Notes:
Welcome back to the Heir and the Champions, in which we see a badger's scheme take a turn for the Slytherin.
I love the fact that most of the comments after the last chapter were basically "Do it!" While I have plans for Harry to have multiple girlfriends over the stories and a few other entanglements because of Aphrodite's curse, I'm on the fence about who he ultimately ends up with. Because my brain screams Ginny, but my heart says other things, like Hermione, Tracey, Tonks, {Fathomless Black Eyes}, and no one.
Now I know all of you are screaming no Ginny right about now, but I do want to do something with her Character in flashes on how I see her, but like I said, on the fence about it all.
But, that is for me to think over, for now, let's move on to the next card to fall, The Empress.
On with the show!
Nymphadora Tonks, The-Den-On-The-Hill.
Dora woke up after a deep sleep, the events of the day before still fresh in her mind as she rolled over and grabbed her wand before casting the Tempus charm and seeing it was just past ten in the morning, she groaned as she climbs out of bed. Her old room was just bare bones since she had moved out of her parent's house over a year ago, all it had in it was her old dresser and bed, she does, however, keep a stash of clothes in the dresser just in case for times like these. So quickly getting dressed in a pair of black jeans and throwing a misfits t-shirt over herself foregoing any sort of bra, because when you can change your cup size with a thought a bra only got in the way, she normally stayed at around a B-cup anyway, fewer things in the way when chasing down perps.
Putting on her wand holster and belt she hits the bathroom to do her morning ritual and at the end, she picks spiky black hair with yellow tips. exiting the bathroom, and going to the kitchen she finds her dad sitting in his normal blue suit at the table, the suit jacket slung over the back of the chair as he reads the morning Prophet and eats some toast.
"Any good news?" Dora asks as she opens the fridge and pulls out the bottle of OJ before she opens in and takes a drink from the bottle.
"Other than your mother isn't here to see you drink out of the carton," Ted says looking up from the prophet with a smirk, "No, not really, they did, however, release the names of the men Harry killed, Lord Nott, Macnair, and Rowle," he says and Dora lets out a low whistle as she lowers the carton
"Nott is a big name, I know Macnair was the arsehole in the disposal department, but I've got no clue who Rowle is," Dora says as she sits down and steals a piece of toast from her dad's plate and begins to munch on it as she pours an actual glass of juice.
"Thorfinn Rowle worked in the legal department at the Ministry, I had to deal with on a few cases," Ted admits before taking a sip of tea, ignoring his daughter's grand theft toast, "He worked under the Minister and was a right cunt," Ted says, his face scrunching in distaste for the man.
"Was he marked?" Dora asks, curious.
"Nope," Ted says, popping the P at the end of it with his lips, his face settling into a look of anger as he read on before cursing and throwing down the paper.
"What is it?" Dora asks as she puts down her toast and picks up the prophet and scans the article her father was just reading.
"Harry Potter: Armed and Deranged?" it said, written by Rita fucking Skeeter, of course, throwing around a lot of dangerous words such as "brutal killer, Ministry employee slayer, unhinged and dangerous, and dark magic user," the last one based on the fact that a schoolboy was able to kill three grown wizards with an inelegant and dangerous muggle gun, hinting at he possibly used dark magic to do so. The article painted the thinnest veneer of Harry possibly being an unhinged killer of the Lords of Wizengamot, which was a load of hippogriff shit and asking a lot of questions about his time in Hogwarts, thankfully all those records were sealed by the Auror department and not even Dora could get her hands on them.
"Well, fuck," Dora says before tossing down the rag of a newspaper, "How bad do you think Sirius is gonna flip over this?" she asks her father who stands up, brushing off the crumbs of his breakfast.
"Probably not as much as you think he would, he doesn't put much stock in the Prophet since the first war," Ted says before throwing his suit jacket on, "And I doubt Harry himself will care much either, he doesn't strike me the type to care much about anything, Molly on the other hand…," he says before walking into the living room and picking up his briefcase, trailing off because Dora knew how Molly was going to react to it.
"Can you do anything to stop her? Skeeter, that is, not Molly," Dora asks before taking a sip of her juice, "and speaking of the Hurricane himself, where is he at? Still asleep?" Dora asks.
Ted stops at the door, checking the time on his wristwatch before answering, "On the Rita front, unfortunately, no, she has the protection of Ministry with what she writes through the Prophet itself, I can write an article of censorship about her but I doubt the Wizengamot is gonna approve it," the man says with a sigh, "And so long as she writes about the facts, she can vaguely imply or ask whatever she wants," Ted walks over to his daughter kissing her on the cheek as he used to when she was little, "As for Harry, he was up before even your mother cooking her breakfast, nearly jump out of his skin when he realized who she was as far she told me, she thinks he was on autopilot from his, well, you know," The Solicitor says with a grimace.
"But last I saw him, he asked if he could use the woods in the back to do a bit of shooting, the boy's jaw almost fell off from all the stammering," Ted says as he walks over to the back door, shaking his head, "He should still be out there, do you have work today?" he asks, opening the door.
Dora shakes her head, "No, worked almost a 24-hour shift yesterday, I have today and tomorrow off," she informs her father before finishing the last of her juice.
