[Fic]Dreaming of magic: Chapter 2- Sasuke
Dec. 8th, 2018 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gingersparkFandom: Dreaming of sunshine, Naruto, Harry potter
Summary: DOS team 7 reborn into the Harry Potter universe
Chapter 2
Lysader Urien was both incredibly proud of, and worried for, his son. Little Sylvanus was clever, prodigiously magical (poor Theophania had first found him walking up walls only a few months after his second birthday) but isolated and quiet. He paid far too much attention to his tutors, which, frankly, was a problem neither he nor the tutors he hired for his precious son had encountered before. He was quiet and attentive (almost too quiet, the boy could sneak up on anyone, and seemed quite unaware that he made no sound when he walked) well behaved, and well, some children are just quiet. Sylvanus however had once stopped talking for two whole weeks, spending his time staring at nothing with a look of intense focus. He’d snapped out of it eventually, but still Lysander and his wife Theo worried for the son they’d waited so long to have.
They’d introduced him to appropriate playmates, but he seemed utterly uninterested in children his own age, preferring to exercise on his own and read his way through the Urien library. The only thing that had managed to capture his interest was sword work, which he took to with the same alarming talent and quiet diligence he did his other interests. Frankly, Lysander was beginning to despair of finding his son appropriate friends.
The girl in the leaky cauldron was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
Seeing Sylvanus pay attention to a child his own age was a shock, watching him actually approach the small girl unprompted made Lysander gape in astonishment. The girl had brown hair in a plait down her back, and was sitting alone, nervously twisting her hands together as she stared at his son.
His son, as much as he could read him, (his son had apparently been born with a near-perfect poker face) looked wide-eyed and hopeful, twisting his hands together like the girl, in what Lysander could only guess was nervousness.
They stared at each other for a moment, while Lysander stood back and desperately hoped this would go well.
Fortunately his son remembered his manners, if a tad late.
“Hello… I’m Sylvanus Urien, pleased to meet you.” Sylvanus held out his hand.
The girl beamed at his son as she shook his hand. “I’m Katherine Darby, pleased to meet you too. Would you like to look at my drawings?”
They were both still twisting their hands, but they looked relaxed and happy, so when Sylvanus nodded enthusiastically and looked to him for permission, he gave a short nod. The girl glanced at him, then back to his son.
“This is my father, Lysander Urien. Dad, I’d like you to meet Katherine Darby.”
“Hello Katherine, very pleased to meet you my dear.” He smiled. “Would you like to join us for lunch and show Sylvanus your drawings?”
Katherine smiled and nodded, and then returned to looking at his son like he’d hung the moon, as they followed him over to a table. Katherine and his son sat close together, and she pulled a muggle notebook out of her robes to show to Sylvanus.
“Katherine, whereabouts are your parents?” He hoped he could get them to agree to Katherine coming to visit.
The girl grimaced, and looked to Sylvanus for a moment. His son was twisting his hands, but didn’t look nervous anymore.
Katherine turned back to him, apparently having made some kind of a decision. She looked much calmer and steadier than Lysander felt, with that slight grimace having sent all sorts of terrible scenarios running through his head.
“I’m here on my own. My parents don’t know about magic.” Lysander felt his eyebrows make for his hairline. Of all the replies he’d expected, that wasn’t one. Surely even muggle parents would notice a child this young had gone missing? “I wanted to find out more about magic, so I’ve been sitting here and listening.”
While Lysander gaped in shock, Sylvanus had apparently taken this in stride.
“How did you find out about magic in the first place? I thought muggleborns weren’t told until their Hogwarts letter?” His son asked.
“I walked past here with my parents and saw all these oddly dressed people who felt …different, and my parents couldn’t see them, so I investigated.” Well. That sounded simple. When she put it like that it was a wonder more muggleborns didn’t find out about magic earlier. Except for the fact that she was five, and-
“Do your parents know where you are?”
His son looked amused, and Katherine looked slightly guilty. “They think I’m at a summer club.”
He was trying to get his head round the sheer audacity of a five year old investigating diagon alley on her own, and his poor understanding of muggle childcare practices wasn’t helping. Surely whatever servants were looking after the girl would notice her missing?
“Couldn’t you tell them about magic?” Surely that would have been easier, nevermind safer, than sneaking off to investigate on her own.
“I’m five.” Katherine responds wryly. “They wouldn’t believe me – they can’t see the leaky cauldron anyway.”
He nodded slowly, and retreated into his thoughts, watching the two children look over pages in Katherine’s notebook, heads together and talking quietly. They seemed comfortable with each other, and Sylvanus seemed happy, open and at ease in a way Lysander couldn’t remember seeing before. It all strengthened his determination to help this bright young witch, his son’s first friend.
