AN: This fic's base premise is loosely inspired by the webtoon titled Ending Maker/엔딩메이커by Chwiryong and their illustrator chyan, but instead of Jude and Cordelia waking up into a video game they have mastered, we have Rin and Shirou waking up in the Potter Verse a story they have read several times while learning English. Hope you enjoy!
Story Starts
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Ch 0.2 Prologue
A Little Whinging Does Not Help
Our Predicament
[Part 2 of 2]
September 26, 2017
After putting away all the gardening tools, Rin and I were walking down a pavement as I led her towards a secluded area at the community park.
She's currently a few steps behind me as she surveys the surrounding, probably taking in the area described only in fiction. In our previous reality Little Whinging wasn't actually a real place in Surrey. I don't really get how this works as the area is practically one-to-one with how I imagined the setting to be.
"Oh, yeah Rin could you stop referencing that quote. My body recoils in embarrassment everytime you bring that up." Slightly turning towards Rin as I look around checking if there is anyone who would disturb us.
With hands clasped behind her back Rin partially overtook me as she spun, she then gave me a mischievous knowing grin.
"You should probably get used to calling me Hermione from now on even; even in private." She said completely ignoring my complaint. She then sits at one of the benches underneath a tree, tapping the space beside her, as she then holds out a paper bag from Greggs at me.
"I wasn't sure if, like the books, they would be starving you so I bought you this. Also here's my sanitizer."
Reaching out to the paper bag and a small spray bottle of sanitizer I sat beside Rin, or rather Hermione.
"First, question how did you know that I would be Harry Potter; and don't you have school today?"
"A little truancy won't hurt no one." Giving me a wide grin as she massages her calves. "Regarding the first, last week during my birthday I received this."
She fished out an envelope from her purse. An envelope that has a particularly distinctive large H embossed on a familiar coat of arms.
On the top two quadrants you can find a golden gryffin and a silver snake facing each other with red and green as their background, respectively, representing Gryffindor and Slytherin.
Beneath them are the yellow and blue quadrants with a badger, representing Hufflepuff, and a golden eagle, representing ravenclaw.
"Huh? You already received your Hogwarts letter?" I rhetorically asked. "So they send this out during birthdays. Isn't that unfair to those whose birthdays are close towards the start of the school year?"
Another rhetorical question as I folded the paper bag, shaking off the crumbs from my hands; I then gestured towards Rin, er, Hermione's legs whom she still continues to massage.
"Let me."
"Let me, what?" As Hermione turned her attention to the ground wondering what I am referring to.
"Remove your shoes, I'll give you a leg massage." Looking at my hands as I awkwardly grumbled my intentions.
"Awww, that's sweet of you." She teasingly said as she pats my head. She then crouches down and starts removing her shoes and socks.
"My legs are killing me, I should have just taken a taxi. Instead of walking the whole way."
"Hmmm." I grunted in acknowledgement as she plops down her legs on my lap. I then picked up the bottle of sanitizer and sprayed it on her feet.
"What the!? The nerve!" She crossed her arms as she rolled her eyes at my antics as I started giving her feet and legs a massage. A gesture I'm familiar with as after everytime we trained with Saber I was always relegated to providing muscle comfort to both of the girls.
"Hey how about you, aren't you taking your A-levels?"
Shrugging a bit as I explained to her that I got an apprenticeship under a blacksmith as my guardians wouldn't be paying anything above what's required of them. It was rather fortunate that the blacksmith I'm apprenticing under took a trip to see his daughter who's currently living across the pond.
We currently are still dancing around each other as she asked about the Dursleys, in which I explained that there was this once incident when Dudley turned to being physical when it came to bullying me.
Unfortunately at this time I was slowly unlocking some of my memories and one of the follow-up punches Dudley threw was on the lip that was already busted.
"Your body is made of blades?" Rin stoically asked.
"My body is made of blades." I acknowledged. "The same day Vernon tried to beat the "Freakishness" out of me he unfortunately received the backlash of punching skin made of tiny blades."