"Do you mind hanging around the house today and keeping Harry company?" her father asks, "It's not that I don't trust the boy, I'd just feel better with someone watching over him for now," he says with a small grin, and Dora nods.
"Had nothing else planned, when's mom off?" Dora asks because this was going perfectly to be completely honest.
"She should be home by four, maybe six if they need her to stay a bit late," Ted says, "And don't interrogate the boy while we're not here Dora, I mean that," He says pointing at her and speaking with a stern voice, Dora puts her hands up in surrender before speaking.
"I swear I won't dad," Dora tells him, "Badger's oath," she says with a smile as her father smiles back at her before nodding and leaving out the back door, just to disappear with a crack. Dora smiles because she technically wasn't going to interrogate Harry for any names, he was freely going to offer them by the time she was done with him. The question was how to do it? The first thought that popped into Dora's head was incredibly inappropriate to have about a fourteen-year-old, the house to themselves or not, so she shook them from her head as she stood up, stretching and groaning as her back and arms popped. Taking him out to London to have a day of fun was probably the best thing she would think of, get him a few things, hit up a movie or an arcade, maybe get lunch or something. With that in mind, she pops her cup into the sink before heading back to her room and throwing on her boots before heading out the back door to find Harry.
There was a small forest near the house, more of a grove than anything, it wasn't technically on the property but it was close enough that she and Charlie used to go wandering about it on nice afternoons for a private snog when her parents were home over the summer. Walking towards it she knew that's where he was seeing the snow-white owl flying over the top of trees looking for something to hunt, walking into the trees Dora carefully avoids the roots of the trees as she wanders deeper into the shade of the English oak trees before she starts to hear the sound of something being swung at high speeds, like, really high speeds. She picks up the pace with her wand dropping into her hand with the yelling words of her mentor ringing into her ears "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" meaning you could never be too careful. As she gets closer to the sound, she starts to notice long slashes across some of the tree trunks, they were smooth and clean, made by a long flat blade of some kind, just what the hell was Harry doing out here?
She would soon discover what he was doing as she followed the sounds, trying her hardest to move silently and almost tripping three times before she makes it to a small clearing, she ducks behind a tree on the edge of it and peaks around to find the boy who she was searching for. He was… dancing? Looked like dancing to her, he moved with a controlled grace she would never have in a thousand years of living, every time she saw his foot get close to a root or a rock that would have her flat on her face, his foot would automatically move to adjust before he would step around it or on it, he never looked down while doing this, it was like he knew where to place his foot before he even moved. He stepped with purpose and grace, twisting his body, spinning on his heel, pirouetting on the balls of his feet, if it wasn't for the fact he was swinging a big honking spear, she would have called it beautiful. Nah, it was still beautiful, spear and all, Harry being shirtless definitely helped on that front, the boy was fit.
He would speed up at random intervals becoming no more than a blur of motion, the silver spear he had in hand becoming streaks of silver reflecting in the morning sunlight that came through the canopy above, it really was a mesmerizing sight. But as Dora watched him dance, slash, and thrust getting caught up in it herself, she had almost failed to notice the large snow-white owl landing on a tree limb near her. As Dora turns her head to the owl bringing a finger to her lips to shush the bird, the owl lets out a bark, loud and clear, ringing throughout the small grove, and then the sound of the spear stops as Dora ducks behind the tree she was hiding behind.
"What is it, Hedwig?" Harry says before the Owl, Hedwig hoots before taking off from the tree limb and flying over towards Harry, "Fuck," Harry says, confusing Dora for a moment before Harry speaks again, "You can come out, I know you're there," he spoke softly almost like a whisper.
Did the owl just rat me out? Dora thought as she pops her head out from behind the tree, "Wotcha, Harry?" Dora says with a wide smile, "Out for some exercise this morning?" she asks with a large grin.
Harry was busy stuffing something in his pocket, the spear no longer in sight, the quiet shrug he gives her is the only answer she gets from him. With him no longer moving around so much Dora is able to get an eye full of Harry without his shirt on, and she can't say she's disappointed, he had some definition to his body that was just now coming in, and she could clearly see the faint outlines of his abs and well-defined arms covered in sweat, she could see a nasty scar on the crux of the elbow, it looking like a burn or at least something hot was poured on the inside of his arm. She would consider Harry's body pretty hot if it wasn't for the fact she could still see a few of his ribs, like he was just putting on some healthy weight. Harry shuffles around a bit looking a bit uncomfortable with her inspecting him like that, he looks everywhere but at her before he finally turns around and walks over to a low tree branch where his shirt and jacket were hanging over. His back, however, had a few more scars, they weren't as pronounced as the one on his arm, thin white lines crisscrossing on his back, not as many as Dora was expecting but still far more than should be there. The shirt had seen much better days and looked to be at least a few sizes too big for Harry as he pulls it on and turning back to Dora.
"So, I was wondering if you wanted to get out of the house for a bit, hit up London, maybe catch a movie?" Tonks says with a smile, much to his confusion of Harry.
Harry tilts his head while giving Dora a look of suspicion, "Why?" he asks, to which Dora just blinks.
"Why what?" Dora asks, unsure of the question.
"Why are you being nice? Aren't you mad I'm here?" Harry asks, before turning to grab his Jacket off of the tree limb.
