Dadneto
Hari woke up in a too-clean Kings Cross station.
“Hello, Master.”
She whirled around and looked at a man who looked mostly human but not quite. His jaw was too sharp, his eyes too bright, and there was something off with his skeleton. Maybe the joints weren’t quite the same. Hari couldn’t tell. Asking him to take off his coat and move his shoulder to see if it was a ball-and-socket joint seemed a bit rude.
“Errr. Hello.”
“I was hoping you could help me with something.”
“You’re…Death?”
“Quite. Yes.”
“Oh.” Hari wasn’t really sure what to say.
“Indeed. There’s a reality I’d like you to fix.”
“Errr. What?”
He put his hands in his jacket pockets and slouched against a wall. “A reality. It’s pear shaped. I’ve let people meddle with time for a do-over, I’ve influenced abilities, and it just goes pear shaped no matter what I try.”
“Errr…”
“So you should try.”
This did not sound fun. “I already have a reality that’s pretty bolloxed.”
Death waved a hand is dismissal. “Your reality is stable. And this new one will be so much fun.”
“I think I’ll stick with my reality, thanks.”
Death sighed. “People with powers are trying to live openly there. No hiding.”
Hari raised an eyebrow. That sounded awesome.
Death grinned, which Hari would never admit was a tad disturbing. “You know, you had a shit childhood.”
Now both of Hari’s eyebrows were stretching toward her hairline. “I’m aware.”
“And therapists say a good part of healing from some childhood traumas is to find a way to re-experience childhood. The muggles have ways of re-parenting themselves, or something like that.”
Hari was not comforted by this abrupt change in topic.
Death kept talking. “But you won’t have to parent yourself this time. You’ll have family.”
“What?” Hari felt a stab of pain in her chest. Family.
“I’ll be good for you. And for me.”
Hari had a bad feeling about this. “Wait!”
Death winked and Kings Cross dissolved.
Hari woke up in her cupboard under the stairs.
“Motherfucker.”
________________________________________
Hari looked at a newspaper. It was 1963. This really had to be another reality and not the past, because she was living with the 60’s versions of Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley. Petunia did not dress like a hippy.
They hated her.
When she woke up in this reality, years of cruel memories were in her head. They had no idea about magic, but that didn’t matter. They were horrified to be near someone born out of wedlock. Yes, Death had planted her in a time and place that used words like ‘wedlock’. She was going to punch Death in the balls next time.
A few days after waking up in this wretched reality, Hari found a journal under a floorboard in her cupboard. On the inside of the hardcover was written, “Property of Lily Evans.” Hari had never wanted to read a book more. The first entries were dated 1943, and were filled with a child’s terror of war, bombs, bomb shelters, food rationing, and constant fear for her family. Hari wanted to hug little Lily and keep her safe. No child should experience that fear. The end of WWII had a long entry filled with hope and happiness. The next few years only had a handful of notes. 1953 had short, funny stories about work and parties.
And then a full page gushed about Erik Lehnsherr. He was so beautiful. His eyes were so stormy and intense. His body was perfect. And…ick…things a child never wants to hear a parent say. Lily knew Erik was passing through and wouldn’t stay, and considered their week together as a perfect, timeless experience she would remember until old age.
And then the next month, there was one paragraph wondering if Lily was pregnant. One month later, she was a little worried but thought it might be stress. After another month, she wrote one line about how she was imagining things. During the fourth month after meeting Erik, Lily went to the doctor when her clothes became snug. She was pregnant.
After two pages of an impressive freakout episode, Lily’s writing changed. She wrote often, but only a few sentences at a time. She described how her body was changing, how she would find Erik someday, what baby names she liked, and how this baby was something precious. And how she was absolutely terrified of doing something wrong that would hurt her baby.
And then a little baby girl was born. Hari cried as she read pages filled with a mother’s love. She took deep breaths and wiped her eyes so her tears wouldn’t obscure the writing. And then she teared up two sentences later, and the cycle continued. Everyday, Lily thought it was absolutely necessary and important to record every little thing her precious Hadriana had learned that day.
