Harri is nearly forty when Hermione hesitantly reaches for her hand over tea one afternoon. “Surely you’ve noticed.”
Harri squeezes her friend's hand and smiles wanly. “Noticed that I still look seventeen? How could I not when my best friends have gray hair?”
“Oi!” Ron protests.
Harri sticks her tongue out at him.
“It’s the Hallows, isn’t it?” Hemione asks softly.
Harri sighs and pulls her hand away, pulling the locket from her shirt and opening it to reveal the Resurrection Stone nestled inside. Then she sets her wand on the table and waves her hand over it, removing the glamour she’s kept on it for years and revealing the Elder Wand.
Ron jerks in surprise. “Didn’t you put that back with Dumbleore?”
Harri nods and huffs. “Several times, in fact. And I dropped the Stone in the Forbidden Forest. The Invisibility Cloak was the only one I intentionally kept. The other two just kept showing up. Eventually I stopped trying to get rid of them.”
“What are you going to do?” Hermione asks.
Harri shrugs. “There’s glamours I can use, to give the appearance of aging. But I think… I think a day is going to come where I have to leave.”
Arthur is the first of the family she’s built to go. It’s less painful than she expects, because when he goes she finds herself at his side to hand him into the afterlife. She stays until Ron and Hermione’s children are grown, and then until their grandchildren are grown - she stays until Ron and Hermione go.
Wizards age remarkably well, and tend to be long-lived. A wizard with Harri’s power, even more so. She keeps up the aging glamour until she’s two hundred and fifty, then has Kreacher help stage her passing in her sleep and disappears into the muggle world.
She keeps tabs on the wizarding world, occasionally visiting under a glamour or Polyjuice. She still has access to her vaults, so she thinks the goblins probably know she’s still alive, but if they do, they don’t say anything.
It takes a remarkably short amount of time for people to destroy the planet they call home and take to the stars. Harri drifts aimlessly, ship to ship, planet to planet, still doing her best to keep tabs on the wizarding world. She stops keeping track of the years, but she thinks she left earth around 500 years before she meets Jayne.
***
Jayne loves his family. And he knows they love him. He also knows they don’t know what to do with him. More often than not, once the chores are done, he finds himself in a field that’s miles away from anything, glaring crater-sized holes into the ground. He’s doing just that when he sees movement out of the corner of his eye and fear runs down his spine - no one ever comes out here. But when he turns, there she is.
She surprises him enough that he unintentionally blows another crater. He shouts, sprinting toward her, already knowing there’s no way he’ll reach her in time to save her. Then the debris from the explosion bounces harmlessly off an invisible wall several feet away from the woman. He draws up short and just looks at her. She’s short. Wild brown curls frame eyes so green not even her glasses obscure the color. She’s dressed funny. And she’s smiling at him.
***
Harri inherited Hermione’s old beaded bag upon her death, and learned that her best friend was even more clever than she ever let on. The bag was filled with all manner of books on spells and charms and potions and magical craft, in addition to components to build wands and brew potions. Despite Hermione’s foresight, Harri has had to invent new brews for new and old purposes alike in this vast new world.
Jayne is a muggle-born wizard with more raw power than sense. More and more witches and wizards are muggle-born these days. Harri thinks it has something to do with magic itself trying to survive in an ever-expanding universe. Harri’s trained more than a few witches and wizards over the centuries, but Jayne is the first one she keeps.
Jayne is only seventeen, and his parents are equal parts guilty and relieved when he tells them that he found someone like him - someone that can teach him - and that he wants to leave. They let him go with very little fuss. Harri has a little ship and finds some barely populated portion of a planet so far out on the Rim it’s only on some maps.
Over the centuries, she’s learned that most magic users' cores have certain leanings. Jayne is the protective sort - and his magic, at its heart, is a shield. His strongest spell is protego . His patronus is a giant, shaggy, mutt of a dog - the kind whose flesh and blood counterpart is fiercely protective and loyal to those who show it love.
