Summary:Taylor Hebert is knocked into Harry Potter's world right before the start of Harry's Fifth Year. Taylor does not meet Harry first, but instead the Greengrasses. Taylor being Taylor, she still endeavors to help the messed up situation. And...she still has her power...Now she just has to resist escalating the heck out of the entire world...
Chapter 1: New World 01Notes:AN: Yes, this is being broken off into its own story now. Woohoo, I finally have a Harry Potter/Worm Crossover! Second chapter should be posted shortly as well. This one is largely unchanged from my snippets thread. A bit of familiarity with both series is expected as there is only so much info dump that can be done organically. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this new story as Taylor tries to resist her natural urge to escalate the heck out of the Harry Potter universe!
Chapter TextHogwarts: An Escalation
New World 01
"I don't really know what this bomb does," Bakuda said, tossing a small, misshapen grenade into the air and catching it. My eyes never left the bouncing death ball, even while my bugs tracked all of my downed teammates and the nearby Wards.
How in the hell had this crazy bitch gotten the drop on all of us? Where were the Protectorate to backup the Wards? Where were the Travelers to back us up? Where was anyone? How the freaking hell was I the only one still able to move after Bakuda's opening pain grenade?!
"You know, I think that this was the one I based off of Professor Haywire's tech. But I'm also pretty sure I dialed that up to like a gazillion."
"That's…not a real…word, lady."
For once in your damn life Sophia, shut the fuck up. Shadow Stalker's mask had been knocked loose during Bakuda's initial attack so my tormentor's face was clearly visible. I didn't particularly care if the bitch died, but anything she did to provoke Bakuda would get all of us killed.
Hell, even Tattletale had realized that!
My one Hail Mary was to sic all of the nearby bugs onto Bakuda at once, but she would still get at least one grenade off first. I had to be careful and try to tie her up first. Or at least muck up the gun if I could.
"Shush girl or I'll use something special on you," Bakuda snarled. She ran a hand through her hair and chuckled. "Now where was I? Oh, right! I either turned this into the Dimension Kick or the Blackhole Bomb. Which do you think would be more fun to die by Wardy?"
Vista managed to flop over onto her back and tilted her head just enough to glare at Bakuda. "What does…it even…matter? Both are…death sentences!"
"They're not…for us," Tattletale said, her head lolling towards Bakuda and a scowl marring her face. "We're just…fucking guinea pigs. She made them for…the fucking Endbringers."
"Ooh, we got a smart one!" Bakuda crooned. My stomach dropped. I remembered Tattletale explaining Bakuda's nearly psychotic need to be recognized as the smartest person around and to leave a legacy. If she built this bomb for an Endbringer, she was going to use it here for the test, no matter what. I called all of the bugs I could reach. There wasn't time for subtle and there wasn't time for reinforcements.
"Being smart won't save you. Hey, tall, dark, and mysteriously bleeding to death, you're the Undersider leader right?" Bakuda asked, pointing towards Grue. He moaned. "Thought so. Aegis is still flopping like a fish so you're up! What hand do you all die by? Left or right?"
Grue groaned again.
I shifted so my feet were under me and got my bugs into position. They could handle the grenade and then I could tackle her and get the second one as well as the bandolier. I could do this. I could do this. It was all about timing.
Tattletale caught my eye, her mouth gaped and she tried to gasp something out.
Too late.
"Left it is! Thank you for your sacrifice to the greater good!" Bakuda flicked a switch and lobbed the grenade.
My swarm surged over the nearby cars, the fliers carrying the spiders and their airborne web underneath. I rocketed to my feet at the same time and sprinted towards Bakuda. The web caught the bomb and carried it overhead. I slammed into Bakuda, using my baton to smash her arm against the ground and knock the second bomb away.
"Get off me you fucking bitch!"
"Skitter!" Tattletale shouted. "Toe ring detonators! Toe rings!"
"Got it!" I yelled back. The bugs I had on Bakuda shifted targets, surging from her mask to her boots. My fingers scrambled to unlatch her bandolier and throw it to the side even as she managed to roll us over.
Bakuda grappled my arms and kicked her legs up into my chest, knocking me over her shoulders. It didn't do anything to stop the inevitable tide of bugs invading her footwear, but it did get me flipped over her so that we were lying face-to-face.
"You will not take this moment from me!" she snarled.
A shiver ran up my spine and I tried to pull my arms loose from her grip but she held them like a vice.
"Skitter, move!"
"Skitter!"
Tattletale and Vista's twin shouts rang out and I could feel Vista's attempt to warp space behind me. I couldn't move to roll through it though. Not fast enough.
Bakuda had already triggered her bomb.
The world swirled around me, a kaleidoscope of color, a symphony of a sound…an orchestra of pain. So, so much pain. Fire coursed through my veins, ice tore across my skin and needles laced through my nerves.
The bugs that had been on my body were spasming along with me, their forms running left and right and curling up with their legs twitching.
All at once, just as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. I crashed from a foot up and slammed to the ground. Struggling to breathe through the pain, I curled into a ball, whimpering.
Bakuda's wail rent through my awareness. I managed to lift my head just enough to see her through the air a few feet away. Right over the edge of a nearby cliff. Her scream cut off abruptly with a distant wet splat.
I rolled over onto my back letting loose a desperate sounding giggle. "That's what you get, bitch."
"What the bloody hell?!"
I craned my head towards the feminine exclamation. My mask was cracked leaving one of the lenses blurry, but it was enough to be able to see the girl standing there. She was a teenager like me, maybe 15, blonde, dressed in black robes with an azure trim that set off her gorgeous ice blue eyes…and she was clutching a wavering wooden stick aimed in my direction.
"Wh-who are you? Are you with the Dark Lord?"
"I'm Skitter," I said, the words feeling like sandpaper in my throat. Then I started coughing, coughing hard enough that I was seriously considering if it wouldn't be easier just to hack up a lung and get it over with. By the time the attack subsided I pulled my hands away from my mouth and saw blood on them. "Pretty sure I'm about to pass out. Tell the Undersiders that Bakuda's dead would you? My bugs'll…" I had to pause to gather my strength to keep going and force down the cough that wanted to bubble up again. "My bugs'll make sure of it. She won't get a chance…to set off…the big…bomb."
The blonde stepped closer as my voice got weaker. Her stick stopped shaking quite so violently as she crouched down next to me, reaching out a hand to touch my cheek. "I don't know who those people are."
"Fuck," I murmured. I coughed again, the pain in my chest spreading towards my fingers. "Tell them myself…when I wake up…"
"You need a mediwitch."
"Probably."
The world faded to black as I heard her shouting for her father.
I could feel people moving around through the mansion I was in thanks to the flies and the spiders. It was a big house, lots of rooms, few people. Must be the rich area of town. My lucky day. As I realized that my swarmsense was back, I slowly started to get awareness of my body back as well.
"Oh, she's regaining consciousness, Lord Greengrass."
Two women, one man, plus the teenage girl from outside were in the room with me. There was a younger girl, maybe 13 pacing in the hallway outside. Down in the kitchen I counted two more children working, though they seemed…misshapen.
This was a strange household.
Wait. The bugs in the room rearranged themselves.
Fucking hell, they had taken off my mask!
"Miss, can you hear me?" the man asked. Awfully polite for someone breaking the Unwritten Rules. "I would like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind."
"Dear, we don't even know if she can understand us yet," the previously silent woman chided.
The blonde teen snorted. "Yes we do. I told you, she sounded American. Hey, we know you're awake, get up!"
"Daphne!"
I smirked as I leveled myself up to a sitting position. The girl's - Daphne's - parents took a step back. The other woman, presumably the medic, just nodded and waved another long stick in my direction. All three of the adults had eyes that were just as unusually bright as Daphne's. Her father's were shining gold and her mother's deep silver, while the medic's were near burning burgundy. What the hell was with people's eyes here?
"She appears fine, though I'm still seeing that tumor in her head. Apparently I can't do anything about that since it just grows back. At least it appears benign, though I've never seen a magical malady like that before. If she consents to more tests let me know."
