He noticed the slight twitching in her fingers, whether it was for the want of her Wand or just remembering old pains he wasn't quite sure. "The few times she did praise me were rare and half-assed at that. A 'you didn't screw that up as badly as normal' here and a 'keep up and you might actually amount to something' there. I still don't understand why she even bothered allowing me to stay in our house for as long as she did, but the moment I graduated I never looked back."
Grace Riddle fell silent, and Harry felt the most unusual urge to comfort her. She, a grown adult needing comforting from a preteen boy. It sounded both pathetic, and comfortingly human at the same time.
She was opening up to him, telling him about her life, becoming vulnerable in those moments. And who didn't need reminded of their worth every once and a while?
"Seems like you showed her in the end though." He replied, causing her head to snap in his direction as if she had forgotten anyone else was in the room. "Professor at Hogwarts, Head of Slytherin House, leader of the Dueling club, sought after by adults and students for private lessons. It sounds like you amounted to more than she ever did, than she ever helped you be."
A slow, but natural, smile appeared on her lips, "I'd like to think so. Although I am sure she would never have approved of such a 'demeaning career'." Harry snorted and shook his head, clearly disagreeing with the woman he had never spoken with. The entire exchange did, however, lead into something Grace had been hoping to talk about and she was certainly not going to waste the opportunity.
"And your guardians? What would they have said about your current position?"
Any happiness or humor in his eyes or expression evaporated, doing nothing to ease the discomfort in the woman's chest. "Knowing them they probably would have asked if it was anything life threatening, and probably hope for a serious injury."
Her lip twitched with the urge to sneer, "Who were your guardians in your previous life?"
Harry's lips opened, before snapping shut with a shake of his head, "It doesn't matter, they could be completely different here so there's no reason to think about it."
"It does matter since it clearly still bothers you."
Whatever she had said was apparently the wrong thing to say as he turned towards her with a low growl. "Just like you are still bothered by your own childhood. Yeah, I had shitty relatives who were arseholes and treated me like crap every minute they could, but they're gone now so who cares!?"
Tensions were rising but it felt as though she weren't in control of her own body, like someone else was controlling her actions, telling her what to say, "I care, because they should be punished!"
"Yeah? And who is going to do that hm? Are you going to figure out a way to hop back into my universe and hunt them down? Or maybe you'll just go find them in this world? Then what, are you going to torture some muggles because of something they didn't even do?"
"No, but they shouldn't get away with being awful people."
His hands went to his hair, a nervous tick she noticed he would do when under stress or just anger. "There are awful people everywhere, what gives you the right to decide who to punish!?"
"Clearly whatever they did was awful enough to warrant it!"
"THEY TREATED ME AS LESS THAN HUMAN ALRIGHT!?" The shout ended whatever anger had been building up inside the woman and replaced it with a cold emptiness and dread. "Ten years, and they had me up at sunrise to make them breakfast, doing all their chores, working outside no matter what the temperature. I didn't even get my own room, all for perfect little 'dudders'. They didn't want me, no one wanted me until I started doing Magic and a letter came in the mail. That was when I found out my parents weren't drunks who died in a car accident, when I found out that maybe someone loved me."
He stood and walked away, her lips opening to call out to him, to stop him, to try and relieve even an ounce of his pain, but not a single syllable emerged, even as he slammed the door shut behind him.
****
She knows, because of course she knows. The moment Amaryllis walks into the room Harriet knows something is wrong. She doesn't need to see her sister's posture, doesn't need to see her frown or her tightening fists. She can tell by the slight force in her steps, by the small pauses, by just the tension in the air.
This isn't a 'Malfoy is bitch' mood, or a 'Snape is an asshole and should be in jail' mood, or even a 'I'm going to miss a Quidditch game' mood.
No, this is something way worse, and in an instant, she knows the source. "Harry?" The redhead nodded, okay one mystery solved. "Is he okay?" This time the nod was a bit less sure, and her own pulse skyrocketed.
Her stress was obvious, and Amy crossed what little distance remained to put comforting hands on her shoulders, "Harry's fine it's just… some of my teammates were talking."
The raven-haired witch frowned, "Talking about Harry?"
"Apparently there are a lot of rumors about him, everyone just seems to know everything. Then they started talking about how he looked and how fun it would be to…" she trailed off, the unspoken words echoing regardless.
A scowl replaced her frown, "But they don't even know him. They don't have any right to even think those things."
"Exactly."
Harriet crossed her arms with a huff, "We are still getting to know him, they shouldn't be acting like they someone do, like he would be interested in them."
Amy nodded quickly, "Right? If they weren't my teammates…" It was clear she didn't have a follow up, but something would have been done or said if she wasn't required to give some leeway.
The other remained silent, still upset by the new turn of events, about the idea of losing even more time with their brother to someone else. Something needed to be done, she just wasn't sure what.
A/N- Recently Made some changes in patr*on tiers ( increased chapters on both the tier ).
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