Prompt: Wandering Girls (#914)

House Elf Magic

Or

The Letters From No One

July had crept into the castle walls with it's sweltering heats. The cool stones were barely able to keep the heat at bay.

"How do you find our guest, Harley?" Dumbledore questioned, flipping idly through an issue of Transfiguration Today.

Snape's face contorted into a grimace at the thought of the pretty sixteen-year-old, who he did not trust as far as he could throw.

"She's up to something," he stated with certainty, though he couldn't say why he was so certain. If he was to believe that she and the Potter boy were one and the same, only different ages and genders, then it would have been too easy to see that she was up to something.

But the girl was barely anything like the boy.

Yes, there were times where she did remind him strongly of the boy... her reckless defiance, her impertinence, that temper. Even something about her pale features was vaguely reminiscent of the boy. Though there were times that he would look at her, and he would see more of Lily in those features; perhaps because her features were softer and feminine...

But she was so very different from the boy, and her parents as well.

She could be quiet and withdrawn, as he noted recently. She seemed perfectly content with no company but that of herself and books... so many books...

Perhaps it was that quiet, that made him so suspicious of her (apart of course from her incredible circumstances; though, if she were putting on some act, then she had a great capacity for acting, giving she spent over a week in bed, weeping).

Her quiet was almost too determined, too focused.

And she was so perfectly... civil to him. Respectful even, the very few times that they'd interacted. And Severus almost found himself cursing the fact that she was a Slytherin, because if that were true, than clearly she had picked up a few things from his House while growing up and she wasn't as easy to read as her Gryffindor counterpart (assuming of course that she truly was Potter's counterpart).

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked, raising his azure gaze and looking at the Potions Master closely.

Severus didn't elaborate. Because he simply didn't know what the girl could be up to. But she spent far too much time cooped up in the library. It seemed rather unnatural and he wondered at what kind of universe would turn Potter into something akin to Granger- or rather more like Theodore Nott, as she didn't quite seem to flaunt her knowledge like the bushy-haired nightmare.

Severus would have resolved to keep a closer eye on her, but he had better things to do then spend entire days sitting at a table in the library, watching a sixteen-year-old girl. It was stalkerish and seemed more than a little inappropriate. Not to mention, was exceedingly boring. He didn't think there was anything more boring than watching someone else read for hours on end, though he was curious about just what the girl was reading.

Dumbledore sighed. "I must admit, from all I've seen, that Harley is a bit more difficult to handle than Harry. I suppose it can only be expected, as she was raised by Sirius, though I'm surprised Remus did not have a more gentling effect on her."

Severus grimaced at that. He didn't care for either man, nor any universe in which they were left as the guardians of Lily's offspring. It was one of the things that made Severus doubt the veracity of the girl's so called memories. Because how could a child raised by Lupin and that dog, become a Slytherin? And why did she not behave as if she were raised by wolves (which she nearly literally was raised by)?

Though, he wasn't surprised that Black would exert greater influence over a child. Lupin had always been spineless, he thought with his utmost contempt.

But considering her circumstance, she was behaving much better than he would expect of any Potter in any universe.

X

Harley spent a lot of time at night, laying in bed, thinking. Wondering what to do about Harry Potter, knowing the right thing to do would be to, at the very least, check up on the young boy. But being a Slytherin meant that she didn't simply rush to do the right thing... usually choosing to do what was reasonable and best for herself first.

Unfortunately, that reckless and defiant streak that Sirius had always nurtured in her, demanded that she do just that, against Dumbledore and Snape's directives. And it was more than a little tempting; her curiosity was simply too great.

And so she decided that she would try to find Harry, to at least make sure he was in good hands. But first, she needed to figure out how to find him, and when would be her best moment to make a move.

Establishing a routine was essential. Snape couldn't be trailing after her... he had to at least reasonably assume where she would be at all hours and feel that she would not deviate from that routine. And by spending a lot of time in the library, she could study charms, trying her best to find some kind of locator spell, because to ask where Harry lived, would simply raise alarm.

Of course, she could always break into McGonagall's office and try to find the address for students. But that would give her away, if she were caught and she simply didn't want to run that risk if it was unnecessary.

Unfortunately, in weeks, the closest she'd come to finding anything useful was scrying, and a more accurate variation, which required blood. But all attempts had been unsuccessful, almost as if something were keeping Harry hidden... much as Hogwarts was unplottable.

Harley was becoming quite frustrated, until she came into contact with a House Elf, and then a world of possibilities lay open before her. And she didn't think she'd have to worry about doing underage magic (though she doubted she had the trace in this reality), or trying to pin point Harry.

All she had to do, was test her theory. And if it didn't work, then she would simply slip back into the castle and return to her research before making another attempt.

With a week to go before her birthday, she decided that after lunch, she would make a trip to Hogsmeade, not wanting to try anything within the castle walls.

After eating lunch, instead of making her way back to the library, Harley made her way through the corridors, careful to not draw attention to herself. It wan't long until she stood before the statue of the one-eyed witch.

"Dissendium," Harley whispered, hoping that the passage that her godfather had told her about, was the same as the one in her own world.

She smiled with relief when she noticed the statue move and quickly crept into the tunnel.

Once inside, she changed into her animagus form (which she'd only finally managed during the winter holidays during her sixth yea).

