Harry Potter - Gamer Neighbour
Summary: The new neighbour over the street at Privet Drive number five seems pretty normal, but not Privet Drive normal. But is anyone with the power of the gamer ever even remotely normal? No fucking way.
Disclaimer: I do own some shit, but not any recognizable characters, places or settings in this particular fanfiction.
AN: Yes, I know canon Lily died at 21, but as stated in the ANs for chapter 1, Hogwarts starts 2 years later then in canon so students graduate and become graduated adults 2 years later in this corner of the multiverse, so she got started on Violet-making a bit later then she otherwise would have. This led to Violet being born later and Lily making it to 23 before Voldie came around for a ruddy violent bout of trick or treating.
Chapter 13:
Sirius did indeed look like he didn't know if he more direly needed a piss or just straight out vomit as the two of them appeared back onto the door mat before the door to the back yard, holding on to the empty pet bottle which Nick had used as a Portkey back to England. He had needed to buy one to get to the Azores since he'd never been there before, but once there he had been able to make his own for the return trip which enabled them to appear directly back in his own home.
There would be a pain and a half if it was discovered that he was not only capable of creating his own international Portkeys but had also done so. Especially to bring a wanted man across borders, that would upgrade it to shitstorm levels of pain in the ass, but he wasn't too concerned with that. There would be enough shitstorms anyway as it was, which would hopefully help this little bit of international criminal activity fly under the radar. He could get a British Portkey license, but the bureaucracy was fucking insane. His Swedish and Italian licenses were good in a small number of other countries, but sadly Britain wasn't one of them. International Portkeys Licenses was a whole other level of complication, no matter where he'd try to get it.
"Sirius! Nick, you found him!" Violet exclaimed as she darted over towards them intending to give her godfather a proper greeting, only to balk and rear back as the stench hit her. "Holy shit, Sirius! What have you been doing to yourself? Rolling around in manure?!" she asked, pinching her nose closed.
"You should have smelled him before I Scourgified him. Repeatedly." Nick remarked with a bit of a frown, once again lamenting how magic did so well in getting rid of visible filth, but did very little when it came to bacteria and the like, which resulted in Sirius stinking up the place pretty badly in spite of recently having been magically cleaned. Without getting rid of one of the major reasons he smelled, anything magic did was highly temporary at best. There was a Sterilizing Charm used by Healers, but it just covered a small area and was slow to cast. A full-body cleaning and sterilizing Rune Array was actually one of the things he would be presenting in the hopes of getting greedy troublesome Wizengamot members out of the country when it came time for the trial for this stinky guy next to him. If he'd just thought about it beforehand, he could have brought one of those arrays and not have to put up with this smell.
"And you should have warned me before you did it." Sirius grunted, standing very still and looking down at the ground, feeling quite nauseous at the moment. "Felt like you were trying to curse my skin off." he added with a shudder at the memory.
"You should have dunked him in the ocean afterwards." Violet said, taking another step backwards. "Bloody hell, it stings my eyes!"
"Sirius Orion Black." a steely voice interjected and completely froze the ragged-looking fugitive solid. "You will take a shower, then we will have... Words."
Sirius slowly raised his head, his eyes fully opened and pupils dilated as he took in the impossibility standing right fucking there in front of him. The Portkey PET bottle fell from his suddenly listless hand and clattered away on the ground as he just stared. His face shifted between many different expressions for a few seconds, but it seemed to fall into acceptance much faster than Nick would have expected from the old prankster. He had expected quite the struggle in getting Sirius to accept Lily as real and not some sort of horribly inappropriate and cruel prank.
"L-Lils?" Sirius croaked as his face paled, staring in wide-eyed astonishment at the tired-looking gaunt-appearing woman standing on swaying feet close to Violet, panting with exhaustion. Despite her current appearance and sweat-drenched exercise clothes, Sirius correctly identified her pretty much on the spot and while he looked at her in disbelief, it was more of a 'How are you alive' type of disbelief rather then a 'Why have you disguised someone as a dead woman' type of disbelief. Having heard her angry voice, something which had been hard-wired into his subconscious to instantly trigger 'grovelling mode', probably helped. But the rapid acceptance of what he was seeing was somewhat odd.
Violet took a few more steps back and gently grasped her mothers arm, giving the unsteady woman some support.
"Oh yeah, I suppose I forgot to mention her." Nick chuckled from beside him as he conjured a plastic bucket which he pressed into Sirius arms. "Throw up in that if you need to. Otherwise you can use it to toss your clothes into while you take a shower. Those rags have an appointment with fire. Lots and lots of fire." Sirius had no response to give, he just silently accepted the bucket while staring in utter shock at Lily.
"Shower now, Sirius! Talk later." Lily got out with a severely annoyed expression, still short on breath and looking about ready to keel over right there. The incredibly fragrant Animagus did not at all help with that, the odour made it hard to tell if it was that or her exhaustion that made it feel like she should be hurling and then curling up into a ball on the ground.
"I'd do what the angry sweaty redhead with the disgusted midget redhead next to her says, if I were you." Nick hinted and gestured at one of the bathrooms.
They'd never actually talked about it, but Violet had a preference for one of them and usually tended to go for that one for her calls of nature and showers, so Nick had gravitated towards the other when he used the downstairs bathroom instead of the bigger one upstairs. He indicated the one he usually used rather then the one he now thought of as Violet's bathroom. Though he had noted that Lily also preferred it, so he supposed it was now ladies only.
Sirius didn't move however, still staring in shock, awe and stark astonishment at Lily.
"Sirius, go. I'm not having a conversation with someone who smells like last weeks garbage." Lily snapped with even more heat in her voice then before and Sirius jerked in place, then spun around on the spot and followed beside Nick as he guided him to the bathroom.
