Harry Potter and Big Sister

Summary: It was 7 years since they first met, a little boy whose life was miserable in hands of his caretakers, and a girl on the search for her way home. Friendship fostered in short time, little boy always saw her as a bratty-yet-kind-hearted big sister. Then, the girl has finally found her way back home. Now, during summer break between the forth and fifth years in school of magic, he meet her again.

Disclaimer: I owned nothing here.

Prologue: First time they met

It was a typical day for Harry Potter, an 8 years old boy that lived in a small town of Little Whinging, Surrey, England, a normal town for normal folks who lived a normal life day by day, hated the abnormality of all kinds, be it a bad weather or someone in the neighborhood became a nuisance to their children and subjects of hate and fear for their parents who always worried about their own spawn when they're away, which unfortunately for the messy black-haired skinny boy who wore oversized clothes and trousers with many tears and mends leftover from his cousin sitting on the swings of the town's park, he's the latter…

But truth to be told, that's what they thought, or rather, what his neighbor believed him to be… thanks to his cousin of the same age whom he lived with for his whole life, that, and his aunt and uncle are definitely not helping it either, they are ready to put a blame on him whenever something strange happened around them, no matter if blaming him actually make sense or not, he's always at fault. And then they started spreading rumors about him being a bad kid toward everyone around here.

And the effects were… well, just look at him now! All alone in the park in the middle of summer, while all children are playing with each other around everywhere in the park, just NOT NEAR HIM!

That's right, he's unwanted, uncared, no children wanted to be near him, whether at school or in the neighborhood, Dudley and his gang made sure it will stayed as such by bullying anyone who tried to associated themselves with him, furthermore, despite they're quite 'dumb' when it came to learning or thinking complicated things, his cousin still cunning enough to make sure that his victims will never once spilled what happened to their teachers or parents, cutting off any chance of putting his cousin to justice, with the most easiest way, making threat...

Even telling the adult by himself was out of the question too, considered his reputation was in ruin by his caretakers' hands, they were not only dismissed it as 'attention seeker' but threaten to punished him for trying to accused his cousin without proofs. And even when he was the one who has been bullied, despite having said proof in plain sight for them to see in form of black ring around his eye, broken nose, bruises, sprains, blood all over his body, they still always agreed that it was HIM who started it so he was at fault! Leading to punishment every single time…

And thus what little friends he once had during early elemental school was gone, one by one, feared that spending time with that bespectacled skinny boy who was cousin to the biggest school bully in the neighborhood will attract the attention of said bullies to him or her, they did it for the sake of safety of their lives, or, for the sake of easing worries of their parents, something young Harry could appreciated and accepted, albeit reluctantly due to small jealousy in his heart that he didn't have one, not even brother or sister who care for him… no one…

Adjusting his broken glasses which held together by a tape on his nose, Harry saw the setting sun and concluded that he must head back home before aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon decided to detain him in the cupboard without dinner for being late, or any other accusation they cooked up out of thin air again. He jumped down from the swings, sighing at the sight of the sun setting in the distance beyond the peak of the house to the west creating a spectacular view of orange ray shined through many gaps between brown branches of the tree standing between him and the glowing orb, no matter, he was in no mood to appreciate the beauty, and thus started to walked back home, well, his ONLY home.

Walking slowly toward the exit of the park, young Harry looked down on the floor the whole time, his mind thinking about his life up until now, deep in thought, despite it was what he would've faced for his entire life until he can graduated from school and started working to have enough money to find shelter elsewhere, away from his aunt and uncle… hopefully…

Since he didn't pay attention to where he was walking, confidence that he had entire neighborhood memorized, he ended up crashed into another person sending both parties to the ground, along with noise of lots of small, solid things which Harry couldn't saw clearly due to his glasses get knocked off, hitting the pavement repeatedly.

"Hey kid! Watch where you're going wills you?" A voice with strange accents screamed into the little boy's ears made him sloppily looked at the source, there, his emerald eyes catch a blur figure in purple and white laying on the ground few paces away, moving around frantically collecting something that he still couldn't made out what it was, until the figure yelled at him yet again.

"Kid! How long will you sit there like an idiot? Shouldn't at least say something?"

"My… glasses…" Harry finally spoke out, eyes widen when he realized that he dropped his only tool that could assist him in perceiving the world of color, thus quickly rummage through all the blurry figures lying everywhere around him in a slim hope that he'll lucky enough to stumble upon it, and that it didn't dropped down the drainage and get lost, because if it come down to the latter, he will be as good as blinded, and if he somehow found his way home, which will be guarantee to late because he couldn't see, aunt Petunia will complained about having to spend money for his personal uses, and uncle Vernon will be sure to locked him up in cupboard for week yet again.

The purple figure stopped her tirade, and then he saw a blurry hand in front of him holding something transparent before the voice spoke again. "This?"

He slowly grabbed 'the thing' in the girl's hand, well, he figured as such due to the voice was too feminine to be a boy and nearly let out a cry of joy because his glasses were still intact and not damaged more than what it already had! So he quickly put it on and says without looking at the one who delivered it. "Thank you! I can't see a thing without them."

A sighing was heard; causing Harry to looked up, and saw that in front of him was a girl with the strangest hair color he ever saw, not counting those people with weird fashion sense he came across from time to time when he goes shopping for his aunt, sometime even check handed with him as if they knew who he was, prompting aunt Petunia or uncle Vernon, if they were present there, to quickly shooed them away and interrogated him, or punished him by locking up in cupboard, as if it was his fault that they decided to be friendly with him!

