Tom has noticed.
Noticed how Harmony's magic input in his diary seems to be less, Much less than it was.
At first it was an insignificant amount, that was okay, he encouraged her to practice like a good 'friend'. She still wrote in his book every night, just less. Less writing, less magic, he wondered what that stupid witch was up to. What on earth could an 11 year old child be doing that would drain her magic when he was the one that needed it, wanted it.
He wasn't thrilled about being left to his own devices, what in Merlin's name was that witch doing neglecting him. He had been trying to slither into her mind, get her to write more. To spill her secrets, instead she'd tell him about her day. Building a garden, teaching the elf recipes...
Morgana, this witch was happily doing muggle activities when she has a house elf to do all the work. He doesn't care about her mundane life.
She's hiding so much from him, he knows it. Why is she so on guard with him? His little nudges should have taken care of that, it right now she's barely paid him much attention. He wonders if he should just tap further into his magic, increase his 'nudges' .
Ever since Harmony met Leaky, a house elf of all things, she has been distracted.
And he hates it.
She used to spend all her time writing to him.
He doesn't miss that.
No, he misses the magic he was gathering, and right now he's at a stand still. He can tell she's excited, the brat's writing just seems to become sloppier by the day, it's nothing less than irritation to decipher it.
Leeky this and Leeky that. 'Indie buzzed me today, and I didn't do anything!'
He doesn't care, though the thought of her wand attacking her was amusing, he just wants answers. Answers that just don't seem to come and not for the lack of trying. He knows he has to be careful, he knows he has time. But the years have eaten away his patience.
She's interesting. She's annoying, confusing, entertaining. She's outrageously frustrating.
She sprouts nonsense that he pretends to get, random 'facts' that she claims to know.
It's quite annoying how when he asks how she knows these facts she says, 'I heard it from so-and-so', it makes him Want to scream and pull his hair out. She's so gullible it's hilarious, but how, in Merlin's name, is she evading his questions?
He asks, she answers, he asks, and she answers!
It was like how that nasty girl from the orphanage would always ask "but why?"
He's obviously missing something but, what? Just what is he missing? She keeps going on about scanning books for him, and 'too bad google isn't around schools going to be a pain in my ass now'. That bloody witch is so frustrating, she's going to give his 16 year old self an ulcer!
Maybe he should just dive into her head and be done with her.
"Marvolo", his head jerked up in shock, stopping his blazing anger that seemed to pop up on many occasions. How long has it been since he's heard another's voice?
Decades by the date she wrote.
He would have thought he was hearing things when this time it was a question, "Can you hear me?" The voice was gentle, young, almost wistful. Excitement radiated off him as a dazzling smile formed unexpectedly.
When was the last time he smiled?
Truly smiled?
Not the ones he charmed others with, but a smile from the bottom of his heart, he had at one time wondered if he ever had one, but now in some way he was sure he did because it was radiating a warm and welcoming feeling.
Just like... like coming home to Hogwarts, knowing he is a part of a world, he was special. He is special.
His rage had festered when this new world had spurned, spat and turned away from him. The first time was with Dumbledore who listen to the biased words of the matron, proclaiming him as the Devil's child, the next was his own house, those calling him a mudblood, a stain in their pure house and finally scorned by the rest of Hogwarts, just because he was a snake.
Their hatred and curses increased his venom daily, fueling his rage, his hate, his need for power. What they wouldn't give willingly he would take, without remorse.
They never showed any, why should he?
He would forcefully turn their head, be it by his venom, his charming looks or his wisdom. He could, has and will make them look at him. He has made them see what they wanted to, blending in while standing on the top.
They made him a snake, but unlike the Slytherin's, the snakes they oh so fear are his true friends, not the high and mighty wizards. The animals who cared about him before he became king. The ones hidden in the orphanage's garden, the dead crumpled grass. The first murdered by Billy, loved by the matron.
The true monster was loved, while he had to become the devil to survive.
So he has truly been happy for the third time in his life.
Three, a magical number.
