New week, New chapter
Enjoy!
"-Want her gone."
Awareness trickled back to Harmony slowly, it was like someone was re-feeding her consciousness into her head through a muggle drip.
It appeared her eyelids had been told not to open at her command and her mouth seemed to be under similar orders.
Conversely her hearing was pin sharp, and the first thing to greet her at the edge of consciousness was the sound of people arguing.
She wanted to cover her ears to block out the noise, but her limbs, just like the rest of her, refused to move when she bade them too.
"-essor Potter, for the last time. The girl has entered the tournament; there is not a single thing anyone can do to remove her from this school. I will issue her with a detention for the damage she had done to your face but that is the scope of my abilities."
That sounded like a teacher.
Where the hell was she?
She'd been with Hermione hadn't she?
What had they been doing?
Harmony tried to assess her surroundings but without her eyes or the ability to move it wasn't the easiest of tasks.
From what she could tell she was laying flat, and her head appeared to be on some sort of pillow, so she was likely on a bed.
The fabric under her fingers was heavily starched, and the strong scent of disinfectant charms was thick in her nostrils.
Was she in a hospital?
Why would she be in a hospital? Had she had another quidditch accident?
No that didn't sound right.
Merlin her brain felt like sludge, why couldn't she remember anything?
"-Suggest you leave her in Poppy's able care and try and calm yourself."
That was the teacher again.
Wasn't she the headmistress?
No that couldn't be right, her headmistress was definitely French, not Scottish.
"I know you're unhappy about this Professor Potter-"
Professor Potter?
"-not exactly enthused about keeping the girl here myself. But there really is nothing that can be done. Now I really must get back to my office. The board needs to be informed about this incident before one of the students lets to much slip."
She heard footsteps heading towards her, but they passed by without stopping.
"She's my fucking daughter. If I say I want her gone that should be good enough."
Daughter?
What the fuck was the man who no longer deserved the name father doing here!
A door banged shut, apparently the Scottish woman hadn't seen fit to answer him.
"Yes James, she's your daughter. I don't know if anyone's told you recently, but being your daughter does not make her some sort of unwanted parcel you can simply send back through the post whenever the fancy takes you. Besides, Minerva is right. If what this book is saying is true then no one will be removing her from Hogwarts before the tournament ends."
Remus? Tournament? Hogwarts?
Morgana her head.
No wait... that's right she was at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament.
But why was she like this?
Had she tried her experimental sleeping draught again?
Circe help her if she had, 'Mione was going to kill her.
"-has to be a way to get her out of here. I can't live the rest of the year in fear of seeing her fucking face around every corner. I'll go mad."
"So quit." Remus's voice was dry as bone and the rustle of pages being turned told Harmony that he really wasn't paying much attention to James theatrics.
"You find this really fucking funny don't you Remus."
A clang echoed as something was kicked, and someone started to pace. Harmony was pretty sure it was James but she couldn't tell from the sound of the footsteps alone.
"Let me ask you something Remus. How would you fucking feel if you had to spend the rest of the year being confronted with some sort of cheap copy of Sirius, knowing full well that if he hadn't died to save that worthless copy. Your actual husband would be walking around the next corner instead of a person who's existence you can do nothing but resent."
It was odd the words seared through her like molten lead, and yet she felt strangely detached from them at the same time, it was almost like she was hearing them inside a dream.
A book snapped shut and an old chair groaned as someone shifted.
"No James, I don't find anything about the fact that you can happily turn your back on your own flesh and blood the least bit funny."
Remus sounded so tired. Had she done that?
"She's unconscious with a severe concussion and all your bothered about is whether or not you can get her out of the school before she wakes up."
Concussion?
Yes, she'd hit something… because she was flying backwards?
So it was quiddit- no it couldn't have been. She could remember seeing a ceiling and she knew you weren't allowed to play quidditch indoors.
Merlin knew she'd tried often enough, only to be thwarted by Maxime at the last moment.
"-et me tell you something James, if Sirius had died to protect my fucking daughter, I wouldn't care if she was a carbon copy right down to the moustache. I would simply be fucking thankful I had something so precious to remember him by. What I wouldn't do, is go out of my way to forget her so that I could continue to bask in memories of what once was."