"I'm right here," I said, arching my eyebrows.
"And you're a minor with an unknown family. I default to the Lord and Lady who found you. Lord Greengrass, make sure she takes her potions, it'll prevent any further complications."
"We will."
"Good. In that event, I'll be off, good day to you all." The woman bowed her head and was gone from the room almost before I could blink.
"Wow, great bedside manner," I muttered. Shaking my head, I looked to the man standing nearby. "Thank you for healing me. Am I to assume that the Truce is in effect, since you took off my mask in the process?"
"Truce?" Lord Greengrass frowned. "I'm unfamiliar with what truce you're referring to, Miss. Perhaps we should start over. I am Cyrus Greengrass, Lord of the Greengrass family. This is my wife, Cassandra, and eldest daughter, Daphne. You are…?"
If the English accent hadn't been enough of a clue, the freely given names were certainly a major flag. I shut my eyes and scowled, clenching my hands. I have to grab hold of the bugs in the mansion and the surrounding grounds to stop them from skittering about in response to my agitation.
"I'm a long way from home. You can call me Skitter, as for why I'm here? That mess at the bottom of your cliff sent me here when one of her bombs went off. She was trying to kill me. Looks like the stupid bitch grabbed the wrong bomb."
"Bomb?" Daphne asked. "You said that outside too. What is that?"
"What is The Bomb?" Cassandra stared at her daughter. At least I wasn't the only one taken aback by the question. "My God, what are they teaching you at that school these days? Daphne, The Bomb is a Muggle contraption. It's exceedingly dangerous, even to magicals."
My eyes narrowed. They were using wooden sticks and the nurse had spoken of potions. Either this was the most insane Myrddin Cult ever…or Bakuda's bomb had sent us further than just England…Magic couldn't be real…could it?
"Does the word Endbringer mean anything to you? Or Parahuman?" I asked. There was a quick and easy way to prove where I was. Quick, easy, and terrifying.
Cyrus frowned as he looked at me. He slowly shook his head. "Considering that you sound as if you are speaking in capital letters, no. No, it does not. I think we should move this conversation to my study. We seem to have quite a bit to discuss, Miss Skitter."
"Yes," I said, my mouth suddenly very dry. "Yes, I think we do."
Chapter 2: New World 02Chapter TextNew World 02
The Greengrasses' couch was nice. Like 'Dad would have to sell his car to buy this couch' nice. Lisa would've been jealous as hell and Alec would've immediately thrown his lot in with them for the promise of one of his own. Brian probably wouldn't have noticed the difference from our usual couch. Which, well that really said something fundamental about Brian - what exactly it said I couldn't quite put my finger on, but it surely said something.
How the heck did I get thrown into the backyard of some of the richest people in…Britain? I ground my teeth as I settled even deeper into the couch. Oh if only I could resurrect Bakuda just so I could sting her with a hundred wasps until she told me how the fuck she'd managed to make a teleporting grenade.
A teleporting grenade that I was swiftly growing convinced was the absolute least of my concerns. It didn't matter how insular and isolated you were, you knew about the giant Kaiju monsters that were slowly destroying the world. I could maybe see someone managing to avoid all possible knowledge of parahumans. Somehow. If they basically never met anyone else ever in the past four decades. But even with being completely off the grid, they'd have heard of one of the Endbringers.
And these people were not off the grid by any means. Their home was far too fancy and their art was modern - if from the 90s based on my Dad's taste. To say nothing of their clothes and furniture which you just couldn't make without professional assistance. So these people had access to the outside world. Meaning they had to know about the Endbringers and parahumans.
If they had ever existed here. If Bakuda hadn't been exaggerating when boasting about breaking the walls between worlds.
I was so far beyond fucked.
"Miss Skitty's tea. Would Miss Skitty like sugar?"
"No, thanks. Just the -" the rest of the sentence died in my throat as I stared. One of the 'children' had come up from the kitchen with the tea. I had seen him coming with my bugs. I hadn't paid enough attention. Not enough attention at all. Giant eyes that took up half his face, ears long enough that they actually flopped, a greenish skin tone, a hand-sown uniform of sorts…this was not human. This had never been human. The tea cup shook in my hand as I tried to gather enough air to say something, anything really - and failed utterly.
"Thank you Mipsy, that will be all for the moment."
The being bowed to Cyrus and hurried from the room. As it turned the corner I was finally able to draw a short breath. "I am so fucked."
Cyrus chuckled. "My daughter was right, you are indeed an American through and through. Only the Yanks curse quite so freely."
"Considering your daughter's reaction to my arrival, I'd beg to differ," I muttered. Daphne glared at me while her father just laughed more. "So. Just to confirm - because third time's the charm and I need a damn charm if I'm going to make it through this - you don't have any clue what I'm talking about when I mention parahumans, Endbringers, Capes, the Protectorate, the Guild, the CUI, the Thanda, or Scion. Right?"
"Those aren't just Muggle terms," Daphne said, her eyes narrowing.
"I have no idea what a Muggle is, but it sounds like a slur, and I'd really appreciate it if you stop."
"It's not a slur. It's what you are: a non-magical."
"Well we don't actually know that she is a Mu…non-magical, Daphne. Let's not jump to conclusions."
I held two fingers to my forehead muttering several choice words for a moment. Dropping my hands I bit back the first thing I wanted to reply with and forced a smile onto my face. "Okay, you guys believe in magic. That's cool. Perfectly fine. I just got served tea by a wannabe-Hobbit so I probably shouldn't be judging. I don't suppose you can prove that you have magic?"
"Cyrus, we should just call an Obliviator and wash our hands of this," Cassandra said with a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry dear, you seem like a sweet girl, but my daughter is getting ready to go back to school and we still have several things that we need to go over to ensure she is prepared for the year. The political environment has massively changed recently and you are a distraction that we can't afford at the moment."
She raised her stick to point at me. I saw her husband lift his eyebrows as his mouth quirked up into a small grin as he glanced my way, all while Daphne tried to stand and yell.
Scowling, I just grabbed a cloud of bugs and layered them in front of me even as a jet of red light shot out of the end of the wooden stick. Cassandra's eyes opened wide and Daphne gaped, her head snapping to me a second before she plopped back down into her seat, the grin spreading on her face matching her father's. Cyrus raised his hand and saluted me. Then he reached over and plucked the stick from his wife's limp hands.
"Good show, child, good show! Cassy, dear, you should be more aware of your surroundings. Especially now with the Dark Lord on the move again. The insects haven't been reacting normally since this one arrived in our mansion. Tell me, can you actually control them or do you just call and they listen?"
"I have no idea what sort of difference you're implying there," I said. Glaring at Cassandra I clenched my fists, not letting the bugs around me drop in number. "What did she try to do?"
"Stun you. It would have just put you back to sleep until the Obliviators arrived."
"They sound bad."
"Well they are an arm of the government. Take that as you will," he said, chuckling again.
Daphne cocked her head. "They modify memories, usually of Muggles who see magic when they shouldn't. You really have no idea about any of this…But if you have power over insects like that…you're not a witch. You look human, so maybe Veela…no they can't do that. I've never heard of a race that can control insects."
"Thanks, at least someone is explaining terms to me," I sighed. With a mental command, I sent the bugs back, neither Daphne nor her father seemed inclined to do anything except talk and I needed to understand what was going on before I could make any moves here. "I'm human."
"You'll find that 'human' encompasses quite a lot in our world." Cyrus rubbed at his chin as he leaned forward. "Yet my daughter has a point. I've never encountered mention of a specific race that could influence insects to that degree. There was no spell involved there, not even a non-verbal one."
I sighed and leaned back in my chair. "Let's entertain the fact that magic is real here for a moment. You can go a long way to convincing me of that if you can repeat what she just did," I said pointing towards Cassandra.
Daphne frowned. "Why? How does being able to do a simple spell prove anything?"
"Because where I'm from almost no one has the exact same power set. If one or both of you can do the exact same thing your mom just did, then magic is probably real, I am stuck in a whole different world, and screwed beyond belief because there's not going to be a Tinker here who can get me home."
