I am listening: Breaking The Habit by Linkin Park

"Survival of the Most Scarred"

Chapter 3

I do not, nor have I ever, owned Harry Potter.

…

I don't know what's worth fighting for, or why I have to scream.

She had been called many things. Hauntingly beautiful, evil, scum, heartless, barking mad, dangerous, clever, cunning, but never, never had she been called Auntie Fari.

Her eye twitched as she stared at the cheeky Metamorphmagus. She couldn't decide if she should have been mad or amused at the 17 year old before her. Even more so, she couldn't decide if she should let the young woman inside her home, a manor which had been in her family for over 300 years, or hex her for the ridiculous name she had just been named.

"Why are you here, Tonks?" she questioned. She felt an oncoming headache approach as she eyed the girl's vivid hair.

"I'm an Auror!" the young woman exclaimed.

Safari's smirk slid off her face. "I see. And are you here to question me?" the vivid child nodded her head. "Come in."

…

The rest of the month went swimmingly for Harry. Even better was that when someone mentioned on Harry returning to the Dursleys', Safari had flat out refused. Tas had then taunted Safari for being overprotective. Safari then hexed Tas.

One morning Safari came to Harry's room.

"Harry, you should start packing. We leave in an hour." She had told. Harry looked up at her, confused. After all it was only August 24th.

"I'm a teacher's assistant. Well actually I go to all of the houses and check the children for signs of abuse, but that's not the point. Pack." Safari quickly left the room afterwards, looking less that thrilled. After her, Sophie came in and watched Harry pack silently.

"Do you ever miss your parents?" Sophie asked so suddenly that Harry jerked up in surprise, hitting the top of his bed, which he was under trying to reach one of his books.

"I don't really remember them, so it's hard for me to miss them." Harry answered when he resurfaced.

"I never knew my dad. He got arrested and went to Azkaban before I was born." Sophie didn't look at him with pity, or sadness, just understanding and acceptance, something that no one had looked at him with before.

"I'm sure he would have liked you." Was what Harry responded with, as he tried to stuff his books into his trunk.

Sophie shrugged her shoulders vaguely. Harry found out that she was never one big with talking. "I don't mind. I don't have any friends, except my family and I guess you. Though you're a bit scruffy." She teased him with a faint smile. Though, when Harry looked at her grey eyes, he could see underlining pain and hurt for the father she never knew. Harry then decided that Sophie was strong, but not as strong as she wanted everyone to believe.

"Well, we can be fatherless together." He stuck out his pinky finger towards her.

She linked hers with his, "I guess I could stick with you."

…

Molly Weasley opened the official looking letter addressed to her. As she read it, she smiled.

"Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny! Pack your trunks! Mummy got a job at Hogwarts!"

…

Liam walked into his flat, him and his wife shared. He smiled. His wife. They had been married for two years. Though, right now, it was strangely quiet.

"Anastasia? Are you here?" he called out. He heard her light foot steps come from the bathroom.

"Liam." She looked tired and over worked. He knew that she shouldn't have become an Auror! "I have something to tell you."

"What is it sweetie?" he asked as she walked to him and clutched him.

"i-i…" she gulped and looked up at him.

"Yes, sweets?" he smiled down at her. He loved how short she was compared to him, how small, how he could just pick her up and swing her around.

"I'm pregnant." The words were rushed and soft as if she expected him to get mad.

Liam dropped to his knees and pressed his head to her stomach before exclaiming, "I'm going to be a daddy!"

…

Bug was sulking. She didn't want to go to school early! It wasn't fair!

Sometimes, when she was alone, she felt as if she didn't belong in the family. Though she never told anyone, she knew that Liam guessed how she felt. She looked so much different than her siblings, to, she had blond hair instead of black, icy blue eyes instead of black, and she knew that she was a bit plump, no matter how much her mother said it would go away when she turned 13.

"Hey, Bug!" Venom's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes, Snakes Mouth?" Bug looked up with irritation, towards her older cousin.

"How is it to be the only Puffer in the family?" Venom's smirk vanished when Bug turned her head away, ashamed of the tears that sprang in her eyes.

"I get it. Really. I'm a freak! I know! You don't have to fucking remind me every fucking time were together!" she shouted, standing up and storming out of the cabin. Sophie gave Venom a severe look before following Bug.

…

Cedric Diggory was content. His mother was becoming a new Healer at Hogwarts, his father was proud of him, he had just got a new Cleansweep, and he was going to Hogwarts early with his mum.

He was just about to drift off to sleep when his compartment door swung open, hitting the side noisily. He cracked open a topaz eye to see who had made the noise and saw something he thought he'd never see. Bug Flores—crying?

The younger girl was oblivious to him and he heard her mutterings. Something like, "Freak" and "badger in the middle of a sea snakes" and "misfit". He realized with a start what she was talking about. Of course! She was a Flores and everyone knew that Flores' went to Slytherin. The silence was almost unbearable when she had been sent to Hufflepuff. Safari Flores looked like her head was going to explode. The last Flores that went to Hufflepuff was Pest Flores but people always seemed to over look her.

"Are-are you okay, Bug—erm, Leah?" he questioned her.

"Bugger." Was the only thing that came out of her mouth. Apparently she didn't know he was there.

He smiled at her slightly, "Why don't you tell me what's wrong."

She looked at him oddly before taking a deep breath, "Well, it all started when my oldest sister, Tas, was eight. Her brother, Melvin had just come home from Hogwarts his first year for the Christmas holiday…"

…

Harry looked both ways and let out a sigh of relief. They were alone.

"Will you teach me how to be like you?" He asked the lightly snoozing Safari excitedly.

She was quiet for a moment before cracking open one black eye. "Stop." She ordered, sitting up from her rather relaxed pose.

"What?" Harry asked her, from his spot sitting on the floor.

"Have you no dignity? You're sitting on the floor! Like a—Like a muggle!" Safari snapped at him. "If you want to be like me, you have to have dignity and arrogance!"

He quickly scuttled up only to be snapped at again.

"Potter! When one gives you an order, no matter what they say, you must do it like a dignified person! Not scramble all over the place like a disgusting creature!" she sneered at him.

Slowly, Harry sat down on an empty seat, eyeing Safari apprehensively.

"Sit up straight." She said in a slightly calmer tone. "Don't cross your legs. If you must, only at the ankles or one ankle over your knee. Do not beg or whine, it is unbecoming in nature." When she noticed him rocking slightly due to his boredom she chastised him again. "Don't bounce, Harry."

Harry sat, like that for the rest of the ride, back straight, legs crossed at the ankles, hands lying still in his lap, his face changing to different emotions ranging from annoyed to simpering.

Finally, the train pulled into Hogsmeade…

By the time I was your age, I'd give anything, to fall in love truly.

…

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O.o Livi Lou o.O