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gingersparkNeville
Neville liked Sylvanus. Their parents had been arranging for them to play together occasionally as long as Neville could remember.
Sylvanus was quiet, but not quiet the way Neville was. Neville was quiet because he stumbled over his words, and he always said something silly when he opened his mouth. Sylvanus wasn’t nervous about talking, he just generally couldn’t be bothered to speak. He was very clever, Neville’s Gran said, already doing magic. Neville had even seen him walking up trees a couple of times.
Sylvanus was never mean to Neville, not like some of the other pureblood children his Gran made him play with. He never mocked him for not having used magic yet, even as he got older, and most children had done at least something by now. Usually just summoning something they wanted, but still, it was magic. Instead, Sylvanus sat with him and helped him to make daisy chains, or they read together. A very few times, Sylvanus had told him stories.
When he’d mentioned that Uncle Algie was upset because Neville was probably a squib, Sylvanus had told him a story about a squib boy called Lee who became a duelling master even though he couldn’t do magic. Sylvanus had talked for ages about Lee, how brave and determined he was, sounding a bit sad, until Mopsy came to call them to dinner. After that, sometimes Sylvanus would run through exercises, slowly guiding Neville through them, even though he wasn’t very good.
Sylvanus was very rarely in a talkative mood, but Neville privately hoped for a story every time they saw each other.
What Neville didn’t like was the way Gran talked about Sylvanus, and how Neville should try to be more like him, and it was always worse after Sylvanus had been over. Sylvanus was polite, Neville stuttered trying to say thank you. Sylvanus could read grown up books already, Neville still had to sound out words. Eventually she’d come round to how his father had been at his age, and Neville’s chest felt hollow when she did that.
Still, Sylvanus was the nicest boy he knew, and he wouldn’t give up their quiet afternoons for the world.
*
Harry
When Harry was four, a girl snuck into his hiding place and told him a secret. She told him he was magic, and there were other magic people he’d meet when he was older. From that moment on, he daydreamed about magic and magical people, and the world he’d get to see once he was old enough. A whole world full of people like Shikako, who liked him and smiled and didn’t care what the Dursley’s said about him.
The book she gave him was full of food, and even though he couldn’t get it to work all the time, it always worked when he was curled up and miserably hungry. He kept it tucked under his mattress, right at the end were the dursleys never looked. He ate the food slowly, only eating when he’d missed a whole meal.
When he was locked in his cupboard with nothing to do but play with the couple of toys he’d rescued from the bin, he practiced making things fly like Shikako showed him. He had a stash of dead leaves from the garden and bits of paper, and sometimes he could make them move. Usually they’d flutter slightly, or slide across the floor, but sometimes he could make them float. Other times they’d do weird things, like change colours or sprouting flowers, but he was getting better at making them do what he wanted. Every time he managed it he felt warm and happy, and when he showed her, Shikako looked happy too.
Shikako taught him all kinds of things, like walking quietly, and how to dodge when Dudley hit him. His favourite was the song, because it was a song that would make him stronger and faster. He made sure to sing it every day, like she said he should, even when he had to sing it in his head and do the actions in his cupboard in silence.
He’d only known Shikako a few weeks when she stopped visiting him in the park during the day. He woke up in the middle of the night to find her crouching in his cupboard, a light on the tip of her finger.
“Hi Harry.” She whispered.
“Shikako!” Harry jumped up to hug her, struggling to keep his voice down.
When she pulled back from the hug, ruffling his hair, he showed her how good he was at making things fly, lifting a piece of paper to float above their heads.
“Look Shikako!”
“Well done Harry. You’re getting really good at that.” Shikako murmured, smiling at him.
Harry felt warm and fuzzy.
“Harry, I probably won’t be able to visit during the day much anymore.” Her forehead was creased, a little like Aunt Petunia’s did when Harry did something wrong.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“ he started.
“Shh, no, Harry, you didn’t do anything wrong. I have to stay somewhere else during the day now, it isn’t because of you.” She still had the little crease, but he looked up from the floor she didn’t look mean or angry like Aunt Petunia did.
“It really wasn’t my fault?”
“It really wasn’t Harry.” She sounded like she meant it, and Harry relaxed. “Harry, I’m going to paint a seal on your ceiling so we don’t have to keep our voices down – it’s magic, and it’ll stop any sound from getting out.”
That sounded cool. “Will that mean I can sing out loud in the mornings?”
“Yep” She pulled out a lantern, paintbrushes and a jar from nowhere. He’d never quite got used to the way she pulled things out of thin air, it was still as cool as the first time he’d seen it.