Cyrus' small grin fell away completely as he processed that. Taking out his own stick he nodded once to me. "Daphne, I'll wake you in a moment." She grimaced, nodded and turned so that she was angled towards the side of her armchair. The next moment, a red burst shot from his stick, struck the blonde, and she gently slumped to the side. Cyrus waved me forward. "You're free to examine her if you wish, Miss Skitter. As we said, it just puts the target to sleep, no harm is done and another simple spell wakes them."
My lips were a thin line as I stood and moved mechanically to feel for Daphne's pulse. It was strong, beating against my fingers, and her breath warm under my hand when I held it under her nose. Collapsing back into my chair, I dropped my head into my hands as Cyrus shot another pulse of light into Daphne who stirred and pulled herself back up with a quiet grumble.
"Miss Skitter, if you would -"
"Taylor."
"I'm sorry?"
"My name," I mumbled through my hands. "My name is Taylor. I'm trapped in another world because an insane supervillain wanted to punch through dimensions. I'm surrounded by witches and wizards and magic is realhere. There are no capes, there are no parahumans. I'm never getting home. There's no point in being Skitter anymore. Bakuda killed her. My name is Taylor."
It took two more cups of tea from Mipsy - who was apparently a house elf - before I was calm enough to have a civil conversation with the Greengrasses again.
Cassandra was still frosty, but Daphne and Cyrus were sympathetic. Or at least, they were good at faking it. Either way, it was appreciated.
"So you can control all insects nearby?" Daphne asked, licking her lips. "Can you hear and see through them too?"
"Yes to the hearing. I'm still working on the seeing. It…hurts. It's really hard to explain… but, they see differently and my power doesn't want to deal with it. Hearing is hard enough as it is, I'm honestly not sure if I'm ever going to be able to see through my bugs."
"Father!"
"I know, I realize the implications as well, Daphne." Cyrus rubbed at his chin again as he considered me. "Taylor, I believe we can help each other. You have nowhere to go. We could provide shelter and legitimacy for you."
"In exchange for my help," I said with a sigh. "I know how this works. You want to buy me off. Use me to spy on your enemies right?"
"Perhaps sometimes yes, but I was also considering simply asking you to act primarily as a secondary warning system for the mansion."
All three of us snapped our gazes to him as he leaned back, shaking his head and staring at the ceiling. "Things have changed in our society over the past few months. The government doesn't want to admit it, but the balance of power has shifted. A man many know of as the Dark Lord has clawed himself back from the brink. The last time he was around there was, well they called it a civil war but it was more of a terrorist situation, and there were many, many deaths. We tried to stay neutral then with minimal success. I doubt we will be allowed to do so this time. I fear for my family, Taylor. I can't support either side openly. The Light has little strength and their leaders are weak. Their only real power is in an ageing man whose bark is never backed by bite, one who has allowed his problems to persist for decades."
"What about Harry?" Daphne asked, her voice softer than I had heard her throughout the entire conversation.
"He's a figurehead. Dumbledore keeps him coddled and weak, I don't know why and I don't care, for the end result is the same. He's unable to lead his faction - if he even knows it exists."
"That sounds like a pretty huge problem. If the good guys don't fight back, what's the point?" I said. "On my world they fought. They were outnumbered, but they at least fought."
"Harry Potter has fought!" Daphne hissed. "He has fought every year for the past four years! I think. The…well the rumors are confusing and no one ever actually knows exactly what's happened except Granger and Weasley, but still - he's fought!"
"Three people doesn't make an army," I said. I looked back to Cyrus and raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to join with the bad guys either, even if only for protection?"
"Their philosophy is abhorrent. While my family is not heavily involved in the affairs of the non-magical side of the world, neither do I wish to see all Muggleborn killed, they are relegated to second-class citizens as it is. Muggles and Muggleborn are important to both the world and our society. The Dark would see our world destroyed without even thinking of the consequences of their actions."
Cassandra scowled. "To say nothing of their fondness for torture, murder, and rape. They are animals, the lot of them."
"Wow. That's…okay that sounds worse than the gangs I'm used to. It's like if you combined the worst aspects of the ABB and the Empire together." I rubbed at my temples and frowned, staring between the two adults. "I don't see how I can help you here though. I'm useful, sure, and I know how to fight. I can be a damn good spy if you're willing to feed me and give me a room, but you've got to have some sort of security system already."
"If you can do anything larger than the house than your range is probably better than our wards," Daphne murmured. "And a lot of the stronger wizards can probably get around our defenses without setting things off. Or they'll set them off, but trap us inside which is almost worse."
"I can control all insects within three, maybe four blocks," I said. "Your house is huge, and no offense, but you look like you're loaded. You guys don't have good defenses for this place?"
Cyrus nodded. "My daughter has the right of it. My family is not as well off as we used to be; the mansion is an artifact of the past, the wards have to be updated with what we currently have available. If they truly came for us, the best I could do would be to get my daughters away, and even that would not have good odds. I would likely have to join them in order to keep my family safe. If you were to keep watch with your little critters…well suddenly we have more time to react and we can run or bring active defenses to bear. The odds shift."
I nodded slowly. "Okay. Say I'm interested in helping. What exactly would I get beyond room and board?"
"Well you can see through our Muggle-repelling wards, so you either have the ability to use magic as well, in which case we can begin to get you training," Cyrus said. "Or as a - what did you call it, parahuman? - you are effectively a near-human magical race, in which case we could sponsor your rights moving forwards."
"We could claim she's a Squib that we're sheltering," Cassandra said. "If we're going to dive into this, we might as well hide her uniqueness."
"Are Squibs unaffected by wards though?" Daphne asked. "That seems to open us to a lot of questions we don't want asked, Mother. Why would we shelter a Squib anyway?"
"What's a Squid?" I asked, raising my hand and arching my eyebrows. "I'm guessing it's not the type that you catch in the ocean."
Cyrus laughed. "Not squid, Squib, with a 'B'. A non-magical person born to magical parents. They're rare, and most of the magical population is rather ashamed of their existence. Many families hide the existence of any Squibs that are born. Claiming you as one publicly would raise eyebrows and draw attention."
"More reason that the Death Eaters are idiots. At least Muggleborn have magic. If they wanted to be consistent they would rally against Squibs too," Daphne muttered.
I couldn't help myself, I started to laugh, laugh hard enough that I had to wrap my arms around my sides. "I'm sorry, this wanna be evil overlord not only calls himself a 'Dark Lord' but he also has 'Death Eaters' as his cult members?! You guys really don't see how absurd this is? Really? It's like a toddler got the name machine and just started randomly hitting buttons!"
Cyrus grunted. "The significance is not lost on me, Taylor. Perhaps look at it a different way. The Dark Lord is strong enough that people willingly take such a ridiculous name as their moniker. And our world has learned to fear that name."
My laughter died as what he was saying started to sink in. There was a sad sort of irony in it. It made sense. Who would be terrified of someone named 'Lung'? Sure Lung meant Dragon but so few people actually knew that, that it didn't really matter. And yet, we were all terrified of a ramped up Lung, because he was that scary.
Their Dark Lord had done the same thing.
"Fuck."
"Indeed."
I scowled, then nodded. "I'll help you. I'll also need papers that prove I belong in this world, both for your magic side, and non-magic side. I want to be able to walk away if I decide that this situation isn't working out for me."
"Of course."
"And I don't want to be shackled to this mansion. It's a nice mansion, but that doesn't mean I don't want to explore the world a bit. I've never been to England before. Long distance travel isn't really a huge thing on my world."
"Understandable. But of course we will want to set up several regular hours that you would be on the property. There are general times that I would expect the Death Eaters to attempt a power play. Should I get word from one of my contacts of a potential imminent threat, I would also expect any potential trip to be cut short."
"I can work with that if you have a quick transport method. You have magic, so I assume you can teleport…somehow. All wizards can teleport in stories. If your magic can do, anything…I'd like to try to figure out a way back home too…I doubt it's possible, but…"
Cyrus sighed. He leaned over to pat my hand. "We can Apparate which is the closest to what you mean, yes. It can be blocked though, so some people would do best not to rely on it." He pointedly glared at Daphne who just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "As to your situation, I'll inquire with some of my foreign contacts. They may have better luck than the locals. We'll do what we can."
