Disclaimer: I own nothing. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Devil May Cry belongs to Capcom.
In which I struggle to get the voice of a child right...
What's in a Family (Part 1)
Divergence :: The Diner
February 1981
"Sure thing Mr. Potter!" A bubbly girl by the name of Susan Davidson pulled a fussy Harry into her arms. She laughed nervously when he began to huff in the beginnings of a temper tantrum.
"Well Ms. Davidson," James ruffled his son's dark – white – hair. "I will return in four hours. Here's some…uh…'pounds' for spending and eating." He awkwardly shoves notes to the young woman.
"Mr. Potter! I can't take all this! This is too much! Here," she splits takes a few notes and returns the majority back to the gawky man.
"Nonsense," he pressed the notes back to Davidson. "Keep the change, as…uh…tip! Yes, tip! Trust me," he gives a scowling Harry a suspicious glance. "You'll more than deserve it. I have to go know."
He backs away warily to an amused Sirius.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Sirius side-glances James.
"He's my son," James started. "I don't care about that, but also don't want greedy bastards trying to steal away his rights because of a silly issue of legitimacy. I'm going to do this, and going to this the right way too! Both our way and the muggle way."
"What about Lily?"
James lowered his gaze. "…I've contacted a barrister."
"Why barrister?"
"Lily didn't want to disappear completely from the muggle world. 'Highly suspect' she said."
Sirius furrowed his brows. That's the issue with the muggle-born, they are quick to think the wizarding world is too archaic and withdrawn from their world. And while it may be true that some old wizarding families refuse to mingle with the outside, that is not the case with majority of wizarding families. There are financial, economic, and personal gains from secretly mingling with the muggle world. Most of the muggles cast them off as: eccentric, reclusive, and/or misanthropic (hem Malfoy's hem). Usually in the case of marriages from a pureblood and muggle-born, their papers are sent to a Wizard Liaison who handles all discrepancies. But if James did what he's suggesting then…that complicated matters. Especially if he is going to go through with what he suspects he is going to do with Harry. From what he has heard, muggles favor the mother or the actual blood parents.
James looked beyond exhausted. Dark circles underneath his hazel eyes and hair even messier than usual, Sirius could only place a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Let's take this one step at a time."
"Yeah."
"Off to Gringotts we go!"
February 1989
Location: Near Devil May Cry, Capulet City
It was lunch hour and a boy with fluffy messy white hair walked down the street humming along to music blaring from his Walkman. The beat of Styx's Come Sail Away seeping from his headphones. A business man passed by the wandering child muttering "dumb kid's gonna go deaf before he's fifteen."
Another person, stared at the odd haired boy then glanced at his watch. Shouldn't he be at the school? The man shrugged and walked away. Not his business. The boy continued with his trek and eventually found himself entering a diner. He clambered onto an empty stool. He removed his headphones and let them rest at his neck palming his pocket for his wallet. The man in front looked at the small child unamused with crossed arms after placing the menu of the child.
"Ain't ya' supposed to be in school, kid?"
The boy shook his head earnestly, "I'm homeschooled, sir. Dad travels a lot, doesn't see the point in registering me. May I get the lunch special, for…um…four people to go?"
The man arched a brow, "Will you be able to carry all that?"
"Yes, sir. I'm, like, really strong."
The man pursed his lips but jotted the order and shouted "order up", then walked away to the newest customer. The boy patted a tuneless beat on the counter top, one hand was gloved while the revealed a pale hand. His annoyed neighbor lowered his paper to glare at the child, but the white-haired boy gave him a wide-eyed innocent stare and the man scoffed and went back to his paper.
"Hello sir, I'm Harry," the boy now dubbed Harry introduced himself.
The man grunted.
"I'm eight," the boy supplied.
The man adjusted his paper.
"Dad says you're supposed to introduce yourself when you meet someone new, 'cus it's the polite thing to do. What's your name, sir?"
The man pointedly stared at his paper regretting ever making eye contact with the boy.
"Um, I like to read and Uncle Sirius thinks that weird 'cus boys are supposed to play and not like reading so much. Uncle Re—"
The man sighed, "Kid," he pointedly ignored the 'It's Harry' and continued. "Didn't your daddy ever say not to talk to strangers?"
"Yes."
The man gave the boy a dry look. "Do you even know my name?"
"No, that's why asked you."
"Kid," the man placed the newspaper down. "Stranger-danger."
"But you're not dangerous." The boy stated plainly.
"How do you know that? I could be serial killer." At this point the woman sitting next to the other side of the boy was now staring at the two. She had a bob haircut with the most peculiar set of eyes. Her partner was also leaning over to see the man and boy conversing.
