A/n: Hey guys, just wanted to put this up here as well. I'm pretty proud of it, so enjoy!

BEFORE EVERYTHING

It was not a good day for one Harriet Potter. Her face was red. Green eyes all blotchy from tears. Her cheeks hurt from all the salt on her skin, which became obsolete when compared to the black and green mark in the form of a hand that had formed on her arm.

Uncle Vernon was not a kind man by any means but when he thought that his and his family's 'normalcy' was being threatened he became especially volatile.

Harri had gotten home from school long after her cousin Dudley had arrived in order to avoid as much 'Harri Hunting' as she could. It didn't always work. Sometimes if Dudley was feeling especially clever he'd lay in wait for her somewhere and jump out at her with his friends in an ambush. She was getting faster but she wasn't always the fastest.

Instead of her stick thin Aunt Petunia waiting for her with a list of chores that Harri was meant to do around the house effective immediately, she was met with her walrus sized Uncle and dear cousin. The moment that Dudley's small eyes met Harriet's tired green his already red face became redder. Immediately she knew that even though she'd managed to dodge 'Harri Hunting' today she was still going to be punished for something.

"Harri did it, father!" Dudley had cried, fat crocodile tears running down his face. "At school I went to sit down on my chair- and it slid right out from under me! I was so scared!"

Just like that the dread Harri felt at the sight of her cousin and Uncle turned to ice. Uncle Vernon had turned to her with a stormy expression. He'd taken her by arm with an unyielding grip and dragged her over to her cupboard under the stairs, all the while he yelled about how there was to be no 'funny business' at school just like how it was not welcome within the house. When she landed hard on her bed her glasses tumbled off and her vision immediately went blotchy. Then the door slammed, causing the girl to yelp in pain when it had forcefully slammed her foot against an old paint can.

"There will be no dinner for you!" Uncle Vernon's rage filled voice shouted from the other side and the bolt was slid shut. Tears had begun to fall from Harriet's eyes even as she listened to his heavy footsteps thump away, and her body shook from the emotion.

"It wasn't me..." she whispered into the dark space desperately, needing to say the words aloud even if no one was there to hear it. "It was one of Dudley's friends who'd played a prank on him...!"

It was unknown to Harri how much time had passed as she let herself grieve at the injustice. Eventually the darkness in her cupboard became all encompassing as the light of the day faded from the small crack under the door and Harri found herself calming down, the hurt in her chest slowly going numb as she boxed it all away. Dust fell from above as her relatives all made their way upstairs to their rooms one by one. Finally when Uncle Vernon had gone back up a second time, after fetching his usual nightly glass of water, Harri turned towards the exposed rough wooden planks of the stairs. She lifted her hands to the closest one, focused with all her might and called the name of her friend with all her heart and soul.

There was a soft tune that carried on the clear mountain wind, chipper and light.

The source was a young boy of about eleven who dragged along a rather large carcass- at least four times the boy's own body size- behind him. Curious night animals that heard the tune poked their heads from behind branches of the forest's trees to stare down at him as he passed but didn't utter a sound.

Even without the dinosaur being dragged along by it's snout behind him the boy could easily be described as odd. Inky black hair upon his head stood out in every direction, three large sections of it standing up on end nearly perfectly and rigidly, yet it bent with the wind easily. His eyes were nearly as dark as his hair, being so brown they could easily be mistaken as black from afar. Perhaps the oddest thing about this boy though, was the long brown monkey tail that swayed behind him and emulated his emotions.

"Goku!"

Pausing, the boy's tune stopped completely at the sudden call. Then his dark eyes widened and a small gasp escaped him. He dropped the dinosaur that would have served as his dinner and ran forwards.

"Goku...?!"

"Here!" The boy responded quickly, announcing his presence even as he dashed out from within the trees and into the small clearing where a little red hut waited. Across the side of the hut he went, only to stop at it's back, where a clear image of a raven haired girl waited. A big smile appeared on his face at the sight of her, "hi Ri!"

If Goku didn't know better than he'd say that his Grandfather's hut had gained a brand new hole behind it.

As it is, he does know better.

Not only did he know that there was no person in the hut if he'd gone to look for them- as he had the very first time this had happened- in order to look out of this hole at him, but when he looked extra close a faintly glowing light could be made out at the very edges like an outline. When he'd first seen it, Goku's Grandpa Gohan had described the hole as a Window or even a Mirror. To Grandpa's best guess, the girl who showed up on the other side was from a reality that was exactly like their own but different too- a mirror dimension, a flipped world. The different explanations his Grandpa had given went over Goku and Harri's heads. All that really mattered was that they could see one another through it and speak to one another through it.

