ALL CHARACTERS GENDER BENT, this will go through the Hogwarts series bouncing between Harriet and Gino's POV, it will start off similarly to the books, but will change further on as characters and relationships develop.
Gino Weasley was the only boy in a house of girls, and thus, was generally unafraid of the female sex. Unlike most boys around the age of ten and eleven, the sight of pigtails didn't inspire the desire to tug, and the sight of underwear didn't cause him to flush or titter, though he was cursed to laugh at poop jokes for the rest of his adolescent life. An avid reader, the boy had grown up watching as his sisters grew into powerful witches, and was often thoroughly engrossed in their schoolbooks, and magical fiction, delighting in tales of dragons and heroes, dark Lord's and dementors. His youngest sister, Riley was only a year above him, and the two had a close friendship throughout their childhood, Gino always looking up to the pretty girl, with awe in his eyes. They would run around the garden, play fighting and telling each other stories about Harriet Potter.
The girl who just happened to be the one exception to Gino's normally perfect composure around the opposing gender.
Riley was social, always had been, and, according to the letters sent between the close siblings, she and Harriet had bonded instantly on the train ride to school. For weeks after his sister's return from Hogwarts, all Gino could think about was his idol. He would befriend her, they would adventure as in the books. He expressed these dreams to Riley, who glared at him,
"She's my friend, not yours!" she snapped, "And besides, she wouldn't want to talk to you, anyway." The boy had been struck silent by the sharp words, though he was not unaccustomed to his sister's occasional bouts of malicious anger, such an attack had caught him by surprise, why wouldn't Harriet want to be his friend? He wasn't that much younger, less then a year, really, if you counted by months, and he would love to adventure with the girl, they could fight dragons and snakes and Slytherins… The thought of his idol not wanting anything to do with him bothered him for many weeks throughout the summer, fears plaguing him that he wasn't good enough to have anything to do with Harriet Potter. It turned out to be a self fulfilling prophecy, for when the girl arrived, far prettier then any of his books had shown her, he was so scared of angering her, he became tongue tied.
Riley never said anything about it, but her face often warped into a smirk across the table at dinner, growing into a full blown grin when he accidentally put his elbow into the butter dish when sitting opposite Harriet. The girl in question had noticed and smiled kindly at him, causing his face to heat up to a full blown inferno. He hadn't been able to make eye contact with anyone for hours after. By the end of the holidays, Gino was in despair, he was going to Hogwarts with no friends, for Riley had informed him that at school he had to make his own friends, as she had done, and he wasn't to come bothering her or Harriet.
He sat alone on the train ride to school, trying not to cry as he was whisked away from the safety of home, with no one to watch his back. Reaching into his rucksack, he pulled out a little black journal, feeling immensely grateful to his mother for packing it, and began to scrawl out his sorrows.
He never expected a response.
Thalia Riddle was kind, she wrote nice, nice things to him, things not even Riley had ever bothered to say, and by the time the train stopped, all traces of tears were gone, because Gino had a friend, and she was better then his stupid sister and her not-so-heroic pal. He was sorted into Gryffindor, and sat with his year group, ignoring the fact that neither Riley nor Harriet were at the table, despite the worry deep in his stomach.
Later that evening, the two girls entered the common room, flushed and shamefaced, before being pulled into a hug by a tall boy with curly brown hair, and then berated seconds later by the same figure. Gino tried to hide his scowl at the familiarity Harriet displayed with the boy, thinking about his dreams of adventuring with the Hero. He didn't need her, or anyone, not while he had his diary.
That was at the start of the year.
By half way, he was trapped in the prison of his own mind, lips sealed by what he would like to say was solely the monster possessing him, but was likely also the fear of being expelled, or called the heir of Slytherin. The diary that once offered him solace, was lobbed into the haunted boys bathroom toilet, and all traces of blood and feathers he found on his clothes promptly hidden. His troubles were far from over, though, as Harriet was seen wandering the halls, fiddling with the book. It took a lot of manoeuvring to get into the girls dormitories, yet he wasn't related to the Weasley twins for nothing, and soon the accursed book was back in his hands, and he was back under the monster's spell.
His memory of the year was gone after that point, and it was only months later, that he awoke, with a girl with a bloody hole in her arm sitting beside him, a phoenix flying around the ceiling, and the diary of Thalia Riddle destroyed, on the floor.
"Harriet!" he had gasped, as the girl gazed at him with teary, unfocused eyes, "It was me, I didn't mean to, I-" The girl cut him off,
"It's ok, Gino, don't worry, Riley's down that corridor, there was a rock fall, we-" the girl gasped in pain, her voice croaking, "got separated, she's clearing a path, she'll get you back home safely, don't worry, it's not your fault…" The girl's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed backwards, face deadly pale,
"Harriet!" he cried, he was sobbing uncontrollably, he was only twelve, this wasn't the fairytale ending he had been taught. Then the phoenix flew down, and made everything right with a few pearly tears, painting flesh over the tattered arm, and restoring colour to the dead girl's cheeks.
The hero woke up instantaneously, and caught his hand in her own, an act that would normally get him blushing, but he was so tired and scared, he couldn't even function. She pulled him to his feet and tugged him along with her. Soon they were in Dumbledore's office and all was well. Demon played and victim saved. Harriet the hero. Within weeks he was blushing at the sight of her, all over again.