But to be honest, that bright neck-length purple hair with a small braid hanging in the front was probably the only thing that was wrong about her, everything else, from her twitching eyebrows as if she was annoyed by something which probably be him considered where her purple eyes was currently staring at, to the small white cloak on her shoulders, a red ties, one-piece purple cloth with short skirt with oversized belt on her hip, white socks, black shoes and black fingerless gloves she wore, all just plain and normal.

"Hey! Now that you can see again kid, better look around and help me collect those that you knocked over, I don't have time all day!" The girl yelled, pointing at many small things scattered on the ground, with his vision cleared, he saw next to the girl was a small bag, around her and him was various animal figures used for decorations made of… clay? Plastic? He wasn't sure, but nonetheless, the mess was truly his fault this time, so he have no qualm helping her collected them, even it'll earn him a punishment for going home late if he linger around for any longer.

Then again, with or without this incident, young Harry realized that his uncle will probably locked him up anyway, due to him behaving 'too much good' during this entire week, they seemed to thought that no matter what he did, he deserved punishment from them anyway, so might as well not adding another girl on the list of people who despise him, even if he may never meet her again after today.

Two people working together are much faster than those who work alone was almost always the truth, not even five minutes later, the girl's animal figures are all secured in her bag, Harry let out a sigh of relieve when the girl decided to spoke to him "Not bad kid, at least you still have enough sense to know that when you've done something wrong, you should apologize or made amen, unlike that idiot…" she muttered to herself at the end of her sentence.

However, Harry could care less about her friend never apologized for his wrongdoing and thus focus on something more important, well, important for him, since he felt that this girl might have a few screw loose in her head to made her keep calling him 'Kid' without looking at herself that she too was a kid! So he voiced his opinion immediately. "Hey stop calling me kid please! You looked no older than me, so you're a kid too isn't…"

A black blur shot toward his face in an instant, Harry instinctively cut his words, closed his eyes prepare for something to hit his nose, or face, however the blow never came. So he slowly opened his eyes only to meet with the girl's right fist hovering just an inch next to him, as if she stopped it at the last second.

"A kid you thought…" the mysterious girl muttered darkly, slowly lowering her fist, before changing her tone to a little bit pitiful one in the next sentence. "Well, kid, you seemed to never see the world outside of this place and kind of thought that you've seen everything already, aren't you?"

'What kind of question is that?' Thought Harry in annoyance to get called 'kid' yet again, staring at the girl who slung her bag on her back, then started pacing around him slowly, her purple eyes twitching whenever it met with a sign of abuse that he got from his cousins, although he's just 8 years old, he still see that her eyes took a pitiful look on him.

Finally, when she was done, her purple orbs locked with his emeralds before asking inquisitively, her aggression dropped a few degree after seeing all those still yet-to-be-healed bruises and sprains all over his body that exposed out of his clothes. "What happened to you? You look like you've been running an obstacle course for whole week? Or perhaps you just go out into the wood and wrestling with a bear or something? Then again, there're no wood around here, perhaps you just came back from… what did they called 'camping' aren't you?"

Harry appreciated how she came dangerously close to the truth, well, considering his size alone, Dudley could probably passed up as a small bear too, but then he realized that the girl already strayed away from the former topic so he quickly correct that with the next one, hand rubbing the back of his head due to nervousness of speaking with this stranger. "Well, it kind of like that, but you're dragging me away from my question!"

The girl put her hands on her hip, staring him for a second before answer with a small smile. "Still bitter about getting called kid are you?" then she quickly continues without letting him a chance to say a thing. "…seems it's not normal to see someone with a slow-growing body is it?"

Now that the girl said it, Harry's mind ventured toward one documentary that he once watched during science class, about dwarfism, he then realized that the size of someone cannot used to implies his or her age every time, especially someone with abnormal condition, which seems to be the girl's case, so he nodded then proceed to asks. "Then how old are you?"

The girl however didn't listen to him, she was looking on his face for a while now, specifically, at the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead, he saw her face twisted into a frown, her nose sniffing as if she smelled something, only when he repeat his question that she snapped out of that and answer him, a little angrily as well. "What? You kid seem to never heard that it was rude to ask a woman of her age?" then she took a deep breath, calming herself down before telling him. "I'm 15… unbelievable isn't it kid?"

Harry couldn't help but agreed with her, considered that even standing like this, she was just a head taller than him at best! And if his teacher's son, who's college student that showed up at his school from time to time to do his 'research' was any indication, she still a few dozen inches shorter than what normal teen should be, and that still not taking her 'underdeveloped' parts into account yet!

A flash of light coming from over their head, causing young boy to looked up and saw the lamppost next to him has been lit up, right on time as it has been every day, at 6 P.M. which helped him realized that if this encounter was prolonged any further, maybe he'll have to sleep on a tree instead of cupboard! Or maybe it'll be a new semester before he could come out again!

Getting locked up in cupboard a few days is fine, but entire month? He has been there once, and it's not a pleasant experience no matter what other might say, so no, he won't let himself in that situation again…

So he quickly apologized to the purple haired girl. "I'm sorry for knocking you over, but now I must go!" without another word, he dashed back toward his house, leaving the girl and her collections in the bag alone at the lamppost, scratching her head while looking at the sight of Harry disappeared around the corner.

She then muttered to herself. "What's with that face? I'm not making face like I'm going to punch him didn't I?"

As usual, or rather, as he predicted, uncle Vernon was angry for him being late to come back home, he didn't even had time to explain as the enraged oversized walrus… well, his uncle threw him into the cupboard with a shout "No Dinner!" then stomping away from the door as if standing there for another second will infect him with an imaginary virus that was inside Harry.

