I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

Trouble is My Middle Name

"Hey, you."

Harry Potter sighed deeply. He hated being at Number 4 Privet Drive for a number of reasons. The first three reasons were Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley Dursley. They were his relations, he hated considering them his family. For as long as he could remember, they made his life a living hell. They beat him, hurt him, starved him. They destroyed him mentally and emotionally. They turned all the residents of Privet Drive against him.

Time spent at Hogwarts and the Wizarding World were an escape for him. For a few brief months he could be Harry instead of Freak. He could eat, sleep, be a person and not a burden. He dreamt of the day he would leave Privet Drive forever, where he would never have to interact with the Dursleys ever again.

That was only a dream right now. A dream he worried would never come true.

He did not look up at this new speaker. Instead, he kept his gaze down as he weeded the flowers. "Yes?" he finally replied when he realized the person was still standing there.

"Are you the freak?"

He gritted his teeth, unable to stop from shivering at the word. He hated that word. He had heard it every day, multiple times a day, for years. In fact, he legitimately thought that was his name until he started primary school. A teacher had to tell him his actual name.

"Yes," he said finally. He hoped the person would leave him alone to his memory and misery.

"Huh, you don't look like one."

He looked up, confused. His confusion grew as he saw the speaker for the first time. She stood in front of him boldly, her fists on her hips. Everything about her screamed rebelliousness. Her hair was shorn on both sides of her head, leaving a long strip of multicolored hair down the center of her head. She wore a ring in her lip. Her ears glinted with piercings. Her eyes were bright green, startling close to his. She wore weathered clothes, frayed at the edges. A large leather jacket hung from her muscled frame. Large combat boots swallowed her legs and feet.

He belatedly realized he was gaping. "Thanks?" he said, still deeply confused and more than a little unsure.

The girl shrugged and sat on the sidewalk in front of him. Her legs spread wide, her knees elevated and bent, she rested her arms on them. She looked at him unabashed, her eyes flicked to the scar on his forehead but she made no comment. "Why do they call you that," she asked bluntly, her chin angled at Number 4.

Harry shrugged. "They, don't like me really. Never have."

"Why?"

Harry snorted. That was a question he asked himself daily as a child. "I was dropped off as a baby. Petunia is my aunt, my mother's sister. They had a falling out but they were my only relations so they were forced to take me in. Resented it."

The girl frowned. "That's not your fault."

Harry stared at her in wonder. "Thanks," he whispered to himself.

The girl stared at him for a while before snorting. "Gotta say, I'm a bit disappointed. I've heard from the people on this street that you're this delinquent, that you cause all this trouble. Been looking forward to meeting you and hanging out."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Harry said wryly. "Guess you can't believe everything you hear."

"Yeah," the girl said. "Still, you don't seem all that bad. I think I'll make Dud suffer more for lying to me."

"Suffer more?"

The girl smirked. "You notice the shiner Dud's got?" She kissed her fist when Harry nodded. "I did that. When I first came here, he and his rat pack thought they could bully me. I taught them they couldn't."

Harry smiled. It was one of the few sincere smiles he ever had while at Privet Drive. He held his hand out to her, belatedly aware that it was soil covered. "My name is Harry Potter and I think you're my new best friend."

She looked at his hand with obvious confusion. Then after a long moment, she reached out with hers. She shook it firmly, uncaring of the soil and debris. "Call me Mack. I think that's cool."

-0-

Harry and Mack reached an easy routine. Whenever Harry was working outside on the lawn on in the garden, Mack would wander over. She would lounge about and chat with Harry. Sometimes she would stand on the corner if she did not seem him, and if he saw her, he would come out. They wandered the neighborhood, talking about all sorts of things.

Harry learned Mack was a few years older than him. She had gotten in trouble the last place she lived at. She was passed from place to place by her relations, staying only until she could not be 'tolerated' anymore. He learned she liked to fight. She wore leather gloves without finger tips when she did.

He thought she was scary but cool.

Mack learned Harry lost his parents when he was a baby. She learned that he did not like being at Privet Drive, and was only there during summers when he was not at his boarding school. She saw how thin he was, how nervous he was. She liked the way he listened to her, how strangely unbothered he was by her.

She thought he was shy but nice.

They liked their routine.

-0-

"Harry, what happened to you?"

Harry smiled weakly through a split lip. "Nothing, it was an accident."

"Hell of an accident. What happened?" Mack insisted.

"It was my fault," Harry muttered, looking away.

