It was hard to believe, but here she was fifteen and a runaway. Except it was less "running away" and more "getting away from a very abusive home life."

Harmony Potter hated her life.

Ever since she was little, weird things happened around her. And it had only gotten worse when she was almost killed by the Dark Lord at fifteen months old.

Fortunately, it seemed even though her own people wouldn't lift a finger to help her, her own powers refused to let her die. Though it certainly seemed more like a curse the longer she had to endure the stupidity of wizards.

Hence why she had run away.

It took her two months, and an unfortunate return to the nights where she had nothing to eat for days on end.

If there was one thing the Dursleys were good for...and didn't that thought make her want to gag...it was training young children how to survive for days on end with limited food and still have the power to keep moving in spite of it.

Ironically, it was also because of those creatures that she was able to get a job so quickly.

Apparently finding people willing to work in the kitchens and pretended to be deaf were in high demand.

To be fair, she didn't understand a word of what they were saying in the first place. And playing dumb had always helped her before when it came to her aunt.

It was terrifyingly easy for her to let her excuse of being mute and possibly deaf work. She just had to keep her mouth shut and never talk, not even a whisper.

And to her shock, she learned.

Housekeeping, it seemed, was full of people who spoke a variety of languages in just as many accents. By staying quiet and just listening, she was steadily learning new things and not just recipes.

Most girls her age would have balked at the drudge work, which mostly consisted of peeling, washing, cutting and doing basic work like keeping the kitchens going.

Harmony was not most people. She lost herself in the familiarity of the work, even if she mostly did prep with the cooking since she was unfamiliar with the dishes.

She wondered how Hermione would have survived in her job, before inwardly snorting.

Hermione wouldn't have lasted a week. She hated housework almost as much as Ron hated using his brain for anything other than chess. The sheer amount of whining she did whenever Harmony bullied the other girls into cleaning up their areas...even if it meant learning a rather large variety of languages, she wouldn't have put up with it.

It was almost soothing, falling back into old patterns of behavior like cleaning, preparing the food so it could be cooked, and keeping her head down. About the only change from her "family" and now was that she had a proper room and was feed with regularity.

She was completely unaware that her very presence in the "Iron Fort" was stirring up the Family into a frenzy because of her habit of pushing the odd power that had kept her alive in the first place into the ground.

She didn't know why, but she had always likened it to a burning flame. On the plus side, she never had to worry about being startled by someone behind her.

Her flames saturated the ground with ruthless efficiency, giving her a perfect 360 degree vision of her surroundings. And it only got more detailed the longer she stayed in a place. It had taken her months to differentiate the difference between someone standing behind her and being one floor up or down.

Especially at Hogwarts, where she kept getting the two confused.

Harmony was content. She could live with this, even if it meant never going back.

Especially if it meant never going back and facing the people who had quite thoroughly destroyed her faith in others altogether.

It was hard to believe that because of her hard work, she had been...promoted... to the Housekeeping staff in the Varia headquarters. It meant a bigger paycheck, not that she ever cared since most of her basic needs were cared for.

Food, shelter, a basic shower and toilet, and clothes. Since everyone thought she was deaf or mute, they didn't bother her overly much.

Most of the time they 'helped' by showing her what they wanted her to do and left her to it. She would then go about her task without pause, and return to the kitchens after returning whatever items she had been using to their proper place.

The cook hated her ability to sneak up on him and wait for several minutes without making a sound. But he loved the fact Harmony would work without complaint or causing trouble. And she always performed the task promptly.

In reality her "promotion" was anything but. The higher ups were becoming antsy because some random Flame user was slowly turning the Iron Fort into their territory and they were trying to find the culprit.

The problem was that Harmony had never spoken, and either was uneducated or couldn't hear words. Her inability to speak would only get her killed, and others with her if she were questioned.

Hence why they shuffled her off to the Varia Headquarters. Squalo was considered much more reasonable than the main family.

Harmony didn't find it much different from the fort, save for the fact that the odd 'ping' in the back of her mind was much, much fainter.

It had taken weeks before she finally located the door where the ping originated, and she found it odd and somewhat sad that it never moved. Ever.