The pacing stopped and when James spoke again his voice was lower, more menacing.
"You just don't get it do you Remus." The creak of springs sounded again, like someone was moving around in their seat.
"My Lily bud died for that girl, and what do I get in return. Something that's like Lily, but not Lily. What's the fucking use of that! If the fates were only going to give me an inferior copy, I'd much rather they'd just took Harmony instead."
Inferior copy?
Yes...she'd slapped him for calling her that, they'd tried to send her away. But they hadn't been able to and they'd gotten angry.
Why hadn't they been able to?
"-armony is replaceable, we could've had more children if Lily had survived. But she didn't, and now all I've got is the thing that looks just enough like her mother to screw with my fucking head."
Harmony felt sick, did he truly think her life was worth so little?
"That's a disgusting thing to say." Remus sounded repulsed by his one time friend.
"Are you even listening to yourself for Merlin's sake! You're wishing your own daughter dead. What type of fucking parent does that. You loved her so much once, I saw the way your eyes used to light up at the sight of her. Even after Lily had died. What changed?"
"She changed!" Shouted James, the words piercing Harmony's brain like an arrow through a target.
"One day I looked at her and my golden girl, the one I would've given my life for, wasn't there anymore. And this Lily golem was stuck in her place. What the hell was I expected to do with that."
"Love her!" Remus roared, his own words echoing incriminatingly in the face of James' callousness.
"For fucks sake man. She is your bloody daughter, the last thing you have of Lily's. She's not some fucking broom you can put back in the shed because you got a splinter in your fucking backside. You have put that girl through hell and back. She was a child and you left her! And why did you leave her, apparently, because she was no longer the right pissing model."
The springs creaked again, even as Remus's voice lowered slightly.
"I don't even know what the problem is. So she looks a little like her mother, big deal. It shouldn't matter to you what she fucking looks like, Harmony is a wonderful person in her own right. If you'd spent some of the last seven years acting like her pissing father you'd know that."
"I have acted like her-"
"No you haven't!" Remus spat, his voice rising once more.
Harmony couldn't remember ever hearing him this angry.
Not that that counted for much at the moment since she was having problems remembering what she'd had for breakfast, let alone her brief childhood moments of Remus time.
"-Shoved her off to the continent because you decided that seeing her at Hogwarts was to much for you delicate sensibilities. And if that wasn't bad enough, the first time you set eyes on her in Godric knows how long, you decide you're perfectly within your rights to literally drag her from the school. If you'd just left her alone she might not be risking her life to stay in this bloody place!"
Harmony wanted to frown but the muscles in her face still weren't responding.
Risking her life?..why was she... Oh, the Geasan, that's right they'd found a way for her to stay at Hogwarts should James or Maxime try and make her leave.
Was that why she couldn't move, she'd broken the contract and it'd taken its pound of flesh?
No that wouldn't account for the backwards flying... or the concussion come to think if it.
"-attacked me first!"
"Bullshit! Hermione told me exactly what Harmony said you'd done, frankly I think you deserved more than a fucking slap around the face. I've seen the fucking bruising on her upper arm James! Minerva might be willing to believe the sob story that you've spun for her, but I know better."
James scoffed "You make it sound like I'm some sort of abuser, or like I've abandoned her to the elements."
The pacing started again.
"I've paid her school fees, made sure she had money for anything she might desire. I even made sure she was enrolled in one of the best school outside of Hogwarts. How does that make me anything other than a caring parent."
Harmony wanted to rail at the man, money wasn't everything.
She couldn't have cared less if she was penniless and living in a cupboard just as long as she'd still had her parents.
"It makes you a fucking coward." Growled Remus.
"I am not a coward." James stated in a low voice.
"Money isn't everything James."
Harmony would've grinned if she could, good old Remus still managing to know what she wanted to say even when she was out cold.
"-already lost one parent because of a mad man, and then you voluntarily removed another. You were her world! She idealised you and you left her; for what! Something as stupid as her hair colour, and the fact that her eyes might be just a little bit like Lily's. Your excuses are superficial at best."