There was a small sniffle in response but given what Goku knew of Harri's life that was pretty normal for her. "Hi Goku." She responded meekly, deep green eyes blinking away tears that had sprung up at the warm greeting.

Now sat down on the grass in front of her, legs automatically folding into the butterfly stretch out of habit, Goku took in the girl on the other side of the Window. Her emerald green eyes were puffy and stained red from crying. Usually messy inky black hair atop her head looked somewhat tangled, the ends of it cut unevenly and crudely to be just under her chin. On her forehead was a red scar in the jagged form of a cartoon lightning bolt, looking as though it were made that very day instead of nine long years ago. It started at her hairline and arced down until it touched the line of her eyebrow. Salty tear tracks went down her usually pale cheeks where new tears had followed and began to drip from her chin.

With another sniffle the girl rubbed her eyes on her sleeves, exposing the dark hand print of a bruise on her arm for a moment. Goku's eyes narrowed at the sight of it, anger lit in his chest like a flame licking his insides with it's scorching touch.

The first time that Harri had shown herself to him was a long time ago, but it wasn't an encounter that he'd forget.

Goku was the one who had heard her heart-wrenching sobs and followed them across and then behind the hut. There he'd seen Harri for the first time. Her face had been hidden in the crook of an arm while her entire body shook with the force of her cries. At the time the cloth that she had worn as a shirt had been ripped at the back. But from where Goku had stood, he could see the skin of her back where long red welts were exposed. Some were even bloody.

First Goku tried to get the girl's attention, to no avail. Then he tried to go through the window that showed her, only to find that he met something solid and slightly spongy. It wasn't wood, exactly, but it was solid enough to not let him through. So he'd gone back around inside the hut and began to move anything aside that kept him from the back wall.

That's when his Grandpa had found him- shoving their bed out the door and preparing to get the large wooden chest out after it. Immediately Goku had shown him around to the Window. In his urgency he'd must have somehow gotten Harri's attention because he saw how she'd lifted up her head quickly, startled. Then her frightened green eyes had met his dark brown and suddenly the Window had gone. Popped out of existence completely. It was as though it'd never existed.

All Goku's Grandpa had seen was the flash of light that had been made as it disappeared. He hadn't seen Harri. After an explanation of what he'd seen, insisting that it was real, Goku was then left to replace all the items he'd taken out of the hut to where he'd gotten them from.

For the rest of that day Goku witnessed his Grandpa sit completely still behind the hut, where the Window had appeared. There was a troubled look on his Grandpa's face as the older man studied the back wall of the hut with an appraising eye. When he'd done his chores, Goku found himself joining his Grandpa, curious to see if the Window with the crying person would appear again. That's when his Grandpa Gohan took the time to explain how not every child had a happy home. How not every grown person knew how to be kind. Goku was told that if he saw the Window open up again and the person on the other side, Goku needed to be kind. A simple smile could brighten someone's day.

It was a day later when the Window appeared for the second time ever. There was no crying this time. Harri was still laying on her stomach but her head had been propped up on her arm, tired green eyes puffy and red staring out at them with wonder. They'd had their first ever conversation then. She had barely remembered what her name was, tentatively describing part of a nightmare that plagued her where someone had shouted to get away and said a name, but she hadn't been sure if that was her name or someone else's. It was all they were able to exchange before a great banging had appeared on Harri's end, a loud angry voice shouting at her to get up and the sound of a bolt coming undone- the Window disappeared but not before Goku noticed the unadulterated fear in the girl's eyes. It had scared him.

His Grandpa had been furious for the rest of the day, quietly going about his chores but not actually getting anything done. Goku hadn't known what to think other than to thank Kami that he had his Grandpa with him.

After that Harri kept appearing. She spoke with them about what she knew of her world. They explained to her about theirs in return, which quickly became Harri's favorite topic. Dinosaurs that roamed the land freely, flying cars and scooters that could disappear into a pill-sized storage at the touch of a button, and a boy with a monkey tail who was stronger than even Uncle Vernon by a hundred times. It all sounded very much like a fantasy to one lonely girl at her Aunt and Uncle's house, stuck in a cupboard under their stairs.

"Want to hear about my day?" Goku asked, tilting his head to one side curiously.

Harri nodded, "mmn-hmm."

"First, I woke up when the sun rose and said good morning to Grandpa before doing my stretches. Grandpa had caught the morning light today when I went to see him, ya know? Made the light on the walls all pretty." The boy started, then rose his hands in front of him to help tell the story as he continued. "There was a sound in the forest today, so I went to go see what it was. Big footprints were left in the mud- it rained last night, woke me up when I heard it hitting the roof- so I followed them deeper in. There were trees knocked over and bushes half eaten too. No little animals were around- I think they were all scared off. I had to follow the tracks all day! Whatever made them was moving fast."