While curling inside the cupboard under the stairs, Harry thought back toward the event that leaded to this punishment, at first, he felt that he should be angry at that weird purple girl, but even then, despite just 8 year old, he still know that if someone was to blame, it was him through and through. Her words still echoed in his mind, reminding him of that fact.

'Hey kid! Watch where you're going wills you?'

Yes, he was the one who has to blamed, since he's the one who move without seeing the path he was going, selfishly thought that the girl might did the same at the time notwithstanding. A dark thought then hit Harry, what did that girl might think of him? Did she saw him as freak that sudden ran off from conversation without any apparent reason? Or did she think he was weird as he thought of her as one due to her claim of age?

He then turned over his 'bed' while shaking those thought out, well, when he think about it, she probably just some sort of merchant selling miniature animal figure and cute stuff who just happened to passed by Little Whinging during her errands, it has to be the explanation of those things she got on her person! After all, even if someone obsessed with miniature animal figures, they should've enough sense to know that running around the street carrying something that small will guarantee to get the thing they liked stolen or lost easier than letting them sit on shelves back home… Well, the point is that, Harry is unlikely to encounter with her again, since this's in a middle of summer, and he just first met her now! So she shouldn't have lived around here wouldn't she?

Unknown to him, and the Dursley, there's one pair of purple orbs just outside the front door of their home, anger reflected in them the moment it saw the boy get thrown into the cupboard, and the walrus of a man yelling drove the point home of what's that all about, then they vanished into the darkness of night.

It was three full days before the Dursley finally let him outside again, and this time, it was because their entire family is going on vacation somewhere to the south, or so from what Harry could gathered and pieced together from Dudley's bragging yesterday, which summed up as he 'won' a prize that they could spend entire summer there for free until the next semester start, and that from what amount of luxury they provided, uncle Vernon could run his company from there via phone as well, assuming no major incident in his company brewed up.

Well, they didn't wanted him to go with them anyway, the bragging just served as rubbing it on his face that it was HIM that couldn't have the same luxury of summer break nor a chance of some happiness like them. However for Harry, it was a blessing… in a sense… that he didn't have to tolerate with many plans Dudley cooked up to make his life miserable, nor the shouting or unreasonable punishments from his aunt or uncle for another month or so.

Provided that he don't bored to death with his cat-loving neighbor before the end of the month that is.

Well, Harry himself don't have anything against felines in general provided that they didn't try to scratch him or made red lines that seeping out blood on his person, or tearing his clothes to pieces. But the way his neighbor, Mrs. Figg, thought about them which is what made his tolerance of cats and kittens at its limit, her obsession with the furry felines to the point of always showing him various cats she once owned in her farm (probably her house IS that farm, considered that many cats she had there.) and cats, cats every square inch of her house showing various affection toward him is not helping his case at all…

Some saving grace of her was, at least, she allowed him a few degrees of freedom to went outside her home as long as he always came back before nighttime, and she wasn't that strict apart from anything involved her cats either, so she's more or less tolerable for him.

Harry sighed while walking down the street of Little Whinging in late afternoon, hands holding a bag full with cans of cat food that Mrs. Figg asked him to brought, eyes darting toward many children of his age… his former friends included, playing, running around the pavement that rarely has any car passing by during this late hour, laughter and chattering sound reach his ears once in a while denoted their happiness during their long break from school, before he caught sight of certain someone…

There, carting trolley selling ice-cream to children and any pedestrians next to the park was the same purple haired girl he bumped into one week earlier. Still wearing the same dress, and the same hairstyle, though to be fair, with her hair barely reached her neck like that, it may be the only hairstyle she could have at all.

Harry knew that he wasn't with Dursley at the moment, and it still at least hour and a half before 6 P.M. that Mrs. Figg demanded him to be back, so he could linger around and talk to her, or perhaps buy himself an ice-cream with some pocket money he had, however, certain aspects of her that he caught a glimpse of during their first encounter scared him, unlike the scared of getting punished by his relatives, it more or less like a human scared of a ghost, scared of an unknown, an incomprehensible things beyond reasons, it was such things.

He was hesitated to walk up to her despite that friendly attitude toward those children crowding around her trolley, asking their parents to pay for the chilling cold sweet dessert to ease the heat of summer, some get what they wanted, some refused, his former friends were included in the small crowd as well. Harry couldn't help but noticed that the parents, even those that denied the sweets from their children, still smiling at the girl in admiration, offered words of encouragement, something that, from his eavesdropping could gather, along the line of "Good girl." "Work hard, keep it up!" Or even some telling their children "Take this as your example of how to use your free time productively."

The last sentence sparks something inside Harry's mind 'Why wouldn't I try to work and earn some money for myself like her?' before he quickly dismissed that thought in a matter of second, his dream of getting free from Dursley came to a crash once he realized that any hard-earned money he'll got from working would likely get snatched away the moment Dursley caught wind of it, particularly Dudley. He had more than enough experience at school, pocket money that aunt Petunia gave him, however small amount it might be, always went into Dudley's pocket during lunch break every single time, the only thing prevented him from starvation at school was that the school itself provided its student with lunch.

He then keep telling himself 'C'mon, it's not that embarrassing to ask her a question or two, especially regarding part time job which anyone could take like that.' confused and deep in thought enough that he didn't notice the sound of wheel rolling across the pavement toward where he stands, until a slightly bratty voice reached his ears.