"If you leave the door unlocked for now, I'll go fetch some of my clothes from upstairs. Use the bucket for what you're currently wearing." Nick suggested and pointed out the features of the bathroom, where Sirius could find soap, shampoo, guest toothbrushes and the like. "You're probably pretty eager for explanations, but I'd highly suggest taking your time and being thorough with cleaning up instead of rushing it. She'll probably just force you to do it all over again if you still smell when you walk out of here."
Sirius slowly nodded.
"How is it possible? How is... Why is... Where did..." Sirius gasped in a strained tone of voice, just barely audible.
"Wash up. Explanations can wait." Nick said and gently closed the door behind the shocked man who stared unseeingly at the wall in the bathroom. He quickly entered the other one and washed his hands in the sink, before emerging and approaching the ladies.
"Well, there we go. Sirius is here, fed and will soon be washed up." he declared and held up his plastic bag. "And lookie! I brought Pastela da Nata from the Azores. Custard-filled pastries, still warm from the bakery." he cheerfully added, which produced a raised eyebrow from Lily and a highly interested look from Violet.
"Oooooh, I approve!" Violet gushed with a cheerful exclamation and licked her lips. "I knew there was a reason I liked you." she stated with a firm nod.
"You told him nothing about me?" Lily asked, still somewhat out of breath. But not too out of breath to glance aside at Violet at her last statement, before focusing back at Nick with a faintly disapproving expression. She had yet to bring up the subject of Violet's crush with her or him, but it was getting harder and harder to avoid doing so for every time she witnessed it or otherwise got reminded of it.
"He would have thought I was insane." Nick snorted. "By the way, guy-I-just-met-who-probably-distrusts-me, I've not only got Violet back at my place, but Lily too! Yeah, the same Lily who died fifteen years ago." he said in a mocking tone of voice. "He probably would have bolted or tried to fight me if I told him that. Besides, this was much funnier." he chuckled and shook his head at the mental imagery. "Anyway, he's probably not the only one who could do with a shower before your talk. Done with your exercises?"
"She got started on the ones for after lunch too." Violet tattled and grinned unrepentantly as her mother directed a betrayed expression at her.
Nick looked the tired-looking woman up and down for a few moments, then grinned at Violet.
"Stubbornness breeds true, I guess." he chuckled. "She looks more or less alright, so there's probably no lasting issue with it. But you can always remind her that if she really overworks herself, I'll force a healing potion down her throat and then she'll need a Magic Infusion from either of us to cope with the massive loss of magic. That should put a stop to things. Or not, depending on how eager she is to smooch with either or both of us." he laughed and walked over towards the kitchen area to unpack his purchases before getting some clothes for Sirius, while the two ladies blushed and avoided looking at each other.
"I hate that man so much right now." Lily muttered.
Since Lily could mostly stand on her own, at least for short amounts of time, Violet helped her into the shower cabin and was then able to leave her to her own devices in there, though she did return for a brief moment with some fresh clothes for her mother.
"I'll probably grab a swift shower and a change of clothes upstairs as well. I'm not as bad off as Sirius, but I think some of his aroma clings to me as well." Nick announced from the kitchen, where he was preparing coffee and tea for later, the appealing-looking custard pastries having been placed on a serving platter after being sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. "Do you want to go before or after me?" he asked after a glance at Violet who was still wearing her exercise clothes and while not quite as drenched with sweat as Lily was, it was evident that she'd gotten her own more demanding workout in while keeping an eye on her mother.
"You can go first. I'll wrap up my session and go after you." Violet announced, quite pleased at being able to keep up her workouts over the summer, unlike how things usually were. Oliver had given her quite the insane workout schedule when she joined the Quidditch team in her first year, but Alicia Spinnet had just glanced at it, slapped the back of Oliver s head and then given Violet a more reasonable one. She couldn t completely follow it during the summers at number four, so she tended to be a bit out of peak shape for the first Quidditch practise although usually back in top form for the first match. But this summer, it seemed like she would be able to stick with her training, which she was looking forward to. How much better would she be if she was fit for fight right at the start of school?
"Alrightie. Thanks, Sweaty McShorty." he said with a faint grin.
"One of these days, I swear..." Violet muttered as she walked over to stand right in front of him. "I'll find some way to start growing, then I'll never let you hear the end of it once you're shorter than me!" she snapped and shook her right fist at him.
"Heh, good luck with that. You can magically boost your growth a slight bit, though based on your mother and pictures I've seen of your father, I rather doubt that you'll ever top me even if you Potion yourself up to a dangerous degree." he responded and wrapped up his preparations, then leaned up against the counter, still with that faint grin on his lips as he studied her.
"I can do that?! There's actually something that will make me grow taller? I asked Hermione once I hadn't grown even a tiny bit for six months straight! She checked the library again just before school ended for summer to make sure she hadn't missed anything." Violet eagerly asked and Nick blinked.
"It's unusual and pretty expensive, but..." he started and trailed off with a befuddled expression. "You didn't grow for six months straight? At Hogwarts with all the food available there?" he asked and scratched the back of his head.
"All of last year." she sighed. "I was 149 centimetres when I got back to Hogwarts, still 149 when I left." she reluctantly admitted.
"An entire year? That's... A bit odd. Growth in teens do tend to come and go, but it's usually a swift spurt followed by a period of slow growth, but still growth. Girls usually stop a bit sooner then boys too, but... Nothing happening at all for an entire year is a tad off. Hair, nails, lady bits and so on still grow normally?" Nick asked with a bewildered expression.
