Change
Hari Potter was 19 years old when she died. She woke up in the clean, white Kings Cross station with no idea of how she got there. Hari walked around the platform for a while, admiring the architecture. A train was idling on the tracks, in no hurry to leave. A silver, ornate door formed at the edge of one platform - it looked to be made of moonlight. Dumbledore once said curiosity is not a sin. Hari shrugged and walked through the door.
“You have got to be kidding me,” said Hari. She was shivering, curled on her side on a cot with familiar stairs overhead. “My next great adventure is in the cupboard under the stairs?”
At the sound of her high-pitched voice, Hari looked down at her body. Her tiny body.
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It didn’t take long for Hari to realize she was in a different reality and 13 years old again. The magical world didn’t exist. There was no Hogwarts, no dragons, no house elves, no Diagon Alley…nothing.
The Dursleys hated everything about her, but not out of fear of the magical world. Oh no. They were extremely religious. Not the ‘turn the other cheek’ or ‘love your neighbor’ type of religious. Petunia, especially, was the ‘suffer not a witch to live’ and, well…old testament…type of believer.
Everyday, Hari was thankful this was her second life, since she had control over her magic. There were no unexplained incidents of objects being summoned to her, hair growing back over night, speaking of flying motorcycles, or shrinking ugly sweaters.
But even though the Dursleys knew nothing of magic, Hari was undoubtedly odd. To the Dursleys, odd meant different, and different meant evil.
Hari thought she could get away with scribbling down the basic concepts from Arithmancy. In her previous life, Hari adored Arithmancy – she’d never been able to pursue it much due to a horrid, genocidal stalker – and this new life seemed a great opportunity to work on it.
But the Dursleys found some of her notes.
They reacted horribly.
The never-ending days in the darkness of the cupboard let her focus on her Occlumency, which let her distract herself with more Arithmancy. It let her avoid thinking about her thirst and hunger. And her bladder.
Hari vaguely wondered about how numb she had become. She wasn’t too worried. If things became too violent or dangerous, she’d use a portkey to get away.
And then one day they let her out of the cupboard. Vernon was downright cheery, and Petunia wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
Hari took a deep breath and caressed her portkey. Even though she was exhausted and starving, she could probably apparate if worse came to worst. Having at least two methods of escape was calming.
“Eat quickly, girl. We’re going to the airport,” said Petunia.
Hari watched the Dursleys while scarfing down the two pieces of toast Petunia pointed to.
She knew better than to ask questions.
In less than three hours, Hari was bemused to find herself sitting on an airplane in the row in front of the Dursleys. They were headed to California!
Something was definitely wrong, but Hari was going to enjoy as much as she could.
Regardless of jetlag, after a brief night of sleep near Los Angeles the Dursleys headed off to a Disney park. In no uncertain terms, they told Hari that she must stay at the hotel. Hari had no desire to spend the day with the Dursleys, but sometimes a pang of being so unwanted would make itself known.
She shrugged. It was time to explore LA! Hari set alarm wards around her hotel room to make sure she’d know when the Dursleys approached, put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, and headed out.
Tourist pamphlets were amazing – the pictures gave her a visual of a destination so she could apparate. One disillusionment charm, one muffliato, one apparition, and Hari was staring at the ocean.
The ocean. She’d always wanted to see the ocean. Well, she’d always wanted to see a beach. A proper beach. Not the rocky shore near the inferi-infested death cave of Voldemort’s. A shiver went down her spine at the memory.
The ocean was so beautiful. It wasn’t light blue or green like pictures of the Caribbean. It was more of a gray color, but still gorgeous. The sound of the waves and feel of the constant breeze off the water was incredible. She wanted to live on the beach.
Then someone bumped into her. Ok. She wanted to live on a private beach somewhere. She just needed to get away from the Dursleys and make a boatload of money.