In 1955, there was a scrawled entry about how Lily’s mother had gotten sick. It was some sort of bad chest cold or pneumonia. Lily sent Hadriana to stay with some neighbors for a few days so she could nurse her mother. At the bottom of the page, was one line.
“My mother is dead. Thank God Hadriana is safe. I’ve started to cough.”
Hari turned the page, but nothing else was written.
Lily died.
________________________________________
Hari cried all night after reading Lily’s diary.
The next morning, Hari didn’t get up to cook breakfast. She felt numb and exhausted.
The door to her cupboard was wrenched open. A purple-faced Uncle Vernon grabbed her arm and pulled. She hit the hallway wall and scooted away. Vernon took an angry step toward her…
…and everything froze.
Hari had done some weird accidental magic in her previous reality, but nothing like this. She stood up, walked around Vernon, and peered into the kitchen. Petunia was pouring a cup of tea, except everything – including the stream of tea in midair – wasn’t moving..
Looking back at Vernon, Hari decided she was done with this shit. She’d lived through his abuse once before. She’d taken down a dark lord, for Merlin’s sake; she didn’t need to put up with this.
Hari clutched Lily’s diary to her chest and ran out of the house.
She ran down the street. On the next block, she saw a bird hovering in midair. Frozen.
On the next block, two cars were immobile on the road. The drivers didn’t appear to be breathing.
Hari ran.
She ran all the way into London and somehow wasn’t tired. Why wasn’t she tired?
Everyone was frozen.
And then her stomach growled. Hunger hit her like a bludgeoning hex. She’d never felt so hungry in her life. It hurt. She felt it in her palms. She wanted to curl up in a ball. Saliva started to build up in her mouth. What on Earth was happening? She needed to eat now, now, now.
Hari ran into a little market on the corner of a block. She grabbed two apples, a loaf of bread, and a small block of cheese. Then she ran to a park and scarfed the food.
And then the silence of the world broke, and everything unfroze.
Holy shit. I just stole. I stole food.
As her hunger disappeared, Hari felt ashamed. She hadn’t thought twice about stealing; she just did whatever she could to make the pain stop.
She looked at her reflection in a window and saw her hair was completely silver. Alarm bells were going off in her head. Things had gotten very strange, which was a high bar to exceed given the bizarre situations she’d found in her past.
And now she was homeless.
Well, it wasn’t the first time.
________________________________________
The next few months were strange but oddly peaceful. Hari ran all around England. Literally. Somehow, she could move and think so quickly that time slowed to a halt. And her endurance…never in her original reality would she have been able to run for more than one mile without pause. Here, she ran across the country without breaking a sweat. She just got hungry. Unbearably hungry.
She slept in forests and camping grounds, always staying out of sight. She used her magic to set up a tent deep in the woods.
But she wanted to travel farther. England wasn’t big enough for her new abilities. She wanted to run and look for Erik.
Hari didn’t know any other languages, so she decided to visit America. Could she run from coast to coast? She couldn’t wait to find out.
But how would she get there? No way would she be stuck on some slow moving boat. There were planes, but … ugh … spending half a day crammed on a small floating bit of metal without the ability to run sounded like a nightmare.
Had Hari mentioned she loved running fast now?
And then came the coolest discovery of all time: Hari could run on water.
Take that, Christianity.
And Hari ran to Boston.
And scarfed an entire pot of clam chowder and three loaves of bread.
________________________________________
The next day, Hari was running around northern New York – and really, why would anyone name a state and city the same thing? – while singing “Erik Lehnsherr, Erik LehnSherr, Erik Lehnsherr, Erik Lehnsherr…” to the theme of Mr. Sandman. What? It had been on the radio a lot. It was really hard to get out of her head.
How on Earth am I going to find Erik Lehnsherr? He could be anywhere. Literally anywhere.