"Hair, no. Nails, yes. Lady bits, well, yeah. Not as much as the year before, but I did grow a bit." Violet replied and proudly puffed out her chest, smiling as she saw his gaze dip downwards for a split second before his eyes jerked up to look her into her eyes instead of observing her breasts, covered as they were by a sports bra and her tight-fitting exercise top.
But as her response registered in his head, he slowly palmed his face and shook his head very slowly back and forth.
"Why is it that every single conversation in his house leads to a new kind of medical project for me? I'm a Rune nerd, not a Healer nerd!" he complained, then removed his hand and shook his head. "Right, enough bitching about that. Focus Nick, focus! No hair growth either? Just on your head or elsewhere as well?"
"Just my head." Violet admitted. "I still need to shave my legs, armpits and trim around my 'lady bits'." she said, adding the last a bit mockingly as she used what seemed to be Nick's favoured term for female-specific body parts.
"FuuuuuUuuck." he groaned. "Alright, I'll see if I can find my books on obscure diagnostic Charms, then I'll strap down all three of you and cast every single diagnostic spell in existence repeatedly, I want no more surprises but with Sirius eating bloody ruddy garbage I already strongly suspect that I'm fucked in that department." he sighed and shook his head once again. "Is it truly a surprise if I'm already expecting one?" he muttered, mostly to himself.
"Don't worry, you'll be a Healer nerd in no time. You're already acting almost like Poppy whenever I show up in front of her." Violet stated cheerfully, only to receive a baleful glare from Nick in response.
"She hasn't said anything, found anything weird?" he asked and Violet shook her head. "Fuck, so either nothing is wrong and you just have an unusually long period of extremely slow growth, stopped growing pretty early or it's something truly funky going on that even a working professional specializing in magical teenagers has missed. Or she just didn't feel there was any point in discussing it with an underage witch and instead spoke with your Magical Guardian. But really, with your hair not behaving as well, it's probably something weird." he added with a focused glare directed at her unruly head of hair.
"Well, you managed to get my mother up and at it, so I have full confidence in you." Violet tried to reassure him with a cheerful grin.
"Put a sock in it, Mini Red." he muttered disgruntledly. "I'll fix this, then any projects in the future will be Rune-related." he promised himself.
"As long as you leave some time for boyfriend-girlfriend activities." Violet cautioned him, which caused him to grin again.
"Still on that, huh?" he responded as the grin faded and he observed her with a more neutral expression. Violet didn't quite know what to think about the way he reacted to that. He had responded earlier when she kissed him, so she was near certain that he liked her and found her attractive, so why was he so subdued and neutral now?
"You did say we could discuss it." Violet reminded him and crossed her arms over her chest, staring at him with a determined expression, making it very clear that she wasn't about to back down and didn't appreciate his sudden backtracking.
"I can't recall actually agreeing to anything except the discussing, but yeah, we can talk about it." he agreed and looked over at the bathrooms for a moment to ensure that they were still occupied and there was nobody around to overhear them, then back at Violet. "I'm not sure if you've noticed or if she's mentioned anything to you, but I rather doubt you'll get your mothers approval now. Her expressions and occasional glares makes it pretty clear that she's not exactly comfortable with me being in close proximity to you and likely not overly fond of me on general principle. The two of you have just been reacquainted with each other, so it's probably not a good idea to add that particular strain to your budding relationship at the moment. Telling your mother that you have a boyfriend if that boyfriend is someone your mother actively dislikes can be hard enough with a good relationship, but you and your mother barely know each other."
Violet blinked.
She had noted her mother directing extremely intent gazes in their direction before, during and after the massages. She had also sometimes noticed her observing Nick pretty intently and there had been a few odd looks directed at Violet herself too. Her tone of voice sometimes got strained and there seemed to be an almost instinctive suspicion coming out from time to time when Lily talked with Nick. There had also been that comment about hating him after he teased her about Magic Infusions earlier. Violet had taken it as a joke, but it had indeed not sounded quite like a joke, the tone of voice had been far too serious for that.
Her forehead creased as she considered that.
Violet was not used to having a parental figure looking out for her, possibly disapproving of something she was getting up to. The closest she had gotten in the past were the Professors at Hogwarts and Mrs Weasley.
She didn't count the Dursleys, as they disapproved of everything even slightly related to her on general principle.
The Professors, well, those were easily ignored. She didn't have the best impression of adults in her life from the way she had grown up and this attitude had transferred to the Professors at Hogwarts. She did like some of them, even had some measure of respect for them. But at the end of the day, what they thought about her and her life choices outside of schoolwork, didn't matter one bit to her. Even if she liked and respected Flitwick, what the hell did she care if he approved of a potential boyfriend or not? Having their concerns about the stone dismissed by McGonagall at the end of the first year had pretty much eroded whatever little bit had been there before. Mrs Weasley she also liked and kind of respected, even if she was a bit overbearing, controlling, condescending and grabby.
The less said about Molly s belief that she and Ron were perfect for each other, the better.
Ron was a good buddy. He was fun, he didn't force her to study like some others she could mention, he liked Quidditch and he too knew the importance of going through your day on a full stomach. But she was not blind to the fact that he could be a jealous git, hadn't forgotten how horribly he had treated Hermione in first year and was well aware of his old-fashioned chauvinistic sexist views on male-female relationships. So yeah, as a friend, she had few issues with Ron and the ones she did have, rarely had any permanent effect on their friendship. They'd have a bit of a row from time to time, but it'd all be forgotten before long. But as a boyfriend? She'd probably kill him in less then a month after he pissed her off one too many times or after the first time he suggested that her place in a future family would be as a stay-at-home-housewife.
But yeah, the fact that Mrs Weasley apparently hadn't cottoned on to the fact that a relationship between Violet and Ron would lead to him six feet under and her in Azkaban, certainly hadn't increased the chances of Violet really caring about Mrs Weasley's opinions when they clashed with her own.
