Disclaimer(for this and all following chapters): I own nothing, this is not for profit.

Warning: Will eventually have explicit sexual content. Will have instances of Gore/Violence.

Unbeta'd

Harriet Potter's life sucked, period. Sure it had started out well enough, loving parents, caring uncles, being well fed, and happy. That's pretty much the only thing that had ever gone well for her. Her parents murdered, her uncles unable to take her due to illegal imprisonment and prejudicial behaviors towards werewolves. Being left out on the porch during a cold November night. Being placed in the care of her 'loving' relatives. Not knowing her name until she attended primary school. Basically being brought up a slave. Finding out she's a witch and her relations had lied to her.

The wizarding world treating her like a messiah when she was still trying to get used to being considered worth more than the dirt under her relative's boots. The potions professor outright hating her and abusing his position of authority to bully her. Being attacked by a troll. Being sent into the forbidden forest and forced to watch a unicorn die. Almost being eaten by a three-headed dog, twice. Facing the shade of Voldemort.

Her relatives upping their corporal punishments after finding out she couldn't perform magic at home. Dobby being a menace. Crashing into the whomping willow. Her bones being vanished altogether from her arm by an incompetent farce of a teacher. Being persecuted for speaking a language she hadn't known she could speak. Facing a horde of acromantula, then a basilisk and a Horcrux. Being bitten by said basilisk and then having the whole thing swept under the rug while the whole school pretends that they didn't completely ostracize her.

Marge being a bitch. Having her soul almost sucked out of her on three separate occasions. The emotional turmoil that was Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew's reveal. Dealing with a werewolf and then being completely ignored by the minister of magic. Death Eater's attacking the world cup. The dreams, and being forced into the TWT. Nesting merlin-be-damned dragons. The fiasco that was the Yule ball, as her date ended up standing her up. Mer.

The unnecessary death of Cedric Diggory(who she might have had a minor crush on at the time), and the revival of Voldemort. Being placed under the cruciatus. Not being believed upon her miraculous escape. Almost having her soul snatched again for the fourth time. Being outright tortured with a blood quill by Dolores Umbitch. Sirius dying. Being possessed by Voldemort. Facing Inferi in the cave of wonders as per Voldemort. Realizing the entire wizarding world was pronouncing Voldemort wrong as it is a pseudonym derived from a handful of French words with the pronunciation actually being Vol-de-mor. Actually, that one had been kinda funny.

Pretty much all of what was supposed to be her seventh year. Dying. Beating Voldemort only to be vilified by the wizarding world including her supposed best friends Weasley and Granger. Actually getting her soul sucked out. Now that hadn't actually been too bad, but that might've been because of her current situation. Sitting in front of a rather mercurial Death. Apparently, Death hadn't been planning on anyone meeting the requirements of becoming the master of death. Y'Know 'cause of the whole willingly accepting death kinda contradicts searching out the Hallows to become immortal.

Then when she'd said she was by no means interested in being master of death, and asking for the afterlife, death being mad because of her unfulfilling life as a used and broken tool/slave. So it came to no surprise to Harriett that Death had decided she would be replacing the body of a recently deceased individual, and the memories of everyone who had known them would be altered so that only Harriet remained.

She was to be in an alternate universe with rather limited magic few magical practitioners so she could actually live because apparently being the master of death is a non-refundable thing and she will be alive until the end of death itself. The entity had placed all of her earthly possessions in an enchanted ring, including the hallows, that would basically act as an undetectably extended bag. It had an inbuilt muggle repelling charm that could only be removed if she herself took it off uncoerced. By now Harriet was resigned to her fate and hoped she could have a few normal years to just be at the very least.

-4 years later-

The line inched forward in the small employment office of. She'd been waiting for what seemed like hours trying to get a lead on a summer job. When it was finally her turn, she approached the desk of a bored, tired job placement worker who was on the phone. The woman gestured her closer and indicated that she should sit down. After the woman hung up, Harry handed her some forms and Laura(as the name tag indicated) mechanically began the interview.

"Name, please."

"Kelsey Hayes."

"Age?"

"Seventeen, almost eighteen. My birthday's coming soon."

She stamped the forms. "Are you a high school graduate?"

"Yes. I graduated just a couple of weeks ago. I plan on attending Chemeketa this fall."