He watched quietly while she set up the lantern and started drawing her brush across the plaster.
Harry decided to bring up something he’d been wondering about for a few days.
“Why did you give me food?”
Shikako glanced away from the weird symbol she was painting on his ceiling.
“No child deserves to go hungry Harry.”
She went back to her painting as Harry thought.
“How did you know I was hungry?”
Shikako paused and tucked her brush away, sitting down on the mattress.
“Not everyone has the same magical talents. Some people are better making potions, some are better at turning things into other things. Then there’s family magic, most old pureblood families have something they’re good at and spells that work for their talents. Some talents just crop up kind of randomly.”
Harry listened intently, fascinated.
“I’m a seer.”
A seer? A person who saw things? But he saw things, most people did.
“It’s not like normal seeing, its… Sometimes I know things before they’ve happened, or about things that happened years before I was born, or things about people they haven’t told me.”
Wow. That sounded so cool!
“I knew when I met you that you lived in a cupboard under the stairs and your relatives were awful to you, so I gave you food. And now I’m going to seal your cupboard so that you can make noise without making your relatives angry.”
She seemed angry, but it didn’t seem like it was at him. He watched quietly as she continued to paint symbols across his ceiling.
*
Neville
One summer afternoon when he was five he stepped into the Urien Manor receiving room with Gran to find a girl standing next to Sylvanus.
Neville felt small and lost. Sylvanus had a new friend, probably cleverer and politer than Neville, and not a squib. Sylvanus wouldn’t want to be his friend anymore.
Despite the cold feeling in his chest, Neville tried for a smile when he was introduced to the girl (apparently Katherine Darby, ward of the house of Urien) and held his hand out.
“P-p-pleased to meet you” he finally got out. But when he looked at the girl, she didn’t seem irritated by his stutter.
“Pleased to meet you too Neville” she said, smiling widely.
Before he knew what was happening, Neville was whisked off to the gardens to make daisy chains while his Gran had tea with Theophania.
Katherine seemed lovely. He could see why Sylvanus would rather be friends with her. She smiled at him and wore the daisy chain necklace he made her.
Sylvanus seemed happier than Neville had ever seen him. He even laughed a couple of times, singing a song at Katherine. Neville didn’t quite understand what was so funny about singing Na-na-na-na-na-na-na BATMAN! At Katherine, but she didn’t seem to mind, giggling with him.
As the afternoon went on and they kept talking to him and playing with him, his fears about Sylvanus not wanting to be friends with him anymore started to fade. Katherine was nice to him and wanted to be his friend too.
Katherine encouraged him to climb trees, even though his Gran said it was dangerous. She told him about the muggle world and all the technology they had. She asked him questions about his Gran and Longbottom Manor and didn’t frown at him when he stuttered or struggled to say the right thing. Neville hoped she’d stay friends with him even if he was a squib.
*
Harry
Harry was getting lots of practice at being really quiet, sneaking out of Privet Drive at night to play with Shikako. He’d wake up to a tiny glowing light, and creep out of his cupboard, following his friend out through the kitchen window, because it was the quietist. He’d get to spend an hour or so playing with Shikako in the park, under the dim glow of the streetlights before he had to go back to bed.
Making things fly was still tricky, but he was getting really good at being quiet and sneaky and hiding in shadows. He couldn’t hide in shadows as well as Shikako could, but apparently that was a special thing only she could do. Every time she visited, she taught him a new verse of her song and the exercises that went with it. Harry enjoyed being good at something.
This time however, Shikako told him on their way to the park that her friends wanted to meet him.
Harry really wanted to meet more magical people, but now he was about to meet magical people other than Shikako, he was suddenly nervous. Would they like him? What if he wasn’t magic enough?
He didn’t have much time to worry, as a blond blur appeared out of nowhere.
“Hi Harry!” There was a blond boy standing in front of them, grinning widely. “I’m Naruto, and this is Sasuke.” He gestured to a dark haired boy Harry hadn’t noticed.
“Hiya” Harry looked down at his shoes.
“Hey, hey, has Kako showed you leaf tag?” Naruto asked.
Harry looked up, curious. “Leaf tag?”
Naruto pulled them all down into a circle on the picnic blanket Shikako pulled out of nowhere. Backlit by the orange glow of the streetlights, Naruto snatched up a leaf. He gestured with a hand at Harry, and the leaf spiralled up into the air, and kept going, swirling out of sight.
“Oops” Naruto grinned at Harry. “I’m not very good at it, you try.”
Harry picked up a leaf and gently levitated it over to Naruto, scowling when it dropped to the ground. Eventually he hovered it into Naruto’s knee, and the game continued.