So there had been no adult in her life who she'd listen to if they didn't like what sort of boy she was crushing on.
Heck, Nick himself was probably the one who came closest to it!
Despite how recently she had gotten to know him, she was aware enough to have noted how she'd sometimes look to him for approval and guidance, far to often considering how self-reliant and independent she usually was and how new he was to her life. She hadn't thought much about it at the time other then noting how out of the norm it was for her, but she did recall how she'd acted after Hermione had asked her mother about a possible sleepover. Once Jean had approved it, Violet had turned to Nick to ask for permission.
She had turned to an actual fucking adult and asked for permission to do something! Not just as a lip service either. As she considered what had happened later on, she had realized that she likely would have respected his decision if he had told her no. That was pretty big, pretty fucking big indeed. If he had been just about any other adult figure in her life, she'd likely just tried to work around it and snuck off for the sleepover anyway. But while she couldn't be entirely sure what she would have done if he had said no, the chances of her going along with it felt likely, which just wouldn't have happened with any other adult.
But now she had her mother around. A mother she didn't really have any sort of relationship with, just the very shaky start of one in addition to a purely biological one. Her only memories of her before yesterday was a faint memory the Dementors had dredged up, which she wasn't quite sure how accurate it was. Had what she vaguely recalled around Dementors actually happened or was it how she imagined it had happened? She'd seen pictures and had been told a few meagre bits about Lily, but despite being her actual flesh and blood mother, she barely knew her. Heck, she probably knew that asshole Draco Malfoy who she avoided to the best of her ability better then she did her own mother!
And wasn't that a fucking disgusting thought?
She shuddered and jumped off that train of thought, eager to get away from any line of thinking that brought Draco Malfoy to mind.
Did she care that Lily didn't like Nick? She wasn't sure. She did like her mother, she wanted to get to know her better and she felt incredibly protective of her, but did she respect her opinions?
She couldn't come to a decision either way about that at the moment.
"Now, granted, I do consider myself a likeable sort and in spite of my tendency to tease and joke around, I'm not completely socially inept. I do hope to eventually get her to ease up on the hatred, but at the moment, you'll probably have quite the fierce argument up ahead if you declared your intent to make me your boyfriend to your mother. Getting into a big row this soon, well, that's likely a bad idea for your budding relationship with your mother. That's issue number one." Nick continued.
"Number two is the age difference. In ten years or twenty years, it will barely be noticeable or worth mentioning, but at the moment, it is somewhat of an issue. Perhaps not to you or me, but those around us will take note and likely be less then approving of it. But as a consequence of this difference, you'll be off to Hogwarts for most of the year and the next couple of years. There won't be much time for us to see each other and a long-distance relationship can be hard even for those with more experience. For your first relationship? It'll be like juggling ten angry cats while drunk, bound to cause pain, sorrow and frustration. Now, I do have plans to be around Hogwarts more this year and if I can get one of the Champions to hire me as a tutor, I may even be able to get myself a room to stay in at the castle. But that's a big 'if' and certainly not a sure thing. So perhaps this year wouldn't be quite so long-distance, but in the future?" he continued and seemed about to continue piling on with the obstacles up ahead.
"Bloody hell, you're a depressing bugger." Violet interrupted with a snort and shake of her head before he could start listing more 'issues', which he seemed to have been about to do before she put a stop to it. It wasn't that she wasn't aware that there were issues, but she had full confidence that they could be dealt with and thus she was free to focus on the other bits. It seemed Nick was blind to the other bits, because all he could see was the obstacles. "Why are you being such a girl about this?! Just think with your dick, like other guys!" she snapped and Nick's mouth fell open for a few moments, then he laughed out loud at her outrageous statement.
"The problem with trying to date an older guy is that some of us have actually learned to use the head on our shoulders to do our thinking." he managed to get out in response, though immediately afterwards he started chuckling again.
Upper head thinking certainly wasn't the case all of the time, he had to admit. He had let his lower head do the thinking for a bit when Violet had just kissed him from out of the blue earlier this morning and it wasn't completely unheard of for that to happen from time to time. But in general, he did let the head on his shoulders do the vast majority of his thinking.
"Fine, fine. You're being a big wet blanket about this and we probably won't get to be alone for much longer. Write down all your little 'issues' and give me the full list, then I'll crush all your stupid pointless objections." Violet stated and uncrossed her arms, poking her right index finger into the centre of his chest. "I told you before, you've been upgraded. I don't care if you acknowledge it or not, I'll make you admit it." she informed him.
"That s how it fucking works, huh?" he reminisced, a faint grin once again appearing on his face. "You're a barrel of laughs, Mini Red. Things are never boring around you, that's for sure."
"Hopefully I'll be able to rub off on you a bit, perhaps stop you from being such a sad sack." she snarked back.
"You did some rubbing against me earlier, didn't seem to have had any great effect on my sad sack status, so I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you." he grinned.
"See? Right there? A joke. A shit one, but a joke none the less. Much better then stupid protests and shit logic." Violet replied with a sly expression. "Besides, you shouldn't underestimate just how amazing I am. You should have seen how stiff Hermione was in her first year, she's much more relaxed these days."
"So... Around three years to see any effects? Well, an eighteen-year-old girl and a twenty-seven-year-old man won't raise quite as many eyebrows as fifteen and twenty-four. Gives me plenty of time to work on getting your mother to stop hating on me as well." Nick responded.
Violet looked up at the ceiling and shook her head.
"And you were doing so good for a while there, then right back to logic again." she sighed. "Sod off to your shower and get me that list. I'm looking forward to destroying your logical reasonable arguments with my sheer awesomeness." she snorted and waved dismissively as she walked off to get back to her exercise.
