Sakura the cherry alchemist: does not own Harry Potter or Avengers.
Ch. 1: before Hogwarts and Diagon Alley
May 2005
Harmony was resting in her cupboard after a long day of chores when she heard a car pull into the driveway followed by the angry entrance of her uncle. "Freak!" the man shouted. "Where is that good for nothing freak?"
Harmony leapt from the thin mattress set along the wall of her cupboard and cowered in the corner, she hadn't heard her uncle so mad in a long time.
She flinched when her door was thrown open and Vernon's fat face, twisted in hatred and fury, peered down at her "We've been nothing but generous in allowing you to take up space in our home!" Vernon snarled, showering Harmony with spittle and the overpowering stench of booze. "And how do you repay us? By using your freakishness to make me lose my job!"
Harmony screamed when he grabbed her by her hair, pulled her from her cupboard, and, in a fit of drunken rage, began brutally beating on her.
"Stop!" Harmony sobbed. "Stop, I'm sorry!"
"You want it to stop?" Vernon shouted. "Alright, I'll make it stop. Don't worry girl, I'll reunite you with your freakish parents,"
"No!" Harmony screamed and tried to scramble away, but a viscous blow to the back of her head left her immobile and barely hanging onto consciousness.
Vernon took advantage of her forced complacency and dragged her out to the driveway. He was muttering madly when he climbed into the car and started it up.
Harmony was only just conscious enough to realize what Vernon was attempting and that if she didn't gather enough strength to move she would be seeing her parents again a lot sooner than she'd expected. As the car shifted into reverse and began backing up at frightening speeds, she forced herself to ignore her injuries and roll. The flash of triumph she felt lasted right until she heard two sickening cracks and felt blinding pain in both her legs, followed by darkness.
An undetermined amount of time later, Harmony woke up in a sterile white-walled room, nestled in a comfortable bed with a woman with a small nameplate that read Dr. Granger (1) examining her legs. She tried to pull herself into a sitting position but fell back with a small gasp when pain lanced through her entire body.
The soft sound alerted the woman to her return to consciousness. "Hello, dear." she smiled. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine." Harmony lied.
"That's good, no pain? You've acquired quite an extensive amount of injuries, we've managed to heal most of them but..."
Harmony stiffened when the woman, a doctor she guessed, trailed of guiltily. "But?"
"I'm sorry, but the damage done to your legs was...very serious. We weren't able to save them." Harmony gasped and carefully maneuvered herself until she could see her legs, or at least where they should have been, they were gone from just above the knee down. She lay back and closed her eyes, trying her best to keep her tears at bay.
"The police have the man who did this to you in custody, but they'll need your story of what happened, he's severely intoxicated and isn't being of much help."
Harmony nodded and, with much difficulty, recounted her story, by the time she finished speaking, she had lost her battle against her tears and was crying earnestly. Dr. Granger, who had been recording everything she said on a pad, set her notes aside to reach out to comfort Harmony.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through this, but we're almost through, the police will need an official statement later, but, until then, would you like some company? My daughter is here to visit her father and I, but I'm sure she would love to spend some time with a girl her age."
Harmony hesitated for a moment, she didn't have a very good relationship with girls her age thanks to Dudley, but she would love to have someone to talk to, if only to keep her mind off of that day's events.
"Sure." she finally agreed.
"Excellent." Dr. Granger smiled.
"I'll bring her up once I'm done checking your injuries."
Making friends, as it turned out, hadn't been that hard, Hermione was a nice girl, who, unlike most girls her age, didn't spend all of her time talking. She and Harmony spent a few minutes getting to know each other, and then both girls settled down with a book Hermione produced from her bag, Harmony was reading The Alchemist, and Hermione had Twilight. They had been interrupted a little bit into their reading when the police showed up to question her, but they didn't remain for more than an hour.
"Miss Potter?" Harmony looked up and blinked at the sight of an old man with a long beard and wearing lime green robes standing at the doorway of her room. She scrutinized him, trying to place a name to the familiar face.
"Do I know you?" she asked, after giving up trying to remember herself. "You look familiar from before them(2)."
The old man looked surprised. "You remember me?"
"Albus Dumbledore." the name popped into Harmony's head and suddenly she remembered "Headmaster of Ho-"
"How is it that you remember me?" Dumbledore interrupted.
Harmony shrugged. "I remember everything since the day I was born I can't forget anything."
Dumbledore sighed. "I'm so sorry for placing you with those people."
After the accident, Harmony's life changed (for the better) dramatically. Both of the Dursley's were in jail, Vernon for life without parole, and Petunia for ten for accessory and attacking an officer of the law, and Dudley was sent to live with Vernon's sister Marge. Harmony, on the other hand, was adopted by the Tonks', a magical family with a daughter only a few years older than Harmony.
