The Girl With Green Eyes
[Year 0, Summer]
'Here you are Professor, she's just through here. Harriet! You have a visitor, girl!' the matron of the orphanage shouted before gesturing towards the closed door. Minerva McGonagall nodded before requesting the matron leave her.
The transfiguration professor could not believe that Lily and James' daughter would have ended up in an orphanage. Albus had been surprised upon seeing the owl return with an unopened Hogwarts letter, sending Minerva to investigate it in his stead. She had been happy to oblige, especially since the girl was the daughter of her beloved students.
After a quick knock on the door, Minerva entered a rather small room with three beds and three cupboards squeezed into the small location. On the bed closest to the singular window in the room was a small girl with tangled black hair. She stared at Minerva with blank green eyes hidden behind her glasses. She was the Girl-Who-Lived.
Those blank eyes shocked Minerva. While they were the same vibrant shade as Lily's, they did not have the same fiery passion behind them. In vivid contrast, James's eyes had always been full of life in all her years of teaching and working alongside him. Clearing her throat, Minerva McGonagall addressed the girl, 'Harriet Lily Potter, my name is Minerva McGonagall…'
[Year 1, First Semester]
It was barely a month since their last meeting when Minerva had welcomed Miss Potter back to the wizarding world. As she called Miss Potter up to be sorted, there was a brief silence in the great hall before murmurings erupted amongst the student body.
Unlike the other first years, she seemed to show no fear nor excitement towards the sorting process and nonchalantly walked up towards the stool before Minerva. As the hat was placed upon Miss Potter's head, the murmurings within the hall seemed to come to a complete halt as everyone waited with bated breath for the Girl-Who-Lived to be sorted. Even the ghosts seemed to be holding their breath as they waited for the sorting hat's decision.
Although Minerva secretly wished for Miss Potter to be a part of Gryffindor House, she more strongly desired for the girl to be able to find a place to belong in Hogwarts. Yet, Minerva could not keep the large grin which leapt onto her face as Miss Potter was sorted into the house of the brave and as the Gryffindor table exploded into celebration.
As she pulled the sorting hat off of Miss Potter's head and pushed her towards the still cheering Gryffindors, Minerva McGonagall sincerely hoped that the daughter of Lily and James would be able to call Hogwarts her home.
[Year 1, First Semester]
For whatever reason, the ghosts seemed to avoid Harriet Lily Potter. While most of the apparitions were friendly enough to help first years along to classes, they had given the Girl-Who-Lived a large berth wherever she walked. Even Peeves (who had shrieked in fright after taking one look at Potter) had chosen to ignore her.
Unfortunately for Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (or Nearly Headless Nick as the students called him), he had a duty to help the young Gryffindor. After the sorting feast, the other house ghosts had wished him the best in dealing with the girl (but honestly, none of the others had even attempted to lend a helping hand!) as her house ghost.
Descending onto the lone girl who was searching for her next class, Nick put on his best smile before asking, 'My dear girl, do you need help to get to your next class?'
'Yes… Shouldn't the school management at least provide a map or something. It is almost impossible to get from one location to another.' Potter sighed as she pulled off her glasses to wipe against the sleeve of her robes. If any other student was paying attention to their interaction, it almost seemed as though her gaze had gone almost predatory in nature as she regarded the increasingly unsettled ghost.
Stuttering out the directions towards the transfiguration classroom, Nick quickly departed by passing through the wall and getting as far away from the girl as possible. For a brief moment during his conversation with the Potter girl, Nick had witnessed a kaleidoscope of colours gaze back at him rather than the pair of green eyes he was expecting.
[Year 1, First Semester]
Hermione Granger was having some trouble fitting in. Scratch that, she is having significant trouble fitting into Hogwarts. She had been so excited upon being sorted into Gryffindor that she scrambled to find every little bit of trivia surrounding the Hogwarts founder. Unfortunately, her housemates did not seem to like the enthusiasm that she had towards the wizarding world.
But she couldn't help it! The wizarding world was just so magical for the muggle-born that she just wanted to keep learning more and more about this brand new world. Hermione had believed Hogwarts to have been her big chance to reinvent herself, to become more than the simple know it all that the children in her primary school had called her. Yet, that not so magical term seemed to have followed her into the magical world.
Some Slytherin first years had whispered about her being a 'teacher's pet' or a 'know it all mudblood' behind her back and her fellow Gryffindors did little to stop them. In fact, Ronald Weasley had blurted out how annoying her presence was right in front of the others. Struggling to reign in a fresh flood of tears, Hermione crouched in the bathroom stall as she contemplated her decision to even enter the school.
Professor McGonagall had promised her the myriad of wonders in the wizarding world and, more importantly, a fresh start for the eleven year old witch. It was the latter which led Hermione to plead with her parents to let her attend the wizarding school. However, her old problems seemed to follow her wherever she went…
Hermione's thoughts were interrupted as she heard the loud smash. A deep guttural noise could be heard coming from outside of the girl's cubicle along with a putrid stench in the air. Opening the cubicle door to catch a glimpse of whatever had entered the toilet, Hermione wished she hadn't. A giant had smashed through the human sized entrance of the bathroom and was towering over her. It loosely clutched a club in its left hand and had some sort of green slime drooling profusely from its mouth.
