This is my 100th posted chapter for The Cauldron...well, counting the foreword and the news bulletin. This is my longest posted fiction at nearly 300K words as of writing (July 24 2017), even if it's a compilation (or anthology if you prefer). So...party?
Nah.
Anyway, I should clear this up: this story isn't based on any one comics continuity, so Kori's Starbolts, instead of being the result of experiments performed upon her, are actually innate to all Tamaraneans, closer to (I think) the cartoon show. I'll make this clearer in the finished fic. I'm glad people like this more than the original. It feels better.
Incidentally, I've decided, after some soul-searching, to post Flock Off! as a full fic. I had gone off it initially, as I had already done a more humorous Sekirei crossover story told from the first person in my Sekirei/Pirates of the Caribbean crossover Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, An Ashikabi's Life for Me (plug, plug), but I eventually decided to go ahead and post it. It won't be posted for some time yet, though, but keep an eye on my profile.
PER VOLA SU NATA (REVISED)
CHAPTER 2:
AFFIANCED
Harry struggled to remember what he could about Starfire. Orange skin, green eyes with green sclera, red hair, tended to dress a little skimpily. Like, she wore a figure-hugging long-sleeved top in purple, short shorts of the same colour, and bared her midriff(1). Oh, and she was what some of the boys in Gryffindor would call 'smoking hot'. So she ticked the 'looks' box, though no long term relationship was built on looks alone, obviously. And he didn't know enough about her personality to make much of a judgement.
What about powers? So he knew what to expect from his own, anyway Well, there was flight, and energy blasts, like those he just used. Strength as well, nowhere near as strong as Superman or Supergirl, but still…
"Hermione, do you know anything more about Starfire?" Harry asked.
"I do. I'm a bit of a fan of the Titans. Starfire's actually one of the ones we know more about. Her real name is Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, though she's been deposed by her older sister, Komand'r, so the title doesn't mean much. 'Starfire' is actually what 'Koriand'r' translates into in English. She escaped to Earth about a year ago, and joined the Titans. There've been rumours that she and Robin are an item, but apparently both have denied that. Hopefully their denials are sincere, because, well, it's going to be awkward to say the least, otherwise."
"Is this contract wholly binding? Like, I'm not going to have to go through with it if it doesn't work out?" Harry asked.
"No," Sirius said. "I think the plan was for you two to get to know each other anyway, and if severed before actual marriage, the only thing that would be paid is compensation from the Potter family vault. So while binding, it's not like the Tri-Wizard Tournament. But we're here anyway. We're currently in Jump City, at one of my family's lesser-known properties."
"It's better than that awful home at…" Hermione frowned. "I forgot about the Fidelius. But it's better than that place."
"That's because it was bought and maintained by one of the more open-minded members of the Blacks," Sirius said. "Anyway, we should be getting visitors before long…"
It was rare for owl post to come to the Titans Tower, even given their liaising with MACUSA. Rachel was usually the one who brought it in, with the wards she developed diverting any magical mail to a box she devised, one that would strip almost any known curse from the mail. She had tried marketing it to the wizards, but as much of the magic she used was demonic, they refused. Even though, for once, the demonic magic was actually being used against dark magic.
She frowned when she fished the letter from the box. It was definitely a Gringotts letter, which wasn't unusual: Rachel had correspondence with them herself, and they at least accepted the curse-stripping postbox. No, what was unusual was the recipient. It was addressed to Princess Koriand'r. And the thing was, Kori had barely any correspondence with the magicals. Okay, that was partly because she had only arrived on Earth relatively recently, but also because not many of the Titans had regular correspondence with the local magicals. Rachel got some, as did Dick (who actually got hired occasionally by the local Aurors to help with physical self-defence techniques) and Garfield (who sometimes got to meet magical creatures, much to his delight, as it meant more forms for him to change into), but Kori?
Rachel quickly scanned the letter for any curse residue, but couldn't find any. So she decided to take it to Kori.
She found Kori in the training room, flying around, firing screeching blasts of energy from her hands at the targets. Starbolts, Rachel recalled. Concentrated jets of light, converted from the ultraviolet radiation that Tamaraneans absorbed. "Kori!" Rachel called out. When Kori looked at her, Rachel waved her letter.