Nick grinned and chuckled for a bit, then nodded to himself and headed off, giving Violet a bemused head pat on his way.
Violet squatted down and blitzed up into jumping jacks for a bit, then stopped mid-exercise and exhaled once she was sure that she was alone.
"I can do this. He's going down." she told herself in a low tone of voice. "I am awesome. Hermione always tries to be all logical and reasonable, but I've managed to convince her to do some pretty crazy shit anyway. I can do this." she said and nodded, taking a deep breath and straightened up. "I can do this!" she firmly stated, then shook her head and went back to her squats and jumping jacks.
Hiding insecurities and lack of experience underneath a veneer of confidence and determination was nothing new for her. She had years of experience with that. But this was the first time she'd had to use that experience for romantic pursuits. She didn't think she'd given away just what a fucking nervous wreck she had been throughout that part of the conversation, but now when he had walked off, it crept out.
"I can do this..." she mumbled again, but now when she was alone, her expression did not in any way, shape or form match the words she was repeating, trying to convince herself.
"A little help, please." Lily requested and Nick swiftly abandoned the notepad he was writing on, got up, then walked over to Lily who had stopped halfway between the bathroom and the TV couch Nick was seated on. She was swaying a bit and her legs were trembling.
"Ah sorry, I was a bit lost in thought. Didn't even hear you exiting the bathroom." he apologized as he took her left hand in his left and put his right on the small of her back, observing carefully as Lily took several deep breaths, then gingerly continued to make her way over towards the couch. He helped her get seated and quietly observed her for a bit, especially how her right leg kept trembling even when she was seated.
He let out a tired sigh and sat down next to her, turning slightly to face her.
"Ever thrown out really old clothes or bedclothes?" he suddenly inquired from out of the blue, causing Lily to just look oddly at him for several seconds.
"Yeeees?" she eventually drawled, wondering just where the hell he was going with that weird and unexpected opening.
"Tried pulling a bit on them, perhaps tear them up into more manageable sizes?" he continued and Lily tilted her head.
"Yeah. Me and Tunia cleared out most of the old stuff after our parents... After they died and Tunia wanted to take over the house. Some of her Muggle friends helped. We... We were not on the best of terms, but... But I had to be there. I needed to be there and help, for myself." Lily replied, looking sad for a bit, before she shook it off. "Couldn't use my wand with Muggles around, so we did everything by hand. I tore up some old drapes, tablecloths, clothes and stuff so we could burn it in a barrel in the back yard."
"If it was stuff that was old and worn out enough, I'm guessing it was pretty easy to tear apart." Nick mused and Lily nodded, still not quite understanding where he was going with this odd line of conversation. "Your muscles are kind of like that at the moment. It wouldn't take much to wreck them completely. That's why the amount of exercise is strictly limited to manageable amounts and probably feels quite ridiculous when looking at the schedule for the moment. You probably weren't expecting to just open and close your legs for a bit, with a soft stretchy rubber band to give a bit more resistance to be part of your rehabilitation. But please, do try to stick to the schedule and stop for breaks if you need to. It's incredibly frustrating to feel weak, but it'll just take longer to recover if you injure yourself and have to rest instead of doing your exercises."
Lily looked away and tried to force her treasonous right leg to remain completely still, to no avail.
"It's frustrating, feeling like I'm not in control of my own body." she angrily admitted.
"No doubt. Now imagine how frustrating it would be if you had to stay in bed for a couple of days, because you injured yourself by overworking." he calmly countered.
Her expression was obvious evidence of how little she approved of that mental image. She sighed and slumped in her seat.
"I just..." she started, but trailed off, not quite knowing how to finish what she had started to say.
"Give it some more time. I'm already impressed and astonished. I didn t expect you to be able to walk unassisted at all today. Just rising from sitting on a chair to a standing position was something I expected would be something you'd struggle with. Balancing yourself while standing upright was something I thought would fail from time to time, so you're already blowing all expectations out of the water. Just try not to hurt yourself because your recovery is slower than you want it to be." Nick explained and smiled. "There, lecture over. No more admonishments from me."
"I appreciate it." she grunted.
He smiled and snagged up his notepad again, leaning back against the couch as he scribbled away.
"Taking notes on your two-legged experiment?" Lily inquired archly as she looked down at the notepad, wondering just what the hell he felt necessary to write down after that bit of short conversation.
"I'm not taking any notes on you and I certainly won't run any experiments without your express permission." he absently replied and looked up at her. "Your resurrection may just be the biggest potential medical discovery since... Hell, I don't even know! But I'm not in the habit of just running medical experiments on living subjects willy-nilly." he announced with an eyeroll. "If something springs to mind that I feel would be worth considering, I'll bring it up with you."
She slowly nodded and offered him a slight smile, a strained one, but a smile none the less.
"Thanks. I do appreciate it." she said and actually chuckled, managing to relax a bit now when she didn't quite feel like a petri dish under a microscope anymore. "Heck, I might even come up with an experiment or two myself." she announced and looked down at her own body. "Annoying as it may be at the moment, this really is quite remarkable." she snorted, still not quite able to believe just what had happened to her.
"No worries." he waved it off and returned to his notetaking. "No, I'm writing a list for Violet." he continued and forced his expression to remain neutral, despite not even looking at Lily at the moment.
He hadn't been planning on bringing it up this soon, but the amusement potential was just too fucking big for him to resist and it was likely better to do it when it was just the two of them anyway, so he might just as well take the opportunity she pretty much handed him on a silver platter. Probably better to let her know now, when her opinion on him was already low, then waiting until it was higher before bringing this subject up anyway. Besides, he suspected it was better if he brought it up, instead of letting Violet do it. That would likely bring about a row of epic proportions or so he imagined.