"Why are you staring at me kid? If you really wanted to eat, then just tell me the flavor and pay it up!" it was the little girl in purple dress he was debating with himself whether to try to speak to her or not! Looking past her shoulder to where she once parked her trolley, he saw that her customers are all gone, licking their ice-cream happily, or just plain get dragged away by their parents, eyeing the trolley with forlorn look.

Seeing Harry's lack of respond, the girl started tapping her foot while repeat her question in annoyance, enough to made him panic and jump a step backward, causing the girl to giggled at his reaction before quickly extended her hand to grabbed him before Harry could fall over due to the cat food can throwing him off-balance.

"T… Thanks…" the boy muttered, a little surprised at the strength she displayed while trying to balance himself on his own feet after she released his hand.

"Gee… that's what I'm expected, like a walking skeleton you are…" She muttered loud enough for him to hear, rising his temper a bit when she reminded him of his conditions, but even those got thrown out of the window once he heard what she spoke in the next sentence. "Still, considered how those you lived with treated you, I'm not surprised."

Harry's eyes widen, looking at the girl straight into her purple orbs as if trying to find something in her mind, something she was thinking, wanted to know how she know what his condition is, however once she opened her mouth again, a rumbling noise from his stomach was heard, causing the girl to shot him a pitiful look before took on a little softer tone while she brought out a bar of chocolate and shoved it right next to him. "Here, it might not keep you fed, but it's better than nothing… no, all my ice-cream are sold out, it's your fault that you don't asked me while I still have them…" She quickly stated when she saw questioning look on his face staring at the ice-cream trolley next to her.

"…" the boy said nothing more while taking a bite from her offer with his only free hand, it might not icy cold like ice-cream, but it still fill up his empty stomach, and it's delicious, he knew that Mrs. Figg never let him starve by denied him some meals like Dursley, but even then, her food wasn't that great either, it just enough to keep him from starving, nothing more nothing less. (Harry suspected that the lack of human food in Mrs. Figg's house was due to the money spent on cat food, like the one next to his feet for example.) So any extra cuisine, no matter how unhealthy it might be to take too many, is like treasure for him. (It's unlikely to cause harm to him from overeating them anyway, considered that he barely has enough to continue living these day.)

The girl stood still by her cart, waiting for the boy to finish patiently. Until the last bite of brown edible sweet ended up in his mouth that she decided to break the silence. "So, you still don't answer my question kid… you don't walk up on me to buy ice-cream because you're too shy? Or…" She glanced at the ragged clothes he wore inquisitively. "Those caretakers not bother to give you a penny to buy it? I guessed that it's the latter, correct?"

Harry took a step back, remembered their earlier conversation before she gave him chocolate and shot back with his own question. "How can you know that I don't have any money? And by you say 'my caretaker treating me' what is that mean?"

The girl leaned on her now empty ice-cream trolley eyeing him as if to ask if he was that stupid before answer honestly. "I followed you to your home three days ago, well, more or less, it's the passing way back to my home, and I heard some swearing from your home, when I get close to the door, I saw that giant pig with mustache in suit threw you into the cupboard… got it?"

Harry slumped back, leaning against the nearest lamppost, nearly dropped cat food cans Mrs. Figg asked him to brought, eyeing the girl with fear that she will saw him as freak like his uncle Vernon was all love to reminded him, however, the girl shot him an annoyed look when she saw his reaction, muttering something that he could heard a few phrase like. "Too much abuses…" before she nearly shout at him. "Hey kid! So you don't have money at all because they didn't give you a penny right?"

The boy nodded, so the girl continued. "Figured as such, why don't you find some part time job during summer break like this? Job may not easy to find, but it's not impossible either kid?"

Harry sighed, glancing at his tattered oversized cloth as if to remind himself of its original owner, he didn't have to answer this kind of questions from a total stranger like her isn't it? But then again, considered that she's the first person in this few years of his miserable life who showed interest in him after Dudley and his gang drove away all his former friends, and that she claimed to be older, something that Harry was thoroughly convinced that it was the truth due to something in her demeanor was that of an adult, that is, if you could saw past that quite bratty bad-mouth of hers, so Dudley couldn't possibly bully her, doesn't he?

Made up his mind, the boy answered. "I wouldn't able to keep that money for myself anyway, aunt Petunia always complained how much my living leaves impacted on their finance…" he trailed off at the latter part of sentence.

Girl's eyes obtained a pitiful look for a split second then steel right back to her headstrong aggressive nature again, however that aggressiveness was directed somewhere else but not him. "I see… you're not that welcomed into their family then… so they made you eat cat food as well?"

Harry looked at the object that brought up such question and shrugged, before quickly correct his own statement. "Yeah er, no, no, this's for pet cats Mrs. Figg have, not for me!"

"Huh?" a quirk eyebrows signifying surprised, the girl glanced back and forth between him and the cat food then asks. "I thought that I heard you said you lived with aunt Petunia wasn't it? Why name changed now kid? Are you hiding something?"

Harry gulped when he saw, or rather, what he think he saw, a dark aura slowly seeping out from the girl threaten to harm him. 'Wait, why did it turn out like this?' a footstep echoed, and he saw that the girl was nearer, so the preventive instinct that drilled into his mind since the first time Dudley started bullying him took over and he yelled. "I'm not! It just that they left me with Mrs. Figg so they all can went to vacation for a month!"

Even seeing his outburst, the girl didn't fazed one bit, she stared at him, arm crossed on her chest, taking pose like a teacher going to scold her student or something along that line. "Learn your manner, kid, you shouldn't shout like that, even you don't believed that I'm older than you!"

