Notes: Title from Different by Acceptance. This fic is the result of me deciding that I really wanted Stiles and Allison to have become good friends. And bond over Harry Potter. Then Umbralillium and I talked about why Stiles wouldn't have read HP and this was the result. I posted this on AO3 awhile ago and then realized that I had forgotten to post it here too.
Spoilers: Through the end of 3B for Teen Wolf.
It wasn't that Stiles had never wanted to read Harry Potter. He had. When the books had first come out and he had realized what it was about, he'd been so damn excited; he'd practically been bouncing off the walls. He and his mom had been in the middle of reading another book series at the time though so they had decided to finish that one and then start Harry Potter. It had been their thing, reading together, and it was how Stiles had gotten through so many books at such a young age. His mom had used books and comics to teach him how to read and they'd just kept going once he knew how. Once she'd gotten sick, Stiles had eventually started to take over for her turns to read more and more until it was just Stiles reading out loud. Despite how bad she seemed to be getting they had made a list of books they wanted to read together and then they would cross them off as they finished them.
His mom had died during the book right before Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Stiles had never been able to bring himself to read the books. He hadn't needed to worry about getting spoiled about them because he really only hung out with Scott and as smart as Scott was, he wasn't a big reader. He never saw the movies because Stiles was a firm believer in reading a book before seeing the movie and while he knew a few things about it (seriously, even Lydia had been flipping out at the end of book six and while he still didn't know the details, he remembered very clearly how she'd snapped at Casey Rickerson, "I knew that bastard couldn't be trusted and I was right! He killed Dumbledore!"), he hadn't ever been overly curious about them. He knew that people thought they were amazing, he knew that if he'd wanted to, he could have probably used those books as starting point for conversation with Lydia, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. The books still reminded him of his mom and while Stiles could do a lot of things in relation to his mom and their traditions, reading Harry Potter had never been one of them because it was the one that she'd been so excited about. ("Wizards, Stiles, just think of it. I can't wait for you to be introduced to magic." She'd always encouraged his imagination like that.)
Then he'd met Allison Argent.
They weren't very close at first. She was just his best friend's girlfriend for awhile. Shit had gone down though and in between getting locked in the school and Allison finding out that werewolves and hunters were actual real things, he and Allison had somehow become good friends. They started having movie nights, which turned to sleepovers; something that Stiles was pretty sure terrified Scott even as it made him grin. It was at one of those sleepovers that Allison had found out he'd never read Harry Potter. "What house do you think you'd be in? I'm always torn on where I think I'd end up," she'd said, leaning back. "Everyone always says Gryffindor because that's where Harry went but I'm not sure I'd fit there if Hogwarts was real, you know?"
"Not really," Stiles had told her. "I've never read them." He had thought she was going to fall off the couch when he had said that and he hadn't been able to stop the laugh that he let loose at her look of horror.
"But...but Stiles! Who else is going to talk to me about all our friends and debate what houses they should be in?" she had demanded.
"Lydia read the books. Plus, this would give her a chance to judge people and she thinks that's fun."
Allison had simply shaken her head. "No, no, no. Lydia is not my pop culture referencing friend. You are my friend who gets all my dorky jokes and actually acknowledges that you get them. I mean, I know for a fact that Lydia watches Doctor Who but if I yell out Allons-y!, she is not going to laugh and go with me, she will give me that look that says she doesn't get what I'm talking about and please stop because people are staring." Stiles had shrugged because it was true. Lydia wouldn't admit loving a show like Doctor Who because she'd think that it would make her less popular and feared. Stiles, on the other hand, would probably laugh hysterically if Allison shouted that in the middle of a hallway and run after her.
"I was supposed to read the first one with my mom," he had told her, focusing on the small hole in the wall that had been made when he and Scott had been messing around with the golf clubs his mom had bought for his grandpa for his birthday one year. "She died before we could start it though." At that, Allison had reached out and grabbed his hand. She hadn't forced him to talk about it or anything though he'd known the offer was there. Instead, she'd handed over her own copy of the first book one day and told him that if he ever changed his mind, maybe it'd be easier to read someone else's copy. He hadn't bothered to open it, had put it on his bookshelf and left it there until sometime after the kanima incident.
She'd come over the day after she and Scott had broken up and told him that she and her dad were leaving for awhile but she had wanted to come check on him. She hadn't known that Gerard had him and so he had told her that he wasn't going to accept her apology about her grandpa beating him up because it wasn't like she'd been there cheering him on. But he hadn't agreed with her actions towards Erica and Boyd and they'd become good enough friends that she had heard him out on why and he had listened to her explain where her mind had been when she'd gone after them. Once she had left, Stiles had felt like Allison had taken that first step towards moving on (as much as one could move on from their mother committing suicide rather than living as a werewolf) and Stiles had found a bit of closure.
Something had shifted between them with that last talk and Stiles hadn't been able to put his finger on it and he had only been able to think of one way to show her. So he'd texted her one day as it was getting closer to her and her dad coming back to town with, "The Dursleys are douchebags." Allison's reply had simply been a lot of keysmashing and his dad had only smiled and shaken his head when Stiles had stared at his phone and burst out laughing. He'd been on chapter seven when things had started happening with the Darach and the Alpha pack. Thanks to all of that, he'd never been able to pick the book back up. And now Allison was gone and Stiles was still trying desperately to recover from everything the nogitsune had done while trying not to fall apart because someone had to be strong for Scott and Lydia and Stiles only thought it was fair that it be him since he was also sure that it was his fault that Allison was dead.
It hurt to think about how excited Allison had been when he had told her he was about to start the chapter about the sorting. "Yes! Now you'll have the basics on the houses and we can talk about everyone we know and what houses they should be in," she had said, sitting cross-legged on his couch.
It was the last sleepover they had ever had because after that, the darkness from that damn ritual had started taking over and Stiles had been terrified that he would pick up the book and not be able to read it. He was still terrified actually but rather than let it take over, he clutched the book tighter and sat down, much the same way that Allison had on his couch weeks ago.
For a moment, he didn't do anything but stare at the new headstone that had come in only a few days ago. He reached out and traced her name the way he always did with his mom's when he visited her and then he took a deep breath and lifted the book. "I know I had already started it and everything but I thought this time, we could read it together." He paused and then shifted, opening the book to the first chapter and began to read out loud. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive..."