Grimmauld Place
Harry felt relaxed and tense all at the same time, he got out of the Dursley’s, back with his friends, and the people he really considered family. At the same time though, he had a weird rage bubbling in his chest, sitting, waiting, getting ready to burst at any given moment. He’s felt anger before of course, with the Dursley’s and how they treated him, during fourth year and how everyone besides very few turned their backs on him.
This, however, is something so completely different; it’s taking everything in him to breathe through it. Even so, he’s having a good conversation with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Arthur; he and Hermione were talking about the technological advances muggles made that the Wizarding world didn’t realize. Arthur was very invested and asking so many questions and going off on tangents on how maybe he could replicate some and/or tinker with some things for it to be used around magic. Ron is just confused, and Ginny is teasing him for it, causing them to start bantering. It’s lighthearted and fun, Harry started laughing when Ginny told a story of Ron running into a wall multiple times which is why he jumps in his seat when he hears Remus raise his voice.
Turning around in his chair he noticed a rather short woman standing next to his pseudo-godfather. She was covered in tattoos all down her arms and some over her hands, a large moth covered her chest; easily seen as she was wearing some sort of shirt with very thin straps and cut above her belly button. Flushing a bit when he realized those were the only straps visible, making it clear she was not wearing a bra. Her jeans were long and kinda baggy, tucked into some black combat boots. A cloth bag over her shoulder that she was holding close to herself.
Harry noticed she was actually rather pretty, her skin was darker than what he was used to seeing, sure the Parvati twins had their dark skin and so did Dean Thomas. Hers was more of a deeper caramel brown, her features a little wider, rounded, very curly brown hair falls chin length framing high pronounced cheek bones and very full pink lips. Which he just noticed had piercings, many lining her ears, the dip above her upper lip, in the middle of her bottom lip and right under it. She also had one piercing on either side of her nose, connected with a chain? What even is the purpose for that? In short, she looks like someone his Aunt Petunia would go ballistic about if she ever saw her.
From what he could she didn’t look like a ‘delinquent’ or anything like that, she seemed more… anxious. Her shoulders are slightly drawn in to make herself seem smaller with all the eyes on her, wide eyes darting around trying to take everything in.
“Remus! Now who do you have there?” Mrs. Weasley asked.
“This is Ms. Scarlett Davis; she will be staying here for a while. Albus will be along and explain everything more, at dinner. So please, make her feel welcome. She's a long way from home.” Remus met eyes with Scarlett and gently pushed her forward with his hand that Harry just realized was behind her. “Go ahead and sit at the table, Mrs. Weasley looks like she will be done with dinner soon.”
With lips pressed she took small steps to the table and next to the open chair by Harry, gesturing to the seat she spoke softly. “Uh… is this seat taken?” Harry blinked at her accent, American, obviously, but with an undercurrent of another accent he couldn't place.
A cough and a quick whisper of, “ Harry! ” Jolted him, face growing warm when he realized he was just staring at her without saying anything. “Oh! Uh, no, no. Feel free.” With a nod she sat down and placed her bag in her lap.
“Thanks.”
“Uh, no problem…”
The table was silent, slightly tense with confusion and hesitation. Luckily Hermione took the first step.
“Hello, I’m Hermione Granger, pleasure to meet you Ms. Davis.” She gave a pleasant smile and reached out for a handshake, Ms. Davis reaching out her hand and took it.
“You don't need to call me Ms. Davis, just Scarlett is fine, I'm not all that big on formalities. But, uh, nice to meet you too.” She looked to the rest of us as it went silent again, Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or say, glancing towards Remus, who moved over to Sirius and began talking to the twins; Harry realized he wasn't really going to be of help in this situation. Seeing Scarletts quick exasperated look over, she seemed to realize it as well.
“Oh goodness gracious you all, honestly.”
Hermione spoke up and rolled her eyes, “I understand this is odd, but have some manners and introduce yourselves!”
That brought Arthur back from his silence, “Oh! Yes of course, my name is Arthur Weasley, this is my son Ronald-”
“ Ron, not Ronald, honestly dad. ”
“Uh, yes of course, and this is Gine-”
“ Ginny.”