"Harry, I'm a Hufflepuff," Dora tells him as if it explains everything, "Being nice is kinda what we do," she says crossing her arms, she was wondering about the spear he had just a few minutes ago, but one mystery at a time. Harry mumbles something before throwing his coat on and walking towards her.
"Sorry, what was that?" Dora asks, hoping for him to speak up.
"Nothing," Harry says, before just standing in front of her, hands shoved into his pockets.
"Riiiiight," Dora says, "So, how about this, you hit the shower and get ready to go out, and we can see what type of trouble we can find in London?" she says, uncrossing her arms and nodding back towards the house. Harry shrugs once again and starts walking toward the house, Dora turns and follows him, slipping her hands into her back pocket, "So, how'd you get it?" she asks, and Harry's eyes flick to her before flicking back over to the house in the distance, not answering.
"The scar I mean," Dora says, keeping in step with Harry, "The big nasty one on the inside of your arm," the Auror says, tapping the same spot where she had seen it just moments ago. Harry once again just mumbles something, but this time Dora catches a word that Harry says.
"I'm sorry, but did you just say a "Basilisk?" Dora says with a bit of shock, stopping and just gaping at Harry, he had stopped as well, looking back at her before shrugging, "No," Dora says, "Oh, no, you don't get to answer that question with a half mumbled answer with the word Basilisk in it and not explain it," she says as Harry takes a step back looking everywhere around Dora but at her. Dora's mind works a mile a minute as she narrows her eyes at Harry, there was a rumor near the end of her first year of Auror training she had heard the seniors talking about from time to time, something about a possible Basilisk and the death of one at…
Dora's eyes widen, "Holy fuck, hold on, were you the one that killed the Basilisk at Hogwarts?" she asks as she steps into Harry's space causing the boy to take a step back before shrugging again. Dora looked at the boy with wide eyes, the kid killed a Basilisk and shrugged about it? Seriously? "How the hell did you pull that off? With a roster?" she asks.
"No," Harry says, looking a bit uncomfortable, "With a sword," he says before he continues on his way back to the house.
Dora watches him go, gaping at his back, "A sword? You killed the king of fucking serpents with a sword?" she asks as she walks to catch up.
"Queen," Harry says softly, "It didn't have any plumage, so it was technically the Queen of serpents," he says with a fond smile as if he was remembering something. It was a small soft type of smile, and the first one Dora had seen on his face, and she would be lying if she said it didn't do anything to her.
"And here I thought it was gonna be that Spear of yours, but fuck me, kid," Dora says, keeping the "please" unsaid, seriously, what the hell was wrong with her? "Do you know how impressive that is? The last Basilisk that was on British soil was-" Dora starts to say as they cross the fence line, but Harry cuts her off.
"1799, took sixty Aurors to take it down," Harry says as if repeating something he had read or heard somewhere, but his tone was stiff, clipped, and short like he didn't want to talk about something, making Dora stop and look at his back, she probably shouldn't ask about the spear…yet.
"Yeah,..." Dora says trailing off as he walks into the house, she soon follows behind him, "But fuck, Harry, that is amazing you were able to kill one with a sword, absolutely mad that is," Dora says with a grin as the boy just shrugs again.
"I had helped," Harry says walking down the hall, and opening the guest room door before walking over to his trunk, he digs through it as Dora follows behind to lean on the door frame, she would ask about the help, but she honestly wanted to get the whole story out of the kid first.
"So, what do you think? Me, you, London crawl to see what type of trouble we can find?" Dora asks, a grin never leaving her face as Harry turns to her confused.
"Are you, ah, a-asking me?" Harry stammers, Dora could see the slight flinch, a shimmer of emotion in Harry's eyes, Dora keeps the grin on her face, keeping the burning questions to herself.
"Well, yeah, I'm not about to force you to do anything you don't want to do, Harry," Dora says with a shrug, "Kinda defeats the purpose of asking, Ya know?" the Metamorph says as she watches Harry shuffle in place, but doesn't answer, he was holding an old ratty shirt in hand, was that all he owed? Finally the boy shrugs and nods.
"Wicked, hit the shower and then we'll head out for a day on the town, should be fun," Dora says with a smile before leaving him to do just that, she was already making plans in her head, she was forgoing the movie idea and decided to do something a bit more practical. It doesn't take long for Harry to get out of the shower, she didn't even have enough time to properly get comfortable while watching a rerun of an old Doctor Who episode before he comes out fully dressed and ready to leave, he was still dressed in ratty hand me downs plus the beat up old leather jacket she remembered him wearing back in his first year. She leads him out to the backyard, stopping in the middle of the garden "Before we pop off," Dora says, "Do we need to take Hedwig inside?" she asks with a raised brow and turning her head to look at said owl sitting on the roof glaring at her.
Harry looks back at the owl who hoots softly at him before he shakes his head, "No, she'll be fine on her own," he mumbles. She smiles at him before telling them they were going to Apparate to London to which he groans at making her smile.
"Yeah, side alongs suck, but it helps you get used to the feeling when it comes time for your Apparition exams," Dora says before slipping a thumb in her waistband, making sure she has her knickers and pants pitched together, her face screws up in concentration, and before Harry could ask what she was doing, she hears him gasp as she feels herself shrink about a foot and a half till she looked about fourteen or fifteen again before she waves her wand and readjusts her clothes to fit better on her new shape. She opens her eyes with a smile and is surprised by the look on Harry's face.
