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Fighting Fate | ||||||
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Category: Alternate Universe, Post-Hogwarts Characters:None Genres: Comedy Warnings: None Story is Complete Rating: PG Reviews: 59 Summary: Sequel to Fighting Harry. Fourteen years have passed since Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, and his life is perfect in almost every way. He went on to marry the witch of his dream, become the youngest-ever Head of International Auror affairs, and even have a son who loves flying as much as he does. There's just one problem. And her name is Meridy. Hitcount: Story Total: 42399; Chapter Total: 3319 Author's Notes: I know it's been forever since I updated. I'm sorry...I got caught up in college. I found this the other day, though, and it occurred to me that I'm still interested in finding out what happens to Meridy. Let me know if you're interested, too? |
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It was only a week before an occasion arose for Harry Potter to floo to Hogwarts, in actuality because he needed to speak with McGonagall about new Defense regulations for the curriculum, and ostensibly to check on his daughter. It took him a few minutes to arrange a license to floo into the main Hogwarts fire, because the British Ministry was immensely fond of him these days, now that he’d gone and saved their sorry bums and crusaded internationally, which made them look good. The Hogwarts fire was keyed to admit only four people in the world: the current Headmaster or Headmistress, the Minister of Magic, the International Chair of Wizards, and Harry Potter. There were perks to being an international hero, even if it did put strains on his personal life. Like his relationship with his daughter. Considering his recent estrangement, Harry Potter was feeling slightly more antagonistic towards the press at the moment. He’d turned down a publicity trip to Turkey in order to attend Michael’s grammar school play, guiltily remembering that he’d been in Fiji when Meridy’s class had performed it. And now he was going to talk to McGonagall about Defense. He coughed as he emerged from the fireplace in McGonagall’s office. The Headmistress was waiting for him. He’d owled her early that morning. She smiled tightly at him, as if she were afraid that her hair would fall down if she smiled freely. “Good afternoon, Harry. Sit down.” “Thanks,” he replied. He had had a lot of dealings with Hogwarts in the past few years, and so was almost at ease with the formidable woman. Her mouth twitched, and suddenly she seemed to be trying not to laugh. “Did you not know before the match that Ms. Black had made Seeker? I could have sworn I saw surprise on your face when she flew near.” He tried to be offended. “I came here to discuss Defense policy.” Then, because he had to know, he asked. “Black?” McGonagall gave him a rare mocking smile. “Did Meredith not tell you her chosen surname, either?” “No,” he said grudgingly. “I was away when she chose it. I knew she was using her middle name, Melissa.” Her eyes continued to laugh at him, and so he sighed. “Ginny wouldn’t tell me,” he admitted. “And I did wonder.” She put down her glasses. “Potter, just ask and have done with it,” she said, in the same voice as she had once used to tell him to stop sword-fighting in class. Harry swallowed. “How is Meridy?” “Much better,” McGonagall replied promptly. “Are you surprised? She’s obviously thriving, as you should have seen at the match.” He frowned. “What do you mean?” “She’s doing well–very well,” the Headmistress said, narrowing her eyes at him. “She was discharged the day before yesterday from the Hospital Wing, and has made up all of her coursework. The first year Gryffindors are surprisingly united, and I suspect it’s her doing, because in their classes, all of my teachers report them looking to her to speak for them, and she apparently heads up a small study group, as I mentioned before the match. I also find it interesting that her study group numbers nine Gryffindors, six Hufflepuffs, and five Ravenclaws. It’s even more interesting that her partner in Potions is a Slytherin, according to Professor Snape. We may expect great things of her, I think.” Harry managed to look proud and alarmed all at once. “And her marks?” he asked. “Has she been staying out of trouble?” “Her marks are among the best in her year,” McGonagall said crisply. “And as for trouble, for the most part. I haven’t actually caught her in anything, if that’s what you mean. But the first year Slytherins have recently discovered their armadillo bile tampered with in Potions–all except for Meredith–Melissa’s–partner. Severus insists it was her, but he has no proof.” “Merlin,” Harry groaned. “I couldn’t have had a pretty, blonde daughter who smiles, is mildly intelligent, and stays out of trouble, could I?” “Would you want another daughter?” McGonagall asked him, seriously. “I don’t know what sort of falling out the two of you had, and I don’t want to know. But Meridy’s what you’ve been given; you could make the most of her, for a change. So she doesn’t smile when someone flashes a camera in her face? Did you, for the first twenty years of your life? Did you stay out of trouble or only associate with Gryffindors