Mack grabbed his chin and pulled his face back to look at, her emerald green eyes intent. "It was your fault or it was an accident. Which is it?"

Harry's resolve lasted for a few more moments before he told her what happened. How he had dropped something and it broke. How Dudley and Vernon beat him badly with Petunia watching. How this always happened on this day, every year.

"What day?" she asked flatly.

"It's…my birthday," he confessed.

She stared at him. Finally she rose. "See you later Harry," she said shortly and walked away.

Harry sighed. He did not know what to expect from Mack.

-0-

That night Dudley came back to Number 4 with a black eye, a split lip, and numerous other bruises and injuries. Petunia had shrieked and Vernon had roared. They immediately blamed Harry, but Harry had been in the house all day. They threatened him and Vernon made to grab him.

"It wasn't the freak's fault," Dudley blubbered.

Vernon demanded to know what happened. Dudley said that he got into a fight and that was that. They argued with each other and finally Vernon stopped asking when Dudley said he won the fight.

"Hey," Dudley hissed once his parents left. "Be outside later." Without any other explanation, Dudley fled upstairs.

Harry noticed something even odder. He noticed Dudley's injuries looked a lot like his.

-0-

Harry went outside once dark fell. He saw a familiar figure in a leather jacket and combat boots leaning against a tree. "Mack?" he called out softly.

A gloved hand beckoned him over, to hide behind the tree out of sight from the street and Number 4.

Harry gasped when he saw her. She had a big scrape on her cheek, her jaw looked bruised, her eyes inflamed. "What happened?"

She shrugged. "Paid a visit to Dud and his rat pack. Wailed on them for a while."

Harry gaped at her. "Is that why Dudley looked like me?"

She grinned toothily. Blood dripped down her chin. "Thought you notice that. You got good eyes."

Harry teared up. "Wait here," he said. He dashed back indoors and took the first aid kit from the kitchen. He fished out some Dittany that Hermione had gotten for him before the end of the year. He ran back out to Mack.

She saw the kit and winced. "You don't gotta do that," she protested. "I heal fine."

He ignored her, pushing her gently to sit against the tree and started to treat her cuts and gashes. She sighed with relief at his ministrations.

"Why'd you do that?" Harry asked.

"It's your birthday," she replied. "You should be nice to people on their birthdays. If any day during the year, it should be that one."

He did not know what to say.

"Here, happy birthday." Her voice shook a little, uncharacteristically soft and unsure. She handed him a cupcake. "It's from the store and it isn't fancy, but here you go."

Harry felt tears fall but his smile was broad. "Thank you. Share it with me?"

She goggled at him. "It's your birthday," she said.

"And I want to share it," he said. He ripped it half and gave half to her.

"Oh. That's cool," she said.

They sat together in the dark eating the cupcake.

It was the best birthday Harry ever had at Number 4 Privet Drive.

-0-

"Do you really have to go?" Mack asked plaintively.

Harry smiled sadly. He never thought he would ever be reluctant in leaving the Muggle world for the rest of the year. He never had before. Now he had a reason he wished he could be closer. "Yeah, I have to go to school," he said.

"Wish I could go with you," Mack said. "I could hang around but you said it's basically just your boarding school? That's weird."

Harry sighed. He wished she could come too. "I…I'll try to send messages, letters. It'll take some working out but I'll do it. I want to keep in touch with you."

She had a strange look on her face. She punched him on the shoulder. He still marveled that she somehow made a very violent act be incredibly soft to him. He had seen her punch for real. One time she found Piers Polks threatening Harry with a knife. She had punched him so hard he fell over head over feet.

"Not like that though," Harry teased.

Mack snorted. "You're such a girl," she teased back. Her smile faded. "I'm going to miss you."

He gently punched her arm. It felt like punching stone covered in leather. "I'll miss you too. Don't get in too much trouble," he said softly.

She snorted again. "Trouble is my middle name."

-0-

Harry figured out how he and Mack could exchange post. Well Hermione did to be fair. There were special stamps that would send Muggle Post to a magical destination. Harry had bought a bunch and sent them to Mack. Hedwig could carry letters to a specific place and they would end up at Mack's without her knowing about magic.

Throughout the year they send letters to one another.

He told her about the tournament in broad terms. Told her how people at school had turned on him, all save for Hermione. How he was scared. How he missed her.

She told him about staying out of too much trouble so she would not be sent away again. She told him about keeping the rat pack in line. She gave him advice on how to stand up to the other bullies and that he was cool. She told him she missed him too.

