Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Harry Potter, a 10-year-old Indian boy in shabby hand-me-downs with shockingly green eyes and a jagged scar, like a lightning strike on his forehead, stood, looking around the playground, unsure what he should do. Usually, at this point of recess he would be running from his cousin Dudley and his gang, but it seems that they had gotten bored with their normal Harry Hunting recess schedule and had found a new kid to terrorize.

He crept over to the opposite side of the playground from Dudley and his gang and paused. He wasn’t actually too sure what he should DO during a Non-Harry Hunting recess. With all the other kids continuing to avoid him and having never really done a normal recess time he was completely at a loss.

Harry was just starting to feel awkward standing around and considering trying to hide in the bathroom, when suddenly, a voice from behind him said, “Hello!”

Harry spun around to see a girl with light brown hair, pale skin, and green eyes smiling at him. He couldn’t remember seeing her at recess before, but then again, he doesn’t pay attention to the other kids much. He checked behind him, he hadn’t seen anyone else, but he just couldn’t believe that she could actually be talking to him. Seeing no one else, he tentatively responded, “Uh, hello.”

“My name’s Briar,” she started, “What’s your name?”

Harry blinked at her, very surprised that this girl wasn’t avoiding him like everyone else. Perhaps today is just a very strange day. Might as well make the most of it, “My names Harry. Harry Potter.”

“Well, nice to meet you Harry,” she said, “What brings you to this side of the playground?”

“Umm,” Harry stammered, suddenly unsure he was allowed to be over here, “Well, there wasn’t anyone over here so I came over here…”

She nodded, then she asked, “So you’re not doing anything? Would you maybe want to help me find a 4-leafed clover?”

“I thought clovers only had 3 leaves?” He responded, then cringed, hoping he hadn’t already messed up talking to her.

“Yes, most clovers have 3 leaves,” Briar said, “but some have 4 leaves and those ones are lucky, so I was going to try to find one.”

A lucky plant sounded a bit like magic, which his Aunt and Uncle hated. They would definitely lock him in his cupboard if they found out he was talking about magic plants at recess. He checked over Briar’s shoulder and noted that Dudley looked thoroughly distracted and decided to risk it, “Okay, sure. Do we just look through the clovers?”

She beamed, “Yep! And hopefully we’ll find a 4-leaf one! Come on!”

She started walking farther from the playground and towards the fence at the edge of school grounds. Harry followed, cautiously hopeful that Dudley wouldn’t notice them and chase this girl off, like he’d done to anyone else to ever show interest in befriending Harry.

About 5 feet from the fence she plopped down on the ground in a big patch of clover and waited for Harry, who sat next to her. She started picking clovers and checking them and Harry followed suit.

“So… what do you like to do?” she asked, shifting a bit as she spoke. She didn’t have any friends, so she wasn’t quite sure what to do now that they were introduced and doing an activity together.

Harry blinked, unsure what to say. He didn’t really like doing most of the things he did, considering most of his time was spent doing chores. And when he didn’t have chores he usually was just trying to avoid getting locked in the cupboard or beaten up by Dudley. Or he was at school, which also wasn’t often a good experience either.

Well, he supposed gardening was pretty okay. Aunt Petunia usually left him to it when he gardened, and he could drink water from the hose if he got thirsty, so it wasn’t so bad.

“Err, well I like gardening I guess.”

“Oh, ya plants are pretty cool,” She said, “I like to read. I usually spend most of my free time in the library. I’m usually in the school library during recess, but the Mrs. Cathford caught me today and made me come outside.”

Well, that explains why she hadn’t gotten the avoid Harry Potter memo. Harry shifted, suddenly realizing that she might be completely out of the loop and not know the risk she was taking. He felt a little bad, but talking to her was much better, if more awkward, then hiding in the bathroom or standing alone all recess. He really didn’t want to scare her off yet, so he said, “I don’t really go to the school library much. Is there one outside of school or are libraries a school only thing?” (He internally cringed as he said this as he realized how dumb he sounded and hoped she wouldn’t think he was stupid for not knowing what libraries are.)

“No, there are non-school libraries,” Briar said, “The Little Whinging Library is near Surrey, where I live. Well, if you asked my mother, she’d say I practically live at the library, but I just go some times.”

“Oh, I think I live in Surrey too,” Harry said, hoping that his awkward, obliviousness wasn’t making it too obvious how little he talked to other people, “What do you-umm, read?” He stammered, trying not to ruin the conversation.

