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. There is referenced torture (none onscreen) and onscreen violence that culminates in multiple character deaths (none of the protagonists). And Umbridge is her own warning. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Tell me to write "space pirates" and my mind slips right towards Firefly. Don't mind me. Though Blaise isn't nearly as angsty as Mal is. Not that any knowledge of the show is really needed for this fusion. It can be read as just a nice little "in space" fic, but if you understand some of the stuff being referenced, you will probably enjoy it more.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 14); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Criminal MC (x8); Neurodivergent (x3); Rian-Russo Inversion (x6); Ethnic & Present (x3); Hold the Mayo; The 3rd Rule; Lovely Triangle; Ship Sails; Setting Sail; Morlock Era; Old Shoes (Y); Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 14 – Assignment 02
Subject (Task No.): Alchemy (Task#4: Write about a female being underestimated in a situation where she proves the person wrong.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [105](Witnessing someone's death); 365 Prompts [232](Space AU); Scavenger Hunt [85](Space AU); Days of the Year [Feb 27th](someone who looks cute but is deadly); Colours [03](Emerald); Crystals & Gemstones [03](Protecting something/someone); Slytherin Characters [12](Delores Umbridge); But Can You Spell It? [U](Underestimated); Stop! Hamper Time (Jams)[Peach Preserves]("Peaches" - In the Valley Below); You Get My Love (Love Languages)[05](Playing with someone's hair); Would You Rather (08)[Mutual Pining];Fantasy February (03)[Space Pirates]; Gwen's Candy Shop [Bowl 3](Desi Character); That Lovin' Feeling [List 1](07)[First Anniversary]
Other MC4A Challenges: FaB [2A](Leaves); Set [3A](Space); WiB [5B](On a Plane); Vocab [1D](Operation); Ship (Heroic Shadow)[Fa Micro 1](Fusion with Another Fandom AU); Fire [Hard](The Future); Chim [Karma](Gender Bend); TWT (NB Luna Lovegood; Future)[Task 3](Gray); Hangman [04](Neurodivergent); Hunt [Fa Items](Needle); Garden [So Many Fandoms](Harry Potter)/[Interstellar](Space Station)/[Family Dynamics](Found Family)/[Garden Tools](Sundress);
Representation(s): Desi Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini; Always a Girl Harry Potter; Background Daphne Greengrass/Tracey Davis/Luna Lovegood; Firefly Fusion; Academy Students Harry Potter & Luna Lovegood;
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Misshapen Pods; Second Verse (Bechdel Test; Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Mother Hen; Nightingale; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Car in a Tutu; Clio's Conclusion; Three's Company; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Muck & Slime; Rock of Ages; Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench; Surprise!; Infinity; Turtle-Duck; Call Me Dantes; Sitting Hummingbird; Getting On; Hot Stuff)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3(Toad); SN(Rail); LiCK(Poppy; Amaranth; Narcissus; Yarrow); FR(Liberation); O3(Orator; Ox); SS(Schooner; Sanctuary); RoIL(Workstation); FIN(Ensanguine; Brae); AD(Association; Archery); War(Orator; Sanctuary); Measure(Rampant); DP(n/a); Share(Amerliorate; Augur)
Word Count: 1839 words
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Firebird
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The Peverells didn't look much like siblings.
That was the thing that had always nagged at Blaise since they had come onto his ship, bringing with them a whole sack of trouble. Not that Blaise would have really turned them away. They were fleeing Alliance control just as much the rest of his crew were.
But Daphne Greengrass who served as his second-in-command and Astoria Greengrass who served as their mechanic looked a lot more like they could be related than the Peverell siblings did. Luna Peverell looked like xe could have been another Greengrass sibling, with xyr long blond hair and long limbs. Xe even moved a bit like they tended to, as if every movement was a dance that would always end with someone getting stabbed. Xyr gray eyes tended see a lot more than anyone would give xem credit for, especially since xe tended to be even more fussy about things than Tracey (their pilot and Daphne's wife) ever was.
