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xXx A Very Close Friend xXx
xXx Ch. 02: There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters xXx
xXx Madam Malkin's, Diagon Alley, London xXx
xXx August 4th, 1991 xXx
When they entered the shop, without Hagrid as escort, the first thing Harry noticed was that there was an arrogant looking blonde boy on a stool being fitted for his robes. The boy was making biting remarks everytime he even thought he had been poked with a needle. 'Why is he doing that?'
'From what my mother said, some members of this culture view themselves as superior to those of more mundane birth just because they have a lineage of magic use in their family dating back more than a handful of generations.' Midna remarked. 'What these people fail to realize is the mundanes vastly outnumber the magical, and have superior weapons.'
As soon as Harry was on a stool, the blonde boy attempted to start a conversation with him, "Are you off to Hogwarts too?"
Letting Midna talk through their link, since was out of his depth, the girl used his mouth to reply, "That should be a bit obvious."
"Watch your tone!" the blonde exclaimed.
Midna had to squash what she would have normally said in response to such a declaration, as she knew it would be completely out of character for a boy to say that. Instead she remarked, "You seem to be assuming I am beneath you in social standing. Assumptions tend to make people look like donkeys when they turn out to be incorrect, so in practice it is best not to make assumptions about people you have only just met."
'Midna, you utterly butchered that metaphor,' Harry complained.
'No I didn't, I modified it to suit the audience. Plus, if I phrased it in the original format, he'd have switched from being a berk to being homicidal,' Midna remarked. 'Plus, I am fairly certain he hasn't connected your face to your name yet like those people back at the Cauldron.'
The boy sneered before saying, "So what house are you headed for?"
"I presume you mean what Hogwarts House I am interested in? Well all four have pros and cons attached to them, and I mean beyond what their general reputation tends to be." Midna replied with a grin.
"Oh? Is that so? What could any of the four houses offer that Slytherin does not?"
"Ravenclaw has a private library in their common room, many of those books having been donated to the school by Rowena Ravenclaw herself," one of the seamstresses stated. "Which means that any copies aside from the ones in the common room are likely collecting dust in an obscure family archive."
"Or as weird as this will sound, a museum," Harry borrowed his mouth back from Midna to interject, "If the book is old enough it would still exist in the mundane world even in spite of the statute of secrecy, and trying to extract it from where it now is would be more of a threat of revealing the existence of magic than leaving it where it is."
"Valid point," the other seamstress pointed out, "I mean I could walk into the British Library after I get off work and walk out with a comprehensive treatise on demon summoning, which incidentally has been banned by every nation in the ICW since far longer than Dumbledore has been alive."
That succeeded in proving right there, at least as far as the blonde boy was concerned, that Muggles were not as harmless as he always thought they were. The fact that they had that kind of information in such easy to access locations made them a severe threat. However before he could make such a comment, Madam Malkin herself added her own weight to the conversation, "Hufflepuff is barely twelve paces from the kitchens, and that means they are far more likely to get away with breaking curfew if only to get a midnight snack."
"Or to snog in front of the elves!" one of the seamstresses exclaimed, as she watched the blonde's face contort in disgust. She frowned when she noticed Harry didn't seem bothered. "Why aren't you blushing or disgusted?"
"Because I have a close friend who is the closest thing to a naturist that is also a witch you are likely to ever meet," Harry remarked. Midna then sent a thought to him, causing him to blush and further expound on his statement "I should also make it clear I am referring to the practice of being nude as a way of life, rather than someone who simply visits a nude beach on a vacation."
The blonde's face near about burst into a volcano of embarrassment at that statement, Pure-Blood society as a rule did not discuss such intimate concepts, though the amused looks Harry was getting from the seamstress indicated that he had somehow impressed the girl. "You better keep hold of that one, you here? Witches like that are rare outside of the Veela communes."
"Yes'm," Harry agreed.
