This was something I wrote, like, a couple of months ago. Started it and just, forgot. It doesn't necessarily have to be the KHR world since I didn't even get half-way to it, and it could be up for adoption or something. Like just the idea of it, I mean.

...Anyways, please enjoy.

(AND IF YOU DO WROTE SOMETJING LIKE THIS, OR KNOW A STORY LIKE THIS, PLEASE TELL ME, I'D LOVE TO READ IT)

Warmth from the crackling fire battled with the cold of the Russian winter. Huddled inside an abandoned house as she already was, removed from the freezing wind, and wrapped in a thick coat with heating charms, Harley could still feel the impulse to shiver and curl tighter.

She played with her fingers, twisting and turning them to keep the blood flowing.

This body was unbelievably fragile even for a child, she didn't know when it could fall ill or even just fall and bleed, so worrying over it had just become a constant preoccupation always at the front of her mind. It was safe to say she'd grown paranoid when it concerned her body's state.

She absently pawed on the ground around her, searching for that wrinkle of paper. She picked up the ham sandwich. It was still warm thanks to the stasis spell.

She relished it. From what she'd deduced, he'd gone through quite the trouble to get it for her.

A low creak. The door.

"Harley."

She tilted her head in his direction in acknowledgment, cheeks stuffed. His footsteps neared her.

"Are you cold?"

"Shouldn't you be worrying more for yourself? You just came from outside. Seat beside me."

He clicked his tongue, "Honestly, what are you, three? Don't speak when your mouth's full."

He pressed against her. She searched for his hand with hers.

"No, I'm seven." She snarked.

"Then act your age. I didn't eat like that when I was seven."

She shot him -where she thought his face was at least- a look. That was just an unfair comparison.

An arm wrapped a blanket around the both of them. A new find. He'd most likely already made any necessary repairs and adjustments.

Who would've ever thought, that when she'd finally died, it was Draco Malfoy of all people who would be by her side? It was just a relief that he was there too when, against all odds, she was reincarnated in another world. As a blind, orphaned girl.

The fact that he'd taken it upon himself to care for her was just... Well, no one back home would've believed it.

Truly, one could never know where life (and death) would take you.

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They still banter. They still snark and sass each other but now, it wasn't as sharp anymore and Harley had come to consider it as just their thing.

Their. Them.

Her. And this guy she might've called her brother if not that she didn't want his already inflated head to grow even bigger.

... It still felt weird to call him that, even just in her mind, when you considered the whole dynamic of the relationship they had in their previous life.

Or maybe not. Maybe, rather than despite it, it's because of it.

And living in the harsh conditions they had, Harley supposed they were bound to have bonded. Or became a pair of iceblocks and died. Or rather just her, because at this point she's still wholly dependant on him for her survival.

She hadn't even grasped the language yet, which was apparently Russian, which Draco actually knew even before then as a Malfoy.

Now, they were just Harley, and just Draco.

No Potter. No pretending to know what she even was doing, No one to look towards her to lead and fight, No prophecies of greatness.

No Malfoy. No duty, No pureblood, No footsteps to follow and trail after.

No saviour, no noble, nothing.

Just two random waifs doing their best to survive with the hand they were given.

It's... She never mentioned it aloud, for fear of triggering something better left untouched, but she thought that this simple and almost rough lifestyle suited them rather well. There was an odd contentment to it.

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They didn't have magic this time around. Her body an achingly empty shell (not really, there was something there, just at the edge, peeking-).

It had shattered her at the beginning.

After all, she was stripped of literally everything she had and more.

It was only when she'd finally looked up from her hopelessness -not too long because she'd always been more of the doer than a brooder (though it admittedly didn't fall too far in quota)- that she noticed.

She didn't have magic anymore. The same didn't go for everything else.

From there, it was a quick uphill. Harley had never been the most studious, but casting magic, bending it to her whims -that was something she could do.

Harley was a witch and would always be one.

That was how Draco tracked her. He'd felt her activity -the deference magic gave her- and supposedly with not even a moments hesitation, packed up and left.

She hadn't gotten from him anything about his life before coming to her yet.

Now, they're utilizing magic with the ease of a lifetime's practice, slowly but steadily inching their way out of this winter wonderland.

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Oh, it wasn't like Draco and her first few days were immediately smooth-sailing.

Far from it.

All those animosity didn't just get washed away. They stayed as surely as their nightmares did. Dampened by the instinct to band together in a time of difficulty and a truce once agreed upon but still there. The prejudices. The silent judgement.

It was quite the headache and a half.

There was frustrations thrown around, grief and the silent but loud 'why couldn't you have been her/him instead'. Indeed, a headache and a half.

Somehow though, through perseverance that Harley didn't know the source of, they waded through the decades worth of issues and reached an understanding. An understanding that it was literally them against the world now.

At first it was a trickle. Her telling him of stories of her past shenanigans and adventures. Then he'd tell stories of himself. And then he'd talk about this world, describing every nuance and comparing them to their previous world's -or rather his, since he never even stepped on muggle soil before.

Though if this was a KHR, then she would definitely be Viper. Because you might not have figured it out yet, but Viper is my absolute favourite.

I even had some (other) unfinished pieces around (scattered. somewhere) that features Tom Riddle as a female Viper. One being that the Magical World and Khr are one and the same and FEM!Tom or Mary, after...things happen, and some other things... doesn't go to Hogwarts, gets kidnapped, follows around Herpo the Foul...you know, the works. Eventually, she becomes Arcobaleno.

The other one, features Tom Riddle post-Voldemort. As in, Harry kills him, he dies (of course) reincarnated in another world where there's no magical SOCIETY (but there are magical creatures and some witch and wizard stragglers scattered around the world) and proceeds to become a criminal. Of course. In the muggle mafia of all places that, shockingly enough, isn't anything like the movies showed them to be.

It just makes sense to me. I mean, Viper has Phantasma. That's pretty much all I need. And besides, I don't really believe the canon!Harry can ever become a part of an assassination squad. Maybe. I mean, there are fan fiction writers out there who could twist it just right. ANYWAYS,...

Yeah, I guess that's all I have to say for the most part, I can't remember, I'm just typing here and I think I was supposed to have a point there but kind of lost it...

Yeah.