A/N: M-rating is mostly for language. Sex is frequently talked about, but there's nothing explicit and no real sex scenes. Small bits of 'violence' here and there, but nothing worse than the Harry Potter books themselves (or AoS).
A/N 2: If you don't like a little defiance or questioning of authority, this probably isn't your cup of tea. But while they may be new to the wizarding world, FitzSkimmons are extremely smart, veteran spies with Shield training under Coulson and May, instead of a mindset that hasn't changed since the Medieval Ages. Point being, they know a thing or two, even better than the wizarding world adults they're defying at times (and by 'at times', I mean quite frequently, because let's be honest — most of the adults in Harry Potter are idiots or willfully blind). Therefore, I hold no responsibility for anyone getting butthurt because my characters don't blindly follow authority simply because said people are in positions of authority.
One moment, Fitz was working with his wife in the lab investigating the latest 0-8-4 the team had recovered.
The next moment, he was standing on Kings Cross train platform.
That much he immediately recognized, as he had been there several times in his life, but it took him several more seconds to realize he wasn't just at Kings Cross Station in London — he was also an eleven year old wizard named Harry Potter going to a wizarding school named Hogwarts for the first time, and he was extremely famous because he'd survived a psychopathic murderer murdering his parents.
But looking down at himself, he also saw that he looked — at least in his own eyes — exactly the same as he had before he'd suddenly appeared at Kings Cross. When he'd been in the Shield lab studying the 0-8-4 with Jemma, and Daisy had bounced into the lab to say hi and had pressed the big red button on the outside of the 0-8-4 before either him or Simmons could yell at her not to, activating the 0-8-4 and sending him to — apparently here.
Wherever here actually was.
And speaking of Jemma and Daisy — he really hoped that they hadn't got pulled into this strange new world with him, which at the same time seemed strangely familiar, like it was right on the tip of his tongue or the edge of his brain, but he just couldn't quite recall it. Well, except maybe Daisy — she had been the one to hit the big red button that should never, ever, under any circumstances, ever be pressed. Yeah, he wouldn't feel too bad if she'd been pulled here as well — if only he found her quickly and knew she was safe.
But all that he knew at the moment was that he — or this Harry kid he was in this alternate world created by the 0-8-4 — had to get on board a train to take him to a school of witchcraft and wizardry, and it left at eleven o'clock from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Which was completely absurd, as train platforms only came in whole numbers, and he was definitely standing between platforms nine and ten, with no 'Three-Quarters' in sight.
Looking up at the clock on the wall, he saw that he only had ten minutes to go before the train he was supposed to be on left. He briefly wondered what would happen if he didn't get on the train, if this alternate reality would end, and if so whether he would reappear in the Shield lab or if its ending would end him as well, when he heard voices behind him saying words his new self recognized as being connected to the magical world.
Turning to see who they were, and if they could help him, his heart suddenly leapt with joy. For there, walking with a group of redheads who looked to be a family, was Daisy. But just as he was about to shout out her name and rush over to hug and kiss her, she gave him a sharp shake of her head and a pointed look, silently warning him not to do anything out of character for his new self.
Then she turned to the fat woman who was obviously the mum of the redheaded clan, and said innocently, pointing towards Fitz, "Mum — isn't that another first year? He looks lost."
"What's that, Ronna?" asked the mother, looking towards where Daisy was pointing. "Oh, yes, it looks like you're right."
Pulling her clan with her over to where Fitz was standing watching the whole scene with extreme curiosity, she said to Fitz, "Excuse me dear — you wouldn't happen to be looking for a different platform, would you?"
"One to a school named Hogwarts?" replied Fitz hesitantly, cutting his eyes over at Daisy once to make sure she wasn't giving him any more silent instructions. Harry knew enough to know the magical world was supposed to be kept a secret, and randomly asking strangers you didn't know anything about where a platform that shouldn't exist was, didn't seem like the best way to keep it a secret.
"Yes, yes, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters," answered the woman cheerfully. "Just come with us. To get onto the platform you have to run at the barrier between the two platforms, and you'll pass right through onto the magical platform. Watch Percy, and then Fred and George go through, and then you can go with Ronna, and Ginny and I will follow behind you."
