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Harry Potter And The Fairy Named Tinkerbell

Summary:

When Peter abandoned Neverland, Tinkerbell became the fairy partner of a girl named Lily. Now, over a decade later, that fellowship will bring about a new era for the fairies...

Notes:

Disclaimer: Peter Pan is the intellectual property of Great Ormond Street Hospital. Great Ormond Street, GOSH and all related terms are the property of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust. The Disney Fairies © Disney, Hook © Amblin Entertainment, Harry Potter © J. K. Rowling and Magic School Bus © Scholastic Entertainment and Netflix. They are used within fair use guidelines, and with the utmost respect to the franchise holders.

Author's Note: This story takes a darker turn over the Peter Pan story, with the assumption that Peter Pan, Return To Neverland and Hook all happened and were somewhat contiguous with each other within Neverland. Suffice to say that Peter's aloof nature and the confirmed death of Hook did not do Neverland any favours.
I will be using the Disney Fairies because the talent system and general personalities of the fairies, as well as the much larger cast, is useful for the crossover potential. Neverland and the original Lost Boys will not appear. There will be an appearance by the Banning-era Lost Boys.

Added Author's Note: Two years after I originally published this story, I'm giving it a massive update. For one, one chapter has disappeared during draft work, since I folded half of it into one chapter, and the other half into another, and secondly, I've updated the disclaimer, to allow for the fact, first, Peter Pan is not under copyright, and second, to meet my new disclaimer format.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: The Fellowship Of A Fairy

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Tinkerbell was seething as she exited the Overlook, arriving in Great Ormond Street Hospital. Her bad mood had started years before, when Peter himself, of all people, broke his famous promise to all and sundry who lived in Neverland, To Never Grow Up , ending up through a series of events adopted by the Banning family. She knew what had drawn him to end up in London long term, the siren song of Moira Darlings’ real kiss. One which led to several more, followed by a wedding, and then events that led to a son and daughter. After that, she’d resigned herself to never seeing him again. As she headed towards the paediatric ward, somewhere she was intimately familiar with, she noticed a pair of girls talking; one of them reading off, of all things, a genuine piece of parchment paper.

“You cannot be serious about accepting…” The other girl, who she later learned was called Petunia, declared in an imperious tone, for the other girl to nod at her and tell her that she was. Tink was curious about the parchment, only ever seeing paper like that as a treasure map or wanted poster in Pirate Cove, and whatever the girl was looking at, it was nothing like either of those. It was a most unusual letter. Also, Petunia was the one with the signs of a future pirate sneer, while the other girl was much more intriguing, Tink finding herself following them, with, once Petunia had walked off in a huff, her getting into a conversation with the girl with the parchment, who introduced herself as Lily Evans, and she realised, as they talked, she’d found her, temporary in her head, replacement for Peter.

She blamed Jane for the fact she now courted the favour of Lost Girls as much as Lost Boys, although girls still were far too sensible to get themselves misplaced. The few Lost Girls after Jane were abandoned by society and expected to survive with their wits and practically nothing else, and they still managed it. All she knew in the short term about the the parchment was that it was an invitation for Lily to head into a hidden world of magic and enchantment far larger than the island that was Neverland, and as exciting and intriguing as the places she’d explored while she’d been dealing with the numerous problems that had cropped up with her former friends, commitments she knew she’d let wane due to her commitments to keeping Peter from getting out of trouble. 

However, that didn’t mean she didn’t have to stop stepping in when Boys were Boys. The most explosive incident however was when a young man named Severus had been courting her attention, drawing her away from a boorish group of boys that were teetering on the edge of becoming pirates with how uncouth their behaviour was,, but the people Severus were cavorting with, to be honest, were outright Pirates. As she was about to turn her back on Severus, after he called her ‘Mudblood’, Tink grabbed her ear and hissed for her to not let it end there, having a better idea, one that would keep Severus, and maybe even the uncouth rabble, from ending up not much better than their enemies.

“Severus Tobias Prince!” Lily snapped, causing his head to snap in her direction at her ‘full name’ declaration, especially since she used ‘Prince’, not Snape, “Now, I have allowed you to get away with using that word to make yourself look good for your dorm mates, since they’re…. A good friend of mine refers to people like them as pirates, for some reason, but I think it’s about how they are loathsome and cruel monsters. But, Severus, I seriously never expected you to use it to refer to me .”

“Lily, I’m sorry…” Severus declared, “It… It… It just...”

“Slipped out?” Lily declared, “Are you aware of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe? Think on it, and let me know your decision,”

Severus looked at her, his face turning ashen as he nodded, realising which poem she meant, the ultimate story of hubris, and she walked away as the ‘pirates’ told him that he’d get over her. It wasn’t until a few weeks later when the Marauders saw a raven fly into their meeting, and transform into Snape, and he coughed, before declaring, shakily but with determination, one word, ‘ Nevermore ’, and Lily forgave him and the Marauders apologised to him. The oft-taunted ‘Snivellus Snape’ became, from then on, the raven Nevermore, as he became their spy within the movement that would become the Death Eaters, and Lily gained the name, at Tinkerbell’s discreet suggestion, of Wildcat. Well, as far as she knew, the original owner wouldn’t mind her using it. Then… It happened, the day she’d never forget.

She’d been in the nightlight, snoozing, when a noise woke her up, and she heard voices downstairs. She’d been staying there since the Fidelus had been set up, knowing that, if she left, she’d find it almost impossible to locate the house without homing in on the statue sat beside Harry’s cot. She dimmed her light, watching discreetly as the man known as Lord Voldemort walked in, Peter Pettigrew stood nearby. Not Sirius Black. Someone else who wasn’t here was Severus Snape. “If anyone asks, I gave her plenty of time to run, but she had to protect the boy…” Voldemort drawled. Tink grabbed the statue, uttering ‘Third star to the right…’, vanishing before anyone looked her way, before teleporting to Severus’s study and telling him what she saw.

As she was about to join him in dealing with the problems, she found herself called to Neverland. Hook had made an attempt on Peter’s children, a very low blow for someone who normally followed chivalry to the hilt. While she attempted to reignite things with Peter, she could tell that things were tenuous. Peter didn’t really think about what he was doing, goading James into one last meeting, without sparing a look towards the auburn-haired girl in a hooded jacket who was watching from the sidelines, who had gathered those pirates who weren’t a loyal part of Hook’s crew, calling out: ‘Everyone to the lifeboats! Everyone to the lifeboats! Get going, you scurvy dogs!’, a universal message to evacuate Pirate Cove, before going to get to her own boat.

Some of the really dumb pirates even literally headed for the lifeboats, despite the ships being perfectly serviceable. Tink however knew that they’d get to safe harbour, since the Island knew the game was nearly over, and Hook and Peter would be ending it today . Tink herself headed for those fairies who were still on the mainland, sending them all towards Pixie Hollow, starting actions that had been prepared years before, as Pixie Hollow detached cleanly from the island. Once both her and Wildcat had done their duties, she went through the motions with Peter, keeping him from noticing that the only people actually  in  Neverland were him, James Hook's pirates and the Lost Boys. And the fairies only hadn't left before then because someone would have noticed. 

Once she'd dropped him off after the feud finally ended, she got messages from all over England, confirming that the evacuation and moving of the faerie lands of Neverland was successful, and that her plan had worked. As she looked down at the family she was living with right now, part of her mentally wished that Peter had never ended his feud with James Hook in the first place. She'd have preferred anything to having to watch these particular three mundanes, even someone declaring to her face they didn't believe in fairies. They had no imagination, being lower than pirates in Tink's eyes for their small-minded, petty attitudes. She had to agree with McGonagall, they were the worst mundanes possible to find. 

She only knew Dumbledore hadn't made them due to that incident in GOSH years before, when she'd met the young Petunia, and she wasn't much better then, and being at their wedding, where they’d tried to cut Lily off from her family. Right now, she was using one of her own inventions, which was a common light bulb, with a wire in the bottom which handled all of the incoming voltage. Not one of them ever caught on to the fact they'd never had a light bulb fail since she had become an expert years earlier in removing a light source without damaging it, as well as placing her fake bulb without breaking it either. And it was an excellent vantage point for the entire room. Admittedly, with magicals, it didn't work, since they had a passive belief in fae which negated the effect she was trying for.

But for any close-minded non-magicals, like the Dursleys… All they saw was the light, with her getting good at spotting when someone flicked the switch and cancelling out her magical glow. She’d not lived decades to not know how. She had set herself up in the kitchen for the spectacle that was Dudley's birthday, when her eyebrows rose as she noticed Harry holding parchment , which meant only one thing, and it wasn’t that he was picking up piracy, although she did have some suspicions about some of Dudley’s movies and videogames. Vernon's reaction was both immediate and telling, as he tore up the letter before Harry could read it, but someone there had already read the form letter, somewhat literally, and knew exactly what to do.

As soon as they'd left, the light was replaced, and she shot off towards the spare bedroom, and a writing desk Dudley had discarded due to a minor incident with a broken panel, a letter being quickly written. She then looked towards the sky, rolling her eyes, before she stated, "I wish the Goblin Princess was here to help me deliver a letter right now ..."

A short conversation with Moppet later, plus a promise for Harry to pay the prerequisite fee for using the Goblin Express Mail Service within the next few weeks, she'd sent off the letter. But it wasn't to Dumbledore, or even McGonagall. No, Tink had no interest in contacting  them . They'd already shown their true colours in the past decade, with the fact they’d ignored her missives. No, She’d contacted Nevermore to ensure that, when the inevitable happened, everything would go without a hitch. Well, he’d do anything for the son of his adopted sister, and the chance to get one up on the Dursley-Evans family? He’d have done it for free. Bunch of pirates. Almost as bad as the Prewitts.

