Chapter 6 – 6th July 1988 - Morning
Harry had quite a fun time the previous night. After he took his potions, and a dinner of leftover pizza, chips, and butterbeers, Nym dragged him back upstairs to his bedroom, where, for the first time, he was making her laugh with his changes.
Nym was particularly ecstatic to teach someone else how to use the same powers she had. It seemed learning to choose a form properly and hold it was a cinch.
All it took was to imagine himself in a white room, in front of a mirror, choosing a particular look. Then, he needed to imagine that look coming out of the mirror and taking over him. All he needed for it to hold was a smile and once an upward feeling finally overcame him, it was set in stone.
Harry and Nym kept making amusing each other laugh, again missing the time, until Andromeda came in, roundabout eleven o'clock, ordering them to go to sleep.
In fact, she sounded like a part of her regretted letting Nym teach Harry the basics of morphing.
After a goodnight hug, Nym promised to show Harry her room the next day.
As he went to bed, Harry wondered why Nym hadn't kissed him on the cheek like she used to, or why he didn't do it. It seemed neither of them had thought that far yet, or they just didn't feel it yet.
Maybe Nym didn't want to take it all the way. Maybe she just wanted to be friends. If that was the case, Harry would be glad to have at least one friend in his new life.
It didn't deny him a peaceful slumber without spells or potions forcing it.
As he awoke the next morning, he heard some loud banging upon his bedroom door.
"Wakey-wakey, Harry!" Nym called. "Mum says brekkie's waiting. We're going shopping for you today, so you don't want to miss the most important meal, or your potions!"
Harry gently stretched himself awake before climbing out of bed and leaving his new room. But when he opened the door, Nym was nowhere in sight. He'd half expected Nym to barge into the room shaking him up, like Hermione usually did.
Harry let out a gasp when two arms wrapped around him from behind, an extra weight dropping upon his shoulder.
"Wotcher, Har," Nym's voice whispered cheekily.
This time, he felt her gently press a kiss against his cheek. He didn't expect it, but he had to smile to prevent himself from turning red.
"Morning, Nym," Harry exhaled with a chuckle.
She staggered a bit when she released him, mainly because she was wearing socks on a carpeted floor.
"Got to find you some stumble-free shoes, haven't we?" Harry teased.
"Very funny," Nym retorted, rolling her eyes. "Now, let's go get breakfast.
Harry gently tugged Nym to the end of the hallway and down the stairs, the last of which she still tripped upon. When he caught her by the arm, her face was the only thing even slightly red. More likely it was because she was smiling quite hard.
"What's your Mum got for us this morning?" Harry asked.
"Just something simple," Nym replied. "Eggs, Beans, and Toast. All three of my favorites… except mash."
As soon as Nym spoke, two plates of their breakfast were already waiting on the dining room table, with Harry's potions goblet. She leaned forward to pick up the two plates, flinching at the sound of her mother's voice, questioning,
"And just where do you think you're going with those?"
She dropped the plates, but Andromeda waved her wand, causing them to levitate in midair.
"We were just bringing those up to my room," Nym answered. "I reckoned Harry could look around, get some ideas for his room while we ate. You can't think on an empty stomach, can you Mum?"
"Alright," Andromeda sighed, cancelling the levitation. "But don't make a mess of the carpet and bring those back when you're finished."
"Mum, we're not eight, ten years old!" Nym cried, before turning her head back to the boy next to her.
She was about to grab Harry's hand, but he promptly snatched the two plates from her.
"I'll be taking those," he insisted, teasingly. "I don't quite expect you to keep your mum's word…"
"Oh yeah?" Nym teased back, sticking out her tongue. "Try me…"
But she tripped over the first step again, having not watched where she was going.
Harry stifled a chuckle, as he set the plates down before pulling Nym back up.
"You were saying?" He continued.
"Upstairs," Nym ordered, trying to maintain her dignity.
Harry picked the plates back up and grabbed his potions goblet, shaking his head as Nym wrapped an arm around his.
They climbed the stairs once again, but Nym tugged on Harry's sleeve when they reached her bedroom door, in all its marked glory, before pulling down the latch, swinging it wide open.
On the other side was a bed, covered in a tie-dye blanket and something ratty lying against the pillows, an old doll or a teddy bear, maybe. It rested upon a bubblegum pink, shag carpeted floor, scattered with old books, magazines, pairs of oversized boots, sweet wrappers, and empty pizza boxes.
The walls of the room were covered in posters, even larger than the ones in Ron Weasley's bedroom.