Fitz and Daisy watched the first three go through, before exchanging hesitant glances, and plunging through themselves. Once they were on the other side, they breathed sighs of relief, before heading towards the train together to load their trunks aboard. Thanks to all the pushups Fitz had kept doing over the years, and the fact they were still adults, he and Daisy were able to easily get their trunks up onto the train, and they quickly had them stored in the first empty compartment they came to. As soon as the trunks were out of the way, Fitz and Daisy practically collided with each other as they both rushed to hug the other.
"Hey, Daisy. Glad to see you're safe, wherever the hell we are now," said Fitz when they finally broke apart.
"You too, Fitzy," replied Daisy. "And sorry about activating the 0-8-4 that sent us here — you know I can't resist a big red friendly button. Also, I really need to get back out there for a second and let Mrs Weasley give me a goodbye hug, so as not to arouse any more suspicions than I already have since arriving. But I'll be back as quickly as I can."
But as she opened the compartment door to leave, she paused and turned back and asked, "Seen Jemma?"
"No — I was hoping maybe you had," answered Fitz.
"Unfortunately no — but I'll keep my eye out on the platform," replied Daisy, before disappearing down the corridor.
~FSK~
A few minutes later, as the shrill whistle of the train sounded, Daisy walked back into the compartment, and plopped down in the seat next to Fitz.
"So what exactly the hell is going on here?" she asked as she leaned up to give him a quick kiss.
"Best as I can tell, the 0-8-4 either transported us to some alternate reality or dimension or something, where we've replaced an eleven year old boy named Harry Potter and who I'm assuming is a similarly aged girl named Ronna, both of whom are wizards, setting off to attend a magical school named Hogwarts; or else, we're in some kind of virtual reality or fictional world created by the 0-8-4, with the same basic plot," answered Fitz after he returned the kiss. "So I think first things first, we need to figure out exactly who we each are and what we know.
"I'm supposed to be Harry Potter, extremely famous because a psychopath everyone's afraid to say's name murdered his parents but didn't successfully kill him, no one's told him why. He's extremely rich, at least based on the prices I remember Harry seeing in Diagon Alley, but was raised by his magic-hating aunt and uncle, who were abusive to him. He only learned about magic and the fact he's a wizard a month ago on his birthday, and really knows very little about the wizarding world. So what about you?"
"I'm Ronna Weasley, sixth in line of Weasley children, first girl in several generations, and her family is completely destitute. All of her family is wizards and have been for as long as anyone remembers, so she's what they call a pureblood here," said Daisy. "And I think her mom has dreams of either her or her younger sister marrying Harry one day."
"That shouldn't be a problem to fulfill," smirked Fitz as he leaned over and pecked Daisy on the lips again.
"Yes, but I don't think she meant as eleven year olds," replied Daisy, rolling her eyes. "Speaking of which, though, that part's confusing me. I'm definitely all the Daisy Johnson you've come to know and love, but everyone here definitely thinks I'm only eleven, and exactly who I'm supposed to be. And the same for you — you're still the same cute and ruggedly handsome Fitz I married, but everyone seems to think you're eleven as well. Oh — and by the way, you do have the lighting bolt-shaped scar on your forehead that everyone here knows exists — that's new, and sexy."
Fitz turned and looked at his reflection in the window, easily spotting the scar she was referring to.
Turning back to Daisy, he said, "Once again, I'm just guessing here, but apparently part of the 0-8-4 is that no one recognizes us as not being who we're supposed to be. We do seem to both have some slight features that makes us blend in, though, because I have the scar I'm famous for, and your hair is a redder shade of brown than I can remember it ever being back in our world, since you're from a family of redheads."
"Makes sense, I suppose — or at least as much as any of this makes sense," replied Daisy. "Also, when did you show up here? I mean, how long ago in this timeline?"
"A couple minutes before I saw you."
"Okay, me too," said Daisy. "One moment I was in the lab pressing an inviting red button, the next I was walking into that train station with a bunch of people who thought I was their sister or daughter. Also, whoever I am thought it was a good idea to bring their rat they don't really like to school, and carry it in their pocket. So yeah, I have a rat in my pocket — have I ever mentioned how much I don't like rats?"
"Only every time Jemma experiments on them in our lab," smiled Fitz, as Daisy pulled the rat out and quickly tossed it in her trunk so as not to have a rat in her pocket the entire rest of the trip.
~FSK~
Fitz and Daisy continued talking about everything they knew of their new world as the train rattled on northward.