 

Mere moments after she met with Moppet, Severus Snape looked up as Jareth entered his inner sanctum, accepting a small pile of galleons before handing him the letter. He looked at the letter, or more specifically the Great Ormond Street Hospital branding on the top corner of the envelope. He didn’t know very many people who used the Goblins to send letters. Well, without getting hexed. And even less people who used envelopes that were clearly Great Ormond Street Hospital’s stationery. “Tink must be worried about something,” He muttered, before offering to the man, “I do apologise for having to receive a letter using you… Would you like some cognac?”

Jareth paused, considering it. “No, I’m not staying long,” Jareth offered, “I do have one thing to say. Your foolish employer sent an owl, in broad daylight , into a muggle neighbourhood and the owl assumed that the person who accepted the letter had one to send back! Gringotts prides itself on that all it’s postal birds actually peck at you to remind you that they’re there, they want a response urgently, and all our owls will glare at you, tapping the envelope against their arm, and, if you don’t take those letters, after paying the postage fee, within ten minutes, snap their fingers and you end up smelling worse than sewage for the rest of your existence…”

Snape nodded, knowing what Jareth meant, before watching him transform into an owl and fly out as only a magical owl could. Once he’d left, he slit open the letter, burning the envelope in one of the potions burners. He did not want anyone asking why he had GOSH stationery anywhere near his office. " Nevermore, ” Tink’s letter began, letting him know why she used Goblin Express, “ Remember who really got you that dream job. It's time to stop being Dumbledore's, or pretending to be Riddle's, man for a bit, and be mine again. Dumbledore probably will be letter-bombing Privet Drive soon. I expect we'll no longer be at that address. He will be accepting. For anything else, I will keep you informed. And yes, I'll repair the delivery system when I get there. Signed, TTSS."

  "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy..." He whispered, reminding himself of Tink’s long-winded Marauder name, with her managing to do all four at least once during the reign of Voldemort, with her primarily doing the last one, before walking into Dumbledore's office as McGonagall stated that 'one of the owls' had returned inconclusive. Dumbledore waved her concerns off. Yep, just as expected. He would be sending a parliament of owls to make sure he got that positive response. Severus almost wanted to tell him that it took one, maybe two, depending on whether Tink had used the King or his daughter to accept the letter in the first place. He didn’t ask.

"Anything wrong?" Severus asked, dryly. He so loved being able to do white lies and half-truths.  Especially with Dumbledore.

"Simply a paperwork issue..." Dumbledore stated, "Since there are no other major mailings planned, I will just send more letters until we get a reply."

And Tinkerbell wins the pot. Of course you’ll do that, you senile old fool! ’ Severus thought, before he schooled his features and replied, "Maybe we should extend the response time for wizards and witches who are busy with things like their breakfast. There's already been three petitions sent out by wizards asking that mail deliveries are done AFTER mealtimes… I for one would not mind a free study period shortly after the morning meals where we also have mail delivered..."

“I’m sorry, Severus, but, with other things that could happen during that period, we cannot really leave the students to their own devices for much longer than the times already assigned for breakfast, lunch and the evening meal..." Dumbledore began. Severus ignored his platitudes, clearly as much as McGonagall. For once, both of them were in full agreement on a topic. The less owls in the middle of their breakfast plates, the better. Especially if they were having something like porridge or cereal. The owls with bowls on their heads, dripping bits of cereal, were becoming infamous among the school breakfasts. Admittedly, the owls seemed to home in on anyone who had bacon. Even if they didn't have a letter for them. It was a happy owl who had a letter for someone next to one of the bacon trays. 

Part of the reason they’d tuned out Dumbledore, however, had nothing to do with dazed owls or lost bacon. Already he'd changed how classes were run, causing many of the staff to do double-length classes with two houses at the same time more often than not, by simply combining the two classes that should have been at that time, Snape knowing that, if they did the Ministry mandated length for classes, they could easily fit all seven years of classes into a teacher’s daily schedule. With this particular incident, both McGonagall and Snape, for once, wondered if he knew what he was saying. "When he's dismissed, I'd suggest this half hour here..." Snape stated as he took out his lesson planner, pointing out what he meant to McGonagall. "Also, the double-periods..."

For the following few hours, Snape cemented his future as Deputy Headmaster under McGonagall. He always loved when he was working for two people, both with contrary opinions on the future of those he interacted with. By the time he'd got back to the dungeons, he'd persuaded McGonagall to discreetly have a cauldron full of bacon delivered to the Owlery at the normal time for the school postal services, keeping the owls incredibly busy for about half an hour, then they'd deliver their letters, already well fed. All Dumbledore knew was that the owls arrived straight after dessert was cleared, on the dot, and he extended the morning announcements slightly, 'with apologies to the faculty', to deal with the fact. He and McGonagall would deal with the new timetables later.

Notes:

I will make this clear once, and only once. I could go into great and exacting detail about the years of terrible treatment Tinkerbell had to endure Harry going through, or even I could have written more about Lily's story. But there's far too little concrete known about those times, so anything I write about them would be 110% conjecture and/or outright fanon. Therefore, I summarised heavily the time leading up to their departure from the Hut On The Rock.
That's fairly well documented, and everyone knows how that went. One change I did was that I do not specifically put Harry's birthday as being the date when Harry was rescued, and remove any references to the fact, as well as removing Dudley's birthday trip to the zoo from the events summarized. Dates will be kept intentionally vague until September, but I will not be forgetting they happened. So, Onto the next point…

Chapter 2: Perils Of A Misspent Youth

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

At the same time, at the Dursley home, Harry wondered why Tink had celebrated the letter arriving, even if he'd not opened it, and had been using her 'writing thingamajig'. The only thing Harry knew about it was that she had very good penmanship for how small she actually wrote, with the thingamajig expanding anything she wrote to a legible size. What the Dursleys didn't know was that the spare bedroom was, even if she claimed otherwise, Tink's. Already, half the items Dudley had discarded as being broken were sitting, in some way, on the, also repaired, shelves of the room. She'd even made sure the stacks of items, carefully, and skilfully, as only a tinker fairy could do, were arranged to hide completely the furthest corner of the room entirely.

Every few days, when the Dursleys themselves were out of the house, and he was confined to his 'bedroom', Tink would let him out, and they'd go into the room, she'd take out whatever project she was working on at the time, and end up in her secondary work area in a hole in the wall under the stairs. Harry opened the door to Tink's private hole, formerly the disc tray cover to a games console that Dudley had, annoyingly to Tink, thrown quite literally out of the window. Mainly due to the massive waste of money, but also Tink had taken one look at it, fished the disc tray cover out of the broken remains, and declared it 'impossible for anything short of a master tinker fairy'.

It still sat in one corner of her room, just in case she learned something new that might resurrect it. "Who cares if he can't understand the language of most of the games?! What was he expecting? They hadn't even announced the American release window," Tink had groused at the time. However, in the present day, she was clearly pacing, while constantly checking her wrist in an almost human gesture, clearly showing that she was waiting for something.

"OK, what's going on with that letter?" Harry asked.

"It's an invite to a very exclusive boarding school. I mailed a message to my contact at the school..." She explained, "I have a feeling we'll need to leave the house rather rapidly..."

Within a week, Harry noticed her looking over a letter she'd received as Vernon was declaring that it was nice weather for burning leaves, a cover for the destruction of literally dozens of letters. The fact she had been at her writing desk for a short time before everyone woke up and Harry knew she was able to use her thingamajig to copy an already written piece of text, something that helped her correct his homework, suggested it was one of them. "I wonder who he'll send?" She wondered, "Hopefully not Dumbledore. He doesn't like me…"

Harry didn't understand what she meant, as she discreetly added the letter to the bonfire outside, making sure no-one would find any proof of what she'd been doing. The following evening, they were staying in a remote hut on the coast, Vernon declaring the letters will never find them there. "...If the letter duplicating system hadn't broken… Must look into it in September..." He overheard Tink muttering, before she said, quietly, "Ahem, if they were still sending them, the letters would still find us eventually."

Harry wondered what she meant, looking at the clock as Vernon snored away on one of the few chairs in the hut, aware of how close it was to his birthday. However, as he was about to finally get to sleep, there was a comically quiet tapping on the door. If it wasn't for the fact they were on an island literally in the middle of nowhere, Harry would likely find it hilarious that someone would not even attempt to make it sound like they expected to get an answer.

"I am here to see Mr. Potter. Is there anyone awake?" A voice declared, falsetto, Harry noticing Tink grinning and giggling almost to herself, Harry cracking a smile at the comedy routine the man was doing, the voice pausing before the doorknob briefly rattled, before, in a clearly fake tone of voice, he declared, "Oh dear, the door is locked. I'll have to come back later..."

Vernon was woken up by the terrible acting of whoever was at the door, and he seemed to shudder as there was an inexplicable whirring sound, followed by several tinkling sounds as the screws holding the door in place fell to the floor. A hooded figure stood in the doorway as the door fell onto the hut's floor, waking everyone else up as almost equally inexplicable lightning flashed and crashed behind him, only the fact there was a storm outside meaning it wasn't completely unexpected.

"Mummy..." Dudley declared, terrified, Vernon dropping the shotgun he'd taken out in terror. The man stepped inside, the growing storm reducing to just torrential rain almost instantly, the man's cloak curiously completely bone dry. The grim tableau was broken up when the man pulled down the hood of the cloak, his face twisted into what might resemble a smile as he cackled.