So I explained ever since that night I was just, thankfully, ignored at the house. They still grumbled every now and then but since I voluntarily take up a lot of the chores in the house, especially cooking; they begrudgingly accepted me and made sure to do the bare minimum. Though Dudley does occasionally act out, especially, when he's around his friends.
….
…..
..
A lull was wedged between us, as you can hear the distinct chirping of a magpie nearby and the muffled noise of flesh hitting flesh as I continued to give Rin, Hermione, a massage.
"...ahhh"
"...hahhh"
A sigh escaped our mouths at the same time as we both decided to no longer tip-toe around the problem.
"Okay, let's do this." Rin, or rather Hermione; I really need to get used to calling her Hermione; said, removing her legs from my lap.
"To answer your other question." Hermione starts while she dons her socks on her right foot then slips it on her right shoe.
For some reason this weirded me a little, I don't think I've noticed Rin's process of wearing her shoes in that order.
"I just really took a guess, I gained back all my memories just as I was looking at the Hogwarts acceptance letter. I figured that if I'm Hermione Granger, hopefully you as well would be pulled into this world."
"What!?" Just as she finished tying her left shoelace she turned to me probably seeing my face betraying my emotions.
Quickly, blanking my expression I just shrugged and gestured to her to move on.
While giving me a quizzical look, she then explains that she just guessed. If she now inhabits the body of Hermione, and I as well was transported with her, would either be in Ron or Harry's body.
Getting to Privet Drive was just more convenient as the Weasley would be in a wizarding settlement.
"Well, I think it's a good thing that you're in the body of Harry Potter rather than Ron Weasley." She grinned devilishly as a foreboding tingle rushed through my spine.
I had a distinct feeling that the Potter vaults would need to weather the onslaught of Rin's research spending.
"I hope Saber is here as well."
"I wonder if Saber is back in her timeline?"
Both of us wondered out loud at the same time. Rin said we should probably eventually check out some of the side characters to see if Saber is inhabiting one of their bodies.
"The trigger for gaining all are memories is somewhat inconsistent as mine happened when I saw my acceptance letter, and yours was due to the emotional trauma of remembering your cringe quotes."
Giving her a deadpan square as she grins largely, pandiculates, she then fishes out a smartphone from her purse. Swiping her code to unlock the screen she then lazily scrolls towards a memo app which she then hands it over to me.
"I've compiled a list of things we need to check."
Shock, that's all I felt as I fumbled at Hermione's phone. Obviously, living with the Dursley resulted in me somewhat having a stunted growth, where a lot of things teenagers normally have wasn't available to me.
I can operate a computer as that's readily available in libraries but I wasn't given the privilege of a personal phone and during our time in Fuyuki all I had was a flip phone from Fujitsu.
Showing my inexperience, the phone screen turned black as I clutched at the phone a bit too hard and mistakenly pressed the button to lock the phone.
Rin, looking smug, stretches out her hand gesturing at me to hand over the phone.
"Oh, how the tables have turned." A proud Rin, Hermione, declared as our modern technological expertise has flipped.
Scooting towards me as our bodies touch, my face reddens, as I feel the warmth of her body. Even with my previous experience with both Rin and Saber, I can help but fluster at her actions.
Reopening her phone she shows me her list.
Look for Shirou. (Ron, Harry, Shirou is in Japan, or worst case I'm alone.)Look for Saber. (Ginny, Luna, worst case Ron.)Compare differences.Timeline is different.Age school starts.Research wizarding history.Emphasis on the rise and fall of Voldemort.If Shirou is Harry, check if he can access his trust.What actions can we or should we take to prevent certain bad events from happening?Immediate concerns.Dumbledore's control over Harry. (If Ron is Shirou, what can we do to manipulate a better outcome?)Quirrel and the Philosopher's Stone (Can we study it?)Sirius Black (Get him out of jail and access to the Black family resources.)Chamber of SecretsVoldemort's Horcrux Harry's scar.Check if we have analogues of our previous body in this reality and check their situation. (Sakura.)
