Chapter 1: The Beginning of it all

Author's Note: Not much to say here, just a few glimpses at their early years, including the first look into the interactions between 'Mary' and Harry. The few meetings there were between those who were able to connect in any way will also be looked into.

And the first two identities are revealed in this chapter~!

Plenty of hints about who the others are in this chapter as well.

Disclaimer: Still own nothing

Read, Enjoy, and Review.

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There were a few unspoken rules on the playground of a certain elementary school in Little Whinging.

Rule 1: Dudley Dursley will beat you up if you have something he wants.

Rule 2: Dudley Dursley will beat you up if you try to make friends with his cousin, Harry Potter.

Rule 3: Mary Prewitt is the true ruler of the playground and can disregard any of the rules she feels like.

Rule 4: Mary Prewitt will wreck you if you lay a hand on anything she decides is her possession.

Rule 5: Mary Prewitt doesn't get back, she gets even.

It was those rules that proved that Mary ruled the playground in theory, but the fact that she once beat up Dudley was what truly cemented her position as top dog. The teachers were mostly ambivalent with the girl as they never caught her causing too much trouble and she was average in class, but they heard rumours and so made sure to pay attention for any major trouble making. But there was another reason why Dudley hated the girl, and that was because she had befriended his cousin despite his attempts to push them apart. This lead to Mary being the first friend that Harry would make, and that secured her a special place in his heart as the first person who ever really gave a damn about him.

A major change occurred in the beginning of their last year of primary school when a new student was introduced to the class. It was obvious that the dynamic had shifted as soon as the others noticed the girl, but only one person truly understood what had changed. At first, many thought she was simply a cheerful girl whose smile and pleasant demeanour just didn't seem to fade, but over the course of the morning, her smile started to scare people like she was a predator on the prowl.

It was recess when Dudley Dursley realised just how far out of his control things had become, the moment he realized it was when he saw the new girl approach the scarlet crowned ruler of the playground. At that moment the playground stopped, the noise level dropped to a low rumble as friends whispered to each other and all eyes were glued to the scene in progress. Dudley was frozen, hoping that the girl would piss off Prewitt the Prat (as he called her) and would get decked for her trouble. His stomach sank like a lead bowling ball when they clasped hands and pulled each other in to a comradely embrace.

Harry Potter had a much better view of the events that transpired as he and Mary had simply been kicking about on the playground, neither of them wanting to do anything particularly taxing on the late summer day. The ashen haired girl, Sally-Ann if his memory served, had approached he and his friend with that same dark smile on her face (he didn't know why people said it looked kind, he thought it was more akin to the look a psycho killer gives their target), stuck out her hand, and introduced herself, "Sally-Ann Perks, nice to meet you."

Mary studied the hand for a moment before a grin broke across her face; she took the proffered hand in her own and shook it, exclaiming, "Mary Prewitt, the pleasure's all yours!"

That garnered a chuckle from Sally-Ann as she let her eyes fall open, the shrewd red irises openly mirthful at the other girl's announcement. Her smile deepened as she jerked her hand slightly, pulling the other girl close to her body and whispered in her ear, "Although I was once known as Karasuba."

"Then consider yourself honoured, Karasuba, for you are in the presence of the Demon Lord of the Six Realms, Oda Nobunaga." The grin that spread across Mary, or rather, Nobunaga's face could only be called shark-like as she pulled away from her fellow in reincarnation and introduced her friend, "And this is my good friend, Harry Potter."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Harry." At this the former Seikirei let her grin deepen further, the cold edge in it hardening and growing sharper. Harry felt the same shiver he had when he met Mary race down his spine, Harry pushed past the feeling and smiled at Sally-Ann. After all, Mary was his friend and if she was so willing to trust the other girl despite her normally suspicious attitude concerning people, he would reach out as well.

It was the start of a surprisingly beautiful friendship.

~}{~

Mandy Brocklehurst let only the slightest bit of a grimace mar her face as she pricked her finger, waiting for the blood to bead on the tip before putting her fingers on either side of it and pulling. As it left her body, her blood turned from a liquid to a solid scarlet thread. Rather than cutting the thread, she let it hang from her finger for a moment before flicking her hand at one of the trees in front of her. To her satisfaction, the tree was missing a chunk out of its side but it wasn't enough in her eyes, not yet. She needed to be stronger; the wish in her heart was something that she would stop at nothing to fulfill.

Mandy had also been preparing other ways, using her pre-existing knowledge of business and the stock market to predict the trends it would undergo and then feeding that knowledge to her parents without them realizing her actions. In a few years time she would begin to make her own overtures, maybe have her parents suffer an accident or die of food poisoning, but until then she would rely on them to build up monetary capital.

Pushing away those thoughts for the moment, she willed the thread back into her finger and idly wondered what she would read through before she laid her head to rest tonight. It wouldn't do for them to be ill prepared and even if she was the only one who had the forethought to study everything she could to get them every leg up in the future, then so be it. The world could burn for all she cared, as long as her wish was granted.