But then again, Blaise figured that fussiness wasn't a bad trait for a forger or a pilot to have. Luna's work was beyond compare and had gotten them out of more than a few tight spots in the year that the Peverells had been on the ship. Tracey could get their ship to things that would probably be illegal if the reason that they needed the ship to do them wasn't already illegal.
Harini, on the other hand, was different. Whereas Luna looked like the sun had bleached all color from her, Harini was dark as an ancient forest. Her skin was as brown as good, rich soil, and her wild mane of curls was the same pitch color as the Black itself. The only thing colorful about her was her emerald green eyes. Where Luna seemed to see too much, Harini often seemed to not be paying attention at all, like she was listening or seeing something else around her.
Another difference was that Luna was just as tall as the Greengrass sisters, making all three of them just slightly shorter than he was. Yet Harini was much shorter. In fact, she was smaller in general, almost waif-like in her appearance. Since she had a tendency to pilfer sweaters from the larger and broader members of the crew (such as himself and Gregory Goyle, their gunner), she often looked even smaller. (She never stole clothes from Draco Malfoy, their on-board doctor, which frustrated the man to a degree which was hilarious to the rest of them.) Tracey was the only one nearly as small as Harini and the mechanic was at least head and shoulders over her.
Of course, that small size tended to be helpful when they needed someone to get into a nook or a cranny for something. Since the Firebird was a smuggler ship, there was plenty of nooks and crannies to be had for any number of things, both legitimate and less so. Harini had a way of not only fitting into those spaces but getting there without any fuss or noise.
The one time that Goyle had actually questioned how she achieved that feat, the answer had sent shivers down Blaise's spine.
"I do not exist," she had said in a voice even flatter than the one that Tracey used when she was overly tired. Harini's green eyes had dulled as her face had lost what little expression it had had. "I do not exist therefore no power in the 'verse can stop me."
It had been a mite unsettling, but then again, most of what Harini said (when she spoke, which was rare enough already) tended to be that way. She was full of odd facts that were on the off side of right, like how fast a body could be drained of blood in a vacuum. If she was in a sharing mood, she might even list the exact amount of pressure needed to stab various items in her vicinity. It would have been more worrying if Harini would every even touch a weapon. But she wouldn't even take one that was passed to her, and none of them had the heart to force the gentle resistance from the young woman.
And there had never been any reason to even try, if the truth was told. Harini might now have a set role aboard the Firebird, but she was a member of his crew just the same. She pulled her weight enough to justify her presence, at all stages of a job and between them as well. Her presence was a bright (if morbid and creepifying at times) spot in their lives. She was their sheltered heart, never leaving the ship unless they were on a planet and even then never going where she couldn't see the ship.
So when an operative for the Alliance had captured both Blaise and Tracey while they had been out concluding a business deal, Harini was the absolute last member of his crew that he expected to arrive to negotiate their release. He was actually expecting Daphne, as his first mate and honestly the only one of their fighters who could also double as a diplomat. Maybe Goyle or Draco would have accompanied her, depending on whether she thought she would need another fighter or a medic more for the operation. He would have expected Astoria (who panicked at the sight of blood) before he would have expected Harini.
Yet there she was, still dressed in the gauzy sundress that Tracey had gotten her as a gift for the anniversary of the Peverells joining the crew, which Harini had put on immediately after opening it that morning.
"Don't," Blaise gasped in shock, already pulling at the cuffs holding his hands above his head. The pink-clad woman running this particular little op turned to look at him with her toad-like eyes. Umbridge had proven herself to be disgustingly cruel already, capable of torture while maintaining a beatific smile. Blaise couldn't stand the thought of what she would do to their gentle Harini. "Don't hurt her."