"Oh! We can bring her to Hogwarts! If the three of us check the library there we're bound to find something!" Their second daughter shouted, rocketing around the corner of the corridor she had been hiding in since we started talking. She skidded to a stop directly in front of me, grabbing my hands, a wide grin splitting her face nearly in half.
"Astoria," Cassandra groaned, "how long have you been eavesdropping?"
"That's not important!"
"Since the very beginning," I said, smirking. She just rolled her eyes and mouthed 'traitor'.
"Anyway, what's important is that if Taylor went to Hogwarts, we could all search the library for those creepy restricted books. The older kids are always talking about the weird stuff in them. There's gotta be something useful about dimension hopping in them right?"
"That would defeat the purpose of having her here to protect the mansion," Cassandra said, scowling.
Cyrus reached over and took his wife's hand. "Dear…I hadn't considered this, but wouldn't we rather have her protecting the girls? We can run if we need to, they can't - not at Hogwarts."
Daphne tapped her thighs and pursed her lips. "And Astoria's not wrong, Mother. The Slytherins aren't quite as enthusiastic about research as the Ravenclaws, but there have been several who've extolled the wonders of the library. And there's always the rumors of hidden rooms with older tomes in them. That could help the family even more in the long run."
"Wouldn't hidden rooms be hidden, dear?" Cassandra said, rolling her eyes. "Surely if no one's found them by now, they're not going to."
"Well, they didn't have flies and roaches and spiders searching all the little nooks and crannies, did they, Mum?" Astoria crowed. She dropped one of my hands as she turned, triumphantly lifting the other high into the air. My eyebrows rose as I glanced at Cyrus. He appeared to be fighting just as hard as I was not to laugh. "We have a huge advantage now! We can find all of the secrets."
"We'd have to come up with an excuse for her to be there if she can't use magic though," Daphne murmured.
"Actually," Cyrus said, narrowing his eyes. "We…could send her there as a retainer. The practice fell out of favor long before the Dark Lord came into power, but I doubt they have removed the allowments from the rules. And we could even say that Taylor was trying to see if she could learn to utilize magic through a wand in addition to her natural racial traits. It wouldn't even be a lie."
"Are you sure that you're okay with me not being around to warn you of attacks," I asked. "It sounds like this is a full time thing. Is it like a boarding school?"
"Yes, and yes. Between my safety and my daughters, I'd choose my daughters every time," he stated.
"As would I," Cassandra agreed.
"Hogwarts hasn't exactly been the…safest place for the past few years," Daphne said, grimacing. "I'm not going to lie, it would be nice to know that someone is secretly watching over my shoulder if someone - or something - is coming after me. Especially now."
"I feel like I need to ask for a pay raise already if I'm playing secret bodyguard," I said, only half joking. At least my smile was wide and the others were chuckling.
"I'm sure we can come to a suitable arrangement."
I nodded. "Great. Just one question then: what the hell is Hogwarts?"
Chapter 3: New World 03Chapter TextNew World 03
"That broom has footpads and a seat."
Daphne glanced to the side following my gaze towards the shop we were passing. "Of course it does."
"Why does the cleaning instrument have stirrups, Daphne?" I asked, resisting the urge to gnash my teeth. This whole street made no sense. Why should a broom you could ride have any logic to it. Maybe people used it to get their chores done faster? But it wouldn't be quite so expensive in that case would it? That was a lot of zeros on that price tag.
"How else would you play Quidditch if you couldn't sit on your broom?" she asked. The utter absurdity of the question and the sheer confusion present in her voice pulled a groan from my mouth.
"I hate your country."
"You just haven't seen enough of it yet. You'll loveQuidditch. But don't play it. It's a horrid game to play - you're liable to break something every time you get up in the air and if you're lucky it'll only be a limb instead of your head. Only idiots actually play. Bloody amazing to watch though. I got to see a pickup game between Viktor Krum and Harry last year; you wouldn't believe the skill both of them had! Neither have any brains though. I mean, really, a Wronski Feint, at the same time, against each other? Complete morons, the both of them."
I just smiled and nodded, completely and utterly lost. Did they seriously follow the standard witch stereotype of riding brooms? And had they actually made it easier to follow the stereotype by giving it a padded seat?! "Who won?"
"Krum. Can you imagine the embarrassment if an international star was beaten by a school child? Yes, Krum is still in school as well, I mean, he was, but he was also three years above us. Harry gave him a good run for his money though. It was an excellent showing for the school."
She dragged me away from the broom shop and angled us towards what looked like a library.
"You seem to really like this Harry kid from how much you talk about him."
Her cheeks flushed pink and she avoided looking at me. Shaking her head, she murmured, "It's not like that. The whole of the school alternatively idolizes him and hates him. My peers are colossal fools and follow the masses. I have to keep my head down to survive so I can never show explicit support. He's a good man and he stands up for people when it counts. That's more than I can say for a lot of the people in my own house these days. I like to support him when I can."
I smirked, crossing my arms. "Uh huh."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, scowling.
"The lady doth protest too much."
"How dare you," she snapped. Glaring at me, she crossed her own arms and turned to stare into the window of the shop. I stepped beside her and waited for her to crack. I didn't have to wait long. "Whatever you're thinking you can stop thinking it. It's never going to happen because I'm not interested."
"Sure, Daphne."
"I much prefer a…different sort of company. The sort that's going to cause problems for my father in the future when he needs me to be the official heir for his company. That's actually what I'm looking for here besides school books. I need a…I need a reference book. I could use your help finding it. Or at least getting the other items while I get that one…" She trailed off as I started to blink rapidly. "Father and Mother are staying back a respectable distance at the moment, so I should actually be able to get the bloody thing without him finding out this time. He's only going to let us be alone in the shop for so long before he comes in to make certain we're alright though, so…I need your help to find it fast enough."
"I'm sorry, are you asking me to help you find a book on -"
"Yes," she hissed, cutting me off.
"Aren't you a little young for…"
"It's not for right now! But I need to know in order to be prepared and counter any future arguments my father may bring up. Succession is important in pureblood circles. I don't know what it's like in your wo-country but here most people don't care about partners; not until it comes time that an heir is required. Then it's important. I'm the firstborn, ergo, it'll be important for me down the road."
"But because people don't care before then, it's…rare information?"
"Yes."
I thought that over for a moment, then shrugged. "Better than having to share a city with literal Nazis I suppose."
Daphne's head snapped to me, her eyes wide. "Even I know that term. What was wrong with your home?"
"Lots of things," I sighed. "Come on, let's get you your book."
"School books too," she murmured as I led the way inside. There were remarkably few people in the store, but the street was fairly empty as well, so I shouldn't have really been that surprised. What did surprise me was the labels on the books that I skimmed past.
"1001 Ways to Brew Love, Cleaning Charms and Courting Counts, Marian Mandew's Big Book of Opening Your Inner Eye, The Curse-Breaker's Guide to Not Dying…wow these are ridiculously literal…hey, Daphne, is this potion book actually useful?"
Daphne glanced my way and nodded once as she caught sight of the book I held up. "Very. It's advanced, and I don't know if you can actually do anything with it - but if you can't, let me know when we get to Hogwarts. I'll help you with some of the general ones. I'm not a prodigy though, so you may need to ask around a bit. We can try talking to Tracey too, she's always been good with potions."
"Cool, thanks." I slipped Potions for the Budding Apothecary into my bag and moved on.
"Taylor, I've got the first half of the class requirement list. Can you grab the Arithmancy and Defense books? I'm going to go and look for…the other one."
"Got it." I left the current shelf behind and glanced at the labels over the aisles to skip ahead to the parts that seemed most promising. I didn't have to search long to find Daphne's Arithmancy text along with two useful volumes that seemed like they would give me a primer on magic and runes as a whole. With any luck, I might be able to learn some sort of basic runecrafting. If they had runecrafting. These sorts of fantasy worlds always had some type of magical enchanting method using runes or some magic method in the stories…right?