"I don't know. I just know here," he patted his chest.
"Can't trust your gut for everything, kid."
"Why? Dad says to always trust you in-stinks."
"Instincts."
"It's what I said!"
"No – never mind, just don't talk to strangers."
"Oh, okay."
"Good."
He picked up his paper and sighed when he heard. "Hello Ma'am, I'm Harry!"
The two women laughed. "Kid, what did I just tell you?"
"Um, to not talk to strangers. But there's strangers everywhere! How are you supposed to meet new people?!"
"It's okay," the woman with odd eyes spoke. "Nothing will happen. Now honey, are you here by yourself?"
"Dad supposed to pick me up here! He said something about eating in the park with Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus. He said that my job is get lunch," the boy puffed his chest at what he considered to be a very important job.
"Why didn't your dad get lunch himself?"
"'Cus lunch is my respon-sa-tility. I do all his sandwiches! Miss Louie helps me," the boy shifted in his seat.
"Responsibility," the woman enunciates. "Who's Miss Louie?"
"She's my sitter."
"Oh, why isn't she with you right now?"
"She got the flu."
The woman hums and continues conversing with the boy for a good fifteen minutes. With her asking random questions about his father and family, eventually a harried man with round glasses nearly bursts in the dinner with a fanatic "Harry!"
"Here!" The boy lifts his hand high just the man from the front dinner placed the boy's goodies on the counter top with a "That'll be $48.39."
The man carelessly places a 100-dollar bill on the counter, grabs the to-go bag, and pulls the boy off the stool to the ground. "Com'on we're late," and promptly drags the boy out the diner.
Bi-colored and electric eyes follow the strange duo.
Lady bursts into Dante's sad excuse of a shop with Trish in tow where he was currently being berated by an angry pink terror wielding a broom. "Come baring gifts," she states blandly.
In her hands take-out bags, suspicious.
"Thanks Lady, but I can't stay – I have to go, my mom said something about starting my training today," Patty threw the broom at Dante and walked away like the little lady she claims to be.
Dante simply watched as Lady (Debt #1) unpacked her "gifts" and Trish (Debt #2) sat with cat-like grace on his couch. Lady placed the Styrofoam container in front and smiled. Also, suspicious, she's here to collect.
"I'm adding this to your debt," she supplies holding out the plastic fork.
He grabs the fork, still suspicious. That money-grubbing banshee never does anything for free and she came with back-up too. Those two creatures want something from him. He opens the container and digs in.
Lady hums, "I ran into the cutest young man today in the diner. Isn't that right, Trish?"
"Yes, just the most charming gentleman."
I knew it.
"Why, he said he liked my eyes, didn't he?"
"He said I had really soft looking hair," Trish ran her fingers through her long blonde hair.
"He could talk a mile a minute."
"And could make a mean sandwich, I hear."
Dante sighed. "Are going to just pussy-foot around what you really want to say, Lady?"
"I don't know, do you have something to confess to Dante?"
"No."
"Well, the man the most interesting shade of blue eyes."
"Yes, why I have only seen that exact shade on one person."
Dante crossed his arms and leaned back on his hair. Those two…
"And his hair."
"Oh yes, the hair. It looked so soft."
"Fluffy too."
"And white," Trish gave him a pointed stare.
"He looked like a mini-you," Lady finally said.
Review.
Author's Note: This is a series of one-shots (sometimes inter-connected) that I come up with as write/edit/revise One Too Many. As I write and edited, I sometimes write these long passages that are scrapped. I feel kinda sad that these snippets lay forgotten or deleted into cyberspace never to seen again u.u
In Here:
-are some snippets of another fic I am currently working on called What's in a Family these are either deleted scene or pointless ramblings to get the tone of fic done right. I will label them accordingly and will also post once I have enough jotted to make a convincing strong first ten chappies.
-diverging ideas of One Too Many
-what if-ideas that I want to write but don't have the time to actually write them done due real-life duties that I must attend to
-deleted scenes of One Too Many that I found pointless to the plot
-some ooc-ness may be involved, but then again that must happen as I ground myself to the characters. I'll try avoid it as much as I can. ;)
I will label them accordingly and some I may be put up for adoption which I will label in bold as "Up for Adoption".
SIG is sorry, she didn't get around to working on One Too Many she got side-tracked with the fledgling story What's in a Family which is centered around the idea of James having survived to raising a quarter-demon magic baby Harry. It would make sense in that in this version Harry got to keep his name whereas in the other he's renamed Nero...hm...I'm rambling. Whelp, 'til next time. Hopefully I will have written a new chapter for One Too Many by then. :3