Her parents might not listen to their young daughter, but they would probably listen to an adult who could easily demonstrate magic to them.
Across the table Sylvanus was bent over the notebook, excitedly explaining about his life, his tutors, their house elf, Mopsy, while Katherine asked insightful questions. Perhaps he could include her in Sylvanus’s lessons. She was clearly bright, and quiet and analytical in the same way he was. As a witch she’d be better off in the magical world sooner rather than later anyway. Muggleborns often had odd gaps in their understanding.
*
Shikako
From the moment Sasuke had signed his ANBU identity confirmation to her, Shikako had been ecstatic. She wasn’t alone.
His father seemed kind, and since Sasuke trusted him, she opted to tell him the truth. Any lies would likely fall apart on closer inspection anyway. He seemed rather stunned by her answers, and unfortunately curious about her parents, but didn’t react badly to her being muggleborn, despite being obviously pureblood in his tailored robes.
She managed to find out about Sasuke’s life over lunch. He was being taught by tutors, lived in a country manor with his parents and a house elf, and had a better understanding of some of the basics of magical society than she did, and was constantly being introduced to pureblood children his parents hoped he’d befriend. Through quick messages in her notebook she also found out that his family had mostly stayed out of the Voldemort war, but had hoped Voldemort would lose, and celebrated his demise, meaning she was likely safe with them.
After lunch Lysander insisted that she accompany them around the alley, and she spent an enjoyable afternoon exploring, delighting in spending time with Sasuke and in having someone to answer her questions about magic and magical culture.
Lysander had insisted on meeting her parents and explaining both magic and where she’d really been for the last few weeks, and she was worried. Her mother Jo, while slightly distant, was a good parent and would probably be horrified she had been absent for the past few weeks, even leaving aside the revelation about magic. She eventually managed to argue him down to visiting in the evening rather than accosting her mother at the door of the summer club.
However, sitting at the table with her mother and waiting on the doorbell, she was nervous and entirely unsure how this would turn out.
When the doorbell rang and Lysander talked himself and Sasuke inside, she jumped up to give Sasuke a hug, which he reciprocated, to the apparent shock of both their parents. All three of their parents – there was a tall, elegant witch standing behind Sasuke, introducing herself to Shikako’s mother.
“Hello Katherine, I’m Theo, and I’m very pleased to meet you. Sylvanus and Lysander have been telling me all about meeting you.” The woman introduced herself with a wide smile.
“Pleased to meet you too Theo.” Shikako replied. Noticing that her mother looked rather overwhelmed, she turned to the kitchen, pulling Sasuke after her. “I’m going to put the kettle on mum.”
Behind her, she could hear Theo commenting “Very independent isn’t she? That’s one of the things….”
In the moment they had alone in the kitchen, Shikako and Sasuke clung to each other, Sasuke murmuring her name over and over again, before they had to pull apart.
They were settled at Shikako’s kitchen table a few minutes later when Lysander began speaking.
“Jo, magic is real.” Beside him, Theo facepalmed. Jo simply looked bewildered.
Theophania took over for her husband. “What he means is that some people in the world have magic, and those of us that do have retreated away from your society for safety. We can do many things that non-magical people can’t, for example”-She transfigured her teaspoon into a butterfly, and let it flutter for a moment before returning it to a spoon- “transfiguration.”
“Sometimes those with magic are born to non-magical parents, and your daughter is one of these.”
Jo turned to stare at her daughter, and Shikako obligingly levitated a teaspoon to demonstrate. Theo and Lysander looked shocked, weren’t they expecting her to demonstrate?
“A-Anyway” Theo continued. “Your daughter discovered the entrance to one of our communities, which non-magical people can’t see, and has been investigating, which is how my husband and son met her.”
Shikako winced as her mother turned to her, wide eyed. “But, but she’s been at summer club! Haven’t you Katherine?”
Shikako grimaced as her mother panicked.
*
An hour or so later, after her mother had finally finished grilling her for details about where exactly she’d been, and why she hadn’t told her parents where she was going, and calmed down enough for the discussion to continue.
“We thought we could perhaps provide a safer introduction to the magical world for a bright young witch than exploring on her own.” Lysander said. “She’s of an age with our son, and it would be no trouble to include her in Sylvanus’s lessons.” He turned to Sasuke and Shikako. “Would you two like that?”
Shikako, glanced at Sasuke who was smiling, then back to the adults. “I’d like that. There’s so much I want to know about magic.”
“Perhaps just for the summer? We can see how things go and take it from there.” Theo suggested hopefully.
*
Sasuke
Sasuke was only just beginning to feel like he’d got a handle on this strange new world. Being reborn was awful, being able to feel everyone and every magical item in the house was awful, losing most of his skills was awful. The headaches he got from being able to see the magic swirling through the world were even worse, even though they’d eventually mostly abated. His parents were wonderful, and he was starting lessons and trying to find out as much as he possibly could.