“Why are you looking for Erik Lehnsherr?” boomed a voice.
Hari skidded to a stop, which dug a small trench into the dirt road. She looked around and didn’t see anyone.
“Who are you, and why are you looking for Erik Lehnsherr?” The voice didn’t sound nice.
There’s a voice in my head.
“Indeed.” It was a male, British voice.
Maybe I’ve gone ‘round the bend.
“You are not insane.” The voice sounded annoyed.
Well, tell me something I wouldn’t think up so I know you’re not my imagination.
“I’m a telepath.”
Hari made a honking sound in her brain. Nope. Try again. I could think that up myself.
The voice sighed in her mind. “I study genetics. Specifically, the mutation of…”
After a few large words, Hari tuned him out. And then interrupted him and thought as loud as she could. “Alright, Mr. Voice. I definitely wouldn’t come up with that. So, you’re real. And you’re talking in my head. Why are you talking in my head? Kind of odd, man. I can’t even see you. You could give a handshake or something before–”
He cut her off. And, ok, maybe she talked really fast now that she could run really fast. And maybe she hadn’t had an actual conversation with anyone in months. No, she wasn’t odd or awkward. Not at all. Right, he was saying something.
“You don’t need to yell. And I’m Charles.”
And Hari’s brain got back on track. “Do you know Erik Lehnsherr? Do you? Do you know where he is? Will you tell me? Come on, dude, tell me.”
“Why don’t you come visit me in Westchester.”
“Don’t know where that is, dude.”
“Where are you now?”
“I’m not sure, man. I think I’m in New York still.”
The voice in her head sounded alarmed. “You don’t know where you are? Are you safe?”
“Chill, dude. I’ll be fine. Where are you in Westchester?”
Charles gave her some information. Hari sped to a store, looked at a map, and ran to Westchester.
In no time at all, she was standing in front of a mansion.
She knocked on the door.
A geeky, thin man opened the door.
“Hello?” He didn’t sound happy to see her.
“Errr. Charles?”
He scowled. “No.”
“Errr…. Is he here?”
The geeky man blinked a few times and tilted his head, eyes unfocused. He scowled more. “Come in. I’ll show you into his office.”
Hmmm. Maybe that’s what a telepathic conversation looked like from the outside.
Hari thought she might die of boredom while walking to the study. When the nerdy guy ushered her into a room, she gave in and sped around the office, looking at every book and piece of furniture. Then she stopped in front of the man sitting behind a desk.
He blinked and smiled. “Hello.”
“Hi, Charles. It’s nice to meet you, probably. It could be stupid following the voice inside my head, but it sounded like a good idea at the time, you know?”
He grimaced. “Normally I would not recommend it, but I promise you are safe here.”
“So…Erik?”
“Ah. Yes. Why are you looking for him?”
“I’m not sure if I should tell you. We just met. Are you friends? What do you know about him?”
Charles blinked. Hari wasn’t talking that quickly, was she? The silence seemed to stretch forever. As fun as it was to be super fast, it certainly made patience a trial.
Charles sighed. “You’re younger than I thought.”
“Sorry?” Hari fidgeted.
He gave a half smile. “Is there someone I need to call for you? Parents?”
Hari sped back, putting the chair and desk between Charles and her. She scowled and crossed her arms. “No.”
Charles rubbed his forehead. “Erik was my closest friend, although we recently lost touch.”
“So you know him well?”
Charles raised an eyebrow. “Very.”
Hari may as well check if Charles knew her Erik. “What country is he from?”
“Germany.” Charles winched a bit and rubbed his temple.
So far so good. “Has he traveled?”
“Oh, yes. Extensively.”
Even better. “Hmmm. To England?”
“Yes, several…” Charles jerked to the side, upset his teacup, and blurted, “You’re his daughter?”
“What?” screeched Hari, darting toward the door.
