Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Ever write something and then realize that you misremembered the prompt that you were aiming for? Yeah, well, enjoy this fic anyway, because that's what happened.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Quidditch League (Post S10); Hogwarts 2.0 (Term 01); RAVEN (2023); MC4A (Fa-Y6)
Individual Challenges: Red Instead; Death Becomes; Quaffles (Y); Bludgers (Y); Pet Food (Y); Me Matey; Goblet Flames; Vegetable Broth; Gift Wrapped; Heroic Shadow; Polygon; Sap Bath; Colors of the Sky; Gryffindor MC; Magical MC; Sandbox (Y); Reader; Cinematic; Gamer; Dreamers; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Exchange; Greatest Gift; Green Ribbon; Two Cakes (Y); Salt Wrench; 3rd Rule; Bi Bi Bi; Claimed; Lovely Triangle; Ship Sails; Outer; Lunar Era; Rainbow Connection; Finders; Gender Bender; Hold the Mayo
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Assignment: Term 01-01
Subject [Task (Prompt)]: Drama [Task#4: Write about a drastic change in a family's dynamic.]
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Gather [Warlock](Harry Potter); Case [Mooncalf (F)](Lemon); Web (Harry/Blaise/Pansy)[Extra STR Arachnid Needles (Ivory)]
Post Season QL Challenges: ProM [August] (No Dialogue)
RAVEN Challenges: Colors [101](Ocean); Items [12](Bolt of Fabric); Settings [75](Holiday)
Other MC4A Challenges: FaB [5A](Yellow); Set [5B](London); Ship (Heroic Shadow)[SuMic2 (Blue; Orange; Red; Yellow); FaMed1 (Gender Bend); 3B (Gender Bend)]; Chim [Wintervine]("Bonfire Hearts" – James Blunt; Turned Left Instead AU; Race Bend); Hunt [Fa WD (Genderfluid); Fa Set (Tense); Fa Con (Nail Polish); Fa Items (Candle)]; Fire (World View); Garden [Blaise of Glory (Snowy); Rainbow (Orange); Bargain Beans (Sea Turtle); Scope (Desi); Herbs (Spotted); Forecast (Cold)]; TWT [GF Harry Potter; Post-War Era; Task#1 (Harry Potter)]; Harvest [A&B (Hiding; Shopping); AU (Turned Left Instead); Characters (Desi; Race Bent); Descriptions (Lemon Yellow; Ocean Blue); Fandoms (HPverse); Ships (Triad); Settings (Consignment Shop)]; Hang [Phrase 1](n/a); Soup [DRYAD]
Representation(s): Desi & Fem Harry Potter/Pansy Parkinson/Blaise Zabini; Harry Raises Teddy; Post War; Polynesian Pansy Parkinson; Growing Apart from Childhood Found Family & Finding a New One; Yule Shopping
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Corvid Brain; Turtle-Duck; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Found Family; Nontradional; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Car in a Tutu; Three's Company; Lovely Coconuts); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicor; Wind Beneath; Abandoned Ship; Surprise!); Demo 1 (Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Easy Zephyr; Lettuce Hold Hands; Suddenly Audrey); Demo 2 (Forked Path; Some Beach; Hot Stuff; Jack's Jollies; Strange Potatoes)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Tether); SN (Rail; Ameliorate); LiCK (Poppy; Narcissus; Tansy); FR (Satisfaction; Evolution); O3 (Oust); SS (Schooner; Shadow); War (Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); TY (Enfant); Mea (Ennui)
Word Count: 1231 words
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Secret Shopping
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Harini tugged her lemon yellow hoodie down farther over her face when she spotted Ron and Hermione on the other side of the busy street. She had only stepped away from Blaise and Pansy for a brief trip to pick up a gift for Pansy. Blaise had kept Teddy with him and Pansy for the separation. Pansy had already done both of her side trips while Blaise had only done one of them, not that he had mentioned which of his partners it was for. It took a bit of juggling to do their holiday shopping together, but ultimately, they had decided that it would be simply easier to schedule.
It wasn't that the three of them were hiding that they were dating and had been for the last six months. Most of their friends and family already knew. Harini had been meaning to tell Ron and Hermione, especially when it became obvious that Blaise and Pansy were sticking around. She really had. It just hadn't seemed like the sort of thing to just put in a letter, and they hadn't met up since before the relationship had started.
But since the war had ended, Harini's life had been very hectic. Those first few months, she had barely been aware if she was coming or going. Even with Andromeda's help, suddenly becoming a single parent to a newborn was hard. Then there had been discovering the extent of her inheritance, something she should have been being trained for since childhood.