Harmony heard the chair creek again, and she could almost see him running his hands through his hair.
"I would've took her in myself if the damn ministry wouldn't have locked me up and thrown away the key. You weren't there James. The amount of times I stopped by that house once I'd finished with work, only to find her curled up on the settee around that damn wedding album, fast asleep and covered in dried tears."
Harmony didn't know that, she'd always thought it was Mary who'd put her to bed on those nights she'd been able to do nothing but cry.
Clearly it hadn't been the elf, it'd been Remus all along
"-broke my heart knowing there was nothing I could do to help. I couldn't be the parent she needed and I will forever regret that. But you could've been. If you'd just bucked up your ideas and seen a mind healer or confided in one of us what the problem was before it drove you away. We could've helped. Found someone to look after her in your stead while you healed. God knows Sirius spent long enough trying to get you to see sense once we found out what you'd done."
Remus's sounded so hollow she desperately wanted to hug him, but she felt so sick with emotion she wasn't sure she could've done even if she could move.
"But Instead of asking for help you left her in the middle of the night, with a house elf and a few portraits. I only realised what had happened when I went to the hollow for my post moon visit, and found her sat at the kitchen table; staring into space like some sort of Inferi. Two sodding weeks Harmony was left thinking she'd been completely abandoned, and by the time Sirius got you to sign over partial custody she'd already been shipped off the continent. A whole year she was left without a guardian, I did what I could but with the ministry monitoring my movements they'd have noticed if I'd stayed there too long, and you wouldn't sign the papers to let me! Lily would be ashamed of what you've done to that girl."
"You're right about one thing Lily would be ashamed, but it wouldn't be of me. She would be disgusted to find out what the baby she sacrificed herself for had become."
Footsteps came closer, a clang and a jolt told her James had kicked the bed she was laying on.
"What the fuck do you think you're doin-"
"My sweet Lily bud died so that this delinquent piece of trash could live. Every week I get something telling me about one infarction or another. She isn't noble or brave or smart, all things the world lost with Lily's death and didn't get back with her survival"
That really hurt, she didn't truly care about James' opinion but those words still stung terribly.
"You're wrong James."
Remus sounded like he was ready for the conversation to end.
He wasn't the only one.
The air shifted.
Someone was walking towards her.
She was becoming more self aware and her brain was feeling less muddled, but she still couldn't move. Meaning she didn't have to mask her surprise when she felt a set of fingers gently brushing her hair off her forehead.
The callouses and the rich scent of a rain drenched forest let her know it was Remus.
"Harmony is all that Lily was and more besides. You call her a delinquent, but she is no more one that you ever would've claimed to be. Have you ever thought that she does what she does because she wanted you to acknowledge her existence again? The simple fact is she's acted like it so long, she simply doesn't know how to be anyone else, and frankly I wouldn't want her to be. She's not a bully like the Marauders were, she defends those that are belittled and down trodden, it's how she found Hermione."
Actually... where was Hermione she would've thought she'd be here. Had she been hurt too?
"-onestly from what I can tell pretty much everything she does these days is to wind up Madame Maxime. Which is hardly surprising with the way that woman acts towards her. As for not being smart, you are sorely mistaken. Harmony is one of the smartest people I've ever met and an incredibly studious person when the right subject catches her eye. Not that you would know that of course since I imagine the only thing you know about Harmony's academic achievements will have come from that woman, and Maxime will never have a good word to say about her."
"You make her sound so fucking virtuous. Yet she clearly came here with the intention of causing trouble. If she hadn't she wouldn't have had that book to shove in Minerva's face at the first sign of being sent back." James hissed, his voice nearer than Harmony had expected it to be.
Remus's hand paused, "I imagine she was aware of how much of a prick you were going to be once she arrived, she probably came across the information during a research binge and saw the information as too good an opportunity to over look. I honestly don't know if she has entered the tournament for the tournaments sake or if she has simply seen the Geasan as a means to an end."
His thumb started to lightly stoke over her eyebrows.