"Was that wandless self-transfiguration?" Harry asks, with a blank face and a bit of trepidation dancing in his eyes, which was not the normal reaction she got from people finding that out about her.
Dora chuckles a bit, "I'm good Harry, but I'm not that good," she says with a smirk and a tilt of her head, "No, I'm what you call a Metamorphmagus, it means I can change my body at will, hair, eyes, height, weight, muscle mass, I can look like whoever and however I want," Dora says, and just to make a point her eyes change color to match Harry's emerald greens one, and surprisingly, Harry flinches at them, she quickly shifts them back to her mother's gray eyes not wanting to upset the kid, "Pretty wicked, right?" she asks, trying not to show she noticed it.
"Y-yeah, sure," Harry says, looking away from her.
"Well, anyway," Dora says, not letting his reaction bother her and holding out her arm to him, "You're in for a long day, Harry, because I know what we're gonna do in London," the Metamorph says with a smile, Harry doesn't say anything, just wraps his arm around hers and looks at her, "We're going shopping!" she says with an evil smirk, confusing Harry before she twists on her heel, dragging the poor boy with her to his doomed fate.
Harry Potter, London England.
Harry Potter never wanted to see the inside of another shopping mall, clothes store, or outfit out letter ever again in his life. Dora had dragged him around London for the last four and a half hours, apparating to and fro to her favorite shops and malls forcing Harry to try on outfit after outfit, pants after pants, shirt after shirt, until he had bags and bags of new things, even two new pair of shoes, a set of trainers they had got from a mall and a pair of dragonhide boots that they picked up in the Diagon Alley. She had somehow tricked him out of the clothes he wore to the mall and vanished them when no one was looking before ripping off the tags from his current outfit and paying for it.
That was another thing, she hadn't let him pay for a single thing, they had stopped at Gringotts first, taking money out of the Black Family vault and telling the Goblins to put it down as "Clothes for Harry," when they wrote down a report to Sirius before converting a large amount of gold into pounds. Harry had tried to argue, saying he could pay for himself but Dora wasn't hearing a word he said and told him that Sirius wouldn't mind her pulling out some funds to get him clothes that actually fit him instead of the ones he was wearing. But still, it felt weird having anyone WANTING to spend time or money on him that wasn't Christmas or Birthday gifts, and even those were still weird to him. As they shopped Dora talked a lot, telling him about herself, her years at Hogwarts, her Auror training with some guy named Alastor Moody who was, in her own words "A tough old paranoid bastard" though she said it with a fond smile. She was still in training and would be until around December when she would take her final Auror exam, she was pretty confident that would ace almost all of it except Stealth and Tracking, "I'm dead clumsy if you couldn't tell," she had said right before tripping and almost face planting in a parking lot, Harry had grabbed the back of her jacket to help her avoid a busted nose.
She had asked him a few questions as well, like if he'd even been to London other than going to Diagon Alley, Harry had admitted to never really leaving Surrey other than the one time he went with the Zoo with the Dursleys, and she had smiled brightly at him when he answered and then went on talking about her third year and the classes she had taken (Runes and Care) with Charlie Weasley, who was apparently one of her best friends and an ex-boyfriend.
"Ron's never mentioned you before," Harry said as he stood with an arm full of shirts Dora was pulling off a rack.
"Not surprising, it's a bit of a sore subject between me, Charlie, and the Weasley clan," Dora said as she walked over to the pants section, "Ms. Weasley was hoping me and Charlie would get hitched, but that wasn't in the cards," she admitted with a shrug and a bit of a sad smile.
Harry didn't ask why they didn't, mostly because he really didn't get why people dated at all or how it even worked so he just let her drop the subject, not wanting to bring up any bad memories. She asked if he had any girlfriends and had completely mistaken what she was talking about when she had asked and immediately said Hermione.
"Ah, the bushy-headed bookworm from the library," Dora said, recognizing Hermione when Harry had described her, "Didn't know you were into the nerdy girls, good on you Harry," she said with a cheeky grin and wiggling eyebrows.
"Into?" Harry had asked, confused.
Dora had looked back at him, confused herself, "Yeah, you know, your type?" she said, but Harry was even more confused, Dora stood there looking at him caught halfway between bewilderment and wanting to coo at just how adorable the look on Harry's face was, he looked so lost about what they were talking about, deciding to throw the boy a lifeline she said "The type you would date, you doofus," with a large grin that turns into a barking laugh at the blush that had crawled up Harry's face that had twisted into a bit of shock and embarrassment.
Harry had quickly corrected what he had said, that Hermione wasn't his girlfriend, that she was a friend that was a girl, which had Dora in stitches as he stumbled through his explanation to her. She had to hold herself up by the rack of clothes as she laughed herself silly over Harry's embarrassment. They got back to shopping after Dora had calmed down enough not to trip over the air as they walked through the stores, she was always trying to get him to dress in band shirts or other t-shirts that had weird designs, but he had turned them all down to just go with plain t-shirts of dark colors such as blue, brown, green, or black without the colorful or weird designs on them. He did however find a dark blue shirt with the phases of the moon on it that he liked, he was wearing that with a pair of dark cargo pants and Sirius' Jacket as He and Dora walked into a small restaurant in the heart of London to grab lunch, Dora had thankfully shrunk down every bag they got and just placed them into another bag, which Harry was very thankful for.