At lunchtime, a cart came by with a bunch of weird wizarding sweets and no real food on it, and a while later a boy their age coming by looking for a toad, but other than that, nothing interesting happened. Until no more than five minutes after the boy had left, when the compartment door suddenly flew open again, and before Fitz or Daisy even had time to look up to see who was there, they found themselves engulfed in a mighty hug.
"Finally! I've been searching all over the train for you two!" exclaimed Simmons, for that is who it was.
"Jemma! It's so good to see you! Are you okay?" asked Fitz urgently, cupping her cheeks in his hands and quickly looking her over.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," reassured Simmons, smiling brightly. "Also, I'm Hermione here. And speaking of which" — here she turned back and motioned towards the toadless boy who was standing in the doorway looking highly confused — "this is Neville. He's looking for a toad he's lost."
"Still haven't seen it, sorry," said Daisy to Neville with a shake of her head.
Looking at Neville, Simmons said politely, "You wouldn't mind if I caught up with my friends for a few minutes, would you? I'm sure if you keep looking, someone will have seen your toad sooner or later."
Neville nodded, before closing the door and heading off down the corridor to search some more for his toad.
As soon as they were alone, Fitz pulled Simmons to him and kissed her hard.
"It's only been part of a morning and afternoon," laughed Simmons as he pulled back.
"Which is always far too long in my opinion," replied Fitz. "But seriously, we didn't know if you'd come with us at all, and if you had whether you were safe or not, or what had happened. Daisy and I met within minutes of arriving, but we had no clue about you until just now."
"Okay, okay, fair enough," laughed Simmons. "And I missed you, too. Both of you — though maybe you a little less, Daisy, since you're the reason we're in this mess," she finished with a smirk at the younger girl.
"Yeah, yeah, blame it all on the second wife — that's the only reason you married me, right? To have a scape goat?" teased Daisy, before adding, "But seriously, it's really good to see you, Jemma."
"And you too," replied Simmons, before adding, "Also, I like the new hair. It's a redder shade of brown than I've ever seen it before — looks nice. You should try it in our world when we finally get back."
"Maybe," said Daisy. "But I'd kind of like to actually get a good look at it first, since unlike you two, I haven't actually really gotten to see it except as a reflection in the window, which doesn't really say much."
"Personally, I still think the blue streak was your best look, and I'm not sure how that would go with a redder tint instead of the dark shade you had at the time," said Fitz.
"Yes, well, we can determine what to do with my hair later — right now, shouldn't we learn who Jemma is here, and then figure out what we're going to do about all this?" replied Daisy.
"Right — of course," said Simmons crisply. "I'm Hermione Granger, a muggleborn, bookworm, and genius —"
"So you didn't change at all," interjected Fitz with a smirk.
Simmons rolled her eyes at her husband and continued, "The first thing we have to do is make sure we stay together when we get to Hogwarts. There are four houses all the students are separated out into, which Hermione fortunately did a lot of research on. Our best bet is to all get sorted into Gryffindor House. And I know how we get sorted, but unfortunately none of the books Hermione read actually went into how that really works. There's this stereotypical pointed witches hat called the Sorting Hat, that we put on and it says what house we go into. But I don't how the hat decides, or if there is any way we can influence it."
"My family's all been in Gryffindor so far, so it seems likely I will be, too, without some radical change," said Daisy.
"And I'm pretty sure Hagrid — the giant of a man, if he really is just a man at all, who introduced Harry to this world — told Harry that his parents were in Gryffindor, so if family trends hold up, I should be Gryffindor as well," added Fitz.
"Which means it looks like it's down to me to make sure I'm not left out," sighed Simmons.
"But you're the one who did all the research and determined she wanted to be in Gryffindor in the first place — maybe that counts for something?" encouraged Daisy softly.
"Maybe — hopefully," said Simmons.
"What are the chances it won't matter at all, because whatever this is will disappear, or wear off, or transport us back before this sorting ever happens?" asked Daisy. "And speaking of which, how long is this going to last? Either of you geniuses figured that out yet?"
"If we're lucky, maybe just through the end of the day or twenty-four hours or something," said Fitz. "But we came in right at the beginning of a school year, so it's also possible the 0-8-4 doesn't run out until the end of the school year."
"That's forever!" exclaimed Daisy. "Like what, nine or ten months?!"
"But it's probably only a second in our world, if even," replied Simmons reasonably.