at Hogwarts? Open your eyes. She’s the spitting image of her father.” Harry felt himself turn red. McGonagall was right. * * * * It was three months into the term before the group of older Slytherins began terrorizing younger students. They’d waited until the patrolling prefects and professors lowered their guards, and forgot about the events of the last term. One of the first people targeted was Nellie. “I d-didn’t do anything,” Nellie sobbed that night, up in her dormitory. “O-One minute I was just w-walking back from the library, and th-then there were these Slytherins with masks…” “Tell a professor,” Jacquie urged. “They’ll catch them.” “I c-can’t. They said they’d h-hurt me next time if I told,” Nellie said, shaking. “They s-said that I have d-dirty blood, because my mum’s a Muggle.” “That’s a lie,” Meridy said furiously. “Blood doesn’t make a witch, magic does!” After an hour of comforting and prodding, Nellie still balked at the idea of telling a professor. She had said little of the encounter, except that her tormentors wore Slytherin robes and dark masks. Reluctantly, her roommates–Jacquie and Meridy were notably the most reluctant–let the matter slide, and simply began walking everywhere in groups. Two weeks later, Leda was missing from Herbology. Her friend Salina whispered that she was in the Hospital Wing with a broken wrist, but that was all she would say. Meridy went to visit Leda during lunch. “What happened?” she asked concernedly. Leda wouldn’t quite meet her eye. “I was just walking through the hall, and I tripped over a suit of armor. I think Peeves moved it out of place, actually…” “It was them, wasn’t it?” Meridy asked flatly. “Peeves stopped moving armor after McGonagall threatened to imprison him in a box last month; I heard Filch crowing about it.” Leda’s mask fell, and she looked as if she might cry. “You can’t tell anyone,” she said. “They’d kill me.” “Really?” Meridy asked. “For telling?” Her pretty friend nodded. “Where did you see them?” she asked, wanting as much information as possible. “Did you recognize them? What did they say?” Leda refused to really answer her questions, saying only what Nellie had. She’d met them walking alone in a corridor. They wore masks, and no, she hadn’t recognized them. Meridy thought about Leda and Nellie a lot in the days following. They were both intelligent girls; she couldn’t understand why they didn’t want the Slytherins to be punished. Her dad always said that the only reason people got away with doing bad things was that people let them. Still, Leda and Nellie suffered no further consequences, and time went on. There were classes after all, and Quidditch practice, besides study group. So Meridy let the issue stand, and went about her business. * * * * Gryffindor won the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw without much trouble. Meridy caught the Snitch twelve minutes into play, and then was abashed because none of the team was really happy with her; they’d all wanted to play a longer game. Even Elliot was a grumpy when he congratulated her on her splendid dive to catch the snitch. All Jack congratulated her on was not crashing. Meridy earned an ‘O’ on a Defense essay, and another on a Charms project. Before she knew it, it was time for Christmas break. Her mother had smuggled her a letter by means of Jack, explaining that her father had a series of conferences in Munich over the holidays, and that while she could stay at Grandmama’s if she liked, she would have to think of a way to explain leaving with Aurelie or Jack. Meridy decided it would be less trouble just to stay at Hogwarts. None of her roommates were staying, and so she’d have the dormitory to herself. Peace and solitude had always appealed to Meridy. Even though she liked people and having friends, it was always a relief to be somewhere where no one was watching, whether she was pretending to be Melissa Black or trying to live up to Meredith Potter. She’d been thinking about Christmas gifts for a while, and eventually decided that she’d make personalized Anti-Stress Lotions for everyone in her family, with the exception of Michael and all of her cousins but Aurelie, whom Meridy always thought could do with a little relaxing. Meridy had come across the instructions for Anti-Stress Lotions in an ancient dusty tome she’d unearthed from behind a library shelf one day and promptly checked out, because it had lots of interesting Potions in it. She’d thought about asking Allison to help her, but then she’d have to explain why she was making so much when her only family was her great-aunt. The potion would take a week to brew; she’d already procured the necessary materials from the Student Cupboard, and ordered two that she couldn’t find, along with gifts for Jack, Michael, and a few of her other cousins. Between her pocket money and the money she’d won from the bet with Allison, she didn’t have to budget radically. Meridy took her time making the lotions. She was determined that they come out perfect, and when she divided them, she put in individual scents intended for the recipients. For her mother, she used sandalwood and rose scent. For her father, she used broomstick wood scent, along with holly. Aurelie got lily and larkspurs, and for her grandmother she chose sweet pea and lamb’s