The letters kept him going. Even though he could not tell her everything, he was glad to know that someone out there believed him. Even with all she did not know, she believed him.

She believed in him.

The letters kept her going. She never had any attachments to where she lived before. She would last as long as she could, behave for as long as she was able. Then she would get into more fights, and people would get tired of her and send her away. To be someone else's problem.

Even knowing that, he liked her. He told her how she was not the problem. He said she was the best thing to ever happen at Privet Drive. He said he believed her.

He believed in her.

-0-

"Hey."

Harry felt a tiny kernel of pain release deep in his chest when he saw her. She looked a little different. Only one side of her head was shorn short. Her hair was long on the other side. She still had her lip ring and ear piercings. She still wore her leather jacket and her combat boots. Her eyes were still brilliant green.

"You look like shite," she said bluntly.

It made him smile.

He told her all that had happened, glossing over the magic of course. He told her how he watched a classmate die, that he felt responsible. He told her how everyone called him a liar. How people are turning on him again.

"Bastards!" she spat. She punched a brick wall without flinching. "They better not bother you while you're here. Wait 'till I get my hands on them!"

He grabbed her hands before she could punch the wall again. He marveled at how small they were. How rough her skin was. How well her hand fit in his. "Don't hurt yourself for me," he pleaded.

Her cheeks were flushed. She looked down at their hands. She did not pull away. "I'll hurt others for you," she promised.

"You don't have to do that either," he stammered. "But I appreciate it."

-0-

The Dementors came.

They came for Harry. Everyone else was collateral.

Harry was having trouble trying to get Dudley to run. He was having trouble to summon his Patronus.

He heard a shout. He saw Mack come running in. Without hesitation she swung out, trying to hit the strange looking thing that was threatening her friend. For the first time in her life, her fists failed her. She did not stop trying.

Harry managed to drive the Dementors away. He somehow managed to cast his spell when the combined Aura's of the Dementors knocked Mack senseless for a moment. He helped them escape and he sat with Mack for a long time on the grass in front of Number 4.

It was a while before she felt okay enough to walk home.

He thanked her for trying to help.

She punched him softly and called him a girl.

-0-

For the first time, Harry refused to leave Number 4 Privet Drive.

He told a gobsmacked Remus, an incredulous Tonks, a furious Mad-Eye Moody that he would not leave like a thief in the night. He would not leave without telling Mack.

Why would he leave a person that fought for him? Why would he go to see those that were supposed to defend him and had failed to do so? Why would he suddenly trust people that had so eagerly agreed to ignore him?

Moody said he would stun Harry and drag him away.

Harry told him to try.

Harry was able to spend the days up to his Ministry hearing at Privet Drive. The compromise allowed him only that much. He made the most of his time with Mack. He worked, she watched. He visited her when she was done with her job.

When he finally left, he did so reluctantly. He promised her that he would continue to write, to tell her everything he could.

She said she wished he would stay with trouble. She told him that trouble will always wait for him.

He did not know what she meant by that. He knew she meant it a little differently than when others said it though.

-0-

She looked beautiful to him when he came back the following summer. The same leather jacket. Her combat boots were a little different. Her hair was a different color. Her eyes were older but still warm just for him.

He looked so different to her. Same messy black hair, same thinness with an air of neglect. He looked even more world weary. He felt even more tired. Yet his eyes were still that intense shade of green, they still had that intense pain and loss. Intense vulnerability. Intense need. Intense want.

They spent the summer recovering.

She listened to him as he spoke of his failures. How his godfather died from his actions. How he led his friends into a trap. How they hurt because of him. How he had felt so terribly alone. She held him as he cried.

She told him how she felt lost too. How she went through the motions day by day. How she tolerated others so she could remain where she was for him. His letters were islands of brightness in a sea of dark, how she had enjoyed writing for him, because of him. She mentioned she picked up gardening because of him. It reminded her of him when he was not around.

They told each other they were not wholly alone.

He thought it was strange that the person he felt closest too knew nothing of his magical life. But that did not matter. She felt closest because she really knew how he felt a lot of the time. Angry at being alone and not being told things. Tired from bearing weight and responsibility heaped upon him. Sad from being neglected and tossed aside.

He learned that she had no parents either. That she grew up fighting because she had to. Unlike Harry that accepted the pain, Mack had rejected it. The only pain she accepted was self-afflicted. Mack fought again and again because no one would fight for her. She had tried to keep her tattered family together before she was forced away. She traveled from place to place, either forced to leave or leaving of her own volition.