“I’m sorry, my dear. You think very quickly and your thoughts are very loud. It’s difficult for me to make sense of them, but I heard that quite clearly.”
Hari gave him an impressive glare. “You’re not going to use it against him or anything…” It was more of a threat than a question.
“Of course not!” Charles looked offended. Then his lip twitched.
“What?” Hari crossed her arms.
“You just…inherited his scowl.” Charles wheeled his way around the desk and headed for Hari. “Oh, this is wonderful! Erik thinks he doesn’t have family left.”
“You’re not going to tell him?!”
“Of course not, dear. I’ll send him a message to meet. You can tell him. I’ll tell him if you’d rather, of course.”
Hari found herself herded to a kitchen and handed a sandwich.
________________________________________
Charles put Cerebro’s helmet on and reached out to a familiar mind.
“Raven–”
“Charles! How many times do I have to tell you to stay out of my–”
“Please, Raven. I need to meet with Erik.”
Charles could tell that Raven was crossing her arms and glaring.
He sighed. “He can set the time and place. It’s rather urgent.”
“Are you in danger?”
A small part of Charles was happy that Raven still cared enough to worry. “No. I’m not in danger. But I found…something. Please. Give Erik the message for me. It’s important.”
He took a mental step back and gently cut the connection with her mind.
And now he just had to wait. And keep an extremely powerful speedster child entertained.
A small hope was growing in Charles’ mind – maybe family would soften Erik’s methods and bring him home.
________________________________________
Charles urged Hari to stay, and set her up in a dusty room.
“Erik’s room is next door when he stays.”
“He stays here?”
Charles’ smile faded. “He did. For a time.”
Legilimency and Occlumancy came much easier to Hari since becoming the Master of Death. She had a feeling it was because no one alive was meant to see the In Between. Whatever the reason, Hari felt a wave of hopelessness come from Charles.
________________________________________
“How fast can you move?” asked Hank.
Hari shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“Can you move people with you?”
“Errr…I haven’t tried?”
“It could be dangerous. Maybe a person’s neck would snap if not properly supported. I’ll think about it.”
The silence lasted for a few seconds. “Can you–”
But Hari interrupted. “What about you? What can you do?”
Hank’s mouth twitched downward for a second, and Hari’s mind was hit with a wave of self-hatred.
Hank shrugged. “I turn into an ugly blue monster.”
“Errr…”
Hank waved a hand in dismissal. “Don’t worry about it. I’m working on something to fix it.”
And that didn’t make Hari feel better at all.
________________________________________
Hari heard a strange popping noise and sped to the front of the house. A man with red skin and another wearing an odd helmet – Hari wouldn’t risk the fury of fashion gods by calling it a hat – were on the front lawn. Hari ran to them, stopping well out of arm’s reach.
“Hi! Are you friends of Charles? I don’t see a car. Can you run really fast? I can run really fast, but I haven’t met anyone else who can. Nice to meet you!” Ok. Maybe Hari was forgetting what it was like to live at a normal pace. She had never been this talkative in her previous reality, but…it took so long waiting for people to reply.
The man in the helmet blinked twice and then gave a small smile. “Hello. That’s an impressive power.”
Hari probably would have been a bit more missish about demonstrating powers, but one guy literally had bright red skin. “Thanks! It’s fun, too.”
Hari sped a few feet to the side. While running, they stayed frozen. They probably couldn’t move through time quickly like she could. Too bad.
The man’s eyes snapped to Hari’s new position a few moments later. “Has Charles started the school yet?”
“School? I don’t know. Do you need to see Charles?”
“Quite.”
“He’s in his study. I can take you.”
“I know the way, but thank you.”
In her head, Hari shouted, Charles, two guys are here to talk to you.
No need to yell, my dear, but thank you. Would you come with them?
Sure.
________________________________________
“Charles.”
“Erik, thank you for coming. Please sit. Can I get you anything?”
He shook his head and sat on a chair across from Charles.