Kori eagerly swooped down, and landed, plucking the letter from Rachel's hands. "Thank you, Rachel. Though it's odd that I have a letter that is not from an admirer. This seems to be more official." She opened it, and read. Rachel didn't need her empathic abilities to tell Kori was going through a gamut of emotions, a flood of conflicting feelings.
Eventually, Kori murmured something in her native language. Then, in English, she murmured, "So he is still alive. My mother feared the worst, but she couldn't leave her duties to find him, so I did not think to look for him…"
"What's wrong?" Rachel asked.
Kori looked up at her, before saying, "Rachel, I am betrothed."
"Betrothed?"
"Yes. To the last of the Astur line, Harin. But he has a human name, Harry Potter."
Rachel blinked in surprise. "Did you say…Harry Potter?"
"Indeed I did, Rachel. Why? Does the name sound familiar to you?"
Rachel frowned. Well, she frequently frowned, but her habitual frown deepened. Could it be the same Harry Potter? "May I?" she said, indicating the letter.
Kori handed it over, and Rachel pored over it. It was a letter sent by Sirius Black, of all people, though he plead his innocence, and asked that, if they wanted, they bring someone capable of Legilimency. So, they'd have to take M'gann. Always assuming it wasn't a trap. Then again, there were things that didn't add up about that whole debacle with Sirius Black fifteen years ago.
So, unless this was some elaborate trap (and Rachel couldn't dismiss the possibility: Batman, while training them, had drilled them about being cautious to the point of near-paranoia), this really was about Harry Potter. Which meant she had a lot of explaining to do. And she needed to get Dick and M'gann on this at the very least…
Dick was surprised and a little angry at the fact that Kori had been betrothed. He and Kori had…well, they denied it was a romantic relationship, or at least they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but there was something there. But Rachel also could see that jealousy was only a small part of Dick's reaction: Batman's protégé was protective of his comrades, and he was worried for Kori's safety. M'gann was just curious.
Rachel delivered what she knew about Harry Potter and Sirius Black. Dick pondered what he had learned. He probably sympathised with Harry a little now: he himself was an orphan, as was his mentor. "So, Kori is now betrothed to a part-Tamaranean, someone who is also one of the most famous wizards in the world?"
Rachel nodded. "I have followed his exploits in imported copies of The Daily Prophet, though articles from that, you have to take with more than a pinch of salt. Magical Britain has little in the way of libel laws, and they don't care much for No-Maj laws either."
"We know that already, dealing with MACUSA," Dick muttered. "If Sirius Black is innocent, why haven't they tried to exonerate him?"
"Public sentiment is firmly against him. Even if Harry tried to exonerate Black publicly, it would be futile. Skilled wizards can fool Veritaserum and Legilimency, and in any case, the current Minister has issued a Kiss on Sight order. And that means a Kiss from a Dementor, a creature that sucks out souls, leaving the body little more than a drooling vegetable. I think Black is taking advantage of this whole situation to try and claim asylum either with us or the Justice League. Probably the latter, but he's contacted us first because of Harry's betrothal to Kori."
"This still seems like it could get messy," M'gann said. "Even if Black is on the level, having a known fugitive from Magical Britain would spark an uproar both there and in the MACUSA. It's bad enough they treat Kori and I like things, not to mention Garfield and Connor. And that's without mentioning the mess Kara caused when she first arrived."
"They'd treat me even worse if they knew of my lineage, M'gann," Rachel said pointedly. "The moment they learn I am Trigon's daughter, they'll probably try to kill or capture me. As it is, they just think I am a native of Azarath…which is partly true. And that's bad enough."
"What do we know about his character?" Dick asked.
"Nothing remotely objective," Rachel said. "Using The Daily Prophet as a basis is just asking for trouble: at the moment, they're running a smear campaign against him, claiming him to be a delusional attention seeker for claiming that Voldemort's back from the dead. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Voldemort did come back, and Minister Fudge is just in denial, not helped by the bribes he gets from the richer families, many of whom are sympathetic to Voldemort's cause. We'd have to meet him. That being said, to manage what he did during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, he must be somewhat brave. He did, after all, face off against a dragon."
