Normal Now and All That Goes With It
Regular Story Narrative.
Thoughts/ Memory flashback.
A little girl sat where she was told and swung her legs boredly.
She wasn’t sure what was going to happen now.
It was WEIRD being this small again.
It was even weirder being a girl.
It was weirdest though that she had memories of an entire other life… well, it had been HER life.
Sort of. It HAD been Harry Potter's life but that was two months ago.
The War against Voldemort had cost him pretty everything he even vaguely cared about.
His pseudo family;
the Weasleys didn’t know him now, didn’t recognise him in his changed form, no one who had known Harry did. DAMN YOU VOLDEMORT,
his looks;
Voldemort had not gone down easily and the backlash of his last spell had obliterated anything that might have identified him as a Potter. Even in this female form she looked nothing like either of her parents. It hurt SO much!,
his gender;
She was a girl now and that made all the Magical stuff SO much more complicated,
his best male friend;
Ron. Ron WHY. Why did you do it? Why did you give in so easy? You had enough stubbornness to drown the world but just gave in and folded and Harry had had to set up the puppet that had once been his first friend to be killed and he KNEW why. He did but…,
his best female friend;
Hermione. Poor Hermione. She’d been SO sure they’d be safe there at least for a little bit. Tortured screams. Memories he couldn’t escape. Memories that were blurred now but still there. Memories of a tortured mutilated body and staring eyes. They hadn’t been fast enough tracking her down. Not fast enough to get her back. She’d been given to the werewolves and Ron had loved her. Loved her and never told her. No wonder Ron hadn’t fought. No wonder he’d given in. He’d thrown himself into battle recklessly again and again. He was just waiting until something killed him so he could join her!,
his fame;
Unwanted and not missed but Harry maybe could have used it. He’d never know now. He’d never even have a chance to try,
his name;
He… SHE was Arrietta Flora Potter now. That was the name he… she would have been given if she were born female. His… HER mother’s diary said so. It was on her Magical birth certificate. All that had made her Harry James Potter was gone),
his relatives - even if that was no great loss;
the Dursleys had been caught and ‘dealt with’ early on - on Halloween, Harry’s birthday and Christmas respectively. Not even Marge had been spared. She’d gotten it on New Years. Harry had thrown up, thrashing and crying blood.
and possibly, possibly even his Magic.
Bright green eyes were no longer bright or green. They were a hazel brown now and dull. Messy black hair was gone. Replaced again by wispy brown locks that, while straighter than her former mess, was still uncontrollable. She didn’t even get auburn like her mum. Just… just a dull mousy brown. It was dry too and so, so brittle.
Her skin was sallow and dry.
Her lips were pale and cracked.
She was practically a skeleton from nearly two years on the run and guerilla fighting.
The bags under her eyes were practically luggage sets.
If her physical condition was an indication of her Magical state then her Magic probably was gone for good.
Honestly, all things considered, you’d have thought she’d be glowing instead of dull but no... not only was she still covered in the scars and injuries Harry had carried, especially those gained in the final battle but her body was flooded with Magic contamination of various different sorts meaning she had to be left to heal by normal muggle means.
Being a kid again meant she might as well be a Muggle. A Quirkless Muggle at that.
She was dangerous to have around other Magicals which is why she couldn’t stay with Andy and Teddy. She’d… she’d tried to touch her… Harry’s wand and… and it was gone. It burned to ash in seconds. She hadn’t dared try touching another wand despite how the Elder Wand tempted. The price of Magic was more than she’d ever counted on but… but… it had been HERS. Something that made her special even if it had made the Dursleys hate her. She didn’t WANT hers to be drowned out and gone!
Her parents had been lost to her and this stupid war thanks to Dumbledicks utterly crappy planning and generalship.