Toward the end of the day, she apparated back to her hotel room. The Dursleys showed up later, sunburned and grumpy, and didn’t look at her before heading out to dinner. Later, Petunia told Hari that the Dursleys were going to an aquarium tomorrow, and Hari needed to stay put and not make any trouble.
The next day, Hari decided to check out the CalTech campus. In her school library, she’d found one book on Calculus and had tried to see where Arithmancy and Calculus overlapped. At CalTech, there were math books from floor to ceiling. Heaven. This was heaven. Hari lost herself in the first book she found.
The pattern repeated for several days. The Dursleys would spend the day at a tourist destination, and Hari would explore, usually finding her way back to the CalTech library.
On the fifth day, Hari was spending her morning at the beach when the proximity alarm of her hotel room went off. She quickly apparated to the room and opened the door.
“Hello?” she asked.
A weary looking woman said, “What are you doing here? Your group already checked out. They returned their keys…” The woman kept muttering.
After a hasty confundus charm, Hari made her way to the front desk. Some very light legilimency let her see the memory of the Dursleys checking out earlier that morning with no intention of returning.
Hari was in a foreign country without a passport, and she’d just been abandoned.
She didn’t know whether to celebrate or cry.
Did she want to make her way back to them? No. No, she did not. She didn’t want to spend another night under their abusive care.
But now she was penniless and homeless in a foreign country.
Thank Merlin for magic.
Hari made her way to the CalTech library and found an unused, dusty closet. She quickly stepped inside, cast a lumos, and surveyed her new home. A few spells cleaned all of the dust. She transfigured a little cot and put up some rudimentary wards to discourage anyone from entering.
That night, Hari closed her eyes and relaxed her muscles. Really, it wasn’t so bad. She’d be terrified without magic. Locking charms guaranteed she’d sleep undisturbed. Her invisibility cloak meant she could get food from the cafeteria without paying – she consoled herself that it wasn’t stealing if she waited until the food was about to be thrown out or donated. Cleansing charms helped with hygiene.
After finding an empty, abandoned notebook and pencil, Hari started to write everything she could about Arithmancy. And she didn’t have to worry about anyone hurting her for doing math.
She ignored the screeching part of her brain.
Really, this wasn’t so bad.
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Sheldon was annoyed. They were in one of CalTech’s libraries, looking up references for his latest paper. His friends said they would help him, but they weren’t doing much. Leonard and Howard were whispering to each other. At least Raj was slowly moving through a stack of journals.
Sighing, Sheldon stood and walked to a bookshelf to grab another pile of journals. Something caught his eye. A few notebooks were on the shelf away from the other journals. The notebooks didn’t have a Dewey Decimal barcode or any library information. He opened the top notebook to the first page. Good Lord! It was handwritten notes. Some heathen left their undoubtedly pointless scribbles near peer reviewed journals.
After scanning the first few pages, Sheldon froze. Then he went back to the first page and looked for a name. Nothing. He grabbed the entire stack of notebooks and brought them back to the table.
Sheldon had flipped through the first quarter of one notebook when an angry voice interrupted.
“Hey! Those are mine. Give them back!”
Sheldon looked up, eyes wide. A teenage girl was yelling at him.
“These are yours?” Sheldon asked.
The girl nodded, scowling.
“This is incredible!” he said in an unusually high voice. “You need to publish these. Are you in the mathematics department? Who’s your advisor? Why on earth haven’t I heard of you? With work like this surely the mathematics department would have been crowing…”
While Sheldon rattled on, the girl reached out to grab the notebooks. Their hands brushed together. They froze, eyes wide, breath ragged.
Sheldon stared into her jewel green eyes and vaguely became aware of someone speaking.
“Skin contact. Increased respiration and heart rate–” Howard was saying.
“Oh. My God.” And that was Leonard.
Sheldon’s mind made the facts fall into place. “Hello, soulmate,” he whispered.
“Errr. Hi. What’s your…what’s your name?” she asked.
“Sheldon Cooper.”
She gently squeezed his hand. “I’m Hari. Just Hari.”