He’d figured out aged maybe two that the same thing had happened to Shikako, before. He recognised a word on the newspaper his father was reading from Shikako’s touch blast seals, and suddenly so much about Shikako made so much sense. She’d often seemed much older than she should have been. He hadn’t spoken for a couple of weeks after that revelation, reeling and going over and over his memories of her. He realised once he started paying attention to the world around him again that his parents were terribly worried, and that they loved him. He’d tried harder to seem normal after that, talking more and trying to open up to his parents.
Sasuke was feeling like he just about had a handle on things. Then he stepped out of the fireplace in the leaky cauldron to see a girl his age wearing muggle clothes and signing ‘Konoha-question-respond’ at him.
*
Shikako
A week later, Shikako and Sasuke were still revelling in the joy of having someone else who remembered Konoha. To her great relief, Sasuke had figured out years before that she’d been reincarnated, and already understood why she hadn’t told anyone.
Sasuke (Sylvanus, she had to remember to call him “Sylvanus” out loud) had helped her understand the broader context of the wizarding world, and they’d spent many hours huddled together in the library theorising about the differences between magic and chakra. They still didn’t quite understand why their magic sensitivity had manifested so differently – while Shikako’s functioned identically to her chakra sensitivity, Sasuke’s sharingan had somehow manifested as an ability to see the currents of magic that Shikako could feel.
Shikako had shared her work on mixing the chakra they’d retained with the magic of this world, and they had made a game out of simple levitation, ducking around the trees in the ground of the manor throwing leaves at each other.
Their parents seemed keen for them to spend time together, and they were taking advantage of it to share their experiences of the world. Sasuke was delighted to explore more of the muggle world, and was fascinated by the proliferation of muggle technology.
The Saturday morning they’d spent together watching cartoons at Katherine’s house had been enlightening. Sasuke had sat through ten minutes of batman in dawning realisation before collapsing in hysterical giggles. By the time he had to go home he was still occasionally glancing at Shikako and dissolving into laughter.
*
Theo
Theophania Urien was delighted. In the space of a week her precious son had found a friend, a bright, brilliant girl who casually performed wandless levitation. A young witch who was so curious about the magical world, who she could help raise.
Katherine’s parents were sensible muggles who could see that their magical daughter would do best educated in the magical world, since she’d be attending Hogwarts regardless. After much discussion it had been agreed between the adults that Katherine would become a ward of the House of Urien, and they would support and sponsor her entrance into magical society. She would be educated alongside Sylvanus, and the children were thick as thieves already.
Sylvanus was playing! Playing with a child his own age, smiling and running around the grounds like any other child.
Katherine would be withdrawn from muggle school in favour of being tutored at house Urien, which would suit the girl much better, given how bored she said she was at school. She’d still spend nights and weekends with her muggle parents, but Sylvanus would have his friend close. She was overjoyed to see him smiling so much recently, running around the grounds of the manor with little Katherine, who’d picked up his wall walking trick, or sitting and reading together in the library.
Sylvanus had even asked for Katherine to join his sword lessons, which she’d taken to like a duck to water, providing her son with a sparring partner his own size who could keep up with him.
*
Jo
Jo knew she wasn’t the best parent. There was always too much for her to do, with her own job and her husband working away so often. But Katherine had always seemed fine. She was fine going to nursery, she was fine when Jo was late to pick her up, and she was fine when Matt went away for business for weeks on end.
Her daughter was fiercely independent, and so bright. She was quiet, kind and well-behaved. Jo and Matt had never really had any cause to worry.
Hearing that her daughter had never actually attended summer school, and had in fact been sneaking off on her own to London had upended Jo’s world just as much as the revelation of magic had.
It meant that her daughter wasn’t ok. That her little girl didn’t trust her parents enough to tell them things. That Katherine thought it was better to go behind their backs to explore than to rely on them. And worst of all, she hadn’t noticed. Her daughter had been alone in London, every day for several weeks, in a secret society with all sorts of powers, and she’d never had an inkling that anything was wrong.
She’d agreed to let Katherine be tutored with Sylvanus because what else could she do? Her daughter wanted to learn about magic, was clearly going to learn regardless of her parents’ wishes, and at least this should be safe. Safer at least than her wandering around London on her own. She was five!
When Matt had returned from his trip early after she’d called him, frantic, she’d spent hours sobbing into his shoulder and trying to explain. Eventually, they’d both calmed down, and decided to learn what they could about the society their daughter was a part of (maybe Theo would have some book reccomentations) and to make sure their daughter knew that they loved her, and that she could tell them anything.