Her mother had worried. Like Harry she’d sensed something amiss but she didn’t have Harry’s utterly crappy ‘childhood’ to hone her edge and didn’t want to believe badly of her professors and adult authority figures. She’d been easy to ‘soothe’... and toss in Dumbledore’s favorite’s direction. Harry didn’t want to think too hard on WHY his father had been Dumble’s favorite now knowing what he did about the old perv…
Her first childhood…
she never got one and this second one wasn’t looking to be too promising either. She’s picked up how the Quirkless were treated by regular society even if it wasn’t as bad in England and America. Suicides still happened and Harry had had a couple of Quirkless classmates who were treated near as bad as he was by the bullies. Everyone had been sure Harry was Quirkless simply because of how the Dursleys had treated him.
She just… didn’t know what was going to happen next?
Arrietta Potter was no one now, despite the name. Just another orphan made by the war.
She still had the Potter accounts by being the only Heir but her Magical signature was… muddled. That meant she didn’t have access, not even when she was fully grown. Not until her Magic cleared or she had a brat with Magic.
That was SO weird. SHE’D be having the baby now if she ever had kids. She… wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Or if she’d even want too. She’d never even got the chance to think about her sexuality. Did she still like girls? Had she ever even liked girls or had she just shown interest because it was expected?... She didn’t know. Didn’t want to think about that right now. Nope. Not at all.
The Black accounts, which she was still an Heir of, were even more inaccessible as she was in no way, size or shape a Pure Blood and worse, she was female. Until she had a kid with Magic, that Lordship was also fallow.
Little Teddy, being half creature AND from a disowned line was deemed unacceptable and Malfoy Jr was apparently far too Malfoy to be a Black.
Neville, though he’d survived despite his remaining relatives best efforts, was already Lord Longbottom. That was incompatible with the Black Family Magics.
Even if she didn’t have Magical kids, what was one more fallen family line? It wasn’t like there hadn’t been a dozen and more others that had gone extinct.
Arri had sort of worked out what happened.
Dumbledick had set her up to die… unnecessarily too. She hadn’t been a Horcrux but she HAD been a conduit. Her link to Voldi had been because of the damage Dumbledore’s ‘well intentioned’ restrictions placed on her… or rather, Harry, to keep her hidden from any seeking her and make sure her Magic didn’t harm her relatives (they weren’t family. In NO way were those… things family.) since the Horcrux had disappeared the first time she died.
Isn’t it just f’ing sick that she’d not even been seven the first time the Dursleys had been her death… and NO ONE seemed to have noticed. Or cared.
Death must be right sick of her not turning up when she was supposed to by now but at least it hadn’t been Harry’s fault.
It was the Prophecy that kept bringing the then young boy back and, now that it was fulfilled, that ‘protection’ was gone.
Dumbles couldn’t be sure she’d survived and likely hadn’t cared so long as she took Voldi down with her. For the Greater Good after all. Bastard.
At least he’d died screaming and in pain and Harry had gotten to witness it! It was the only time he hadn’t regretted his link to Voldimort. He’d even managed to bemuse the once man with the leakage of his own feelings of glee at the old man’s death.
Harry had known there was something shifty about the old man and never did trust him fully despite everyone and their dog trying to peddle how great the Headmaster was. Things like Memory Alteration spells existed and if he was THAT powerful it wouldn’t be hard to screw people over like that. He’d figured out that while at the Dursleys.
It was lucky Harry was… had been an accomplished liar and actor.
Especially once he learned it was the old perv (yes, he recognised that look in his eyes. The look of eyeing his young charges with ‘interest’. If he’d laid a hand or wand on a single one, Harry would have killed him no matter WHAT it took. Wouldn’t be the first time though that one had been saved and had died in jail. Apparently even criminals don’t like Paedophiles.) who dumped him in Durskaban AND bound him so he wouldn’t ‘harm the helpless Muggles’ and kept fucking doing it when his succession of deaths kept breaking it. The mind wipes on both he and the muggles hadn’t helped either.
By the time little Harry got to Hogwarts, his fear of death and self preservation were totally messed up and his trust in adult figures was completely gone.
He could and did still worry over other people though.
Which was how the perv got a hook in him serving up Hermione and Ron on a platter. Maybe he’d been primed by a spell or two as well… or a potion. Snape would have been totally up for that oath to protect Harry or not. It had been clear he completely loathed Harry even though it was obvious the Dursleys had mistreated him.