"What was it?" Harri asked, eyes brightening in curiosity, tears forgotten.

"It was a dinosaur, Ri! It was as bigger than me!" Goku threw his arms out to either side of him to emphasize his point and Harri stared back with awe.

"What'd you do with it?" She asked after a moment, trying to wrap her head around how big this animal must have been. There were a lot of things bigger than Goku, after all. He was only a little bit bigger than her.

"I fought it!" He grinned happily, proudly. He slowly got to his feet, reliving the story with his body as he told it.

"It spotted me before I did it and rushed at me before I could do anything. I got knocked back into a big tree and almost took it down with me... but when I got back up I managed to dodge to one side and hit it in the ribs! It didn't like that..." Goku's grin got impossibly wider as he then clenched his hand into a fist to hold it aloft for Harri to see. He mimed punching something heavy in front of him. "So I did it again but right where it's ears was because it had this protective bone in front of that spot. It started moving funny then, like I made it all dizzy. When it spotted me again it tried to run at me but it stumbled and went right down the side of the mountain! It was a little sad, but that's that."

If it had been anyone but Goku who'd told her the story Harri would have thought that they were lying. But it was a small and simple lie that had gotten Goku's Grandpa killed by the Monster in the Moon and Goku hasn't told a single lie since.

That day that Harri had called upon Goku was not one that she'd ever forget.

When Harri opened the Window it was often after she'd gotten in trouble, which happened on a near daily basis. That day was one of the rare ones where she hadn't gotten in trouble. She hadn't gotten beaten up on or even yelled at which would have made the day a memorable one all on it's own. Instead Harri remembered it as the day that she'd seen her first and only friend cry.

For first time she felt angry at the Window because she felt absolutely helpless. No matter how much she wanted to, Harri hadn't been able to cross through the Window into his world and give Goku the comfort that he very much needed. They'd both leaned against the Window- the closest to touching they'd ever get- and cried together for a very long time for the death of a great man. And Goku explained to her how he'd lied, how he'd told his Grandpa that he'd not looked at the moon so that the Moon Monster wouldn't be angry at him and come out to get him. But he'd looked.

That morning Goku had woken up in a massive footprint that belonged to the Moon Monster. He'd found his Grandpa in another footprint near the hut they'd called home; Grandpa hadn't been alive. He blamed himself. He'd never lie again.

While neither Goku nor Harri had ever seen this Monster in the Moon for themselves, Harri had seen many odd things. She'd told Goku about them too.

How once, at school, she'd been running from Dudley and his friends because they were 'Harri Hunting' and she'd come across a dead end, but just as Dudley had caught up with her she was suddenly not in front of him anymore but on the school roof instead. Another, more recent, incident was when Dudley had gone to the zoo with his closest friend and Aunt Petunia had told Uncle Vernon that they had to take Harri too.

While at the zoo Harri found that she could talk to a snake there and it seemed to actually understand what she'd said to it. Then the glass that separated the snake's exhibit from the rest of the building had simply disappeared and the snake got loose but it seemed pretty happy about that. Of course both incidents got Harri in very big trouble with Uncle Vernon, which Goku also knew about.

"At least you're okay." Harri responded and rubbed her eyes again. They felt very irritated from all the crying she'd done, but she felt much better now. A small sigh left her then, knowing that it was now her turn.

"My day started like all the others," Harri began, glancing away from Goku as she spoke quietly, towards the cupboard door. It was still early in the night but she still kept her voice very low. "Aunt Petunia had me make breakfast for everyone and I managed to sneak some cheese for myself from Dudley's omelet. I had to go out in the back to prune the hedges before I could go to school and I might have caught my finger between the handles..." she lifted a hand from the side of the Window for Goku see. The skin on the side of her finger had been sheared off a bit, leaving a thin flap of skin to cover the exposed red area. "But I got something to stop it bleeding when I got to school cause one of the Professors had noticed the blood on my sheet. Took it off before I got back to the house of course, didn't want Aunt Petunia to see that."

Her eyes became downcast then and resignment pulled at her voice, "a boy played a prank on Dudley at school- he went to sit at his desk but the boy that sat behind him pulled Dudley's chair back before he could sit. Dudley fell to the floor and started crying in front of everyone, I think he got really scared from it. The way home was quiet today, Dudley didn't show up for Harri Hunting... but that was because he was at the house already. He told Uncle Vernon that I did the prank on the chair, which doesn't make sense- I sit as far away as I can from Dudley. Uncle Vernon believed him anyways."

She looked down then, frustrated, angry, ashamed, sad.

"One day, Ri." When Harri looked up again, she saw the determined look the boy on the other side of the Window gave her. "One day I'll get you out of there."