"Parents' names?"

"Madison and Joshua Hayes, but my guardians are Sarah and Michael Neilson."

"Guardians?"

Here we go again, Harry thought. Somehow explaining her life never got easier, even in this incarnation. People couldn't seem to leave their curiosity buried around her."Yes. My parents are . . . deceased. They died in a car accident when I was a freshman." So had Kelsey, but that is where Death had inserted Harry into her life. When Harry had woken up in the hospital there were a host of doctors and psychologists to greet her.

Apparently, 'signs of long term abuse (huge ass scars, whip marks, and the word freak carved into her back, along with any magical scars from the various 'adventures' in Hogwarts, and the torture from Voldy and his minions) and malnutrition were abnormal' and 'there would be an investigation of the Hayes family'. Sadly Harry couldn't help the departed Hayes family as every one of their friends' memories of Kelsey were replaced by the obviously abused and malnurtured fourteen-year-old Harry Potter instead. Thankfully with some proper food and sunlight, she had been able to gain some womanly curves and a tan, even if she would be forever 5'2 and always have the scars as she couldn't exactly hide them with them being common knowledge and all. The state awarded her full control of her parents assets, and a rather substantial sum of money to apologize for missing her abuse.

When she looked in the mirror for the first time after she had entered this world she had been startled. Apparently, Death had decided to give his mistress some of his own features, such as the thankfully straight ebony hair with a tint of a deep bloody red at the tips. Her face had an overall more delicate structure, her lips plumper, and her eyes more doe-like. Even her eyelashes had changed, they were now long enough to be mistaken for falsies. Thankfully though she had retained her mother's eyes though they did glow a bit more, showcasing a bit of the power hidden deep beneath them.

The psychologists had been very worried that she didn't remember her life before the crash, and barely reacted to her name being called. Though they thought it was because her mind was repressing her memories. Thankfully she'd gotten used to referring to herself as Kelsey in her head after a while. (from now on Harry will be referring to herself as Kelsey to avoid confusion) Her memories not emerging even in therapy had made them decide she'd adjust well to normal life again, and after being placed in foster care with no incidents she was cleared after a few more months of therapy.

The average looking woman bending over some paperwork and starting to loudly scratch something out on some forms shocked Kelsey from her recollections. She grimaced, wondering what the dead-eyed woman could be writing that was taking so long. Hopefully, there was a job available because she wanted to do something with her summer. "Miss Hayes, do you like animals?"

"Sure. Umm, I know how to feed them . . ." Does an O in care of magical creatures count? Way to talk herself out of being hired. She cleared her throat. "I mean, sure, I love animals." Which was true, Buckbeak had been a great friend. Norbert had taken to her well, and even the dragon she had ridden out of Gringotts on tolerated her after she released its collar and had communicated the location of the Romanian reserve to it via parseltongue. The woman didn't really seem to care about her response, and she handed Kelsey a posting for a job.

NEEDED:

A TEMPORARY WORKER FOR TWO WEEKS ONLY

DUTIES INCLUDE TICKET SALES,

FEEDING THE ANIMALS, AND

CLEANING UP AFTER PERFORMANCES.

Note: Because of the tiger and dogs

need to have carers 24/7, room and board

are provided.

The job was for the Circus Maurizio, a small family-run circus at the fairgrounds. Kelsey remembered getting a coupon for it at the grocery store and had even considered offering to take her foster parents' kids, Rebecca and Samuel, six and four respectively, so that Sarah and Mike could have some time to themselves. "So, do you want the job or what?" the woman asked impatiently. Kelsey nodded and took the form, honestly thought she had been planning on taking a boring temp job for the summer to appear more normal. The bad part about being a witch in a non-magical world is that she can't truly connect with people since she is trying to keep her magic under wraps.

Kelsey had no problem imagining what some of the government or terrorist groups would do if they found out about her magic. Especially without the safety of the magical government to fall back on. She had kept her magic use relatively mundane. Her saving people thing was alive and well though, so sometimes she couldn't help it. There had been a couple of articles in the newspaper about a miraculous occurrence of a child being 'magically pulled out of the street by an unseen force' or some such. It was always brushed off as a happy coincidence or lucky break though.