(Now that she thought about it… he might well have been half mad. After all, his Oath had been to protect Harry but Harry kept being killed and then dragged back. That couldn’t have done good things to ANYONE’S mind or Magic no matter how skilled at Legilimency and that was without factoring in the Dark Mark’s taint and whatever fuckery Dumbles had added.)
It had taken Arrietta a lot of thinking and back tracking. (Harry had had to start thinking for himself when… when… when… Hermione… Nope. Nope. Not thinking about that right now.)
It had been pretty tangled but with that last round of death, spell rebound and regeneration ( or whatever you wanted to call it) no one had cared about Arrietta Potter despite the name.
As far as they could tell, she was a child the DE’s had brought in for some reason. Likely someone the Dark Lord had corrupted. The fact that her name was Potter and that she vaguely had a Potter like Magical signature made them pretty sure she was intended to be ritual fodder for some strike at Harry… which must have worked because there was no trace of him now.
They gave her basic care since she was likely a Potter Heiress however that had come about and they had lost too many families already.
No one knew her or recognised her.
No one she or rather Harry had been close to who wasn’t direct blood family believed her. (Neville seemed to have a bit of resistance but then they were Godbrothers and sworn blood brothers as well. They WERE distantly related but apparently it was TOO distantly to stick. He knew SOMEthing amiss with the story given and the little girl found but couldn’t put his finger on it. If he hadn’t seen her for a while… and he hasn’t, he forgot. And she was FINE with that. His life had been disrupted enough. Let him be the hero. Have the spotlight. He deserved it and Harry… Harry had NEVER wanted it.)
So far that was Andy and Malfoy.
Malfoy at least had turned in the War and had his OWN redemption arc.
Arri was just glad Harry had thought to leave behind pensive memories exonerating Malfoy and explaining Snape though that arse hat deserved all that had came to him. Sure he’d had a shitty life but been three quarters mad by the end of things, pulled in three different directions with oaths and loyalties but his only true loyalty had been to himself and the memory of a woman he’d coveted. Without the Oaths binding him, Arry and Harry too, had no doubt Snape would have happily left them to rot.
Sure he’d saved Harry’s life but only to safe guard him so that he could die on schedule to take out Voldi… and he’d been an utter dick to an abused kid.
So, yeah no. Screw him.
She or Harry anyway, had seen memories in a Pensive and Harry’s memories, all of them, felt like that now. It didn’t help with the nightmares though.
Maybe because some of the memories, especially the ones from the last fight, were sort of a bit unclear and scrambled.
At any rate, there was no one who could or even would take her now. Not with how she made Magicals feel. Not with her muddied impure Magical signature.
Being reset to the age of her first death SUCKED.
Apparently, according to the Goblins anyway, there was another relative though, on the Evans side. He was like a distant cousin or something… she didn’t know. BUT he was the only one who was legal to take her now, which is what had her here, curled up in an uncomfortable chair in an office in Gringotts.
Arri counted herself lucky that while the Gob’s were mad, it wasn’t at her and wouldn’t have been, even if she was still Harry. It had been brainwashed Ron who’d done the stealing. She… Harry anyway, had tried to warn them and been snatched up when they didn’t believe him.
The puppetted corpse thing that had been Ron died but the dragon had flown off with Harry.
The Goblins knew who she was, had been, whatever and so had believed her when she’d explained things as far as she knew to them so the rest of the Weasleys weren’t in trouble because of it.
They’d lost enough. Too much really. Last thing they needed was to be in debt to the bank.
She’s been sitting here for more than an hour now having only gotten up to use the washroom.
She asked “Mr Goblin, is it alright if I have a nap? I don’t know what’s gonna happen next and… and… if you wanted me dead I would be by now so I want to get some sleep while I can ‘cause I don’t know what’s gonna happen next…”
The goblin didn’t even bother answering. They just waved a clawed hand at her in permission.
Arri curled up again, in her not quite fitting clothes, and did her best to doze off.