She felt better slinking around passages in her animagus form and since she didn't have the invisibility cloak, it was much easier getting around unseen due to the small size of her her animal form.

On four paws, her slender figure slinked through the dark at a cantering pace. It wasn't long before she was coming out the other end of the long tunnel, in Honeyduke's cellar. Climbing the stairs quickly, she pushed through the door, which was luckily not fully shut and streaked out into the little shop, mindful of not getting her fluffy tail caught in the shutting door.

Quickly casting a look about herself, she returned to her normal form and snuck leisurely out the shop and into Hogsmeade's main street.

As Harley walked around the wizarding village, her eyes taking in all the shops and seeing that nothing was different about the village, she soon sidled into an alley.

Casting a quick look around herself, she crossed her fingers, hoping that she wasn't completely off about the limits of House Elf magic.

"Kreacher? Come," Harley called in questioning commands. Her eyes widened when with a crack, the old elf appeared before her, looking both suspicious and bewildered. "Oh Kreacher!" Harley said with a pitying look as she saw the state of the old House Elf.

"Why does the half-breed call to Keacher? And why does Kreacher answer like to mistress?" the old House elf muttered to itself after taking a sniff and turning his nose in disgust: he proceeded to stare at Harley with it's large, and somewhat misty eyes, both bewildered, disgusted and perhaps... relieved.

Harley frowned. In her own world, sometimes Kreacher slipped up and called her 'half-breed mistress' (much to Sirius' displeasure), but he didn't quite mutter to himself in this fashion.

And then she recalled... with Sirius in Azkaban and his parents presumably as dead as they'd ever been in her own world... that Kreacher might have been living alone in Grimmauld, all this time.

She couldn't fathom how maddening that might be, considering what Grimmauld might be like. The dark House... there had been nothing either Sirius or Remus could do about removing those awful, screaming paintings... or the heads of House-elves that lined the stairs.

However, Harley didn't have time to ponder that, or why Kreacher must answer to her, though he did not know her. Nor did she allow herself to linger on pity for the Elf who'd earned her affection in spite of the insults he couldn't help addressing her with.

House Elf magic was very mysterious, and Harley was not going to look a gift Griffin in the mouth... or however that saying went. And in a way, it was comforting to know that Kreacher felt a compulsion to respond to her, because she knew then, that she could earn his affection and loyalty... and that she truly wouldn't be alone in this world.

"Kreacher, I need you to take me me to the," Harley hesitated before going on, wondering how to phrase the request. "To the home of a woman named Petunia Dursley. But no one must see us. Can you do that?"

Kreacher didn't respond, merely choosing to scowl up at her before reaching a long, gnarled hand towards her, taking her tiny wrist in his hand, and then they were gone with a pop.

X

Severus was furious as he marched his way from the library to the second floor.

He swore, every swear in his head until he finally reached the Gargoyle, only growing angrier by the second as he raced up the spiraling staircase.

"She's gone!" he cried as he burst into the room.

Dumbledore looked up, his face turning form puzzled to weary. "Do you mean Harley?"

"Of course I mean the bloody girl! She's missing! She's not in the library nor any of her usual haunts, I've searched everywhere!"

Dumbledore didn't say anything. Instead the old wizard chose to stand, calling to the House Elf Wispy and ordering her and all the House-elves to conduct a thorough search of the castle and the grounds for Harley.

In the minutes that it took the hundreds of Hogwarts House Elves to search the entirety of Hogwarts and it's grounds, Severus continued to stew.

He knew the girl was gone. This had been what the bloody girl had been up to. And surely, a protege of that imbecile Black and his partner, Lupin, she knew many ways out of the castle.

But where the hell could she have gone? Surely she wasn't so stupid as to go looking for Black in Azkaban, though perhaps she'd gone in search of the werewolf. Or perhaps...

"Wes cannot find the girl," Wispy reported, popping in while twisting her ear in disappointment that they'd been unable to complete the task. "She't not being anywheres in the castle, or grounds."

"Thank you Wispy, that will be all."

"See," Severus hissed through his teeth.

"Where do you think she's gone?" Dumbledore asked wearily, falling into the seat behind his desk. And Severus felt a strange desire to throttle the at times, too passive man. Severus found himself wondering if with his age, if Dumbledore was starting to entropy in the comfort of his Headmaster's seat.

"I couldn't begin to fathom. But the only things she's shown interest is in the two mutts... and Potter," Severus responded with venom, hoping that the girl was not up to anything more nefarious... but what would have been the point? She hadn't learned anything of any use for Voldemort, if she were an agent of his will, could she?

Dumbledore shook his head. "It would be impossible to find Harry."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Snape spat in ill temper.

"Check her parents burial site. If she's not there... perhaps the Longbottoms, she seemed to be connected to them. But search Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley first," Dumbledore directed as he got to his feet.

"What are you going to do?" Severus called, not delighting in paying a visit to any of the suggested places. But wherever Dumbledore planned to go, he did not say as he suddenly took off with Fawkes.

"Bloody typical," Severus muttered, turning on his heel. He had places to search after all, no matter how annoyed he was.

TBC...

Letters From No One- Write about someone receiving a letter. Alternatively, write about someone running away.

A/n: Remember to review. Reviews are what make me feel guilty about not updating a story, and therefore help to keep me motivated.