Meeting Harry
By: Abby Ebon
Summary: a Dresden Files/Harry Potter, Harry Dresden, Harry Potter, the first time one wizard heard about the other, prompt, from comment_fic.
Harry Dresden was growing up under the care of Ebenezar McCoy when he first heard the name "Harry Potter"; he lay in his cot half-asleep and dozing. It must have been a floor board creaking, or simply Ebenezar's soft voice as he whispered to the fire. Wizards did that, Harry had learned, and much more besides.
"He lived then, the boy?" It was asked rough and guarded, but there was hope there.
"Yes, they are calling him the Boy Who Lived." Stated a voice that Harry did not know, but he heard all the same that it was amused.
"Poor lad, seems to me wizard lads called Harry are cursed." Ebenezar mused, and Harry Dresden was quiet and wide eyed as he pretended to sleep. Cursed, was he? Or the other boy, the other Harry - were their two of him, like look a like? Or was it only a name that some other boy shared? Harry shivered that he didn't know.
"None more so then Harry Potter…." The whispering voice in the fire declared, mournful and burdened.
"I would not be so sure." Ebenezar said no more, and it was just as well, because the fire went out and Harry Dresden hoped he never heard that whispering name again. Such hopes, alas, were in vain.
Harry Potter was sixteen and fresh from England when he first walked the streets of Chicago, things had changed for him with the Dark Lord dead (he could now walk the streets free and without eyes always on him; or perhaps this was only a big-city treat in America) – but as he got a muggle paper and looked in the ads, like any ordinary person off the street might, he hadn't thought things had changed so much as this.
'Wizard for Hire' the ad claimed, listing a name and address, as if it was any other ordinary business, being a wizard. Surely this man was a wizard gone mad! Harry resolved to solve this and be done with it so he could go back to having an ordinary summer vacation for once, perhaps. This was, after all, the Ministry's treat; surely he could return the favor with one less mad wizard in the world for them to worry over.
"You're Harry Dresden." Harry greeted the man matter-of-fact in his own office, he who was now looking up at him, and had been when Harry had opened the door and stepped inside as if it was where he belonged. It was a nice sort of office, but very plain and muggle, and he suspected it must be if muggles came here after all.
"That was locked!" Dresden protested, as if that should make a difference to a wizard. Harry only frowned at him, puzzled.
"It isn't broken." Harry told him, admittedly now more polite when face to face with a wizard he had thought mad, but clearly – was not, or no more then usually was the case.
"And you didn't knock." Dresden grumbled softly, and Harry noticed what he hadn't before, that this man had a staff in the corner of the office and a bracelet about his wrist and a ring that could act the part of a wand if need was great. All of these were dangerous and somehow primitive compared to what Harry was used to. Harry found himself flushing, for what business of his how well off this man who shared his first name was? Perhaps that was why he offered his service in a common muggle paper, for lack of money.
"Sorry, I'm Harry Potter," at his name leaving his lips, Dresden's eyes were wide and blinking suddenly, "yes, the Boy Who Lived." Harry rolled his eyes, and Dresden shrugged a shoulder, frowning at him all the while.
"You're just a kid; did they name you after him?" Dresden asked, having decided somewhere along the line that Harry wasn't a threat and his fingers threaded though his hands, bridging the gap as Dresden settled his head in them.
"What…no, I am him." Harry struggled to explain, at this Dresden cocked his head, as if he was part-bird.
"Wizards who go rogue don't have kids sent after them." Dresden explained slowly, as if this was a truth that could not be denied. Maybe, to him, it was. Harry wished keenly that that was how the world was, really.
"Well then, you might say I was bait." For the first time their eyes met, and that was something wizards and witches simply did not do, from old memories of unguarded ancestors; but there was something wild in Dresden's eyes, and Harry let down his guard and found himself sucked into another wizard's head. His mind and soul were naked in turn, and Harry realized that this was a raw and wild sort of magic that was all a wizard's own; both of them understood now and knew each other in ways they probably would have preferred not.
Dresden's eyes were wide, and his hands shook only a little.
"So," he said softly "there is a school." Harry's lips twitched, and neither of them could help but laugh.