Arthur cuts a look at the both of them in fond annoyance but didn't say anything. “Yes, these are my two youngest, the twins down with Sirius and Remus are George and Fred,” Leaning forward and lowering his voice in a poor attempt at whispering, causing Scarlett to move towards him and over, making her go slightly in Harry's space which caused him to press back against his chair.
Huh, she smells like honey and something woodsy.
Wait, that was weird, don't smell people you just met Harry.
“Now don't be fooled by those two Ms. Davis, troublemakers the both of them they are. Loves pranks and the like.”
Ginny giggled while Ron huffed and crossed his arms, “Pranks all right, those two turned one of my toys into a bloody spider when I was younger and scarred me for life.” Scarlett's eyes widened and shot a slightly wary look to the other end of the table.
Scarlett absolutely hated spiders. “Oh…”
Ginny jumped in to reassure her, “Don’t worry, they're not quite so bad anymore. Besides until they know you a bit better, I highly doubt they will do anything, and if they do just let me know I'll set them right.” She let a sharp little grin creep across her face.
Scarlett gave a small chuckle, relaxing just a little since she sat down. “Thanks, I feel safer already. With a firecracker here to defend me.” A smirk appeared and made her nose scrunch a little, like a bunny.
Harry finally spoke up since she sat next to him, “Honestly Fred and George are pretty straight forward, it's Ginny here you have to watch out for, sneaky this one is.”
The table laughed in response, Arthur nodded his head and laced his hands together on the table. “Got a good brain, I think she may even have teamed up with the twins a time or two. Seems like some of the plans have gotten a bit more sophisticated as of late.” He threw a look over to Ginny, who hadn't said a word to confirm or deny the allegations. “I also have three more boys, Bill, Charlie, and Percy. Bill works with Gringotts as a ward breaker, he is currently in Egypt last time I knew."
"And Charlie is in Romania, he-" Ginny began.
"He works with Dragons! Its bloody awesome." Ginny sent a small glare over to Ron for cutting her off.
Arthur nodded, not noticing the alarmed look slowly showing on Scarletts face. "Your mother certainly wouldn't agree."
Ron crossed his arms and scoffed, "Yeah, she would rather all of us work for the Ministry, like Percy."
Scarletts mind went in circles, she didn't know how to take everything in, first werewolves and now dragons?
Without her knowledge she spoke out loud to herself. "What the absolute fuck... things like this don't exist."
The group got a little quiet after that and looked at her in confusion. Incredulously, Ron spoke. “What do you mean? Of course, they exist! Bill helps by traveling around and breaking the wards to excavation sites, like tombs and such. Wouldn’t want to trigger something and have a curse hurt them or something. Charlie helps wrangle the Dragons; I think he even helps with breeding too."
Blinking, Scarlett started shaking her head back and forth, that just gave her more questions than answers. Gave her a deeper look into this new world. Shaking her head she explained, “Listen I have no idea what that all means-” She swallowed, feeling the hysteria creeping in. Now that she's able to sit and somewhat relax everything is hitting her, hearing even more things, even as innocuous as it seems, is just too much for her; filled her ability to take things in stride to the brim and now it's all rushing out.
“I-I’ve seen things today… I’ve almost fucking died today; by a fucking werewolf of all things?! Things like- like magic, and werewolves, and fucking using a fireplace to poof into another location!? I’m not used to that; all that shit is in books or-or movies!” Voice breaking as her breaths pick up, her lips trembling and eyes burning with tears she tries to force back.
Pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes as she curls inward, her voice softens, “I’m not someone who gets scared or overwhelmed easily, but…I’m not from here, and I don't know how to get home…”
Silence followed, the interaction was quiet enough that the other people further in the room hadn't caught on to the shift in conversation.
The others were able to pick up what she meant after she explained further, though none knew how to breach the shocking discovery.
She was a muggle.
However, Hermione understood something like this had to be so surprising, to learn that another world resided unknowingly. Harry understood too, both of them did not grow up in this world, and even though things have been getting more serious now that Voldemort was back. They still had a smoother transition, from what it sounded like Scarlett’s introduction to the Wizarding World has been so sudden and scary. They don’t blame her for having such a strong reaction.