They would have believed her, Jo was sure. Even without Lysander to explain. Perhaps not if their daughter had just told her that she was seeing things and could do magic, but Katherine could levitate things. In the face of that kind of evidence, they would have at least listened.
Watching the two children together had been a revelation. Katherine had looked happy and relaxed in a way neither of her parents had seen before. Jo had left the children watching cartoons, and headed upstairs to sob into her pillow. Katherine hadn’t been fine. She hadn’t been happy.
*
Soooo... That went more feelsy than I intended. Shikako is five, and her parents are interpreting her actions in that context, which looks pretty bad. Like, most five year olds would show their parents if the figured out how to levitate teaspoons. Not doing that says that something is very wrong, or your child is actually an adult from an alternate universe.
Wonderful!
Date: 2018-12-09 05:51 am (UTC)A couple notes for posting: it would be better if your title was something like "[FIC] Dreaming of Magic (Harry Potter crossover) Chapters 1&2" when you post to the DoS community, and it would be nice if you linked to both parts from that post, and also it'd be nice if you used a cut when you're posting your fic on your journal because they're so long. The first two things are just idle thoughts (it's not like we've put together any rules for the DoS comm yet or anything) and the last one is just general DW etiquette I'm pretty sure. Sort of like how long tumblr posts get put under read mores.
So sweet!
Date: 2018-12-09 07:51 am (UTC)Poor Jo tho. It's not - entirely - her fault.
Thank you for sharing this!
no subject
Date: 2018-12-09 08:49 pm (UTC)Also I'm so glad that Shikako's state as a reincarnation in the Naruto universe was realized with so little fanfare and drama
Re: Wonderful!
Date: 2018-12-09 10:40 pm (UTC)Thank for the notes, I'll edit it to match that. Very new to dreamwidth, and honestly kind of bad at figuring out what the norms/etiquette things are.
Re: So sweet!
Date: 2018-12-09 11:10 pm (UTC)Jo is really struggling. It not even that she did anything hugely wrong, none of the reasons Shikako is keeping secrets have anything to do with her. She just doesn't have an explanation, so it looks really, really bad. Shikako is far too good at pretending things are fine, and also, she doesn't care in the same way a normal toddler would about lack of attention. Jo was busy, and Shikako would never ask her mom to come home more, or express upset at absence. Or even, TBH seem really happy or exited to spend time with her mum. Had she done, Jo probably would have taken a look at how little time she was spending with her daughter.
Jo will figure out how to relate to her daughter though! She really cares, and Shikako doesn't actually distrust her.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-09 11:12 pm (UTC)Honestly, I didn't want it to be a huge thing. They'd both notice, and like, had Shikako actually been there when they noticed, there might have been some kind of argument, but she wasn't, so both of them came to terms with it, and figured out why she wouldn't say anything, and are basically ok with it.
Re: So sweet!
Date: 2018-12-09 11:46 pm (UTC)Re: Wonderful!
Date: 2018-12-10 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-10 06:56 am (UTC)Love this!
Date: 2018-12-10 07:31 pm (UTC)I'm a new lurker over at the DOS discord (and long time DOS fan), and because of your absolutely amazing fic I just had to create a dreamwidth account to comment *. *
Sasuke finding out about Shikako's frequent reincarnating by himself was one of my fav moments (and him cracking up when they watched Batman had ME cracking up so much I had to leave my uni's PC study room.)
Also your world building and especially how you connected Shikako's seals with runes fulfils all my pseudo-science fangirling.
Now I'm curious when Naruto's going to show up.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-11 04:39 am (UTC)Also the Batman reveal was hilarious. I'm imagining Sasuke (who had long since gotten used to his teammate's habit of making jokes to herself that were complete nonsense to everyone else, like, that's Just Shikako Things) spending this lifetime constantly running into references he finally gets and having this whole different window on Shikako's weirdness.
Great job on the parental feels on having what is essentially a kind of changeling child. I hope they do manage to figure out how to connect someday.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-11 05:04 pm (UTC)They will! they'll never be that close, but they will adjust to interacting with each other.
Re: Love this!
Date: 2018-12-11 05:05 pm (UTC)Naruto is showing up next chapter.
Giving you the praise you deserve
Date: 2020-12-15 08:28 pm (UTC)This is great! And the version on AO3 is even better. I particularly liked the revelation of why Sasuke went quiet for two weeks. It's a good way to show how important that was to him; it's powerful because it's understated.
I saw that Some Jerk on AO3 left you a mean review and made you stop wanting to expand and polish this fic, so I'm reading through the old version and comment-bombing you to prove that you are a good writer. I think this fic deserves a second chance at being rewritten - it's good and it shouldn't be defined by what Some Jerk said about it.