Speaking of manner, Harry realized what he just done and apologized the girl, who seems contented to playing with her braids as if trying to cool her head down, or waiting for him to start conversation, seems to be the latter, since finally the boy couldn't help but asked one question lingered in his mind since they first met out. "Why did you have to work at this age? Shouldn't you go to school… er…" he trailed off, trying to corrected himself. "I mean, shouldn't you rest, like everyone during school's summer break?"

Purple eyes shot toward him in an instant, looking as if he just insulted her. "Yeah, the joy of being the youth" She scowled, then "Not everyone has the luxury of having parents or caretakers to help them with the shelter and food kid…"

Harry's emerald orbs widen at the implication. "Y… you're orphaned?" he asked.

The girl, whom he still doesn't know her name, nor she doesn't know him either, blink a few times, hand raised to her chin, deep in thought before answer, slowly and cautiously it would seem to him, but young Harry was, well, too young to noticed that something was off. "In a sense, I lived with my friends of the same age at the time."

"What happened to your parents?" Harry inquired further, but that was quickly cut off when the girl pointed at the setting sun, then at his bag full of cat food "Shouldn't someone awaiting your return? It's not a good idea to let old lady waiting for you at this hour, kid…" She finished with a smirk on her face, a smirk that reminded him of Mrs. Figg's request.

Thus the logical conclusion was he apologized to her again. "Sorry! I've to go now!" and darting off, the same way that he separate from her three days earlier, only this time, the girl didn't quietly follow him, but carted her trolley away from the park, back to her home like normal girl should do.

Lady luck seemed to smiling on Harry Potter for the first time in this summer break, he get back to Mrs. Figg's house in time, all goods she wanted intact thanks to the leader of the bullies in neighborhood, or to be more specific, Dudley didn't around to foil it, so everything in Mrs. Figg's house goes as normal like every time he spent his time with her.

The next day he got a permission to go outdoor playing with children, his friends and do whatever he wanted, provided that he does not leave Little Whinging neighborhood, thanks to her good mood due to him helping her clean her house last evening.

Truth to be told, by this point he doesn't had any friends, no one wanted to play with him, or chat with him, but he didn't wanted to complained about it thought, because at least, he get to be away from those stink that seems to never leave her house no matter how much cleaning agent he used to do it, considered that he has to lived there for a month, not week like usual, this will be a good break…

Slowly breathing in the air of the afternoon summer, Harry looking around taking in the scenery of Little Whinging in summer, dried grass on lawn that lack water, a few children playing football in the park, and the ice-cream seller…

"Yo, seems you're brightening a little, kid… something good happened?" the ice-cream seller, the girl in purple called out the moment she caught sight of him while still busy collecting money from her customers.

Naturally, Harry will wanted to go away from anyone trying to associated themselves with him due to fear that Dudley will make them suffer, or that he thought of himself pessimistically that he's really a freak and shouldn't drags other along for his own selfishness. However, after spoke a few words with her yesterday, he found that he's quite enjoying her company, and it wouldn't hurt for a child that can take care of themselves, isn't it?

So he walked in to take a closer look at what's on her trolley, only for the girl to quickly warn him in a whisper. "No money, No ice-cream kid! Else other will asked it for free just like you if I gave you one."

Harry sighed in resignation, no matter how annoying it was to listen to the petite girl, it was as she said, he doesn't have enough money on his person to buy even one cone for himself at the moment. So he decided to find a small seat next to the park below the tree, near where her trolley was, and sat there watching quietly, waiting to chat with her again.

And he didn't have to wait long either, that day was quite hot, and that mean more people willing to buy ice-cream to ease the heat, so not even half an hour later, the girl wiped her forehead with her fingerless gloved hand, as if to clean it off non-existent sweats (In fact, he didn't even saw her sweat once despite the heat of summer like this.) before carting the now-empty trolley toward him.

"So, kid…" she begins, looking at the questioning emerald orbs shot back at her behind the glasses. "You seem to have questions, and since I just finished my work for today earlier than expected, so what's your problem now? Since you looked a bit more happy than yesterday."

Hesitating for a moment, Harry looked into the amethyst orbs, as if the child of his age could determine whether the girl would willing to listen, trustworthy or not, but that don't last long, as expected from 'normal' 8 years old, their tolerance of stress has lower limit than what teen and adult could possibly have, so under scrutiny of the girl which look completely serious, Harry began to weaver, then exploded…

He tell her all, everything about his eight years of miserable life under his caretakers, eight years of putting up with bullies, both from his own cousin or other schoolboys who thought him easy prey due to his skinny, bony feature, no one cared for him…

Surprisingly for Harry, the girl didn't bulge out or interrupted him during his tirades, she may closed her eyes for some moment, but the frown on her face clearly shown that she still listen to him, and once he finally ended his rants, the girls said. "You've been though much more than I thought kid… and I admired that you could made it to this day without breaking down…"

"It's not something I'm proud about…" Harry replies.

"You should kid!" the girl quickly shot back. "Howe many kids out there in this world do you think getting the same treatment as you? It's impossible that you'll be the only one who suffered this!"

Harry eyed her curiously, doesn't have a slightest idea what she's getting at. "What's the point of that statement?"

"How many you think that went insane, turned into young age criminal, feeling inferior to the point that they vent their frustration on other weaker kid?" she stated bluntly, causing him to nearly flinch. "Most kids of your age will not make it through like you."

"Then how can I get away from this? Can you help me more than just talking or listen to my miserable story?" Harry couldn't help but asked her this question.