"Make no mistake I feel like I could ring her neck right now. Whatever her reasons for entering the tournament it was still a foolish thing to do, and I will let her know that once she wakes up...but what's done is done. I cannot send her away to safety, but neither can you send her away for your own selfish ends. So I suggest you either ignore her existence as you have for the past seven years. Or you put on your big boys pants; start acting like the fucking adult you apparently are and actually get to know the daughter you abandoned."
Angrily retreating footsteps and a heavy door banging shut was the only answer Remus got to his ultimatum.
The hand on her forehead started to brush through her long hair; Harmony wished she could move, she had so many things to ask.
Just as she permitted herself to drift, Remus started to speak again. "What am I going to do with you sweetheart. No wonder I'm going grey before my time."
As the fingers gently carded through her unruly curls she felt the darkness pulling her in, embracing her like an old friend.
"Sirius always jokes it's the wolf, but the greys only appeared when James finally gave us guardianship. I've noticed more than a few on Sirius's head-… all those summers stuck in St Mungo's emergency-… always getting injured-… now you've-… tournament-… what were you think-..."
By the time Remus started to reprimand her she was to far into the darkness to claw her way back out again, but just before it claimed her fully she had the pleasant thought that while Remus was as pissed as predicated about her entering the tournament, at least he still loved her.
¥§¥
Harmony came too for a second time, instantly aware of the difference's to the first.
The space was devoid of shouting, all there was was the even breathing of someone close at hand and the softness of a book being read.
Her brain, thankfully, no longer felt like it was filled to the brim with mud; she could remember everything up to the point of her arriving wherever she was laying.
And the final thing she noticed? Her body was apparently happy to respond to her commands again.
Her eye's flew open, only for them to abruptly squeeze shut as the lights in the room tried to burn through the back of her skull.
Her moan of pain was enough to draw the attention of the person reading.
The book was closed and placed gently on a nearby surface.
"Harmony?" Her name was spoken low and a little questioningly but she'd know that voice any where.
"Mione?" Harmony blinked open her eyes once more, mindful of the pain she'd felt the first time.
A fuzzy vision of her friend came into view, through her half open eyes.
Someone had removed her contacts.
Not that it mattered, she would've had to have been completely blind not to have noticed the relieved smile on Hermione's face.
"Hello."
"Where's Remus?" She was sure he'd been here, or had the argument been a figment of her imagination.
"He was forced to go back to class. He left me to watch over you for a while."
"Oh." There wasn't really much she could say to that, was there.
Hermione pushed herself out of her seat, stretching out her back to work out the kinks.
"Where are you going?" She'd only just woken up, surely she wasn't about to leave her.
"I need to get Madame Pomfrey. She'll have my head if she finds out you're awake and I didn't immediately tell her."
"Okay." Hermione squeezed her fingers and she watched her friends fuzzy back make it's way towards the door at the end of the room.
At least her muddled brain had been right about one thing, she was in a hospital. Though this was clearly the school and not St Mungo's.
Which was good, it meant she wasn't to bad.
Hopefully.
Placing both her palms flat on the bed Harmony pushed herself upright, the headrush was expected but thankfully it subsided quickly. With a huff she slumped against the metal headboard and attempted to take stock of herself.
Her head felt like someone had cracked a muggle fridge over it recently, her shoulder was stinging; though at least the searing burn seemed to have abated, and the rest of her was aching like an absolute bugger.
Overall not the best she'd ever felt but certainly not the worst either.
She could live with that.
Someone, likely Hermione, had thought to bring her glasses to the hospital wing for her.
Picking them up off the cabinet, she slid them onto her face and contemplated what to do next.
She was just attempting to get out of bed, when a stern voice rang out through the empty ward.
"Miss Potter. Put one foot on that floor and I shall be forced to tie you to that bed."
Startled, Harmony looked up to find a tall grey haired witch in a matrons uniform heading straight for her, her eyes narrowed in reprimand.
"I was just-"
"You were not just anything young lady. You've been unconscious with a severe concussion for the past three hours. You will not be moving from that bed until I can determine that you are fit to do so."
