Chapter 6
That Harri was ready to board the train was an understatement. She threatened Petunia to give her the diary sooner, and to take her to King Cross an hour earlier so that she could do some damage control and set up a harmless prank that would make her look less dangerous and dark.
She crossed the barrier of platform 9 and ¾ and ran to the other side where she boarded the train and kept her shrunken, featherlight luggage in her new jean pockets and Hedwig in her cage meanwhile she boarded the train. Harri tied her hair up and got ready for business and went to the trolley lady and bought all of the chocolate frogs before she had even started to set up her cart. She looked at her suspiciously at first and Harri gave the trolley lady her best wounded puppy dog face that Sirius taught her how to make and watered her eyes a bit and said in a choked voice,
"I never had a friend; I just want to be able to make friends. I don't think they will like me much" that softened her heart and she instantly agreed to sell her all of her chocolate frogs in that moment. With that, Harri put all of the chocolate frogs in her bottomless money pouch and went to the first compartment in the front and locked herself in, working to open every chocolate frog before the train took off. Hedwig stared at her from her perch and stared at Harri suspiciously and approvingly before taking a nap."
Harri shrugged and went at it for almost an hour and a half opening chocolate frogs and putting a stasis charm on them and placing them in a transfigured container. Harri continued fruitfully until someone knocked on her compartment door and she opened her compartment door and popped her head outside. She stared at the two identical twin boys, happy to see someone that she was on good terms with from her first life. They peered inside over her head and their eyes bugged out to see the amount of chocolate frogs that she had opened and still had to open.
"Boys?" she asked mischievously, giving them a shit eating smirk that promised trouble for anyone that went against her. An expression that they themselves are too familiar with judging by their knowing and similar smiles that matched their faces.
"Look here Gred" George began,
"An ickle little firstie, Feorge" Fred continued, smiling at his brother
"Up to no good" George bounced back
"I reckon" Fred finished. Harri rolled her eyes at their antics and smiled at them.
"so… are you going to help me or not?" she asked continuing her endeavor of opening chocolate frogs and putting stasis charms on all of them.
"They grow up so fast Feorge!" Fred lamented to the heavens.
"They get younger every year!" George fell to his knees and pretended to sob.
"I remember our first time!" Fred exclaimed passionately. Harri couldn't help and snorted at this, not bothering to hide the unintentional innuendo that she caught intentionally. They both raised their eyebrow at this but continued with their charade.
"we at least waited until" George continued, also catching the unintentional innuendo that she snorted style.
"a couple of weeks after" Fred sighed tragically.
"our Sort…classes" George finished.
"Harri continued unimpressed and passed them chocolate frogs for them to unwrap and locked the doors once again. They accepted them and Harri continued.
"I want to come in and go out with a bang" they nodded understandably and went onto unwrapping them and putting the statis charms after a little tutorial from Harri and went on their way.
"I can't get detention before starting the term, so I want to take advantage of that before I start." They stopped and started to riot in protests about how they should have taken advantage of that. Harri laughed at them, and they both stopped to hear and watch her smile and laugher at their banter a bit too long, finding a kindred spirit in her. Once they finished, she thanked them and announced in her best informercial voice.
"Thank you, gentlemen, you shall be seeing the fruits of our labor once the train takes off and everyone is trapped in here with me" Harri grinned wickedly, and they both gave an unspoken decision not to cross her.
"You'll know when the prank starts when you hear the loud music" they both gave her a mocking bow and kissed her ring pinky
"My lady, always at your service" they both reverently said at the same time. Both Fred and George, froze at the exact same moment that they notice the Potter insignia on her ring and finally noticed that she was the Harriet Potter. She just smirked at them and shooed them out of her compartment before they could comment. Harri took her stash of chocolate frogs in her transfigured cauldron and waited until the train started moving and everyone was settled into the compartment, and then Harri went to the front of the train and set a Sonorous on the DVD player blasting music from it before the electronic went haywire from the magic surrounding it. Harri made sure to pick out the right song to go with the occasion, and she picked 'Holding out for a Hero' because everybody expected too damn much of her and because she was looking for a good man. Harri cued the music, and the twins came out immediately with identical grins on their face. Harri put a timer on the tipped over cauldron and ran to the center of the compartments and put on her best damsel in distress face and started her dramatics for the school.
Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Harri swayed dramatically and sang along clutching one of the door handles for dear life and continued with her demonstration.
Where's the streetwise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed
Late at night, I toss and I turn
Harri took ahold of herself in her arms and fell to her knees and extended an arm outward towards the ceiling of the train.
And I dream of what I need
I need a hero
At this line, Harri cast a Finite on the cauldron and let all of the frogs out and more than 700 chocolate frogs came out bursting from the cauldron nonstop. Immediately there were prefects yelling at everyone to calm down and looked at Harri like one would look at the Coming of Voldemort. But Harri continued lamenting her sorrows and sat down on one of her legs and extended the other like if she were an injured maiden.
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
"He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
At this the chocolate frogs have reached Harri, and Harri did nothing to deter the army of frogs, instead, Harri let the chocolate frogs consume her from where she sat on the floor still in her damsel in distress position. But the students could still hear her singing to the lyrics no matter how loud the cacophony of ribbits the frogs made.
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure, and it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life
Larger than life
Somewhere after midnight
At this point everyone was too engrossed in her performance to mind the frogs dirtying their robes and recking havoc in their compartments.
In my wildest fantasy
Somewhere, just beyond my reach
There's someone reaching back for me
Harri was surprised when two strong arms reached out for her and picked her up in a princess carry style.
Racing on the thunder
And rising with the heat
It's gonna take a Superman to sweep me off my feet, yeah
Harri laughed when she noticed that both twins had picked her up and now had her on her side. With George holding her waist and Fred holding out her legs spinning her around. Harri took advantage of that and let her hand swoop to the ground dramatically that only a Black could display.
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
They continued spinning her around, now walking past the compartment with students both getting in the spirit of the performance and other in disgust that such theatrics were being displayed on the train.
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure, and it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
Harri finished her damage control and before anyone could respond to that, if they even knew how to respond to that. The twins let her down and she took both of their hands and joined them together and then took their hands in her own and start spinning them around the aisle of the compartments. Harri changed the song and cut to the middle of 'You Spin Me Round'
You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round
Like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round
The three of them in hysterics laughed and span around with chocolate frog's sill storming down upon them and not caring that they were crushing so many of them with their spinning. Harri spun them around widely, making people step inside their compartments to avoid crashing into them. She noticed Ron staring at his brothers in obvious jealousy because of the attention that they attracted on them.
You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round"
Like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round
When they were passing Ron's compartment she let go of George and took Ron's hand and pulled him into the circle with them. Both George and Harri took his hand and began spinning them around the aisle of the compartment and span faster now that their group was larger. Ron blushed to be holding hands with a girl, but he was too pleased to be included in the mayhem that attracted such a big audience that was sure to put a name to his face.
You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round
Like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round (I want your love)
"Faster!" Harri yelled and continued singing.
You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round
Like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round (I want your love)
Harri let out a euphoric laugh when they stopped and collapsed into the brothers making them all tumble into the chocolate covered floor and also start laughing hysterically, not caring about the dubious and scornful looks thrown their way by the older Ravenclaw and Slytherin population.
"Harri!" called a voice from ten compartments down, and she noticed that she had passed Draco without noticing him. Harri looked shocked at him and shot him a bright smile waving at him, causing him to blush when many people turned to look at the Malfoy heir who was also not spared by the chocolate.
Harri helped the twins and Ron up and patted down her soaked chocolate hair that made her hair look auburn instead of flaming red.
"I hope to see you around boys" Harri bid her farewells to the Weasley brothers and went to talk to Draco before Ron could intervene. And walked briskly to Draco and took his extended arm turning his away from the Weasleys.