“Oh! I read all kinds of things! There are so many cool things in books,” she exclaimed, “Most other kids think books are boring,-“ Briar quickly glanced at Harry to gauge if he also found books boring, and was spurred on by his attentive expression-“but I think they’re just looking at the wrong books. There are books on everything, the hard part is just to find the good ones that interest you.”

“Huh,” Harry said. He had read a few books in school, but Dudley doesn’t like reading, preferring to stare at the telly, so there aren’t many books in the house besides Aunt Petunia’s old cookbooks.

They fell into what Harry hoped wasn’t an awkward silence, as they continued sorting through the clovers. They didn’t manage to find a 4-leafed one before one of the teachers called them in though. He was a little worried Briar would be upset that they failed, but she said it was fine as the 4-leafed one’s were really rare, but Harry was still a little nervous. It was nice talking to someone and he didn’t want to mess up hanging out with her.

Harry didn’t want to but he said good-bye to Briar and headed into the school. He felt a bit sad, that had been the best recess he’d ever had, but he figured that Dudley was going to scare her off too so he steeled himself for when she would ditch him.

~*~

The next day, when he was on his way to the door to go out to recess, someone grabbed him hand and pulled him into a bathroom. The girl’s bathroom. Harry had tensed when the hand grabbed him, but Dudley and his gang had already stampeded out to recess, so he let them drag him off. Mostly because he was curious as to who cared enough about his existence to pull him into a bathroom.

Harry turned and saw the girl from the day before, Briar.

“Hey!” whispered Briar pulling him away from the door to the hallway, “Keep quiet! I don’t want to get caught. You said yesterday that you haven’t been in a library before, so I thought I’d take you to the school one, and the easiest time to go is during recess.”

“Didn’t you get caught and sent outside yesterday?” Harry asked quietly, “Also, the library is in the school for students’ so can’t we just ask to go?”

“Well in theory we can,” Briar answered, “But in practice the teachers have weird ideas about when and how long we should spend in the library. Plus, this way’s more fun! And ya I got caught yesterday, but that was yesterday! Now it’s today, and today we’re not going to get caught! Now, let’s be quiet well everyone finishes going outside.”

Harry shrugged and went along with her plan. It might be a little odd, but she was right, this did sound more fun and probably faster than asking a teacher. Adults were often strange and unreliable in his experience, especially teachers. Plus, if he did this then there would be no risk that Dudley and his gang would chase him all recess.

After a few minutes, when everyone was definitely outside and away from the door, Briar said, “Okay! The coast is clear. Let’s go!”

Harry smiled as he and Briar speed walked down the hall towards the library. It was fun to do something with someone else, even if that something was just sneaking to the library. It felt nice, like how he imagined having a friend would feel.

When they got to the library, the opened the door and slipped in. As soon as they did, a voice behind they went, “Briar! Didn’t Mrs. Cathford just tell you off for hiding in the library during recess? And now you’ve gone and dragged some poor soul with you?”

Harry and Briar spun around, backs to the door, to see the grayed haired librarian trying to look scolding, but looking far more like her two favorite grandkids had just snuck in.

“Mrs. Hart!” Briar quickly said, “This is Harry and he’s NEVER been in the library before!”

Mrs. Hart smiled at her and replied fondly, “Well now, that’s just a travesty, isn’t it? Thank goodness you snuck him in!”

“Yes, exactly!” Briar said smiling and nodding, “See, I knew you’d understand how important this is. WAY more important than some silly outside time!”

Mrs. Hart sighed, chuckling a little, “Okay, fine Briar. You and your little friend can hide in here today, but you do need to do as Mrs. Cathford says at some point and actually go outside during recess. Some sunlight and fresh air is good for you!” She then turned to Harry and said, “Well young man, welcome to the library! Now, your name is Harry, yes?”

Harry blinked. He was shocked that this random adult let them off the hook so easily (and surprised that she thinks they’re friends, does Briar think their friends?), but replied, “Yes Mrs. Hart, my name is Harry Potter.”

“Well then Harry,” Mrs. Hart said smiling, “A friend of Briar’s is a friend of mine. Don’t let her drag you in here every day.” She turned, once more with a scolding look on her face, to look at Briar, “You have to actually go out to recess at some point.”

Briar smiled sheepishly, then turned to Harry, “Well, anyways do you want to go find some books? Come on!” and started off into the shelves of books with Harry tailing behind her. She led them to a table at the back of the library and sat down. “Well,” she said, “What do you want to know?”