The time she spent at Privet Drive was the longest she had ever spent at one place. She said it was because she had gotten tired of moving around. She also said she found a reason to stick around.

When he asked why she punched him.

-0-

"Harry, no, you can't do this."

"I have to Mack."

"Why?! Why you?! Why are you the one responsible?!"

Harry's nightmare had broken into the waking world. He had to leave Mack. Once he would have been beyond overjoyed in knowing he would never have to return to Privet Drive. He once had ached to leave the Muggle world forever. Once, he had attributed all his pain to the Muggle world.

He somehow found one thing that did not hurt him. Something that made him want to stay.

He finally told Mack everything. He told her all about magic. About the Prophecy. About Voldemort and Dumbledore. About the Horcruxes.

It was cathartic in a way. He finally could tell her all his secrets save one. He told her everything she had ever wanted to know. The information spilled from his lips, no longer held back.

He waited for her to reject him. Waited for her to call him a liar. To say that he was crazy.

He waited for her to call him a freak.

He was unprepared when she begged him to take her with him.

"You can't leave your world," he protested lamely.

"My world? I don't have shit here. It means nothing to me. Without you, I don't have a world. Take me with you."

"Mack, you can't do magic."

"I have all the magic I need right here." She raised her fists. "You need me."

"I need you to be safe. I need to know you won't be hurt. That I won't be a reason you get hurt."

"Who'll watch your back?!"

"Ron and Hermione are coming too."

"I don't trust them. I trust you and me. Take me with you. Please."

It was the first time she ever said 'please' to him. It broke his heart.

"I can't."

For the first time that he could remember, he saw her cry. Tears ran down her face and her voice trembled. He had seen her with black eyes, with bruises, with cuts. He had help her set her hand after she cracked her knuckles. She had never cried at those physical hurts.

"I hate this." Tears ran unchecked. "I hate this so much. Every time you left, I hated it. I stuck around because you told me you'd be back. I behaved. I acted right. I toed the line so I wouldn't be sent away. All that for you. Waiting for you to come back." Her voice grew quiet. "Something tells me you're not coming back this time."

He hugged her.

She stiffened at his touch, his embrace. Then she melted into him.

"I'll come back for you," he whispered. "I had no reason to come back to the Muggle world before you. Now I have a reason."

"Why?" Her voice was smothered into his neck.

Harry took a leap of fate. "I like you. Like, I really like you. I have for a while. You've watched my back for summers and I can't stop watching yours. That's partially why I'm fighting. Voldemort wants your kind dead or enslaved. I won't let that happen.

"That's my big secret." He sighed softly into her hair. "I really like you and I'll be back for you."

After a while she broke his embrace. She took off her jacket and draped it around his shoulders. On her it was always overlarge, hiding the outline of her body. She was slightly taller and broader than Harry. On him, it almost looked comical.

It felt comforting.

"That's my favorite jacket. Bring it back."

He nodded.

She hesitated. "I like you too, but I guess that isn't really a secret. Here's mine. My full name is Mackenzie Taire Blathin." Her face went bright red at Harry's astonishment. "I told you my middle name is trouble."

Harry worked out the words and their meaning. "Your name is Mackenzie Trouble Little Flower?" He laughed. "You're such a girl."

She punched him in the shoulder. "You're a girl."

-0-

She puttered around the garden many months later. She did as Harry asked, no begged. She left Privet Drive. She found a small place in a small town in case others would come from her. She worried that he would not be able to find her once she did, but he broke a piece of mirror in front of her, giving her half.

When she asked him about bad luck he only laughed and said he had plenty, what's a little more?

So she spent the months alone and worried. No messages obviously. No more magical letters or boxes of treats. No joking insults. No more talking about dreams and wishes and fears.

Nothing.

She felt tears building in her eyes as she worked. It was easy to cry ever since she did in front of Harry. She had not cried in years before meeting him. She wanted to blame him for making her act so emotional.

Maybe he had failed and he was dead somewhere. She sobbed.

Maybe he had succeeded. Maybe he was with someone and was living in the magical world, in a world where she did not belong. She sobbed harder.

A shadow fell over her and she waited for it to leave but it did not. She hissed under her breath. The shadow still refused to move. She felt ashamed. She felt soft. There were times where her hiss made people run.

"Yes?" she growled without looking.

"I'm looking for trouble. Do you know where I can find some?"

