April—2011—Three days before Bria drops into the Brooklyn House—Manhattan, New York
Bria stepped out of the shadows. That was the best thing about New York: you had all these skyscrapers that it was practically impossible to get lost. At least, it was that way for Bria. She'd been to New York so many times that she knew each shadow by building.
Her blood suddenly thrummed throughout her entire being, and she stumbled to a halt. The last time she'd felt like that was in 1998…
She whipped around and came nose-to-nose with the infamous Harry Potter.
Well, actually, nose-to-chest, since she was so short, but it was the same effect.
"Well, Bria de Louge, you haven't changed a bit," Harry said with a little bit of amusement.
Bria didn't smile. "Immortality does that to you. You've grown quite a bit, Harry."
The dark-haired man raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, most men grow the most just after high school ends. You haven't seen me since I was eighteen, but I haven't grown an inch in the past decade." He ran a hand through his hair.
Bria was reminded suddenly of James when he did that, and told him so.
Harry looked startled. "You knew my father?"
"Not personally," she admitted. "I knew several wizards and witches in his generation, though. They spoke of him often. Many of them were in the original Order." Bria suddenly smiled, amusement lighting on her face. "Although Lily tried killing me once. The same way that you did, actually."
Harry looked like she'd smacked him across the face.
"Don't worry, I didn't hurt her," Bria assured him. "She was panicked, and most of your spells don't really affect me all that much. Truth be told, I didn't even know I'd been hit until Mad-Eye raised an eyebrow." She chuckled. "Crazy old bat."
"Paranoid bat," Harry corrected dryly.
"That too," Bria agreed. "So what are you doing here, Harry? I've never seen you outside of London."
The dark-haired man frowned. "The Salem Institute is picking up abnormal readings in this area. They wanted an experienced Auror to come and see for themselves."
Bria gave him a dry look. "New York is home to some crazy people, Harry. I wouldn't track them down if I were you."
Harry Potter looked at her sharply. "Like you?"
"Much more than just me," Bria said calmly. "And they definitely wouldn't appreciate you trying to eliminate potential threats."
"I've got a job to do, Bria," Harry said impatiently.
"Would you like you and your people to be killed?" Bria asked coolly. "If they feel threatened, they will kill. It's better that you don't go looking for them."
"And what about you?" Harry challenged. "If you know them, then why shouldn't the wizards?"
Bria's golden eyes flashed. "Maybe because I was born there. I am one of them. Or I arrived defenseless. When I stumbled into the other group that's in this area, I was so tired I couldn't summon a shadow that wanted to be moved, let alone summon my sword!" Her jaw tightened. "And I will have you know that the little boy that you saw when you were eighteen is now seventeen and could mop the floor with you without breaking a sweat. And if it came to just powers, he could also mop the floor with me."
The wizard froze.
Bria smirked. "Didn't see that coming, did you? No, Harry, meeting my kin is not something that would benefit the wizards in the least. I think you have better things to do than get killed on a stupid endeavor."
And she vanished.
April—2011—Three days after her rather poor encounter with Harry Potter—Brooklyn, New York
"Hey, Bria," Walt greeted. Sadie looked up just as the shadows on the wall began to move, forming an human-esque form until Bria was standing there, looking annoyed at Walt.
"How do you always do that?!" she asked, looking unsurprised but annoyed and curious.
"You tell me how you do that, and I'll tell you how I sense you coming," Walt countered.
Bria looked irritated. "I summon my power and direct it to the shadows, ordering them to transport me to wherever with the location fixedly in my mind."
Walt looked surprised. "That's it?"
"Yes, Walt, that's it."
Sadie rolled her eyes. "Wow, someone's in a foul mood."