“Oh, um...” Harry said, and he thought about it. There were lots of things he wanted to know, like why his Aunt and Uncle hated him so much and why they can’t stand the word magic, but he doubted there were books on that. How did he turn his first teacher’s hair blue and why did he live in a cupboard? Actually, now that he thought about it, most of the question he had weren’t likely to have books that answered them. So, he turned to Briar and said, “I’m not sure. I haven’t really read much before…”

Briar nodded, “That’s okay,” she said, “It took me a bit to figure out what I wanted to read at first. Right now, I’m trying to figure out how electricity works. If you want I can give you a book that I’ve read before to see if you’d like it?”

“Sure,” he said. Anything she can find is most likely going to be leagues better than spending recess getting hunted so Harry wasn’t going to be too picky.

“Well, uh” she said, stammering a bit, “Would you- well do you want to read about real things or do you just want a story?”

“Well,” Harry said thinking a little, “Do you know any good stories?” Briar nodded and rushed off into the stacks for a minute or so, before coming back with a small brown book and a bright green book with lightning on the cover. She passed him the brown book and shifted awkwardly before saying, “Sorry if this isn’t how you wanted to spend your recess. I uh-well most people don’t really like me that much and I got excited that you were willing to talk to me…”

Harry blinked, maybe he wasn’t the only one who everyone ignored, and said, “No this is great, I wasn’t planning on doing anything anyway. No one else really talks to me either.”

“Uh-ya I noticed,” she said, looking a little guilty, “that’s why I went up to you yesterday. I figured that we were both going to spend recess alone we could maybe, like be alone together or something.”

Harry thought about that. Dudley didn’t like it when anyone tried to be Harry’s friend, but he couldn’t get mad at them for being alone together. He smiled, “We could be like, alone buddies.” Then flushed as he realized how dumb that sounded.

But Briar was smiling too. “Yes! Alone buddies!” she said happily. They smiled at each other, and Harry looked down at the book she had passed him. “So, what’s this book about?” he asked.

“Oh! Yes, that’s the Hobbit! It’s the first part of this cool series,” Briar said, and as she went on about the book (which did sound interesting) Harry smiled, hopeful for the first time in a while that things might improve for him.

Chapter Text

Harry and Briar made it to the end of the first week Dudley-free, but on Friday, Dudley remembered that Harry existed. He also noticed that Briar was breaking the avoid-Harry rule.

They were outside, by the fence, once again looking for a 4-leafed clover. This time they were in the corner of the fence, where a briar bush was creeping through the fence. Briar had lead Harry over here saying, “Look! The briar bush is blooming! My mom named me after these flowers, isn’t that cool.” And Harry had agreed, it was cool. It made him wonder if he was named after anything.

After a few minutes of peaceful clover picking, however, Harry looked up to see Dudley and his gang trepping over. Harry scrambled to his feet to face him, with Briar following him up a moment later. “Harry?” she asked, “Who’s that?”

Harry was about to answer when Dudley called out, “Hey freak! Who’s your little girlfriend there? Did you finally find someone freaky enough to put up with you?”

“Hey!” Briar called stepping forward as Dudley and his gang pulled in front of them, “Harry isn’t a freak, you walrus!”

Harry felt like something in his chest was glowing, he’d never had anyone else defend him when Dudley bullied him. Piers stepped up next to Dudley, his face twisted into a scowl saying, “Look at that! The book-freak can speak!”

Briar glared at him and opened her mouth but was interrupted by Dudley saying, “You might have missed the message, being a friendless nerd, so I’ll fill you in: Harry’s a loser that no one talks to, so scram!”

“Or what?” said Briar stepping towards Dudley.

Harry realized he needed to do something before things got worse, he didn’t want Briar to get hurt cause of him. So, he grabbed Briar’s hand and pulled her back a bit from Dudley and said, “We weren’t talking! We were just sitting!”

“No one ever sits with you!” Dudley yelled, “Cause you’re a freak and freaks sit alone! So, get lost bookworm, or I’ll make you leave.” Dudley’s gang stepped up behind him, glaring threateningly at Briar.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Briar said, glaring daggers at Dudley. Harry tried to pull he back again, but she pulled her arm away from him.

Dudley finally grew tired of the stand-off and pulled his arm back and moved to punch Briar. Harry could only watch, frozen in place, as Briar’s eyes went wide and she ducked, preparing for the punch- when suddenly the briar bush next to her shot out and smacked Dudley’s hand away.

