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. Additionally, there are multiple references to canon child abuse and non-canon attempts to do something about it. The attempts to do something about have the barest hints of ableism & racism. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: So my zucchini Magi has this headcanon that she works with a lot that Lily Evans was a descendant of Destruction (referenced in Netflix's Sandman as only "the prodigal"). When combined with my headcanon that the Peverell family are directly related to Death, if only through repeated exposure to her Hallows, you would get a Harry Potter who is twice over an Endless offspring.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Quidditch League (Season 10); Ministry (Spring Year 1); RAVEN (2023); MC4A (Sp-Y6)
Individual Challenges: Red Instead (Y); Quaffles (Y); Xs & Os; Bludgers (Y); Magical Blood (Y); Colors of the Sky; MoD It; Magical MC (Y); Magical MC; No School MC; Fresh Fandom High; New Fandom Smell (Y); Sandbox (Y); Crossing Over (Y); Reader (Y); Cinematic (Y); Binger (Y); Graphic (Y); Gamer (Y); Tiny Terror (Y); Elder Berries [x2]; Immortal MC; Nonhuman MC; Shifter MC; Professor MC; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Short Jog; Stand Alone; Eating Cake (Y); Exchange; Greatest Gift; Green Ribbon; Two Cakes (Y); Bi Bi Bi; Claimed; Ship Sails; Zukes of Hazard; Bedtime; Growers; Outer; Zed Era; Rainbow Connection; Finders; Hold the Mayo
Team (Position): Wigtown Wanderers (Seeker)
Round (Prompt): Round 10-07 (n/a)
Other QL Challenges: PAW 7 [Pick a Trope] (Unlawful Child Custody Change)
RAVEN Challenges: Settings [82](Kidnapping); Items [63](Hot Chocolate); Colors [74](Jet Black)
Other MC4A Challenges: SpB [2B](Dandelion); TrB [2E](Chain of Deals); Ship (n/a)[SpBig (Ceramic Mug; Hot Chocolate); SpMed1 (Lost & Found); SpMic1 (Fusion/Crossover); SpMic2 (White)]; Chim [Oak]("God Help the Outcasts" – Hunchback of Notre Dame; Turned Left Instead AU; Race Bend)
Representation(s): Robert Gadling/Dream QPR; Desi Harry Potter; Dursley Family Dynamics; Finding a Family; Chim Song Prompt;
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; Second Verse (Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread); Chorus (Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Rediscovery); Demo 1 (Lovely Coconuts; Trickster's Union; Bad Beans; Most Human Bean; Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear; Sweetest Burn); Demo 2 (Unicorn; Creature Feature; Head of Perseus; Hot Stuff; Eternal Boredom; Abandoned Ship)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Tether); SN (Rail; Negate); Once (Moses Supposes; Santa Fe)
Word Count: 2273 words
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Dream Child
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Robert Gadling stood outside the white brick building, feeling a growing sense of unease. He had been a teacher here at Brickman Primary for the past ten years, filling the endless time that he had on his hands with something he was as passionate about as life itself (a good thing he had learned how to stash away money over the centuries, because his salary was a pittance). In that time, he had grown to care for all of the students who passed through the hallow halls, even the ones who were entitled brats who couldn't comprehend just how lucky they were. He had watched all of them grow and learn, but there was one student who he had been particularly close to, a boy named Harry Potter who Robert had first noticed as a first-year sitting alone on the playground.
Sitting alone while the other children played in itself was not unusual. Many of the younger students struggled with making friends. As unfortunate as it was, students who weren't white like the majority of the tiny village of Little Whinging struggled even more. Harry's Indian heritage worked against him in multiple ways, as he was also left out of the Black students.
Of course, it did not take a rocket scientist to notice that Harry's cousin Dudley just enforced that natural isolation by chasing off any child who dared approach Harry. Robert had mentioned it to Bess Carmichael, the first form teacher, but the woman had just brushed him off. Apparently, Harry's aunt, Petunia Dursley, had made it clear at the start-of-term open house that Harry was nothing but a troublemaker, and Bess had seen that tendency with her own eyes.