She WAS tired… but she was always tired now and everything was sort of… muted? Anyway, a nap sounded real good.
---
A loud voice jolted Arri awake and tipped her straight into a flashback.
A man in all western gear with a quiet voice talked her down.
She hadn’t had one before mostly ignored as she was but it wasn’t fun and she was… more tired than ever now.
The western themed one with the accent picked her up.
There was a dark haired man who looked a bit like Sirius… She’s too tired to concentrate.
---
When she wakes up next, she’s on a plane.
The three men are all pro Heroes. Japanese ones despite one’s western getup.
They all teach at the top Hero school of Japan.
Their professional names are Snipe, Present Mic and Eraser Head.
Arri will be happy to tell them EVERYTHING but not until she has a chance to meet with their boss who, if rumour is right, is smart enough to figure out pretty much everything anyway so why bother telling it all twice.
She… wasn’t sure about anything anymore but she did know one thing, whatever issues the WW and the Enclaves had, it wasn’t HER problem anymore. Everyone had gone out of their way to show her that SHE wasn’t important, that she had no say and… actually, she was fine with that.
She was… She felt a bit spiteful to be so disregarded even understanding it was part of the fall out of Voldi’s final strike spell.
Even so she was tired of this. Tired of EVERYTHING and she didn’t want to know all the… the horror that she did.
Being a conduit to Voldi, she had his memories and actions leaking back through it to her or rather, Harry.
She didn’t WANT it. Any of it.
She was NORMAL now.
She wanted to BE normal.
She didn’t WANT all that in her head. Not anymore.
She… she wasn’t special.
Wasn’t a prophecy child. Could stay properly dead now if she was killed.
She wasn’t… she wasn’t… and she didn’t NEED any of this stuff left in her head by Riddle, Voldie, Harry or ANYONE else.
She was so… SO weary… but she didn’t think she wanted to join Ron and Mione just yet even if she’d tied what loose ends she could.
Kreacher had left his instructions.
It was the last thing she could legally do for him since she wasn’t Harry Potter anymore.
The last thing she could do for the last of the remaining Blacks.
Tonks had been brought back into the family when Sirius had reinstated her line.
(Andy couldn’t be reinstated but her daughter, who had the Black family line gift, had been brought back in so Teddy was a legit Black and now, apart from Aizawa san - Mr Eraserhead, but not the Black Heir because he was half werewolf.
Malfoy was, apparently, too Malfoy to be a proper Black.)
He’d be checking up on all the Black properties to see what needed doing.
He’d be bringing in new elves to see to their care. Elves sworn to little Teddy.
Andy could help him Bond them. He might not be Heir but he was Black enough for them to Bond to, to give them instructions in the meantime and Andy could guide him…
Arri could barely even summon Kreature and she wouldn’t even try across the ocean from him. It would kill him as surely as freeing him would.
It would likely mean that this was the last time she’d see him and she’d miss the old grump but… there was little chance her muddied signature would clear especially not near any of the Enclaves… Magic triggered her now.
Arri would tell her new uncle figures EVERYTHING because A, they deserve to know and B, SOMEONE should know the whole story even if the Magical Enclaves likely never would...and… and… she was pretty sure she SHOULD tell someone.
She… just wanted to try being normal, doing normal things and… and… NOT rushing into danger for people who weren’t grateful and, indeed, expected it from her… from Harry.
She didn’t WANT to be a child soldier/ slave/ servant / whatever again.
Since the Enclaves didn’t care about her.
Since she wasn’t anyone important.
No one would care what one little, underaged, ex Magical girl did right?
And, if she was careful about it, no one would have their memory wiped and she could leave it to the ADULTS to fix things.
(It hadn’t worked before but these were Pro Heroes right?
They HAD to be competent. BETTER than the Wizarding world adults because they couldn’t AFFORD to stick their heads in the sand. It’d get them killed… Now, if only she could get herself to believe that.
She’d try anyway for the aforementioned reasons.)
---
Three days of exhausted sleeping, a health check (Recovery Girl gave the same no nonsense vibe Madam Pomfrey did and it nearly tipped her into another flashback.