"Yes!" He cries out with a desperation he didn't know he had, ultimately startling him. Causing him to collect himself with a dignified cough, "Yes, I can hear you." A small hope that he wasn't hearing things starting to kindle.
Silence.
Nothing but the cold emptiness of silence.
And there it is, the small flame of hope once again snuffed out, while the familiar burning feeling of rage, hate and the want to just destroy everything in his way. He can feel his room warm up to uncomfortable temperatures.
He doesn't care.
He wants everything to just burn.
"Write something if you can hear me."
Worry.
That feminine voice is worried. He can hear her, but she can't hear him.
Curious.
So he picks up the open book on his desk and starts to write back to her, Yes, I can hear you.
He can practically hear a small sigh of relief, then a loud and happy cheer of 'Yes!'
What did you do? he asks her.
He is curious but also demanding, remembering the 'elves' ears she had once made him, he can feel some despair wash over him and hopes she didn't make them again.
Merlin, this witch just keeps throwing him off.
And in its own way, its fun.
(—)
For Harmony, magic is amazing. Super amazing. Not just because Zoe was originally a muggle, but because it is so much more.
More than the RPG's she's played in the past, more than the manga where magic comes out OP and with nothing more than a simple thought.
Magic requires concentration, practice and knowledge.
Its a way of life.
For the past week, Harmony has been reading about the basics of magic and asking Leeky questions. Lots and lots of questions. She considers the elf more of a friend rather than a servant even if Leeky keeps calling her a miss.
And in a way it hurts.
Only having a servant, an enthusiastic servant, but a servant none the less. She's never really had one of those, friends yes, family yes. But a servant? Never.
She can see why Bruce Wayne became the antisocial arrogant butterfly he became. Alfred, his Butler, was the only one he could truly trust, and Alfred refused to step over his boundaries as a butler. Which was truly honest of him, but... not really what a child needs.
Just like Leeky.
Not that Leeky is wrong or anything, but Harmony wants companionship, an equal status. While Leeky is more than happy to be her personal house elf and Harmony has no plans to force the elf to step out of her comfort zone.
Looking at the elf's hopeful eyes Harmony agreed just last night to have her as her personally sworn elf. She vowed to treat Leeky like a friend while the elf promised their magic to serve her for life. Once the vow had settled deep in her heart, or something close to it, she could feel a surge of what she presumed to be magic. It was warm and welcoming, and like filtered water, she felt cleaner and more 'pure'.
She honestly didn't know how to describe it and ended up hugging the poor elf, causing Leaky to let out an undignified squeak that Harmony found super cute. Though she did realize that her hug was uncomfortable for the poor elf and released her with a gentle pat to Leeky's head and a small apology.
This made Harmony realize just how deprived she was of attention and love.
Sure she had Leeky, but the little elf is happily a servant and won't over step her place no matter how much Harmony wishes she would. Sure Harmony has her cheekily sweet wand, but its not like her wand can talk back to her, though Indie does like to tease her or 'comment' using bits of magic, she's rather proud of her wand. And sure she even has Marvolo, but... writing is tiresome and there's just so much more they could convey while speaking instead of writing. No matter how nice it is to write to a friend, it just isn't the same.
Even when she was Zoe she preferred talking compared to texting and she still had trouble with the lingo. Not only that, but if her hand is killing her now what would she do at Hogwarts, just from the first few movies alone she knows they have essays in every class and are required to write in feet instead of typing pages on a computer, those would happen in the muggle future and she would no longer have the help of google and spell check, so she knew that was going to be a nightmare in on itself.
Especially when she could only pass spelling with a meager 'C - '.
But what she really needed was someone to talk to and all that she had was Leeky, Indie and Marvolo.
Marvolo is honestly her best chance at any conversation, but he couldn't hear her even with the 'elven' ears. She had hoped they would have worked like a cup to the door. Sound was just waves after all.
But then she thought about it more, what if she could let Marvolo feel the sound waves, like those musical toothbrushes that played music in vibrations. She knows through personal experience that a person can 'hear' through their bones if the 'waves' are strong enough. What if she could do the same for Marvolo?
What if she could make something, that doesn't make him look ridiculous. Something that could send those waves deep into the book?