The blonde did not present a problem beyond that moment, and it was a short time later that Harry stepped out of the shop with his new robes and rejoined Hagrid, who had ice cream cones for the two of them, even if Hagrid would look a bit ridiculous with such a thing. Harry enjoyed the ice cream all the same.
xXx Ollivander's Wand Shop, Diagon Alley, London xXx
xXx Later That Day xXx
As soon as Harry entered the shop, he watched as Midna materialized from his shadow, though remained as a shadow. He shot her a curious glance, but his curiosity was solved when a slight intake of the breath was heard and a man stepped out of the shadows, "Thank you for presenting yourself without making yourself regret it."
"It is with great honor that I welcome you to my humble shop, can I assume the establishment of your predecessor's reign was successful?" the old man inquired.
"It was, my mother is the current Twilight Princess." Midna then turned her head to towards Harry and said, "Incidentally, I am the product of heteropaternal superfecundation. My twin sister is your half sister via your father, but I do not share the same father as her, and thus was chosen as your partner due to what would likely result from my time here."
"I'd like to meet my sister," Harry stated in a manner that indicated it was a request and not a demand, but which carried a weight of authority all the same.
"I'll try to set that up, Harry," Midna replied. She then turned back to Ollivander and said, "Harry needs a wand, if only to learn the basics of each spell before moving onto mastering them without a wand."
"Very well, we shall find him a wand."
What followed were a series of questions, answers and an annoying tape measure, all of which Midna informed him had no bearing on the actual process of selecting a wand, as he simply had to wave each one and see which one had the least destructive response to his magic.
In the end, it came down to a choice between two wands. One had matched him perfectly, a wand crafted from a tree referred to only as 'Dark Wood' which, according Midna was not native to this reality. It had a core that had apparently been supplied to Ollivander as a courtesy by Midna's mother, and which was practically vibrating with power when it connected with his magic.
The other, "Mister Ollivander, why exactly are you so insistent that I try this wand despite the fact I already have a match?"
"I was asked to have you try it by the man to whom the Phoenix whose tail feather resides in this wand has bound itself as a familiar." Ollivander supplied.
Harry looked over at Midna, who shrugged and said "Go ahead and try it."
When he did, there was the unmistakable exhibition where a wand finds itself a match for a wizard or a witch. Ollivander grinned and said, "Extraordinary, to have two matching wands while both are still intact is quite unheard of. That combined with the mystery surrounding the second of these two wands proves that we can expect great things from you Mister Potter."
"What does that mean?" Midna demanded.
"Ah, well you see, the phoenix whose tail feather resides in this wand, gave one other… just the one. It is the wand in which that tail feather resides, which gave Mister Potter the scar on his forehead."
"And why on earth would I want such a wand?"
"I think I see, the feather's aren't just from the same phoenix, they were donated at the same exact moment, which means that wand might be able to act as a powerful defense against the person who gave you your scar," Midna explained.
"It could indeed at that," Ollivander agreed.
xXx The Leaky Cauldron, London, England xXx
xXx Later That Night xXx
"So yer not going ter ask me about the 'ouses?" Hagrid questioned with a confused expression on his face.
"I doubt I have to. I have a close friend who has been made aware of the house system at Hogwarts and brought me up to speed. What I want to know is about the man who gave me this scar," Harry indicated the one on his forehead.
Hagrid seemed to deflate, not having wanted to discuss this right here and then. What ended up following was a rather thorough if abbreviated explanation on the way in which his entire family was destroyed, save for those who had gotten safely away to the Twilight Realm. "'Arry, while I won't say all of it came from there, most of 'is support came from the alumni of Slytherin 'Ouse. Every witch or wizard whose gone bad, they were in Slytherin."
Inside his mind, Midna remarked, 'Oh please, not every Slytherin is going to be evil just because they were sorted into the one house that has a bad reputation."
"I hope you are right, Midna, cause I would hate to think there is an entire house of evil people inside the School."
xXx King's Cross Station, London, England xXx
xXx September 1st, 1991 xXx
"Naff it all," Harry complained as he looked at the ticket again, 'Are wizards utterly insane, or does this make any more sense to you than it does to me, Midna?'
Midna used their link to look through his eyes for a moment, before remarking 'Platform nine and three quarters? Well, it's not the weirdest thing I've seen. Remind me to introduce you to a Great Fairy sometime, they get sluttier looking with age… but no, I haven't the faintest idea where it might actually be, save for saying somewhere midway between platforms nine and ten, as unhelpful as that actually is.'