"Draco! How are you?"
Harri smiled holding out her hand so that he could kiss the chocolate covered Potter Ring. Draco made a face before composing his face and kissing her hand. This performance was not the first impression that Draco wanted his peers to have of Harri. Draco was rather proud that he got to introduce the Harriet Potter to his peers and to Hogwarts. But instead, she had gone and let everyone know that she was a ticking time bomb ready to go off any minute.
"Miss Potter, I think it's best to take this inside the compartment" Draco spoke evenly trying not to look like he already regretted his decision in presenting her to his peers. Harri nodded and walked into the chocolate covered compartment failing to hold her snort in when she saw chocolate covered students that were usually so compose. Her eyes lit in amusement as she saw the faces of Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Daphne Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, Gregory Goyle, and Vincet Crabbe, and Tracey Davis, all covered in chocolate.
"These are my childhood companions" Draco spoke when they were inside the closed compartment. Harri nodded at them and waited for Draco to introduce her.
"This is Lady Harriet Potter" Draco spoke trying to imitate his father's speech pattern.
"The pleasure is all mine" and her eyes lingered an extra second on Theodore's face. Theodore and Harri had hit it off fairly well in their late twenties and gotten very well acquainted with each other. Theo had never gotten the mark, and he never participated in his father's Death Eaters pastimes, so she was more than happy to get to know him. Theo was the longest lover she had after Matthew had left her. He didn't seem bothered that she couldn't have children, as he was wary of becoming a father and fathering a child, fearing that he would fuck up like his own father did to him, and accepted her whole heartedly.
And they always had a great time together, embraced each other and shared whispered secrets nobody else knew about. It also helped that they didn't need to use protection as she couldn't have children and she was on a potion to prevent fertilization, not wanting another miscarriage. They were both happy as lovers and companions. But as Fate seems to enjoy getting a kick out of Harri's despair; an old, legally binding contract was revealed by Daphne's father that bounded Theo to Daphne and forced him to marry her, lest he lose his life. Theo had told her that the contract didn't prevent infidelity, and that they could continue as they had, but Harri knew the right thing to do was sacrifice this small happiness of hers and had to let him ago after a painful, lust filled, sorrowful kiss and one last slow love making before he tied the knot. They had argued for hours about the contract and ended up in red rimmed eyes and tears from both sides, as Harri would not become a mistress and take away the husband of another woman. Harri had kissed him feverishly and hungrily, wanting to keep something of him to remember him by. Afterwards, whenever they saw each other, they would lock gazes for a couple of seconds before turning away in longing and continuing without none the wiser
Seeing his young face brought a tenderness in her heart and she reminisced about those days. Looking at Theo now, she realized that he had grown into his looks, losing the rabbitiness of his face and gaining a strong jaw line in his years after Hogwarts.
Harri continued eyeing the soon to be Slytherin students and noticed Pansy giving her a sneer. Harri smiled at them, pretending not to notice Pansy eyeing her up
"Is it true that you speak to snakes?" Zabini asked, not attending the Malfoy ball himself and finding himself skeptical of the rumors. Harri nodded her head
"They also speak back to me" Harri lightly teased him. His dark skin flushed a light pink that was barely noticeable to the others.
"But yes, I can hold conversations with snakes." Harri nodded at him.
"What was the whole fiasco about?" Bulstrode asked Harri. She was curious about her reasoning of pulling a prank at that level and even before term started. Harri shrugged and simply said,
"Damage control" they all nodded, pretending to understand, but to proud to ask her to elaborate.
Harri let go of Draco's arm and sat herself next to Tracy and Daphne, offering them a small smile and striking up a conversation with both girls. Harri didn't hate Daphne, she knew that Daphne also didn't have a choice in the matter. But it still hurt her a bit to talk to the woman that ended up involuntary taking her happiness away from her. Harri put on a smile and continued talking to both girls, ignoring Pansy's sneers at everything she said.