Sasuke had a tendency to set his leaves on fire instead of levitating them, which Naruto found hilarious. Shikako was better than any of them, and Harry’s leaves still disobeyed him a lot, but he returned to his cupboard grinning. He had friends.
*
Neville
By the time he met Naruto, Neville could climb right to the top to the tallest tree in the Urien Manor grounds, and Katherine and Sylvanus had taught him a game where they threw leaves at each other. He was getting good at getting his leaves to go where he wanted them too, and it was really fun.
Meeting Naruto was a revelation. Naruto liked plants too! His parents ran a magical plant supply business, and knew about all kinds of plants. They even said they’d let Neville visit one of their greenhouses when he ran in, dragging Neville behind him, to ask them. Naruto was so easy to talk to, and hidden under a table in the Uzuhara greenhouse (not the one with the dangerous plants) Neville told Naruto about how he might be a squib, because he hadn’t done magic even when his uncle Algie held him upside down and shook him. Naruto told him he’d still be super cool and Naruto’s friend even if he was a squib. He went home still feeling floaty and happy.
A few weeks later, Naruto was teaching Neville to walk silently in one of the halls near Neville’s Gran’s parlour when he heard his Uncle Algie’s voice.
“-A bit useless really, might even be a squib. Nothing like his father unfortunately.”
“Algie, you shouldn’t say that.” That was his gran. Neville felt small and lost.
“Really, Neville’s a lovely boy from what we’ve seen, isn’t he Makoto?” Mrs Uzuhara chimed in. Naruto wasn’t next to him anymore, and he looked around, confused.
“OI!” Neville ran towards the shout. “Shut up old man, Neville’s brilliant!”
*
Sasuke
Sasuke buried his head in his hands as Naruto recounted the reasons his parents had banned him from Longbottom Manor.
“So then I told him that Neville would be super cool even if he was a squib, which Kako said he wasn’t, and he was a mean old man for saying Neville was useless, just because he wasn’t like his dad, and Neville’s cool like Neville, not like his dad, and no one should make him feel bad for not being his dad. Then I said he was a really awful evil man for holding Neville upside down and shaking him to try and scare the magic out of him, especially when he was magic already and made flowers bloom in our greenhouse and played leaf tag with us.”
Sasuke met Kako’s eyes, and shared a commiserating glance. They were both delighted Neville’s awful Uncle had got a talking to, but this was so Naruto.
“Then his Gran started yelling about how she’d told him never to try to scare magic out of him, that that sort of thing was how their great Grandma’s little sister had died, how could he hurt her precious grandson like that, and the old bastard started yelling back about how a squib was a disgrace, and it would be better for him to vanish, then Neville’s gran hexed his tongue off and turned him into a weasel.”
Shikako burst into hysterical giggles, and Sasuke smirked.
“Then mum and dad started apologising for me being rude.” Naruto looked a little sheepish at this “And Neville’s gran said that she wouldn’t hold it against my parents, because she was glad I told her, but I was a child shouldn’t speak to adults like that, then we went home.” Naruto frowned “I think part of the reason my mum was so mad about it is because she’s muggleborn and Neville’s gran’s pureblood.”
Sasuke grimaced. “It probably is. Purebloods get treated differently because we’re powerful and ‘respected.’”
“Hey, Sasuke? I got my mum to explain about pureblood stuff a bit after she finished telling me off, and she said you’re pureblood but not sacred 28?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Yeah, my great-grandad married a half-blood in 1904 or something, so we’re ‘tainted’ and not sacred 28. It’s all ridiculous. We still have our family magic, and that’s the only thing that really makes the old families different.”
“That’s like affinities, right? Like my dad and his plants?” Naruto asked.
“Family magic is that plus time really. It gets stronger with each generation, and you get better at working with it and developing spells. My family’s good at finding useful things, like opportunities or resources or people. Dad thinks our family magic led us to Kako, he didn’t start teaching me until after we found her.”
“Pretty similar to bloodline limits then?” Naruto looked thoughtful. “How will Harry know what his family magic is if he’s an orphan?”
Sasuke thought for a moment. “There are probably family grimoires somewhere, but he’ll have to teach himself. I don’t think anyone knows what the Potter family magic even is.”
Shikako was frowning. “I think I might have some idea, and it might be related to the horcrux in his head, but there’s no way I can be sure.”
Sasuke looked at her quizzically.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how he survived, and I think it might have something to do with the Peverell family magic.” Shikako admitted. “The rune array in his scar is probably family magic, and his mother died protecting him.”
