Chapter 1
The protective glass vanished. The fat -and loud- boy stumbled into the cage and fell into the puddle, and the snake started slithering deep into the zoo to the horror of the visitors.
I was only barely paying attention to the chaos it was causing. The thin boy who had been hissing to the snake -and getting hissed back by it- had proved to be far more interesting.
By the time I had recovered enough memories of my previous life to know that I wasn't back at Bet or any world with parahumans, I had noticed the bizarre accidents happening around me.
Seeing my chance I sent mom to distract the guardian of the boy, whose face appeared to be about to explode, and stepped in to say my bit.
"You. That wasn't the first time something like that happened, was it?"
That snapped him out of his confused daze. His green eyes -or to be more accurate, the eyelids around those green eyes- narrowed, taking me in before settling on my stump.
"Who are you?"
"No one important, I assure you. Just someone who might be experiencing some occurrences similar to the one you just went through." God, Coil had really rubbed off me.
"You mean the impossible things." I nodded. "Like how the glass vanished?" I nodded again. "Uh, one time, I turned a teacher's hair blue. I felt it. Does that count?"
"Unless you dyed it..."
"Uh, no. Another time, when my hair was shaven clean, it grew back in a night?"
I chuckled. "What's with you and hair?" He snorted, but not because he found what I said funny. "But yeah, those seem to be the exact kind of weirdness that follows me. Last saturday, I made my classroom's wall assimilate the door into itself, and no one could get in for two minutes. It went away fast enough for it to not get plastered all over the news and everyone ignored it." I paused. He had a slight smirk. "The snake. You were conversing with it?"
He looked suprised. "Yeah. You could hear what I was saying?"
I shook my head. "No. But let's talk about that another time." I thrusted my open left hand to him. "I'm Taylor. Taylor Hebert. A pleasure to meet you."
He grabbed my hand and shook it with energy. "And I'm Harry Potter."
That was when the adults came over and tore us apart. After I settled into the car, my mom remarked on the unpleasantness of the man who turned out to be Harry's uncle. "Honestly, he doesn't seem like a good parent. I didn't say anything to his face, but I got where they live. Conveniently close to us. We'll check on the kid. You want that, right?"
I merely nodded.
...
"Quite the coincidence to meet here."
Harry turned to me with a nice smile on his face. "Taylor! I was just paying for my wand. It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Hmm," I whispered as I greeted the old wandmaker with a nod. "You seem okay. But still. Are you?"
"Yeah, yeah, no problems. I'll tell you in detail later."
He had disappeared. His whole family had left. Right after telling me he had received the letter. I had written back to McGonagall, and to my suprise she had brought him back, but this was the first time we met since.
As Ollivander took my measurements, I asked Harry, "Wait for me? It'll take a few moments and then we can shop together."
Both of them grinned knowingly at that, and rightfully so, as I ended up searching for my wand for more than half an hour. Still, Harry didn't leave. The shop owner had to take out one of his father's works. Acromantula venom, a combination of Beech and Hornbeam, eleven inches long. When I touched it, sparks flashed in my mind, and I saw things I wasn't meant to see.
Ahhh.
Hi passenger.
Missed ya.
We left the shop, left Ollivander to his musing about his family tree and seers.
Shopping was mostly uneventful after that. But before parting ways...
My trunk bumped to something on the road as I slowed down. Harry was matching my pace since we started walking, so he did too.
"Harry, don't go back there."
He turned to me, scared but hopeful, ever so easy to read.
"Stay with us, mom and me. Until we can go to Hogwarts."
He didn't answer. Not for a while.
Then...
"If you'll have me..."
I smiled. Lisa would have loved this kid.