A/N: Hey y'all! Welcome to Chapter 11 of Harry Potter and Destiny's Last Chance! I am so glad that you're all enjoying the story so far! Thanks again for your patience with my irregular updates! Time for a light-hearted chapter after all the action of the past several!
Let me consult my legal team… Nope, I still don't own anything except the original characters, the plot, and any spells, locations, etc. that aren't canon to Harry Potter or Black Butler. J.K. Rowling still owns all the canon Harry Potter characters, places, etc., Yana Toboso still owns all the canon Black Butler characters, places, etc., and Reptilia28 still owns the "Don't Fear the Reaper" challenge!
Chapter 11-Welcome Home, Potter
After saying good-bye to Hermione and her parents with the plan of getting together soon, Emily took Harry's hand as they Apparated to the Tarleton residence. Harry was amazed by his new home! The house was a modest ranch-style with a wrap-around porch. To the right of the house was a large red barn, and a blue pick-up truck was parked in the driveway.
"Welcome home, Harry!" said Emily with a warm smile.
"It's wonderful!" Harry complimented as he took in the beautiful, non Privet Drive view.
"Hedwig is welcome to stay with you in your room, but there's also a perch and feeding station in the top portion of the barn as well, if she'd prefer," said Emily as they approached the house. In a conspiratorial whisper, she added, "The barn is also a great place to practice spells." In response to Harry's raised eyebrow, Emily giggled. "You're now living in a home where there is an adult capable of using magic. Therefore, our home works just like your friends Mr. Weasley and Mr. Longbottom, where they are technically able to use magic at home because there are adults in the home using magic and the Ministry certainly can't be investigating every instance of magic coming from a Magical home!"
"So you're condoning my breaking the rules?" Harry asked with a grin.
"James would be bloody disappointed if you didn't have a little fun now and again!"
The duo walked up the front steps and crossed the porch to the front door, which the witch unlocked and pushed open. "Mum, we're here!" she called as they stepped in and closed the door.
"In here!" an older woman's voice called from a few rooms away.
Harry and Emily walked through the living room and the dining room to the kitchen where the woman was busy cubing up seasoned chicken breasts. When she saw the two enter the room, she smiled. "Welcome home!" she greeted.
"Hello, Mum," Emily returned, hugging her. "Harry, this is my mum, Mariska. Mum, this is Harry," she introduced.
"Hello, Harry," said Mariska as she pulled him into a hug. "I'm sure you hear it all the time, but you could be your father's double if it weren't for those eyes; those are your mother's eyes."
"Thank you, Miss Mariska," Harry answered. "It's great to meet you!"
"I do hope you're both hungry! I'm making Bruschetta and Zucchini Pasta with Chicken," said Mariska as she returned to the counter. "It will be ready in 10 minutes."
"Sounds great, Mum," said Emily. "I'm going to give Harry the grand tour and let him at least get his things in his room before we eat."
Mariska nodded in understanding as she finished the chicken and moved on to dicing up plum tomatoes.
"Well, you've already seen the living room, dining room, and kitchen," said Emily as they made their way through. "Down this hallway is the laundry room, Mum's room, the bathroom, my room, and here's your room," said Emily, indicating each door as they passed before stopping at a wooden door in the middle of the suspiciously long hall. Harry turned to look at Emily.
"You used expansion charms on your house, didn't you?" he asked.
"Yes," Emily confirmed with a laugh as she opened the doorknob to Harry's room. "I do hope you like it! You can decorate it however you'd like, and if you'd prefer different furniture, we can change to what you'd like instead of what's here."
Harry looked around his room in awe. It was a large room with white walls and a plush scarlet carpet. The twin windows were each furnished with goldenrod drapes. His bed was full-sized with a soft mattress covered in Gryffindor red and gold. He had a desk, dresser, bookcase, nightstand, and entertainment center, all mahogany, and a decent sized television sat inside the entertainment center. There were several books already on the shelf, some of which were Muggle titles while others were magic. There was also a roomy closet. Next to the window was a small table.