Sasuke drew in a shocked breath. “Blood sacrifice and cheating death? That might be Peverell, but I thought the family line died out.”
“He has the cloak. Or, well, Dumbledore has it right now, but he should give it back in our first year.”
“Oi, what cloak?” Naruto asked.
“The deathly hallows.” At Naruto’s look of bewilderment (his mother was muggleborn and his father foreign, Sasuke realised, of course he wouldn’t know) he started to tell the story of the three brothers.
***
Yeah! Finally got this chapter finished. It really fought me tbh.
So, we get to see other kids' perspectives on the trio.
Credit for a lot of my HP worldbuilding headcanons goes to Umei no mai on FF.net, and her story Black Sky, which everyone should read because it's awesome.
Comments are writer food!
I've got the next chapter basically done, so it should be up pretty soon.
Love it!
Date: 2019-01-06 04:18 pm (UTC)When Neville was like. 'He wouldn't trade his QUIET afternoons with Sylvanus for anything' I was internally like. Honey, you've got a big storm coming. But really, I'm not surprised Naruto and he made friends. I totally forgot they both like plants! And ofc Naruto would yell in his defense.
And just. Harry. Precious boy. I love him so.
Just, ugh. I'm so happy that they're making Neville and Harry's lives so much better already. I hope Hermione gets dragged into this too somehow.
Re: Love it!
Date: 2019-01-06 04:21 pm (UTC)Re: Love it!
Date: 2019-01-06 07:25 pm (UTC)They'll get to Hermione in diagon alley I think.
Yeah, Harry and Neville's pre-canon lives are so awful, they deserve better.
Re: Love it!
Date: 2019-01-06 07:30 pm (UTC)The blatant child abuse is really awful. I think this is a year or so before the actual incident neville mentions at the feast, the one that sounded like he might have died, which has some awful implications. Basically that kind of thing doesn't come out of nowhere, so there were probably minor incidents before.
After this incident she's going to be doing a lot of re-thinking of her approach to neville.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-06 10:25 pm (UTC)It's going to be a whole different world, by the time they hit Hogwarts. And it's all basically invisible to Dumbledore, so he's got quite a shock coming. :D
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 09:20 am (UTC)(I'm using a darker theme so I missed the text on top at first, lol, but it showed up when I highlighted it.)
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 12:42 pm (UTC)- Experiences and spiritual stuff leaves some kind of imprint on the soul
- So kako retains her spiritual affinity with shadows and gelel related abilities
- Sasuke has some kind of spiritual sharingan imprint
- Naruto has kurama, the seal exists in his mindscape only
- HP world does not have physical chakra
- All reborn ninja retain spiritual but not physical chakra - so they need to use magic as a replacement for physical chakra
- Lots of ninja techniques can be done with pure magic, but since magic is really hard without a focus, it'll take ages to actually get good at that for any of them.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 12:43 pm (UTC)Re: Love it!
Date: 2019-01-07 10:03 pm (UTC)"Hermione, this study schedule is insane."
"Honestly, Harry, this is literally half of what Katherine has planned. And you'll notice a complete lack of provoking angry house ghosts into attacking me with a sword on my schedule."
"Naruto, Sylvanus, help me out here."
Sylvanus snorted. "What makes you think we have any idea how to stop either of them from working too hard?"
Naruto nodded vigorously. "Lasting world peace is an easier-" He was interrupted as tendrils of darkness lashed out from underneath the couch.
"Naruto, what is this garbage you call a potions essay?" The voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere and no one commented as a struggling Naruto was dragged into the shadows. Oh sure, it freaked everyone out the first two or three times it happened, but by now everyone was used to it when Shikako expressed her displeasure at Naruto's academic skills.
Sylvanus in particular had the air that Naruto was just getting what he deserved, leaning back in his seat and saying "Dobe" under his breath.
Harry carefully did not look in Hermione's direction, because last time he had thought he had seen hearts in her eyes. He honestly hoped it was a crush, because if not, it was a case of hero worship and Harry didn't think the world could survive two Shikakos.
Re: Love it!
Date: 2019-01-07 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 11:25 am (UTC)Some of the teachers (ie the good ones) will be DELIGHTED by the new, sideways perspective Team 7 (And their honorary members) bring to the school. Seal work encourages sideways thinking, and working with Shikako requires it. Which must be extremely interesting in Charms, if occasionally off-putting in Transfiguration.
And oh gosh, I don't even know who Snape's least favorite would be. It depends on who has Potions first. It's a toss up unless Harry and Neville have him first, then Shikako is going to go into Vengance Mode after she talks to them.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 03:15 pm (UTC)I have plans for snape *giggles*