"HAH! Over a decade and I can still terrify a family of no-maj… And they say teaching makes you soft..." The man declared, a coat rack seeming to grow out of the floor as he tossed his cloak in that general direction. "Ahem, My name is Severus Snape. Yes, I'm that nice man who hung round with Lily a few times over ten years ago. I'm sorry for arriving at such a dismal hour, but you didn't leave a forwarding address. In fact..."

He waved some kind of stick he had in his hand, summoning what was clearly a letter from inside his cloak, opening it up and giving a light cough as he pantomimed studying it, right down to the reading glasses. "You had left a rather poorly worded… I think some of those words aren't even English... letter stating that, in no uncertain terms, if a representative of my workplace came within a hundred feet of your nephew, you'd call the police..." Severus stated, putting away the letter and taking out a slender envelope, "Here is your fines for messing with the mail service, as well as your fines for illegally burning the evidence, both magical and mundane,"

He then took out a tape measure, considering something, before letting it release, the tip of the tape measure landing on Harry's head. He then looked round briefly. "Accio Phone..." He stated firmly, tapping his feet against the floor as he held out a hand and waited a few seconds, "Hmm… That's not what I expected. Petty minded barbarians. What kind of people forget to go off somewhere with a phone, if you were planning to call the police. Thankfully, I have a pot..."

He then stepped over to the fireplace, taking a pinch of some kind of powder out of a small bag he was carrying, which made it light with greenish coloured flames. "The DMLE," He declared in a clear voice, the head of a stern looking woman forming in the flames.

"What is it, Severus?" The woman asked, "It's… the middle of the night, and I'm already investigating a problem with the mailing system at Hogwarts..."

"Yes, yes…" Severus stated, taking out a folded piece of yellowed paper, the woman's face disappearing as he placed it in the fire, the paper vanishing without a trace.

"At least sometimes you save me a job..." The woman stated as her face returned, "I will consult with the Post Office over if the fines are properly paid… So, what do you want other than saving me further time dealing with that?"

"Have you had any magical traces in these muggle locations?" He asked, handing over another piece of paper.

"Yes, but they were minor, and no-one's really awake..." She grumbled, "Why?"

"Was school business, nothing to worry about..." He stated, the fire quickly going out, and he declared, shifting back to his original drawl, "OK, police called, they’re too tired to really care about it..."

"Not your police!" Vernon managed to choke out.

"Well, How could I contact your police if you don't even have a phone here..." Severus stated firmly, "Anyway, There's no phone lines and using any other methods just won't work. Terrible reception..."

"Still, He is not at-" Vernon spat, Severus taking out the stick, almost lazily, and jabbing it towards Vernon.

"Silencio..." He stated, firmly, "OK, Mr. Potter, when the Aurors ask, and they usually do, I used non-lethal spells in self-defence… Immobulus… Now, can we have an intelligent reason why he didn't get his letter?… Also, Mr. Dursley, I already KNOW you'd rather that I died rather horribly of some random and terribly debilitating disease right now… But I'm not allowed to demonstrate any of them, because it would breach several laws..."

He then took Vernon's chair, turning it to face Petunia, Harry and Dudley, adopting the classic steepled hand position that declared he wanted answers, his eyes moving to take in Tink moving to a better observation point, both of them watching as Petunia got up to answer his request. "I'm worried that possibly he could end up getting killed… He's all I have left of my sister..." Petunia offered up. Severus' posture slumped slightly, his hands moving to his lap.

"Me too, me too..." Severus sighed gravely, "May I be frank with you?"

Petunia nodded, Severus taking out of the cloak, where Harry was sure it couldn't have fit, a bottle of some kind and taking a swig, belching a small curl of flame before he continued. "Harry is marked for death. Whether or not he attends Hogwarts, those people will want him dead..." Severus stated, looking towards Harry's location, "Now, Harry, I can tell it's you. You remind me of your father… How did your parents die..."

They were about to respond, when Snape held up a hand, stopping them, before using the same hand to count off as he stated, "Don't tell me yet… Would be the 1980's, and James never smoked… So, Gas Leak, Unexploded bomb, car crash… Or let's go with one of Bella's favourites, Suicide pact... or did they just call it an unsolved murder and leave it at that?"

"It was a car accident..." Harry offered, "And who is Bella?"

"One of my former associates when I fell in with the criminal element… She's completely insane," Severus offered, sighing, "Seemed to think that the best way to earn the love and favour of an evil sycophant was to murder anything and everything that moved in some of the most gruesome and terrible ways... Annoyingly enough, it appeared to work."

He then took another longer swig of the bottle, before throwing it into the still burning fire. Surprisingly, the fire actually seemed to burn hotter afterwards. "Leaving my past behind, Mr and Mrs. Dursley, I'm ashamed of you. We stopped using that old excuse since your kind was nice enough to invent airbags," Severus drawled, "Normally we go with a gas leak and either a cigarette or electrical fire, depending on how non-magical the background of the person making the excuse is."

"Never mind that! Why would you be working with an insane mass murderer?" Petunia asked, horrified.

"As most people put it, the perils of a misguided and misspent childhood, Ms. Evans ..." Severus stated, putting undue stress on the last part, "Mr. Potter, let's get down to the truth of the… Oh dear, it wore off… Petrificus Totalus..."

There was a dull thud as Vernon fell to the floor, Severus storing the odd stick with a look of satisfaction. "Ahem, the truth of the matter. Your parents were murdered, thanks to a particularly loathsome rat of a man, when I mistakenly gave away important information..." Severus stated, rubbing his temple, "I’d forgotten a very important lesson that day, and paid in ways which… I can only hope that I will find forgiveness for what I did then…"

"So, why would he be killed even faster if he didn't attend your very expensive..." Petunia began, for Severus to summon another envelope from his cloak, this one heavier looking, handing it to her. As she looked over the contents, slowly going paler and paler, Severus looked towards Harry again.

"Good job I have the ignominious duty of having to 'screen' your mail… also known as opening it and never delivering it… since your latest monthly statement arrived a couple of days ago..." Snape offered, "I will direct your companion to the right room, quite by accident, after she's, undoubtedly, repaired all the equipment that Dumbledore has overloaded..."

Petunia seemed to change in her attitude as she quickly returned the papers to the envelope, which was resealed and pocketed. "Due to the people who still support… the kind of ethnic cleansing that has caused so many societies to crumble..." Severus began, "Harry is in danger due to his survival being a very affront to their very doctrine…"

He reached into his cloak, removing a mask similar in appearance to a skull. "Imagine, one day, because that fat ball of lard had gotten his way, a group of magicals in cloaks like mine, wearing masks like that, appear in Privet Drive..." He stated, "Suddenly, you can't open the windows or doors, and one of them sends a jet of flame through the letterbox…"

Petunia shuddered, and he mouthed something under his breath, a shimmering dome appearing over the mask, before there was a dull sound, like a muffled hammer blow, and the mask disintegrated. "If Dumbledore is right, and we have no reason to disagree, Harry will, likely with the help of a mutual friend, which is what I presume is the Power He Knows Not," He continued, while pointedly looking towards Tink’s direction, "Be able to find some way to deal a blow to the doctrine that gives those monsters the right to do that, and, through backing the right people and bringing them into power, end their self-destructive ideals… But, as a no-maj in the middle of Surrey, he'll not have the power to do anything but die forgotten..."

"I understand completely..." Petunia stated, "I notice you don't seem to..."

"It's in my cloak," Snape stated, "You'd be surprised how much is in there… We need to be off."

"What about…?" Petunia began.

"You will leave us be. Harry will not be anywhere you can find him within the next few hours. We will be picking some things up from his old home, then leaving for a place no-one can find him." Severus stated.

"What would you suggest I do then? That man..." Petunia began.

"...is a bigger bigot than I ever was," Severus stated, "You played your part perfectly. Now, I think you saw why I would strongly suggest you make yourself scarce, especially where your husband's future is involved..."

"Yes, Yes I did..." Petunia replied, "What will happen to me?"

"When they come, deny everything, and let the man be his usual self," Severus responded, "Have you ever seen the film Labyrinth?"

When she nodded her head, looking uneasy, Severus continued on. "He's got more creative. Partially since the bog was no longer an acceptable deterrent…”

"Ah." Petunia replied, not wanting to go into it further, "I forgot the bankers were goblins… Yes, maybe I should look into a divorce..."

"A good idea…" Severus stated, waving her off before moving to look at Harry, "I wish for the Goblin Princess to take a message right now   – The fairy statue in the Potter vault. I need it discreetly."

A tall hooded figure arrived in the doorway a few moments later, Petunia letting out a gasp as she noticed what he was juggling with his free hand, making it VERY clear who it was. "I assume this one?" The man offered, Severus looking at the item, and handing the man a small bag, "Oh, and by the way, please do not come into the bank for at least a week. We have an audit of the Potter accounts going on, and we would not want to cause anyone to lose their head over it… Well, anyone we care about... Please, please, send your husband though. We will be kind enough to not kill him immediately..."

Once the man had disappeared, Harry looked towards Snape, Petunia looking rather pale. Yes, it was definitely those goblins. "So, Why were you hanging round with that insane murderer, and had one of their masks?" Harry asked.

"I was once a typical wizard of the time. Bigoted, with a deep seated hatred of non-magicals… or Muggles as the majority of wizards and witches in this country insist on calling them," Severus stated, "Please remember not to use 'no-maj' during our trip into London, you might get noticed for being forward thinking and far too civilized..."

"What did that man mean about an audit?" Harry asked.

