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 also blatant discussion of Harry's self-image as shaped by the Dursleys in this chapter. Harry even uses a racial slur in reference to his own racial group. Even outside of slur, the terms "freakish" and "freak" come up. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: So, a few things to mention here outside of the warnings above. First is that it seems to be a recurring bit of… let's call it "confusion"… which I would like to address, even more than how the story addresses it in this chapter. Harry is Desi/Indian because that's what his parents were. Yes, both of them. Yes, Lily still had her red hair & green eyes. Yes, all of the Dursleys are still white. No, none of this conflicts. The real life biology all checks out.
The other recurring issue I've noticed is that people seem to be misunderstanding Harry's age (which I have stated again in this chapter in addition to this note). If someone is nearly an age, they are not currently that age. Since Harry is nearly thirteen, he is not currently thirteen. This means that he is twelve. Harry's age is also not because deaging or time travel. It's because that's how old he is.
Timeline Specifics: Supernatural S05-Ep22 (Swan Song); Post-Chamber of Secrets/Pre-Prisoner of Azkaban; Currently Second Week of July 2010
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 13); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Inevitable; Gryffindor MC; Hunter MC; Criminal MC; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Claimed; Hold the Mayo; Zed Era; New Fandom Smell (Y); Old Shoes (Y); Above Average Natural; Endings; In a Flash; The Real MC (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 13 – Assignment 04
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [692](Alice Walker quotation); 365 [208](Mojo); Like a Skyscraper [2-1](Hurt/Comfort); Pick a Wick [16 Brownie](Family); Build a Better Breakfast [27 Salmon](Apocalypse AU)
Other MC4A Challenges: FaB [2E](Ghost/Specter); Set [2B](At Night);Chim [Karma](n/a); Fire [Hard](Bearing the Crossover); Garden [Bed Types](At Night)/[Chore List](Arguing/Debating)/[Plant Types](Found Family)/[Garden Tools](Sweater/Jumper)/[Crossover Galore](Race-Bent AU)/[HPverse](Gryffindor N/PR); Hunt [Fa WD](Anxiety)/[Fa Con](Pie)
Representation(s): Desi & Autistic Harry Potter; Depressed & Bi Dean Winchester; Team Free Will as Family
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Hot Apple; Turtle-Duck; Second Verse (Found Family; Nontraditional; Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Lyre Liar; Muck & Slime); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Rediscovery; Fire Song; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench); Demo 1 (Bad Beans; Uncivil Obedience; Under the Bridge; Horrible Love); Demo 2 (Forked Path; Sitting Hummingbird; Hot Stuff; Mermaid)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Toad); SN (Rail; Negate); O3 (Oust)
Word Count: 771
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Needs and Wants
Chapter 10: Recognize
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A day and a half didn't seem like it should have been long enough to establish any kind of pattern, but Dean had always been good at picking up on those kinds of things. So he noticed that Harry went out of his way to be useful. Harry wasn't obvious about what he was doing, exactly. Certainly not in the same way that Sam and him had been as kids, when things like doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom meant one of them was belly-aching to the other about the injustice. Dean was fairly certain that he was still wearing the same purple sweater and baggy jeans that he had been wearing when they had picked him up from the bus depot, too.
"Are you sure you're almost a teenager?" Dean asked finally. He had watched from the kitchen doorway as Harry had scrubbed Bobby's cast iron skillet with only water and a bristly brush to remove the food remains. Then the kid had carefully wiped in a bit of cooking oil before heating the skillet on the stove, just like the fancy cooking shows that Bobby pretended he didn't watch suggested. Harry was now staring at Dean like he had just been caught shoplifting or murdering someone. "Because I'm thinking you're a middle-aged housewife instead."
"No one would want to marry me," Harry replied with an odd note to the usual flatness of his voice. He shifted the focus of his green eyes so that he appeared like he wasn't still staring at Dean. It was a clever dissemble, because Dean knew the kid was still watching him like a mouse hoping to escape a snake.
"I don't know about that," Dean countered. He moved towards the table to pull out a chair. He turned it and straddled the seat so that the back was between him and Harry. "You seem to like cooking, at least." Dean hesitated before deciding to test a hunch he had about the kid. "If you wanted anything specific, we could get it for you. I don't think Sammy could handle anything particularly spicy, though. Curry might make him cry like the big baby he is."
"I don't know how to make that," Harry admitted, sounding like he was embarrassed. His brown cheeks darkened just a bit in the way that Dean was beginning to recognize would be a bright blush on anyone pale like him or Sam. "My relatives weren't fans of foreign food."
"So they aren't like you?" Dean asked, careful to sound like the answer didn't matter either way. Harry rocked just slightly in place. Dean probably wouldn't have noticed the motion if he wasn't already looking for any of Harry's tells. Eventually, Harry shook his head without saying a word. "That musta sucked. Do they have mojo like you at least?"
"No," Harry whispered, something sharply bitter lacing his tone now, "they're normal that way, too."
"Hey now," Dean said, not fully planning what he was going to say but knowing that he had to say something about that phrasing, "there's nothing wrong with the way you are, Harry."
"Yeah, sure," Harry agreed, suddenly sounding like he was exhausted. The green in his eyes had dulled to a more natural hue. Instead of reassuring Dean, all it did was make him feel like he had kicked a puppy. "Nothing's freakish about me at all."
"That's true," Dean confirmed. His grip tightened on the back of the chair as he fought the urge to grind his teeth. "Ain't a single thing about you that's freakish, kid. Not a damn thing, no matter what your relatives may have told you."
"I've seen others, you know," Harry bit out. "Pakis, that is. I know—I know I don't look normal." Harry looked at Dean fully then. His green eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "Everyone says how much I look like my dad but with my mother's eyes, but last year, when I finally got photos of them, I noticed that her eyes are just a normal green. Even with her red hair, she looked normal, despite looking nothing like Aunt Petunia." Harry shook his head. "I know what I am."
"Yeah, well, you're wrong," Dean said just as stubbornly as he once told Sammy over those damn visions. "You're no more a freak than any other twelve-year-old in this god-forsaken world and certainly not for something as stupid as your fucking eye color." Dean shoved himself to his feet. "Come on. Let's get out of here before we get drafted to help with research."
"Uh, what?" Harry asked, clearly thrown off by the sudden topic shift. His eyes nervously cut to the darkness outside the window over the sink.
"We're done with the chick flick moment," Dean declared, "and now we're going out for pie."
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To Be Continued
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