Holly crap this became popular fast! Sorry, I can't update as fast, such as life. I am grateful for your patience and don't worry I have no plans of abandoning this story. (If my anti-copyright method doesn't work I'm cross-posting this on AO3 they seem more lax.)
Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter. Don't own RWBY.
Blake turned the page. "The next chapter is called 'The Vanishing Glass'." Her voice trailed off in confusion.
"Like he makes a cup disappear or something?" Ren questioned.
"I suppose there's only one way to find out." Jaune gestured to Blake, encouraging her to start reading.
The book time jumps ten years with nothing really changing both outside Privet Drive and inside number four. The only way to note the time change was the photos on the wall; which changed from what could only be described as a pink beach ball of a baby turning into a large boy doing typical kid things with his parents.
"So is this Harry?" Jaune asked.
"It could be...but honestly it sounds more like that whining baby," Yang answered.
"His cousin, Dudley," Weiss explained to the confused JNPR. "Harry's stuck living with his aunt and uncle since his parents died."
But the house didn't have any indication of another young boy living in the house.
"Oh no don't tell me they did give him up?" Ruby asked worryingly.
"That would be horrible," Pyrrha said.
"Wouldn't surprise me." Weiss scoffed.
But Harry Potter was still in the house.
The students all breathed a sigh of relief.
He was currently asleep. But his Aunt Petunia quickly woke him up with her shrill voice and rapped on his (bedroom) door. Harry got up remembering the nice dream he had. It seemed to be a familiar one though. It was about a flying motorcycle.
"Woah, he remembers that?" Blake asked, amazed.
Petunia was back wanting to know if Harry was up so that he could look after the bacon warning him not to let it burn. Today was 'Duddy's' birthday so everything has to be perfect.
"They're making him cook? He's like ten!" Yang snapped, hair heating up and eyes going red.
Nora was snickering to herself "Duddy? That's the nickname she's going with?"
Harry was not too happy about this. How could he completely forget that today was Dudley's birthday? He eventually got out of bed and found some socks to put on after he removed a spider from one.
Jaune cringed from that. "Wow, he's brave. I hate spiders."
"And it was in his sock. Gross." Weiss agreed.
Harry was apparently used to spiders as there were a lot of them in his room. Which is the cupboard under the stairs.
If teams RWBY and JNPR were anywhere except at Beacon, they would've attracted Ursa. Their emotions were very strong and very loud.
"A CUPBOARD! THEY'RE MAKING HIM SLEEP IN A FUCKING CUPBOARD!" Yang demanded.
"IF THEY DIDN'T HAD THE ROOM THEY SHOULD HAVE HIM SHARE A ROOM WITH HIS COUSIN!" Jaune agreed.
"HOW COULD THEY TREAT HIM LIKE THIS?!" Blake yelled in outrage.
"OHH IF THEY WERE HERE RIGHT NOW I WOULD SLAM MAGNHILD INTO THEIR FACES!" Nora screamed. She mimed the action.
Okay, those four were the loudest. Ruby, Weiss, Ren, and Pyrrha were quiet in their rage. They were shaking with it. Ruby was vibrating, little flowers petals coming off her as she shook.
Ren put a hand on Nora's shoulder. The rage didn't leave, though it did quiet down. Nora sat back beside Ren, crossing her arms and pouting in frustration. Ren could understand why Nora was so angry. He remembered their lives on the streets, looking for anywhere to sleep. By Nora's frown, she was thinking along the same lines as him.
Could things actually be worse for Harry than the cupboard?
Once Harry was dressed he walked down the hall to where the kitchen was. The table was almost covered in presents for Dudley. Some of them seemed to be a second television, a new computer, and a racing bike. Which made no sense to Harry as Dudley couldn't stand to exercise. Unless it involved punching someone. Namely Harry.
Pyrrha balled her hands into fists. "How can his parents let him get away with this?"
"I hate to say it, Pyrrha, but I think they even encourage it," Weiss replied.
This did not improve anyone's mood.
However, Harry seemed to be very fast and so Dudley hardly caught him.
That made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
Harry was described to be very small and skinny. Made even more so because he always wore Dudley's old clothes and they were four times bigger than he was.
Again everyone balled their fists and Yang's hair started smoking again.
The description continued with Harry's thin face, knobbly knees, black hair that stuck up everywhere no matter what Harry did to it, and bright green eyes behind round glasses that were held up with scotch tape (Dudley caught him a few times on his nose).
Growls started to be heard from the students. Ren could have sworn he heard Nora saying something about broken legs.
And of course, the lightning bolt-shaped scar that was on his forehead. Harry often wondered about it. According to his Aunt and Uncle, he apparently got it as a result of the car crash that killed his parents.