Eh, even if there wasn't it should make for interesting reading; better than Lord of the Flies at least, stupid assigned reading.
The defense textbook was decidedly less eye catching. "What the hell kind of use is this?" I muttered, flipping through the pages. "I don't know anything about this topic and I can tell this is complete garbage. 'You need not learn combat spells because you should instead call for the Aurors if confronted.' Ever heard of self-defense? Isn't that the entire point of a defense book? Idiot."
A boy a few steps away looked up and smiled in my direction, chuckling weakly. "Heh. Wel..Welcome to the new Defense Against the Dark Arts class. As run by the Ministry of Magic," he started, clearly uncomfortable with speaking up, he paused a moment. "It's going to be a nightmare this year," he muttered, looking down and sighing before looking back into her eyes and continuing, "not that it's been any better before, but from what Gran says, this year is going to be particularly bad. And I have OWLs to pass this year too. I'm not sure I'm going to pass, not based on this book," he groaned. "I'd like a nice quiet year for once with an easy instructor, but this isn't really what I was looking for."
I grimaced. The government was messing things up just because they could. Typical. Different world, same bullshit. "Great. Well, at least I won't have to deal with it directly too much. Any idea where I can find a decent self-defense book?"
"I'm not really the best person to ask for that sort of thing. I'm not very good with spells," he mumbled.
"That's fine, I just want a basic overview of the general methods of combat, common spells, that sort of thing. It's always better to be prepared. And," I said, waving my hand to him, "don't sell yourself short. So what if you aren't good with the spells, it just means you need to get creative. Throw potions or something. Instead of trying to take the problem head on, be smart instead, work around the problem. You can get a lot of mileage out of being smart."
The boy rubbed his chin, nodding slowly. "I'll keep that in mind. I'm Neville."
"Taylor." I shook his hand as Daphne walked up behind me, her bag clutched to her chest like a life preserver. "Good to go, Daphne?"
"Yes, I found it. Did you get the…for the love of Merlin. That's our text?"
"Looks like it."
She grimaced. "I never thought I'd miss Lockhart." She glanced at Neville and grimaced. "I don't suppose your grandmother has enough pull to do anything about this, Neville?"
"A few years back, maybe, but not anymore. She's just too old now and too many of her friends have died," he said, shoulders drooping. "It's really just us now."
Daphne sighed. "I'm sorry. Well, we should be going. I'll see you at school."
"Wait, you two know each other?"
"Yes," Daphne nodded. "This is Taylor. She's my new retainer and bodyguard."
His eyes widened as his head turned back to me. "Wow. Really? I didn't think any of the families did that anymore."
"I'm from America," I said, shrugging. "Think of it like an exchange program. I get to see the UK for a bit and I'm paying my way by watching out for the Greengrasses."
Neville's eyes narrowed and he glanced between me and Daphne. He slowly nodded. "So, the Greengrasses are taking things seriously."
"We are." Daphne bumped my side and glanced to the door. "We really do need to go Neville before my father…ah, never mind. If he's going to be this overprotective everywhere we go I swear…"
"At least he's around to care, Daphne," Neville said. I didn't need any sort of magical powers to see the sadness in his smile or to hear the pain in his voice. "That's important. I'll see you at school. It was nice meeting you, Taylor."
As Daphne and I walked to the register, studiously ignoring Cyrus pretending to browse the books at the front of the store I gently elbowed her. "You know, it is actually nice to have a parent that cares enough to be worried. My dad was pretty checked out of - well everything - for a really long time. Now I'm probably never going to see him again at all. Don't be too hard on Cyrus."
Daphne just looked away and grunted.
After we had paid and slipped out of the store I started angling towards the clothing shop only for Daphne to pull me away before we reached it and headed towards the large white, marble building at the end of the street instead. I arched my eyebrows.
"Don't look at me like that. We're going to get you an account first, then we can get you some decent clothes. Those underthings are not fit for proper wear and who knows how long we'll be looking to find something good! Also, we're going to Twilfitt and Tatting's, not some second-hand, ugh, vendor."
I rubbed my temple. "These are not underthings. They are a T-shirt and jeans and they are completely acceptable. I'm not wearing a robe. I'm just…not."
"That's fine. I'll get you something that we can compromise on."
"And I thought you guys needed to be more frugal?"
"There is a difference between spending frivolously and spending on appearances when they matter. You are my bodyguard, you have to look the part. That matters."
"I hate politics," I grunted.
"Father has made it clear very few people actually enjoythe games," Daphne said chuckling. "Now, watch yourself with the goblins. They are rather, hmm, prickly - they hate everyone. It's best to not take it personally and just to be rude back. Being polite is just seen as a weakness and they'll exploit it for all it's worth if they can. If you're rude, you just get slower service, but they won't think you an easy mark. You can't trust them with anything. And never sign a contract with a goblin until it has been reviewed by a solicitor."
"Okay…"
My bugs had been scoping out the building ever since we had gotten into the Alley and I was…honestly 'impressed' was not a large enough word. The tunnels beneath this place were enormous. Just from what I could see already it was larger than my entire range and they didn't seem to have any sign of an ending in any direction. The bank itself was huge as well. Pure marble everywhere I looked, white as snow, broken up only by the wrought iron of the teller stations and the pressed suits of the little goblins sitting at them.
If I had thought house elves were odd, goblins were just straight up ugly. They were essentially a house elf if someone had beaten them with a stick for a few hours then mashed them with a press to get their face looking like a football and stuck some giant elf ears onto it. That wasn't even getting into the hands that ended in nails shaped more like claws and teeth that looked like they could tear a man's throat out in seconds.
Thankfully, we only had to wait for a few minutes before one of the tellers was free and Daphne and I stepped up to his cubicle.
"Daphne Greengrass. Here is my key for verification. I am here to open a vault for my retainer, Taylor Hebert."
The goblin, apparently named Karnok per his nameplate, just glared down at us. "Hand."
I looked to Daphne and she waved a hand to hurry me along. Shrugging I extended my hand to the goblin. He grabbed it and within a second had taken a small knife from the stand next to him and jabbed at my finger.
"Hey! What the fuck!"
"Blood is required to link your key with your vault human. Did you not know this?" The goblin's grin set my blood boiling and the bugs in the tunnels below scurried faster.
"I see why the people here don't like you." A drop of my blood splashed on a black stone below, and the goblin let go. I quickly pulled my hand back, curling it into a fist to prevent any more blood from dripping. "Need any tears too?"
"Gringotts would never say no to tears from a wizard or witch. Here is your key, human. Do take care not to lose it or you will be required to donate even more blood to our cause."
I glared at him. "And how do I deposit or withdraw from this account?"
"Why going down and leaving money in it or taking it out of course. Are you perhaps slow, human?"
"We'll deposit the money here, thank you very much," Daphne cut in. "We have no need to ride the carts."
"That will be a 1% fee."
"We're fine with that." She handed over a bag of money and then held out her hand, palm up. "And we will also take the cheques as well."
"Checks, really?" I murmured.
"Like the Muggle versions," she replied, not taking her eyes from the goblin. "It's so you don't have to come back every time you run out of funds. Most don't bother with it, since it's expensive, but most of us are also too busy with schoolwork to regularly need more money or are able to make frequent trips here if required. You are neither."
Karnok just smirked as he looked down at Daphne from his long nose. "There is a 30 galleon fee for the initiation and each use incurs a surcharge of 10 sickles. In addition, we advise you to remember that each cheque is signed using blood in order to facilitate the withdrawal from your vault."
"Seriously? Blood?" I asked, glaring. "I'm sure that's just absolutely required, isn't it?"
"It is, of course, a safety feature." I didn't even have to see the smirk on his face to know it was certainly not a safety feature.
"The excess initiation fee is already included in the initial deposit," Daphne snapped before I could say anything else.
"And we at Gringotts advise you to keep a good track of your finances. The cheque books do not display the balance of your account and should your vault run negative…Gringotts always ensures that its debts are collected. Even from children."
I scowled. "And how much more are you going to charge for a book that does show my balance?"
