Summary: She happens upon a boy who looks exactly like her dead friend, though this facsimile seems to have no respect for mental privacy. The Cullens find a human who seems to know way too much about their family for anyone's good. Curiosity is piqued on both sides. Fem Harry. Pairings undecided.
Chasing Waterfalls
ii. Harrie
Harrie sits on the chair by Hermione's side, holding in her arms her snugly wrapped goddaughter. Of course, they haven't asked her to be the godmother yet, but who else do they know who's worthier of the title than her?
She looks at this little thing with fingernails so tiny they're nonexistent, and wonders what she'll be when she's older. Will she be bookish like her mother, with more intelligence than most? Will she be an expert chess player like her father? Will she be Quidditch crazy like her family?
This baby has barely a tuft of orange hair on her head, but has infinite possibilities in front of her, and Harrie almost looks forward to helping her shape her future.
But Harrie's mind isn't at peace, not really. That encounter with Cedric's lookalike is a worm, wriggling its way through her thoughts. She still has her Occlumency shield up, and as always, it feels like a pipe, ready to burst.
"You haven't asked us her name yet," Ron says, and Harrie looks up at her two friends — Hermione is on the bed, smiling weirdly at her. Her eyes seem teary, but she's smiling broadly; way too broadly.
"Didn't you decide on Rose?"
"Yes, but we're talking about her full name," Ron says gruffly.
Harrie gives them a blank look, and Hermione clears her throat.
"We've named her Rose Harini Weasley."
At that, her heart twists painfully. Harrie's always been convinced that her name is cursed, and now, she's worried that her goddaughter will be too.
"Are you sure?" she asks point blank, and they nod.
"You're the most important person to us after Rose," Hermione says reassuringly — Harrie knows that they know that she hates her name — that's why she goes by Harrie.
"Okay then," Harrie acquiesces, which earns a bright smile from Hermione and a relieved one from Ron.
"I'm her godmother though, right?" Harrie asks, wanting to resolve that thread of thought as soon as possible — Occlumency is easier when her mind is empty.
Ron and Hermione exchange a look, before Hermione answers, "We hadn't discussed it yet, but if you want to be...?"
"Good," Harrie says firmly, feeling mildly victorious.
She looks back down at Rose, and wonders how soon will be too soon to start teaching this child defensive magic.
Molly chooses that moment to take a photo of them, saying Rose will appreciate it later on.
x
Harrie watches with a smirk as the boys at the rez gape at the new car which has just arrived. She'd placed a special order, so that her goddaughter can be brought home in style — technically, it's a gift for Ron for becoming a father.
"This isn't even the current model," Seth Clearwater almost complains, wonder lacing his whine.
"It isn't," Harrie replies, her smirk growing even more prominent.
Jacob Black, another kid on the rez — no relation of Sirius or the magical Blacks, she'd checked — runs his hand over the gleaming red body of the car, and whistles.
"It's the one which comes out next year, right? My automobiles mag did a feature on the 2006 Corvette," he says breathlessly, and Harrie winks at him conspiratorially.
"How did you even get that?" Seth asks almost indignantly, and Harrie decides to tell him the truth. At least a portion of it.
"Someone owed me a favour, and I thought, what better way to use it than this."
Both the boys continue admiring the car — they're the only two on the rez who're friendly with her. Everyone else is scared of her because of her unpleasant personality. While everyone loves matronly Molly and goofy Ron, they're wary of temperamental and blunt Harrie.
And she wouldn't have it any other way.
"What do you say we take this beaut for a spin before I hand it over to Ron?" she asks, and immediately, they're screaming yes and running to the other side, both of them squashing themselves into the front seat.
Silently, she taps the car with her wand and performs an anti-crash spell, before getting in, a broad smile on her face. She's not used to driving on the other side of the road, and she doesn't want to risk anything before she tinkers with the car and upgrades it.
x
Hermione isn't too chuffed about Harrie's choice of vehicle.
"Is it safe for Rose?" she asks sternly, while Ron fingers the keys, his eyes fixed on the car, a besotted expression on his face. Molly sports a disapproving expression similar to Hermione's.
"Don't worry, I put in anti crash-runes and expansion charms — it now seats twenty people, instead of two. So Rose will be the safest of babies in all of Forks."
"Harrie," Hermione starts, her voice softening in the way that Harrie hates, so she continues speaking.
"Arthur helped me make the modifications over a Floo call. The car can't fly yet; he said he needs to be there physically to do that. But I crash-tested it multiple times and it's fine, so the runes obviously work," she says swiftly, but it only serves to horrify Hermione and Molly further.
"You crashed the car?" Molly asks, just as Hermione simultaneously says, "Please tell me you weren't in the car when you tested it."
Harrie keeps mum, not wanting to lie. She also wants to roll her eyes, but she refrains from that as well. For all intents and purposes, Harrie is as good as invincible, and yet, no one else seems as sure of it as she is.
Molly's impending chastisement is cut short by Ron jogging back from the car with a whoop of delight.