Harry Potter would succeed, even if she had to drag him to victory kicking and screaming.

~}{~

October swirled right on in with flashes of colour, and we find Harry, Nobunaga, and Karasuba hogging the swings at the playground and discussing the assignment they did in class that day. It was Harry who brought it up by asking, "So what did you to write for the whole 'your dream for the future' thing anyway? Because I doubt you actually wrote the truth."

The two female thirds of the trio gave him a blank look before they burst out laughing. Karasuba was the one who answered first, swallowing her mirth with greater easy as she answered, "Wrote I wanted to be a fencing champion, but that's a load right there."

"Heh, I wrote I wanted to be Prime Minister, which is almost true." Nobunaga chuckled out her answer, the wry grin on her face making it obvious that the actual answer was likely going to be something vaguely heinous. Harry hummed at that and then nodded, declaring, "I wrote that I wanted to just get a job as an engineer, figured it sounded harmless enough and wouldn't be treated as exceptional or silly. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon will just say that I'm too much of a freak to get a job as an engineer but it won't look like I'm trying to upstage Dudley."

"What did Lard-o put down anyway?" Nobunaga wondered, going back to her old standby name for the youngest Dursley as she started to swing lightly. Harry and Karasuba shrugged and looked thoughtful for a few moments before the boy hypothesized, "Prolly wrote about how he's going to be a sports star or something."

"In what sport? Because I don't know of any where being fat would help…" Karasuba muttered as she stood up on the seat of the swing, and started to balance there. The other two hummed in acknowledgement and let the scene lapse into silence, the only sound the creaking of the chains connecting the swings to the bar holding them. Harry spoke up after a few minutes of silence, "We got side-tracked."

"We did, didn't we?"

"We definitely did."

"So, what are your actual goals in life, you two?" Harry asked as he slumped against the chains of his swing, his raggedy shirt bunching awkwardly against the metal links. Nobunaga's grin was a greedy slash across her face as she exclaimed, "World conquest! I want to dominate the world and make it a place of peace!"

"Ho… that's quite the goal, especially given people's tendency to rebel against tyrants." Karasuba interjected with a grin, the swing swaying under her body. Harry just shook his head, he had expected as much from what he could remember of conversations of a similar vein that he had in the past with the redhead. It was Nobunaga who took up the reins of the conversation then, leaning back in her swing as she shot back, "Well, what's your dream then? It can't be any worse than mine."

"World destruction. I want to watch as the world burns before me, I want it to crumble into ash while everyone screams out in despair." Karasuba's grin was positively goofy as she finished her proclamation, her eyes twinkling at the thought of such a massacre. Harry sighed and wondered aloud, "How did I end up with two wannabe evil overlords for best friends?"

Karasuba and Nobunaga looked at him blankly for a moment before bursting out laughing, Harry looked at them for a few seconds before joining in.

~}{~

Hannah Abbot grunted as she swung the large practice sword she had hewn from wood with her own hands, sweat starting to drip down her temples as she exercised with the weapon. She had already built up a significant amount of muscle over the years, she was lean and more than capable for her age but she never stopped training. By day she showed her parents the mask of an obedient if slightly taciturn child, but when her parents succumbed to Hypnos for the night she was more than happy to throw herself into training her body.

With calloused hands she carved her way to the she wish so desperately wanted to see, with her own blood and sweat she would become a tsunami to rip through anything in the way of her goals.

She clenched the wooden sword tight enough for it to audibly creak under the strain; she threw herself back into her work.

~}{~

Shirley Fawcett chuckled at the thought of the havoc her actions would wreak. Over the past few years she had created countless crop circles while she practiced and honed her magic, each being ever more complex and each a work of art by itself. The swirling pillars of ice and darkness sputtered out slowly, the cacophony of sound never reaching anyone that would have heard it due to the barrier she had created in order to hide the evidence of her presence.

"Yer really goin all out ain'tcha?" The voice was high but seemed slightly scratchy, but Shirley wasn't surprised in the least when the speaker cackled. The blonde merely snorted, "Of course I am. If I don't train myself, don't push myself further and higher, I'll stagnate and the only fate that awaits the stagnant is to rot."

"Heh, you don't even know how ta rot."

"Not by my own choice."

~}{~

Tracy Davis and Daphne Greengrass high-fived each other as Draco Malfoy started spluttering, his face pink with embarrassment and indignation. Tracy gave the young man a strange cross between a glare and a smirk as she broke him down even harder, her voice disdainfully cheerful as she chirped, "Now why don't you go running to Daddy, Malfoy. After all, it isn't like you can do anything without him."

