moment he would surely stop tormenting her.
That was when an invisible force seemed to shove him as hard as he did her and he went tumbling to the ground. It happened that her uncle walked into the room in the exact moment to see Dudley be thrown to the ground. That day also ended with her being locked in the cupboard with no dinner, except she also had a massive bruise in the shape of a large grubby hand to add to the occasion.
There was also that time when her aunt wanted to cut all of her hair off down to a buzz cut. But Harriet was not very fond of the style and by the time she woke up the next day her hair was back to it's original length (perhaps even a few inches longer). Her twig-like aunt tried for days to get it to stay short, but by the time her hair was down to her waist she decided to give up.
So as Harriet sat in the dark, cramped cupboard under that stairs observing the spiders, she decided to pretend to be as normal as possible for her aunt and uncle (if only to tone down the amount of shrieking she receives), but at the same time she will continue with her usage of the mystical energy that only she seemed to be able to use.
There was no way she would ever give up using it, for if she did she feared that it would be equivalent to losing a piece of her soul, or who she was. Without it she sure that she would go mad.
For the next week she started to only do her chores by hand (at least whenever she was sure that nobody was watching) and when she was in the safety of her cupboard she would experiment to see how far she would be able to manipulate the energy. She already knew that she could make her hair grow, and she could do her chores with it, but that was usually as far as she would go.
She wondered how far she would be able to go to defy the laws of the universe...
So far she figured out that she could make things float, or disappear entirely. She could make things out of thin air and tear them apart molecule by molecule until there was nothing left but the atoms they were made of.
When she was old enough to start going to school she was already figuring out how to make plant bloom at astounding rates. She already knew she had some affinity with plant due to the flourishing garden that Aunt Petunia made her take care of. But she loved to be able to make them stay in blossom even if they were not in season.
Before she was sent of to her first day of school Uncle Vernon pulled her aside. "Listen girl, when your off at that school there shall be no funny business, or so help me will never leave that cupboard again! And no showing off in classes. My dear Dudley needs his time to shine so don't be messing around with him." The whale of a man seemed to turn a most interesting shade of purple that she wondered how he hadn't blown a blood vessel yet.
All the same she understood the meaning of her uncle's words. Don't use her abilities. Don't do better than Dudley. And don't attract attention. Or else... She could easily comply with the last thing he asked of her because she wasn't all that fond of having the spot light on her anyways. But there was no way she wasn't going to be using her abilities while she was at school, that was just asking the impossible. She just was not going to be caught using them.
So the fiery red-head just turned her too bright and too large green eyes to the man and nodded her head. There was no point in igniting the man's ire. She even tried to smile to set him at ease, but unfortunately it did not have the affect that she hoped it would because he just seemed to pale a bit at the sight.
So off to school she went.
Everything had gone as smooth as could be, she even used her ability to make herself as uninteresting as possible to comply with Vernon's orders to not attract attention. The curriculum that they were being taught was laughable easy, but she never once put her hand up or completed a worksheet that she was given.
There was no point in doing her work. She already knew how to spell, read, count and do basic math. She was almost wondering why she was even there, but some part of her knew that this is what children her age were suppose to be learning and that she was once again the unnatural one. So she just bit her tongue and laid down her head to rest.
Years went by and she continues to use her abilities to make her life a little bit more easy to bear.
She would use it to silence her hunger pangs when she was forced to miss a meal or three for not completing her chores to their satisfaction. Or she would use it to heal the bruises she would get when Dudley decided her wanted to practice his boxing skills.
She also managed to stay under the teacher's radar by doing completely average in all her classes, and under average in the classes that Dudley was not very exceptional at.
She spent her free time at school in the library when she wasn't being chased around by Dudley's gang.
A ten year old Harriet Potter was sitting under her unusually large tree as usual reading a book about Romans during recess, when Dudley and his gang decided to participate in their daily "Harry Hunt".
"Oh, so it's that time already then," the small green eyed girl commented as Dudley and his gang made their way up to her. "I really do thank you boys for taking time out of your busy schedule to participate in such an event. It always helps to keep me on my toes."
"I see that your being a freak like usual, Freak!" The large round boy yelled. "What are you reading there Freak? A book about trying to be normal? Well too bad! Once a Freak, always a Freak!"
Ahh, if there was one thing she could always count on it was Dudley's horrendously uncreative insults that he spat at her. Would it hurt to be original with them at least once?
"Yes, well... Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee." Good old Shakespeare, he was certainly the man to go to if she wanted to use words to piss someone off. (Not that she had met him – yet. Meeting the dead was not something she planned on doing yet).
Even if Dudley didn't know exactly what she was saying , he was sure that there was an insult in there somewhere.
And then the chase began.
She ran as fast as she could as the boys chased her throughout the yard, long vibrant hair flying as if it were a tail. Luckily she was very light and could run very, very fast. She even used her ability to discreetly make some roots for them to trip up on.
Eventually she lost them by hiding behind a bush she made to be uninteresting to look at.
As she was sitting there waiting for the break to be over, when she noticed a larger than average black and green garden snake work it's way up to her.
That was another thing that she found out over the years. Animals seemed to have this unnatural pull towards her, especially snakes. She could actually speak to the snakes!
They were very interesting creatures to talk to, even if they had a limited vocabulary...
"Mistresssss..." Yes.. There was also that.. For some reason they always insisted on calling her Mistress. She tried to get them to call her something else at first, but found that the effort was in vain.
Turning to the snake she answered in the same language. "Yessss, is there ssssomething I could do for you?"
"Are those boyssss bothering you Mistressss?" How adorable. The snakes and the other animals were always so willing to help her out. At first it weirded her out, but she soon found it to be very endearing.
"No need to worry little one, everything issss all well here. But I certainly wouldn't mid it if you could give thossse boyssss a fright for me." Even if she didn't mind the physical exercise their chase gave her, it could get bloody annoying real fast.
"Anything for you Mistresssss," he hissed and then slithered out into the open for the boys to find him. Not even a minute later she could hear the terrified screams of the young boys.
She also once asked a snake why they insisted on calling her Mistress, but all she got in return was a cryptic "Mistresss is Mistresssss".
It was the last day of school until after the summer break, but for some reason Harry felt that she wouldn't be returning for next semester here...
oops... it happened again. The Plot bunnies struck. If you guys have read my other stories, don't worry about it. I'll get around to updating them... eventually...
It's just that i happen to be very into Master of Death and Fem harry fics at this time and wanted to try my hand at it. I really love over powered characters.
Ugh, I'm so ashamed of myself. It's just that my computer got busted and the chapters I was going to upload went "bye-bye" along with my laptop. I'm writing this right now on my home computer, and as much as i love to hear the key go clickity click, I would love to have my laptop back.
Let me know what you guys think about this story so far and if I should change anything. I love to hear creative criticism on my work so that I can improve.