The shop was a small and comfortable place, the main seating were booths that ran against the wall around the place and a few barstools at the bar that were mostly occupied by other customers. The decor was minimal at best, with just a few pictures of famous customers and the owners, Harry assumed, Hanging on the wall. The tiles on the floor were a dirty red while the wood that made up the tables and bar was dark stained wood lined with brass, and the seats were all the off-red color of the tiles on the floor. The smell of spices was thick in the air along with the noise of the other patrons of the small dinner. Dora had asked what he wanted, and Harry just shrugged, from the smells of the place it smelled like it served foreign food.
"Don't know," Harry says, "Uncle Vernon wasn't a big fan of foreign food, so we never really had any," the Hunter says looking at the menu, he didn't know what half this stuff was, though they did have Chicken Tikka Masala, Harry had always heard it was good but never had a chance to try it.
Dora just nods, "Then why don't you go find a place for us to sit and I'll get the grub," she says with a smile, and Harry just shrugs before he walks away from the metamorph who has not once changed back to her actual age the whole day, but she seemed to be having fun so who was Harry to say anything.
Making his way into the back of the restaurant and away from the majority of the people inside, while it was still loud, it wasn't as bad away from the crowds at the front and around the bar. He finds the second-to-last booth in the place and plops down in the seat, the last booth was taken by someone. Harry tilts his head and looks to where Nymphadora was standing in line to order, she turns her head, and sees him staring at her, she waves and gives a wink before turning back to the line as Harry does another swipe of the place. The entrance was currently opening to let another couple in, a man greets another at the bar with a friendly cheer, and a family sits at the farthest booth on the opposite side of the restaurant eating some fish and chips, vibrant emerald eyes looking at him in shock, the guy behind Dora, who looked around her actual age, is talking to her and she looks annoyed.
Harry turns to look back at the last booth in the restaurant, the person who had taken up the booth was looking right at him, matching emerald eyes meet, and the Heir of the Hunt narrows his own as he looks at her. She had a mug of tea in front of her face as she inspected him as he inspected her, she was an older woman looking the same age as Sirius or Andromeda, with short black hair cut almost to the scalp but Harry could make out two long tightly braided strands of hair hanging down just behind her ear that had black feathers of some kind braided throughout them. Her right hand and arm were tattooed with what looked like spider webs or threads that created a twisting pattern that looked like they had no end, they extended across her hand and up her pointer and middle finger, down her forearm, and up her bicep to her shoulder. Her ears were pierced multiple times with different crystals and bones, she wore a long black braided leather necklace with other stones set into it and what looked like a red denim jacket with torn-off sleeves. She places her mug down and Harry could see black-painted lips that curled into a smirk before she raises her hand that wasn't tattooed and gestures with her finger in a "come hither" motion.
Harry raises an eyebrow at it before turning back to look at Nymphadora, she was closer to the person taking orders and had a smirk on her face as the guy behind her was glaring at her. Turning back to the woman in the last both she raises her brow at him, the smirk never leaving her face, Harry shuffles in his seat a bit looking back to Dora before looking back at the woman before standing up and walking over to her, her smirk turns into a full-blown grin as Harry walks the short ten feet to him.
The woman sets her mug down as he walks over to her, her eyes never leaving his own, spread before her on the table were cards, not playing cards or exploding snap cards, odd ones with different pictures depicting different scenes, some were upside down, some were right side up, and each had words at the bottom of them but Harry could make heads or tails of what they said. Other than her steaming mug of tea, she had a small plate with crumbs of some pastry that she had eaten.
"Can I help you?" Harry asks, not one to be rude in anything if he could help it, the woman just looks at him up and down with her hauntingly familiar eyes as she smiles at him. Being closer to her, Harry could see the spider web-like tattoo going across her collarbone and up one-half of her neck and chin, stopping just before her lower lip which was pierced with a black pentagram stud. She wore black slacks and pointed and polished leather house shoes, with Celtic knots and crosses that looked to embroider on the red leather jacket just above the waistline.
"Hmm, possibly," the woman says with a hum, "I was just reading some Tarot, and it told me that I would come across an opportunity once relinquished to another, and I look up to see this black hair green eye boy looking at me, and well," She shrugs as if it explained it all, her voice was high like a chime but with a tone of sternness that Harry had only heard in the voice of Ms. Weasley.
Harry looks back down at the cards, "Tarot?" he asks the woman, before looking back at her.
"The cards," she says with a shipping gesture over them, "It's a way to tell what has happened, what is, and what will come, among other things," her smile is coy, like she was telling Harry a joke that only she was on to, "It's based on the personal interpretation of the reader, so it's never accurate, but it gives one a general picture that they could work with," She says before picking up her mug and taking a sip.
Harry's lips twitch before he speaks, "Sounds like magic," He says, making his own little joke to himself, but to his surprise, the woman chuckles a bit herself before she sets down her mug.