"But I feel-" Harmony tried again but was cut off by her friend.
"Harm, just let her do her job. Please?"
Harmony huffed but dutifully pulled her legs back up on to the bed, though she refused to lay back down again.
She wasn't sick.
The matron hummed in approval, "Well done Miss Granger. I could do with you here more often if you can get patients to back down that quickly."
"I think Harmony is a special case Madame Pomfrey. I doubt it would work on anyone else."
"Perhaps. Now my dear lets take a look at you shall we. Quite the nasty bump you took after all."
The matron pulled her wand, and within moments complex diagnostic spells began to unspool from it's tip.
Harmony grimaced as she felt the far too familiar tingle of a diagnostic spell sweeping over every part of her that it deemed to be of interest.
She noted that the tingle was strongest around the back of her head and over her shoulder; she had to resist the urge to scratch.
It felt like ants crawling over her skin.
The tingling ended and the matron pursed her lips as she perused the results.
"Well Miss Potter, all things considered you are in remarkably good health. The Concusio potion seems to have healed you right up. Though I would advise you to avoid strong lights and small text for the next twenty fours hours. The burn on your shoulder seems to be the worst of your problems at the moment."
The woman flicked her wand and the fabric screens at the side of the bed began to close around them.
"I'd like to just take a quick look if you don't mind. Could you wait outside for a few minutes Miss Granger. I promise you may come back once the examination is over."
"Of course Madam Pomfrey. I'll be just outside if you need me Harm."
Harmony watched her friends curly head disappear around the screens, before turning her attention on the waiting matron.
"If you'd just like to pop your top off Miss Potter, and I'll take a look."
Harmony felt her cheeks burn, but refused to let embarrassment win.
Keeping her attention on the buttons, she got the top undone and gingerly shrugged the garment down her arms. Thankfully her sports bra was still intact so she wasn't being forced to bare all for this stranger.
With the top gone, the matron leaned over her and began to gently unpick the bandage that had been placed over her burnt shoulder.
The cool infirmary air collided with barely healed nerve endings, making the injury hum with displeasure.
Harmony tried her best to block out the uncomfortable sensation, but there was little she could truly do other than hope the matrons examination was swift.
"Hmm. The skin looks markedly improved since the application of the Mallenio. You are a very lucky girl Miss Potter, if that burn had been allowed to faster without treatment for much longer it would have left a terrible scar."
The matron fixed the bandage back in place and moved away to tidy up her tray of supplies.
"You can put your top back on now Miss Potter." Harmony knew her face was definitely a healthy shade of pink, but she really couldn't help it.
"Though how you got hit with a scorching hex in all this mess is beyond me. I've never had to treat a student for such a severe curse burn before. It's lucky Professor Snape was able to recommend a salve from his stores. I would've been forced to fire call St Mungo's otherwise. Which given the severity of the hex would have caused more than a few raised eyebrows I can tell you."
Noticing that her patient was once more dressed, the woman flicked her wand at the screens and they dutifully stacked themselves down the side of the bed again.
"So Miss Potter. We'll give that shoulder a little longer and I shall get the elves to bring you up something light to eat in the meantime, since you've most certainly missed lunch. Hopefully I should be able to get you on your way before the feast later tonight."
"Thank you Madam Pomfrey." Said Hermione as she stepped back towards the bed.
"Yes, thank you." Harmony said a little absently, something was bugging her and she wasn't talking about the recently healed concussion either.
"Hmm, just doing my job Miss Potter. Let us hope this isn't the start of a more frequent acquaintance. Though your medical records suggest that is likely a rather hopeless wish."
With that the matron bustled off towards her office.
No sooner had the woman closed her door than a small platter of sandwiches appeared on the table at the end of Harmony's bed.
Hermione moved to grab them even as Harmony's mind whirled around a question.
How had Professor Snape had that salve in his stores?
Harmony was forced to make Mallenio on a rather regular basis and she knew for a fact it didn't last anymore than 48 hours at a stretch once brewed and potted.