"That's for Hedwig's cage if she'd like to stay in the house," Emily explained. "I wasn't sure what size you are and what kind of clothes you like to wear, so I thought we could go shopping tomorrow and get your clothes and anything else you'd like." Then she hesitated. "Do you like your room?" she asked nervously.
"I love it!" said Harry with a wide grin. He turned to the anxious witch and gave her a great big hug. "Thank you, Emily!"
Emily breathed a sigh of relief. "You're very welcome, Harry!"
Harry pushed his trunk into the closet to unpack after dinner and set Hedwig's cage on the table by the window. He pushed one of the windows open and unlatched the cage door. "Are you ready to go hunting, girl?" Harry asked the cage's occupant. Hedwig gave a hoot of confirmation and flew out of the cage onto Harry's proffered arm. "I'll leave the window and your cage open if you want to come back inside, or you can roost in the barn if you want," said Harry. Hedwig gave another hoot and nipped Harry's ear playfully before taking off out the window in search of her meal.
"Emily, Harry! Dinner!" Mariska called from the kitchen.
The two returned to the front of the house, where Mariska had three places set with heaping plates of food and glasses of milk. She ushered Harry to the seat with the largest portion. "You'll get some meat on your bones if I have a say in the matter!" she declared as the boy sat down.
Harry was touched by the concern that this woman was showing him after knowing him for mere minutes. "Thank you, Miss Mariska."
"There's no need for formalities among family, my dear," she responded with a gentle smile.
The young wizard's eyes stung with unshed tears of joy forming in the corners. "It's nice to have a family that cares," he murmured.
Emily squeezed his hand. "Get used to it, Harry; we're not going anywhere. I'm sure Hermione will be by often as well, and the rest of your friends are also welcome whenever you want."
Harry murmured another gratitude before they said grace and dug in. "This is delicious!" he praised as he began devouring his dinner.
"I'm so glad you like it, dear," said Mariska with a grin. Once Harry had cleared his plate, the Muggle woman noticed him glancing at the bowl of pasta. "Do help yourself," she encouraged. "There are no rations in this house; you eat as much as you want, and don't be shy about asking for anything. I want you to eat until your stomach is full, whether it's after one plate or six!" Mariska was elated to see Harry eat another plate and a half after this prompt.
Once they'd finished eating, the trio made small talk as they put the leftovers away and washed up the dishes before retiring to the living room to watch a movie. Harry grinned when he saw Emily putting Star Wars into the VCR. The witch returned the grin when she saw the boy's reaction. "Remus mentioned that you liked Star Wars, so I thought it'd be a nice way to kick off the summer."
"I've never been able to watch it, actually," Harry admitted. "There was a girl in my primary school class, before I got my Hogwarts letter, and she talked nonstop about Star Wars. Dudley was never interested in it, and I certainly couldn't ask Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon to watch it. I'm really excited to be able to finally see it!"
"I'm glad you get to see it, too; I know you're gonna love it!"
Harry did indeed love Star Wars; the movie was absolutely amazing! "Wow! That was brilliant!"
"Yes, it's a fantastic movie, as are the other two," said Mariska. "Here, let me grab us some dessert and we'll watch the next one."
"Mum's answer to everything is food," Emily teased.
"Yes, but in this case, we'll enjoy some lazy food: Oreos and peanut butter!" Mariska announced as she returned with a pack of Oreos, a large jar of Jiff, a spoon, and 3 plates.
Harry immensely enjoyed his first evening as a member of the Tarleton household, watching movies and eating junk food with two women who already loved him. When The Empire Strikes Back ended, Mariska gave a big yawn.
"Well, I don't know about you young ones, but I'm ready to turn in for the evening."
"That actually sounds pretty good; we've had a pretty busy day," Emily commented as Harry stifled a yawn of his own.
"Well, why don't we all turn in, then?"
Harry and Emily agreed that this was a good idea, and the three bade each other good-night before retiring to their respective rooms. Harry shut his door and went to his closet to retrieve his pajamas from his trunk, deciding to postpone unpacking the trunk until morning. He found that Hedwig had returned from her hunt and was back in her cage, preening her feathers. "Hey, girl," Harry greeted as he shut the window and proceeded to change into his pajamas. Just as he was about to climb into bed, William materialized in the middle of the room.
