Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: I really cannot yell at anyone who uses the "ignore the problem and hope that it just goes away" approach to emotional issues. People in glass houses, after all. But gods, having an entire country doing it in canon was still a bit much. Thanks, JKR.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A
Individual Challenges: No Heterosexual Explanation; Love Language; Small Fry; Gryffindor MC; Sett to Destroy; Seeds; No Proof; Times to Come; Interesting Times; Old Shoes (Y); Tiny Terror; Ethnic & Present (x2); Neurodivergent; Quiet Time; Letter of the Day (x2); Rian-Russo Inversion; Flags & Ribbons; Hold the Mayo; In a Flash (Y); Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux; Green Ribbon; Two Cakes!; Greatest Gift
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 12 – Assignment 4
Subject (Task No.): Beauty Therapy (Task#7: Write about increasing something.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [14] (Impact); 365 [156] (Impact); Gwen's Candy Shop [Bowl 3](Native); Baking King Cakes [Step One](Power); Making a Fairytale (Damsel in Distress)
Other MC4A Challenges: Wi Bingo [2A] (Sorrow)
Representation(s): Black Harry Potter; Native Skylar Adams & Zoey Adams; Adopted Families; Grief
Bonus Challenges: Misshapen Pods; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Found Family; Nontraditional; Middle Name; Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear; Civil Disobedience; Lettuce Hold Hands); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; Fire & Fold; In the Trench; Surprise!; Turtle- Duck; Some Beach; Getting On; Mermaid; Strange Potatoes)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: n/a
Word Count: 899
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Keeping
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Harry strolled through Berczy Park as if he didn't have a care in the world. With his black jeans and red sweatshirt, he could be mistaken for one of the many tourists that swarmed the plaza. He had pushed his sleeves up to feel the sunlight on his dark forearms. He adjusted his glasses and subtly activated the wards that filtered out some of the bright sunlight. In combination with the spells imbued in the stone rounds hanging from the wire looped through his right helix, the busy park was almost bearable instead of a sensory maelstrom.
After the war, Harry had almost settled into what would have been considered a normal life in wizarding Britain. He had offered to help with the rebuilding of Hogwarts, but McGonagall had simply waved him off with an explanation that the damage looked worse than it actually was. Given that the school and grounds looked like nothing had happened less than a month later, she must have been right.
In fact, except for how George continued to just drift through life like a leaf fallen into a slow-moving stream, it seemed like the entire war had never happened, as if all the losses had no real impact. The Weasleys on the whole managed that by refusing to mention Fred. While it seemed to help the other Weasleys through their grief, George had become practically a ghost. In desperation to help, Harry moved into the twins' old flat.
Then he had reached out for resources. The wizarding world's version of mind healing was less than impressive. He'd even go as far as to say that it was as backwards as using parchment instead of paper. They simply locked them away in hospitals or private residences. Harry couldn't do that to George, not and still call him family. So Harry returned to the Muggle world and for the first time in his life, discovered how wonderous it could be.
One of the things that both Harry and George had picked up as an activity was letter-writing. There was a penpal program that they both joined which focused on people who enjoyed inventing things. It gave George back the spark he had lost with Fred, allowing him to start creating new wheezes for the shop again. Harry let himself be swept along in the haze of creation, ignoring everyone who pressured him to become an Auror. Having an inventing penpal had given both of them a new lease on life.
It was also the reason why he was currently in Toronto, Canada, trying to look like he was only taking in the park and not waiting to meet his penpal of the last seven years. Skylar had included a coded message in her last letter, asking for his help. Maybe Hermione was right that Harry had a 'saving people' thing, because he had grabbed the first international portkey that he could.
Though how much of that was how Skylar never asked for help, Harry didn't know and refused to think about too closely. Thinking about it meant admitting just how bad whatever situation would have to be in order to prompt Skylar to reach like that. Thinking about it meant admitting just how much Harry had missed having someone need his help for something more serious than how best to prank their frenemies.
"You're a lot shorter than I imagined," someone said as they fell into step beside him. She was the same height as him, with skin the color of aged knuts. Her dark hair had a few of the jaggedly cut strands dyed a vibrate blue. Different styles of tattoos covered her bare arms like the declarations they were. Though Harry didn't think many people would recognize the many equations tucked away in the curling calligraphy woven between roses and pussywillows. "Knights in shining armor should be taller, I think."
"For you to need a knight," Harry replied, "you would first have to be a damsel in distress, Sky."
"Maybe this time I actually am," Sky admitted, sounding only a bit broken. "I really need somewhere to hide, Harry. Me and Zee, both."
"Then we'll hide you," he promised. He subtly headed towards the park exit and only smiled when a tiny four-year-old suddenly jumped into Skylar's arms. He waved at the miniature version of Skylar who had to be her daughter Zoey. "Both you and Zee."
"We might be bringing trouble with us," she warned. He shrugged before giving her a smirk that he had learned from George.
"If you didn't increase our level of trouble, then we would just have to find some other way."
In a back alley nearby, Harry took out the parts he needed for the portal device he kept disassembled just in case the wizarding authority ever got overly curious about his inventions. Skylar didn't question his spontaneous tinkering, likely because it had been her suggestion do hide things in pieces like that. The portal flared orange as it opened, revealing the basement of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.
"Welcome home," he announced to the pair. He probably should have told George that he was planning to increase their little household, practically doubling it in size. He knew that George wouldn't mind, though. Offering help when help was needed was what had brought Harry into the family, after all. At this point, it was practically tradition to keep strays.