Money honestly wasn't an issue with the Potter and Black fortunes contained in her ring. She had already decided to pay for a couple of years to get the 'college experience' she'd heard so much about with the life insurance and money the Hayes family had left behind. After that, she might travel the world for a bit, see the sights, settle in a medium-sized city, open a cafe or restaurant, and live out the rest of her days with a cat or maybe a host of animals. She'd use her magic to help her appear to be aging normally to help people in secret as always, and figured it would be a good existence.

So while a normal job wasn't off the table entirely, as this job would only take two weeks, working with the tiger and dogs sounded fun. Besides caring for a tiger couldn't be much more dangerous than caring for a hippogryph. Charley and Hagrid had gotten her hooked on the more 'misunderstood' creatures. Both of their fascination with dragons and Hagrid's penchant for anything XXXXX rated had given her a lot of experience with untamed wildlife. She personally liked the intelligence they exuded and loved interacting with them similarly to how she had with Hedwig. The woman at the till gave her a card with an address and she instructed Kelsey to be there the next day by 6:00 a.m. The worker shouted "Next!" at the line shuffling behind her. Kelsey took the hint and after exiting the building she pulled her diminutive form into Sarah's hybrid and headed home.

Living with Sarah and Mike was okay for the most part. Better than the Dursleys that's for sure. She had nothing to complain about, they gave her a lot more freedom than most other kids' parents, and she thinks they have a healthy respect for one another—well, at least as much as adults can respect a seventeen-year-old anyway. It was a welcome change, though but we were still a family of sorts. Kelsey had helped babysit their kids before and never got into trouble with them.

While the courts had awarded Kelsey her parents estate and then some, and had given her full control of her accounts so as to disabuse the notion any foster family may have had about taking it for themselves, they had not fully emancipated her. It was understandable as she had been only a 14-year-old adolescent at the time. Sarah had been friends with Kelsey's parents and had petitioned the court to have guardianship over her rather than her going into an unknown situation with a potentially hostile foster family.

Kelsey parked the car carefully in the garage and headed into the house to find Sarah attacking a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. She dropped her bag on a chair and went to get a glass of water. "Making vegan cookies again, I see. What's the special occasion?" They had a sort of deal about food, her room had a retrofitted kitchenette in it along with a mini fridge & freezer. Sarah would give her 100 dollars a week for food as Kelsey was in no way interested in going vegan. She had to do all her own grocery shopping and most of her own cooking, but as long as she didn't let Sarah's kids get into her stuff, she was allowed to do her own thing.

Sarah jammed the wooden spoon into the dense dough several times as if the wooden spoon were an icepick. "It's Sammy's turn to bring treats for his playdate." Kelsey stifled a snigger by coughing. Sarah shrewdly narrowed her eyes at the chuckling girl. "Kelsey Hayes, just because your mother was the best cookie baker in the world doesn't mean I can't make a decent treat." Before Sarah's eyes could finish widening in panic at the mention of Hayes the Mrs., Kelsey cut off any backtracking she would've done with a quip of my own.

"It's not your skills I doubt, it's your ingredients," picking up a jar. "Substitute nut butter, flax, protein powder, and agave. I'm surprised you don't put recycled paper in those things. Where's the chocolate?"

"I use carob sometimes."

"Carob is not chocolate. It tastes like brown chalk. If you're going to make cookies, you should make—"

"I know. I know. Swedish taffy creams or chocolate chip. They're really bad for you Kelsey," she said with a sigh.

"But they taste so good," Sarah mumbled about the injustice of a girl who eats like Kelsey retaining her figure with such little effort. Kelsey took in food like a black hole, and would often order about triple what an average person could actually eat every week.

What most people don't realize and what her guardians would never know is that magic isn't just an endless source that a witch or wizard can call upon. It's like water in a bowl, when you use some, in order to refill the portion you used you must get it from somewhere else. The ambient magic in the world does have some capacity to aid in speeding magical recovery, but where most of it comes from is calories. Burning up energy just like any other muscle. It's why there was a mandatory feast every night in Hogwarts, and why most of the foods had high-calorie counts. It's also why the wizarding population usually doesn't have a problem with obesity, as long as you are frequently using magic, your figure is usually slim if not toned.