"Good evening, Harry," the stoic Reaper greeted.
"Hi, William," Harry returned. "Has something happened?"
"Besides you changing your future for the better thus far?" William asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Er, yes. I don't usually get visits from you unless it's serious," Harry replied as he sat on the end of his bed while William took a seat at the desk chair.
"True. I also don't usually get so devoted to my Souls, but you're different. I'm very much invested in your story, and I'm rooting for you. Well, Grelle and I both are, actually. So, you enjoyed your first night with your new guardian?"
"Yes! I feel like I'm with family here. The only other time I've felt like that is in my past lives when I was with Sirius. Oh, I've been meaning to ask you: Why wasn't Emily in my life before?"
William sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You didn't know Emily Tarleton before because Grelle Sutcliff is an insufferable imbecile. He was to collect the soul of an Englishwoman from Cornwall named Emilie Charleston, who was to die of a brain aneurysm while visiting friends in Munich, but the idiot reaped the soul of Emily Tarleton instead. This was the day that Emily was due to return home from Germany. When Grelle realized his error, he tried to fix his bungle rather than reporting it to Management and ended up erasing Emily Tarleton from existence."
"My God! So, what was different this time? I've never known her before this timeline, and Sirius and Remus certainly never mentioned that they had such a close friend that was also my mother's friend. Why was she able to exist now?"
"Remember what I told you when we spoke in my office before you arrived in this time? Only Souls with a special destiny get do-overs. However, since this is your final chance, I decided that we could help put things to your advantage. When we sent you back to this time, I asked Undertaker to open another hole in the time stream that would go back a little bit further to reinsert Emily's Soul into the timeline."
"But how did you have time to do that? I went immediately from your office to the Hogwarts Express."
"It seemed instantaneous for you, but it actually took you a few hours to be moved in the timeline. This gave us plenty of time before you awoke in this timeline to put Emily back and right Grelle's egregious mistake."
Harry blinked as he processed this information. "Woah… Thank you, William!"
"You're welcome, Harry. I believe in you and your ability to achieve your destiny. With that being said, I also believe in stacking the deck in your favor when possible." The Reaper glanced at the alarm clock on Harry's nightstand. "Well, I should let you get to sleep. Keep up the good work, Mr. Potter."
With a grin, Harry responded, "I'll make you proud, Mr. Spears!"
The stoic Reaper returned the grin before vanishing from the wizard's bedroom and materializing in the Grim Reaper Dispatch. He found his redheaded coworker sitting in his office, fuming.
"Will, why must you always be so mean? I'm not an imbecile!" Grelle whined.
"Of course not," William returned sarcastically. "Anyone could have accidentally erased someone from existence!"
Grelle pouted. "I'm not talking to you anymore!"
"That's fine."
The flamboyant Reaper left the room in a huff. William sat down at his desk and counted aloud. "3, 2, 1,…" As soon as the last number left William's lips, Grelle came back into the office with his nose in the air. The shark-toothed Reaper sat in one of the chairs on the opposite side of William's desk in silence for a few minutes before he dropped his feigned disinterest.
"Sweet Harry finally has a nice home! Now, when is his Miss Granger returning?"
"I have a feeling she'll be stopping by for a visit very soon."
William then stood and picked Harry's book up off of his desk and started down the hallway to the library to replace it, with Grelle following. As he pushed the book back into place, another one began glowing. William's brows knit together in confusion as he read the name on the spine. "Hmm… how curious…"
"What is it, Will?" Grelle asked, peeking over the brunette's shoulder.
"I do believe that Mr. Potter's story is about to get more interesting. He may have another ally."
"What, him?" Grelle questioned, pointing at the book. "You think that he'll be Harry's ally?"
"Perhaps. We'll have to see what choices he makes…" William trailed off as he carried the book to a sofa and opened it up.
"Hey, wait for me!" Grelle protested.
A/N: Oh my! Whose book are William and Grelle looking at, and will they be a help to Harry in his trek to achieve his destiny? Find out next chapter! Let me know in the review section who you think is the subject of William's book and if you think that they'll help or hurt Harry's mission. Thanks for reading!