Madam Pomfrey had been a Dumble stooge pretty much ignoring all the damage he’d come in with and just patching him up from school and then War issues.
FUCK HER.
At least Recovery Girl was livid about the residue of the damage she’d taken.
Even at seven, Harry had carried a fair amount of damage and so Arri also carried it.
She’d lost a lot of the underlaying damage, the scarring simply being marks on her skin… well, outside of significant Curse marks.
She had a starburst burn mark on her chest from the final strike though the lightning bolt scar had faded, lost in another that bisected her face, causing the hair that grew along it to come in white. That one, at least, would fade.),
a discussion of who would get primary custody
(that turned out to be Snipe san… or rather Ikuragi Ren… she was still confused about which was his first name and which was his family one, since he had the one job while Aizawa san and Present Mic san - whose name was actually Yamada Hizashi, both worked two to three jobs. No WONDER Aizawa san looked so tired and Yamada san was so… extra.
San, she’d been told, was the equivalent of Mr, Miss, or Mrs.. or anything else.
It was weird to think of the elses now… and have to worry about things like people’s pronouns.
In the WW you were male or you were female.
They were still looking sideways at same sex couples.
Mistresses, concubines, toy boys and the like were still a thing and marriage was for life. Babies, unless they were festival sired, born outside of marriage was still heavily frowned on… she wasn’t sure how that worked with the Mistresses and Concubines thing but if there was one thing she’d learned about the WW was that you had your pick of double standards and prejudices.
Except for the matriarchal lines, it was a heavily patriarchal society and she was… sort of… glad to be out of it. They might not have had much in the way of racism but everything else ism they had that and more. There was simply more variety to be prejudiced against…
Her mum, Lily Evans, was thought to have some Feline Enchantress in her line.
That was where Wizards way back when started mucking about with animals and contorting them into human ish forms… and then fucking and breeding them because Wizards.
There were a slew of them, mostly made from domestic beasts. It was a Furries wet dream. Feline Enchantress were cat based of course. But there had been foxes and cows and horses and dogs and deer and sheep and rabbits and… otters oddly enough. Seals and similar creatures too. It was where the stories of Kelpies and Selkies came from… and also thought to be the origin of Lycanthropy as well.
Bins may have been an utterly rubbish teacher but Wizarding History was fascinating in the way a car crash or train wreck is fascinating. You want to look away but really, really can’t.
She’d started letting herself fall down research rabbit holes to distract from how horrible everything was after Hermione’s death even if the knowledge had stood Harry no real use beyond proving once more what an utter shit show of hypocrisy the WW was. That and they were the sort of obscure but interesting facts Hermione had hoarded.
The condensed version came to rather than admit his mother was simply a very talented and powerful Muggleborn or from a squib line that was coming awake, they decided she must have something in the mix that made her finally accept his dad’s overtures when she’d shunned him for the bullying toe rag he’d been all through school. Heaven forbid that she simply saw he was finally getting his head out of his rear and growing up…
There was a LOT to learn but she was going to take her TIME dammit. She had that now and if she wanted to be average and damn well slow, she WOULD be!),
where she would live,
her schooling,
her therapy - because YES she was getting that and even agreed with it though not before she’d explained everything,
shopping because she’d nothing but the clothes on her back and whatever was tucked into the now very tatty messenger back Hermione had enchanted so nothing she could really use outside of the Enclaves - she didn’t even access to the Potter Vaults and she’d asked that the Cloak be put back in the main vault while the Elder Wand had shattered and the Stone had returned to it’s origin as a river stone- long and short, she was skint… even the broom Sirius had gifted Harry was gone.
Long and short, there were LOTS of things to sort, lots of people to meet and lots of recovery that needed to happen. What Arry wanted most though was time. People wanted to rush to get her set up and she got that, she did… but she wanted to go slow. To STOP. To have a chance to absorb things at her own rate and to finally, finally decompress.
It would be messy. She knew that but if she wanted a chance at a normal life…
-0-
For a being who was head shorter Nedzu was surprisingly intimidating.