“Erik?! He’s Erik. You’re Erik?” Hari’s brain was blaring panic signals.
Hari sped to stand in front of Erik.
He blinked at a girl suddenly appearing in his personal space.
“Charles?” asked Erik.
“Ah. Well, you see–”
But Hari cut him off. She’d been soaking in every feature. Finally. After all of the sucky years, after all of the pain and trials, she was looking at her father. And yes, it wasn’t the father of her original reality. But this was her reality now. This was her family. Her blood.
“Will I be as pretty as you when I grow up?”
Charles made some sort of gasping, coughing noise.
Erik was bemused. “Every mutant is beautiful in their own way.”
Hari held out her hand. Erik gravely grasped it and shook three times.
But Hari didn’t let go at the appropriate time. She held on, begging her mouth to open up and say the words. Panic was building. But this was utterly ridiculous. She’d actually died before. This was nothing. This should be easy. This should be… Don’t think, just do.
“I’m Hari Lehnsherr. Well, Hadriana Lehnsherr, but I’m just Hari.”
Erik’s eyes widened and his head rocked back. Hari watched in slow motion, dreading what the next facial expressions might be.
“Charles?” Erik’s voice was tight.
Maybe he didn’t get it? Hari decided to add: “I think you’re my father.”
Hari knew she was watching at much faster than real time and he hadn’t had a chance to understand the news, but she couldn’t stop talking. “My mum was Lily. Lily Evans. And she met an Erik Lehnsherr in England. In 1953. And did gross adult things, which made me. But my mum didn’t know until after they parted ways. And…that’s familiar, right? It’s you?”
By now, Erik’s jaw was hanging open. “Charles?” he whispered.
“You know, maybe I should just…” And Hari sped out of the room, papers flying in her wake.
________________________________________
Hari ran around Charles’ estate a few times and then settled in front of a pond under a tree. It was beautiful. What was it like to be Charles? To have a safe, beautiful home that was his and had always been his? To have grown up taking safety for granted?
She tried to numb everything with Occlumancy. Being in this reality had provided Hari was safety like she’d never known. This ability to move and think blazingly quickly was astonishing. If she had this in her previous reality, she wouldn’t have feared Voldemort – he never could have caught her. All of those times she nearly died wouldn’t have happened. And here, without a Wizarding World, she could literally live on a time scale such that the muggles couldn’t see her. It would probably get a bit lonely, but maybe she’d settle somewhere remote and write letters to Charles and maybe Erik.
If he wanted to talk to her.
Hari focused on her breathing. She wanted family. Desperately. She always had. Real family. Not abusive assholes.
Erik – her dad – was a chance for that.
Within the calm of her mental shields, she realized she was repeating what she did with Sirius. Without knowing Sirius for more than a few minutes, she was ready to live with him. Without knowing much about Erik, she craved his presence in her life. She needed to let that go. Whoever Erik was, he was a real person. He had flaws, just like Sirius. Maybe Erik would never want to see her. And if that happened, then that’s just the way life worked out.
No matter how this emotionally painful bullshit evolved, it was much better than being chased by Voldemort. Hari survived that, so she could survive this.
Even if it reinforced the fact that no one ever really wanted her.
________________________________________
After grabbing a snack in the kitchen, Hari went back to the study.
Charles and Erik were arguing. There was something terribly bitter about Charles’ vitriol.
“You did this to me,” said Charles, pointing at his wheelchair.
And that’s how the silence started.
After a minute of Charles pressing his lips together until they were almost white and Erik clenching his jaw and hands until surely something would break, Hari broke in.
“Why don’t you just fix it?”
There was a flash of anger on Charles’ face, but it quickly disappeared.
“Not everything can be fixed.”
And he really seemed to think that was the end of it.
“That’s stupid.”
As Hari said this, Charles’ head jerked. His mouth opened, but Hari spoke first.
She crossed her arms. “Do you have powers or not?”
“I’m telepathic,” he bit out.