No, this was no giant. Hermione had read about them in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The still gigantic creature which stood before her was a troll. Her knees buckled as she slumped onto the floor out of fear before the creature. Her mind was quickly rattling off facts about trolls to her which certainly did not help her prospects. It was resistant to most spells that adult wizards or witches could use, much less an inexperienced first year. Squeezing her eyes shut, Hermione could only fearfully anticipate the end that was looming before her.
'Well, well, guess I might not be so bored after all. Now isn't this school full of surprises.'
Opening her eyes, Hermione found her saviour. Rather than a professor or a seventh year prefect coming to her rescue, she instead found one Harriet Lily Potter gazing at the troll. The Girl-Who-Lived was even smaller than Hermione herself and she lacked confidence that even the vanquisher of Voldemort would be able to apprehend the troll. Instead of whipping out her wand and firing some sort of spell at the troll, Harriet merely removed her glasses and placed them into her pocket.
At this point, Hermione was absolutely certain that she was going to die. Her fellow Gryffindor must be absolutely crazy to blind herself without her glasses and she even had a freaking smile plastered on her face. A smile! Refocusing on the Girl-Who-Lived, Hermione realised something was strange. Wasn't Harriet's eyes green?
The troll took notice of Harriet's presence and glanced towards her as she sprung into action. Whipping out a steak knife of all weapons, Harriet dashed towards the troll and swung.
[Year 1, First Semester]
Severus Snape was not having a good day. Not only was it bloody Halloween but that blithering fool, Quirrell, had somehow managed to let a damned troll into the school. Grumbling as he closed the door which housed Fluffy and the other defenses for the stone, Snape marched towards the dungeons to check on his Slytherins.
'Severus, come to my office immediately. I have already confirmed all the Slytherins are in their dorms.' Dumbledore's voice echoed from his phoenix patronus before it dissolved into white mist. There was truly no rest for the potions master here in Hogwarts. Snape winced at the pain coming from where the damned cerberus bit him.
Limping up the spiral stairwell to Dumbledore's office, Snape found the headmaster bent over his pensieve. 'Ah Severus, I require a fresh pair of eyes to look over the situation with the mountain troll. The state which we found him in was truly curious…'
Shrugging, Severus Snape joined Dumbledore by the pensieve only to see a memory of Harriet Lily Potter slashing at the troll with a steak knife. Despite there being no sound, Snape could see the troll's face was contorted in pain as it clutched its face. To his horror, Snape only found two mangled eye sockets where the troll's eyes should have been.
'That was the scene Minerva and I came across Severus. It was rather easy to locate the troll with his awfully loud screaming which allowed the two of us to chance upon it so quickly. Harriet seemed to have been protecting young Miss Granger from the troll in the bathroom.'
Snape's lips curled at Dumbledore's words. He could bloody see that the troll was in extreme pain. What was surprising was the fact that Potter had actually managed to hurt a fully grown mountain troll, a feat that even the stronger fifth years would not be able to accomplish.
'Headmaster, may I know the reason for summoning me here? It seems that you have a rather thorough account of the situation at hand.'
Dumbledore sighed and regarded Snape through his half-moon spectacles. 'While I do have a thorough account of the situation,' Dumbledore began, 'I still have no clue how young Harriet was able to harm the mountain troll much less stab his eyes out with a steak knife. Severus, I'm afraid that I may need you to look into this situation and uncover the method behind such an attack.'
[Year 1, First Semester]
Hermione Granger finds herself to be in fresh awe of the Girl-Who-Lived. Of course, she was still rather fearful of Harriet after seeing her dispose of the troll but it was (mostly) overpowered by feelings of gratitude to the black-haired girl. Sitting herself down opposite Harriet in the library, Hermione stared at the Girl-Who-Lived and her now shoulder length black hair.
'I couldn't get whatever gunk the troll produced out of it.' Harriet deadpanned as she continued to read her book.
'Sorry?'
'In case you were wondering why I cut my hair, it was because I couldn't get the troll gunk out of it.' she repeated in the same tone.
'Well, I… I'm sorry about your hair… Erm Harriet? Thank you for saving me from that troll. I would probably have been dead by the time Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore showed up if not for you…' Hermione stuttered as she shifted in her seat.
Humming in affirmation, Harriet continued to read her book. Hermione studied the Girl-Who-Lived's face only to find nothing but boredom written upon it. Come to think of it, the only time that Hermione had seen a smile on Harriet was when she was fighting the troll. Abruptly, Harriet stood from her seat and packed the book into her school bag.
Slinging it on her shoulder, she turned to Hermione and questioned, 'Well, aren't you coming for dinner?'
Hermione could not help the smile which lit up her face. It had taken her most of the first semester but she thinks she has finally found a friend here in Hogwarts.
[Year -4, Summer]
The radio blared loudly in the Dursley's sedan as it roared down the road of Greater Whinging. Harriet was squirming in the far too large backseat. The Dursleys had told her that her parents had died in a car crash which made the girl uncomfortable.
To make matters worse, Vernon Dursley was clearly seething. He was not only forced to bring the girl to a corporate dinner but had to endure all those big shots gushing over her rather than Dudley. The rest of the car was easily aware of Vernon's rage as the car continued to accelerate faster and faster. There was the sound of blaring horns and a flash of light.
Harriet felt herself being thrown sideways in her seat and everything faded to black...
