This isn't what I imagined...
Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived to Boy-Who-Died knew something was WRONG when he rode the train, after choosing to move on.
He was in a warm, wet place, and being squeezed out of something really tight!
Could not breathe...and GASP!
After what felt like ETERNITY, he could finally breathe...and damn, it feels cold!
But suddenly...he was rapidly losing his memories of his life.
"W-why?!"
Come now, Reincarnating means you start life anew, except you retain some traits of yourself. Came a hissy legion of raspy voices. Try living happy this time, young master.
"Eh? OK...ah, I'm losing memories fast...my life must be terrible if you say so. I'll enjoy my new life then."
He forgot his name, last.
He's not Harry Potter anymore.
xxx
As a baby...she was a baby girl.
Since she was an infant, she can already understand her world.
Understand what people were saying, talking about, etc.
She was named Maomao by the people around her. A name that literally meant 'Kitty Cat' because the word Mao that means 'cat', was repeated twice.
If Harry Potter was English, and Maomao Chinese, translation ensues.
This was her first-ever education.
When she could see, she was raised by three beautiful elder sisters. Joga, Pairin and Meimei.
And one old lady, and a doctor.
Her first education when she was five, was learning about her world, the world of Courtesans in Rokushoukan and who her parents were.
Her mother Fenshen died out of heartbreak and grief, and her father some aristocrat in the Palace who never came to get her and his child. They have no idea who her mother's lover was though...
...and since her mother turned her sisters into the goldmine beauties they are today, they owed her mother thus decided to raise her as their baby sister and doted on her which for some reason, made Maomao very happy. She also enjoyed a full stomach as much as she likes.
Food in all Brothels had to be healthy, all vegetables cooked by boiling, steaming and grilling, no oil as much as possible as all Courtesans must be very strong alcoholics or better yet, damn near immune from getting drunk. Their healthy diet helps them heal. The only time they eat fried food, is if they had to eat with a customer who ordered 'unhealthy' food.
She dreaded eating little or the idea of having no food at all.
She was also a skilled cook, easily making snacks when beginners had trouble holding carrots while peeling.
Past life skills carried on to her present life.
Harry Potter is a skilled homemaker-not by choice, mind you. Cooking. Cleaning. Gardening.
It made his new life as Maomao just as savvy.
She became very literate, very street-smart and wise with how harsh reality was beneath the beauty of Hanamachi as she grew up a Kamuro.
Akin to Harry Potter knowing how cruel his world was at a young age. But where he cannot excel or else, Maomao was free to excel and be praised for it.
However, she fell in love with the art of medicine upon seeing the Pharmacist Ruomen at work that she wanted to become a Pharmacist for her elder sisters, free of charge. Outsiders get charged, of course.
Ironically, for all Harry Potter's skill in the kitchen, he hated Potions because of its teacher, killing his interest in it while Ruomen was a kind but eccentric old man who Maomao admired.
The old hag wasn't happy with losing a potential Courtesan but saw merit in having their own doctor for free someday so she let her go and Ruomen accepted her as his student. However, from the glamorous residence she was used to became a shack in the Back Alley outside the glorious Hanamachi as apprenticeships mean students live with their masters. But still, Maomao racked up a debt. Her education debt she must pay in full as per the rules. Lucky she only knew how to read, write, math and poetry...but while all else is cheap, paper and ink, IS NOT.
Had she started Courtesan Training when she quit, her debt would've been bigger.
She didn't mind, really. She sees it as an adventure in itself, learning the art of medicine-making diligently as she went, with her father taking her to his many jobs.
But he also taught her the art of Deductive Reasoning too that she became adept at but wanted to become better when she was fourteen.
She's also seen many lives hang onto thin threads, and lives waste away.
But for some reason, she touches many herbs and other things needed in medicine, she somehow quickly learns what they are by instinct.
She began experimenting on herself as the test subject.
Her father called her 'Mad Scientist'.
But she never gets a scar from her experiments, thankfully.
She also made wonderful things too that she became immune to most poisons, while growing up a beautiful but petite beauty.
But she saw the dangers considering where she lived.
So she took to 'uglifying' herself by making herself fake freckles on her face, neck and arms.
But when she was 17, in gathering herbs...she found herself kidnapped.
Making herself ugly clearly would not work when money matters.
Thus, when her kidnappers left, Maomao was one with a grudge.
'Those bastards aren't my family.' she griped to the Eunuchs who paid for her. 'My only family is a doctor and my older sisters in Rokushoukan when I used to be a Kamuro there. So my salary should go to my family, not those bums who only want an easy way to have sake money.' the Eunuchs exchanged looks.
So she sent a letter home to Rokushoukan, along with letters from the Eunuchs who were in charge of recruiting.
They could believe her that she was actually from there as she knew who to address, write formally and has a neat handwriting, skilled with the brush her movements were light and heavy in the right strokes. But if the formality was translated, any reader could see this young girl, was pissed and vindictive, wanting to ensure not a single coin, they can milk out of her from now on after selling her and ensuring her 'Contract Money' will go to the people she wanted it to go to.
She had a long talk with a stony face at the Chief of Recruitment Office.
They wondered how many lied about selling their daughters from this point onward.
Considering circumstances, they had to reluctantly let her stay till the end of her Service Term as what's done is done.