“Obviously.” Hari was a little sad that she’d never reach Snape’s level of implied dunderhead with her words. “Stop thinking like a normal human.”
“What do you mean?” asked Erik.
“You’re thinking about normal doctors. Just because they can’t fix you, doesn’t mean someone with healing powers can’t.”
Charles looked like he’d been struck.
Erik was convinced and moved closer. “We will find the right mutant, Charles.” His voice left no place for doubt.
“It can’t be that hard,” muttered Hari.
She walked to Charles, knelt in front of his wheelchair, and performed a diagnostic spell on his torso. It was a type of imaging spell used by healers to visualize internal anatomy. A purple floating image of Charles’ spine floated in front of him, with a small region highlighted in blinking red. Charles gasped and Erik knelt down, putting his face inches from the image.
Hari pointed to the blinking red area. “This is the problem.”
“Yes,” breathed Charles.
“Hmmm.”
Hari really wanted them to like her. She wanted family. And they had special abilities, so surely doing more magic wouldn’t put her at risk. And it was a nice thing to do.
She performed a healing spell that Bill taught her.
The blinking red shifted to purple.
Charles gasped. “Did you…? Am…Am I?”
“Charles, how do you feel?” demanded Erik.
“I can feel. I can feel my legs. I can feel…” Charles pitched forward and moaned.
“Charles!”
“I’m fine, my friend. My muscles hurt. But that’s more feeling than I ever expected.” Charles’ hands clutched Erik’s shoulders, his forehead pressed to Erik’s sternum.
Hari could feel Charles’ mind pressing against her shields.
Erik moved his head to stare at Hari, unblinking. She was glad his attention was divided because his focus was rather intense. Hari had a feeling most people did whatever he wanted to escape from that focus. Erik’s hand moved to cradle Charles’ neck.
“He is healed?” There was no hiding this was a demand, not a question.
Hari shrugged. “He’ll need to build up his leg muscles, but his spine is healed.”
Erik’s smile transformed his face. Rather a lot of teeth were showing.
“So you guys can stop arguing, right?” Hari shifted from one foot to the other.
Erik’s smile dimmed and was replaced by confusion. Not argue with Charles? Was such a thing possible? No. Surely not.
Charles huffed a laugh. We’ll argue about other things, my friend. He turned his face toward Hari. “Thank you.”
Hari smiled.
________________________________________
Erik looked uncomfortable. “So. You are my daughter.”
Hari shrugged. “Looks like it.”
“You’re incredible. Your abilities…”
“Thanks.” Hari hunched her shoulders. “Errrr. What about you?”
“What?”
“What can you do? Assuming that you can…but maybe you can’t. And that’s ok, too. I only meant–”
His lip twitched. Erik pulled a chain out of his pocket, and Hari watched as it floated and spun.
“Cool! You can levitate things?”
“Metal. I can manipulate metal.”
The links of the chain warped. One turned into an outline of a giraffe. Hari laughed.
“That’s so great!”
________________________________________
“So…why’d you guys stop being friends? Why’d you fight? Come on, what happened?”
Hari tried being still and quiet while Erik and Charles played a game of chess. It didn’t last long.
“We didn’t exactly stop being friends,” muttered Charles.
“We both want mutants to embrace their powers and live openly while being safe from humans,” said Erik.
“We disagree on means,” said Charles.
“And risks.”
“Come on. Watching this is so slow and boring. You’ve got to give my brain something to chew on. Give me specifics, here. Come on, guys.”
Charles’ eye twitched.
Erik’s voice was grave and firm. “Humans are a danger to mutants. They will find us and kill us.”
Charles made a protesting noise, but Erik ignored him.
“We must create a safe haven where mutants can live without humans. We must find each other and protect us all from humans. We cannot let them do to us as the Nazis did to Jews.”
Charles sighed. “We can coexist. Integration is possible, my friend. There is a great deal more grace and goodness in humanity than you see. And yes, we need to protect mutants. I want to open a school so young mutants can learn to harness their powers safely.”