"A list? About?" Lily asked with a note of confusion and faint intrigue.
"She thinks it would be a smashing idea for us to become boyfriend-girlfriend." he responded while keeping on writing, ignoring the shocked and almost horrified gasp from the woman next to him at that blunt statement. "So, I'm compiling a list of reasons why that would be a bad idea for her." he continued before she had a chance to recover and start blurting out protests, setting up his own stance and position ahead of time.
Or at least the stance he'd take in front of her.
"She's fifteen!" Lily hissed and clenched her right fist, glancing over at the stairs. She had heard the shower upstairs running as she exited the bathroom and the shower running in the other bathroom downstairs, so both Violet and Sirius were likely still freshening up.
"I know. The age difference is number two on the list." he absently responded.
"You barely know each other!" she snarled.
"That's number three." he agreed and stopped writing, looking up at her. "Look, it's probably easier if you just add your own objections to the list after I'm done with mine." he offered with a faint grin, no longer able to keep a completely straight face.
She reached out for the notepad, but wasn't fast or strong enough to yank it completely out of his hand like she probably intended. She did drag it over towards her however and glared down at it with a furious expression, her eyes darting back and forth as she skimmed through what he'd written.
"My relationship with her?!" she demanded after spotting the first entry.
"She is your daughter, but the two of you barely know each other. With the way she grew up, without reliable adult supervision, she doesn't have the best of experiences with adults telling her what to do, think, feel or how to act. The two of you trying to discuss this now would likely lead to a pretty nasty argument and a complete breakdown of the relationship you're trying to build. So yeah, it's probably better if you just add your objections to my list rather then give them to her verbally. I don't think that trying to speak to her about it will go over well and will likely lead to the two of you not speaking to one another for a while. Besides, if I've judged her correctly, it will probably just make her even more determined to go ahead with what she wants." Nick explained and gently pulled the notepad back, as Lily paled and froze in her seat.
"But..." she started, but trailed off with a frustrated expression.
"I am aware that I'm not your favourite person, you know." he announced and she glared angrily at him. "That's fine. We barely know each other and I know that I certainly wasn't at my best during your resurrection or directly after it, so your first impression of me likely wasn't all that good. Then we have today, when I had to examine you, treat your daughters Magical Burns, give you what you probably feel are completely ridiculous exercises, aid when your body fails you and then now, when you're told straight up that your daughter has romantic inclinations towards me instead of merely strongly suspecting it. Trust me, I'm well aware that you probably think that I'm lower than a cockroach and hate my guts at the moment." he continued and she glared angrily as he spoke, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a few moments before refocusing her gaze at him.
"I am also well aware of a whole other slew of problems that a relationship with her would bring." he said before she could say anything and waved the notepad around in her field of vision. "Hence, why I'm making a list of reasons why it would be a bad idea for Violet to date me. Like I said, once I'm done, you're free to look it over and add your own arguments to it before I hand it over to Violet. It's also the route I recommend you take, as trying to bring it up with her yourself feels like a sure-fire argument in the making."
Lily was quiet and in full-on-brooding for nearly a full minute, just staring intently at him, before she finally responded verbally.
"I do wish you could be more unreasonable. It'd make things less confusing." she sighed in frustration and leaned back against the backrest, letting her head fall back on it. "First of all, I don't hate your guts." she stated and shook her head. She wasn't completely honest there, he did confuse her, but she was pretty certain that yeah, she fucking hated him. But despite that, he was remarkably easy to put up with and she could remain mostly civil towards him with barely any effort in spite of that intense dislike.
"Yes, our first 'meeting' wasn't really ideal and what I've seen of you after has both heavily reenforced my initial impression and completely disproved it. It seems you either piss me off something fierce, confuse me like heck, do something really endearing or say something profoundly intriguing, there's no middle ground." she added with full brutal honesty. "You remind me a little of Sirius to be honest. He's similar in a way, but at least there is some middle ground with him and he s much easier to get really angry at, though it tends to pass pretty fast." she mused, then shook her head to get back on track.
"So, no. I don't hate you, but yes, I am not overly fond of you." she understated and then tilted her head back upright in order to focus a proper glare at him. "Also, I most certainly do NOT approve of you getting romantically involved with my daughter in any way, shape or form even if she will be of age by the end of the month."
"What a surprise, I'm stunned beyond belief." Nick responded with a big grin. "No worries, Big Red. I'm certainly aware of that and have concerns of my own when it comes to Violets little crush on me."
He'd be extremely surprised if his own private concerns were anywhere close to being similar to Lily s concerns, but he could certainly guess some of them and would do his best to write down some more believable 'issues' on the list for Violet. He'd impress Lily with how much he was seemingly against dating her daughter and continue improving her opinion about him.
That was workable, something he could see himself accomplish.
Getting her to a similar state as her daughter and then somehow convincing the mother-daughter duo to get involved with him at the same time? That he had a harder time seeing.
But it wasn't like not being able to see a viable path forward would keep him from heading towards a place where something along those lines would be easier to accomplish. It would take time, perhaps that time would give him some ideas or give him something to work with. Or perhaps just being himself would be enough, if he could get her to not actively hate him, he'd have a better starting position. For now, all he could come up with was to chip away at her dislike. Dissuading Violet from starting up a relationship with him right away, while not driving her off completely or making her give up on that idea entirely was also needed.
He wanted to vince, but kept a bemused expression for his audience.