It wasn't a new notion, declaration. The first time it had been said to her by him was after he'd lost his Grandpa Gohan.

They'd tried many times to figure out how she was able to make the Window because it most certainly wasn't done by anyone on Goku's end. Best conclusions they had was that it was related to the wood under the stairs.

Harri had tried summoning the Window on all sorts of walls in her Aunt and Uncle's house. When that didn't work, she'd tried as many wooden surfaces as she could- doors in her school, the cabinets at her sitter Miss Figg's house, the closet walls in Aunt Petunia's newly added walk-in.

Eventually they concluded that it had to be something about the wood under the stairs. Harri had asked Uncle Vernon how old the house was under Grandpa Gohan's guidance; she was told that the oldest part of the house was the stairs because the house had once been the sight of a bomb and the only thing that survived was the stairs. Everything else had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Oddly enough Grandpa Gohan had said that the back of his hut had to have been repaired once because of an accident that had nearly taken the entire wall down.

Despite what they discovered about the history of the wood, no matter what Harri had done differently to call upon it, the Window stayed as just that: a window. They could see one another and speak to each other. But it was closed and there was no physical way through.

That didn't stop Grandpa Gohan from declaring that he'd find a way for Harri to get through. The elderly had even left on a long trip and came back- right before the Moon Monster got him- with an orange orb in his hands, stating that it could grant wishes. No wishes had been granted but it was still a present, one that Goku's Grandpa had gotten for them all, so Goku still kept it in memory of his Grandpa.

When Grandpa Gohan had passed, it was Goku who declared the same notion.

And each time it was said- by Grandpa Gohan, by Goku- Harri felt the want and the need to be with them in their world instead of stuck in her own. It echoed in every fiber of her being.

So Harri returned Goku's determined look, just as eager for that wish to come true and just as certain that they'd find the way eventually.

"Of course." She answered confidently, then gave him a smile. It was an expression that made the muscles of her face ache from the unfamiliarity of it. "Have any plans for your birthday?"

"Your birthday, you mean." Goku responded but his grin only grew.

"Okay then, our birthday." Harri compromised with a roll of her eyes. "Any plans?"

Goku thought of the gift that he had been working on in secret. Well, it wasn't really a secret.

It had been tradition for a while now that Goku and Gohan would both make something for Harri for her birthday. When she found out she asked for each of theirs and while Grandpa Gohan had been secretive about his own birthday- something about how not telling others an old man's age made said old man seem wiser- Harri had quickly found out that Goku didn't know his own birthday and hadn't even celebrated it before. Of course Grandpa Gohan had done extra special things together with Goku on the day that the tailed boy had been found each year but that day wasn't declared his birthday, per say. So it was decided that Goku would share Harri's birthday instead and the girl was plenty happy with that as her present for that year.

"Not really," Goku shrugged. "I'm okay with the usual things I do, they're plenty fun."

"No, nope, that won't do." Harri shook her head at that.

"What why?" The question almost came out as a whine.

"Because you're turning twelve! Dudley got thirteen presents this year, a trip to the zoo, and two more presents are still in the mail for later. I don't get any presents, or cake, or trips to the zoo, but you can have an adventure. From what I know Mt Paozu sounds likes it has a lot of different animals there and you find a bunch of interesting stuff all the time! Like the sparkly rock you showed me last year or that cave under the waterfall you talked about."

"Okay then, I'll have an adventure for our birthday." Goku agreed, liking the idea already. "And I'll tell you all about it!"

"You better!"

Dust fell from above Harri's head and she quickly hid her face to avoid it going in her eyes. The dull thud-thud-thud of someone going down the stairs followed. When the dust stopped Harri slowly showed her face again and scooted closer to the Window so that she'd be heard.

"That's Dudley for his midnight snack." Harri whispered and Goku already felt his mood drop. Still he put on a big smile, determined to not make Harri's mood go down too. "I have to go."

"Okay," Goku answered, still smiling. "Have a good night."

"Night, Karate Kid." Harri responded, returning the smile. It was a small thing, barely an upturn of the corners of her mouth. It looked strained and painful and lasted only a second before it dropped completely. She brought her hands away from the wood under the stairs and the Window sealed itself up completely, leaving no evidence behind of another world.

Goku let out a long breath when the Window had flashed closed, his shoulders dropping. He gripped his ankles tight for a moment, head dropped so his chin touched his chest.

"One day..." he whispered to himself, near inaudible.

Then his stomach gave a loud growl, reminding him of the task he had been up to. He hopped to his feet quickly and dashed back over to his prize. He hadn't spent the rest of the day fetching it from the bottom of the mountain just to let scavengers eat it!