After her adoption, Harmony slowly began to heal, both physically and emotionally, with the help of her new family and Hermione, who she made sure to keep in contact with. With the fear of retribution from her relatives a thing of the past, Harmony was able to reach her full potential academically wise, she was the top in her year at school and had developed her skills on the computer until she was able to easily hack whatever and whoever she wanted. At the moment she was hacking into SHIELD databases, a super secret government agency she'd found out about completely by accident, and wired all of the speakers at SHIELD bases to play the song City Escape on a loop.
She was laughing at the SHIELD agents' pathetic attempts at finding and blocking the source of the music when there was a knock at her door and Tonks entered. The older girl took one look at her adopted sisters amused face and smiled knowingly. "City Escape?"
Harmony nodded and Tonks laughed. "It's time to go mom said your new prosthetics are ready." Harmony smiled in excitement, about a year ago she had designed (5) and given it to the goblins in hopes that they could make them.
After hurriedly preparing for a journey into the wizarding world, Harmony and Tonks flooed directly into Gringotts.
"Hello," Mrs. Tonks said, approaching the nearest goblin teller, "we're here to see Sharpclaw."
The goblin peered down at them inquiringly. "Names?"
"Andromeda and Nymphadora Tonks, and Harmony Potter-Tonks."
"Very well, Griphook," the teller motioned for another goblin to join them, "will take you to see him." Griphook nodded to the small group, then motioned for them to follow him, he led them through a door on the far wall of the hall, down a long corridor, and to a large frosted glass door. He knocked sharply and, when he received a curt command to enter, pushed it open.
"Mrs. Tonks and her daughters are here to see you." Griphook stated to the goblin sitting behind a large desk.
Sharpclaw nodded "Thank you, Griphook, you may go now."
Griphook bowed to the elder goblin and then to the three women before leaving the office.
"Well, Ms. Potter-Tonks," Sharpclaw said, "you've given me quite a challenge with your design, but a years worth of hard work has finally paid off." Sharpclaw reached under his desk and produced two metal prosthetic legs. "Two fully functioning prosthetics that will grow as you do, and they're all yours."
Harmony felt tears fill her eyes and her hair turn dark blue (4) as she accepted the prosthetics legs "Thank you," she whispered, eagerly replacing her muggle prosthetics with the new ones, "you have no idea how much this means to me."
"If you don't mind we would like to offer these..."
"Automail."
"Automail to veterans of the last war as well as children who, like you, lost a limb to abuse or otherwise."
Harmony didn't even hesitate before agreeing. "Do it, I want to help others."
Sharpclaw nodded and actually smiled as Harmony and the Tonks' exchanged a few more words before leaving.
A few months after the visit to Gringotts, Mrs. Tonks was in the kitchen preparing breakfast when two owls carrying thick envelopes glided into the kitchen. "Harmony, Nymphadora," she called up the stairs, "your Hogwarts letters are here!"
"Don't call me Nymphadora!" Nymphadora shouted hair turning red as she tripped down the stairs.
Harmony followed close behind, hair bright yellow and laughing at her adopted sister's antics. Both girls collected their letters and Harmony eagerly read her's over, before she penned her acceptance letter.
"What animal do you want, Harmony?" Mrs. Tonks asked.
"A cat or maybe and owl."
"Well let's get going." Mr. Tonks said, entering the room. "If we want to meet the Granger's at Diagon Alley we need to leave now."
"Hello, Minerva." Mrs. Tonks said to the stern woman. "Do you mind if we join you? My youngest is friends with Miss. Granger."
"Of course not." the woman agreed, before turning to smile kindly at Harmony. "Hello, young lady, I'm afraid I don't know your name."
"Harmony Potter-Tonks, it's nice to see you again Professor Minnie."
McGonagall gasped "How do you know that nickname?"
"I remember everything from the moment I was born, I used to call you Minnie when I was a baby."
McGonagall smiled sadly but led them into the Leaky Cauldron with a purposeful gait.
As the large group entered the Leaky Cauldron, Harmony noticed a frightening looking man who had a missing eye, a disturbing amount of scars, and a chunk of his nose missing, wrap up in a conversation with the bartender, Tom, before limping over to speak with a man a few tables down. But when Tom noticed the arrival of Professor McGonagall, the Tonks, and the Grangers he called out to the man "Hey, Moody, look who just showed up." he said. "The girl you were just saying you wanted to meet."
The frightening man Harmony now knew to be Moody, focused his gaze on their group, or more specifically, on Harmony, then limped over to where they were loitering in the doorway.
"Harmony Tonks?" he said in a low, growling voice.
"Yes."