Through her previous science classes she knows that earthquakes send shockwaves through earth, both a liquid (soft material) and rock (hard material), maybe she would have to turn her voice into an earthquake for the book and she could use magic to do it, just not spells she had asked Indie if he had the trace and he responded with a green light.
She wasn't worried that Indies magic would set off the trace though, Leeky informed her that the trace sensed the magic amplifying from the wand and the indication that it was used since wands come from magical creatures and powerful wood they gave off their own magic, however small.
The question would be how?
How can she do this now?
She doesn't know any spells and even if she did, she didn't want the mastery to drag her back to Tauris's family of super Christians. She doesn't know what they would do or how extreme they really are, they sure don't seem to have any love for her and if she had to venture a guess they would divorce in a year after she disappeared, none of them were happy together. that and the priest seemed to very much enjoy that woman's company.
So what can she do? What does she know and how can she apply it?
She had been struggling over her dilemma for a few good hours, until Leeky had popped in with a change of curtains with delicate flower designs.
She nearly died laughing at herself when she saw that.
Originally when she had bought the creature fabric and threads she wanted to make stuffed animals or maybe a quilt or stitch an animal design on a new robe. But now she could do something else with those threads.
And she had the starting books to help her Beginners guide to Runes and Ancient Rune Translation.
She could practice her runes, her stitch work and maybe find a way to find a way to communicate with Marvolo easier. Killing 3 birds with one stone.
With the help of her books and under Leeky's watchful eye and the elf's personal knowledge of creatures Harmony could work on a few pieces of fabric. It was surprisingly draining work and she had to take many breaks, not just because a few stitching mistakes.
She found that concentrating on the shape of the rune wasn't that draining and she had a few samples of cut pieces where she did a few of the runes she wanted to try, but when she was think on how much she wanted Marvolo to hear her and how much she wished this would work she felt tired. Even when she was persevering through making her runes, Leeky would force her to take a break. She scolded Harmony when she found her passed out on the recliner and had kept and even closer eye on her since.
Harmony did enjoy her breaks, simple watering of the garden she and Leeky had started, teaching her elf some recipies she missed from Zoe's life. the fact that they didn't have an Alfredo recipe had nearly brought her to tears, so Harmony had made sure to fix that.
By the seventh day Harmony could stich a few runes before feeling tired. It hadn't helped that she was working on many different runes, but she had Leeky test each rune sample from trying to listen through the wall to placing the rune in the garden to repel pests.
Yeah, Harmony got a little distracted. But when she finally found the best runes and creature supplies to use she got to work and made a book cover.
The hard part was finding the right balance and combination of runes. Too many would end up making the fabric unstable, rendering it useless. She also found that if she stitched the rune directly into the object she was making she could increase the effects rather than attach an already prepared rune like a quilt.
She had also wanted to hid the rune pattern , so as not to let anyone know what the object would do, she didn't want to catch any attention from Dumbledore, well anyone for that matter. Especially if she wanted to help Harry get away from his relatives.
When she had finally finished the black and gold book cover she had placed it on the diary. It was simple and elegant, making her quit proud, she had even stitched a simple Garfield cat on the front, hiding the runes within the cats strips. She was quite proud how she got the cat's tail to curl around the back, grabbing the pan of Lasagna while looking completely innocent on the front. A little bit of home and a bit of fun.
She loved it.
Even adding a cleaning and repairing rune to keep it in perfect condition (though only time would tell). Now she just hoped it would allow Marvolo to hear her, she didn't want to write any more, her hand was stiff.
Slipping the book into its new cover, she set the book open on the table in front of her. Watching it intently. "Marvolo," she asked tenderly, "Can you hear me?" Hope tricking through her voice. She waited, watching the open book, not writing, but waiting for his writing to form.
She ended up releasing a quiet breath when he answered, her eyes shuttering closed before she couldn't contain her excitement.
"Yes!" She ended up fist punching the air with gusto. A large smile on her face.
She had done it.
She had finally done it.
Marvolo could hear her.
It was finally a step forward.
And she knew,
She Was Not Alone