And she’s had to source wand materials from new sources - it had taken less than two centuries to use up what Hermione had stocked. Jayne’s wand is unique, though. It’s 14 inches, and only slightly yielding, made from the wood of a stubborn young oak she found growing on his home planet.
In her third century after leaving earth, Harri discovered creatures, much like druids, amongst the stars. She called them Celestials. She befriended a few, and they gifted her with strands of their hair. The strands shine like starlight and radiate cold, but so warm to the touch that they nearly burn. There’s something oddly comforting about them. She uses one as the core of Jayne’s wand.
Harri writes to Jayne’s family back home for both of them, and Jayne’s ma loves her for it. She sends little gifts in return - scarves and gloves for them both around Christmas, bits of handcrafted jewelry on Harri’s birthday, and a sturdy leather belt on Jayne’s. Jayne is a quick study. Harri teaches him magic, and how to fight with a strategy in mind, as opposed to his particular brand of backworld brawling.
Nearly three years later, she’s taught him all she can, and she can tell he’s antsy. She extracts a promise that he’ll write, kisses him on the crown of his head, and sends him off with her blessing when he signs on with a merchant ship. She’s not surprised when he sends a letter less than six months later that he’s signed on with a mercenary crew. She rolls her eyes and prays to whatever gods might be listening that he doesn’t do anything stupid.
She goes back and visits Jayne’s family - because she knows it’ll be an age before she can convince him to - then decides to settle on Persephone for a while. She travels, still - meets up with a few old students and takes on a few new ones - but mostly remains at home, keeping an ear to the ground and exchanging letters with Jayne. He does plenty stupid.
***
Harri slips through the crowd, following the tendril of magic that had drawn her down to the docks until it leads her to a ship.
“Ni hao,” a cheery young woman greets her. “Looking for a ride?”
“Looking for something,” Harri murmurs to herself, but stays to chat with the girl.
It’s been nearly five years since she’s seen Jayne face to face, and her breath catches in her throat when he comes toward the ship. He’s taller now than he was even when they parted, and he’s filled out well, gained a few new scars. He’s handsome, Harri finally notices, in a rough and rugged sort of way. She has a sudden realization of just what the fondness she has for Jayne is, and can feel Hermione and Ginny laughing at her from beyond the Veil.
“Jayne Cobb!” She calls across the walkway. A dark-skinned woman and a man in a brown coat turn, hands on their weapons, at the same time Jayne does.
Jayne spots her immediately and beams, barrelling through the crowd and sweeping her off the ground and into his arms.
Harri laughs and wraps her arms around his shoulders. “Put me down, you great prat!”
Jayne ignores her and buries his face in her hair.
Harri grins and turns her face against his, brushing her lips across his cheek. “Down,” she commands.
Jayne complies with a grumble.
As soon as her feet are under her, she plants both hands on his chest and shoves, putting just enough power behind it that he stumbles, despite the fact that someone her size shouldn’t be able to move him.
“Cheater,” Jayne smirks.
Harri raises a brow, unimpressed. “I can’t believe you’re here and didn’t tell me you were coming!”
Jayne ducks his head and kicks at the ground sheepishly. “I was gonna come see ya.”
“You haven’t in five years,” Harri says quietly.
“I… I wasn’t runnin’ with the best folks,” Jayne admits, glancing up at her. “Didn’t want to bring no trouble back to ya.”
Harri reaches up and cups his cheek, forces him to actually meet her eyes. “I can handle trouble. So…”
Jayne sighs. “So… maybe I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me.”
Harri runs her thumb gently along his cheekbone. “Were you acting so poorly, my Jayne?”
Jayne shrugs.
“And now?”
Jayne glances over his shoulder, then back at the ship. “Ain’t always doin’ legal-like jobs, but they’re good folk.”
“Er, Jayne?” The other man asks.