"Something like that, yes," She says with her own smirk, "But alas, the threads of fate are so difficult to read, even to those as practiced as me, the fates are constantly in flux as they work with us, and against," she looks back at Harry with a knowing smirk that sends a tingle shooting down Harry's spine, "Would you like a reading?" she asks Harry, the smirk never leaving her face.
"A Tarot reading," She says, gesturing to the cards, "It's rather simple, and mostly painless," she grins after saying that before Harry turns his head back around, Dora was now at the front of the line ordering whatever she was ordering, "Well?" the woman asks, and Harry shrugs before sliding into the booth with the woman.
"Sure," Harry says, other than waiting for his food he really didn't have anything else to do, might as well have some weird lady read his future or whatever. The woman smiles as he slides into the booth before picking up her cards, flipping them face down, and stacking them into a deck, she begins to shuffle them like an old card shark you would see in the movies. She shuffles, bridges, and cuts the deck, her hands moving quickly and confidently with skill and experience that had her hands moving in a blur.
"There are two ways I can do a reading," She explains as she shuffles, "The first is a general reading about you, it is the vaguest but it can extend years into the future, or," she explains as she shuffles, bridges, and cuts the deck once more, "If you have a question weighing on your soul, you can ask the cards and I can help you divine the answer," she says looking back at Harry, her hands never stop moving.
"General, I guess," Harry says, he felt silly asking a bunch of cards about anything, let alone the questions that bothered him, nor did he want to speak them out loud in front of a woman who wouldn't understand half of it.
"General it is," the woman says as she finishes shuffling and placing the deck in front of Harry before placing her elbow on the table and pressing her cheek into the palm of her hand, "Cut the deck if you wouldn't mind, a number of times matching the month you were born in, if you would," she says as her eyes flick briefly behind Harry before he does what she asks, cutting the deck seven times.
"Seven, my oh my, such a lucky and powerful number you were born under," she says coyly as Harry slides the deck back across the table, "Cancer or Leo I do wonder," she says as she takes the deck back from Harry before she looks up from Him.
"Wotcha, Harry, who's ya new friend?" the voice of Dora asks, and Harry turns around to see her walking up, eyeing the woman across from him with suspicion, her right hand loose and ready to whip out her wand in a moment.
"Oh, umm,..." Harry says, turning back to the woman, realizing he had never asked her for her name, she looks amused as she eyes Dora up and down.
"He never asked for my name, nor did I give it," the woman says in a tone that matches her amused look, "But if you want to call me anything, call me Ana," the newly introduced Ana says with a bright smile, "I was about to give your boyfriend here a Tarot reading if you wish to watch," Ana says as Dora slides into the booth with Harry.
"Oh! No, we're not-" Harry tries to explain before Dora slides into the booth wrapping her arms around his own, leaning her head onto his shoulder, making Harry flinch at the unwanted contact and stiffening as she clings to his arm, before cutting him off.
"Oh, don't be so shy, Harry," Dora says in a high and sickly sweet voice to Harry, before turning to Ana, "It's our first date, How did you know?" Dora says as Harry turns his head and looks at her like she had lost her mind, but Ana just chuckles.
"Oh, just a feeling," Ana says with a smile, "But isn't he a bit young for you?" She asks and Harry feels Dora stiffen.
"What do you mean?" Dora asks innocently, "We're the same age," she says with a pout.
"Oh? My apologies then," Ana says as she picks up the deck of cards, "Harry here looks about eleven or twelve," she says before fanning out the cards and offering them to Harry and turning back to him with a smile, "Go on, boyo, pick three, however you want," she tells him.
Harry looks over at Dora, still hanging off his arm to his discomfort, before looking back to the fanned-out cards and reaching out to pull three out of the middle of the deck.
"Don't look at them," Ana instructs him, before tapping the table, "Lay them face down and arrange them however you wish," she says with a smile reaching her eyes as the boy who hunted arranged the cards just by putting them down and fanning them out. "Good," she says, picking up the deck and shuffling the deck once more, "How this is going to work is quite simple, the three cards you've picked represent what you have gained, what you will find, and what you will need," she explains as both Dora and Harry watch the woman's hands work the cards in them, "The cards I will lay down will represent your past, your present, and your future," she explains as she stops shuffling the cards before laying down three, one on top of each of the three cards Harry had drawn from the deck.
"We start where all things tend to do, in the past," Ana says as she flips the first card she had put down, from left to right, and her face immediately falls from the grin she had on, "The Tower, oh boyo, you come from tragedy, and your life has been nothing but suffering with very few bright spots in your life to keep the fight in you alive to continue onward," Ana says in a sad tone, as Harry says nothing as he looks at the card on the table, Ana reaches for the one under in, drawing it out and flipping it over and while her smile does not return, nor does it worsen, "Strength," she says simply as if she was expecting it, "You may come from tragedy and heartache, but you survived it and while you bare those scars, the circumstances have imparted onto you a rare Strength, you know how far you can fall but now you will see how far you can rise," Ana says before moving to the middle of the array and flipping over the first card.
"The Three of Wands, things that were planted so long ago begin to bloom, the plans set down are starting to come to fruition but as to who and what the cards do not say, woe and wheel this one represents both," Ana says, sounding curious about the card as Harry felt about it himself as she flips the card underneath, "The Magician, a powerful card for a boy such as yourself, to survive what is to come you must be ready with swift action to do so, you must bring all your resources to bare, even if it's the ones you hesitate to use," Ana taps the card with a thoughtful look before moving on and flipping the final set of cards.