Arri has to be careful how she phrases things so as not to bring the Japanese Aurors down on their heads (if they have like a keyword or trigger that’s tripped by Magicals using it she won’t be setting if off. She’s not even sure she counts as Magical anymore but it’s better not to risk it.) but she tells it, ALL of it.
The basic set up of the English WW - she has no idea about the Japanese ones, the universal ‘Quirk’ they all shared called ‘Magic’ and the ‘support item’ most of them needed to use it, the basic forms of transport (yes, that included the broom), Magic specific things like Floo, the Night Bus, Portkeys and Apparition, the approach to medicine (spells or potions for everything, with the occasional ritual used in a pinch), the casual response to potentially dangerous things, this included Quidditch and Broom racing, the sheer gullibility of the masses and the sheep like mentality, the family lines, the bigotry, bringing in of the new blood in the ‘Quirkless’ from outside the Enclaves and the limiting of contact with their families…
From there she ventured into the recent history of the English Enclaves, the building tension of the Grindelwald war and its fall out, then the Blood Wars build up, the state of most of the families after the first one and the prophecy…
How it could have been Harry or his Godbrother Neville… and how Voldi had chosen Harry as his target and thus, the Prophecy Child.
She explained the loss of his parents, his raising and ‘conditioning’ at the hands of the Dursleys, his stream of deaths and how he could stay that way due to his link with Voldi, about Horcrux, what they were and what they did, about Dumbledore’s enabling and abuse… and plans, the Hogwarts years, Harry’s friends and the resistance, losing Hermione and then Ron, having to learn and study and plan for himself on the fly and carrying the hunt solo, the final battle and the fall out of that final strike spell.
Harry had become Arri and no one but direct blood relations knew who she once was and what her other self had done.
How she’d been reset to the time of Harry’s first death.
How her Magic was now so muddled she couldn’t stay in a Magically rich environment or around Magical people anymore without hurting them and herself anymore and how it might never recover since it happened due to over saturation from being at ground zero from a final strike spell.
How she still had all of Harry’s memories, some of Dumbledores and a bunch of Tom Riddle, who had become Voldemorts, even if they were all dim and blunted, like being watched with a Quirk or a Pensive. Like… like none of them were actually hers.
She was the last of the Potters sure but… she honestly couldn’t bring herself to care right now but the Enclaves were still essentially operating on mid nineteenth century models and morals. Arranged matches among the purebloods were common particularly among the Neutral and Dark families.
Had he stayed, Aizawa san if the Blacks hadn’t killed him outright, would have been expected to marry and have offspring… much as Arri would have been.
Andy, who was kicked out of her family for marrying a Muggleborn (someone brought in from outside the Enclaves) and how Harry’s falsely accused ‘criminal’ Godfather had brought her daughter back in since she had the Family Bloodline Gift (these were like line specific Quirks.
Most of the old Families had a bent towards specific Magics and each of the Sacred Twenty Eight… those that survived which weren’t many now, had such a specific gift as well.
A Family Magic.
For the Blacks it was Metamorphmagi. Shapeshifting though mostly only human forms.
Harry hadn’t had much of the Black’s Magic being more of a Potter. He’d been able to shift the shade of his hair colour slightly and that was all.) and, even though she’d bred with a Werewolf (yep, those and Vampires and Zombies, though the Magicals call them Inferi, existed too.) her son, Teddy, was now of the Black line again and also Harry’s Godson.
In case they wanted to know, Unicorns, Dragons and fairies also exist though they need areas of high Magical concentration to survive which is why most Muggles, what the Enclaves call non Magicals in England, never see them.
How she set up the remaining family servant to look up the remaining family properties and to look after the few remaining Blacks and how said servant, a Magical being themselves, confirmed that Quirks had come from Magic and that Magic had been around thousands of years before the first Quirks (Also the existence of other species, natural like the Vela, the Goblins, the Dwarves, the Merfolk and the Centaurs and the created like the various animal based breeding beings. Those were extinct now but they had been cross bred through the Wizarding bloodlines and the speculation about Harry’s mother… and the bias and bigotry aimed at ALL Magicals who weren’t the so called ‘Pure Bloods.’) and the other Enclaves that dotted the globe.