"I'll have you know that I-!" The boy tried to interject, his voice high in panic. Daphne cut in over him, her smirk sharp while her voice was both taunting and cruel, "You what? Your greatest accomplishment is flying a broom without any help. Your greatest personal 'asset' is the fact that your parents are rich and your father has the minister's ear thanks to his 'donations' to the minister. Your greatest talent… I don't think you have one. You are nothing but an insect that clings to your parents and leeches away at them."

Draco's mouth just flopped uselessly as he tried to rebut the arguments that Daphne had put forth. The girls simply shared a look before leaving the boy to continue his attempts to form a rebuttal, as they left they breathed out a shared sigh and Tracy remarked, "Only a few more months, and then the fireworks will start up."

~}{~

It was the day of Dudley's birthday and Harry hadn't joined them, instead he was at Sally-Ann's house, the three of them taking turns playing video games on Sally-Ann's NES. As the trio took turns stomping around the universe as Godzilla or Mothra, memories of a conversation bubbled up in Nobunaga's mind while she guided Godzilla in beating away at Hedorah and she asked, "Harry, you remember that assignment we had about our goals for the future?"

"Hmm? Yeah, that was the day I found out that you two were going to grow up and become either criminals or Evil Overlords." Harry answered as he watched the redhead lead the King of Monsters in shoving a can of whoop-ass down the metaphorical throat of the smog monster. Karasuba chuckled as he mentioned that but otherwise didn't join in on the conversation. Nobunaga hummed before she asked, "So, what is your goal in life? You know our goals, so it's only fair."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Harry murmured as he leant against the base of the couch, with Karasuba sprawled against one of the sofa's arms to his right while Nobunaga was leaning forward in order to focus on the screen as she flanked Harry's left. The boy flushed in embarrassment and looked down before he answered, "My goal in life is to make good friends, have a family, and a place to really call home."

Both of the girls nearly laughed, but held back their mirth, they knew about Harry's home life. They knew that he wasn't happy there and that he wasn't treated well by the Dursleys, so it made sense to them that he would want somewhere that could be his home rather than the Dursleys. Instead, Nobunaga just nudged his shoulder with her foot and muttered, "Well, you're a third of the way there. You got me and the Crow here… we are your friends, right?"

"Wha-? Of course you guys are! My best friends!" Harry sputtered as he tried to reassure his friend. It was Karasuba's snort that stopped him short, the girl's shoulders shaking with repressed mirth as she interrupted her friend, "Mom and Dad would try and convince you that you are two thirds of the way to your goal. They think you guys are pretty much their second and third children."

"You're kidding?" Nobunaga asked as she watched Godzilla fall down a pit, clicking her tongue as she passed the controller to Karasuba. The dull haired girl hummed in acknowledgment as she started putting the King of Monsters through his paces under her ministrations, responding, "Not a bit."

~}{~

"Well, let's see how they react to their invitations."

~}{~

It was with great confusion that Harry studied the parchment letter that had been delivered to him. Deciding it would be better to keep it from his relatives, he hid it in the waist of his pants before delivering the mail to his uncle. After grabbing a slice of toast, with an approving nod from Petunia, he slid into his sneakers and dashed out the door. He had to tell Sally-Ann and Mary.

~}{~

Shirley eyed the letter in her hands as she passed it to her parents, ignoring the stifled chuckling coming from what seemed to be the doll to her left, and murmured bemusedly, "How interesting."

~}{~

Tracey watched as her parents studied her, their eyes judging the small smirk she seemed to wear constantly before nodding. The girl's smile seemed to deepen as they nodded, "Of course you will attend Hogwarts."

She nodded, "Of course."

~}{~

Nobunaga whistled as she read the letter that had been sent to her, before handing it over to the matron. The matron seemed rather sceptical before she shrugged, Nobunaga shrugged in kind before she asked, "Mind if I head over to Sally-Ann's?"

The Matron chuckled as she made a dismissing motion with her hand, "No, no, go on and see what your friend has to say."

~}{~

Hannah let the frown that she had been repressing since she got the letter pull at her brow and deepen, it would seem that this was what she was waiting for. She nodded to herself and steeled her resolve.

Her mission started now.

~}{~

As her parents frowned and hummed over the letter, Mandy let her mind whirl with the possibilities of what was likely to happen. She had been getting ready to push her machinations to a higher level, but this would likely push those plans back… and there was a chance that it would boost her overall mission tenfold. Her mind resolved, she spoke, "I think we should get in contact with them."

~}{~

The Former Black Seikirei cocked an eyebrow as she read through the letter before handing it off to her equally bemused parents. She heard a knock at the door and, seeing that her parents were busy, went to answer it. She pulled the door open and greeted her friends, "Yo, what's up?"

Her smile grew as she saw the letters in their rising hands, and exclaimed, "You guys got one as well! Interesting…"

~}{~

The elder Greengrasses kept the proud expressions off their faces as their eldest daughter read through her Hogwarts letter, her expression dispassionate and as cold as ice. She nodded to herself before looking to her parents, "I will attend Hogwarts."

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"Well then, it's showtime!"