M'gann shuddered at the thought. Dragons, after all, could breathe fire, and Martians were pyrophobes. "Still, he is a celebrity," she pointed out. "He could have this sense of entitlement."
"One who was apparently kept unaware of his status until he went to Hogwarts," Rachel pointed out. "My thought was, we use Meeting Plan Gamma."
Dick nodded approvingly. That plan meant a small but diverse group goes to the meeting, but notified the other Titans. If the first group don't get in contact with them by a certain time, the others come to the rescue. It was used for meetings with unknowns who may or may not be a threat. It might be paranoid, but they needed to be sure.
"Well then," Kori said, trying to look like her usual cheerful self, "shall we go?"
Harry was feeling nervous, to say the least, as he waited in the atrium. If the Titans had received the letter Sirius had sent them, then they should be coming here any moment. Harry had showered, changed his clothes (and had had Hermione and Remus fussing over him to smarten himself up like mother hens…which put him disturbingly in mind of Molly Weasley), and now, here he was, waiting for his betrothed.
Betrothed. Harry was going to be married to an alien princess. A deposed one, true, but a bloody princess. And if that weren't surreal enough, said princess was also a superhero, one of the Teen Titans! Oh, and Harry was an alien too, or at least part. Enough that he would stand out more than he did already.
Sirius and Remus had been worried about that strange apparition that had emerged from Harry's scar as his appearance changed back, though. Apparently, it looked like a smoky wraith with Voldemort's face, and Remus was researching it in this house's library. Still, his scar had faded significantly, so that was a bonus.
But still…this was all a bit sudden, to say the least. And he had to wonder how Koriand'r would take it. She would probably be apprehensive too.
He felt a faint tickle in his mind briefly. Then, not long afterwards, there was a knock on the door. Sirius went to answer it, and opened the door. "Good afternoon," he said. "Welcome to the pied-à-terre of the Black family. Thanks for coming on short notice."
"It affects one of our own," came the voice of a boy about Harry's age. "M'gann's already scanned the minds of those here. In any case, good afternoon to you as well. Can we come in?"
Sirius nodded, and let in a quartet of teenagers, all fairly diverse and strange-looking. At their head was the boy who had spoken, the sole boy, dark-haired, wearing an eyemask of some kind. He was wearing a red uniform with the letter 'R' emblazoned in his breast, with green trousers and a black cape with yellow lining. Harry recognised him instantly as Robin, the protégé of Batman.
The first girl to come in wore a white shirt, a cape, and a blue skirt. Her exposed skin was green, and her hair red. She was actually kind of cute. Harry was sure that this was the one who was a female version of the Martian Manhunter.
The second was wearing a dark blue hooded cloak over what looked like a black leotard. The hood was being pulled down, revealing the solemn, stoic face of a girl whose pensive features were framed by a short bob of dark purple hair. Her eyes were violet, and her skin was pale grey. Harry knew this was Raven.
And then…there she was. Looking uncharacteristically nervous, and understandably so. He had to admit, she was more beautiful in person than he had imagined, even from the few images he had seen of her. Which made him feel somewhat inadequate, to say the least. Even while nervous, she seemed to have, paradoxically, a confidence that radiated out.
Harry walked over to her, and put his hand out. "Good afternoon, Princess Koriand'r. I'm Harry Potter," he said, in as tactful and calm a tone as he could manage. "I'm grateful to you for coming here. This has been as much a surprise to me as it must have been for you."
After a moment, she took his hand (and how comfortingly warm it felt), and gave him a smile. "Yes, it has. And please, call me Kori."
Well, it was a start. No fights, no arguments, no battles to the death. Harry just had to hope his luck would last…
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
So, Harry and Kori have met, and it's not too bad so far. Time will tell, though.
1. This is Starfire's costume from the New 52…well, when she got her own series recently. I'm thinking of the one where she goes to Florida for a seachange. I wanted something a bit more modest than her first New 52 costume, or the sling bikini with accessories she wore before then, but I also wanted to show her wearing something different to what she wears in the cartoon.