She talked herself hoarse and then, when Recovery Girl san healed that, did it twice more.
She fell asleep while they were talking, full of tea and snacks and exhausted one thing, if a very important one, checked off her list.
---
To say the adults were utterly horrified was an understatement.
When Arry finally surfaced again she was asked for what she’d like to do next.
Unsurprisingly, that was try and be as normal as possible.
She’d learn Japanese, go to school, maybe go to therapy, learn how to do modern things…
Oh and Magic and electrical items don’t go well together. She’s not sure how her current situation would carry over.
BUT, as far as possible, she’d like to have a normal childhood now.
Maybe, maybe even a new name and identity.
She’d like to try various things and find out if there was something she could be good at without a Quirk or Magic. Something that would be all her own talents or abilities.
To learn without having to cram.
To find out who she was without the Prophecy Child destiny hanging over her head.
To see if Harry’s ‘saving people thing’ was natural or implanted and if it carried over.
To learn things because she wanted to learn them not because she might need them to save her or someone else’s life.
To be frivolous and silly and not have to worry constantly about fallout.
To find out what it was like to play without being made to feel guilty or being bullied.
She’d also sort of like for this apathy and tiredness to wear off too since she’d very much like to actually do things and right now it was hard to muster the will to do… anything more than loaf.
That’s… fine actually.
She has all the time in the world now.
If she wants an ordinary, civilian life she can have that.
-0-
Three months later, she is doing tutoring to help her learn the basics that she missed due to neglect, abuse and bullying.
She has a gentle exercise regime, is seeing a therapist in the know, has met Aizawa san’s ward who is two years older than she is and has met his protege and his ‘hell class’ in ones and twos.
Finding her a therapy animal was difficult because most of the common ones had unfortunate associations and some were actively triggering.
Dogs? Ripper and Sirius, nope. SO much nope.
Birds? Hedwig and Fawks. Super nope on that.
Cats? Proff McG, Crookshanks (who had died defending his person) and Mrs Figg.
Hahaha. Nope.
Reptiles? Dragons, Nagini and Voldi himself… No way, no how.
Nothing Aquatic either. The murderous Merfolk and the lake full of Inferi had even she shying away. Any swimming - since she did need to learn properly, would be done in a nice safe pool or at the beach.
Rodents… after Wormtail the traitor? Definitely not!
(It was lucky she realised the hyper intelligent animal that was the U.A. Principal was NOT a rat but some sort of Chimera… maybe a part of the Weasel family.
What? She’d done a lot of looking up animals in the interest of becoming Animagi like her dad and the Marauders.
Well, Harry had anyway even if they’d never really got the chance to try.
Harry HAD identified his form if not had the time to refine it. It had been part of the weasel family but with wings… because Harry had LOVED flying.
She wondered if she would too and what she could do about it to see if she still did. She had Ron’s old broom in her bag she thought. It was better than nothing.)
Nothing equine because Buck Beak.
Nothing insect either. Blast Ended Screwts anyone?
She was recommended to get SOMETHING though.
Instead, she started volunteering to help out at various shelters.
Hopefully, she’d find something that would suit her.
As to her name… well, she’d been Arry for a very short time. It wouldn’t take long before she adapted to something new and, with the way Quirks had altered people's appearance, there was no ‘base normal’ anymore except among the ‘Quirkless’ (most of which were Magical and soon scooped up by their local Enclave), once she learned Japanese no one would ever know she wasn’t a local.
She was tired of having to do things for herself and kids rarely got to pick their own names so, if her three ‘uncles’ (easier than figuring out what degree of relation they were) could come up with a name all three of them agreed on, she would have that as a name.
Though, if possible, she would like something with a plant or flower influence. Female Evens usually had floral names which is why she had a floral second name even now.
The English name could remain on file for Magical stuff that might crop up but she wanted a civilian, Japanese, identity.
She wanted as much separation from the Enclaves and her identity in them as possible.
The Chimera Principal and her uncles agreed.