"What! They're even keeping the truth of his parents from him? Who does that?" Ruby asked. She couldn't imagine her dad or her uncle keeping a secret about Summer from Ruby. Poor Harry, not knowing anything about either of his parents.
"It's like they don't want him to have any sort of connection to his heritage," Pyrrha said.
Uncle Vernon then came in and told Harry that he needed to fix his hair. Apparently, he felt the need to give Harry a haircut at least once a week.
"At some point, you need to learn to leave the hair alone," Yang said as she ran a hand through her own hair.
Dudley came in as Harry was frying eggs. The book said that Dudley took a lot after his father. Very large, not much neck, with blue eyes and thick blond hair. Petunia's version of a baby angel. Harry's version of a pig in a wig.
The students howled with laughter at that. The hinted home life of Harry's temporarily forgotten.
Harry tried to set breakfast on the table. Which was a challenge as there wasn't much room. Dudley was counting his presents and his face fell when he found out there were only thirty-seven presents.
"Thirty-seven!?" The students cried in disbelief.
"That's more presents than me and my siblings would get combined," Weiss said.
"I have seven sisters and even we don't get that many presents on our own." Jaune agreed.
"I didn't know you had seven sisters, Jaune," Ruby said.
"That actually explains a lot." Nora giggled.
Jaune was about to question what she meant by that but Blake went back to reading.
Harry started eating his breakfast as fast as possible in case Dudley threw the table over in a tantrum.
"He acts like that is normal for them," Pyrrha said appalled.
Petunia was quickly able to calm him down by saying that they'll get two more presents when they go out later today. That seemed to calm him down and he started to open one of them up.
"That is not how you solve the problem here!" Blake yelled.
"These guys have no idea how to parent, their abusing one child, and overcompensating another," Ruby said.
As Dudley opened up his presents the telephone rang and Petunia went to go answer it. A while later she came back and told her husband that Mrs. Figg has broken her leg and therefore can't look after Harry today.
Dudley looked shocked but Harry was relieved. Whenever they took Dudley out somewhere they would leave Harry with their neighbor Mrs. Figg. One of those crazy old cat ladies. Harry didn't like it there as her house constantly smelled of cabbage and she always made him look at photos of her old cats.
Everyone shuddered at that.
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to go there either," Nora said.
As the two adults tossed around ideas about who could look after Harry, the boy in question suggested just leaving him at home.
Jaune laughed at that. "Nice try Harry, no decent adult would leave a ten-year-old boy home alone."
Petunia looked horrified at that, believing that they'll come back to the house in ruins.
"Oh yeah sure, don't think about the fact that your nephew could get kidnapped. Worry about him blowing up the house." Nora muttered.
"You would probably do the same in his situation." Ren countered. Nora tried to disagree with that but then realized she probably would. If only to spite these jerks.
Dudley then started fake crying knowing that if he did his parents would let him have his way. On cue, Petunia wrapped her arms around him assuring him everything's gonna be fine. Through her arms, Dudley shot Harry a smirk.
At this point, no one could say anything and just gave up on these guys.
The doorbell rang. Singling the arrival of one of Dudley's friends, Piers. Dudley quit his fake crying.
Having exhausted every other option, Harry found himself sitting in the back seat with Dudley and Piers on their way to the zoo. Before they left, Vernon had pulled Harry aside and warned him not to do any "funny business" less he'd be locked up in the cupboard until Christmas.
"I'd hate to ask this, but can these guys get any worse?" Ruby asked.
"I honestly don't want to know," Nora said.
"What I want to know is what is Christmas?" Ren couldn't help but ask.
Blake then shook the book in her lap and as she expected an envelope fell out in her lap. Tearing it open she read:
Where you guys have your Gods we have ours as well. One, in particular, we know simply as just God, had a son named Jesus whose birthday is celebrated on December 25. The holiday evolved into the whole family spending time together, eating feasts, sharing presents for everyone, and watching movies related to the holiday usually involving a guy named Santa Clause who goes around delivering gifts to good boys and girls though he died a long time ago and parents have taken the mantle in secret.
Everyone accepted the answer and Blake went back to reading.
Harry insisted that he won't do anything but just like always, no one believed him. See, strange things always happened around Harry. Like the time when Petunia cut Harry's hair down to the skin- nearly making him bald- and it grew back overnight.
"What did they do!?" Weiss held tight to her ponytail. The mental image of someone having all their hair cut like that...it was awful.
"What did I say about messing with the hair!"
"Yang, please calm down." Ruby rubbed her sister's back.
Or the time she tried to put an old sweater of Dudley's on him and it kept shrinking until it would fit a hand puppet more than it would him. Then there was the time he somehow found himself on the roof of his school.
"Woah, did he fly up there?" Jaune asked
"Or teleported?" Weiss figured.