Jayne turns, arm snaking around Harri’s shoulders and pulling her around with him. “Cap’n, this Harri, my… uh, Harri. Harri, this is my captain, Mal, and his first mate, Zoë. See ya already met little Kaylee.”
Harri tilts her head in their direction. “Pleasure. Can I invite you all for tea?”
“‘Fraid we have to be going,” Mal declines tightly.
Harri’s heart clenches, but she goes up on tiptoe to kiss Jayne’s cheek. “I’ll catch you ‘round.”
Jayne looks torn.
Harri smiles softly and shoots a pointed look at the cryo chamber in their hold. “You have to go, Jayne.”
Jayne sighs. “I missed ya, alright?”
Harri rolls her eyes, but steps in front of him and pulls his face down to hers, planting a light kiss on his lips. “I’ll catch you ‘round,” she repeats, before slipping back into the crowd.
“She’s too good for the likes of you,” she hears Mal tell Jayne as she weaves through the crowds.
***
Jayne will never admit it out loud, but watching Harri walk away breaks his heart a little. He doesn’t like the knowing look Kaylee gives him as he stomps up the ramp once Harri is out of sight. He decides right off he don’t like the doc and he don’t trust the Dobbins fellow. And something keeps ticklin’ at his senses in a way Harri taught him to trust.
He figures out what it is right quick when they open the cryo chamber. The power that lashes out when the girl comes out screamin’ is daunting - Jayne barely has time to throw a shield up around her, containing the outburst until her brother’s voice calms her.
She’s still trembling as Inara’s robe is wrapped around her, and it tugs at Jayne’s heart. It reminds him of the first time Harri found him, struggling with a power he didn’t understand. Only where he was angry, this girl is terrified. He glances around the hold and decides there’s too many people. He follows when the doc takes her to the infirmary.
He holds up his hands placatingly when the doc looks at him suspiciously, and carefully draws his wand from the holster along his thigh. “Expecto Patronum.” The giant, silvery beast of a dog his patronus forms flows from his wand and butts up against leg. Jayne nudges him toward River. “Go on, ya mutt.” He glances up at River, who’s watching him raptly. “I call ‘im Sir,” Jayne tells her gently, “like the knights back on Earth-that-Was.”
River smiles as she wraps her arms around the patronus’ neck and rests her slight weight against it trustingly.
Jayne smiles back slightly. “He’ll keep ya safe. We both will.”
Simon gapes at Jayne. “You… you’re like her.”
Jayne shrugs. “Kinda.”
***
When Jayne writes about River, Harri sends books that River reads faster than Jayne could ever imagine doing. She also sends a wand - 11 inches, ash, with a thestral hair core. Jayne waits to give it to her until they’re planet side, and the gale force wind that whips around them the first time she takes it in hand makes him glad he hadn’t given it to her on the ship.
“Mal’d have both our hides if you’d done that on the ship and tore a hole in the hull,” Jayne observes, straightening his hat in his head.
River rolls her eyes. “She would have fixed it.”
“While we was in space?”
She huffs. “Fine. Jayne-man would have shielded.”
Jayne chuckles. “I reckon.”
The letters, and encrypted Cortex messages, he exchanges with Harri take on a whole new tone - one that makes his heart ache over her being out of reach.
***
At River’s insistence, Jayne goes to the bridge instead of following Mal’s order down to the hold. He thanks every power he can think of that he listened to River when the Reaver harpoon comes smashing through the window. He barely has the space of a blink to think about it, but it’s enough to cast a shield. Zoë processes it faster than Mal and Wash, and her breath comes out in a rush as she lunges forward and yanks Wash from the pilot’s seat.
“We gotta go,” Jayne grits, releasing the shield and watching as the harpoon spears through where Wash was seated second before.
With Reavers descending on them, Jayne and River start throwing magic, the secret they’ve kept so closely guarded, indiscriminately.
“Too many,” River whimpers, crouched in the meager cover the hall they’re in provides.