Her head shot up so fast it cricked her neck. She started to cry again, looking up at Harry. He was thin again, dreadfully so, almost as bad as the first time she met him. He had more scars. His skin was pale and unhealthy. She wore her jacket. His eyes were still intensely green.

"Looking for trouble?" She laughed and cried. "You're such a girl. You cheesy prat."

Harry grinned shyly, offering his hand. He helped her up. "Did it work?" he asked, his voice a mixture of false confidence and hesitant anxiety, of hope and want.

She punched him. "Here's trouble if you want it," she whispered.

"I do, more than anything," he whispered back.

-0-

This was the first time he ever saw Mack nervous. Even when they confessed their secrets to each other last summer, she was not nearly as nervous as she was now. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Not really," she replied. He loved that about her. She never hid what she was thinking or feeling from him. She was delightfully blunt with him no matter how rude it might come out. "I gotta do it though. I want to fit into your world."

He held her hand and again liked how perfectly their hands fit. "You already do."

She smiled. She rolled her shoulders under her jacket, stomped in her boots. "Are you sure I can't wear my gloves?" she asked.

Harry chuckled. Mack only wore her leather gloves with the padding on the knuckles and without fingertips when she expected a fight. It was her way of getting ready physically and mentally. Her gloves were her wand. They comforted her. "Do you expect a fight?"

"You said your friends aren't Maggot haters."

He chuckled again. "Muggles," he corrected gently.

"Right, that." She sighed. "I guess I can always slip them on when I need to."

He led her to the party. It was being held at the Burrow. Her eyes were wide as she looked at all the obvious displays of magic. At everyone wearing robes and holding wands. She never felt any uncertainty when Harry used magic around her, never felt any fear.

She was more than a little nervous to be in a place so deeply saturated with magic. She felt better when Harry kissed her cheek. He smiled when she punched him in retaliation.

Hermione was the first to greet them. Mackenzie had met her already and she liked the girl. She was a bit bossy but Mackenzie knew Hermione meant well. They bonded over their Muggle upbringings. She listened attentively to Hermione's stories and thanked the Muggle-Born for taking care of Harry when she could not.

Hermione in turn had thanked Mackenzie for protecting Harry during the summers. She told the pierced girl of the stories Harry had told them during their time on the run. How they drew strength from her bullish nature. How Harry smiled when he thought of her.

Mackenzie was horribly embarrassed and incredibly pleased when she heard.

"So you actually exist," a smirking red-head said to her, before he introduced himself as Ron.

Mack sized him up. She recognized the name from Harry's letters. She built up some resentment from some of the things Harry had told her. "Last I checked," Mack said. "Who're you?"

"Ron."

"Roooooon." Mack drawled the word out. "So, how old are you Roooooon?"

He looked confused. "A little older than Harry. Why?"

"I don't buy it. Ron's an old man's name. So you must be an old man, old man."

Ron's face went red. "What? No!"

"Don't you magics have things to look young? Potions and spells and that bunk? I mean, I don't blame you. I'd do it too if my name is Roooooon."

"I'm a Wizard," Ron snarled. "And my name is short for Ronald."

"Right, cause that's a younger sounding name."

"What kind of name is Mack?" Ron sneered back. "I thought you were a bloke with a name like that. You certainly look like one."

She gave Harry and Hermione a look before they could say anything. Mack let go of Harry's hand and fished out her gloves, made a show of pulling them on slowly. "They call me Mack cause I hit like a Mack truck." She smiled and Ron took a step back. She cracked her knuckles. "Care to find out? You magics duel right? Let's have a go then. Your magic," she made a gesture at his wand, "against my magic." She raised her gloved fists.

Ron looked at Harry and was startled to see Harry smile and not interfere. "You mad? I can use magic. You're a Muggle."

"Being a Muggle never stopped me before." She crooked a finger at him. "Come on Ron. Ready when you are. I'll even let you throw out the first hit."

Ron stomped away, his face pale and his ears redder than his hair.

Hermione and Harry laughed hysterically, uncaring of all the people watching. "I love you," Hermione said as she hugged Mackenzie.

"Me too," Harry said and he kissed Mackenzie on the lips.

Mackenzie's face was scarlet and she punched Harry before she punched Hermione.

-0-

She knew he was going to ask her. She had known for a while. Even without Hermione spilling his secret to her. She did not mind though. It was nice to know for sure.

Mackenzie thought long and hard. To tell the truth she wanted to ask him the question. She never found the courage though. It was ironic. She had once walked into a bar and thrown a glass of beer at a giant of a man because he called her a little girl. She had put him in the hospital and all his little biker friends. She did that without hesitation.