'Didn't your mother say?' Harry wondered as he began pushing his trolley towards the indicated platforms.
'My mother may not have been aware of this entrance to the platform, as she was usually within your father's shadow, not your mother's, meaning she would likely have been brought to the platform via an alternative magic-user only entry point.'
A short time later, Midna called a halt to their progress and told Harry to pull his trolley off to the side and just wait. 'What's up?'
'Someone from a bit of a ways off was just yelling about muggles. I didn't catch anything else as they were too far away for me to hear properly, but that is precisely the wrong thing to be yelling at such a volume in the mundane half of the station if you want to avoid breaching the statute of secrecy,' Midna exclaimed.
The two then watched, Midna through Harry's eyes, as a family of redheads made there way to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. The matriarch of this family was repeatedly shouting about muggles and how packed the station was with them, all while asking the young girl holding her hand where to find the platform.
'Okay, I have to say, even Vernon is not in danger of being this stupid,' Midna remarked.
Harry rolled his eyes, and remarked, 'What makes you say that?'
'How many children do you see in that group?'
'Five, why?'
Midna gave the indication she was nodding, 'So, not counting that woman's own time at Hogwarts, and assuming she uses this entry point by default, how likely is it she has forgotten how to get onto the platform?'
Harry considered that before saying, 'What makes you think she uses this entry point by default?'
'Because if she doesn't use this entry point by default, then she is here with some ulterior motive in mind.' Midna remarked, 'Best to let them just move past the barrier and then follow through a few minutes later.'
As they watched, the twin redheads taunted their mother and dashed through the brick wall that was apparently some manner of portal, their elder brother dashing through mere moments before. 'Harry take note of those two, they may be useful allies even if not in the same house with you. In just the space of that short interaction they reminded me of my mother's stories regarding your father, just less idiotic.'
When the last of the children save the little girl were through, the matriarch cast her gaze over the crowd with a worried expression on her face, while the girl tugged on her sleeve, "Where's Harry, mum! You promised!"
That had Harry's eyes widening in shock from where he was standing, Midna had been using her powers to conceal him in shadows created by a nearby and conveniently placed awning, so he had heard every word the family of redheads had said. The realization that they were there to introduce the young girl to him, was tearing at his heart, but Midna was having none of it, 'Just because the girl seems to be sincere and honest in her interest in meeting you, that does not mean it would have been a good idea to approach them, Harry.'
As if to prove that fact the matriarch said, "Come along, Ginny, we have to see your brothers off at the very least. I'll be sure to let the Headmaster know he missed the train, you needn't worry."
"But…" that was all the girl, Ginny, got to say as her mother all but dragged her through the barrier.
'Worst parent, EVER!' Midna exclaimed as she and Harry made their own trip past the barrier.
After making it onto the platform, Harry let loose a low whistle, 'Something tells me the very existence of this train is the mother of all breaches of the statute of secrecy.'
'Boy you aren't kidding,' Midna muttered into his thoughts as he made his way across the platform and levered himself onto the train with his trunk being lifted up to him by one of Midna's shadows, not that anyone would notice unless they had incredibly good eyes and were looking directly at the pair. Hedwig, who Midna had named, was quickly brought aboard after grabbing her from off the trolley.
About five minutes later, Harry was happily sitting in a compartment reading a copy of Dune. Midna had at first been confused why he wanted to read a fictional novel, right up until he pulled a corny feminine voice and dictated one of the most famous introductory monologues in the history of science fiction. He had of course managed to see bits of the movie from the 1980's but had not yet read the book. As weird as it seemed, the Dursley family absolutely adored science fiction, even science fiction that bordered on Science Fantasy, but could not stand anything that brought what they saw on television into the real world.
Harry had reached about half-way through the book in the weeks since he had first properly met Midna, and already the two of them were beginning to notice unsettling parallels within the community he was now entering and that which existed in the Dune novels. While Headmaster Dumbledore was hardly an emperor, the fact was he held far too many positions with significant political power, add to that the notion that if you looked at things a certain way, the Death Eaters and their leader were a lot like the Fremen and Paul Atreides during their efforts to regain control of Arakkis. Terrorists to some, heroes to others.