"We do not offer that service."
"What a fucking racket," I hissed. "Don't they have competition? This is robbery!"
"This is Gringotts, Miss Hebert." Karnok's grin was entirely too satisfied.
Oh if only my friends were here and robbing this bank…
I was still seething when we exited the bank and walked back down the main street. I barely even noticed the shop that we entered next. The old man staring at me with his head tilted to the side was finally enough to pull me out of my annoyance at the crooks in the 'bank'.
"You are a unique traveler indeed."
I rolled my eyes at the old man. "Yes, I am. Good psychology line there. That fits with pretty much everyone I imagine. What else do you have?"
He smiled as Daphne groaned behind me. "Ah, I can see this will be an interesting experience indeed. Tell me, which hand is your wand hand?"
"Excuse me?"
"She's right handed," Daphne said, hand over her face.
He nodded and promptly whipped out a measuring tape which immediately went to work taking several different measurements as it wrapped itself around me.
"What are you doing?" I asked as the tape stretched between my shoulder blades and then snapped back into itself and flew back to the countertop. "Does anyone in this country have any concept of personal space?"
"Taking your measurements, my dear. Now…hmm…I don't think any of my normal wands would suffice for you…perhaps…well it's worth a try…" He vanished behind the counter and I looked to Daphne.
She shrugged. "Mr. Ollivander is a bit odd, but you get used to him. He does fantastic work and is the best wandmaker in Britain."
"The only wandmaker in Britain since my last rival mysteriously died three years back," Ollivander said, popping back up. He extended a rosewood stick in my direction. "Try giving this a wave, child. Cypress, phoenix feather, twelve-and-a-half inches."
I rolled my eyes, but took it from him and waved it around. As I had expected nothing happened. He just nodded and took it back. "Yes, I thought that was a long shot, but wouldn't know until we tried. How about this instead? Blackthorn, dragon heartstring, thirteen inches."
I had barely touched it before he snatched it back. "No, no, that's not going to work either."
"If you're not going to let me try then what's the point?"
"Taylor."
"The point, traveler, is that I need to see what doesn't resonate before I can figure out something that might," Ollivander said leaning over the counter and frowning. "I've never encountered one such as you before. You shouldn't be able to wield a wand, and yet something in me says that there is an aspect of you that has the potential…yet there is no spark when touching these and if phoenix and dragon do nothing for you then a wand may not be the path…yet there is light…So strange. So very, very strange…"
He turned and ran into the back of the shop and I looked at Daphne again. "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?"
"I try not to actually listen when Mr. Ollivander talks. It helps my sanity."
There was a loud crash in the back and a moment later the old man came running out with a smile on his face. "I found it! Try this." He held out a dark cherry wooden ring with a black band around the center. "Acacia, thestral hair. My father designed this decades ago, he always said there would come a time it would find its partner. Perhaps that is now."
I eyed the ring for several seconds, before sighing and reaching out.
I didn't feel anything.
But my bugs did.
Every one of my bugs in range froze solid for a full three seconds as a spike of something jammed into my skull. It wasn't…pain exactly. It was more a sense of…connection and…satisfaction…followed by…intrigue…and…
"Oww…" I groaned. Daphne was staring down at me and Mr. Ollivander was hovering just behind her. "Why is the air so hard?"
"Because you're on the floor," Daphne said. She reached out to take my hand and helped pull me up to a sitting position as I held a hand to my forehead. "Are you alright?"
"Not really, but I will be in a minute. I hear this sort of thing happens to parahumans sometimes; at least that's what Lisa said," I mumbled, managing to get my feet under me and glaring at the ring on my finger. I was half tempted to take it off and throw it at Ollivander, but the larger part of…something…was radiating contentment at the feel of the thing.
If ever I had needed confirmation that powers weren't a natural part of us this was probably it right here. Fine, I wouldn't piss off my power, I'd keep the ring.
"I'll take it," I said looking up at Ollivander.
The man nodded solemnly. "That is not a typical wand, miss traveler, nor will it normally act as one. You should be able to learn to use it to shape magic, but it will be difficult. Acacia is not a kind wood to master, yet it produces extraordinary results when used subtly. Thestral hair is a core I do not use myself, though my father did occasionally dabble in it. It is too temperamental when the wielder is not firm of purpose and clear of mind. It is also too associated with peril for my tastes. You have a destiny ahead of you, traveler. Tread lightly and carefully, and your partner will see you through."
"I've recently found I'm not particularly good at walking quietly, but thanks for the warning," I said shaking my head.
Daphne and I paid for my new bling and we headed out of the store. I held it up to the light frowning at the ring as I twisted my hand around to get a better view.
"Well I guess we answered the question about you having magic," Daphne murmured next to me, keeping her voice soft enough that anyone passing by wouldn't overhear.
"No, I don't think we did," I replied. "I'll tell you when we get back to the mansion. Where are we going now?"
"Clothes."
I barely had time to look through the window of the shop before Daphne had dragged me inside. The woman running things smiled and nodded when Daphne started to explain what she was looking for, then her grin widened when I added my own comments about something I would like. Finally, she was returning from the back with a bundle of fabric in her hands which she wrapped around me with a wave of her wand.
"Well, dear? What do you think?"
I stepped over to the mirror doing a bit of a turn to be able to catch sight of everything. My hair had been pulled up into a half ponytail, with a large portion of my bangs hanging loose around the sides of my face. I normally preferred to leave my hair to cascade down my back, but I actually rather liked this look. It went very well with the blazer.
The blazer itself was a very dark charcoal, held closed with three silver buttons and flared at the bottom ending just past my hips. The undershirt was an understated light grey and came complete with a yellow-pinstriped, crimson tie, which looked amazing; though she had given me blue and black ones as well in case I wanted to swap.
The pants matched the blazer and fit so well that there had to be some sort of spellwork involved. The combat boots were also black and the style was subtle enough that it could pass for fancy dress shoes at a short glance. The ensemble was completed with a set of black gloves with sable trim.
"I can honestly say, Ma'am, I don't remember the last time I've liked how I looked before now. This is amazing. Daphne what do you think?"
I turned to the blonde only to see her eyes wide and her mouth hanging slightly open as she stared at me. She barely even seemed to be breathing. I snorted and smirked as I snapped my fingers in front of her face. 'No one would ever look at you twice' my ass. Come look at me now Emma!
"Dappphhhhneeee."
"Wha?! I'm listening! That's - wow - that's - uh - I mean, it's nice. If you like suits. I'm sure we could find something else."
"Oh?" I did a bit of an exaggerated twirl so that I could stare at the back of the outfit in the mirror, conveniently showing off a bit more to the other girl even as the attendant chuckled behind her hand. "Should I keep looking then?"
"No! No, that's, that one's good. Yes. We'll - we'll take that one."
As Daphne tried to recollect her composure enough to get to the register I kept examining my reflection.
"Well, mom, what do you think?" I asked under my breath. "I think you'd be proud of me so far. I'm even making girls swoon now. For my next trick, I get to infiltrate a magic school. Isn't this going to be fun?"
Chapter 4: Interlude 1: DaphneNotes:AN: So in doing a bit of rereading from the original books for this chapter, I discovered that the Black Manor is literally close enough to walk to King's Cross. Walk. Wow. One day I might actually have to fully reread the books with an adult mindset to notice these sorts of details, but…fanfiction has really ruined me for this universe and its myriad issues in canon.
Chapter TextInterlude 1: Daphne
Taylor tumbled out of the fireplace right behind Daphne, grumbling and scowling. How she had managed to catch herself on her hands and knees was beyond comprehension, considering the amount of cursing that the American girl was currently doing under breath, yet it apparently left her no worse for wear as she stood - shakily - and brushed the soot off of her suit. Daphne bit her lip and hurriedly glanced to the side, refusing to oogle her bodyguard any further. It was bad enough as it was with that hair and those eyes. Taylor didn't even seem to realize how well her attire fit her…
"Couldn't we just take a damn car?" Taylor asked, stepping beside her.
"Why? Floo travel is fun!" Astoria proclaimed bouncing to halt on Daphne's other side.