"Death," Ana says simply, "The end and the beginning, will you bring death or will death come to you, or perhaps you will be the one who stops it from coming altogether, the card is also one of new beginnings, perhaps it is the end of the past that haunts you so," Ana says with a smile as Harry's eyes the card for far longer than anyone else at the table before Ana flips the final card, "The Chariot, moving forward into the future, the letting go of your past and the things you could not effect or change, to finally let go and embrace the end," Ana was looking at Harry again, and Harry looks back, Emerald meets Emerald and for a moment Harry felt as if they were the only two in the room as she smiled at him, one filled with amusement, mystery, and knowing.
"What the hell does all that mean?" Dora asks, sounding confused and Ana turns to her with a smile.
"Nothing to you, my dear," Ana tells Dora, "It was meaningless babble to you, but to Harry here, he understands or will, when the time comes," Ana says before she starts to put away the cards, stopping when she gets to the Strength card, her hand hovers over it for a moment, tilting her head and looking at it strangely, her eyes were so far away Harry wasn't sure if she was looking at the card anymore. She slowly nods her head, as if she finally understood something before she slides it across the table to Harry, "For you, when you need the strength to do what needs to be done, but can not find the courage to take the plunge," Ana says as Harry looks at the card before looking back at her, Ana smiles before standing, "It was nice to meet you, Harry Potter, a shame I missed that opportunity," She tells Harry before Harry stiffens, on guard before the woman smiles one last time before she leaves with her cards Harry watching her as she leaves.
"Well, she was…something," Dora says, at a loss for words for the strange woman who had just left.
"Dora?"
"Yes, Harry?"
"Can you stop touching me now?"
A women called Ana.
Hunter.
Hero.
Killer.
Thought the woman who introduced herself as Ana, she smiled as she mutters "I wonder which one you'll embrace in the end, Harry Potter," as she walks through the crowds of downtown London, her hands moving the cards she had carried out of the lively restaurant behind her, she shuffled and folded them as her mind wander to and fro, hopefully, the boy survives what is coming for him, she rather liked him. But his fate was so warped and wrapped up in what if's and maybe's she couldn't see where the threads stopped and death started, it was rather annoying.
"You know it's not fair you got to meet him first," A voice to Ana's left says and she looks down to see the long red hood of her sister, she could see the puffy pale white lace and cotton that was her dress peeking out from it as the little girl like figure walks beside Ana barefoot.
"Are you implying I cheated? Or our other sister is eager to meet him as well?" Ana asks as she smirks down at the little girl who crosses her arms and no doubt pouts.
"Well, how else did you know he was going to be there today?" the little girl says in a sour tone as Ana just chuckles.
"It was a coincidence, nothing more," Ana says with a fond smile and a roll of her eyes, "I had no idea he was going to walk into my favorite tea spot," She says as the young girl makes a noise that speaks how much she didn't trust Ana's words. But the older woman says nothing as she stops shuffling the cards and allows them to rest in her left hand as she holds her palm flat for them, the deck of cards begins to sink into the flesh of her left hand as if it was being devoured by it. As cards are assimilated, ink blooms across her hand that crawls down her forearm and up her bicep, across her collarbone, and down her ribs, the ink carves patterns across her pale skin on her neck, jaw, and shoulders in swords, wands, cups, and pentacles, stopping just at her bottom lip. There are different images in it, one of a sun, another or a star, a broken tower, and one a moon, all framed in the images of swords, wands, cups, and pentacles.
The smaller of the two looks at the woman's arm as it happens, her bottomless black eyes narrow before asking the older-looking one, "You gave him Strength?" the young girl asks.
"He'll need it," Ana says in a soft tone, "When it gets to be the darkest for him, when he knows what he needs to do, the card will give him the strength to do it," the woman says with a soft smile as she looks at the blank spot on her wrist, "Where is the Crone? Did she really leave YOU on your own?" Ana asks, looking back down at the young girl.
"I'm not a baby you know," girl says puffing out her cheeks, "I can take care of myself," she says, but the noise Ana says makes it sound like the older woman was unconvinced, "But the Crone is with Mister Snakeface dropping off it with him," the young child says with a shiver.
"You must really not like him," Ana says, sliding her hands into her pockets as they walked.
"He tore a still-living baby out of its dead mother to use as a temporary vessel for his soul," The Child says deadpan, "No, I don't like him, but he's useful, so, I won't do anything against him…for now," she says with a sigh.
"No worse than what we've done," Ana says, her tone nonchalant as she remembered the host of black magic the three sisters had employed over the millennia for their own goal.
"Yeah, but we actively avoid using unborn life if we could help it," the young girl says, "Even the Crone, and she can get even more twisted than you," she says and Ana just shrugs, she did what she had to do, nothing more, nothing less. They walk in quiet for a few more minutes before getting to the end of the block, and the young girl stops, looking back at the older woman with her black eyes.
"Is he the one?" the young girl asks, "He has to be, Right? He freed Cernunnos-" but the young girl was cut off before she could finish by Ana.
