Cousins Adjusting
Harry Potter is adopted by Helen and Jake Morgendorffer from MTV Viacom's Daria cartoon series instead of being placed on Vernon and Petunia Dursley's doorstep.
DISCLAIMER: The world of Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling, Wizarding World and Warner Brothers: I don't own any of it. Daria is the creation of Glen Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. I don't own Daria either.
Harry Potter Morgendorffer*Harry Potter Morgendorffer*Harry Potter Morgendorffer
It took several weeks, but Daria thought she was beginning to adjust to the fact that she was a witch. She didn't think that she was a powerful witch, at least not yet. But she was aware that she had the ability to perform magic, even if she hadn't cast any spells yet.
The support group helped—some. The kids were a mix of half-blood and Mundie-born wizards and witches, although the girls outnumbered the guys. They might all have had magic, but the other common denominator was that they'd been raised in non-magical households. But that didn't mean that Daria liked everyone or was willing to go out of her way to be friends with them. She disliked Corker and Pugh: she thought they were snobs. She'd given Poe's bunch a nickname: the Two Bs. The rest of them she was either OK with or merely felt neutral.
If Daria disliked the Two Bs, they returned the favor. They thought she was plain-looking, despite her auburn hair and green eyes. They didn't like the way she dressed, either: Daria dressed for practicality, not to make a fashion statement. They also thought that Daria only had magic because she was HJ's cousin, not because it was innate within her. Because Daria's magic appeared later than theirs, they also decided that she was a weak witch and would never amount to much.
On the other hand, she liked Iphigenia. If Iphigenia was more social than she was, she wasn't a status-seeker and didn't care about being popular. She was who she was and if you didn't like it, too bad. Daria didn't care that much about Iphigenia's musical taste, though: Daria doubted that she'd ever be an opera fan. Still, the company was worth it.
If Daria had difficulty making friends in the support group, she found that she was bonding better with the witches she'd already known before seeing Healer Hillier. Karen Sanger was delighted to learn that Daria was a witch and started loaning her books about the American wizarding world and about wizarding culture.
Daria didn't get along so well with the guys. Her main problem with them was that they were guys. There were exceptions: HJ and Bobby, but they were the only guys in her support group. There were other young wizards: Daria met them at a couple of mixers she'd been forced to go to. The problem with most young wizards in her part of Texas was that was that they'd been members of the Central Texas wizarding community practically since birth and they already knew each other. They'd had a wealth of experiences that she hadn't shared and she wasn't very good at inserting herself in old, established circles. Despite the fact that the MACUSA did know of HJ, her household hadn't really been a part of the Central Texas wizarding community. Her parents had chosen to keep a certain distance out of respect for HJ's privacy and because they'd thought that neither she nor Quinn were magical.
HJ, on the other hand, was doing better, but not that much better. While he was more social than his cousin, there weren't that many wizards near his age. The young wizards he'd met were several years older than he was or several years younger. Aunt Helen's old friend Jillian did have a son, but Russell was three years older than he was. There was also supposed to be a Sanger cousin two years older but they hadn't met.
There was also the elephant in the room: while he thought of himself as HJ Morgendorffer, he was also quite aware that he was also Harry Potter. HJ wasn't sure he liked being Harry Potter and he wasn't that sure who Harry Potter was. He'd found and read a history of the last days of his birth family, then put it down. He'd also been gifted with a couple of those God-awful Harry Potter adventure books: he hated them and he hated the assumptions. He had a family, he'd made friends, he'd formed an identity as HJ Morgendorffer and he wasn't sure that he wanted to give up his life and his friends to become that Harry Potter guy. Harry Potter, who the Hell was he? It looked like he'd find out at Hogwarts, like it or not.
Author's note: Daria Morgendorffer and Harry Potter (aka Harry Potter) do not live in Highland. They live in an imaginary Austin suburb called Ruskin, Texas. Save yourself some time and bother and don't go looking for Beavis and Butthead in this story. They aren't here.