Harry liked Ron's room, but suddenly, he felt he was looking at a much more interesting one for his age.
Nym darted into her bedroom, dropping her front upon the bed, smiling up at Harry like a little child.
"Come on, Harry!" she invited.
Harry entered the bedroom, sitting himself on the floor, next to the bed, as he handed Nym her breakfast plate. He downed his potion, licking the remains off his upper lip, before helping himself to breakfast.
"I thought we were all eating together again this morning," Harry queried.
"Dad had to go back to work," Nym explained, trying to keep her beans from falling off her toast. "He's an evening wireless reporter, so he had to go over his stuff for tonight."
"Do you ever listen to him?" Harry asked.
"Not really," Nym replied. "I've got more important things to listen to on my wireless, right back there…"
She gestured behind her, to a small bedside stand, where a large yellow sphere rested with radio controls, a pull-out antenna, and a cassette slot set into it.
"That's a wireless?" Harry queried, raising an eyebrow. "I've never seen one like that!"
"It used to be dad's, back in the day," Nym explained. "When I was old enough to start Hogwarts, he had it enchanted and put in a tape player in."
"Wow…" Harry gasped. "And I thought all we had were records…"
"I've got plenty of them," Nym assured him. "Which groups do you like?"
"I don't know," Harry shrugged. "The only wizarding group I've ever heard was the Weird Sisters."
"Ooh, they're my favorite!" Nym cried, bouncing on the bed. "They just graduated from Hogwarts last year, but they've already got posters, look!"
Nym gestured to the wall on her right, which Harry noticed was plastered with more posters than the other three. Upon the largest one there were, in fact, the same long-haired, bare-chested, eye-shadowed, multi-instrument group he'd seen performing at the Yule Ball last Christmas.
Harry could hardly believe these eight music legends had only been out of Hogwarts for a short time and already had posters. Or that Nym had gone to school with them and was just a couple of years behind them.
"How have they got posters?" Harry asked. "They couldn't have printed 'em themselves?"
"They did," Nym replied. "Just like how they got their instruments. All they had to do was check the Advanced Guide to Transfiguration, Latest Edition… for the Cauldron to Guitar Spell…"
"There's a spell for that?" Harry gasped.
"There is," Nym confirmed. "And you can thank the group on their right for that…"
To the right of the Weird Sisters poster hung a smaller poster of a four-piece group, three guitarists and a drummer, in pointed boots, green neckties, and magenta suit robes covered in Gregorian patterns. Their hair was long, but their fashion sense indicated they had to be a much older group.
Especially considering their frontman, who was blonde, was wearing a pair of green cat-eye sunglasses.
They were, in fact, quite the oddest-looking rock band Harry had ever seen.
Upon the headstocks of the three guitarists' instruments, the logo read Huckabee.
At the top of their poster read The Heardles, with the 'R' attached to the 'S'.
"These were the guys who invented the Guitar to Cauldron spell?" Harry asked, running his fingertips across the poster.
"No," Nym replied. "But The Heardles did invent the Wizarding World's first version of an electric guitar and amplifier. They were Magical Britain's first-ever rock group… way back in the early sixties… so they needed something to play on…
"And the Wizarding World needed guitars to transfigure things into…"
As he was listening to all of this, Harry also heard her slide off the bed and felt her turn him towards the corner of the room.
In the corner rested a pink heart-shaped bass guitar with a spotted yellow pickguard, inline tuners, and the Huckabee logo on the headstock. It was also plugged into a lime yellow amplifier, with the Huckabee name emblazoned in gold into the speaker.
"The Huckabee Amata," Nym introduced. "That's the name of my bass model."
"Are you in a band?" Harry queried.
"No, but I'd like to… with a few friends," Nym replied, winking at him.
Harry's insight may have improved after his horcrux was removed, but he couldn't guess what her wink implied.
"Which one is Huckabee?" Harry asked, gesturing to the blonde Heardle on the poster. "Him?"
"No, that's Al Zaffer, Slytherin…" Nym explained. "He founded the group, and he created all the amplification spells for the guitars and amplifiers."
"Merlin…" Harry whispered, gazing at Zaffar's green guitar.
"And that's the name of his guitar model," Nym continued. "Huckabee's the brunette guitar player with the blue eyes; Cam Huckabee, Hufflepuff. He did all the woodwork on the instruments.
"That brown-eyed ginger on the bass, Rod O'Farrell, Gryffindor. He came up with all the guitar shapes and the color schemes.