“OW!” He yelled as one of the briar’s thorns cut the back of his hand. The rest of his gang gasped and took a step away from them as Dudley glared suspiciously at Harry, “Stop that!” he shouted, “Or-Or I’ll tell my mum you’re doing strange things again!”

Dudley’s gang glanced at each other, decided they didn’t want strange things happening to them, and high-tailed away from Briar and Harry. Briar looked up as Harry’s eyes went wide, he’d be locked in his cupboard for a week if Aunt Petunia found out about this! But then, Briar stepped in front of Harry and said, “He didn’t do anything!”

Dudley blinked at her, having forgotten about her when he realized he could get Harry in trouble for magic. Briar continued, “Harry didn’t do it, I did it! And if you don’t get away from us and leave us alone I’ll do it again!”

Dudley paled and took a step back. “Bu-but magic isn’t-you can’t do magic!” he cried, looking a bit scared.

Briar glared and took a step forward, Dudley yelped and ran. He didn’t feel like finding out the hard way if she had magic or not.

Harry turned to Briar with wide eyes and asked, “Did you really do that? On purpose?”

Briar looked at Harry and nervously saying, “Uh-no. No! Of course not! The bush just, fell. Or something.. I didn’t do anything! Umm-have you started that book I gave you?!”

Harry thought she was acting a little odd, but she didn’t ask what Dudley had meant when he thought Harry had done magic. So, Harry just dropped it and told her about the Hobbit which he had been reading in his cupboard at night.

~*~

After the briar bush incident, Dudley and his gang left Harry and Briar alone and they both avoided talking about magic. After that early spring confrontation, time seemed to fly past Harry. He was starting to understand why the other kids love recess so much. I was fantastic to have a friend to spend it with.

Suddenly, although truly it was precisely in its time, it was the final day of school. He and Briar were partaking in a final desperate search for a 4-leafed clover. They hadn’t been successful yet and this was their last chance before having to wait for next year.

Harry was frustrated, not cause they couldn’t find a 4-leaf clover, but cause time was moving too fast! He only just got a friend and now he probably wouldn’t see her till next school year! On top of that, without mandatory school taking up his time he would be forced to do even more of the chores. He truly hated summers.

“Hey Harry, are you okay?” Briar asked looking mildly concerned.

“Huh?” Harry said, blinking, “Oh, yes. Fine, I’m fine.”

“You’re sure? Cause you keep glaring at the clovers like they’ve personally wronged you or something.” She said, smiling a little. “Did something happen?”

“No,” Harry said, quickly shaking his head, “Nothing, everything’s fine!” He looked away from her, he felt bad about lying, but he knew nothing good ever came from telling anyone about how the Dursley’s treated him.

“Okay…” she frowned, “Well… Are you doing anything interesting this summer?”

“No.” Harry scowled, thinking about all the chores he would have come tomorrow.

“Okay, so do you think we could hang out or something?” she asked hopefully.

“Oh-um,” Harry might spend most of his free time with Briar, but it’s still occasionally surprising to remember that she’s his friend and wants to be around him. “I’d love to! But- well, I’m not doing anything interesting this summer, but- uh- my Aunt and Uncle give me more chores over the summer so I’m not sure I’ll have time…”

“Well maybe I could come help you with your chores,” Briar suggested, “Then you can finish faster and- oh! You don’t know where the library is!” Harry shook his head, “Okay, so I can help you and then I can show you the way to the library!”

Harry thought about it, he didn’t want her to hear his Aunt and Uncle yelling at him, but maybe- “That could work,” he said, “you can come by in the afternoon and help me with the gardening, then we could go to the library.”

Briar beamed and pulled a pen out of her pocket, “Great! Can you write the address on my arm or something so I don’t forget it?” she said well holding out the pen.

“Sure.”

After Harry wrote Private Drive’s address on her arm, the two of them lapsed into silence again as they continued their search for a 4-leafed clover. Until, suddenly, Briar gasped.

“Oh my gosh!” she said looking at something in her hand, “Harry! Harry, look! I found one! I found one!”

“Really?” he asked, looking over. Sure enough, there in her hand, was a 4-leafed clover. “That’s so cool. Congratulations Briar!”

Briar hesitated for a moment, looking between Harry and the lucky-clover, before she held it out to him and said, “Here, I think you should have it.”