Kelsey, however, had always been an anomaly, because of how starved she had been as a child, her magic had actively fed off the only source it could so it could continue to battle the Horcrux in her skull. The blood protection that had been enabled by Lily Potter's sacrifice had been powerful enough to last a good 50 years, give or take. The reason that they tapered off into nothing when she was 17 hadn't been her 'coming of age', as Dumbledore had hinted. No, it broke because it had been sustaining her life force for the first eleven years of her life, and the summer months following.

Her magic had developed a quirk where if she was at 50% core capacity or below it would start actively drawing in the ambient magic around her, but had changed slightly when she had mastered the hallows. Now, her magic would seek Death's unlimited power to sustain its own, therefore giving Death an unintentional warning system to alert him if his daugte-mistress was in danger. He had actually come in like a raging papa bear threatening eternal torture for whatever dared attack his mistress.

Then proceeded to flush as much as a skeletal being could when he realised she had just been using magic to transform a messenger bag into one like Newt Scamander's case, only it contained all sorts of edible plant life, potions ingredients, farm animals, a herd of unicorns, a nest of bowtruckles, a few demiguises, Buckbeak and his mate, a very well behaved acromantula, and Fawkes (the Phoenix had abandoned Hogwarts after the final battle and had shown up on Hedwig's old perch by her bed in Grimmauld the next day) with the addition of the Potter family manor (bigger on the inside) tent by the entrance. The bag also had the nifty muggle feature like Scamander's, which gave her the added benefit of being able to store a change of clothes, some money, her ID, and other essentials conveniently within reach. It was the perfect set up for her travels. Death had even provided two houselves so she wouldn't have to worry about the bags' upkeep in an attempt to divert her attention from his embarrassment.

Kelsey came back into the present from her musings as the motion of Sarah bringing her finger swiftly to her lips to lick off some cookie dough caught her attention. "By the way, I got a job. I'm going to be cleaning up and feeding animals at a circus. It's at the fairgrounds."

"Good for you! That sounds like it will be a great experience," Sarah perked up. "What kind of animals?"

"Dogs mostly, I think there's a tiger too, but I probably won't have to do anything dangerous. I'm sure they have professional tiger people for that stuff. I do have to start really early though, and it was a requirement for the job that I have to live on site for the next few weeks, in case any of the animals need overnight minders."

"Hmmm," Sarah paused contemplatively but she had never been one to worry about the possible danger of situations, instead, seeing only the fun that could be had, so her answer was rather swift, if not absent-minded. "Well, we're just a phone call away if you need us. Would you mind taking the brussels sprouts casserole a la 'recycled newspaper' out of the oven?"

Kelsey nodded and moved to grab the oven mins from the counter. After setting the stinky casserole in the center of the table she helped Sarah pop her cookie sheets in the oven and called the house to dinner. Mike came in, set down his briefcase, and kissed his wife on the cheek. "What's that . . . smell?" he asked suspiciously.

"Brussels sprouts casserole," Sarah answered swiftly, a warning look in her eyes, "And I made cookies for Sammy's playgroup," she announced proudly. "I'll save the best one for you love." Mike shot Kelsey a knowing look that Sarah caught. She snapped her dishtowel at his thigh. "If that's the attitude you are bringing to the table then you get clean-up duty tonight."

"Aw, honey. Don't be mad." He kissed Sarah again and wrapped his arms around her, trying his best to get out of the task. Kelsey took that as her cue to exit. As she snuck out of the kitchen, she heard Sarah giggle. Quietly, Kelsey climbed the stairs to her bedroom. It was small and cozy, with just a simple bed, a mirrored dresser, a desk for her computer and homework, a closet, her casual muggle clothes, a few books, and the kitchenette with the fridge. Done up tastefully in Gryffindor colors, of course.

Kelsey changed into a pair of soft pajamas, pulled her hair tie off, and shook her hair free from its previous braided state. Crawling under her warm duvet, she groaned as she had to reemerge to set the alarm for 4:30 a.m. The Dursley's had forcibly made her into a morning person early on in life. She had just started being able to sleep in like a normal teenager. This was gonna set her back weeks!

As she started drifting to sleep Kelsey wondered what she could possibly be doing with a tiger so early in the morning and how she would survive the three-ring circus that was already her Flopping over on her stomach and stuffing the pillow under her cheek, she drifted off thinking about Mrs. Weasley's cookies.