"As a 'concerned citizen', I will be bringing attention that your clothes are out of season and in poor condition, and I had to take you to Great Ormond Street Hospital for a medical check-up, because clearly you've never actually seen the inside of a hospital..." Severus  stated, "Which means that, more than likely, your uncle will be called into the bank within the week about embezzlement charges, and they have some rather… ahem, cut-throat methods. Emphasis on the cut and throat!"

"Did you say GOSH?" Tinkerbell stated, flying over, "You're specifically taking him to GOSH, not St. Mungos?"

"Yes, my dear tinkerer..." Severus stated, "That is why I collected a certain item of Lily's…"

He then took out a ratty looking copy of Peter Pan, Tinkerbell glaring at it.

"She hates the thing," Harry explained, lamely, "Told me that the real Peter Pan forgot all about that years ago..."

"Ah yes, I remember the incident... Completely wiped out the original island," Severus drawled, "However, I will need you to touch the book, then we can dispose of it..."

The trio then vanished, seconds before the Dursleys fled themselves, Dudley having never noticed the whispered Obliviate sent his way. Only Petunia knew the full story, and only she would survive the coming week unharmed…

Notes:

Why Severus?
Well, in canon, and most of fanon to be brutally honest, he's a monstrous presence whose only purpose is to belittle Harry, having let himself go, in many ways, with the fact he lost the woman he loved to a bunch of, in his mind, petty, cruel and dangerous pranksters. The fact that he was, to some degree, right is not mentioned.
However, in this story, he was confronted by Lily, who warned him that he was very close to losing her, losing everything, to his abrupt worship of the pureblood doctrine. As a result, he became the Raven, taking the name Nevermore, and used it as a symbol of his own rebirth, as a true double agent, but never totally regained an semblance of a relationship with Lily. As a final thing, I am going with a rule that, if you are enlightened enough to believe in fairies, Tinkerbell speaks in a quiet, but understandable, voice. Of course, in busy environments, and from a distance, she's not going to be heard very easily if at all.

Chapter 3: I DO Believe In Fairies…

Notes:

The Overlook, which appears first in this chapter, which is partially within Great Ormond Street's magical ward and partially within Pixie Hollow, is seen either as a mural of originally just Tinkerbell and Periwinkle doing various things through the year on one side, and a cliff-side balcony overlooking the new home of the fairy nation on the other, and can only be accessed through special objects, called Statues of Fellowship, which the known ones depict Tinkerbell and Periwinkle. A new one can only be formed by a fairy and a human creating it through an unknown process.

Well, Unknown to humans...

Chapter Text

By the time they arrived at wherever this ‘GOSH’ was, Harry was practically dead on his feet, having not got any sleep or anything to eat since Snape had done the most kind and gentle kidnapping he could think of. As he looked at Snape, he took off the cloak, revealing a smart suit, running a comb through his hair as he approached a building that looked nothing like the hospital his uncle had taken him to once, the walls cracked and pock-marked, the lights flickering and a absolutely horrendous nurse that complained more about him bleeding on the gurney than the fact he was. Instead, it was bright and colourful and the lights worked, a sign letting him know what ‘GOSH’ stood for… Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

Snape approached one of the nurses sitting at the reception. “Hello, I have an appointment on the special ward ,” Snape declared, placing a small statue of Tinkerbell on the desk. The nurse glanced at the statue, nodded, fixing Tinkerbell with a look before going into a locked drawer next to her, taking a sheet out as she said, “Ah yes, Mr. Potter. I have your appointment right here. Please fill in this paperwork on your way, you should know the directions and please try to be as discreet as possible. You hopefully understand the regulations. I’ll make sure to call ahead to let the nurse on duty know all three of you are coming…”

The paperwork looked similar to paperwork he’d seen his uncle filling out, most of the information practically identical. However, he paused as he noticed something different with the Ethnic Background, where it had ‘Mundane Ethnicity’ and ‘Magical Ethnicity’, the latter having the odd terms of ‘Full-Blood’, ‘Half-Blood’ and ‘New-Blood’, with a tick box underneath marked ‘If Half-Blood, please indicate magical parent (Mother/Father/Unknown)’. Snape chuckled, taking the form and waving his hand over the papers, Harry barely able to see the stick up his sleeve, the various boxes neatly filled in.

He then stated, in a hushed tone. “That particular nurse is one of a rotating set of Squibs who works the reception desk. A Squib is a magically inactive wizard or witch, meaning it’s perfectly legal for her to handle magical patients. If we were to actually discuss magic out loud, or use one of the other nurses on duty, we’d potentially break a law known as the Statute Of Secrecy. Now, onto the Special Ward. It’s a offshoot of the usual outpatients ward for those children who are known to be magical, since it cannot be found easily by non-magicals, and regulations mean those that do, we can't stop them… Which is why we set this up..."

Stopping in the corridor, he approached where a wooden box with a stylised fairy on it was sat, placing the papers into the top, before placing the statue into the hollow area beneath, both vanishing. He then stood in front of the mural next to it. Harry then noticed the mural depicted, of all things, Tinkerbell sat watching the stars with an unfamiliar white haired fairy. "We haven't changed the password..." Tinkerbell choked out, suddenly needing to dab her eyes, “Sorry. When your… mother died, for a short time, it just showed the,,, the other fairy standing waiting for someone, since, essentially, I’d disappeared…”

"And straight on till morning!" Snape declared, tapping his wand against one of the stars in the background, for the stars to melt away and the two fairies faded away, revealing a rustic looking reception area. A fairy-sized nurse was examining some fairy sized papers, almost colliding with the light she was reading with as she read something from them, Harry able to see that she had white hair exactly like the one from the picture. In fact, he suspected this was the fairy from the picture, and he suspected that the papers were made using the same method as Tink’s writing device.

"Oww…" She moaned, "I should have recognised your handwriting, Mr. Prince... I won't ask why you're late, just assume someone screwed up that wasn't in on the arrangement. Most likely due to the fact that, when things were meant to be being sorted, we had a sudden upheaval of our own. Literally, same time as everything went to Hell, it did so on both sides at once, and we were confirming everyone got where they were meant to urgently,"

“Yes, Yes… I was about to go with Severus to deal with the fallout from the Godric Hollow attack when Peter did something even more foolish than dating Moira.  It’s good to see you, Peri…” Tinkerbell gushed, flying towards the unknown fairy and pulling her into a hug, Harry noting that they looked very similar to each other, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here any earlier. The mural wouldn’t open for me, the family I was staying with had a real problem with…”

She then bawled into the other girl’s shoulder. “There there… You should have called ahead…” The other fairy offered, “Luna’s already fast asleep, and your companion looks like he’s not much better,”

Tinkerbell composed herself, before she continued, “We were somewhat rushed ourselves. Lily had the statue put in trust with the bank, so Severus had to have it delivered as fast as possible. As in ‘Near instantly’.  And we weren’t exactly in the best of places to stay for long…”

“OK, The charge nurse should have got the hospital’s copy of Harry’s admittance papers, so… Harry, you go get some sleep, while I’ll discuss with my sister and Severus about why exactly you had to come to Great Ormond Street at 1am in the morning!” the nurse fairy declared, gesturing to one side of the balcony that dominated the rear half of the room, as she looked towards Snape, “Got any money for the machine?”

Snape went out, Harry heading down the route she indicated, arriving where a sign indicated the bedrooms were, wondering what was going on as he noticed one of the doors was marked 'Pandora Lovegood', another being marked with 'Luna Lovegood', the latter along with a stylised fairy marked with the name 'Periwinkle'. As he opened a third door, it magically gained his own name, with the marker below it gaining the name 'Tinkerbell'. Tink then came past, using a rail on the ceiling, riding some kind of bike-like contraption, holding an identical plate, which she hastily screwed on over the original, this plate marked 'Jack Banning'.

“Only me, Peri and Zarina know I’m not with the Banning family, so I need to get that done before any of the other staff wake up…” Tink offered, "Admittedly, Couldn't really tell them otherwise, due to a secrecy vow I made. So, as far as anyone is concerned, You're Peter's son and that's not going to change unless they bring someone smarter than me,"

"So, who are the Lovegoods?" Harry yawned, as he looked at a bed that was much better than his cot and blanket under the stairs.

"Peri's family… She managed to freeze a potion which was reacting rather violently, saving Pandora's life, and had her in GOSH, that's shorthand for, well, the hospital you came in from, faster than it took for the reaction to overload even more violently..." Tinkerbell explained, "Her father is sworn to secrecy, and requires only that Luna sends him regular updates on anything new in Pixie Hollow. Well, All we needed to do was tell him about some of Tink's less dangerous adventures and he was happy to accept the deal. Much better than what happened last time someone tried to study fairies. Much much better. No-one got hurt,"

Harry nodded, noticing that there was some kind of small seat, sculpted out of a roughly egg shape, in a stand on the bedside table. He didn't really notice much more, as the siren call of the oh-so-comfortable bed claimed him, and he was out like a light...

 

When he woke up a short time later, he could sense a sharp, antiseptic smell, something he’d got all too used to with how often he had to be patched up after Vernon got a bit too violent. He wasn’t in the same room as he’d been before, guessing from the other children nearby that he’d been moved to the main hospital. “Good morning, Mr. Banning,” The nurse stated, “The surgery was a success. You’ve been asleep for a couple of days,”

Harry looked in the mirror to notice a minor bit of discoloration where his scar had been, the nurse offering, in a hushed tone, "You're not the first person to come to us for discreet cosmetic surgery, Mr. Potter , When you go outside, use the hat and it's contents. You might notice a few extra staff around,” She whispered, before saying, “Please do not disturb Ms. Bell or Ms. Winkle on their rounds..."

