You're a protagonist Harry
Chapter 21 – Run for your life
…
Madness, it was a funny thing. Came and went without explanation. Got you into the funniest old places, the strangest situations, and at the end of the day all you could do was look up at the sky and wonder, why?
"Thanks for inviting me along with you Harry," Serena chirped as she skipped down the hall.
"Mmhmm, yeah, no problem," he said, watching the bouncy bunny girl use far too much energy to go down a hall, slowly.
He couldn't explain it. It made no sense.
Not Serena. He understood her just fine. It was the reason they were together, the destination of their traversal of the halls, the place they were going to and who they planned to meet there.
Madness, that's what it was. Why had he said yes? He wasn't even sure he liked Rhiannon. Why had he agreed to go for a run with her?
It certainly wasn't her note, speedily scribbled as it was. It wasn't the big puppy dog eyes she'd shot at him when she saw him get said note, the distance was too far and his resistances too high for that to be effective. It wasn't even the absurd, embarrassing pleading she'd tried when the puppy dog eyes failed to yield results.
No, it was none of those things, it wasn't Rhiannon at all. When he got right down to it, he said yes because of Furiko. Furiko, who put up with Rhiannon for reasons he could not understand. Furiko, who was quiet and demure and everything Rhiannon was not. Furiko, who, with a single swing of her sword had humbled the obnoxious blonde ponce in a way he would never be able to.
A moment of madness, and he was now spending his Saturday afternoon running around the lake with a girl who acted like an overcaffeinated chipmunk. Plus his own perky, overcaffeinated chipmunk. Plus…
"What about you Zuli?" he wondered of the tall dark-skinned girl walking more sedately to his left. "Why'd you decide to come along?"
The tall willowy girl spared him a tranquil grin, "Seemed like a nice day for it. If given the option I prefer to be outside rather than in."
There was a logic to her argument, "Didn't want to spend time with your other roommates?"
The tall girl shook her head, "Lavender and Parvati, last I saw were engaged in a deep philosophical discussion on the nature of hair clips. Fashion is not really of great interest to me."
"Me neither," said Harry.
"Hermione never came back from breakfast. I trust she is deeply ensconced in the library. And Madysonne is lying in her bed with her headphones on where she has informed us, she plans to be till lunch, and possibly after lunch if there are no good seats in the common room."
"Headphones? Did she bring some sort of music player to Hogwarts?"
Zuli nodded, "And her entire CD collection."
"How's that work. I thought technology wasn't supposed to function in Hogwarts. I'm sure I heard that."
The dark-skinned girl gave a secretive smile, "Hermione said something quite similar when she found out. I think it still annoys her."
"She found some way around it?" Harry guessed.
"Not her," she said. "The Americans have a much more robust magi tech industry then the British. The reason most technology doesn't work in magic places is because there's nowhere to plug it in. The batteries in her player are charged by ambient magic converted into electrical power."
"No kidding," he said, genuinely impressed. "With all the magic around here, she'll never need to change them."
She nodded, "She listens to it every night when she goes to sleep. I wish she wouldn't."
"Why's that?"
"I have very good hearing," she explained. "I can hear her music through her headphones, all the way across the room. Not to be critical, but it's just not my kind of music."
"Ah," Harry said. "Difference of taste. So, what is your kind of music?"
"The kind I make myself."
"You play?" he said surprised, because he didn't.
She nodded, "It was important where I come from. I wasn't actually born in Britain you see. My father was an English wizard. He met my mother on a trip to Africa. He traveled a lot for business, so this was just supposed to be another routine job. He never expected to fall in love. And he definitely didn't expect me."
"Uh oh."
"It is not like that," she said with a gentle laugh. "He could not stay, even though he loved her. He swore he would come back once things had settled and he could provide us a stable home. He was a good man. He is a good man. I understand why she loved him."
Loved him? Past tense. "Uh oh."
There was no laugh this time. "Things changed when she died. I was eleven then, alone and meeting my father for the first time. It was, awkward, as you'd imagine. I came to live with him, but it was like living with a stranger, far from home, and everything I'd ever known."