The question ultimately came down to being a matter of which of them was going to be the first to provoke a retaliation from the British Monarchy. For all that Harry did not like what he had thus far found out about Dumbledore, he knew the man had at least attempted to limit casualties among noncombatants in the war that ultimately robbed him of his parents.
His reading of a rather entertaining, if linguistically archaic novel was interrupted when the door of his compartment was pulled back, and the youngest boy in that family of redheads from earlier stuck his head in, looked around for a moment, and said in a plaintive tone, "Do you mind? Everywhere else is full up."
Harry shrugged and simply said, "Suit yourself."
After the ginger pulled in his trunk and stowed it, the kid promptly said, "I'm Ron by the way, Ron Weasley."
Harry glanced up at the kid for a moment, before looking back down at the book, knowing that if he wanted to deflect the kid's attempts to cozy up to someone famous, he immediately said, "Paul, Paul Arrakeen."
'Did you really just cobble together a pseudonym using the name of the protagonist of that book and the capital city of the eponymous planet?' Midna questioned.
'Yes,' Harry supplied.
'You are very lucky the kid is clearly a Pure-Blood, otherwise the fact you have the cover of that book on display to him would have given you away,' Midna chided. 'As it is that pseudonym will only get you past those pure-bloods who know jack all about their own genealogy.'
When Harry was about to return to his book, the redhead promptly opened his mouth and said, "This is Scabbers by the way. Fred and George gave me a spell that'll turn him yellow…"
"Would you please be quiet and let me read?" Harry stated in agitation.
"But we aren't at Hogwarts yet, why are you already reading a textbook?" the idiot protested in confusion.
"This isn't a textbook, it is a novel," Harry stated in a bland tone.
"What's a nuvul?" the idiot questioned.
It was about this moment that the compartment door slid open and a cute girl in a rather old fashioned casual dress stuck her head in. The girl had her light brown hair tied into a French braid that was kept in a slightly messy but stylish bun, and had stunning blue eyes. She took one look at the occupants and said, "Well bollocks."
Harry looked up at the girl, and asked, "Yes?"
The girl blushed as she looked at Harry, raised an eyebrow and made a barely noticeable flick of her eyes towards the fringe that was hiding his scar. "Can my friend and I please join you in this compartment? We got to the platform later than we both would have liked and well… turns out we got excluded from the compartment we thought we were going to be allowed to join."
"Sure," Harry agreed.
The girl ducked out of th compartment, while Ron was looking at Harry as though he were out of his bloody mind. A moment later the girl entered again, this time accompanied by an absolutely annoyed looking blonde girl who also had her hair in a french braid that was tied into a bun. In fact, Harry immediately drew the conclusion that these two girls were either sisters, or at the very least within a single generation's distance from one another.
With a grin, the brunette immediately sat down next to Harry, She then promptly exclaimed "Oh look Daff, he's reading your favorite book, you both must have so much in common!"
The blonde seemed not to have heard it as she was glaring at the boy she was clearly expected to sit next to. However she jumped when Harry began quoting…
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings about total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me…"
The blonde immediately picked up the quote from there with a bemused grin.
"And when it has gone past I will turn my inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing."
As a single unified voice both Harry and the blonde finished the quote together "Only I will remain."
Ron immediately exclaimed, "The ruddy hell was that?"
"One of the most famous quotes in modern science fiction…" Harry stated, "Well immediately after 'Live Long and Prosper' and 'May the Force be With You' I suppose."
He then tilted his head to the side, "I do find myself confused that two Pure-Bloods are aware of Dune enough for one of them to join me in quoting it."
"Paul, why did you let these two join us?"
The blonde raised an eyebrow, "Paul?"
"Yeah, this is Paul Arak… sorry I can't pronounce it," Ron replied as he blushed.
The blonde turned her attention to Harry as she commented, "Is he trying to say Arrakis or Arrakeen?"
Harry sighed and said, "Well I suppose that pseudonym has failed spectacularly. And I chose Arrakeen because it was only marginally less recognizable than Arrakis would have been."