ear. Hermione got sweet pea, too, and Meridy added to it parchment. Her uncles, including Uncle Remus, all got the same scent: grapevine and summer rain. For her parents, she put the lotion in handsome bottles she’d ordered along with the extra ingredients, and for everyone else she put the lotions into cunning little flasks. She decorated all of them with pieces of silk ribbon. For Michael, she ordered a book of Danish Muggle fairy tales–she’d read a copy once, and felt that it would amuse him. For Jack, she ordered a copy of The Beater’s Bible and a bag of chocolate frogs. And then for Hagrid, she got a recipe book–she’d been to tea down at his hut several times discreetly, and thought it might help. It exhausted her, but the day before Christmas, her gifts were all neatly wrapped and labeled, and ready to be sent on. Meridy watched the school owls take them off with a feeling of accomplishment as well as uneasiness–she hoped the lotions worked. Christmas morning there was an unapologetic pile of gifts near her bed. Meridy grinned broadly, feeling grateful that her roommates were gone, so they wouldn’t ask questions. Uncles Fred and George had sent her more products from WWW, and demanded to know why she hadn’t written about the prototypes. They gave her an ultimatum of a month before they hinted that Jack would be equipped similarly against her. She giggled, but took the threat to heart, and made a mental note to prank Elliot, Alyssa, and Allison–in precisely that order. Her grandmother had sent her treacle and a sweater, of course–dark blue, with an ‘M’ on it. Uncle Remus and Aunt Tonks sent her a lovely new quill, and Aunt Hermione sent a book on Charms theory. From her parents came a pretty necklace and robe, and a book on Broomstick safety which she knew was there at her father’s insistence. Michael sent a Wizard card she hadn’t been able to find, a gesture that made Meridy miss her little brother. He could be so sweet sometimes. The rest of her gifts were pretty mundane, but Meridy appreciated them nonetheless. It was nice, getting to be someone new, but it was nicer to still have her family, and still know that they loved her. Except for her father. Meridy frowned, and picked up the broomstick safety guide to look in the cover. There was nothing written in there, besides “To Meridy, from Dad.” She sighed. * * * * It was February before Meridy heard anything else about the mysterious masked students. One day a girl from the study group, a half-blood Ravenclaw named Yvonne, was late to Transfiguration. She had a bruise underneathe one eye, and a whisper went around that she’d met them. The next day after study group, when Yvonne was unusually quiet, Meridy pulled her aside. “Are you all right?” she asked. “You seem kind of out of it.” Yvonne looked down. “I, I’m just tired,” she said, and her mouth twisted in a painful-looking smile. “The Charms assignment was really hard.” And she ran off down the hall, calling for her friends to wait up. Meridy was left standing behind her, frowning. Yvonne had been lying, she felt certain. For one thing, the Charms assignment had been shorter than usual. For another, none of the Ravenclaws ever had any trouble with Charms. Something was definitely amiss. Meridy decided that she wanted to know what was going on. All the next week, she listened harder than ever to whispers about the mysterious group of Slytherins–well, they assumed they were Slytherins–and actually began keeping notes on the rumors. Through the grapevine, she learned that a second-year in Hufflepuff had been cornered after curfew a few weeks back, and that he had refused to go anywhere alone, even to the loo, ever since. He wasn’t the first boy targeted, either. There had been a muggleborn third-year in Ravenclaw at the beginning of January. None of the prefects or professors seemed to have any idea. The students targeted refused to come forward and say anything. They were too frightened. And the masked Slytherins were careful. They never met a prefect patrol, because they usually staged their encounters either right before or after curfew, before the prefects began their rounds. There were never any witnesses, either, due to the late hour. It became evident to Meridy that she needed to know more about them. Someone needed to–it was getting out of hand. Nellie had been having nightmares ever since that night, and Leda was incredibly jumpy outside of class. Neither of them had been badly hurt, but it was only a matter of time before a student was. The idea of sneaking out and stalking them had always been Meridy’s intention, but she wasn’t entirely sure how to go about it. First of all, she would get into a lot of trouble if she were caught, by Uncle Remus or Mr. Filch. So she couldn’t afford to get caught. Secondly, if she did find them, and they saw her, she would be in even more trouble, because she was betting that if they’d break a girl’s arm for being Muggleborn, they’d break even more if they felt she was interfering with them. So she needed to be careful. Very, very careful. So she spent her free time over the next few days in the library, researching ways to disguise herself. There was the Polyjuice Potion–but no, she didn’t want to look like someone else; she just didn’t want to appear to be around at