And now here she is, given a Uniform, some hair ties and new shoes.
As a Court Lady at the bottom of the hierarchy, her uniform reflected such.
She managed to get promoted a rank, wearing a prettier uniform, a white one with a black skirt through sheer diligence. Her Salary goes to her debt in the Rokushoukan after all.
That was within almost three months, impressing the right people...and showing her full beauty.
She would have had the chance to serve a low-ranking consort with her looks now that she got her 'ugly make-up' off, but she did not want to serve a Consort with good reason out of fear, preferring to just be a neutral Court Lady.
But still, this life sucks.
Cleaning a whole palace, and doing laundry for the consorts and their retinues, IS NOT EASY.
Her feet on the constant move, doing chores, and standing all day. Whole body exhausted to the brink.
That and she feels what she hates most. Getting hungry.
The food available to maids is just soup and cereal porridge. That's it! She had more food with her father and the brothel! At least with her father, she has rice! She fears getting worn out and malnourished, withering in this large flower garden where she was a neglected wildflower, while roses enjoyed attention by gardeners.
She has heard what happens to poor court ladies who damaged expensive silks.
The maidens who comprised a Consort's retinue become so snobby yet they're still just maids, yet they have the authority-slash-pleasure to have a lowly lady whipped for it.
It does not help that most girls from poor or average commoner families, cannot read or write or do maths.
The only few women afforded that luxury, were wealthy girls.
In this world, you gotta be smart...or else.
But even some ladies aren't so smart, if news of Serial Imperial Infant Deaths were so common.
She felt sad for the babies, but their deaths are caused by jealous consorts who weren't...productive or by their own mothers' carelessness for relaxing when there's a snake among the grass.
Traitors who were often mistreated maids or jealous maids.
Her father taught her that when he used to work here.
And now, having three children from high ranked people to die was strange.
Because while there's a damn good reason to kill princes, there's no merit in killing princesses yet the baby girls are also killed.
Which does not make sense.
If its just boys. Its murder.
If even girls are killed, that's when one should suspect more.
Double standard she could agree, but the 'more' came from more circumstances she needs proof. Thus she was listening to gossip as much as possible.
Her favorite source of gossip, little Shaoran. For a girl of age six, from a rural countryside...she would do well in Hanamachi, becoming a favored Kamuro. She's up to date with Palace Intrigue, but had nobody to talk to. Who would take a little girl seriously after all but being an educated Kamuro, Maomao knows the value of intelligent young girls. But really, she's wasted here. Her potential wasted by parents who didn't know other possibilities existed for their daughter. By being a palace maid, she would never have a spotlight shine on her. The most education a Palace Maid can get, is a tour of the palace, what their job was, who's who and proper manners. That, is it!
As a reward for intel, she would often give Shaoran homemade treats, and teaching her words by writing on soil with a stick.
The Emperor is said to eat only healthy meals, having never touched 'popular food' in vogue such as exotic fare. That's after the Poison Tester goes through it first!
The Consorts who have children, were dying by the droves that as of this moment, only Consorts Gyokuyou and Rifa are surviving.
Not for long...so she snooped around for intel.
Until she came to this drama scene in the Courtyard.
She remembered what Shaoran said as this drama before her ensued.
'I don't know the details but, it was said they all gradually got weaker.'
'I believe Rifa-sama's has it worse, seeing how the doctor has been seeing her more often.'
'While I don't know the specifics of the symptoms, of course, I heard there were things like headache, stomach aches, and nausea.'
Its poisoning, Maomao concluded. The method of murder.
There was a scolding woman, a woman who was on the floor in a prone position from being slapped and falling to the side, flustered women, and a man who was acting as the mediator.
Maomao joined the onlookers as the third party, with extremely calm thoughts.
The scolding woman was the inner palace's most influential person. The one looking down was the next powerful. The flustered ones were their maids. And the one who came into mediate was the doctor who was already no longer male. That was what she gleaned from the surrounding whispers.
'It's your doing. Just because you yourself gave birth to a daughter, you wanted to curse the male infant to death, didn't you!'
Her beautiful face that was distorted to something terrifying. Her looks, which was like a demon, and her white skin, which was like a ghost, was Able Consort Rifa who faced the beauty who had her hands drawn towards her cheeks. This was Noble Consort Gyokuyou.
'You know that sort of thing is impossible. Shaorin is also suffering in the same way.'
The woman with red hair and jade eyes replied coldly. Consort Gyokuyou with her western features gazed up towards the doctor's face.
'As you said, I want to see your daughter's condition as well.'
Although the doctor acted as the mediator, the reason for the outburst seemed to be about him.
The doctor had just seen crown prince; it seemed she raised a protest about him not seeing her own daughter.
Maomao didn't understand mothers, but it is a given that male infants came first in the structure of the Inner Palace.
Considering the doctor, she saw he had a face that wanted to say 'unfounded'.
That he didn't notice with the two consorts standing so close to him. No, he didn't even know about it before that?
The death of the infants. Headaches. Stomach aches. Nausea. And Consort Rifa's white skin and unsteady body.
Maomao left the place of discord while muttering and grumbling to herself.
While thinking, 'Where do I get something to write on now? I saw what's wrong unlike that idiot quack.'
Consequently, she took no notice of a passing person.