When he went outside, he noticed Tinkerbell, in the same nurse’s uniform that Peri had been wearing. If Tink dyed her hair white, they’d look identical. He’d have to ask her about that later. Picking up the hat and odd looking glove and ball inside, he bounced the ball between his hands. "Emergency is over, girls..." He overheard a quiet voice saying, stopping to listen by making a great pantomime of ordering a chocolate bar from the vending machine, "Or didn't you remember the utterly ridiculous story Wildcat spread of a group of pirates playing baseball for Peter's kid... Tink, with a kid in a baseball cap and with the gear to hand… Viola even saw a new nameplate in the Overlook..."

He looked to see a group of fairies who were likely the  ‘other staff’ the nurse had mentioned, one of them, wearing goggles with her uniform, the one who had spoken up. "I'm not sure, Zarina..." One of the others said, "The odd man who was doing paperwork with Tink and Peri, He didn’t look like anyone we know… and that Lovegood girl is definitely nothing to do with Banning, she actually believes in the whole Seele Court, never mind fairies… That tells me we're being misdirected..."

"Lyria, Why do you say we’re being misdirected?" The mysterious Zarina said, Harry wondering why Tink would trust her with the secret of his real identity, until he remembered Tink mentioning ‘them’ sending someone smarter. Presumably, this ‘Lyria’ was the person she was afraid would arrive.

"If you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth..." Lyria stated, using the popular Holmes ‘quote’ that indicated she was about to tear the cover identity apart, confirming she was the one person Tink didn’t want poking into his identity, "The man and woman in the Overlook aren't related to Banning, but the girl is definitely Peri's bond partner, which tells me that we're looking in completely the wrong direction, since, if it was Banning, Peri would be with Maggie Darling. Rules of the bond… Simply? We expected to see one of the Banning children with Tink, since she's pretty much known for being Pan's fairy, but he did… Ahem… forget a few too many things. The name’s a feint,"

Harry hid a wince while getting the item he'd purchased. Tink knew what he was getting at. A little mistake, namely the fact Snape and the Lovegoods were relatively unknown to the other fairies, and at least one fairy knew there was something going on. As they approached the mural, a blond-haired woman opened it from the other side. "Loose lips sink ships..." She stated, "Just ask Zarina sometime… Hello, I'm Pandora, the other adult who has access to this idyllic paradise away from the nightmares of the real world… And no, Zarina’s not my partner, she just acts as a filter at times..."

"The subterfuge is only temporary, until we've managed to locate..." Tink began, shaking her head before she offered, "So, How is your daughter?"

"My daughter is fine..." The woman offered, "So, tell me about these Dursleys..."

Her cheerful expression fell very quickly as she listened. A few hours later, he was sitting in a room with a nice woman in a Police uniform, who asked him some questions, promising that they'd find every way possible to deal with this without bringing either Harry or GOSH into the case. Before he went to bed that night, he was given a message by Tinkerbell that just from finding the cupboard, they had more than enough evidence to have Vernon Dursley end up in prison, Aunt Petunia and Dudley having already left him. Apparently, the fear of Jareth got anyone moving quickly. Or was it the polite way he handled those who crossed him?

 

At the same time as Harry had been dealing with the rapid handling of the child abuse case against his uncle, Minerva entered a private room in the Three Broomsticks. "What's got you being secretive… Again?" Minerva asked as she entered the private room Severus had rented. He looked outside, looking both ways, before sealing the door and putting up a privacy charm, further making sure the room was private for the following hour at least.

"I am the man most able to know what not checking who is listening in can cause..." He stated, "I encountered Tinkerbell today…"

"Does she know about..." Minerva asked.

"She did not, or could not, say. She was working at the hospital rather than being wherever the boy is, that's all I need to say..." Severus responded, Minerva wincing already, "So, Care to explain why I had to, as a favour for her, use my status as a family friend to even get Tink's statue out of Lily's vault?"

"We felt that Tink herself, when she met with Harry, would be able to..." Minerva started.

"You could have, while dealing with other things, slipped the damn thing in with his basket," Severus stated, "The Lovegoods didn't make that alliance with the fairies just for Dumbledore to forget about how it works! They personally cannot get the statue, so the fact Dumbledore thought that Tink could acquire it for him..."

He paused, beginning pacing. "Goddammit, woman! The Overlook? Ring any bells?" He snapped. Minerva's face fell. She knew of the Overlook. Had even got an invite once or twice before it was sealed, partially since Pandora was dead, and partially since the only other fairy partner known in the magical world of England was going into hiding and would be unable to commune with them. It didn't need a Fidelus. It didn't need some complicated plan to hide it from Voldemort. It was not just unplottable, it wasn't even on the map  and, even if Voldemort did find out about the Overlook's existence, Attacks on world famous children's hospitals were very rarely able to be covered up, so it wasn't even hidden that the Overlook could be reached from a mural a few minutes walk from the children's ward of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

All they'd done was forget to tell anyone it existed, outside of a filing at the Magical Creatures Office that had got misplaced, something that happened so often, no-one really thought that something that, normally, would be declared most secret was deliberately filed properly. And surprisingly, that worked. No-one in the Ministry knew where it was, despite it being well documented, purely since either no-one even went in the office, or the only staff didn’t have a clue where to look. "Erm… Yes..." McGonagall stated, "Has she found a new partner?"

"Some boy who showed magic who I was in the hospital for, since YOU were too busy with Dumbledore's recent stupidity..." Snape drawled, "I hope that you are able to get your jobs in order, because you wear far too many hats, and have let them take over your life… Good day, Minerva..."

As he left, he was met by Zarina, who handed him a message, before disappearing off again. "Banning alias compromised. Lyria needs to stop channelling Holmes. Think of a new one, fast." The message read. He rolled his eyes. Oh, to be working two fronts again. He missed how much it consumed his life. He might actually be able to be civil with the Potions students this year, he'd be so focused on keeping all these secrets.

Chapter 4: Playing Fizzbin With Billion Dollar Playing Cards

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Harry looked up as Severus came back, sighing as he looked towards him. “As far as the wizarding world is concerned, Tink is with some anonymous boy who happened to show magic within the hospital. However, that only serves to deal with one side of the equation, since Tink’s friends brought a library fairy with them to Great Ormond Street,” He sighed, “Worst kind of intelligent going. Would bond with a proper Ravenclaw in seconds if they asked nicely. Admittedly, if they knew my background, they’d have figured it out anyway. Jack Banning would probably be a Gryffindor. Headstrong, foolhardy and prone to snap decisions…”

"Ignoring your animagus form for a moment, You wouldn't normally be seen with a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw..." Luna offered, "And we're pretty much guaranteed to be one of the two… Which, if you’re going to be taking Tink’s partner shopping soon, you’ll need an example of neither..."

"Yes, I know… Which means I need to create a dyed-in-the-wool Slytherin..." Severus sighed, "OK, Harry?"

"Yes?" He asked, putting down a book marked 'The Way Things Work', for Tink to continue reading it, "Sorry, I found a really good book in the library… Hilarious but surprisingly accurate, if you trust Tink,"

"My fault!" Peri called from Luna's shoulder, "I thought it was a prank! I didn't think it was a Tinker's eye view of mundane technology! Admittedly, I don't know what their obsession with mammoths is about…"

"Ahem, as I was trying to say, Harry, Your name is… Hmm… Percy Jackson, You're a... half-blood, that should deal with questions about your last name, you adore Chemistry, you are really looking forward to Potions classes, and you think you'll be sorted into Slytherin," Snape declared, “Also, try to be as wretched as possible to the shop assistants. And sneer at them constantly. Don’t do that with the goblins, it’s likely to get you beheaded… or throw into the King’s sewer,”

"Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?" Harry quipped, "Although, I can understand why you said all that… Even with what muggle upbringing Percy has, he's pretty much a mentorship waiting to happen… which would be exactly why you’re taking me round shopping in the wizarding shops..."

"Quite..." Severus stated, "Dress in clothing with predominantly green and black colours, and don't speak out of turn with anyone who needs to talk to me. Especially if they are blond and use too much hair gel… They will accept some sneering indifference and condescension, but you leave that to anyone who might actually have non-magical parents in their hearing range…"

"Ah yes, the Malfoys..." Luna stated, "Pirate Lords, never mind Pirates, At least two ministers have been confirmed to have a Malfoy pulling the strings of the Ministry… What they wouldn't give for Harry Potter to be allied with their house… Either of them,"

"And if that really did happen, we'd probably have another war of blood purity where no-one wins except the rich and bigoted… and my former master would have the only one who can defeat him as his right hand lackey, with both being advised by Malfoy," Snape continued, "Later, I'll tell you all about a really interesting conversation I overheard when I was told to wait for Dumbledore while he was doing an interview. The whole thing was stage managed, but I will give him credit… He does brilliantly at showmanship..."

He then looked thoughtful. “I wish to organise an appointment with the Goblin King right now …” He declared in a clear voice, before stating, as an aside, “Whenever asking for anything of the Goblin Nation that needs to be done urgently, begin with ‘I wish…’ and end with a firm ‘right now’. It’s an enchantment they never removed, even after Mr. Henson blabbed it to every mundane possible,”

A few hours later, a young man in a green blazer and black sensible pants approached Gringotts, accompanied by Snape, No-one really looked at the ball of light that alighted on a nearby lamp, having been following them discreetly, or the larger row of lights which were observing it, after they managed to locate the place. None of the large group of fairies even thought they were being conned just as much as the purebloods who met with Snape. His scar was long gone and his glasses had been binned. Not one of the observers even thought of Harry Potter… And, if things went as planned, they never would.