The raw snail slime in the salve made it particularly good for deep curse burns, but it also made it spoil hellishly quick in comparison to most basic burn salves. So how had the professor had in sitting around in his stores?
She could understand it if it was something that he brewed on a semi regular basis, but the matron had said herself that she'd never seen a burn of this type before so it was unlikely to be a salve he was continually making as a matter of course.
The man had to have made it recently, he had to have made it just for her.
Which wouldn't be out of the question if the matron had asked for it…but he'd been the one to recommend it to the woman, not the other way round and the salve itself took a full half hour to brew as well as another hour or more cool.
The cooling process was critical it couldn't be rushed, if you did it too quickly the slime crystallised making the salve useless.
All this added up to one thing, the professor had to have been in the process of making the salve long before Pomfrey had called on his services.
The question was why?
Harmony was pulled out of her winding thoughts by her friend waving a ham sandwich under her nose, which she promptly plucked from her friends fingers and started to chew on like a rabid dog.
Hermione rolled her eyes, taking a delicate bite of her own.
"Honestly, the way you eat sometimes I wonder if you've ever been fed."
"You know me 'Mione. I see food and I eat it. Besides, s'not like either of us got to have lunch."
Harmony grabbed another sandwich from the platter that Hermione had placed over her knees and leaned further back into her pillows.
"We weren't the only ones. After what happened in the entrance hall, nobody seemed to be to bothered about eating, everyone was more concerned with gossip."
Hermione was picking at her sandwich, making Harmony wonder what she'd missed.
"Mione? Did something happen?" Hermione raised an amused eyebrow and Harmony rolled her eyes. "Besides the obvious I mean."
"I really should ignore it, they're nothing but gossiping idiots after all… but you should've heard them Harmony. The way they're talking about the both of us. The entire school in convinced that the goblets rejected us for being unworthy. I can see it now, by the time we get to the feast every single student will have twisted the story so far out of hand that both of us will have been rejected by the goblet, because we're both secretly squibs or some such rot and are parents are disgraced muggle-borns who live in the local caves and come out to dance under the moon once a month while sacrificing a few unicorns for good measure"
"Been storing that up long?"
Hermione grimaced and threw her suddenly mangled sandwich down on the platter.
"More or less since the goblet sent you flying. God I hate this school. Why is everyone so bloody judgmental, Mcgonagall could stop the rumours with a single word, but will she? No of course she won't. She feels we've made a spectacle of her and now she'll be wanting to make sure we suffer for it."
Hermione ran a frustrated hand down her face; slumping back in her chair and nearly upending the platter of sandwiches in the process.
"I'd really hoped this school might've gotten better since I left, but you know I think it's actually gotten worse? Not a single one of the idiots would help me get you off the ground after you flew into that pillar, they simply scrambled away like we had the plague. I had to wait for Remus to make his way through the throngs of brainless twits before I could get you off the floor. Not that I helped much in the end. Remus simply picked you up and carried you here."
Harmony nodded. "I wondered what he'd been doing here. I heard him and James arguing."
That wasn't the only thing she was wondering about either, she'd have thought she'd feel rather raw after the emotional pummelling that James had subjected her unconscious form to. But strangely other than the pain from her injuries she was feeling pretty much normal, it was as if James's callous, hurtful words had never been uttered.
Perhaps her subconscious had worked through the turmoil while she was out of it.
Or perhaps it was storing it up so that she was hit with an emotional anvil at a later time.
Whichever it was for the moment she was content to not poke at the dormant feelings.
"-could ring his ruddy neck. He followed us all the way up here you know? At first I thought he might actually be showing some sort of parental feeling."
Harmony snorted, and Hermione gave her a half grin, acknowledging how silly that sounded.
"Yes I know, stupid thing to think really, turned out the only reason he followed was so that he could have it out with Mcgonagall. He wanted to know why we were taking you up to the hospital wing instead of sending you straight back to France. Apparently the fact that you were unconscious didn't matter. He wasn't at all pleased when Mcgonagall said you couldn't leave. He went nuts. I was talking to Remus when he suddenly started raving, it's a good job Madam Pomfrey had gone to talk to Professor Snape, she would've thrown us all out otherwise. Remus made me leave before James turned his temper on me. Said you wouldn't appreciate me ending up in the bed next to you. So I went to the library for a bit, it's where I heard the stupid rumours starting to spread."