"And the grey-eyed jethair on the drums, Enzo Boot, Ravenclaw. You can guess what he added to their look…"
She laughed on the last line, but Harry reasoned it made sense that all their instruments were their house colors. What he found peculiar was that his eyes shifted to Zaffer first, rather than O'Farrell.
Maybe it was because Zaffer's guitar matched his green eyes, or because was the only member wearing any kind of spectacles. O'Farrell, on the other hand, seemed much more Gryffindor-worthy, like he'd have fit right in with the Weasley family.
Harry couldn't believe he was thinking so much about a rock group, almost like he wanted to be in a band, or go to a few concerts. Maybe it was just because he never had time to in his past life.
Maybe he just had too many other things to worry about, like Quidditch, homework, and where his next death trap was going to be.
Speaking of Quidditch, Harry noticed Nym had a few team posters, and even some dueling team posters on her walls, including the Holyhead Harpies. He'd seen one of their posters on the walls of Ginny Weasley's room. It seemed to make sense that Nym would like them, given that their members were all female.
He reckoned he'd get his mind off a seemingly burgeoning music interest by asking Nym about these teams.
"What about…" Harry began.
But as he turned his head, he heard a loud scratch coming from another corner.
Nym had just placed a record onto a turntable and ran back to Harry, seizing his hands.
"Enough talk," Nym insisted. "Let's dance…"
An electric guitar riff, backed up by some drums, begam blaring out of a cone shaped horn attached to the record player.
Nym began swinging her arm up and down, still clutching Harry's hand with her other one, shaking her rear, and shuffling her feet across the carpet.
"This is one of their earliest hits," She shouted over the music. "You just move to it however you want… Go on!"
Harry never felt that any time in his life was worth dancing, but having fallen into Nym's good graces, he wasn't going to let her down.
He tried copying her movements as a voice, probably Al Zaffer's, sung over the music,
"I can't wait forever…
Even though you want me too…
I can't wait forever…
To know if you'll be true…
Time won't let me…
Time won't let me…
Time won't let me…
Wait that long!"
By this point in the song, Nym had let go of Harry's hand and had begun spinning in circles, thrusting her hands in the air. The song was mostly repetitive, so they just kept doing these moves over and over until the song ended.
Harry felt a little out of breath, but Nym looked exuberant enough in her eyes that she could dance to a hundred more rock songs.
Some double guitar chords indicated the start of another song as Nym begun thrusting her torso back and forth, twisting her hips.
Again, Harry followed as a three-voice harmony, possibly the three guitarists, sang,
"Lies…
Lies…
You're telling me that you'll be true…
Lies…
Lies…
That's all I ever get from you…
Tears…
Tears…
I shed a million tears for you…
Tears…
Tears…
And now, you're lovin' someone new…
Someday I'm gonna be happy,
But I don't know when to start…
Lies…
Lies are breaking my heart…"
Both songs were far less complicated than any of the Weird Sisters' songs, but they were at least fun to dance to.
But as Harry and Nym continued to dance, They did not notice the sunlight pouring in from her window, gradually increasing its intensity.
Harry and Nym kept dancing until the first side of the record was finished. When they finally stopped, Harry, at last, noticed how much heat his feet could take from anything he did. He expected Nym to move much sprightlier when she went over to change record sides. But Nym didn't even step away; Instead, the record levitated itself off the pin and flipped itself over.
"I love magic…" Harry gasped.
"Don't we all?" Nym added, clicking her tongue.
As the music began to blare again, Harry and Nym went back to dancing. By the time they reached the very last song, there was a light rapping upon the door that Harry and Nym didn't quite catch. Either the song drowned it out, or it was just the beat of the drums.
On that very last song, all three of the voices from the second song closed it out,
"And I can't see a thing 'til you open my eyes,
Can't see a thing 'til you open my eyes,
Can't see a thing 'til you open my eyes,
Can't see a thing 'til you open my eyes,
Can't see a thing 'til you open my eyes…"
As the song came to the last guitar strike, there was a loud banging upon the door.
"What's going on in there?!" the voice of Andromeda boomed as the record gave its last scratch.
The door swung open to reveal Andromeda crossing her arms, eyeing the whole scene up and down.
"I thought you both were coming up with things to decorate Harry's room with," she reminded them.
"We were," Nym insisted. "And we already have three ideas, don't we?"
Harry felt her nudge him in the hip, but when she smirked and winked at him this time, he knew what she was suggesting. At least he was in the right environment to work it out.
Andromeda huffed and shook her head, planting her face in her palm. It seemed she'd forgotten what teenagers could be up to at any time.
"Go get dressed," she ordered to Harry's face. "You've been in your pajamas for almost three hours… We're going to Diagon Alley soon… I've left some clothes on your bed."