All Robert had been able to do over the last few years was stop the bullying that he caught. He had also arranged for Harry to spend a lot of recesses in the safety of the school library rather than the playground. Robert couldn't do that for all of them, not that he would. Children needed sunshine and fresh air too much.
However, that was last year. This year, Harry was in Robert's class. Being able to observe the child in closer proximity gave Robert the opportunity to notice things that he hadn't in the past.
Robert had always known that Harry wore his cousin's handed-down clothes, despite them being at least three times too big on Harry's much smaller frame. He had always dismissed it as a necessity. Raising children was expensive. However, having met the Dursley parents at this year's start-of-term open house, Robert realized that there wasn't any need to make one member of their household dress like a pauper.
Harry was also not the troublemaker that Petunia Dursley and Bess Carmichael made him out to be. While Harry could often be found in places he wasn't supposed to be, it wasn't actually malicious as he was often chased there by Dudley and Dudley's friends. Robert did what he could to mitigate the problem, but any attempt to reprimand Dudley was met with the strident complaints of Petunia.
Harry did struggle with classroom tasks, but that had a benign explanation as well. Harry had trouble seeing the board from a student desk and needed to practically press his nose to the page in order to read a book or worksheet. (Any of Harry's worksheets that were sent home never came back, but Robert suspected that was a separate issue.) The child clearly needed glasses, something that Robert had brought up multiple times with his guardians, but so far nothing had been done.
Harry also had trouble focusing wherever there was a lot going on at once. The kid was hyper-vigilant about his surroundings, particularly when people were boisterous (as children tended to be), which definitely wasn't helping. However, the issue seemed to go further than that. For all that Robert could tell, Harry's senses across the board had to be almost superhuman. Robert had only ever seen a few people with similar senses, which were above and beyond even those of people with sensory processing issues.
Harry also didn't speak in class unless he was forced to. In Robert's experience, children tended to be chatterboxes. But Harry would choose silence over speaking more than a handful of words at any given time. Robert might have thought that it was just a case of no one else encouraged Harry speaking except for the periods of time when Harry seemed unable to speak, as if the words were trapped in his throat.
Overall, Harry reminded Robert strongly of his good friend who had also always seemed as bird-like but intractable as young Harry. For all of the differences in their complexions, there was also a startling number of features they had in common such as their vivid eye color and wild hair as dark as a moonless night. If it wasn't so difficult to imagine his good friend ever having something as normal as sex, Robert would have thought that he had sired a child somewhere in Harry's direct family tree.
Robert refused to contemplate the idea any further than that. Nor did he allow the idea to stop him from reporting all of his suspicions about Harry's home life to the proper authorities. He had first reported the abuse to the school administrators, but they hadn't believed him any more than Bess Carmichael had. Apparently, the Dursleys were pillars of the community and therefore above reproach.
Robert had then gone directly to child protection services, but again, his claims were dismissed. After the twelfth time he had filed a report, he was explicitly told that they would not be investigating the case as they believed the accusations to be unfounded.
He was running out of options to help the child. Honestly, he was contemplating just taking Harry away. He was an old hand now at creating new identities. It would be nothing to do it for two people opposed to just one.
Robert decided that before he resorted to kidnapping (no matter how well intended), he would have to tell his good friend that he would need leave the area at their now-monthly meeting. He was still uncertain what his good friend was beyond powerful and eternal. He would even go so far as to call his friend endless, except that felt like it was too close to the truth. Maybe it was some remnant of growing up in the late fourteen century, but Robert hesitated to even think of his good friend by the name that he had said to use. It felt too much like drawing the attention of the Kind Ones (which Robert wasn't certain that that he hadn't, even if his good friend did not seem to have any problem with things like iron).
"I do not understand," his friend said after Robert had told him about Harry's situation, all while carefully avoiding making anything that sounded like a request. He tilted his head to the side in that odd way that made Robert think of a raven. His blue-green eyes caught the light in a way that made them seem backlit. "This child means much to you?"