It was a toss up between Sumire (violet) or Kaede (maple) and Arry had no preference.
A literal coin was flipped and Kaede was the final pick.
She took Snipes surname as well, all the better to hide her identity.
-0-
Fourteen year old Kaede came back to herself very confused and with a raging headache.
It seemed she’d been snatched by Villains with a bone to pick against another new Villain… or possibly Vigilante that was a dead ringer for her.
They were… unhappy to have a useless, helpless civilian in hand instead and then they were raided. She was taken off with the Villains and the stupid ‘Hero’ in charge wouldn’t listen to her, to eager to have the credit for having taken down her look alike.
Now Kaede was just getting annoyed.
The stupid Villains had taken away her bag with her phone and identity papers as well. The police wouldn’t listen either. They were young and Hero struck.
Luckily her Mirror hadn’t been taken. The match to it was in Principal Nedzu’s paws.
While she was sitting in her guarded hospital room, she went to the bathroom, activated it and explained the situation.
She’d just come back from vacation with her Uncles to handle a bit of Wizarding paperwork for Teddy as Andy was getting on in years and the loss of her husband, son in law and daughter weighed heavily on her.
Teddy might be going to live with either her or Malfoy depending on how Andy was managing.
It seemed Neville had stepped up in Harry’s place and was being his father / brother/ whatever positive male role model figure. That was just like him.
They both seemed to find comfort in the relationship and Kaede was happy for them.
Coming back to this was an annoyance and a shock.
She was a CIVILIAN and happy to stay that way.
She had a bit of training but it was purely self defence level and certainly NOT up to fighting Villains or picking cuffs, untying ropes or whatever.
She was indignant, edging towards upset, about all of it. This was giving her WW adult incompetence, Harry’s shitty life flashbacks.
---
What a kangaroo court she thinks as shes pulled in front of a panel of people.
Ahaha. Her uncles are going to be SO pissed!
At least they’ll burn this pretender and the idiot cops both.
-0-
A figure in maple red dances in the air on what looks to be a pair of modified skates.
It was reminiscent of those pre Quirk era water jets that let people do those neat flips and tricks. The vids of that Impressive People channel still existed and she had nothing but respect for them. They did EVERYTHING with their own bodies and skills, no biological boosts needed.
She was inspired!
She wanted to combine her love of dance with her love of flight and bring something unique to everyday life.
Maybe create new sport.
She knows she’s always enjoyed the vids of people Ice dancing and doing gymnastic routines.
She understands WHY the Olympics fell by the wayside but it’s just a shame. It show cased SO many skilled people.
With the advent of Quirks it was too hard to keep it fair.
Competition requires a standard across the board but that’s hard to do with various Quirks giving people an advantage or skewing things.
Even so, their hard earned skills were awesome to watch and some of the sports could be easily updated and reintroduced.
She wants to bring some of that joy back.
Everything is all nice an legal life, she has the right permits and licences, she has permission of the Principal, she helped build the things and create the designs and she has been there for every phase of the testing.
Now… now it’s time to really give these grav skates a work out.
As they’re intended as sports ware and licences as such, she won’t get in trouble for having support tech she doesn’t need either.
It’s such a JOY to be back in the air.
Ron’s old broom wouldn’t work reliably for her and then her therapy animal, a spider monkey she’d given the name she didnt end up using too, had gnawed on the bristles.
Sumire chan had gotten zapped but it was to little to late and an already deficient broom was wrecked.
She’d MISSED flying so, SO much.
It seemed Harry’s instincts for flight hadn’t left her and she compensated naturally for wind and pressure shifts.
She didn’t just stand there like a lump but whirled and pirouetted through the air, actually dancing. Why SHOULDN’T she combine to of the greatest joys in her life?
It was a little bit like those old teams that had used ropes and gravity to dance on the side of buildings and, because it was tech that didn’t rely on a Quirk ANYONE could do it.
Nedzu had even allowed her to take him up in one of the test runs.
He’d cackled very, very loudly on landing.
She still wasn’t sure if that was nerves or pleasure.