"But it's still nine or ten months here!" exclaimed Daisy, thinking that her wife was really missing the point.
"Do you see any alternative?" demanded Simmons. "I'm not saying we don't look for a way out, but unless we find one, I don't see any other choice."
Daisy poutily glared at her wife for several long seconds, before finally deflating and grumbling, "Fine, but you better be looking hard."
Any real argument avoided for the time being, they returned to talking through everything they each knew about their new world and lives, pooling their combined knowledge, until a few hours later when the compartment door slid open again, presenting three boys, the middle of whom was the clear leader.
"Are you Harry Potter?" he demanded without preamble, looking at Fitz.
Fitz raised a slight eyebrow at the boy's attitude, before suddenly realizing, "Hey, I know you, don't I? You were in that robe shop when Harry — I mean I — got my robes."
The boy looked at Fitz strangely for a second as Fitz sifted in his mind through everything Harry had learned about the boy, before the boy said pompously, "My father told me that Harry Potter would be going to Hogwarts this year. And no one else on the train seemed to know where you were, and this was the last compartment."
"Fascinating deduction — we've got a real Sherlock on our hands," replied Fitz dryly. The only things he could remember about the boy from Harry's brief encounter with him was that he'd seemed very arrogant and not at all nice.
After several seconds in which the boy was clearly waiting for Fitz to ask him who he was, and FitzSkimmons weren't giving two shits who he was, the boy finally introduced himself and his companions. "This is Crabbe and Goyle, and my name's Malfoy — Draco Malfoy."
"Malfoy? Your family served Voldemort and then came back claiming you'd been bewitched, didn't you?" blurted out Daisy, before suddenly covering her hand with her mouth as she remembered they were supposed to be trying to blend in, not antagonizing the locals.
Malfoy's eyebrows rose sharply, clearly in shock at being addressed so bluntly. But he quickly managed to turn it into a sneer, and said, "No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
"Can't disagree with you there, though Simmons's got way more freckles than me," muttered Daisy quietly to herself, but Malfoy either didn't hear her, wasn't paying attention, or didn't know how to respond to that.
Instead, he turned to Fitz and said superiorly, "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
"I have my friends already, thank you very much," replied Fitz coolly, wrapping his arms around the shoulders of Daisy and Simmons where they sat on either side of him, ignoring Malfoy's outstretched hand.
Malfoy reddened slightly, and growled, "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."
Logically, Fitz and Daisy knew Malfoy expected them to get really angry and outraged over his insult of Harry Potter's parents and calling the Weasleys and Hagrid riffraff, but as all either of them (and Simmons, as well) actually knew about Harry's parents, the Weasleys, and Hagrid were artificial memories, the three of them simply looked back indifferently at Malfoy, until Fitz finally shrugged.
"These two riffraffs, at least, are more than welcome to rub me," he said, before adding with a smirk in an undertone just for Simmons and Daisy, "And a whole lot more than that if they like."
As Simmons and Daisy rolled their eyes at their husband, though both secretly agreeing, Malfoy apparently came to the conclusion that he wasn't going to successfully get a rise out of the three of them at the moment, and muttering to his pals, stalked out of the compartment and back down the corridor from whence they came, leaving the door wide open behind them in one last act of pettiness.
Fifteen minutes later, Fitz was still discussing with the other two everything he could remember about Harry's encounter with Malfoy in the robe shop in Diagon Alley, with Daisy adding in everything Ronna knew about the Malfoys in general, when they heard a voice echo through the train, "We will be reaching Hogwarts in fifteen minutes' time. Please change into your school robes if you have not done so already, and leave your luggage and pets on the train, as they will be taken to the school separately."
As Fitz and Daisy opened their respective trunks, Simmons remembered that her trunk was in a completely different compartment.
"Can't you just wear one of Daisy's?" asked Fitz. "Harry at least was told to buy three sets of robes, and I would think robes would be loose enough that your slight size differences wouldn't make enough of a difference. In fact, you could probably wear one of mine and it not be particularly noticeable."
"They just look like robes to me," said Daisy as she pulled out two robes, holding one out to Simmons. And if she just slightly squealed upon seeing Ronna's rat that she'd completely forgot about putting in there when she opened her trunk, who was going to blame her?
The three of them quickly threw on their robes, and when the train rolled to a stop several minutes later, followed the rest of the students out onto the dark platform they'd arrived at.