You know what my favorite ship is? Friendship. Ha ha ha...ha.
(I fail at jokes forever)
Anyway, please enjoy! Last chapter of Guardian Angel series!
Charmed Season - post finale
Character(s) - Chris Halliwell, Piper
Harry Potter - set end of Goblet of Fire
Character(s) - Harry Potter
Disclaimer - I own nothing
Chris checks in mentally with Harry every few hours for a couple days. He lets the connection open and feels what Harry feels, to make sure the kid is okay, and mostly all Chris gets is tired tired tired.
It both worries and comforts him. His concentration at school is pretty much shot, but Chris is a good student and one or two C's will not make him fail high school.
Otherwise, things are quiet for the rest of the week. Harry, Chris knows, is getting lots of rest and support from his loved ones, and that's enough for now.
There's nothing Chris can do for his charge that they aren't already doing.
Several times, Chris is stung by grief, longing, and regret, and he has to cut off the connection to avoid crying in class.
On Friday, after school, Chris finally opens it back up and tests the waters.
Harry is...sad. But not overwhelmed. He's alone right now, thinking about things.
That's probably as perfect an opportunity as Chris is going to get.
"Mom! I'm gonna go visit my charge!" Chris shouts down the stairs as he tugs on a jacket.
"Alright! Dinner's at six!" She yells back. "Happy whitelightering!"
Smiling, Chris orbs out of his home and to Hogwarts tower.
He breathes in as he materialized. The air in Great Britain always tastes different somehow, older, maybe, or richer – like the plentiful magic thriving in the country has seeped into even the atmosphere.
He enjoys it.
Chris leans on the wall of the tower and stares down at the expanse of castle, grounds, and mountains far beyond that. If nothing else, wand-wavers sure do know how to learn somewhere beautiful.
Closing his eyes, feeling the wind on his face, Chris smiles again.
"Hey, Harry." He says.
The figure near the door doesn't quite jump, but hesitates before joining Chris in looking out over the wall.
"Hello." Harry says quietly.
Silence manifests between them. The air is cold and gorgeous, and the view is to die for, but all of it can only help so much.
There's a deep fissure cracking inside him.
"I'm sorry I wasn't around, before." Chris blurts out, when he can't stand it anymore. "I was catching up on school. And uh...I knew your friends were looking out for you."
Harry doesn't reply immediately. He clenches his hands against the railing, then releases them.
"I wasn't sure you were real, for a while."
It isn't meant as a barb, but it still feels like one. Great whitelightering, Chris thinks to himself. You're around so little your charge didn't think you existed.
"I'm sorry." He says again. He means it. The guilt has been eating at him relentlessly for days.
Harry gives him a funny look.
"Why?"
"Because it's my job to look out for you! And...I kinda suck." Chris scratches his neck and shrugs, as though that will fix these emotions he's having. "I really am a whitelighter, I promise. I'm just a terrible excuse for one."
Harry glances at him even more confusedly, his eyes blinking in clear bewilderment.
"You – you really mean that." He mutters to himself, like it's new. "You really are a-a...Whitelighter?"
Chris nods.
"Oh." Harry mulls this over. "Oh. Alright then."
While Chris wants to apologize again, or really, just hear his charge speak the words 'I forgive you', he thinks that would defeat the purpose. If all he came here to do was make himself feel better, he's learned nothing about being a whitelighter.
Today, Chris is here not for himself, or for the Elders or his parents or anyone else – he's here for Harry.
For real this time.
So he breathes, he lets go of his shame, and he stands there in the cold, just in case Harry wants to talk.
And if he doesn't, or at least doesn't want to talk today, well then, Chris will be there tomorrow.
And the day after. And the day after.
He's going to take care of his charge this time.
They talk a few more times after that, before school ends. Chris offers awkwardly to talk about Cedric and Harry politely, but firmly, declines each time.
It's weird, Harry thinks. Having someone like Chris, whose entire job description is look after Harry Potter. But..not weird-bad. It makes Harry feel special (like he doesn't feel that way enough already) to have a confidant all his own.
Chris is very American, intense, and awkward in his way of caring. And he does care.
That is why Harry, at the end of one of their tower-conversations right near summer break, pauses before leaving.
"Chris.." He says, hesitating only for another moment. "I'm er, not sure if you know where I live – "
"If you're there, I'll sense you." Chris interrupts, and oh, that's rather weird and a little unnerving.
"Yeah," Harry starts up again. "Well, if you wanted to drop by this summer, I er, wouldn't mind. I-it can get pretty boring there. At my aunt and uncle's house."
It feels like Harry's heart is beating just a little too fast. He's never been great or unashamed about affection, but this is a guy he thinks he'd like to be friends with.
It should be worth it.
After a scary second, Chris's face breaks into an unexpectedly bright smile.
"I think I can manage a couple visits."
Harry finds himself grinning back. It's nice to think that even if he's going back to the Dursely's, he won't be stranded there alone all summer.
"I'd like that. See you then, Chris."
His whitelighter nods at him.
"See you around, Harry Potter."
And that summer, Harry goes home, yes, with Cedric's death and Voldemort's rising on his mind, but also on something else.
He made a new friend.
A/N: Chris is a good kid. He just went into the whitelighter gig with the wrong attitude, like 'my family is almost all whitelighters, I got this nonsense' and focused more on himself than his charge. Which, I'm sure is against like White-lighter rule number one.
Anyway, this was fun to write, hope you enjoyed it! I might write more in this particular universe, if you guys want. Let me know!
Thanks for reading :D