It was bad enough that he couldn't just drop that fucking Sub Quest, but there was quite literally only two viable options for it to boot. If it had been just two random women he needed to enslave, he probably was ruthless enough to use both the Mind Arts and drugs on two girls he disliked or just felt apathetic about, clear the quest, purge them of drugs, restore their minds and then Obliviate them. Heck, he could probably have hired two hookers for it and sent them off without memories and wallets filled to bursting to ease his conscious a bit.
There was a bit of advantage to feeling disassociated from just about everyone in the world, he had no qualms whatsoever about contemplating some pretty horrible things with almost zero guilt as long as he wasn't personally invested in the people involved.
But he needed two Potter females and there was just two of them!
He liked Violet, liked her a whole fucking lot. She was a funny, fierce, strong, young woman and he had no doubt that if he'd just randomly met her somewhere five years down the road, he'd be in full-on pursuit mode. But even with their age difference, he still liked her. At the moment that like was perhaps more akin to a little sister or daughter then as a prospective lover, but hey, he was a guy.
She wasn't actually related to him, she was attractive and she'd be of legal age at the end of the month. He could work with that. While lover wouldn't be his first choice if it was up to him to decide their future relationship, it was none the less something he could settle on if a little sister or daughter-like relationship was out. He still felt guilty as fuck and ashamed for what he had to work towards, feelings that only grew stronger the more he got to know her.
Before meeting her, he'd been annoyed at the Sub Quest, but mostly shrugged and figured that he didn't have much of a choice about it. The disassociation meant that he had zero problems with working towards quest completion and plotting out how to do that without any real guilt. His objection had been more along the lines of not liking being forced into doing something out of his own control.
The more he got to know Violet however, the more he resented what he had to do, no longer able to rely on his disassociation to ignore just what the fuck sort of completely asshole bullshit he was trying to pull. Adding the Aphrodisiac to the Potion he used for their massages had been easy at the time, as she still hadn't felt quite 'real' to him back then. Now? Now he felt like the lowest of the low every time he retrieved a vial of the Potion for one of the massage sessions.
The fact that he'd considered using his own mastery of the Mind Arts to make that a non-issue was another source of guilt. The temptation to just remove the shame and guilt, then render himself unable to feel that in regard to her, was pretty darn big. Messing about with one s own mind and emotions was generally ill advised, as it was pretty hard to predict potential side effects and it was also easy to do a lot more then intended. He was mostly confident in his skills however, especially with his added Perk. Thus, he was pretty sure that he would be able to make himself unable to feel bad about having to do whatever it took to clear that Sub Quest without suffering through some weird side effects or lapsing into a completely empathy-free psychotic state.
It was tempting.
But like he so often thought, he might be an asshole, but not that kind of complete utter asshole.
If he felt no shame and no guilt, that he liked her wouldn't save her from his more ruthless notions and urges. The list of things someone with his areas of expertise could do to a young woman s impressionable mind and body was extensive. The Mind Arts? He could off-hand think of at least half a dozen viable ways to use them to wrap up Violets part of the Sub Quest before the day was over. Potions and Alchemy? Same thing there. Heck, just the fact that she was a young insecure girl crushing on him and her levels of trust in him meant that he probably could get it done with zero magic involvement well before the month was over if he was a bit ruthless and predatory about it.
He hated it. He hated himself. He hated that his mind worked the way it did.
That was why he hadn't just tweaked his own mind the moment he realized that he'd have to overcome his guilt and shame to get Violets part of the Sub Quest over and done with. He was scared that he'd just go ahead and do something completely unforgiveable to someone he liked if he did.
Not that his current 'feeling guilty while still thinking that the ends justify the means' approach was much more forgivable then say creating a second completely submissive slave personality he could have her switch into when her current gung-ho tomboy self wasn't needed.
Being so disassociated from just about everyone in the world, made him value the few people who he truly and honestly did like a whole lot more then he might otherwise.
He was a bit more neutral towards Lily at the moment and the disassociation was still in effect with her, but he wasn't blind, stupid or unable to predict himself and his future feelings towards her.
He could see a lot of the same qualities he liked in Violet in Lily as well. He didn't know if he'd grow to like her as quickly as he had with Violet, but it was highly likely. Based on the pictures he'd seen of Lily before she died, he imagined that she would be quite gorgeous once she had recovered and unlike Violet, she wasn't a teenager. Violet was a bit younger than his preferred age range for romantic partners, but Lily was not.
She had died when she was just twenty-three years old, which was close enough to his own age that there was no concern about an age difference. So yeah, while there was no big physical attraction at the moment, that wouldn't last. She did have an attractive personality. He'd seen signs of the same funny, fierce and strong traits he appreciated in Violet in Lily as well. Lily also had obvious brains and intelligence, which was something he liked in his women. Smart and funny were in fact probably the two biggest things that got his motor running when it came to non-physical traits.
It wasn't that he thought Violet was stupid, far from it. The instance at the graveyard when she asked if Dumbledore had turned her mother s corpse into a Ward Stone sprung to mind. For someone who didn't know shit about Wards, that was a pretty darn good guess which she had arrived at with almost zero knowledge, scant descriptions from him and almost no time to think about it. She had a sharp brain, accurate intuition and a quick wit, but didn't seem to make great use of them very often when it came to more purely intellectual pursuits.
Lily also had the brain, intuition and wit, but she did indeed make use out of it. Based on what he'd read about her and observed of her so far after her resurrection, Lily had an incredible academic drive to match her intelligence, lofty aspirations and far-reaching goals. She didn't have the power of say Riddle, but based on what he'd read, everyone had been convinced that she would have made incredible discoveries and advanced what was known of magic in multiple fields if she hadn't been killed so young. A bit of jack-of-all-trades with genius-level or at least borderline genius-level intellect, real genuine talent in multiple fields, a creative mind and an incredible drive to really push herself. Yeah, she would have been truly great and now, she again had the chance to become truly great.