 

A short time later, The teller looked up at the young man approaching his station, the only thing in his hand being a book. It was one of the abysmal 'Boy Who Lived' books. Admittedly, this particular one was considered one of the more acceptable books by the goblins. For one, The writer didn't insult the goblin nation once, preferring to use his common idea of having dwarves handling Mr. Potter's money and never mentioning them at all. The goblins liked dwarves. They held part-share in all mining concerns, and all precious metals were funnelled into their wholly-owned smelters. The precious gems were kept by the dwarves. There were never any complaints.

"Name?" The goblin asked, frowning as he was handed the book. Why he did so, he didn't know.

"Percy Jackson." He stated, the goblin glancing at the book. It wasn't marked, just genuinely dog-eared. And a quick check for enchantments showed none that weren’t meant to be on it, and there were none misaligned.

"Key?" The even more annoyed goblin stated, wanting to get this done with. He was ready to fine the boy a galleon for giving him anything, since it could be considered a bribe, even if the book was barely worth a knut considering its state. Percy handed him a key, deliberately cutting his finger on a small needle on the desk. When the goblin saw what the needle revealed, he knew this was one of Jareth's little games, and checked the ledger, finding what the madman was playing at. He didn't want this customer's name known. Period. The book was intended to let the goblin know who 'Percy' really was. Namely the Boy Who Lived himself.

"It says here you have an appointment." The goblin stated, "You're early."

"Time is money, and we both know wasting either is an extremely bad idea..." Percy replied, the goblin nodding. The book ended up being resold by the goblins for several thousand galleons when it was revealed to be part of, with verified memories, the subterfuge that surrounded Harry Potter's return to the Wizarding World. But at the time, it was just pocketed by the teller, and he'd waive discussing it with Jareth. It would not do for them to waste time, or money, mentioning it to him when the appointment was organised through, and was, in a way, with , Jareth in the first place.

 

At the same time, Sirius Black was wondering what the hell was going on himself. He'd been released due to, according to the Aurors who collected him, an irregularity with the Black accounts. After leaving the floo, where he met with his account manager, he knew something was up. For one, he was smiling. Goblins rarely smiled unless they were about to shove your head on a pike or someone was about to become very very poor very very quickly. Sirius hoped it was the latter. He could get by as a poor dog, but his head was much better on his shoulders.

"We do have something to discuss… Apparently, according to the accounts, you are still Lord Black, which is highly irregular considering the regulations involved in lordships..." His account manager stated with a grin that balanced precariously between ' Someone is about to lose several thousand galleons ' and ' I am going to get to kill someone today' , his escort leaving with a sigh. They knew what was coming, and would let the Ministry know when the goblins let them know.

"I'm not sure what I can possibly say…" Sirius stated, squirming slightly at the sight of that grin, before his account manager's demeanour changed in the instant the door clicked shut, becoming jovial and almost accommodating, Sirius wondering what happened. He'd never seen a goblin look like that unless money changed hands first. "But that is not why you're here right now. But it's why you'll be with me for several hours later. Take this and go to Meeting Room 11..." He declared abruptly, Sirius opening the message, noticing the way it was written. Only two people didn't use the 'usual encryption', but this was standard Marauder mail. 

' Padfoot, I know full well it was the rat who did it. Admittedly, If I didn't, I'd not be who I am. Course, no-one else knows since no-one interviewed the fairy who was watching Harry at the time. Hell, No-one even noticed his night-light could name every person in the room that day. Signed, Nevermore and TTSS.' The message read. Sirius then realised what had happened. He had just been witness to what he thought was impossible: The Goblins had just pranked the Wizards.

 

A short time later, he'd arrived in Meeting Room 11, to see an annoyed looking Remus Lupin, along with Severus Snape, Ragnok and a boy that couldn't be more Slytherin if you tried, sat under a family picture of Lord Jareth, his wife and daughter, the first of which who was spinning his crystals in annoyance. He was about to ask what was going on when he noticed the small figure who was tightening up something on Ragnok's desk. Clearly, the little tinkerer couldn't sit still for five minutes when something needed fixing. Which meant that likely the boy was Harry Potter. Clearly Nevermore had gained the Marauder touch. And the whole prank with the 'audit' was likely organised with his help. Well, He hoped so. It wouldn't do for the goblins to have thought about such a prank without Marauder help.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Snape, Ms. Bell." Ragnok declared, as the fairy alighted on the seat arm of the Slytherin boy, confirming his suspicions, as she was named, "Before we begin, We at Gringotts are fully aware of your innocence, Mr. Black, but cannot provide the evidence. Mr. Snape shall be continuing as your proxy as per the agreement made shortly before Ms. Potter's passing. And thank you, Ms. Bell, the mechanism was starting to stick due to blood not being a good lubricant..."

"You could have told us that Scabbers was a traitor..." Lupin stated, then, pausing, "Admittedly, You didn't really have time. They were after you faster than you can say 'Snitch', and Pettigrew provided all the evidence needed, especially with the fact he'd scarpered..."

"True, true, I was a dumb mutt that day, and let the rat win… Now, I thank you, Ragnok, as well as the Goblin Royal Family, and appreciate you gathering us together for this day." Sirius replied, before, in a rare business-like tone, he asked, "What do you have to report?"

"We just completed an audit on the Potter accounts," Ragnok stated, Sirius noting Jareth smiled at the mention of him and his family, meaning that the audit in a few hours would probably be relatively painless, "The usual stipend to GOSH is doing fine, and some of the, as the non-magicals put it, 'blue chip' investments that were done thanks to 'concerned parties' in the absence of the Potters mean that the accounts are in huge profit. Who would think investing in a playing card company would turn out like that?"

"Playing card company?" Harry asked.

"Your grandfather asked for Gringotts to look into an investment in an up-and-coming company recently starting in the continent called Nintendo ..." Ragnok stated, for Harry to suddenly get a choking fit. Yep, that was a good investment. An incredibly good investment.

"And the bad news?" Severus asked. "During his time in court, Vernon Dursley suffered a heart attack, and was left comatose and with potential brain damage. We at Gringotts know nothing about it, claim ignorance of any tampering with the peach he had been munching on earlier in the day, and any evidence of the fact had an accident with a security dragon several days ago," Ragnok replied, just the mention of peaches and a security dragon suggesting they had everything to do with it, "His former wife was in one of our non-magical branches, and agreed to sign over everything, including her former home, to the goblins as part of repatriation towards Mr. Potter. Oddly, and she doesn't have a clue why, but the junk room was missing almost two-thirds of the junk..."

At that, Tinkerbell suddenly started whistling innocently while acting like she was going to hide. Yep, Typical Tinkerbell. Likely she repaired most of it, and anything Harry couldn't use got sold as second hand. "The house will be signed over to Mr. Snape later today, since a Mr. Dumbledore requires that he remains at the address until further notice," Ragnok concluded, "He said nothing about the Dursleys, so, of course, we're not telling him a thing about the change of ownership,"

"How long would these accounting problems with the Black Accounts take?" Sirius asked. Ragnok looked thoughtful.

"Considering how many departments we're likely to need to consult with, possibly weeks, and you would, officially, be under observation for the entire period. For now, I would suggest going to Great Ormond Street Hospital. You know which ward," Ragnok stated, looking up towards the picture, "Anyway, For now, I think that all interested parties know everything,"

"Is Albus within the bank?" Tink asked, for everyone to shake their head, "OK, Yes, everyone who needs to know knows."

Sirius now knew. Firstly, that likely wasn't totally a picture, and was the second, to date, prank by goblins on wizards. And second, The joke wasn't on him, it was on Dumbledore. So, he then prepared for the next stage of one of the most audacious pranks going… after he made a visit to the Overlook and made his peace with various things.

 

Harry entered the bookstore, looking at the list he’d been given, noting the several crossed out entries, with Severus having written his own recommendations in. He’d heard back from Periwinkle, who let him know that Sirius had tried to chat up the magical reception nurse and was currently banned from Great Ormond Street until he straightened up his act. As he passed by the shelves containing the Harry Potter: Boy Who Lived books, he considered jinxing them, before pausing and shaking his head. “No, It would improve the value…” He muttered, Tinkerbell giggling to herself from her perch within his scarf, not noticing that one of the girls walking past froze before getting her sister, too busy noticing the group of figures in the rafters.

"Who is the bigger ego without any way to back it up, Harry Potter or Peter Pan?" He muttered angrily, grabbing one of them, "No, no, no, completely wrong. When Harry Potter was six, he was definitely not dealing with an outbreak of dragon pox at his family’s sanctuary. Instead, he managed to discover how to cook a five course meal with only four courses ready to be made and the fifth not ordered due to an oversight by Mr. Dursley. Notably, Only three courses were actually eaten by the diners, and the fourth was, officially, binned… And it was a good cake too... We both enjoyed it immensely,"

He then picked a random passage. " Harry Potter glared up at the troll. While it was distracted, he'd already picked up it's discarded club with some wandless magic, and before it could even grab one of the spares, he released the levitation spell and sent the latest of the assassination attempts crashing to the floor of Potter Manor... Hmm... That's not a bad idea, how good are you at carrying things without being noticed?" He continued, Tinkerbell giggling even more as she considered the plan. She’d done something similar to Captain Hook more than once, and the number of pirates who found their weapon hitting them had her and Wildcat keeping score. As well as the other Wildcat over dark wizards finding their wand had gone missing from their pocket.

After acquiring a full set of the Harry Potter books, which he’d, through Gringotts, refer to a magical lawyer for not-very-politely asking for his share of the profits, while also asking Gringotts themselves if there was a Potter Manor, and then whether Great Ormond Street Trust or the NSPCC would mind a free children’s home, he prepared to leave, only to find himself bracketed by two brown haired girls, one shorter than the other, who grabbed his scarf before he could stop them, causing Tink to tumble free, one of the girls holding her up triumphantly. "Told you, Herms!" The shorter one declared, "I said I heard Tinkerbell!"