Her first task in the headquarters was to clean "Prince Belphegor's" rooms. He did not like people in his area, and he made it known in spades. If you were lucky, you simply came out traumatized for life.

If you were unlucky...well you wouldn't have to worry about the trauma much.

Harmony went into the room, silent as the dead. It was rather messy, and really she didn't see why people made such a fuss about the owner.

"Shishishi..."

Harmony didn't bother to turn. She could tell there was an unrepentant killer behind and to the left on the ceiling. She simply went to work.

"This is unexpected...a Princess has dared to enter my territory unescorted by her protectors."

Thank magic for selective hearing. And for being able to ignore the blond kid with the crown on his head while she picked up his mess. Especially when he managed to do that ridiculous upside down hanging thing from the first Spiderman movie.

"Shishishi... where are your knights, Princess?"

Harmony finally stopped ignoring him and gave him a Look.

She had no need for fake knights.

The boy tilted his head. Almost as if he were puzzling something out.

"My mistake. Where is your Dragon, Princess?"

The mere word evoked a shudder. The only person she knew with the name of "dragon" was Draco, and she refused to think of him. He had been a total pretentious bastard and she was happy to be rid of her 'rival'.

Harmony finished off the worst of it, because she was not responsible for his weapons outside of putting them up.

Let him clean off the blood if he wanted.

Bel looked at her oddly.

If she gave him cookies, would he go away and quit bothering her?

"I want chocolate chip," demanded Bel, eagerly. He liked chocolate.

She nodded in agreement, and went to the kitchen since she had more or less cleaned the room. She barely noted him following her with interest.

"ACK! It's Prince Bel!" yelped one of the kitchen girls.

Harmony blinked. She tilted her head to the girl.

"He insists. When you don't address him as such, it's not pretty. Wait, why is he here?" she explained.

Bel looked at them oddly.

"The Princess has deigned to bake cookies."

"You can bake Harmony?" said the matron in charge of cooking.

Without saying a word, not that they expected any, Harmony got the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. Within twenty minutes, Bel had left the kitchen with his prize and Harmony was given a new job.

She was allowed to bake sweets so long as she cleaned up after herself and used them to bribe "Prince Bel" into leaving the staff alone.

Apparently the kid was a real terror, so having something to bribe him with made things so much easier.

"Where did you get those cookies?" asked Luss.

"The Princess who thaws dragons made them for me. Be thankful, peasant," said Bel.

"Princess who thaws dragons, Voi?" repeated Squalo, not sure he heard that right. It was rare for Bel to acknowledge anyone his 'equal' in status.

Bel smirked, and that was never a good sign.

"The Princess lost her voice because of false knights, so she came to hide in plain sight. Soon she'll thaw the dragon and speak again."

"I give up," said Squalo. He was not in the mood to decipher Bel-speak at the moment.

Luss, however, was intrigued.

"What sort of princess is she?"

Of course the okama would be interested.

Bel tilted his head, snacking on another cookie.

"The kind that could make or break the Vongola."

Wait, what?

"Explain, now."

"The dragon's flames drew her here, even if she hasn't been introduced to him yet. When the Sky is found, the dragon will thaw from his frozen prison. Of course the Vongola will have to decide whether they want the Princess as their next Queen, or if she becomes the dragon's keeper."

The Princess had the Boss' flames inside her. They were harmonizing with her own Sky, so obviously the flames drew her to the boss even while he was frozen in ice.

Bel could sense the Vongola blood in her, even if she wasn't aware of it.

The problem was that the Princess had deliberately lost her voice after being given false Guardians. It would take time and patience before she became worthy of becoming Queen.

Something that wouldn't happen if the Family found out about her too early and tried to push things with Reborn.

First she needed to wake the Dragon up.

Bel couldn't wait.

"Where is this Princess?" asked Luss.

He snacked on another cookie, not saying anything.

Squalo however spoke up.

"It's obvious isn't it? Those cookies are clearly homemade, so clearly she's in the kitchens, Voi."

In the kitchens...

Harmony had a chill of doom go down her back. It was terrifying similar to the ones she got when Hermione was determined to make her study and would brow beat Oliver into forgoing Quidditch practice.