Umbridge giggled at his plea. Blaise felt his heart sink at the sound even as she turned back to the newest arrival. Without any care about how disrespectful it might be, she picked up on of Harini's curls and played with it, wrapping it around her index finger like it was a spring. Harini didn't change her expression or move away. She probably didn't register Umbridge as a threat because of her facade of sweetness. Blaise yanked on his bonds again.
"Tell me what your name is, pretty birdie," Umbridge ordered. Harini blinked as if just realizing that someone was right next to her. Umbridge tugged on the lock of hair wrapped around her finger. "Answer, or it won't be very pleasant for your friends."
"Let them go," Harini said instead of giving her name. Blaise was more frightened now than he had been during Umbridge's torture earlier. That feeling only grew when Umbridge let out another giggle.
"Oh, sweetheart," Umbridge cooed like she would to a small child, "that won't be happening. You are all mine now. I wonder if your dear captain would be more willing to tell me where your ship is if I took my knife to your pretty face instead of his body. He wasn't even this upset when I was carving designs in the pilot, and I haven't even really touched you yet. So why don't you tell me your name, pretty birdie?"
"I have no name," Harini said in the flattest voice he had ever heard from her. Everything about her seemed flat and dull. Umbridge looked vaguely confused by it, as if she was instinctively becoming unnerved and didn't quite know why. "I have no name, because I do not exist. Since I do not exist, no power in the 'verse can stop me."
Umbridge stumbled backwards from Harini as a scream echoed in the tiny space of the torture chamber. Blaise couldn't see why the toad of a woman was screaming from his angle. The two brutes that had been guarding the door since they had escorted Harini into the room immediately charged. Blaise jerked with the instinctive need to grab Harini before either man could crush her, for surely someone twice the size of the tiny woman would crush her without a second thought. And there were two of them!
"HARINI," he screamed in useless warning. Umbridge choked at the name.
The brute was crumpled on the ground before Blaise could process the twisting move that Harini had done that ended with her breaking the man's neck with her legs. The second man didn't last more than a second longer. Harini landed on the second brute's back in a kneeling position with her palms between his shoulder blades. She slowly raised her face towards them.
Her emerald eyes glowed like an animal that had been caught in the flashlight of a night patrol.
"You're a Peverell," Umbridge whimpered with the first true emotions that Blaise had heard from her. Blaise shuddered at the sound, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. Reverence shouldn't be mixed so evenly with fear. "You're the Peverell."
"I am," Harini confirmed. A wide grin grew on her face, teeth flashing white against the brown of her skin. "You have something of mine, and I will be taking them back now."
"Yes, yes, of course," Umbridge agreed without hesitation. She scrambled to her feet and began fumbling with the lock on Tracey's cuffs. Blaise could now see that the reason that Umbridge was struggling so much as due to a severely broken arm. It was the arm with the hand that had touched Harini's hair. "I'll just—"
"Nothing," Harini interrupted. Her arm came up briefly before returning to her side. Umbridge sank to her knees with a gurgle before falling over completely. A thick, gray needle like the ones that Umbridge had used on both Blaise and Tracey earlier was sticking out of the back of her thick neck. "You will not touch them again."
"Harini," Tracey sobbed next to him, breaking now that the danger had passed. She had been holding up so well, despite everything, too. "Harini, you came."
"Luna would have," Harini said as she moved delicately around the dead bodies to finish releasing them. Tracey immediately glomped onto Harini, pressing her damp face into Harini's shoulder. Harini didn't let that hamper her releasing Blaise. "She would have, but someone needed to keep the others safe."
"What just happened?" Blaise asked, still dazed at the speed at which the situation had changed. He only really understood that he had grossly underestimated how deadly Harini could be. Harini leaned up to kiss the underside of his chin before shifting Tracey into his arms.
"Family business," Harini replied simply, like it answered everything. "Carry her, will you? I may need my hands free."
Maybe, he thought as he followed Harini back to the Firebird's short-range shuttle, the lack of family resemblance wasn't unplanned.