"Sound's lonely."
"It was. The only thing that kept me from giving in to my darker whims was playing my pipes. I'd sit in my room for hours just playing. He was never around so he never heard me, till one day he did. I don't know why he was home. I didn't even know how long he stood there in the doorway listening. But the way he looked at me, I didn't know what to think.
"I was terrified. This man I hardly knew was staring at me with such intensity. Had I done something wrong? Was he upset? I felt like a gazelle staring into the eyes of a hungry lion, terrified of what came next."
"What did come next?"
"He came into my room, sat down in my wicker chair and said 'play'. So, I did. He didn't tell me what to play so I simply played. I lost all track of time and when I opened my eyes again, he was crying quietly.
"It was the music. That's what had drawn him to my mother in the first place. Those same pipes, that same music. Our relationship greatly improved after that, and this strange far away island stopped feeling quite so strange and started feeling a little more like home."
Harry smiled, "I'm glad things worked out."
"So am I," she said. "Losing my mother was hard. Not having a father would have been even harder."
"Yeah, yeah it would," he said, drifting slowly toward his own sea of melancholy.
Oblivious to his adjustment in course, "What about your family? What are your parents like?"
A low storm rolled across the horizon at this question, but he held back the brunt of it, understanding anyone can make a mistake. "Zuli, you do know who I am."
"Harry?"
"Harry Potter," he gestured for her to finish the thought.
"So, they make ceramics?"
Her answer confused him, he stared, unbelieving. "You've really never heard of me?"
"Should I?" she asked, knitting her brow in worry.
That had been his impression. "It's just, ever since I set foot in the Leaky Cauldron, everyone who's heard my name has known what I did. You're the first person I've talked to who hasn't."
"I hadn't heard of you till I got on the train," Serena said, bouncing back to them.
"Really?" She nodded, far to enthusiastically. "Huh," maybe he wasn't as famous as he'd been led to believe. "Well now I just feel conceited."
"What did you do? Was it important? Please, tell me," the dark-skinned girl begged.
"NO!" he said forcefully. "The whole thing is a confused mess of rumor, speculation and just utter nonsense. I won't put up with the nonsense, you hear me."
Serena did, "No nonsense, nu uh!"
Leveling a scathing glare at the obliviously grinning girl, "You know you're going the right way for a smack bottom."
The girl went "Eep!" A startled squeak, she took off like a *beep*.
"Shame on you Harry," Zuli giggled, "now you've got her all riled up."
"It's only going to get worse," said Harry with a heavy sigh. "So much worse."
'So much worse' was waiting for them by the lake, hanging from a tree looking dangerously bored. She dropped to the ground and dashed over to them, hopping from one foot to the other like she was dancing on hot coals.
"You're here! What took you so long? Who're your friends?" she rattled off in a single breath.
"Thank you for coming," said Furiko at a more normal pace, giving a slight bow as seemed to be her way.
"Nice to see you too," said Harry, not bothering to specify which girl he was talking to. "This is Serena, and Zuli."
"Hi!" the bunny blonde chirped, jumping in front of Harry. "We're here to run!"
"YES!" screamed Rhiannon, "Finally, someone who understands me!"
The other three sighed at such over dramatics but Serena seemed fully on board and started prancing around with Rhiannon, singing about their run.
"You ready to go?"
"I'm ready!"
"Are you ready?"
"I'm ready!"
"ARE YOU READY?"
"Arf!"
"What the?" Harry boggled. "When did she start doing that?"
Accustomed to Serena turning into an adorable white rabbit, he was not used to seeing her turn into a sleek gray wolf. Rhiannon didn't appear bothered and the two took off running like it were a race.
"Did you know she could do that?" Harry asked the girls roommate when the girl in question was well out of earshot.
"Not that specifically," said Zuli. "I've seen her turn into a rabbit, a cat, and a little snake. The wolf is new, but she's said she has numerous forms."
"Is that normal?"
"Normal for her I guess."
It really was all about your point of view.
