Stars that tame the seas
By Bungie
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you see is familiar. All one piece work is from the creator of one piece of all Harry Potter work is from Rowling. I own only my characters and the mashing together of two very different worlds in this particular fanfic.
Warning: This was inspired by the beautifully written Comet Wish fanfiction, of which I am an avid follower and fan. If you see any elements that are similar, it's just that: similar. I have not copied anything from that work, besides I respect the author too much.
Summary: "My dream?...It's interesting, really. I've lived most of my life saving people and just surviving while at it." She sighed, running her hands through her hair. "I'm tired of being the Hero. Now…I just want to be free. I want adventure and I want to see things that most people don't even try to imagine. My dream is to live Luffy." Fem-Harry/Luffy
Chapter One
Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where –"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go."
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Alstroemeria.
The Peruvian Lily.
The Lily of the Incas and a symbol of both friendship and devotion.
That's what her parents had named her, a complete mouthful when put in full context: Alstroemeria Dariyah Potter.
She'd be the first to admit that she wasn't exactly a…fan of her name. Like her cousin Tonks, who would rather fight you then let you call her Nymphadora, she had a bit of a reaction when someone used that named.
She preferred her nickname of sorts; Astro. It was a bit of a joke from her Godfather, a connection to him and the way his family were named for stars and constellations. He was the closest thing she had ever had to a father, after all.
It didn't help that the entire wizarding world seemed keen on using that name more then she did herself. It was all over the newspapers, being yelled when she walked down the alley's, and the first thing she saw in the morning when the owls would arrive with 'fan mail'.
But above all…she hated her name because of what he turned it into back then.
But none of that mattered right now. Not in this moment.
Her hands gripped the cool metal tightly; the thin railing the only thing keeping her from making one of the biggest decisions of her life, and that was saying something considering her life. The swirling pool before her, no bigger than the tub she remembered in the prefect's bathroom, glowed and cast it's constantly shifting light across her face. She tried to ignore the goblin who had brought her here, ignore its sneering face and curious eyes, as she contemplated what she was about to do.
Astro could admit she had never been a normal girl. She had known that fact the moment she had 'darkened' her aunt's doorstep, Merlin knew the woman never let her forget it. She had been magical from birth and even then, amongst other magicals, she had been different. The Dark Lord had marked her, singled her out to be someone of exception before she formulated her first full sentence.
Parents murdered when she was just a few months past a year old, a secondary family who despised her on principle, and an entire hidden world that was nursed on false stories of her and couldn't decide whether or not she was a hero or a villain.
But now…now she just couldn't take it anymore.
She had defeated the Dark Lord-again and finally this time- six months ago. The War, though having been going strong ever since Voldemort's resurrection back at the end of her fourth year, regardless of whether or not the world believed her at the time or not, had reached a level in the last year that could only be described as poisonous. It infected everything, turning loyal friends into traitors and killing those who had expectations of many more years. There was no safe place.
Even now she had nightmares, night sweats full of running through woods and being tortured beneath Malfoy Manor and "Alstroemeria Potter: The Girl Who Lived…Come to die…"
Astro had turned eighteen three months ago, taking up her titles and gaining her inheritances and, yet, she had still found that she was even more chained down than she had ever been before.
She hated being caged.
Her friends…they were moving on. The ones that had survived that is. Neville and Luna would be getting married next spring. Ron…he died in the battle and Hermione, not being able to stand living in England without him, had moved to Australia a few months ago in search of her parents. She hadn't heard from her since. The Weasley family were still grieving, understandably so since they had lost two of their own, and had been locked down in the Burrow for the last few months…refusing to even talk to her. She knew they didn't blame her, knew that they were just using this time to be with their family, but it still hurt. It hurt more than she was willing to put words to.
The wizarding world itself was another story entirely. It was as though the second the Dark Lord ceased to exist, the axis on which the world had spun had moved and everything in its wake was scrambling for balance. It wasn't long before she became an even bigger figure of focused, people looking to her to not just fight a dark lord, but to fix the government, to finish rounding up the runaway death eaters, to do this and to do that. And at the heart of everything it seemed as though nothing had changed, no one was willing to shift his or her mindset. The ministry had gone right back to separating dark and light magic, belittling magical creatures regardless of human minds such as vampires and werewolves, and the shifting prejudices from muggleborns to purebloods was, as far as Astro was concerned, "a horse of a different color is still a horse".
In shorter terms: The magical world was still shit.
She was only one person, one that had been used over and over again, and she was tired. It felt as though she no longer had a place in this world. What place did a battle trained witch have in a relatively peaceful world that was so obviously cycling back into the exact war she had fought so hard to finish?
Which brought her to her current position.
The Goblins, having forgiven her for the whole 'Gringott's Break-in' and owing her after she returned the sword of Gryffindor, offered her an opportunity that had only been offered to two other humans: the chance to use the Portam Spei.
Roughly translated it is the Gate of Ambition, a magical artifact recovered by the curse breakers of Gringotts several centuries before from Ancient Egypt. It had been brought down into the Goblin city, an off limits area to humans and located many miles beneath the surface.
Accordingly, those who leap into the mirror are transported to a place where their greatest ambition has the highest chance of being fulfilled.
It wasn't guaranteed however, considering that no one who has jumped in has ever come back to tell if it works or not.
So here she stood, one leap away from leaving everything she knew behind, everything that she could imagine possibly needing in a bottomless pouch strapped to her waist, with the biggest grin she had ever had slowly stretching her face.
"Freedom." She breathed out the word and breathed in the knowledge that if she leapt then everything that happened afterward would be because SHE chose it. There was no one here to put a load of expectations on her to live up to an ideal, to live up to a lie.
"All I want right now, more than anything else, is freedom. Freedom and adventure."
Her hands gripped the rail and she leapt over it, flinging herself into the Gate.