"C'mon baby, let's get you home!" he excitedly tells the infant in the basket Hermione is holding, but Molly puts a restraining hand on him.
"You and Hermione take the other car. Harini and I will take this one."
Ron splutters in protest, but Molly continues, "We're in Muggle territory, and they think only two of us can sit in the car. This place is full of hospital staff, which means they can't see more than two of us get into that vehicle."
Hermione picks up where Molly stops and says, "And there's also the matter of the rental we came in? We need to get that back to the rez anyway. I've already installed a baby seat in it."
And just like that, the decision is made. Harrie is annoyed, but she understands the importance of keeping up the charade for the Muggles.
Rose soon gets fussy in her basket, and at the last minute, Molly decides to go in the SUV with them.
As she watches them climb in, Harrie remembers that she isn't really a Weasley, no matter how red her hair is.
It makes her feel oddly left out.
But then Ron is jogging back to the entrance stairs where she's standing, and he hugs her tightly; his frame towering over hers.
"Thanks, mate," he says, and she nods. Knowing that Ron is happy with his gift is enough to make her feel better.
x
Harrie trudges slowly towards the Corvette, carrying with her some of the paperwork that the nurses had dumped on her the moment they'd found her standing in the entranceway— apparently they need one more signature from Hermione and Ron for some birth certificate thing.
She's about to open the door, when a lithe, spikey-haired female ambushes her.
"Is that your car?" the teen asks, and Harrie nods, because that's the simplest answer.
"I have a convertible too," she says, and gestures to a bright red car parked further away in the lot, only that this one's roof is down. For a second, Harrie feels like they're children in a playground, comparing their respective Matchbox models*.
Squinting, she recognises the BMW logo on it.
"Is that an M3?" she asks, and the girl hums brightly in response.
"My name is Alice, by the way," she says, holding out her hand.
Harrie takes it, but drops it almost immediately. Alice is cold, quite literally. The chillness stings her fingers, the way dry ice does.
"I'm Harrie," she says, for the sake of being polite, but the girl's eyes are slightly scrunched, her gaze far away, like she's dreaming while awake. The action reminds Harrie of Luna.
But then Alice's eyes snap back to her, and she smiles.
"You're not from here, are you? We're relatively new here too—we moved here only last year."
"My family and I are from Britain. Where'd you move from?" she asks, though she doesn't really know many places in the US. She can count the places she does know with her fingers.
"We moved here from Maine," Alice says, and Harrie pretends to understand that. If there's one skill she's honed over the years, it's to know how to pretend like she knows everything.
"Are you an automobile buff too?" Harrie asks, changing the topic, just to keep the conversation going, but Alice primly shakes her head.
"I enjoy fast cars, but it's my brother who's interested in the more technical side of things."
Harrie starts wondering how she can escape from this conversation, when Alice speaks up again.
"I need to pick up my uncle now; he's a doctor here. It was nice to meet you Harrie!"
"Likewise," Harrie replies and puts her hand on the handle, ready to open the car door, but she pauses.
Something about Alice feels unsettling — an instinct that she'd developed while on the run eight years back makes her neck prickle. The feeling she gets from this encounter is similar to how she'd sensed that the Inferi were out to get them when she'd taken Teddy out for his fourth birthday last year.
So she waits and watches until the girl glides up the stairs and enters the hospital building, before getting into the car. Something about Alice's fluid and graceful movements seeming unnatural.
First the Cedric-lookalike, and then her spidey-senses acting up after such a long time, both in the same day?
Harrie thinks it can't be a coincidence.
x
End Notes:
1. Harini is pronounced hurry + knee. You could Google search the meaning, but that'll come up in one of the future chapters anyway.
2. Matchbox was a brand that made toy cars in the UK; it was Hot Wheels' competitor for a long time. In 1997, Hot Wheels bought over Matchbox. I figured Harrie and Dudley would have grown up playing with Matchbox cars in the 80s.
AN: I wrote this chapter in May 2020. I was ready to post this on July 11 (weird how some dates get stuck in your head), and had even uploaded it as a document onto FFN. About 100 edits later, the FFN page refreshed without saving any of the changes. Naturally, I was cheesed off, and then I was just busy dealing with RL — but here I am, finally.
Note to self: Stop making changes using the FFN editor.
Some thank yous: weirdhead, Fire Dolphin, Skendo, smartipantx, test, Xcrossfire 1X, London201516, Dark-n-Twisty, Euryphae, musicluver246, cookyc, Yaasss, flowerangel502, , FanficLover577, Tigris DivingHawk, Alondra1018, Nyx Muirinn, Beastie-Boy, Mikelson 19, kenvenience, tasyadewi16 (twice!), LuvMyBoys, alaeserroukh0, cruciosirius, Fan, era-romance, Blackmagicbird and the six Guest reviewers — it means a lot that you took a chance on this crossover; thanks for reading and reviewing.
If you liked this chapter, be sure to let me know through a review. And if you have any questions, you can pop those in there as well.
Hope you're all staying safe. Believe it or not, we've all almost made it through this dumpster fire of a year.
Happy holidays and happy new year!