Bria copied Sadie in rolling her eyes. "I don't know, about a month ago, I think I terrified the saviour of the demigods, then right after that, one of my merry band of misfits decided that he didn't trust me with a semi-dangerous liquid while I was trying to protect the demigods. A week ago, some other people I know nearly got captured by this insane organization that basically experiments on helpless kids—and they are ruthless when they get their hands on you. They managed to escape for like the fiftieth time, which once would've been a feat in and of itself, so this is kind of a miracle, but they're badly wounded and one with a broken wing. Then I've got some contacts in Alaska, three volcanoes erupted within like a day and a half, they're tired of rescuing people off the mountains and out of avalanches. And I ran into someone that I met like a decade and a half ago that first started out as a dangerous but non-threatening acquaintance, and then he witnessed me shadow-traveling and had I been mortal, killed me for using the 'Dark Arts'. Why on earth he was in America, I don't know, but honestly, he has more important things to do than to stalk me."
Sadie blinked. "Wait, back up, they had a broken wing? Are your friends human?"
Bria shrugged. "Mostly. But it's Harry Potter—" she said the name like it was poison, "—that has severely gotten on my nerves, poking his nose where it shouldn't be, especially when he's heading towards a figurative snake that he definitely can't control, no matter how much Parseltongue he knows!"
They looked lost.
"He can speak Snake," Bria said impatiently. "You know, hiss hiss. Speaking Snake is the mortal version for speaking Parseltounge."
"He would've been helpful when it came to the Chaos snake," Sadie said.
"No, he wouldn't have been," Bria snapped. "He's too set in his ways, too wary of new people, to actually be helpful to anyone but his fellow wizards. He would've questioning your orders right up until he got eaten from not paying attention."
Sadie raised an eyebrow. "Problem, much?"
"Uh, yeah, maybe!" Bria yelled. "He tried to kill me for using my so-called Dark Arts. What he doesn't realize is that maybe, just possibly, I was trying to save his freaking life! Did he take to opening to run or do something constructive?"
"Let me guess," Sadie said dryly. "No."
"—noooooooooo," Bria continued like Sadie never spoke. "I was dealing with a ten-year-old warrior daughter of Zeus, protecting a four-year-old son of Poseidon, and he and his friends are standing there, gawking like a bunch of short giraffes—"
"I've never heard that kind of insult," Walt muttered.
"—and don't even get me started on that small army of monsters that invaded London with the sole intent of getting some yummy lunch! Did he take action?!"
"No," Walt guessed.
"No!" Bria yelled. "He and his friends stood there like a bunch of useless penguins—"
"Penguins throw up when they're startled," Sadie commented. "And they're pretty effective, actually, if you want them to sit on someone. Penguins are pretty heavy."
"That isn't the point!" Bria said. "They just stood there. As if they couldn't believe that a little girl like me could fight! But did they take action, if that was the case? No! And then somebody else wanders in and I had to knock them out, and what do they do?"
"Nothing?" Sadie guessed.
"They blasted me!" Bria said indignantly. "And had I been anyone else, I probably would've been killed!"
After two minutes of silence, Walt exhaled. "That was quite a tirade."
There was another short silence.
"So how do you sense me?" Bria asked Walt.
Sadie looked at her friend like she was crazy. Bria shrugged sheepishly.
***YOU GUYS MIGHT WANT TO READ THIS!***
Ruby: Hi, guys, it's me, Ruby. You may or may not know me from All Together, Cousins. I managed to get into Hector's computer and find this for you people. Turns out that Hector and Mora are up to their necks in ACT studying. I forget that I'm the only one in the group that can multitask. XD Hector is pretty much recovered from the incident just before TS Karen, if you wanted to know, and Mora is being her usual self, studying frantically for something that she can't possibly fail. Yes, this is shorter than usual, and this is all that Hector had on his computer. I think he was planning on finishing the chapter but never got that far.
No, I am not continuing this story. I am not Hector or Mora. I'm sure, once the ACTs are over, that they'll be back and updating like usual, but don't expect me to do anything for this story. I don't know Bria well enough to write her character.
Thanks, bye.
***YOU'RE GOOD NOW!***
(I know, kind of redundant, but still...)
PS-Hector did this oneshot/aside thingy that shows when Bria met Harry. I read it, let's just say, it was pretty awesome.