"So no one knows I'm James' daughter then?" Asked Harmony curiously.
"No the school gossips are quite convinced we've both crawled out of a hole somewhere."
Hermione didn't need to tell her what she thought of the students intelligence, the expression on her friends face said more than enough.
"Well, we'll just have to show them otherwise. Won't we."
"Easier said than done with this lot I'm afraid. You know I- oh!"
Harmony looked up from her perusal of the sandwich platter.
"What?"
Instead of answering Hermione reached over and tugged a few strands of hair over Harmony's shoulder.
Glancing at it curiously Harmony realised what her friend had seen.
The colour charm was finally wearing off, the barest hint of her silver tips could be seen again.
She stroked the tips in bemused wonder. "I thought the charm wasn't supposed to start degrading till tomorrow afternoon."
Hermione shrugged. "It was. Maybe the Goblets magic damaged it."
Running her fingers through the tips of her hair, Harmony gave a barely perceptible nod of agreement before releasing the strands and gracing her friend with a bright smile.
"Well it's earlier than we wanted, but given that they already know they can't remove us it's hardly going to make a difference now. I just get to go back to being me a little sooner."
Hermione smiled back. "Not a moment to soon either. I really don't care what colour you hair is, but it will be nice to have my bright headed friend back. I just can't get over how normal you look like this."
"Hey!" Exclaimed Harmony as she threw an uneaten crust at her friend.
Hermione batted it away with ease. "I didn't mean it like that. You're an extraordinary person, it doesn't feel right to have you blending in with the crowd."
Harmony got a little misty eyed at that. "Thanks. But you're just as extraordinary, you shouldn't be going unnoticed either."
Hermione scoffed. "Trust me after what Mcgonagall forced us to do. I won't be going unnoticed...neither will you for that matter hair or not."
"Yeah but they won't be noticing us for the right reasons."
Harmony paused, her friend might not appreciate the plan that was quickly forming in her head, but it was worth a shot.
"I don't suppose you'd fancy joining me for being noticed for all the wrong ones. Would you?"
Hermione leant forwards looking at her friends curiously.
"What do you mean?"
"Well this schools going to try and tear shreds off you if it can. The whispering while we were In front of the goblet was proof of that. So we give them something to talk about that you can control, if you can control it you can take power from it. Perception can be a powerful thing if wielded right. Perhaps we just need to change theirs a little."
"By doing what?"
"Well I think if we..."
Harmony explained what she had in mind.
At first her friend looked downright scandalised and then pensive, but finally after much deliberating Hermione got a conspiratorial smile one her face that matched her own and she knew her friend had been won over.
"I'm still not sure if it's going to empower me the way you think it will, but I suppose if they're going to whisper come what may I might as well give them a real reason."
Leaning forwards Harmony pulled Hermione into a tight hug. "I knew I could bring you over to the dark side one day."
"It's only took five years." Came Hermione's muffled, but sarcastic reply.
Harmony snorted. "Don't knock it, you're one hard nut to crack Miss Granger."
The sound of a door being opened made Harmony pull away from her friend, she could see the matron bustling back towards her bed, with an armful of clothes.
"Right Miss Potter, we'll take another look at that shoulder now. All being well I should be able to send you on your way."
Once she was near she handed the stack of clothes to Hermione.
"Miss Granger, if you could look through those for something to fit your friend it would be much appreciated."
Hermione nodded and took the stack over to an adjacent bed, even as the screens wound their way around a confused Harmony.
"Why does she need to do that." She began undoing her top without prompting, her curiosity overriding most of her embarrassment.
"I was under the impression you would not want to be walking back to your carriage in nothing but a pair of pyjamas. Clearly I was wrong." Stated Madam Pomfrey as she gently peeled back the bandage.
"I don't." Harmony rolled her eyes, though thankfully it went unnoticed by the medi-witch. "But where are the clothes I arrived in?"