"Thanks," Harry exhaled.
As he stepped out of the room, he kept his eye on Nym, who was trying to stifle a giggle.
He watched as Andromeda explained Harry's new alias to Nym and the reason for using it out in public. Reading her expression, she appeared to understand, although she initially seemed more irritated that her mother called her by her first name again.
When Harry tried to cover up a snicker, Nym and Andromeda's heads shot up. But Harry's reflexes hadn't changed, so he was gone before they could notice.
Still, Harry could still hear Nym cry out something muffled before he reached his next-door bedroom.
Folded upon his bed were a pair of tan cargo shorts and a dark magenta t-shirt with dark blue ringers and The Heardles logo printed across it. Harry assumed the shirt might have been another one of Ted's before slipping into his next set of borrowed clothes.
Once he adjusted the zip on his shorts, he heard another loud triple bash bang upon his bedroom door.
"Come in," he invited.
The door swung open to reveal Nym standing in the doorway, wearing another pair of knee-torn jeans, her choker, fingerless gloves, and another ringer t-shirt cut off at the navel, printed with the Weird Sisters'.
Over her shirt, she was wearing a studded black vest, covered in varying embroidery patches and painted in different patterns.
She looked, in fact, the very image of an adolescent punk.
"Like what you see?" she teased.
"I like it all," Harry gasped. "It all goes great with your hair and eyes…"
Even when he took Parvati Patil to the Yule Ball, Harry never had the courage to compliment her or Hermione like that. This was another new feature that made him start to appreciate himself a bit more.
"Thanks," Dora replied. "Speaking of which, Mum just reminded me… we've got to pick you a new form to go with your new name…"
"I'm way ahead of you," Harry chuckled.
He shifted his hair to the same shade of red his mother had, but Nym stiffly shook her head.
"No way," she insisted. "Too obvious… and too close to my color… You need something different, but still goes together with mine. And this is what I'm talking about…"
At first, Harry couldn't tell what she was pointing at. But when he felt her fingertip brush against his eyelashes, he realized what color she wanted.
"I should have seen this coming," Harry muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Nym requested, raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing," Harry exhaled, maintaining his composure.
As he inhaled a bit, Harry suddenly had an idea; if he wanted to keep control over how he looked, he needed to think a little faster.
"Okay," he resolved, without even waiting for a beat. "I've got something for you…"
Harry closed his eyes and envisioned himself with a reflection of fluffy lime green hair, falling to his shoulders at the back and in his face at the front.
But much like his typical appearance, Harry knew his eyes had to clash with his hair, so he decided to go with the first pair of eyes that stood out to him; the amber eyes of his pet owl, Hedwig.
Suddenly, Harry realized he wouldn't be able to see her for seven years or buy her in Diagon Alley. But no, right now, he needed to concentrate on surprising Nym with his new eyes.
When Harry finally opened them, he didn't seem to care that Nym only looked slightly miffed; all she did was widen her eyes and hang her mouth open.
"What do you think?" He teased.
"Brilliant," she replied, snapping out of her so-called daze. "It clashes and goes well with my look."
Harry felt a mild warmth up his spine as Nym ran a hand through his hair.
But they were interrupted by the sound of something heavy dropping on the floor in the next room.
"Nymphadora!" Andromeda's voice hollered furiously.
"Ugh," Nym huffed, rolling her eyes. "I need to go get my boots."
As she darted out of the room, she threw Harry a balled-up pair of socks.
"And get your shoes on too," she advised. "It'll shut mum up that we're ready to go…"
Harry quietly chuckled as he sat on the edge of his bed, pulling on his socks and black canvas trainers, before Nym poked her head back through the doorway.
"Mum says five minutes," she concluded. "And don't forget your phoenix feather, we'll be going to see Ollivander today…"
His phoenix feather! Harry had forgotten all about that in the last couple of days! He bent his legs, ready to jump off the bed and start searching… until he felt a slight point prod him in the right side of his posterior.
Harry ran a hand to his backside; Yes, there was a back pocket which, he could feel, contained something long, thin curved, and pointed at the tip. But surprisingly, on the edges, this item was quite soft.
If there was only one thing a wizard would keep in his back pocket, there was no doubt what was in there.
Harry extracted the phoenix feather core of his old wand from his pocket. His new life was shaping up to be a whole lot more interesting indeed.
A/N: Songs in this chapter are "Time Won't Let Me" by The Outsiders, "Lies" by The Knickerbockers, and "Open My Eyes" by The Nazz.