The girl looked at him a bit sadly, before shook her head. "For now, I cannot do that, I'm not people of this world… and I would appreciated that you would tried to fend for yourself first…"

"Why is that?"

"You see kid, there's an old saying in my land…" the girl chuckled, tilting her head a little as if she was thinking, or deciding something, then she looked right into his eyes "You probably don't understand it if I tell you now…"

"Prove it then…" Harry countered, feeling annoy by this 'I'm better than you' attitude the girl displayed throughout this conversation, his tolerance started to fade that it shown on his face along with his voice that reflected his emotion.

The girl burst out into laugh, not a mocking one, but filled with hints of satisfaction. "Ah, that face, you just reminded me of myself when I'm as young as you are…" she then adopted serious expression, one that shown Harry a wisdom found only in level headed people, like his teacher, but certainly not his uncle Vernon or aunt Petunia. Then the girl suddenly asked him a question "I ask you thus, say… if you need to cross the river, there are no bridges, no ferry and you couldn't swim, what would you do?"

"Ask someone to help" Harry answer simply.

The girl grinned, and then asked further. "Well, supposed that there's one who can help you cross the river, do you think he will available to help you every single time?"

"Er… no…" Harry hesitantly answer, he know it in his guts that it simply impossible.

"And do you think that relying on that person to ferry you, you'll be able to cross the river yourself someday when he cannot help you?" the girl proceeded to pummeled Harry with the next question.

"…"

Seeing the boy gone silent, the girl then told him. "You should try everything by yourself first before asking for help, kid, even if it failed, you still have the experience and knowledge that will help you further in your life and it'll be your examples, your guidance."

"Furthermore, aren't you proud of yourself when you accomplished something on your own?"

The girl's word brings back his memory of the art class he had last year, where he built up a miniature model of motorcycle from scraps of woods and glues without any assistance from his classmate, while everyone else done it in groups, because they afraid of Dudley. His joy and satisfaction of building it by himself still lingered in his mind even when Dudley destroyed it before he could turn it in to his teacher, because at least, his works was still much better than what Dudley and his gang did that day.

And thus naturally, he answered the girl with just single word. "Yes…"

The girl smiled as an approval. "Even you didn't have parents anymore, you still have someone who cared for you kid, particularly your uncle and your aunt, unlike me who don't even remember someone like that during my life..."

"What?" If Harry surprised by the fact that she told him something absurd like that, it was overridden by the latter part of her sentence. "You don't have parents? Wait, who raised you then?"

The girl's expression looked forlorn for a moment, eye staring in the distance as if she was watching many kids playing inside the park, before answered. "My old teacher raised me…"

"And now?"

"We get separated, my teacher has his jobs to do, while I also has my own goals to achieves, our goal aren't mutual, I go to pursue my dream, he went to pursue his… That's before me and my friends…" She paused a few seconds, before continues "…got lost here… and tried our hardest to make a living while finding way back to where we are going…"

Harry doesn't know what to think about her right now, on one hand she seems childish like berating him whenever the opportunity present itself, but other hand, she was also far more mature and responsible than people of her age should have.

For example, he couldn't imagine himself survived in such situation she was in at all. Even a thought of finding a job to earn a living by himself like that seems to be a goal out of reach for him, however the girl was able to pushed through alongside her so called 'friends' which implied that they all are at around same age as well.

He suddenly found some respect in her…

"I…" Harry called out to the girl before pausing for a second, gaining her attention. "…I thank you, for listening to me where there's no one do… even when you already has your own problem to deal with, you still listen to me…"

The girl stared at him as if he just spoke something strange and alien with wide eyes, before she started giggling, hand cover her mouth and tried her hardest to speaks back without letting herself laugh. "Pff… you're really interesting kid… one minute ago you looked like I just killed your precious goldfish, and now…" she couldn't hold it at this point and thus a full blown laughter was follow.

Strange that this laugh didn't upset Harry in the slightest, in truth he felt like he should laugh alongside her, like brother and sister sharing joke with each other… wait, where was that line came from?

From that day, Harry came to meet her every time he was allowed to get out from Mrs. Figg's home, which is rather unavoidable, considered that she always in the same purple dress cart the same trolley selling ice-cream around the same place at the park where his favorite swings is located, and it can't help that the girl also seems able to identified him at first glance as well, oversized clothes and broken spectacles seems to be the one to take the blame.

However, even she greeted him, the only time they could talk was after her ice-cream depleted, they talking about each other's life in more details, asking her for advises, exchanging stories of his adventure (around No.4 Pivet Drive, well, what can you expected from him, who mostly never went out of this place for 8 years?) like his exploits to get back at Dudley without them knowing who the culprit was. And listened to her comment on his action, both good and bad, but to be fair, it fall toward the 'bad' more, especially when she explained how she could've done it better with the same resources he had at his disposal at that moment.

On her side of stories, however, Harry could feel that the girl seems to maintain air of aloofness and tried her best to tell them in a more cryptic ways that he cannot decipher the underlying truth behind them, and she even warned him not to think so much about the details, because she admitted bluntly that she leave out some 'disturbing details that kid of your age are not prepared or mature enough to know.'

Well, if she's honest about it and the reasons are sounds and plausible like this, he's fine with that too. Nevertheless, her stories are told in a manner much like fairytales for children, something he could enjoyed, truth or not, it still fun to listen and imagine what it was like in his head anyway.