She hesitated asking Harry. She wanted to and did not want to. She knew he wanted to. He was just finding his courage to do it.

A part of her resolved to say no. She did not feel like she fit in the wizarding world. She knew she would always be a reject in their eyes. She was okay with that; she had always been rejected. She was okay with being alone.

But she was not okay.

The time spent with Harry had been everything she had ever wanted. She felt useful. She felt wanted. She felt loved.

When he finally asked her, she was prepared to say no. To tell him to find someone he deserved. To get a girl that fit in with his world.

She said yes.

At first, she did not want a ring. She did not want to worry about breaking the ring. She did not want her gloves to catch on a ring.

He pierced his ear for her. A small golden stud in the shape of a Snitch.

She got his lightning bolt tattooed on her finger and wrist.

They eventually got rings because they both wanted them. He wore his on his finger. She wore hers on a necklace. It suited them.

-0-

"I can't do this."

Hermione smiled at Mackenzie. "Sure you can.

"Could you handle this?" Mackenzie felt out of place in a white dress. "Handle all that!" She pointed out the door. At the guests that waited.

"I will one day," Hermione said. "Though you're right, it won't be nearly as chaotic as you and Harry's, given his reputation and status."

Mack stared at herself in the mirror, her jaw working.

"You want to be married to Harry right?" Hermione asked.

Mack glared at her. "I'll punch you like I normally don't," she threatened with heat.

Hermione giggled. "I better give you this then. Harry thought you might want it." She handed Mack a slim box.

Mack opened it and she stared at the contents. Mackenzie smiled unwillingly, her features softening. She took out the white glove from the box. It looked just like her normal ones, only much better made. The leather was supple and soft. The padding was curved and fitted, somehow tough and not at the same time.

"That's dragon-hide," Hermione said. "Enchanted for durability, stain proof, cold and warm proof." She frowned. "Why's there only one?"

Mackenzie slipped on her right glove, leaving her left hand bare. "Because Harry is such a girl," she said fondly. She flexed her hand. It fitted perfectly. "Alright, now I'm ready."

-0-

Mackenzie whistled. "Now that's a posh train," she said admiringly.

Harry grinned at her. "I like how you see all the magic going on and you focus on the train."

She smirked. "What, I like trains. It's probably the most not-magic looking thing here."

Harry looked her up and down. She wore a leather jacket that was very similar to the one she gave Harry, made of very different materials of course. Her combat boots were still big but enchanted to be lighter and quieter. She still had her ear piercings but they tingled and did different things than her old ones. "Yeah, you're probably right," he conceded.

She punched him in the shoulder and kissed him on the lips, kissing him longer as their daughter made retching noises. She finally knelt, looking her daughter in her eyes: deep emerald green meeting vibrant jade green. "You ready Belle?"

Anabelle Taire Potter shook her head. "Do I have to go?" she asked softly.

Mack nodded. "You gotta. I can teach you not-magic stuff. Hogwarts will teach you magic stuff, well if they can teach you anything your dad doesn't know. Just remember you're tougher than any other magic, you're trouble like me."

Belle smiled.

Mack held her hand out. "Now give them back."

Belle pouted. She reluctantly fished out a pair of gloves from her trunk. "Do I have to?"

"Yes. Those are mine; you can't wear them." Mack handed Belle a small box and her smile was warm and proud at Belle's squeal as she looked at her own pair of dragon-hide gloves with padded knuckles and the fingertips missing. "These are yours."

"Please don't start any fights Belle," Harry said with a laugh. "Be like your mother. Protect others, protect yourself. Finish a fight, don't start them. Be strong."

"Be like your father," Mackenzie said. "Be brave. Don't give up. Don't show others you're hurting unless you trust them." She smiled softly. "Be full of love."

Belle hugged and kissed her parents before slipping her gloves on and proudly boarding the train. Harry and Mack stood with arms about each other, waving until the Hogwarts Express left their sight completely.

"She'll be okay," Harry murmured softly.

"I know. She's tough and smart. Hogwarts has no idea what kind of trouble is coming to it," Mack said confidently.

"It really doesn't," Harry agreed with a proud smile. He looked at his wife fondly. "I never knew what kind of trouble I'd be with either."

"Ugh." Mack punched him in the shoulder. "Still a cheesy prat."

"Always for you," he said. "Does it still work?"

Mackenzie rested her head on his shoulder. "Yeah. More than anything."