Which had only happened once but she made very sure to memorize the feeling, because smaller warnings had happened before the study guides from hell would appear.

There was only one solution.

She needed to avoid the place until the feeling went away.

An hour later...

"She totally knew he was coming down here," muttered Alianna.

"Absolutely. She's got a good sixth sense if she narrowly avoided that."

The second Luss found out that Bel's "Princess" worked with Housekeeping, he became determined to dress her up. Specifically as Cinderella.

Harmony had narrowly avoided her fate as a dress up doll to the crazy okama by mere minutes. Not that there was anything bad about Luss, it was just that he would be a bit much for the timid girl. The poor thing couldn't even complain if she didn't like the outfit.

Squalo was not in a good mood. The girl Bel called "Princess" had an uncanny knack for avoiding people, to the point he was really starting to believe was anything but coincidence. In fact her ability to disappear on people and walk silently bugged him.

No one was that good at that, unless they were trained in how to walk and memorize buildings within days.

It bothered him so much he went looking for her file. And what he found made him angry and very suspicious. Especially with Bel's sudden interest in her.

Harmony (no last name)

Country of Origin: England

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Position: Housekeeping

Appears to be mute from systematic abuse, and either has limited to no education outside of general upkeep of homes. Shows uncanny knack for appearing undetected from behind and finding areas normally unused by the main staff. Heavy malnutrition and scarring from early childhood. Dislikes being noticed by general authority, obeys quickly when given tasks.

Possibly Flame Latent.

Outside of a general health report and what little she wrote on her application, that was all they had of the girl.

Which in the world full of assassins and killers, meant nothing.

Especially since Bel was interested in her to the point of calling her "Princess". He also didn't get what the whole Dragon thing was about.

The girl was so 'ordinary' and 'unassuming' that it couldn't be natural. And he highly suspected she was a lot smarter than she let on.

He didn't like unknowns. Especially not like this.

Might as well send a little...test...her way to see if she really was faking it.

Bel was observing from a roof. Tonight was the test of the princess to see if she was worthy of the dragon.

Anyone who fell apart from a little thing like an attempt on their life wasn't worthy of his attentions.

"Shishishi..."

In the flat...

Harmony was finished her bath when she sensed it.

That killing intent.

Someone was after her again. Though at least this time it didn't feel personal. That was a plus.

She ducked to the left, avoiding the bullet. Honestly, it was like they weren't even trying to hit her.

She absentmindedly dodged five more shots before the sniper got annoyed enough to break into her home.

Too bad for her, another had taken interest in the apartment.

"Hello, peasant."

"Oh shit," swore the random mook, before Bel took him apart.

Harmony went out to find the mess...and she came armed with cleaning supplies.

It said a lot about her current home that no one really batted that much of an eye when the janitorial department found evidence of Bel's boredom in the communal trash. At least someone had been considerate enough to clean the mess for them, so they just had to deal with disposing the body.

Squalo had to blink when he found a bill on his desk.

"What the hell?"

It took him a moment to read what it was for, before he swore in an obscure tongue out of pure annoyance.

The girl had the audacity to bill him for her broken windows and the cost to repair the wall. Worse, she had filled out all the forms so now he had to actual pay it or get bitched out.

Dammit.

Bel snickered in his office... he had helped Harmony fill out the requisition for the repairs and turned it in to Mammon.

The peasant shouldn't have doubted Bel's assessment of the Princess.

Harmony tilted her head just enough to the right to dodge yet another bullet. It seemed someone genuinely had it out for her.

"Ack!"

"Again?"

"Who keeps sending the mook squad in here?" complained another.

The head chef walked over to the latest mook and dragged them in by the ear.

"You. Clean up the mess you made by trying to scare our Harmony now," he said flatly.

It had become rather tedious over the past month to have idiots trying to shoot her from a distance. It had gotten to the point where she was beginning to get annoyed with having to clean up the mess they made when the bullets shattered something and spilled the contents all over.

On the plus side, it looked like her Seeker skills were still as sharp as ever, and dodging bullets was much easier than dodging bludgers or Dudley's fist.

She ignored the random assassin cleaning up the mess he made with the flour and continued working.

Perhaps she could make some treacle cookies today.