"I swear to god, you people are insane," Taylor muttered. "First teleportation that feels like being sucked down a straw and leaves you sick to your stomach, then fireplace travel with constant random fireplaces to get caught on that also leaves you nauseous, then apparently actual flying brooms…Next you'll be telling me you can travel by an old boot or something."
Astoria smirked as she looked at Daphne. "Can I be the one to explain Portkeys? Can I, can I? Please!"
"Maybe later, Stori," Daphne chuckled. That would be a highly amusing conversation. "For now just say goodbye and let's get onboard the train."
Astoria rolled her eyes, but twisted on her heels to hug their parents. She whispered something to their father and nodded at their mother's soft words, then was off like a shot towards the Hogwarts Express. Daphne sighed, shaking her head as she watched her sister speed away.
"That girl just does not understand," her father murmured. He glanced down to Daphne and wrapped her in a brief hug - nothing extravagant, just enough to express feeling without showing weakness. "Be sure to watch out for her this year, Daphne."
"I always do, Father. She is rather removed from the majority of things as it is, being in Ravenclaw, but I have my contacts. She'll be fine."
"I would trust that more if I trusted the staff at Hogwarts in general," her mother said. She hugged Daphne as well and kissed her cheek. Both of her parents stepped back and looked to Taylor. "Miss Hebert, I know we didn't get off on the best foot, but I do hope that you will keep up your end of our bargain."
Taylor crossed her arms. "Mrs. Greengrass, I don't break promises unless I have been given good reason to do so. Your husband hasn't provided me with any reason to suspect that there's going to be any problems between us, and I rather like your daughters. Don't screw me over, and I'll make sure both your girls get back to you safe and sound. I promise."
Her father smiled and reached out to clasp Taylor's shoulder. "Thank you. Truly, this is helping more than you know, child. I will keep looking for ways to follow the thread that brought you here. If I make any progress, I'll contact you."
Taylor smiled, letting her hands drop to her sides as her shoulders dropped ever so slightly. "Thank you, Cyrus. I'd…really like to be able to see my dad and my friends again. I didn't know them long, but…it still feels like I'm abandoning them."
"I will do everything I can while you are gone."
"We'll see you for Yule, Mother, Father," Daphne bid farewell. She took Taylor's arm and led the other girl towards the train, threading their way through the crowd of her peers all saying their own goodbyes.
As they got onto the train she started to look through the compartments for her sister when Taylor tapped her on the shoulder. "If you're looking for Astoria, she's about five compartments down, but that one has almost no room in it."
"That girl," Daphne grunted. "I told her that we would be sitting together."
"Is there really much trouble she can get into on a train?"
"Two years back Dementors invaded and nearly ate a few of our souls, so - to answer your question - yes, yes there is. Do I think that will happen again this year? Probably not. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared. Let's at least sit close to her compartment."
Taylor was just staring at her. "Please tell me that you're joking."
"What, about Dementors? No, they were really here. I think they were looking for Sirius Black…At least that's what Draco said afterward. I don't really trust anything the little twit says, but that doesn't seem like something he would lie about and his father really would have known."
Taylor rubbed her temples, her gloves matching remarkably well with her hair and forcing Daphne to again look the other way. "I was talking about the 'eating souls' bit. Your 'country' is incredibly messed up."
"There are times where I think the same," Daphne muttered.
Taylor led her into a nearly empty compartment, nodding to the single other occupant as they sat down.
"Hi, you don't mind if we sit here do you?"
The girl looked up, her eyes wide. Only then did Daphne realize that her magazine was upside down. "Hello. Most people don't want to sit with me by choice, they are merely forced to do so by circumstance. You are perfectly welcome to do so either way."
Daphne frowned though she bit her tongue. Something about the girl was familiar, but she couldn't place her finger on it. Taylor's reaction was rather more telling however; she sat up straighter and her shoulders tensed, her eyes narrowing to slits as she scanned the diminutive blonde.
"Well, most people are idiots."
"I would tend to agree, I blame their nargle infestation. It's becoming truly an epidemic at Hogwarts." The girl lowered her paper and held out her hand. "I'm Luna Lovegood."
"Taylor Hebert. It's nice to meet you, Luna."
"Are you a new student?"
"New? Yes. Student? No. I'm working for the Greengrasses."
"Oh, that's interesting! I know Astoria, she's in my House. She tried to yell at some of our housemates once. I had to ask her to stop. She's really quite nice. Are you her sister then?"
Daphne blinked. "Yes, I'm Daphne. Greengrass. Luna Lovegood you say?" Luna…'looney' Luna Lovegood? Astoria had mentioned something about Luna last year…something about the other girls being horrible?
She'd have to talk to Astoria.
Taylor glanced across the aisle towards the other side of the train frowning. "Hey, doesn't this train leave in like, three minutes?"
"Yes," Daphne said. "Why?"
"Because there are about seven people who are just now getting onto the platform with their guardians. They're cutting it a little close, don't you think?"
Luna shrugged. "It's probably the Weasleys. They are very usually quite late. Ginny complains often about how her brothers nearly make her miss the train every year, and how her mother always forgets things. She had quite an amusing story our first year about how her brother stole their father's flying car when he and Harry Potter missed getting onboard the train completely! I almost didn't believe her, until she showed me the Muggle paper proving it!"
Taylor turned to stare at Daphne. "Flying cars? You have flying cars and we had to deal with the spinning fire grate of death?"
Daphne crossed her arms and scowled. "Flying cars are an illegal modification of Muggle technology. I have no idea how Mr. Weasley managed to get that through the loopholes in muggle artifact law, but seeing as how he runs the department I'm sure he knows the law far better than my family does. And there is nothing wrong with Floo travel! You just need practice."
"Practice my ass, that's just a stupid way to get from place to place. It's a dirty method too."
The train lurched forward and they lapsed into a mostly comfortable silence; until the compartment door slid open again, Neville at the front of the small group behind him. He glanced around and lifted his hand in a small wave which Daphne returned with a nod while Taylor waved back.
"Hi, Daphne, Taylor. It's nice to see you again. Do you guys mind if we share? There's not really any other available seats."
Daphne snorted. "Well that's what happens when you're slow getting to the train. Come in, Longbottom, and bring your friends. I haven't started biting just because we're going back to school again."
Taylor frowned as she looked at her and Daphne shrugged while Neville, Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter sat down around them. "I'm in Slytherin, Taylor. They're in Gryffindor. Our two Houses don't really get along well in school."
"You have cliques separated by your dorms? That seems…You know I probably shouldn't say anything. We had three different gangs in my school, besides the popular girls, the track team, the stoners, the nerds…Maybe it would've been easier if it was all just separated by where we slept."
Ginny leaned forward, openly staring at Taylor. "Who areyou? I haven't seen you at school before. And where are your robes? What are you wearing?"
"It's a suit, Ginny," Harry said. He was trying to not be obvious about staring at Taylor at least. Daphne had to push down her annoyance to avoid glaring at them both. "Are we allowed to wear suits now? I've gotten used to the robes, but I think the Dursleys would put up less of a fuss about things if I told them I could wear a suit…"
"I'm not really a student," Taylor said, shaking her head. "I'm just working for the Greengrasses. This seemed like the better uniform for a bodyguard and wearing a robe is, well, weird. So I got a suit."
Neville opened his mouth to say something, but Ginny beat him to it. "A bodyguard? Why would they need a bodyguard?"
Harry's head had snapped to Daphne after Taylor's declaration. Daphne inclined her head ever so slightly and Harry's lips parted. "You believe me?" he gasped.
Daphne groaned. "Shout it from the hills, why don't you? Please don't spread that around, Potter. There is only so much that Slytherin will tolerate. A bodyguard, I can get away with. Loudly proclaiming that my family does not support the Ministry and is preparing for the return of You-Know-Who, is liable to set a target on back. So do me a favor and keep quiet please."
His eyes narrowed. "I remember you wearing one of Malfoy's buttons last year."
"Yes? What has supporting Diggory as the real Hogwarts Champion got to do with anything? You yourself always said that he deserved the slot and that you had had no desire to actually compete."