Hermione leaned forward and lowered her voice to be as soothing as she could, “Scarlett…you're a muggle, aren't you.” She worded it like a question, but it came out as a statement. Scarlett nodded, still not moving her hands from her face. Hermione decided to get up and move around to her other side, setting a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, she continued. “I’m not sure how you got here, in fact I haven't heard of a muggle just falling into this world for seemingly no reason. But I kind of understand what you are feeling-”
“Me too.” Harry interrupted.
Nodding to him, she added, “Harry and I understand a bit how you're feeling, we didn't grow up in this world. We found out when we turned 11, that's when we started going to Hogwarts, to learn about the magic we had. It was amazing to learn about and experience, but as the years went on…scary things started happening. I’m sorry that this has happened to you.”
Scarletts hands fell to her lap, eyes slightly red from tears lining her lashes. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, besides trying to find a way home. I don't have anything with me other than my bag.” She sighed heavily and met Hermione's eyes. “What's going to happen to me?”
Hermione didn’t have an answer to that, this situation is unprecedented so there really isn't one clear answer, but… “We take it one day at a time.” She knew that wasn't the answer Scarlett wanted, but it was the truth and the only thing they can do, for the moment.
Nodding in agreement Scarlett wiped her eyes and sat up straight; looking up to the rest of them she sheepishly smiled. “Sorry guys, I didn't mean to fall apart so suddenly.” Thankfully they all seemed understanding, if not a bit shocked.
It was quiet for a moment, until Arthur spoke up causing the teens to begin laughing. “So…do you know the function of a rubber duck?”
Scarlett looked at him in confused amusement. “Wha-” She was interrupted by the door leading to the kitchen to burst open, making the entire room quiet to everyone's attention to lock onto the tall dark figure that swept in.
It was a man, someone who Scarlett thought fit into the trope of tall, dark, and mysterious. Pitch black hair fell in a curtain to brush the tops of broad shoulders; framing a pale face, with dark furrowed brows shadowing glaring black eyes. Resting below are predominant sharp cheekbones, with a romanesque nose sitting between. Plush, but thin lips pressed into a line layered below and a strong chin that brought attention to the masculine, sharp jawline. All in all his face could not be considered classically handsome, but he had a harsh beauty about him that Scarlett found attractive. It helped that under the flowing black robes she could see the broad muscled shoulders leading down to a tapered waist. She liked what she saw, a lot.
And then he opened his mouth.
“Lupin, you’ve come back sooner than expected.”
“Yes, something suddenly came up so I had to return earlier than planned.”
“Hm, how…Unfortunate. I had wondered why I picked up the scent of mutt.”
Sirius stood up quickly, his chair screeching against the floor. “Oh, shut it Snivellis, at least Remus was doing something. What about you? Tortured anyone recently with your incessant need to be a bloody prat?”
“Sirius-”
“While unlike some, I have duties to attend to outside these walls. Pity, isn't it, considering you're still a wanted felon.” The deep smooth timber of his voice didn't match the absolute vitriol spitting out towards the other two men.
“At least I’m innocent! Not like I’m the one who’s a bloody De-.”
“Sirius! That is enough.” Remus interrupted. “Severus, please, there is no need for this.” He implored.
The newly identified Severus sneered in response, “There is no need for a dangerous creature like yourself, but here we are.” That jolted Scarlett from the frozen state she was in, indignation filled her at the insult sent to the man who literally saved her life from the real dangerous creature. She wasn't slow, she realized what he was insinuating about Remus.
She wasn't having any of the bullshit.
“Hey! Asshole, what the fuck gives you the right to talk to him that way?!”
Unknowingly Scarlett got up to confront the dick, not picking up whispered warnings from the teens. Walking to the three men she stood slightly in front of Remus, like she was trying to shield him from the verbal abuse sent his way. She waved off the hands that were trying to tug her back and away from the dark figure in front of her, Remus whispering her name and saying that it's fine and not to worry about it. She didn't care though, this man saved her life, and she would not allow him to be insulted by this douche.
She wasn't raised to sit back and be quiet. Her uncle always said she had fire in her blood, with how heated she would get when she saw any type of injustice in front of her.
Standing as tall as her 5’3 height could allow, only to tip her chin and glare up to the man who stood a whole foot taller than her.
Severus narrowed his eyes, “Who are you?”
“Someone who isn't gonna sit around and take the absolute bullshit coming out of your mouth.”