"We don't know that, we think he freed the King of The Wild Hunt, but we are not sure," Ana says with a sigh as she rubs her eyes, "I can't see if he is or not either, something is blocking me but that could mean nothing at all," she says before the young girl could open her mouth.
"Can't we just ask Cernunnos?" the young girl asks, her hands playing with the hem of her cloak.
"He'd kill the three of us without pause, you know that," Ana says, aggravated with having this conversation again, the young girl looks at her feet, "Just go keep an eye on him, maybe he'll talk about it when you're in earshot and we'll know for sure," Ana says as the young girl crossed her arms.
"As if, that stupid owl of his can sense us somehow and chases me away every time I get close," the young girl says before sighing to herself, "But fine, but next time I get to meet him," She says before twisting in place and as black feathers scatter into the wind a crow takes flight right where the young girl once stood.
Harry Potter, London, England.
The lunch was pretty good, Harry could admit, Dora had ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala for him because she saw him looking at it on the menu, which was nice of her, he guessed. He didn't understand why she was being so nice to him, getting him new clothes, and caring when she didn't even know him. She said it was a Hufflepuff thing, but Harry had his doubts, his interaction with the house of the badger was limited to what had happened with the Chamber of Secrets and the whole house had thought him the Heir for the latter half of the school year; So, he honestly didn't understand her. There was also her shapeshifting ability that reminded Harry far too much of the only other shapeshifter he had met, and he had mixed feelings about that Goddess in general.
But, Still, Dora was nice, but that didn't stop him from waiting outside of the restaurant waiting for her to get done in the restroom so they could finally leave London. Harry had a throbbing headache from sitting in the restaurant and eating after that Ana woman left, too many people being far too loud for Harry's taste, but speaking of the odd woman he had met, the Tarot card she had given him weighed heavily in his pocket. What had she meant when she said "To give him the courage to take the plunge," what plunge? When? Harry didn't know, but decided to keep the odd card with the image of a dragon being slayed by a spear, he thought it looked cool, the woman herself definitely wasn't normal, and that much was obvious, Harry had never told her his last name and yet she knew it. She could have been just a witch who had recognized him, but he doubted it, she didn't act like a normal witch who had just met him for the first time, and how she looked also threw him off. She looked like him a bit, which was just weird, but there was also how she smelled, like a potion cupboard and old threaded cotton and something else Harry couldn't put his finger on, but it had smelt familiar.
But as Harry fingered the card in his jacket pocket with these thoughts running through his head, he was also keeping an eye on the trio of men standing outside the restaurant, all three were smoking fags and kept turning to look at the door to the restaurant whenever someone walked out. He normally wouldn't care, but one of the trio was the guy who was behind Dora in line, and honestly, Harry didn't like the look of the guy, something about his eyes set Harry on edge and had the Hunt pumping through him rapidly. There was something about how the guy had looked at Dora, something Predatory when she looked like she was Harry's age, and that had pissed Harry off. So Harry was outside and across the street from the restaurant waiting for them to do something stupid so he could have an excuse for a hunt, for a reason to break their stupid faces-
"Looking for some prey, kid?" a voice to Harry's left says, whoever had said it had snuck up on Harry because when Harry jumps and turns to who said it Harry couldn't even begin to imagine how the man had done it. The man stood as tall as Hagrid, but with a much more muscular build, he was easily in the top three biggest people he had ever seen. The man was wearing black cargo pants with a pair of black combat boots and a huge hoodie with the hood up and hiding his eyes, his jaw was chiseled with stubble on it as if he hadn't shaved in a few days with skin the same color of Zoë's or Artemis, he stood tall with a grin that didn't look friendly at all. Harry reaches deeper into his jacket pocket and grips Serpent-Hunter as he looks at the tall man, trying to find his eyes under the hood.
"So your him," the man says, his grin growing almost bloodthirsty and Harry had thought he recognize the scar on his head till the man speaks his next words, "The Heir to the Hunt and the son of Artemis," the man says, and Harry narrows his eyes at the man as he tilts his head back, revealing blood red eyes made of metal that were slitted like a cat's and burned like a star.
The Empress.
This card depicts a middle age woman sitting on a bar stool in front of a dark wood and brass countertop, just beyond the bar one can see inside a kitchen where, in the background, you can make out an old woman in a red shaw stirring a large cooking pot while a little girl in a red hood stands on a wooden box handing the old woman ingredients, both their backs are turned to the front.
The middle age woman is wearing a red dress and black shoes with her ankles crossed and legs close as she sits, her dark black hair falls in a cascade down her back as her green eyes look forward at you, and a large mug is in her hand and brought up to her face, while you can't tell for sure, you have a feeling she's smiling at you.
No matter what way you turn the card, her eyes seemed to follow you filled with amusement.
Notes:
Chapter done! Hope I'll like it.
To explain what Dora was doing was getting Harry to trust her by doing nice things for him, making herself look around his age and not that of an adult, and asking leading questions hoping he'd let some slip, and he did.
But who was that strange woman?
Who is the man with the Hunt in his eyes, because that's not the King of the Wild Hunt.
If you want to learn more, tune in for the next chapter of the Heir and the Champions!
(Also, if y'all want a good Honks fic, go check out "The Rebel and the Chosen" or "Innuendo" both are great fics I highly recommend.)
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