"I was just telling Tom how much good your prosthetic limbs have done me. I only just got one to replace the older one I've had since I lost my leg in the war."
Harmony smiled and ducked her head bashfully. "Your welcome, sir. But the goblins really did most of the work, I just drew up the plans and left them to do all of the heavy lifting."
Moody laughed gruffly and looked approvingly to the elder Tonks' "Modest little thing, ain't she?"
The Tonks' nodded and laughed. "One of her better qualities."
After exchanging a few more words, Moody went back to his table and Grangers, Tonks', and Professor McGonagall made their way to the entrance to Diagon Alley.
The Grangers were suitably awestruck by the whimsical little marketplace, but Harmony, who'd been to Diagon Alley dozens of times, only spared the street a passing glance before looking down at her supply list. "We should probably head to Gringotts first, grab a few galleons, then head over to Madam Malkins." she suggested.
And that's exactly what they did, the visit to Gringotts was a quick affair, Harmony collected several handfuls of gold from her trust fund then rejoined the group, all of whom trouped over to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.
When they entered the little shop, it was to find that someone was already being fit for robes, a pale-faced boy, with slicked back blond hair who looked to be the same age as them.
"Hello." Harmony greeted cheerfully. "Are you being fit for Hogwarts robes as well?"
The boy nodded "Yes. I'll be a first year."
"Us too. I'm Harmony Tonks by the way."
"And I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione piped in.
"Draco Malfoy." the boy smiled politely. "What house do you think you'll be in."
Harmony and Hermione shared a glance before saying in unison. "Ravenclaw."
"You?" Hermione asked.
"Either Ravenclaw or Slytherin."
"Alright, Mr. Malfoy, you're all done dearie." Draco hopped off of the stool, but turned around before leaving to smile and wave at the two girls still being measured "I guess I'll see you at Hogwarts." he said. "Maybe we'll end up in Ravenclaw together."
"
After they finished being fit for their robes and visiting most of the stores to pick up their supplies, they stopped at the Magical Menagerie to look for pets, Hermione was looking at the cats while Harmony was looking at the owls, when she felt a tug, she followed it to find a silver and white egg that was sitting on a pillow.
"Do you feel a pull young lady?" Harmony turned and looked at the sales clerk who had appeared behind her.
"Yes, sir," she said, "I do."
"That right there is the egg of an ice phoenix, tomorrow it will be exactly eleven years since it has appeared. Why don't you pick it up and see if it will hatch for you?"
Harmony nervously reached out and scooped the egg into her hands, the moment she picked it up there was a soft cracking noise, then the egg crumbled, leaving a small, featherless bird chirping curiously in her hands.
"It seems you found your familiars Miss..."
"Tonks." Harmony answered, reverently stroking a finger over the little bird's head.
"Well, Miss. Tonks, come with me and we can collect some things for her."
"Well what is this?" Mrs. Tonks said, joining Harmony at marveling at her baby phoenix. "You came looking for an owl or cat and found a phoenix."
Harmony's hair turned a dark shade of pink. "Mum!"(5)
Mrs. Tonks laughed softly "What are you going to name her?"
Harmony studied the phoenix for a moment, and then said, "Hedwig." (6)
"Hedwig it is then." Harmony and Mrs. Tonks collected everything they would need for Hedwig, then left the pet store to move onto the wand shop.
As Harmony and the others entered Ollivander's, Mr. Ollivander appeared from behind some of the shelves and said "Ah Miss. Potter-Tonks and Miss..."
"Granger." Hermione told him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you both. Now, who will be going first?"
"I guess I will." Hermione said, taking a step forward. It didn't take long to find Hermione a wand, she was a fairly easy customer. And then it was Harmony's turn who was a decidedly less easy customer. It took several long minutes and a couple dozen wands before she found the one that fit her.
"Dogwood with an Ice Phoenix tail feather core go with offensive, defensive, and Healing magic." Ollivander said.
End Ch.1
Sakura the cherry alchemist: Ok I know the first part of the chapter is not something I usually do but I need the Durslys' out of the way but didn't want to kill them plus I actually planed for Harmony to lose her legs', I know that sounds horrible but It's part of the plot, sorta.
Author Notes:
(1) Yes this is Hermione's mother I know she's a dentist but in this story she's an emergency doctor so Hermione and Harmony could be friends before Hogwarts
(2) Dursleys', she bracksdown whenever she hears their last name
(3) think Automail(Don't own) but has a sensor inside to work and grows with you (Magic)
(4) just her hair changes nothing else
(5) Mum for Mrs. Tonks, Mom for when she talks about Lily.
(6) Yes people that's Hedwig I can't stand what happens to her in the book and movie so I made her a phoenix