"Maybe he climbed there really fast?" Ruby suggested.
"Didn't I just say he had no idea how he got there?" Blake pointed out.
Everyone's faces fell at that.
"...probably teleported," Weiss mumbled under her breath. A look from Blake quieted her.
Harry tried to insist that he was trying to jump behind the trash cans to avoid Dudley's Gang and figured the wind caught him mid-jump.
"Harry, come on you've got to come up with a better explanation than that." Blake shook her head at the fictional ten-year-old. She then scratched back near her Faunus ears, hidden behind a black ribbon shaped like cat ears.
But he insisted that nothing would go wrong today. Though it didn't start out great at first as when Vernon was complaining about motorcycles on the drive over Harry brought up his dream and that set his uncle off.
"It was just a dream," Jaune said in exasperation.
"These people need to calm down." Pyrrha agreed.
There were two things the Dursley's did not want Harry to do. That was to ask questions and talk about things that are usually impossible.
"So Harry's supposed to be dumb and unimaginative." Nora deadpanned. "These guys would get destroyed by Grimms in like- a day. How have they not killed them yet?"
Harry was having the best day so far. When his aunt and uncle went to get Dudley and Piers ice cream the lady asked Harry what he wanted and they were forced to buy him a cheap lemon pop that actually wasn't bad.
"Ha! Customer Service to the rescue." Ruby cheered.
He found a gorilla that would have looked like Dudley if he was blond.
Again the students howled with laughter.
And when they had lunch Dudley had thrown a tantrum that his dessert didn't have enough ice cream so his parents got him a new one and he was allowed to finish the first.
Weiss shivered at that. "That's disgusting. I wouldn't want to share food with anyone, let alone him."
Harry should have known better than to think this would last.
Everyone slumped their shoulders at that foreshadowing. This could not end well.
At the reptile house, Dudley found the biggest snake there, a Boa Constrictor. Everyone watched in fascination but the snake was taking a nap. It didn't even stir when Vernon tapped the glass a couple of times at Dudley's insistence.
"What did they think it was going to do?" Pyrrha asked. "It's stuck in a glass case all day, I'd get bored too."
Everyone left the snake alone save for Harry who was feeling sorry for the snake. Figuring it was having a worse life than his. After all, Harry got to move about the house at least.
"Doesn't Harry have any friends at least?" Ruby wondered.
"Somehow I don't think his so-called aunt and uncle would allow that," Yang answered.
"Or Dudley." Jauna agreed. "He's acting like the worst kind of bully."
The snake then woke up and noticed Harry. For some reason, the creature winked at him.
"Wait what?" Jaune asked.
"That's impossible. Snakes can't wink. They don't even have eyelids." Weiss said in disbelief. She was right, of course, but no one had an answer for her.
Harry was surprised, nevertheless, he looked to see if anyone was watching and when no one was, he winked back too.
"Look at that Ruby. Harry might just make a friend after all." Blake said.
"I want a pet snake. Can I please?" Nora asked, shaking Ren.
"No, Nora, that's the last thing you need," Ren said after reorienting himself.
The snake then gave Harry a look that pretty much said: I get that all the time.
"Snake's don't have facial expressions either!" Weiss continued.
Harry murmured that he understood, saying how annoying it must be. The snake nodded in agreement.
"He's talking to the snake," Jaune said as if he was trying to convince himself that.
"And apparently the snake is talking back," Pyrrha added as that was even harder to believe.
Harry then asked about the snake's homeland and the snake pointed it's tail to the sign where it read that the species is native to Brazil. When Harry asks how it was there the snake pointed to the sign again revealing that he was bred in the zoo.
"Now that poor snake!" Nora pouted.
"You feel bad for any zoo animals." Ren pointed out.
Ruby was on Nora's side. "That poor little snake doesn't know it's parents either. No wonder Harry is able to bond with him." Yang just smiled, shaking her head. Ruby continued crying anime tears.
Their conversation was interrupted by Piers shouting at Dudley and Vernon to check out what the snake was doing. Dudley waddled over as fast as he could.
"I loved how the book said waddled instead of ran." Blake giggled.
"How large is he again?" Pyrrha asked worryingly. No one had an answer for her.
Dudley shoved Harry out of the way hard. He fell on the concrete floor.
"RUDE!" All the students yelled.
What happened next no one really knew. One minute Piers and Dudley were pressing their noses against the glass, the next they were screaming in horror as they fell into the cage. The glass in front of them is suddenly gone.
"The title chapter." Weiss realized.
"Whoa! Did Harry do that?!" Ruby asked.
"Must have." Yang figured. "He's the only one we know capable of doing something like that so far."
"Serves those two right," Jaune said as she giggled at the expense of Dudley and his friend.