Such as tales of her and her two other friends chased after bandits from the middle of forest to their lair in the underground sewer to get the gem belongs to village chief back (Harry seriously doubt the effectiveness of polices in her hometown for it, but considered that when the patrolling police around Little Whinging saw him getting bullied by Dudley in the park and all they did was simply scolding then release them out, not even once talked to aunt Petunia or uncle Vernon about their son's behavior, he find it surprisingly plausible for such event to happened.).

Or that tales about her and her friend destroyed every single machines and inventions inside one scientist's lab, and accidentally awaken one 'scientist daughter' from slumber, who decided to joined their party not long before three of them get separated from her and ended up here, and that they tried to get back because of promised they made with her.

The only exception to that rule was the reason about why she's selling ice-cream despite first time he saw her, she was selling an equivalent of plush toy, which, after a berating speech of not trying to present her a theory about it first to shown that at least he tried to find answer on his own, she promptly explain in great details involving weather condition that affects people and their likely behavior in consumption, how easy to make the ice-cream provided you know how to do it and know where to find the materials, and lastly about customers habits which he tried his best to remember them all, as much as 8 years old could that is.

Another strange thing was, when she told him her name on one day, specifically the day he remembered that he haven't introduce his name yet and decided to tell her and she exchanged it in turn, he found that he can hardly pronounced it properly due to its origin from foreign language, thus he resort to calling her 'Big sis' or 'Big sister' most of the time instead, something that his 'Big sis' didn't mind that much, she said that it has a nice ring to it, that, and she saw him as her little brother too.

About two week after their first encounter, Harry finally able to meet his big sis's friends, and somehow they're quite nice despite their look, the teenage boy about a foot taller than his big sister with fiery mess of a hair wearing red shirt and black trouser looked as if everything in the air always upset him and thus his face nearly fixed in a scowl to shown his displeasure, only opened his mouth to jabbed at his big sis when the opportunity present itself, which prompt the long-winded lecture as if she was a teacher scolding her student at the teen in turn every time.

Another is a very tall, slender and quite busty tall girl with waist-length light green hair and matching light green eyes in green dress clung quite nicely to her body leaving so little to imagination, along with a dangerously short white skirt and knee-height white boots, Harry found himself blushing bright red before his big sis noticed that, then turned toward said girl and insisted that she wear an oversized jacket she brought with by practically shoved it up her face, something that the girl reluctantly agreed after she noticed about dozens pairs of eyes staring at her from adult to children.

Her attractive natural beauty aside, or that earmuffs she always wore (He still not understand how she could hear anything with that cover her ears?), the girl turned out to be a little shy and polite, well, there's a limitation however, if what he saw during one argument between big sis and the teenage boy was any indication, the girl stopped the escalating standoff by just putting up the scariest smile he ever seen and amplified it tenfold with the most devilish voice he ever heard! Needless to say, big sis and her friend stopped immediately…

Although those two were friends of the ice-cream girl and struggling together to get back to their home, they didn't showed up around Little Whinging much, maybe two or three times if he bothered to counted, which his big sister explained that they couldn't 'blend in' with the crowd as good as her, and the boy's temper means that he's not the best choice for working on such a job, except maybe mercenary or mafia (At this point big sis was giggling as well as him imagine her friend dressed in black suit with shade cover his eyes like those mafia in the movies he peeked when the Dursley are too busy watching it to noticed him.). Meanwhile the girl was too meek and kind-heart, thus gave the ice-cream for sell to children for free the moment one asked her with puppy-dog eyes, and big sis has such a hard time convincing her that she has to charge fee for selling ice-cream else they themselves won't have anything to eat, and even then, she still selling them on a reduced price that barely a penny more expensive than break even point with the capital cost used for making them in the first place!

And thus Harry had learned another lesson from his big sis, everyone has their flaws, and nobody is perfect… But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to become one. Along with countless knowledge she shared with him subtly via 'tales' she told, which he'll never know its importance nor if it was true or not until years upon years later…

However, the happiness of his eighth (or rather, seventh, considered that he was one year old when he was dumped here with Dursley) summer break come to an end too fast for his taste, just three days before Dursley's return was the final day that he met his big sister…

She was still there, at the same park, same lamppost, same time in the afternoon when he was able to get out of Mrs. Figg's house every day, but did not carting her ice-cream trolley anymore, once he get close enough, she greeted him and offer him a bar of chocolate, much like the first time they actually had real conversations with each other, and while he was munching last piece of it, big sister spoke with a slightly sad voice.

"I'm sorry Harry, but this may be the last time we meet…"

The boy gulped his chocolate in one go, nearly choke because of it, before quickly demanded. "What do you mean by that Big sis? Aren't you going to sell ice-cream around here anymore?"

Big sis shook her head before replies. "No, we've just… get enough to go back to where we came from already, and we couldn't wait for longer…"

Harry feel like world crashing down around him, his only friends and only sister figure he came to known in the last three week going to leave him, he slumped back at the lamppost, muttered weakly as if the all the strength has left him. "Why?"

Seeing his reaction, big sister frowned, expression turned into that annoyance he knew all too well in a matter of second, before started yelling at him. "What's that reaction? It's not like we're going to die, just go back home! Home! Do you know how much meaning it had to us?"

Yes, why wouldn't he know that, but then again, the only place he called 'home' wasn't what he always dreamt of, it full of tortures, bullies, abuses, everything that made his life a living hell, proof etched onto his lean, skinny body all over the place still presents, and it won't go away soon to keep reminding him of that facts even now.

And when big sis told him she is going home, it made him feel a bit jealous…

Big sis seems to noticed the turmoil building up inside his mind, well, more like she saw jealousy, rage, and despair, all mixed up to created such a sad expression on his face, she slowly walked toward him, and before he could do anything, she hugged him, hands rubbing his messy black hair while talking to him. "Kid, remembered the stories I told you those days? The one that I said I made a promise?"