“What.” Harry said shocked, “B-but you found it.”

“Yes, I know,” Briar said, “But that means its mine, so I can do what I want with it. And I want to give it to you. You seem a little sad today and like you need the extra luck more than I do.”

Harry blinked away tears. Wait, why was he tearing up? He wasn’t sad. In fact, he felt happier then he could ever remember being. He took the clover from Briar, smiling at her and enjoying the glowy- happy feeling filling his chest.

They stood in silence for a few minutes, just thinking, till Briar looked breaking the silence by saying, “Hey, did you hear something?”

Harry looked up and looked around, all the other kids were on the other side of the playground. “No.” he replied, “And I don’t see anyone but us over here.”

Briar frowned and walked to the fence. “I thought I heard a voice from over here…” she said frowning.

Harry stood and followed her, wondering why someone would be hiding behind a school, when he heard a voice-

‘Sstupid viper thinks she’ss better than me… I hunted that mouse fair and ssquare but noooo! she’sss venomouss so she’ss sspecial…’

“Hello?” Briar tentatively asked.

A garden snake poked it’s head out from behind the fence. ‘Hello, hatchling.’ The snake said, ‘I’ve never heard of a human hatchling sspeaking the Sserpent’s’ tongue.’

Harry gasped and asked, “But if Briar is sspeaking in ssnake, why can I understand it?”

The snake turned to Harry, looking perhaps a bit surprised, although it was hard to tell by just its face, and said, ‘It appears that both of you hatchlings are Sspeakers of the Great Tongue… I’ve only heard sstories of humanss sspeaking our Tongue… but I ssuppose there was more truth to those tales then I had thought.’

Harry and Briar looked at each other, both shocked. “Well,” Briar said, “Sstrange thingss have happened around me before, but this is definitely the craziest thing to happen.”

“At the very least it’ss in the top 5,” Harry replied, nodding.

‘Well, this has been interesting,’ hissed the snake, ‘but if neither of you have anything to ssay or give to me, I would like to get back to my hunt now.’

“Er-ssure, go ahead,’ Briar said.

“Yess,” Harry said, “Enjoy your hunt. Err- we won’t be back here for a while, but we’ll be around if you- like want to talk.”

The snake hissed a wordless affirmative and slithered off.

“Well, that was... odd.” Briar said.

“Definitely.” Harry agreed.

“Err- if you don’t mind me asking,” Briar said, “What are the other things on your ‘top 5 strangest things’.”

“Oh-well,” Harry stammered. He definitely trusts Briar more than anyone else in his life, but then again, that isn’t currently a high bar. But, at the same time, they just talked to a snake together… Harry decided to risk telling her some of the things he’d done, “…I turned a teacher’s hair blue once and shrank an ugly jumper my Aunt tried to force on me.”

“Wow!” Briar said, beginning to look excited, “I once dropped a book over the side of a bridge, but it flouted back up to me. And another time, I accidently lit some homework on fire.”

Harry blinked, he hadn’t ever thought too much about the strange things that happened around him. He mostly just tried to hide them from his Aunt and Uncle and was thankful when the things were helpful. It was one thing to have strange things happen to only him but it was quite another to talk to your friend about your shared strange happenings. It seemed so obvious to him now as his exclaimed, “We can do magic.”

“Wow!” Briar said grinning, “I had thought that I might be going crazy or imagining things or something… But, wow! We’re magic! You know what this means, right?!” she said excitedly.

“Umm, no?” he responded a bit confused, “What does this mean?”

“It means we’re not crazy, or weird, or anything else, cause we’re magic! We can do magic!” Briar was nearly bouncing with excitement now, “And it means that if the two of us just happened to find each other, and we both have magic, then there’s most likely more of us! Plus, that snake said they’d heard of other snake speakers before, and I assume that’s part of our magic or something.”

Harry paused, he felt odd. On one hand, he wasn’t a freak, he was just magic! On the other hand, this meant that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were right, as they definitely counted magic on their list of ‘freak things.’ But, then again, they’re usually wrong and nasty about lots of things that don’t disserve to be called nasty, like the cool clothes and the rock music one of the neighbors’ kid’s like.

He looked at Briar and smiled. One thing this definitely meant was that he wasn’t alone anymore. He had Briar now and plus, he thinks she’s right. If they found each other on accident, there are probably other magic people- Witches? Wizards?- out there! Maybe they could find them. Maybe, somewhere, there was a place for them.