Jayne closes his eyes and lets his head thunk back against the wall. In what feels like a fraction of a second closing his eyes, it all goes to hell. Simon goes down and River goes out, slamming the door closed behind her. Jayne lunges toward the door, too slow, too late, with a shout. It doesn’t open no matter what he throws at it. In a last, exhausted, desperate effort, he sends his patronus to Harri as he collapses to the ground.
When the blast doors finally open, River is in the middle of the carnage, blade dripping blood, back to back with Harri. Then the gorram wall blasts out and Jayne sees Harri’s hand tighten on her wand and River’s hands tighten on her blades. Jayne forces himself to his feet and takes a breath, ready to draw on whatever magic he has left. Then the Operative’s voice calls a stand down and the tension drains out of the air like it’s a physical thing.
Jayne slumps against the wall in relief. “I oughta kill ya for takin’ so long to show up.”
River snorts. “Won’t.”
"You think I won't?" Jayne challenges.
"Can't,” River corrects. “And won't,” she adds with a smirk.
Jayne’s "Why?"
"Won't because you love her. Can't because she's literally the Grim Reaper."
Jayne’s expression goes slack. "Wait, what?"
Harri chuckles as she picks her way through Reaver bodies to tuck herself under his arm before he can slide further down the wall. “Easy, luv.”
“You Death incarnate, Harri?” Jayne asks, words starting to slur.
Harri smiles up at him tightly. “Something like that.”
Jayne slumps further against her. “It my time?”
Harri tightens her arm around him. “Never,” she promises, “but I do think you’re about to pass out.”
“‘kay.”
***
Harri and River carefully move Serenity’s crew to a less carnage strewn portion of Mr. Universe’s complex. River disables cameras the old-fashioned way - violent destruction - before Harri starts casting healing spells.
Jayne jerks awake with a shout.
Harri presses a hand to his shoulder. “Easy, luv.”
Jayne immediately slumps back on the couch she had laid him on, snagging her wrist and tugging her on top of him as he goes. “Thought I mighta dreamed ya.”
Harri props herself up on his chest ans shakes her head, curls flying loose from her braid. “No, but you do have to let me up.”
Jayne frowns, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Why?”
“So I can go have a word with those Alliance chaps.”
Jayne’s arms tighten.
Harris lifts one hand to cup his cheek. “They can’t touch me, but they need to understand that I can touch them. And that I am done letting them exploit the magical community.”
“That’s what they’re doin’ at that school River was at, ain’t it?”
Harri nods, lips in a firm line.
Jayne releases her with a sigh. “Ya got blood on your glasses.”
“Leave it,” Zoë recommends.
Jayne startles. He’d forgotten the rest of the crew was around. “Uh…”
“Explanations later,” Mal, waves a hand vaguely. “Let your girlfriend go do her thing.”
Harri winks and is off his chest and striding away before Jayne can protest.
“I don’t know you,” the Operative greets when she strides back out into the open.
“And you don’t want to,” Harri tells him. “You are aware there are things in the ‘Verse that are beyond mortal understanding?”
The Operative nods slowly.
Harri closes her eyes as she consciously calls the Reaper up. The Alliance goons startle back with gasps and raised weapons when she opens her eyes; the few people who she’s allowed to see this side of her have told her that her eyes go from their usual emerald green to an eerie, cloudy gray. She lifts her hands, calling up the souls from the carnage around them and guiding them on. The Operative is gaping when she lets her visage slide back to normal.
“I am not one of those things that is beyond explanation,” Harri warns, low and clear. “I am Death itself and I am not impartial to the dealings of the ‘Verse. And I am done allowing the Alliance to crush the rest of the ‘Verse under their boothill. You would do well to evaluate your alliances.”
She turns away on her heel, unsurprised when she finds Jayne leaning in a mostly intact doorway.
“Is it weird I thought that was sexy?” Jayne asks.
Harri throws her head back and laughs, grabbing him by the collar and pressing her lips to his in lieu of response.