"They outright insulted me."
"Wait, what?!" Daphne leapt up to her trunk, flipped it open and rummaged around for a moment before exclaiming victory and pulling out her old badge. Her eyes narrowed and her lips curled into a silent snarl as she read the changed words on it.
Support Ced-otter stinks!
"Oh that little! I thought this was a simple Support Cedric badge!" Daphne threw the badge to the floor and dropped into her seat crossing her arms. "I should have known better than to buy a five knut piece off of Malfoyof all people."
Harry leaned over and snorted as he looked at the button. "It looks like his charm work wasn't really up to snuff in the end."
"He paid for this to be made. What a complete waste of money." Daphne growled. "If you're going to pay for a petty insult at least do it right. Imbecile. I'll have to tell Tracey to get rid of her badge. I don't even remember if she bought one too."
"You guys have a falling out over the summer? I don't see her here at all," Ginny said, leaning back.
"So what?" Taylor asked. She looked between all of them. "Does everyone have to sit with their entire social circle on this train? We're going to a boarding school right? We're all going to be living together for months. Cool down, get to know other people, jeez."
Luna chuckled, lowering her magazine to her lap again. "You are going to be quite a lot of fun, Taylor. You don't care for careful politics at all do you?"
Taylor's eyebrows arched. "We're fifteen and sixteen. I don't think we should be worrying about politics right now." The others likely missed how her hands were clenched into fists, but Daphne did not. They also probably didn't notice how thin the line of her mouth was, but Daphne did not. What was this girl running away from?
"But you're a fifteen-year-old bodyguard," Neville questioned.
"Sixteen," Taylor murmured.
She was saved from responding further when Luna shrugged and picked her magazine back up. "I'm fourteen."
The group fell into an uneasy silence for the next few minutes. Taylor glanced outwards and kept watching the passing landscape on the other side of the window, a soft smile on her face at the mountains and green plains below. It was peaceful. Of course it couldn't last.
"Neville, what is that?"
"A mimbulus mimbletonia," he proclaimed. Daphne looked across the compartment, taking in the small, squirming little plant in his hands. It was quite ugly truth-be-told looking like nothing so much as a pile of pulsating green blobs stacked on top of each other. "My uncle got it for me as a gift. It has a great defense mechanism too! Here, can you hold Trevor?"
"I got him," Taylor said, extending her hands as Ginny grimaced.
Neville handed off the toad, who sat quietly in Taylor's palm. The two stared at each other as Taylor lifted him to her face, a small frown present on her features.
"Thanks, now watch this, everyone!" He held the cactus thing further away from him and raised a quill to poke at it. Within moments the plant had contracted and squirted foul smelling liquid over nearly everything in the compartment.
"Oh, gross," Taylor murmured. "Neville, that's awesome, really, but next time, maybe do it outside?"
"Yeah, agreed," Harry said, trying to wipe the gunk off of his glasses.
Daphne bit back the comment she desperately wanted to make and just took out her wand instead. "Scourgify." Recasting it a few more times around the compartment saw, thankfully, all of the liquid quickly vanished.
Taylor looked away from the toad and stared at Daphne's wand. "Suddenly I find myself jealous of you so verymuch. Can you cook with that thing too?"
"My mother can."
Harry frowned as he looked at Taylor. "You said that like you don't have a wand of your own."
"I don't," Taylor stated, shrugging. Trevor hopped onto her shoulder and she leaned back. "I'm not a witch, I'm a -"
"You're a Squib," Ginny blurted out, her eyes wide and her hand covering her mouth. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. And you're going to be completely surrounded by magic now for months! This is going to be bloody awful for you! Why did you ever agree to your job?! How are you going to cope? I can't even imagine being in that position!"
Taylor grunted. "So this is what you meant about people being racist against Squibs huh?"
"That's mild, she's actually being somewhat kind. Draco would be far worse and far more condescending," Daphne said.
"Okay, first off, wow, Ginny right? It makes it so much worse when you pity someone for being different. Just accept them for who they are, don't try to rub it in their face that they're different or odd. Didn't your mother teach you any manners at all?" Taylor said. She shook her head and Trevor echoed her movement. Neville stared at his pet, eyes wide. "Secondly, I'm not a Squib. I'm a parahuman - a magical race from America. There's not many of us around. I don't use spells like you guys - at least not that I know of. What I can do is; let's just go with 'different'. I don't have much experience with the British Wizarding community so I'm learning a lot of things as I go."
Neville nodded. "Gran always said that the Greengrasses were good about finding sources overseas."
"Dumbledore let you come to Hogwarts without being a witch?" Harry asked.
"Dumbledore doesn't control what I do," Taylor said. "The Greengrasses hired me to look after their daughters. All I need is a bed and food. Hell I don't even really need food, I can get that on my own if I need to. I just need a place to sleep, really. If the Headmaster wants to be a jerk, I'll be an asshole right back. I'm sure there's a law somewhere that would support me."
Luna nodded behind her magazine. Daphne was forced to reassess the little Ravenclaw, just how close attention had the girl been paying to the conversation? "There are several that would be able to back your position. The Rotfang Conspiracy has not toppled all of the old laws yet and many of the new laws also have clauses that would cement the place of retainers at Hogwarts. Daddy said it was so that the Illuminati could gain a foothold in the school, but I never saw any evidence of that."
Luna had definitely been paying attention. She had not earned her nickname at all. This girl was no more insane than Daphne was. Luna was just very good at obfuscation. Very good.
She would have done well in Slytherin.
The compartment door slid open yet again, and Daphne had to bite off a groan as she saw Draco and his sycophants standing outside, leering at them. Perfect. She had been hoping to avoid this until they were at least at school. But no, and worse, he saw her with three Gryffindors. Ah well, she was always going to be at odds with him this year anyway.
"Greengrass? You're…Come on Greengrass, stop slumming with these losers. We have room in our compartment for a high-class… lady, such as yourself." His eyes grazing over her left unpleasant shivers down her back.
Daphne didn't growl. She was proud of herself for that. "I am quite comfortable here, thank you, Malfoy. I don't intend to debase myself by listening to Parkinson's shrill recounting of her vapid summer holiday. I'll have to hear it on repeat for weeks soon enough. It's not like she has anything better to discuss, until you do something else 'noteworthy' for her to harp on about instead."
Malfoy's scowl was almost worthy of note. The sad thing was that he actually seemed to mean it instead of simply playing it up. "You're sitting with the enemy."
"I am sitting with my retainer. The others sat with us. As it is, we are nearly evenly represented. Now run along unless Daddy has something that he needed you to pass along. We all know that you don't have much to say yourself."
Malfoy lips curled, as Taylor muffled a chuckle. Trevor ribbitted just as Malfoy opened his mouth to speak. He snapped it closed again and glared at the toad sitting on Taylor's shoulder. She smirked and raised a hand in a wave.
"Hi. I'm the retainer. If you don't have anything of value to talk about, this compartment is a bit tight. Can we talk when we get to the school instead?"
He opened his mouth again and this time he ended up choking and sputtering an instant later. He clutched at his throat and backed away, Crabbe and Goyle grabbing for his shoulders. As soon as he was clear of the door, Ginny slammed it shut and Harry sent a locking spell towards it. Neville stared at Taylor.
"What just happened?"
"Looked like he swallowed a fly to me. Would you like your toad back?"
Neville nodded and Taylor handed him across. Trevor ribbitted once again and Neville, looked up, meeting Taylor's eyes. "He's never been this well behaved before…"
"I have a way with small critters. That's a very nice toad you have, Neville. Take care of him, he seems to like you," Taylor said, smiling. She turned, lowered her chin into her gloved hand and went back to staring out the window. "Oh and you might want to get a bell. He likes to play hide-and-seek."
Daphne felt a smile spreading on her face as she leaned back in her seat. This arrangement was already showing profit. A pleasant companion to talk to, an easy way to shut up Draco, possible expansion of her social circle…and all of this before she'd even reached Hogwarts! Things were going swell!
The fact that Taylor looked excellent in a suit had nothing to do with anything at all.