Harry swore. This was going to take some explaining…

Notes:

As I said originally...
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Nintendo_playing_cards

Yes, Nintendo made their money originally from cards, and still do to a degree, which is why such an investment, to magicals, seems confusing, but to Harry who has seen the Nintendo Entertainment System and such in Dudley's things...
Hi, Billion-yen investment.

Chapter 5: Smartest Girls To Be In Hogwarts

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Harry looked thoughtful as he studied the two girls, assuming one of them at least was a witch, and likely they both read the Peter Pan books. "Tink, you were laughing too loud. OK, First things first, Peter Pan is real, he did end up growing up, into quite a jerk mind you," He dictated almost, "He married one of Wendy's relatives, has two kids, a son and a daughter, and I'm not one of them. Tink wouldn't bond with a Banning if you went and paid her. Well, OK, She’d bond with his daughter in a pinch, she at least understands the tenets… even got on well with one of their relatives that was the first and only Pirate who also was an active member of Peter’s band…"

"OK, Good news, Tinkerbell is real," The one called 'Herms' sighed, "Bad news, we're going to have to bin Peter Pan anyway. He grew up and became such a jerk that Tinkerbell found a new family… and wouldn’t mind knowing about the daughter and the oddity that was one of their relatives. So, What's your opinion on Lord Of The Rings?"

"Potentially accurate, Tink and Periwinkle know the languages fluently, which shows promise," He mused, "Problem is that could be due to the copious amounts of notes Tolkein uses, would have to ask Luna since she’s quite the expert on the Seelie Court, and there's so little information on the times of Druidic Magic for me to just look it up… Still, You asked a question each, now for me... Which one of you is the witch?"

"We're both magical, but Gwen is a year younger than me, I’m the one book shopping, she’s just here since it’s neater," 'Herms' offered, "Hermione Granger, this is my sister, Gwen, and you cost me a galleon."

“Actually, if I owed you one of those, I’d be really in trouble… The only people who have spare galleons are Pirates, and Tink would never be seen near a pirate. Wildcat, maybe, but not her,” Harry offered, the tinkled reply clearly laughter, before he rooted in his pockets and took out a five pound note, “However, if this is what you mean… Here,”

“Yes, five pounds, not an entire pirate ship…” Gwen laughed herself, before Harry handed Hermione the five pound note. 

"Neither of you spend it all at once. Charge anything these two lovely girls want, but don't need, to the name on this card." Harry said, handing the shop assistant a piece of cardboard with his real name on it, "If they want it, but do not need it, I will pay. If they need it, but do not want it, I will not. If they need it and want it, It’s your discretion..."

Neither of the two girls noticed the shop assistant look at the card in mild shock after he'd left, and that she'd headed to Gringotts to set up the very odd standing order. or more than just one secret would be out that morning. "You're strange. I feel like I should know you, but you're so nondescript, I can't think where from." Gwen observed, "Who are you really?"

"Who am I? Well, I'm a pure-blood, in that both my parents were magical, but that's meaningless, since most pure-bloods are egomaniacs, and I'm not," He offered, for another tinkled laugh to come from Tink, "I'm also undoubtedly rich, since that seems to be a quantifier for being the former, and is equally meaningless, since I don't want the money. As you know, I have a fairy companion, who loves the fact I live in a muggle neighbourhood. Lots to tinker with. She has a whole room to herself for the job… and plenty of broken things in it to work with…"

"So, is that why you did that with the card, because you have all that money, but no real way to spend it?" Hermione asked, for Harry to nod, "However, why did you say you'd only pay for the books we want to get, but don't need to get?"

“Because, I suspect, you’d be able to empty my vaults from your idea of a light read,” Harry offered, both of them turning pink, before he looked at the rows and rows of Harry Potter books. "I exclude those frankly ridiculous stories there from the arrangement. They're like Peter Pan. The day they tell the real story about the boy on the cover, only those who really wanted to know the Boy Who Lived will read it, but that would not mean, by any degree, they would be bestsellers."

"They should really do a sequel to Peter Pan… Peter Banning Of Wall Street," Tink offered, Hermione and Gwen looking confused, Gwen chuckling slightly, Harry realising that they understood her, "He's become the business world's equivalent of James Hook. Except his weapon is a mobile phone,"

"How can we understand you?" Hermione asked, "Gwen only heard tinkling sounds when she overheard you earlier, and, up until just then, all we heard was tinkling..." 

“Well, for one, My laughter isn’t much different from when I talk to most people… But you can understand me due to a smidge of imagination, cast iron belief in my existence and an acceptance of that belief within you," Tinkerbell offered, "You ask any old pureblood if fairies exist, nine times out of ten, they'd feel they weren't people like me, so wouldn't see anything except for a tinkling ball of light. People with no imagination or who only accept something when it's cold, hard fact, they have so much more trouble with seeing fairies even when they know I exist… So, people like the vile monsters Harry lived with saw the light, period,"

"While, since both of us, due to the story of Peter Pan, however glossed over it is, believe in you and believe in fairies..." Gwen offered, "Oh my, I'm talking to a fairy, and don't even care… And that's the point, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes, and you're both very smart for it." Tinkerbell offered, looking past them, "Hello, Jane, Hello, Jean."

"We know of her as Paediatric Nurse Bell from Great Ormond Street more than Tinkerbell, but have seen her do 'autograph sessions' for some of the more accepting children. Peter Banning, for how much he donates to the hospital semi-anonymously, never extolls the tenets of Faith, Trust and Imagination for the children there," Jane explained, giving a small wave to the fairy, "You work at Great Ormond Street, part-time or not, and not know about the other Paediatric Department's Head, you really need to think about who paid for part of the hospital, and, through bequeathment, continues to."

"If you ever notice me, calling me 'Nurse Pan' is the easiest way to get just the standard human staff, and never be invited to listen to my stories. Admittedly, you'd likely only hear the bell at that point as well… Faith, Trust, Pixie Dust , You live by that, you’re good for life with me," She stated, "I like any of the Darling or Banning daughters, they always get the tenets right, and always use 'Nurse Bell'... Admittedly, most people go with your mother’s version, Wildcat encouraged the second version, and it’s pretty much standard with any of the second group of Lost Boys, and all the Lost Girls, to use that one,"

"So, Want to join us in dealing with your shopping? And Hermione, Gwen, no books outside of your budget, we can't afford you getting every book in the store." John offered for the shop assistant from earlier to approach and make a small cough.

"Due to an anonymous benefactor, in that the young man here won’t be telling you his name in public, the children could walk out with one of our special ever-full book bags each, all three of you, which would effectively allow them, with the catalogue on the inside flap, summon a personal copy of almost any book in Flourish and Blotts, without needing to consider the price," She explained, "In very specific cases, they will still need to purchase a copy of the books. But it's unlikely to happen..."

The book bags were handed over, after a short explanation on how they worked, with the only adjustment being a slender pocket on one side that Tink helped the shop assistant put in place, strapping herself into the pocket on one of them as a demonstration, which Harry picked up, Tink now looking out of the facing side of the bag. Hermione and Gwen looked curious about the fact they both now had a 'fairy harness' on their book bags, but left it at that for now. Likely the fact they had accepted fairies into their life meant that, soon enough, they'd meet someone like Tink who would reward said belief, and the fairy harness was so they could talk to them at their leisure.

“Drop some quills into it once or twice when you get to Hogwarts,” Tink suggested, “Before long, any non-believer who can’t even see the light, well, they’ll think it’s for storing quills,”

 

At the same time, in the rafters, the group of fairies that were observing each looked thoughtful. “OK, The boy is definitely part of Tink’s new family, he’s no Banning, Or Darling. The baseball, hat and glove were to throw us off, since she knew we’d snoop, and they changed their disguise since we did too well at it,” Lyria mused, “Who he is, however, we can’t tell. He just ripped Peter a new one for being a ruthless corporate Pirate… Yes, we all know he’s right, but let’s not bring that up in earshot of a believer… and the local legend for being unrealistic. And he didn’t once give his name, only confirmed to anyone watching, including ourselves, what isn’t his name…”

"OK, So, whoever it is, definitely not one of Peter’s kids…" Zarina offered, "OK, Opinions about the girls he met? They definitely believe in Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust, so a couple of you are likely reacting… and the fact he’s not one who uses the old version says he’s not been exposed to it,"

"Not feeling a need to approach them..." The others offered, Lyria not commenting. Zarina smirked.

"Hedging his bets then on when and if one of us does approach..." Zarina replied, "Definitely is a smarter partner for Tink than most, Peter included,"

"Personally, I think that was a show, and we were simply the target audience..." Lyria offered, "Zarina, I wish to consult with you… alone..."

Once the others had flown off, she looked down at where the unknown boy, Hermione and Gwen were. "Now, You didn't comment earlier..." Lyria asked, "Who are you reacting with, then we'll talk..."

“I know I’m reacting to one of them…” Zarina agreed, “Didn’t expect it, since…”

“Wildcat almost did the most shocking thing going, when she had that passive bond with Tinkerbell for a period…” Lyria mused, “Fairies can and do bond with others as time passes, and it shows you’ve moved on from your… ahem… Piracy. Let us follow him. Our bond mates are with him, so it will deal with that problem as well…”

“OK, Since you’re coming into the loop…” Zarina sighed, “I know who he is, and have known since before the hospital. Tink and Peri briefed me before he arrived to try to get the rest to believe the Jack Banning alias… Consider I was the first and only Pirate Fairy!”