all. Besides, she couldn’t find the instructions for making it, only the reference. Then there were various little spells to change her hair color, darken her skin. Perfectly useless. Meridy considered using one of the invisibility capes that her uncles had made, but those, besides leaving parts of the body uncovered, only lasted a few minutes, and she didn’t know how long she would need to be concealed. Everything would be much easier if she could just borrow her father’s invisibility cloak. But not only would he refuse, if she wrote to ask him (“Why would you need it in the first place, Meredith?” she imagined him saying), he would likely owl Uncle Remus with instructions to keep a closer eye on her. No, Meridy had to figure this out on her own. Finally, after two weeks of research, she found the Disillusionment Charm. It wouldn’t make her invisible, but it would certainly make her harder to see, especially in a dark corridor. The problem was that the Disillusionment Charm was listed in the book as O.W.L. level magic, and Meridy was only a first year. Could she get an older student to perform it for her? Aurelie, perhaps? No. Aurelie would never approve, and anyway, she’d have to get to the Ravenclaw Common Room first, without getting caught, which would be next to impossible. She’d just have to try to learn it herself, though it would be difficult without anyone to help her. Lost in thought, she never noticed someone in her path. “Ouch!” she cried, bouncing off of Jonathon Troy. Seeing who it was she’d bumped into, Meridy turned red. Merlin, did she have to keep crashing into him? “S-sorry,” she stuttered. Jonathon raised an eyebrow. “You should try watching where you’re going,” he informed her. “Seekers do actually have to pay attention, you know.” Well. The day couldn’t get worse after that. Meridy trudged to the library, still pink with mortification. In the library, she spent over an hour memorizing the wand movement, which, from the diagram in the book, looked immensely complicated. At the end of the hour she still wasn’t sure she was doing it right. “Whoa. What have we here, little first year?” It was Gary Malfoy. Meridy blushed and lowered her wand. “I’m trying to learn the Disillusionment Charm,” she explained. “But it’s so hard; I can’t tell if I’m doing it right from the diagram.” “Want to disguise yourself, do you? Don’t worry–I won’t ask why,” he said with a wink. “First off, you’re going too far out on the first part of it. Your hand shouldn’t rise any higher than your shoulder; it’s not a brandish, it’s more of a flourish. Charms is a little more classy than Transfiguration, though you won’t get into the really beautiful spellwork until you’re in third year at least.” Meridy looked at him in amazement. “Thank you,” she said at last. “Would–would you work with me on it? I’d really like to get this, but I just don’t see how I can, without help.” “That’s true. It’s a little complicated.” Gary stared at her thoughtfully. “Be here tomorrow night at seven-thirty. And practice not lifting your arm up so high.” Meridy grinned as he walked away. Oh, she’d practice all right. By the time tomorrow came around, she would have that hand movement so perfect– “Was that Gary Malfoy?” Jonathon Troy leaned on the chair opposite her, his eyebrow raised. Meridy tensed up, and then forced herself to relax, her earlier embarrassment on her mind. Apparently he’d forgotten already about her running into him. That was good. “Yes,” she heard herself say, in answer to his question. “Is that a problem?” “He’s in Slytherin,” Jonathon said, as if that explained everything. Disapproval was evident in every line of his body. “He’s helping me with a Charms project,” Meredith said defensibly. She felt her face growing red again in spite of herself. Why was Jonathon taking an interest in her now, of all times? He’d studiously ignored her since she’d crashed into him at trials, despite the fact that that he was friendly with everyone else on the team. Jonathon shrugged. “Sure. And why would a Slytherin fourth year be taking an interest in the doings of a Gryffindor first year?” “I dunno,” Meridy said angrily. “Maybe because I’m his little sister’s Potions partner. Or maybe because he’s nice, unlike some people.” And she slammed her book and marched out of the library, earning herself a glare from Madame Pince. Outside the library, she collapsed against the wall, tears pricking at her eyes. Why did she have to make a fool of herself in front of Jonathon? She should have just laughed it off, and suggested that maybe Gary was looking for bonus points for tutoring. What was it about Jonathon that made her so defensive? Well, whatever it was, she needed to get over it. He was only a boy, even if he was really, really cute. And he was a family friend, which meant he might recognize her if he put his mind to it. It had been years since they’d seen one another, but still. If he mentioned to someone that she looked like Meredith Potter, eventually someone would figure it out, and the cat would be out of the bag. Meridy shuddered, and made a mental note to talk to Jack about it. But for now…she made sure all of her books were in her bag, and headed towards Gryffindor Tower. It was time to call it a night. |
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