They went back to their game in silence.
Hari ran around the room a few times. Then the mansion. Then the grounds. Then back to the study.
“So you both want to protect mutants and realize they need protection.”
Erik picked up a pawn that fell over in Hari’s wake. “Yes.”
“Charles wants integration, and you, Erik, want separation or segregation?”
“Essentially,” said Charles.
“And you’re arguing over this?”
Charles just sighed.
“You’re both being kind of stupid and short sighted, aren’t you?”
Erik’s head snapped up.
Charles glared. “What do you mean?”
“Errr…you act like it’s either or…either integration or separation. But it needs to be both, right?”
“Explain,” said Erik.
“Well, things are going to be rough, especially early on, since the world doesn’t widely know about mutants, right?”
Charles nodded.
“So having a safe haven – maybe in a remote location – where mutants can go will be necessary. And Charles…for someone who wants integration, even you want a mutant-only school, a segregated school, for mutants. So you realize that separation in some places for some reasons is necessary.”
Charles opened his mouth then closed it. Erik smirked.
Hari kept talking. “But it doesn’t make sense to have complete separation.”
Erik may have lost a bit of his smirk.
“At least, if there’s only one safe haven, then it’s a ripe target for people to attack. Humans could attack one place and destroy most mutants.”
Now Erik’s eyebrows were raised.
“And mutants will keep being born within human countries, right? So the ability to work with human countries will be important…like…diplomacy? Maybe we need a mutant country that has international legal protections, or something, so human armies can’t just gang up on us and attack. Or maybe we need to figure out how to use our powers to keep the mutant country secret so humans never learn where it is? I don’t know. But if we need both separation and integration, then you can both work on your parts, right? There’s no need to argue because there’s more than enough work to do and everyone is working toward the same goal?”
“You’re…” Charles trailed off, eyes unfocused.
After a few seconds, Erik tried to finish Charles’ thought. “...right. She’s right?”
“I need a drink,” said Charles.
Erik huffed, but summoned glasses and a bottle of whiskey. He poured some in two glasses and then paused.
“But what will we argue about now, Charles?”
Charles laughed.
Hari rolled her eyes.
________________________________________
Four of them were eating together. The red guy, Azazel, had disappeared. Hank was glaring at Erik, Erik was staring at Hari, Hari was looking at her plate and ignoring Charles’ little pokes at her mental shields.
“Look, you probably don’t want me as your daughter.”
When Erik startled and Hank knocked over his glass, Hari realized she had spoken suddenly and loudly.
“What? Why would you–”
“I’m more trouble than I’m worth, believe me. And I’m fine on my own. It would be such a hassle to be around me.”
“I don’t think that’s–”
But Hari interrupted. “I’m hungry!”
Charles frowned and pointed to the serving dish. “Would you like another serving?”
“NO! I mean…so I’m always hungry. Ever since that day when I was scared and started moving quickly. I ran all the way to London and then got so hungry that it hurt. A lot. And I tried, ok? I tried to…I ran around the train station and parking lots to collect change. But that running would make me hungrier. And I would find enough money for some food, but never enough. And I’m too young for anyone to give me a job. And so…I stole. I steal. Often. See? I try not to take too much from one place, but… Don’t you see? You don’t need to put yourself through that hassle. I’m not worth–”
Erik stood so suddenly that his chair was knocked over. He grabbed Hari and crushed her against his chest. This wasn’t a soft, fluffy hug. This was like Erik was trying to wrap himself around Hari, like a shield.
“I will get you food to carry around. And I’ll give you money to buy food if you run out. And we’ll stock up on food wherever we go,” said Erik.
“And I can come up with some sort of high protein bar to keep the hunger down,” said Hank.
“You don’t…want me to leave?” whispered Hari.
“No! You’re mine, schatzi. Always.” Erik squeezed her tighter.