In the end, the Golden Trio had drifted apart. Hermione wrote every week without fail, but her letters were always variations of the same lecture about the importance of education. Harini rarely bothered writing back. Instead of following Hermione back to school, Ron had taken advantage of Shacklebolt's waiving the entrance requirements to the Auror Academy. As far as Harini knew, he was struggling to keep up with the coursework but still hanging in there. The real issue was his temper. Cadets in their first year were expected to do a lot of the drudgework. Ron had never been good at handling the boring minutia that went into things.
Meanwhile, Harini had been scrambling to catch up with her new responsibilities as a parent and the head of multiple noble houses. Returning to Hogwarts as a student hadn't been required, and earning NEWTs hadn't been necessary for the future she had been redirected towards. So she had opted to not go back. Hermione hadn't been pleased with that decision any more than Mrs. Weasley had been.
Harini had met Pansy when the woman had walked in behind the solicitor handling the absolute mess that was the Potter and Black estates. She had stolen Harini's breath away with how good she had looked in her blood red pants suit. Pansy had just started her apprenticeship with the older wix. They had ended up spending a lot of time together both with and without the solicitor.
In the end, it had been Pansy who had suggested Harini take Teddy to reading hour at the library of magic. Being the newest apprentice to the institution, Blaise had been assigned the role of reader in addition to his more archival tasks. Teddy had instantly developed a fascination with the wizard.
Somewhere along the line, the three of them had ended up going on more and more outings that were more date-like than business. Pansy had been the one who prompted them to actually talk about what they were doing. She always was ruthlessly practical like that. But it helped cut through Harini's anxiety about potentially asking for too much and Blaise's tendency to handle things in stoic silence.
Now it had been several months since Harini had last spoken with either of the people that had been her best friends. If they spotted her, Harini just knew that it would devolve into a confrontation right there in the middle of the street. Harini was enjoying how no one paid attention to her now. She didn't want to suddenly be the center of attention because her friends hadn't learned how to not be suspicious.
She especially didn't want Ron and Hermione to find out about Blaise and Pansy because they had rushed to defend her. There were probably worse ways for them to find out, but Harini couldn't think of one at the moment. She was only thankful that Ron and Hermione were not actively looking for her.
Harini was also thankful that the pair didn't seem to have Ginny or Mrs. Weasley with them. Ginny had always given Colin Creevey a run for his money on who was the most devoted fan of the Girl-Who-Lived. She had also taken Harini saving her during the whole Chamber of Secret debacle as a sign that she was meant to be one of Harini's best friends instead of Harini already being best friends with Ginny's brothers. It made sharing a room whenever Harini visited the Burrow very uncomfortable.
Similarly, Mrs. Weasley had a tendency to act like those few visits along with Harini's friendship with Ron and the twins meant that the older witch had some kind of special authority in Harini's life. She had even argued against Sirius' actual authority, because he had spent most of Harini's life in prison for a crime that he hadn't committed nor had he gotten a trial for. After Harini had gotten custody of Teddy, Mrs. Weasley had been full of advice on how to take care of him. Most of that advice had probably been well-intentioned, but there were some that left a bitter taste in Harini's mouth just thinking about.
Maybe she was going to spoil Teddy, like Mrs. Weasley had warned, but there was just no way that Harini would ever be comfortable with just leaving the infant to cry. It reminded her too much of the countless lonely hours that she had spent locked in her cupboard or later in Dudley's second bedroom. She couldn't do that to any child under her protection. If Teddy ended up spoiled because of that, so be it.
Harini ducked into the small consignment store she had been headed towards when she had spotted Ron and Hermione. She only hoped that they still had the bolt of linen that she had spotted last time she had visited the shop. It was a beautifully rich ocean blue with streaks of ivory white making waves. Scattered across the sea were sea turtles of various shades of orange from bright apricot to a burnt orange so dark it was almost brown. It would be perfect to make a sarong for Pansy, one long enough to tie in the dress style that the witch preferred and so hard to find here in Britain.
As luck would have it, the fabric was still there in between a rack of different colored nail varnishes and another rack of scented votives. Harini grinned as she gathered it up and took it to the register. This may be the first Yule that Harini could remember celebrating, but she had a feeling that it was definitely going to be one to remember. She couldn't wait to spend it with her new little family, even more than she had ever looked forward to the day with any of the families she had been with before.
It was going to be great.