"You're leggings are clean and in the pile I just gave to Miss Granger. However your top had caught in the burn and I had no choice but to cut it away in pieces. It was beyond repair I'm afraid." The matron said as she carefully wiped the excess salve from her shoulder.
Harmony clicked her tongue and heaved out a petulant sigh.
That had been her favourite vest.
"No need for that Miss Potter. I came to the conclusion you would prefer a well healed shoulder than keeping a cheap muggle vest. Was I wrong?"
The matrons eyes bore into her and Harmony looked down shame faced.
"No, it's just my favourite vest is all."
"We all have our favoured items of clothing Miss Potter, but nothing lasts forever." The woman said practically. "Now your shoulder looks to be in perfect condition. It will be tender for few hours but if it starts to burn or blister again you must come back to me as quickly as possible. Understood?"
"Yes Madam Pomfrey." The matron nodded in approval.
"Good, I'll leave you to get dressed. Leave your pyjamas on the bed, the elves will deal with them. There's no need to inform me when you're ready to go, just make sure you shut the door when you do. We get terrible draughts in here otherwise."
With that the woman picked up her supplies and walked back to her office.
Hermione came back around the screen a few seconds later, a mound of black cloth in her arms.
"I have your leggings, a shirt and school robe. They were the smallest in the pile, but I still think they might be to big."
Pulling the clothing on it wasn't difficult to see what Hermione had meant. The shirt made her look like she was playing dress up in her parents clothes, and the school robe was so baggy the shoulders were resting closer to her elbows than her neck.
Frankly she looked like an urchin, but beggars couldn't be choosers and she had to concede they were better to be walking through the school in than a borrowed set of hospital pyjamas.
Harmony slipped on her trainers as Hermione handed her, her wand.
"Thank you. Come on then let's blow this pop stand."
She could feel Hermione's eyes judging her. Hermione hated it when she used that particular phrase, meaning she used it whenever she could get away with it.
"You're not playing a part in a fantasy film Harm."
Harmony turned towards her friend with a smile that was all teeth. "I ain't a Slytherin either, but it won't stop me from wearing their colours."
Hermione mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, could've fooled me. But she was to far In front of her friend to truly hear her.
Hermione caught up with her in the corridor and the raced away from the hospital wing.
They had a lot to do and very little time to do it.
Hogwarts would not be dismissing either of them with certifiable rumours for much longer.
They would make sure the school had something much better to gossip about.
Well I hope everyone enjoyed seeing that and look no cliffies (^^)
Couple of things you lovelies might find interesting.
The partial guardianship I refer to in this chapter, is just that partial.
Remus and Sirius have legal right over Harmony in medical matters and in the eyes of the MoM they have the right to have her live with them.
They do not have the right, to access her accounts, remove her from school or talk to her teachers.
Essentially James had permitted them to become legal nannies, for lack of a better word, but James still has the final say so about where she can live and where she goes to school.
Of course this partial guardianship no longer applies at all since Harmony is over 17 but for the summers holidays ect that she wasn't at Beauxbatons this is the state of affairs that ruled, this guardianship was not signed over until roughly six months after Harmony had been initially sent to France at eleven.
Without the sign over, it would've been illegal for Remus and by extension his partner to take in the young Harmony. Remus tried to be there as much as the law permitted, while Sirius was off trying to talk some sense into James. But this still would've left Harmony a very lonely child during that year before Beauxbatons.
The Mallenio Salve mentioned in this chapter is a mismatch word
it combines Mallachd, which, according to google, means curse in Scottish Gaelic
and Lenio, which, according to google, means Soothe.
Another interesting thing about this salve, it may seem like the snail slime is simply for the witchy factor but Medieval doctors truly did recommend putting live snail slime on burns, scold and cuts. To reduce swelling and blistering
They weren't wrong to suggest it, according to recent medical research Snail mucus, is anti-septic, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, and anti-viral.
It can also help ease pain and help with skin repair to high amount of collagen and Elastin
If you've all fallen asleep by now I apologise, I just thought it was really interesting. ;)
See y'all next week, Pink x (^^)