All in all, Lily had a personality that was even more attractive to him then her daughter and once she'd recovered, she'd likely have a physical edge over Violet as well due to already having grown out of her coltish teenaged years.
So yeah, he liked Violet and would probably like Lily just as much before long.
And these two were the only two viable options for that fucking Sub Quest.
Unless he wanted to wait for them to get knocked up by some other guy and hope that they had daughters, further increasing the age gap. Or they fell in love and married women who took the Potter name, then snatch those new Potter females away from them. NTR their lesbian wives away from them.
Yeeeeeeeeah... No. Taking a bet on a longshot was one thing, but that was well beyond long odds.
"You are encouraging it though." Lily groused, bringing Nick out of his internal musings. "And taking advantage of her crush!"
Sad, but true.
Not that he could admit to that and see anything good come out of that admission.
"Oh? You may just have to talk me through those two." he deflected, trying not to let on that he was anything but calm, cool as a cucumber and innocent of all accusations. He wasn't sure at which point his Harmless perk would kick in, how long he'd had to know someone for it to have an effect, but it certainly seemed that less then a day wasn't enough for it to come into play when it came to Lily at least. Or perhaps it had and she was just that defensive about her daughter. It was hard to tell since there were no real indication of it as far as he could tell.
"You're not just telling her that she'd being ridiculous! You should just tell her that she has no business being involved with you." Lily started and he raised an eyebrow, holding up his notepad in her field of vision in lieu of a verbal rebuttal. "Well, yes... But just telling her should be enough!"
Nick just barely managed to prevent himself from laughing in her face, but he did grin.
"She'd probably just land a haymaker on me, tell me to shut up, that I've got no choice in the matter and then start snogging away while I'm trying to stop seeing stars." he replied and shook his head. "So no, that just wouldn't work. Unless she is convinced herself that giving up and moving on is the best option, she'll just dig her heels in and become more stubborn the more people try to tell her off and push her away. I haven't known her for very long, but that aspect of her personality is pretty obvious. Hence, the list. I don't expect that to fully work either, if I'm completely honest. But at least it should get her to start thinking about the problems and issues instead of whatever fairy tale it is she pictures now that makes her think going for me is a smashing idea."
Lily gave that a few moments of consideration, then grudgingly admitted to herself that he had a point. He'd said earlier that trying to protest would probably have the opposite reaction to what Lily wanted.
She could relate.
She wouldn't be swayed by mere protests either, she'd have to be convinced that she was wrong, otherwise she'd just dig in her heels and fight all the harder for what she believed.
She did wish she hadn't passed on that aspect of herself to her daughter though.
"You're also feeling her up while she's naked, taking advantage of her crush!" she snapped instead, changing tracks slightly since she was unwilling to admit out loud that he was likely correct. "You had your paws all up her cunny yesterday!"
"I tried to convince her to go to St Mungos for treatment, but she's been in hot water with the Ministry in the past for underage magic use, so she was unwilling to go that route. I can make the Potion and am a deft hand at massages, so it's no skin off my back to do it myself rather then sit in the waiting room while someone at St Mungos does it." he started and shrugged. "Yesterday evening was a bit of an outlier, I was tired as heck after a long day, multiple line-of-sight Apparitions, overdosing on Pepper-up, summoning your spirit, getting your heart beating and lungs working, infusing my blood with magic and then transferring it to you. In short, I was a bit off my game. I don't remember having my 'paws all up her cunny' and rather doubt that I had. She usually handles her lady bits on her own, but I may have done them yesterday in my daze. Can't rightly recall, so you'll have to ask her about that."
Lily stared intently at him, but couldn't rightly tell if he was being honest or not. If he had outright denied it, she didn't think she would have believed him. He had been pretty out of it, so she reluctantly admitted in the privacy of her own mind that he might not truly remember.
She also, very extremely reluctantly, admitted that Violet hadn't seemed like there had been any true fingering going on. She had been embarrassed, yes. His hands had been in that general area, yes. But it was possible that it had been somewhat more innocent than it looked at first.
She still didn't like that his hands had been anywhere near that general area, but perhaps he hadn't been fingering her daughter right in front of her. It was possible that she had been mistaken.
Possible.
She'd have to ask Violet, but...
Merlin, wouldn't that be an embarrassing conversation? And would she be able to keep herself from bringing up her daughter s crush?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt uncomfortable about talking with her about that. She didn't want to admit that Nick may be correct, that such a conversation would lead to an argument which would lead to a fight which would lead to Violet distancing herself. But if she put a copy of herself with a crush on Nick in Violets shoes and imagined confronting that copy, she could indeed see that leading to quite the fight.
Yeah, she sure wished that Violet hadn't gotten that aspect from her. It would have been much simpler if she was more like James. All that was required for him to give up on an argument had been a stern glare and the threat of sleeping on the couch.
Nick glanced over towards the bathroom as he heard the shower Sirius had been using shut off, then back at her.
"I'll finish this list sometime during the day, then you can add whatever other points that comes to your mind, all right?" he offered while holding up the notepad. "Having more points for her to consider could only be helpful."
She took a deep breath and nodded her agreement.
There was another male in this house that she had issues with. Violet had told her yesterday that Sirius had gotten himself thrown into Azkaban because he ran off to hunt down Peter instead of staying to take care of his goddaughter.
Her fists clenched.
Nick was too reasonable and logical to truly get her anger engine going, distracting her and deflecting her building anger with reason, logic and just plain making sense.
But Sirius had never been able to do that, he usually just tended to make her even angrier.
And Merlin, it sure felt like it would be nice to really flip her lid and unleash some frustrations right about now!
The expression on her face as she glared at the bathroom door wasn't a very nice one.