"Anyway, they are getting ahead of us," said Zuli, slipping off her shoes and bouncing briefly on her bare feet. "Better catch up."
And just like that she was off. Harry and Furiko could only stand and stare.
"Well, I feel hopelessly outclassed," he wasn't too proud to admit.
"We should hurry then," said Furiko, "They already have a head start."
A head start that only seemed to lengthen when the two of them joined the race. Now, Harry was a good runner. The only sport he'd ever been involved in was track, which fell through at his first meet when Aunt Petunia refused to take him to it.
So, it was very depressing when the gap between them grew ever larger no matter how fast he ran. The only thing to save his pride at all was Furiko, able to keep pace with him but winding up just as winded just as quick.
They dropped right about the same time.
"Can't—do this—anymore!" he wheezed pathetically.
"I knew—she had—too much—energy," Furiko said between gasps, "but—there's—three of—them—now."
"Embarrassing—isn't it?"
The two of them stood their wheezing a while, watching the other three circumvent the lake.
"We're not going to catch them, are we?" she wondered aloud.
"Not till they come back around."
The girl with the sword sighed, "So much for getting my exercise."
"That why you're out here?"
"No," she shook her head. "I came out here to keep Rhiannon out of trouble."
Harry smiled at the put-upon way she said this, "Bit of a mother hen, are we?"
"Whawawawawa—what makes you say that?" she stammered through a low tier blush.
"Women's intuition."
"But, you're not a woman."
"Regular intuition then."
"You're silly," she smiled, shaking her head at his antics.
"But I'm right too, aren't I?"
Yeah, he was. "It's just, my little sister can be so, rambunctious at times. Just like Rhiannon. I guess I, I just…"
"I never said it was a bad thing," he enjoyed it enough when Cassidy did it. "How old is your sister?"
"Ten. I have a brother as well. He's seventeen."
"He here?"
She shook her head, "Brother is to be the head of our clan someday. He's had private tutors as long as I can remember. I—I don't see him much."
"Sounds like you miss him."
The way he said this flustered her, "It's alright. He has a heavy responsibility to carry. I—I totally understand… we, we should probably get going now."
"And do what, chase after them?"
"What's the matter Harry? Afraid of a little exercise?"
She tried to grin through her embarrassment, but Harry new a weak taunt when he heard one. Even a playful one.
"What they're doing is not exercise, it's just burning off energy. And us trying to catch up with them wouldn't be exercise either, it would just be hot, sweaty, and pointless."
"And you would prefer we do what? Something hot, sweaty, and not pointless?"
Her accusation made Harry grin. "Furiko. You might want to take a moment to think about what you just said… and who you just said it to."
It was quite a think, and the whole process played across her face in real time. It was more than a little amusing watching her cheeks heat up like they were being filled with hot coals, "Oh! Oh dear!"
He knew it wasn't nice, but the chance to tease her was just too good to pass up. "Hey Furiko," he said with a roughish grin, "wanna do something 'not' pointless?"
He wasn't sure if it was the roughish grin, or perhaps she just had a very vivid imagination. Whatever the case, something inside her head went *pop* her face went full tomato and she fell over backwards in a blushing faint.
"Wow! Never seen a girl do that before," he mused. "Wonder if it's a Japanese thing."
"Coming through!" cried the one girl stampede as she barreled toward them.
"Oh, Rhiannon! Watch out for Fu…" he started but didn't bother to finish.
He tried not to flinch as the oblivious running girl ran right across her roommate. Then the wolf who was sometimes a bunny but actually a girl, and just for good measure the tallest person in first year put a single footprint to mark her passing and then they were gone again.
"Ouch!" seemed to sum things up nicely, and he went to see if the poor trampled girl was still alive. "Furiko? Furiko!"
The girl in question groaned, a good sign under the circumstances. Her eyes fluttered, opening slowly, taking time to focus, and growing large when they did, and she saw who was looking at her with such tender concern.
"You okay?" he asked.
If jumping up and running, crying, into the lake was okay, then yes, she was totally okay.
"Definitely a Japanese thing," he surmised. "No other explanation."