"He does," Robert agreed. He fidgeted with the cup of hot chocolate in front of him. He found himself wishing that he felt comfortable enough to order actual food during these meetings. But eating in front of his friend felt weird. That was in no small part because his friend never consumed anything, no matter how many hours they spent together. His friend stared back at him for a long moment. The weight of knowledge in those eyes reminded Robert of how Harry would look at times, despite how the child was barely seven years old.
"I would like to meet this child." His friend broke his unnaturally stiff posture to touch his thin lips with his fingertips as if he was about to pray. Robert felt his brow scrunch in his confusion.
"Don't you know him already?"
Robert had seen his friend recite a complete stranger's name and tragic history after just a glance. He had even stated that he knew all people. It felt ominous that his friend felt the need to meet this child in specific. It felt as weighty as the passing thoughts of how the two resembled each other.
"It is curious," his friend admitted, "but I do not."
Robert didn't know which of them was more surprised by that confession.
(^^)
Robert had long since memorized the address given in Harry's student file. He had had to include it every report he had filed. He had driven by a few times in the time since he had first noticed Harry on the playground. Harry was usually outside working in the yard if the weather was even halfway decent.
Which was what he was doing when Robert and his good friend stepped onto the sidewalk across the street from Number Four Privet Drive.
Despite the unseasonably high heat of the late April day, Harry was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with his baggy jeans. What was exposed of Harry's tan skin had a distinctive red tint to it that spoke of at least the start of a sunburn. As they watched (theoretically unseen by the same magic that Robert's friend had used to bring them all the way here from Whitechapel), Harry used his sleeve to wipe sweat from his face. The motion moved his jet black bangs to the side enough to reveal the pale scar shaped like a jagged rune cutting through the center of his forehead.
At that exact moment, Harry glanced in their direction. His posture straightened immediately as it became clear that he had met Robert's good friend's eyes. Robert could feel his friend doing the same beside him.
Then it was 1589 all over again as his friend used his long stride to cross the street just shy of preternaturally fast. Robert remained where he was for a moment, stunned by the swiftness of his abandonment, before he gathered himself enough to follow. By that time, his friend had folded himself into a crouch in front of the still-kneeling Harry.
His friend laid his fingertips on the scar, as if he was in a trance. Surprisingly, Harry did not flinch away from the touch. He also did not cease staring at the being's face.
Robert felt like he was witnessing something intensely private, despite having essentially arranged this whole thing.
"Haridard Jamadagni Potter," his friend stated, the words holding a strange echo that wasn't one. He shifted his fingers so that he was cupping Harry's cheek. "Twice descended from eternity. Little cousin, I know you now."
"I, I think you're confused," Harry said. His tone was flat in the way it got right before he lost the ability to speak. His vividly green eyes shimmered with what was likely tears. Still, he pressed his cheek into the hand against his cheek as if starved for any positive touch. "I'm just Harry."
Robert was certain that his heart was breaking in a way it hadn't since he had buried his family or maybe when he had thought he had driven off his friend.
"I am not," his friend countered softly. "You are one of ours, little cousin. Listen inside yourself. You are lost no more."
With a choked sob, Harry launched himself at Robert's good friend who scooped him close just like a father would have. Then he stood with Harry in his arms. In the same fluttering heartbeat, the world around them shifted back to the parking lot of The New Inn.
"I think you'll find the authorities more willing to listen," his friend said. Harry looked small as he took a sudden nap with his head pillowed against the shoulder of Robert's friend. Robert shivered at the chilling terror that tainted the air between them. "In fact, I think the next few months shall be nightmarish for those who didn't."
"You're taking him then?" Robert asked, even if there wasn't any real doubt. His friend gave a single nod to acknowledge the truth they both knew. "Feel free to bring him to our appointments." Robert gave a charming smile. "I hear it can be hard to find a sitter."
"I will," his friend promised. He pressed a kiss to the top of Harry's head. Then they both were gone, leaving no more trace that they had ever been there than a dream did upon waking.