"Your bad luck for running into the one Pure-Blood Princess that actually enjoys science fiction novels," the brunette remarked.
Harry turned his attention to the brunette, "Aren't you also…"
"You are lucky I am such a nice girl, bright eyes. Otherwise I would have slapped you for asking about my blood status in such an open manner,"
"You are also unlucky in that I am not a nice girl," the blonde remarked, "Glacius!"
A bolt of blue energy promptly shot towards Harry's bits, only for a field of black energy to appear in its path and intercept it. The blonde blinked, "What the?"
"Wandless magic before we even reach Hogwarts?" the brunette exclaimed in awe. Ron however was staring at him as if he found a new god.
Harry rolled his eyes at their reactions. He wasn't about to tell him that had been Midna protecting her interests, even if he was still blushing up a storm whenever she brought that topic up. However he did say, "Try not to repeat that stunt, Daff…"
"Don't call me that or I will. I haven't given you permission to use my given name much less an affectionate nickname derived from it. To you I am Heiress Greengrass. That goes for you too, Weasley, you aren't even really in line for your family headship after all the brothers you have."
Harry tilted his head to the brunette, "And you are?"
"My name is Tracey Davis, but in reality I am Daphne's paternal half-sister. We have a younger sister who isn't old enough for Hogwarts yet."
"They're snakes!" Ron exclaimed in shock and revulsion.
"What houses our parents were in has little bearing on what house we ourselves will end up in. But yes, we both intend on being sorted to Slytherin," the brunette replied. She then smirked and remarked, "In fact if you go far enough back into history, snakes used to be one of the most sacred animals you could find."
While Ron was proving to be highly suspicious of the two girls, he also seemed to know better than to push his luck after Harry displayed his magic. The rest of the train ride passed in a bit more peace, with Tracey actually leaning her head on Harry's shoulder so she could read his book at the same time he was in the act of doing that very thing himself. Harry was just glad Midna had taken the time to get him used to being touched by someone that didn't mean him any harm prior to their return to Hogwarts.
Tracey's eyes flicked over to her sister, and sought out confirmation that her sister was comfortable with her being affectionate with the boy. Daphne merely gave a half-shrug and turned to stare out the window she had somehow managed to get herself seated next to. That expression coming from Daphne was a glowing endorsement.
Inside the confines of Harry's mind he consulted his partner, 'Midna, what are your thoughts?'
'The blonde, Daphne, was being overly vicious in her efforts to avenge something you said due to our mutual ignorance of proper conversation protocols in this society. However, I became hyper alert the instant Tracey expressed displeasure when she saw ginger over there in the compartment but asked to join us anyways.'
'Yes thank you for blocking that spell, though, I do believe I will deserve to be hexed by one or both of them when they finally learn about your existence, presuming we ever decide to tell them.'
Midna gave what seemed to be a snort of amusement, and said 'Moving on. Tracey seems to be a nice enough young lady, but it is clear she defers to Daphne. If something ever forced her to choose between you or her sister, she would very likely choose her sister, regardless of her personal opinion on the matter.'
'So that is a no on befriending them?'
Midna seemed to sigh, 'I wasn't finished. Given that Daphne introduced herself to you as 'Heiress Greengrass' and we only later learned her given name by being informed of it by Tracey, while on the other hand Tracey introduced herself by her full name, it is safe to assume from their reactions that Tracey is not a pure-blood and that fact isn't widely known. That fact alone explains why having her blood status questioned in such an 'open manner' would result in an overly zealous response. Daphne is likely the only thing standing between her sister and some idiotic arsehole trying to have his way with her.'
xXx Chapter Concluded xXx
Author's Note 1: I present my first major deviation from the canonical plot. Also, anyone who figures out what I did with Daphne and Tracey before/if I manage reveal the full majesty of it, gets a cookie… My beta's are of course forbidden from offering guesses due to the fact that they already know.
Author's Note 2: Before anyone thinks of asking to adopt this story from me, please note that Quatermass has already informed me he is interested in writing a similar story, so I am not allowing anyone to adopt this story until he decides whether or not he is writing his own version of this story. If you or anyone else wants this story, please consult with him first.