Everyone panicked as the snake slid out and made his way towards the exit.
Pyrrha flinched. "I really hope they're within a well-protected kingdom. I'd hate for this to attract the Grimm."
"Well for one this world calls their kingdoms countries." Blake corrected. "But the more important part is that this world? Apparently doesn't have Grimm."
"Wait what?"
"Are you serious?"
"How can that be?"
"You must be joking?"
Team RWBY then spent the next couple of minutes explaining what the previous letter told them. Their friends were just as stunned as they were. Once they were recovered Blake went back to the book.
As the snake passed by Harry he was certain he heard a low hissing voice. "Thanksss, amigo."
"Di...Did the snake just speak English?" Weiss asked.
"Either that or Harry translated the hissing in his mind?" Blake said. Both of which made no sense.
The keeper of the reptile house was in disbelief wondering what had happened to the glass.
"Wouldn't it be hilarious if the glass somehow came back and Dudley and Piers were still in the cage?" Ruby suggested. Everyone laughed to various degrees on the mental imagery.*
The zookeeper himself apologized profusely as he made Petunia a cup of strong tea. Piers and Dudley were in shock as they tried to explain how the snake tried to bite their legs off. But Harry saw the snake only playfully snap at their heels.
"I doubt the snake's mouth is big enough for that." Blake scoffed as she shook her head in annoyance. The other students snickered at her comment.
But the worst part for Harry was Piers revealing that Harry was talking to the snake.
"OH NO!" Everyone shouted.
"Does this mean they'll blame it on Harry?" Ruby asked worryingly.
"If they do anything so help me, Gods..." Yang started as her hair lit up.
Vernon waited until Piers left. He was so angry he was only able to get a few words out but Harry got the message. He was once again stuck in his cupboard with no meals.
They didn't think they could get any angrier at the Dursleys. Though they could no longer find it in them to say anything.
Harry sat in his dark cupboard wishing he had a watch so that he knew when he could sneak in some food.
Nora winced at that. Yeah, he had it way worse than she did.
It had been ten long years since he had been given to the Dursleys. Ever since his parents had died in that car crash. Not that he remembers even being in a car when they died.
"Well of course he wouldn't he was only a year old," Blake said.
Ruby and Yang gave each other a knowing look. Ruby could barely remember her mother Summer and Yang didn't even know about Raven until her Uncle Qrow had said something after Summer went missing.
Harry does remember something though. A bright flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This must have been the crash though he didn't know where that green light came from.
"If I didn't know any better I would have said that came from a traffic light or something," Ren said.
"But what could the Voldemort guy do that would cause such a light?" Pyrrha wondered out loud.
He had no recollection of his parents. Petunia and Vernon never spoke of them or even kept pictures.
"No surprise," Yang said. All traces of Raven had been removed or hidden when she left the family.
Harry often dreams of some unknown relation taking him away from the Dursleys but it'll never happen they were his only family. Yet it appeared some people do seem to know him. Very strange people too.
Everyone tilted their heads in confusion. Who could the book be talking about now?
A small man had bowed to him in a shop once while a strange-looking woman happily waved to him on a bus and a bald man in a long purple coat even shook his hand.
"The other culture!" Weiss realized. "Dumbledore did say he'd be famous, these people would have no doubt recognized him."
"How would they know him simply by looking, Weiss?" Ruby asked.
"Ruby, how many people have lightning-bolt scars on their forehead?" Blake pointed out.
However whenever Harry tried to get a second look at these people they vanished without a trace.
"There's no doubt these people must have some kind of special powers. Even if they aren't semblances!" Ruby declared.
"Yea but what could these powers be?" Jaune asked.
"How much of the chapter is left, Blake?" Pyrrha asked. She was hoping to get some answers soon.
"It's almost over," Blake said reading the last sentences
Harry didn't have anyone at school either. Dudley and his gang drove everyone away.
"Hey, I was right!" Jaune cheered. Then it hit him just what he was right about. "Oh...poor Harry."
"Ugh, they can't let him have anything, can they?" Yang asked.
"Can we read the next chapter now? I want to know if things get better soon!" Nora asked.
"Sorry, guys, we've already agreed to read two chapters on a school night," Blake answered.
Nora went to complain but Ren held her back.
"She's right. We all need our rest." Jaune said, trying out his new leadership role.
JNPR made their way back to their room while RWBY got settled for the night. All of them hoped things would look up for Harry soon.
*While I won't have them watch the movies I'll make references to them when I can. Such as the glass coming back. That was funny.
Reviews are awesome. Please follow this story so you'll know when the next chapter comes out. Favorite once it's done. And I will see you all in the next chapter. Assuming we survive Volume 8. Not going to lie Ironwood's starting to scare me.
Stay awesome everyone.