Assessing her list as I skipped over numbers 1 and 2. Yeah, this reality doesn't match the book one-to-one as it is currently 2017; if I recall correctly the books settings were in the 90's.
Another thing is Hogwarts starts at age 11 in the books and Hermione received her letter just as she turned 18.
"Have you sent your reply to your Hogwarts letter yet?"
"Yes. When I just thought of sending a reply, an owl perched itself on my windowsill; well either that or I just didn't notice the owl beforehand. I requested for someone to come demonstrate magic, I also explained in that letter that my parents are currently out on a week-long trip and their availability when they get back."
Grinning mischievously as she taps her fingers on her cheek, "We also need to plan on how to broach the topic of us, to my parents."
"We? Us?"
"Yes, we and us, afterall my parents need to finally see their baby girl's first boyfriend. Plus, you didn't get to experience the meet-the-parents stage of our previous relationship."
Again feeling that spine tingling sensation as foreboding has filled my every being. Our previous life's relationship was far from normal as both of us were orphans and we didn't really go through the phase of courting each other.
One day we were battling in a death tournament then the next Rin, Saber, and I were living and planning our futures together. I don't think we even officially declared ourselves as couples, or rather thruple, at any point.
Suddenly giving me a mischievous grin she suddenly sits on my lap, with both her legs dangling at one side, she turns her body towards me and reaches out, wrapping her arms around my neck.
"After all, despite the changes in our body, I do still have feelings for you. Do you not?"
She declares at me point blank as she averts her eyes as she blushes and hesitantly asks to confirm my feelings.
Sighing as I placed one hand on her lap while the other clasps at her hip, pulling her closer.
"Yes, I still lo…like you."
Grinning, she gave me a quick peck on my lips. As she tries to nonchalantly stand and smile at me, a visible blush showing across her face.
"Let's start by going to Diagon Alley." She declares adopting her previous life's patented pose, legs shoulder width apart with one hand on her hip.
I suddenly perked up and frowned, "First boyfriend? Are you planning on anyone after me?"
"Well Saber could be in Ron's body." She teased me with a wink as I rolled my eyes at her in reply.
"Hey Dudley, looks like the freak got himself a girlfriend." A familiar voice directed at us echoes across the park.
A loud groan escaped both our lips as we saw Dudley and his gang quickly approaching us.
"Come Harry, it's only proper to introduce me to your friends."
"Don't harm them." I lightly warned Hermione.
"I am the bastion of all that's good in the world, of course I won't harm them– too much" Hermione declared as she flipped her hair back flashing me a feral smile.
Piers Polkiss a tall quite lanky looking guy with a face only a mother can love and Dudley the previously fat tub of has already shed a few stones and is now showing some muscles due to Petunia and Vernon forcing him to start boxing 2 years ago.
They currently are in front of us, Piers giving us a smirk as he lasciviously looked Hermione up-and-down.
Unknowingly, Dudley's true feelings somewhat leaked out as he nervously looked between us and Piers while his other friends began to encircle us.
"So freak, who's the broad?" Piers stepped forward with Dudley as his left flank while his gang surrounded us.
"Harry, introduce me to your friends." Rin nonchalantly asks as she looks at her fingernails.
"Hermione– this Piers and Dudley, the others I really don't have a clue on their names." I shrugged.
The ones surrounding us visibly their faces crumpled as they probably got offended at being too inconsequential to warrant notoriety.
"Let's just call them Pier's rat squad."
Pinching the bridge of my nose at Rin's provocation.
"Say Shirou, do you know what they say you are supposed to do on your first day in prison."
Confusion is shown all around me at Ri– Hermione's non sequitur. Catching myself as I think I've been calling her Rin in my mind for the past few minutes. I, of course, didn't miss Hermione calling me Shirou.
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END