Harry looked up at her and only seeing seriousness in those purple eyes of hers, he nodded, prompted her to continue. "… We, people at my home, all have a code of honor they vowed to follow no matter what it takes, I told you that right?" He nodded again. "I have my own as well, and that I'll never break away from responsibility and never stopped until I get back what I've lost long time ago…"

Her eyes seem unfocused for a moment, before spoke to him softly. "Everyone has their oath to keep, goal to reach, and breaking those oath and backing away means that even they do not have enough courage and determination to go through with what they've sworn to do… then, tell me… how can one able to success in life if he keep backing away from things like that?"

Harry couldn't find answer to that and thus keep silent. Still do not wanted his first big sister figure to go away, causing the girl to sigh. "Hey, don't look at me with that face, like I told you before I'm not going to die just yet! And truth to be told, to me, you're more or less likes little brother that I never had… and I'm happy that you thought of me like your big sis too…"

"Couldn't you take me with you?" Harry asked, his emerald eyes filled with hope that she will accept.

The girl shifted uncomfortably, eyes flickered with hesitation, then steeled herself and told him sadly. "I cannot, where I and my friends are going is currently in turmoil from the battle fought not long ago, fire of war is extinguished, but not completely, my home still in danger…" She then locked eyes with Harry "Even your life here is bad, but it didn't have anything to do with people dying left and right, forests and towns burned to cinder, great flying fortress of war looming over the sky raining destructions on the land below should your home happened to fly the wrong flag… monster and wildlife everywhere ready to tear the defenseless into their meals."

She took a deep breathe, relieving her memories of what happened back in her homeland, before continues with serious expression. "Bringing you would only cause worry. You're still too young to see the horror of such place, not only you will die if I or my friends to left you alone, but you'll drag countless innocents to hell with you for the sake of your safety as well!"

Harry still shot back defiantly. "And those who was born there…"

"…have witnessed the cruelty of life and death since their birth thus having enough experience to fend for themselves to an extent, unlike you… who, to this day the only worst situation you got in was with your cousin that cannot do more harm than what they already did, which is useless in the face of what await you there!" Big sister countered harshly. Utterly annihilate his argument without a chance or options to objects her points.

Slowly breathing to calm herself down, big sis released the boy from hug, before gripping both hands on his shoulders, squeezing them forcing him to looks right at her serious face and told him something unexpected. "I envy you Harry…"

"Huh?" Harry surprised by her claim that he didn't know how to response but wait for her to finish.

"You have a chance of normal life, go to school, making friends, playing during weekend, even they don't stayed with you for long…" She laughed bitterly. "For me, I started travelling the land when I'm just about your age, getting into conflict, battling bandits and wildlife, then lost everything I've earned through one silly mistake and try to get it back, meeting with my friends, and here I am… away from home, leaving one of our friend behind to fend for herself, and I've to thrown myself and my friends back into the frays to help her yet again…"

Harry suddenly felt that he lost all the eagerness to escape from the life of No.4 Pivet drives after hearing those from his big sister, but it replaced by worries and the feeling that he didn't wanted his big sister to go and risk her life at her homeland again so he pledged to her to stay. But the girl refused him by repeat the parts about her friend who gets stuck there by herself, and that she has a goal to accomplish there, while also promised him that if everything at her home land is settled, she will be back.

The sun is setting, and big sister decided that she couldn't linger there any longer because her friends are waiting, so she wished him farewell. "Be strong, Harry Potter, I know your life is harsh and full of miseries, yet if you can overcome them, you'll be far more ready to face the true cruelty of the real world waiting up ahead…" Then, she whispered to him one last time, "Goodbye, my little brother…" before letting go of his shoulders and slowly walk away.

"Farewell too, Big Sis…" Harry couldn't bring himself to call her true name due to tears that welled up in his eyes, feared that if he did so and he'll never see her again, while watching his only friend, only big sister figure he ever had for the first time in 7 years, walked away and disappeared from view with the orange setting sun on the background.

Author's Note:

Well this fanfiction is something that suddenly stuck in my head when I'm browsing through the endless waves of fanfictions, both good and bad, and thought "why shouldn't I write one of my own?"

I know that I've one unfinished fanfiction out there, but I'm currently out of inspiration for that one (well, it's more like too much holes in the plot that I needed to patch up in a plusible ways that will not punch another holes in the story.), and this one just stuck in my head and won't go away until I start writing it.

By the way, this fanfiction, from what I've planned, should belongs to "Crossover" Section. However, since the details of the Crossover are so vague, no name given, reference scarcely mentioned, and from what the "Big Sister" herself telling Harry "may or may not a tweaked version of what really happened." and I have yet to tell readers what the story this will Crossover with, so I decided to placed it here for the guessing game that may or may not ensue.

For the reference, if someone accidentally figured out what story this 'Big sister' came from, and told me that I written it to be 'too dark', I've to say that if you dropped all those cuteness in the show (or the game? or the book? I won't give you any hint more than what already in this chapter, He... He... He...), then you'll find that what's going on in the story is quite... 'Not for kid' content, or rather, could be interpreted in this way.

PS. I've only original 7 HP books, but truth to be told, I still confused about how they classified it as 'for kid' when the later books (specifically, from 5 onward) are quite... er... adult theme... to say the least...

PS.2 Well, When I looked at this fiction again, this can also be a one-shot fiction as well. or I may be too optimistic...