“So, the Lovegoods and the dark-clothed man are definitely not related to Old Never…” Lyria half-asked, Zarina nodding, “So, who are they then?”

"He's Harry Potter, the real one… Pretty much tore the fake Potter a new one purely due to that, since the rubbish in those stories is pretty much so inaccurate, it’s painful," Zarina declared, "Not going to explain the true story, even if I know it, since it would take too long. Once we're out of sight of the rest, I'll help you with the rest of the dramatis personae in this little game..."

"I wonder if we are the Power He Knows Not?" Lyria mused, Zarina clocking her over the back of the head at her dismantling the Prophecy casually.

"Possibly, Possibly… I don’t think Voldemort knows even one of the tenets," Zarina stated, "But that's for discussion after we get back to the Overlook."

 

“OK, I need you both to do something…” Tinkerbell declared as Jane and Jean were told to head off as  Hermione and Gwen got changed into similar green and black clothes, “Any thoughts of being polite and courteous to the shop staff… Forget about it. If you want something, demand it. If they’re taking even a second longer than you’d like, demand they hurry. Be as wretched as you can be without resorting to a tantrum… Basically, act like when you were five… or actually, try for younger than that…”

The reason that Jane and Jean were sent away was made patiently clear as they sulked, insulted and berated their way through the rest of the shopping, the shop staff’s service improving immensely just by the fact that the three of them were in green and black and acted like they could buy the entire store out from under them. They  suddenly realised quite why Harry was being so dismissive and downright insulting of the Boy Who Lived books. Sneer and insult something enough in the wizarding world, and they accept that you’re clearly not muggle. Muggle-raised people actually expected service promptly and with the minimum of fuss. So they didn’t get it.

As they headed off to meet back up with Minerva, they passed by Severus, who was still talking about very dry and boring politics with Lucius Malfoy, not even getting a second look, with only Severus looking his way at all, his eyes narrowing at the two girls. "Why, Lucius, Let me get you a drink in the Leaky Cauldron..." Severus declared, Lucius following him out of the alley. An hour later, with all but their wands, which Olivander said were 'not in stock', Harry detached from Hermione and Gwen, to meet with Lucius and Severus at the inn, having agreed to meet with Minerva shortly.

"My my my..." Lucius had said as he approached, "Doesn't time fly?"

"So do wizards, but I will not be able to waive the restriction for your son." Severus drawled, "I just got a missive from Minerva while you were getting the drinks. She just finished doing Harry Potter's shopping, and expects him to be one of her lions."

"Damn, how did I miss him?" He cursed, "Try to make sure he sees the error of his ways, We need that boy."

Once he'd left, Snape let off a dry chuckle. "Yes, you really like your boys. Rumour has it that he's gay. Admittedly, there’s also a rumour that Dumbledore is as well, and he likes bad boys," He offered, "Anyway, Here."

He took out a slender box, Harry opening it to find it was a wand. "You'll not find the wood in this world, and the core is a phoenix tail feather. Only core that seemed to result in a stable wand against your magical core, due to the taint on it. While we might have got rid of the scar, we didn’t cleanse you completely," He explained, "Will be doing a second wand when we get rid of what’s left with the help of Ms. Bell, since your mother used the same wood with a pixie wing fragment core. And, unlike a certain misadventure, Ms. Bell didn't almost lose her wing donating it."

"Ahem. I guess my sister told me about that incident one winter… For now, you can tell Severus about the fact you bought yourself and those two mundane-born portable libraries," Tinkerbell exclaimed, Snape raising an eyebrow. He really had been talking too long for Harry to have done something so like a Ravenclaw. “Now, I’ll need you to stay for a bit longer, since we need to tell you some things…” Tink declared, “Well, one of my contacts needs to meet you, and I want to admit that we’ve not been very honest about a few things…”

“Like he’s Harry Potter?” Gwen asked, “That man gave the last clue by trying to trick that sleazy man with the fact that Harry Potter just did his shopping… which wouldn’t make sense unless he knew where Harry was at that moment …”

“Oh yes, You’re Ravenclaws…” Tink grumbled, “All our effort, and they figured you out already…”

Notes:

J.R.R Tolkien was notoriously meticulous in detailing everything about Middle Earth, which invalidates any attempt to prove it's real or not by asking fae if they know the culture. Anyone who reads the back few pages knows more than enough.

And, as you can probably guess, 'Pirate' is a catch-all slur within those of Neverland for anyone who completelt ignores any of the tenets. The 'first version' of the tenets being the more common one used in most Peter Pan stories, while the second...

If you know where it's from, you'll know who Wildcat is.

Chapter 6: Two Sides, Two Agendas

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Hermione and Gwen sat in the Leaky Cauldron, watching as Harry came in with Minerva and a raven on his shoulder, which hopped off, turning into the man he'd been associating with, who cast a spell on him, causing all the silver and green to melt away, as his appearance shifted as he took out a pair of glasses. "Oh my," Minerva declared, "Very clever, Severus. Ms. Granger and Ms. Granger, I wish for you to meet Harry Potter."

"We already met," Hermione stated, "He was giving grief to the Boy Who Lived books for plagiarism and defamation... We barely figured out he was Harry until Snape indirectly blabbed it,"

"Yes, there are a lot of mistakes in them, aren't there?" A new voice stated, everyone looking to see a brown-haired fairy in a pink-trimmed toga float down, "Gwen, my name is Lyria. I hope we can continue to collaborate long into the future."

Hermione was then surprised by a red-haired fairy jumped down, a pair of what were clearly steampunk-inspired goggles on her head, her outfit similarly styled. "The name's Zarina… I'm fond of experimenting, and getting into scrapes… Let’s just say, I should have been a dust-keeper fairy, but I pretty much now hang around with the tinker fairies nowadays, since there's not yet officially such a thing as Inventor Fairies," She offered, "If you will accept my counsel, Ms. Granger, I'm sure that you will learn the value of taking chances and making mistakes..."

"Is your last name Frizzle?" Gwen asked for Zarina and Lyria to chuckle.

"I'm not going to argue" Zarina decided, "I pretty much get called Frizzle or Friz anyway, especially after experimenting with electricity and magic… So, Sure, Zarina Frizzle it is, I expect the other fae will be calling me it by the end of the week,"

"We accept your offer," Both Grangers stated, for there to be a flash, and what seemed to be a pair of book-ends appeared, one showing Lyria quietly reading a book, the other showing Zarina with a sketchpad, depicting some kind of blueprints, a book in her lap that she was clearly consulting, showing the girls that their fairies both had their own approaches to books, Lyria wanting to sit quietly and read, advising Gwen on a mistake or inconsistency in what they read together,  while Zarina used them as outlines for whatever she was doing, and would likely prod Hermione into something risky.

"Those book-ends will be useful to you when you next visit where the Outlook is. I wonder if the mural will be updated to show them..." He mused, before taking out a statue of Tink, "Peri, Can you check the mural?"

"It's gained a tree, Zarina Frizzle is sitting in the branches, doing something typical of her, while Lyria is sitting underneath trying to read a book, emphasis on trying..." A voice stated out of the statue, "Will be interesting when you find more wizards and witches accepting of fairies… Might even be a proper mural..."

He then put away the statue, as Lyria and Zarina were helped into the book bag harnesses, Zarina snapping her goggles into place, while Lyria got her toga to behave. "My name is Severus Snape, but, If you ever encounter a man named Mr. Lupin, he knows me very well as Nevermore." Severus drawled, before, in explanation, "Never more would I belittle those who were mundane-born. I am a half-blood, and I was reminded of that. I may wear a dark mark, the mark of a particularly vile wizard, but…  If you see a raven flying at the school… You likely already know,"

They both nodded. ‘The Raven quoth Nevermore…’ A very old lesson in hubris. He then pulled up the arm of his robe, grasping part of the skin under an odd looking tattoo he had there, the skin peeling away to show it was a very well disguised sheet of fake skin. "I wish to thank the... more recent Wildcat… Mr Potter and the fairies might know her better as his mother... for that idea," Severus declared, "I've not actually worn the dark mark properly for over a decade, and it never truly took hold, thanks to some fake skin and the Dark Lord being an idiot. I only wish that there hadn't been a mole in the Department of Mysteries, or the prophecy would have gone undeclared even with Dumbledore's theatrics..."

"We also know of someone who goes by the name Wildcat," Zarina admitted, "She's much older than Lily, and younger as well… It’s a long story, and well, All I can say is that it’s the start of why the Pan story is forbidden within the Outlook,"

“Let’s just say this… What would you say if I said the first Lost Girl ever named… was Wendy’s own daughter?” Lyria declared, causing shock to cross the features of both Grangers. That wasn’t something they expected to hear. And both Hermione and Gwen mouthed something about what Harry had mentioned earlier about Wildcat, and a ‘person’ who was a Pirate and one of Peter’s band, which likely meant this Wildcat. Snape then folded up the piece of skin with the tattoo, placing it in a normal muggle wallet, before looking at the two girls.

"Now, let me check your book sets, I need to double check Dumbledore hasn't been stunting the magic growth of the next generation again," Snape stated, accepting the official lists before sighing, before he added, "He clearly still isn't listening. Now that's done with, we'll discuss a few things, and sort out some things that clearly Dumbledore won't..."

 

When Jean and Jane Granger finally met up with Hermione and Gwen, it was shortly before they needed to head home for their evening meal. "The boy from the bookstore helped us with the rest of our shopping, Mum." Gwen explained as they got into the car, "We had to wear these ugly green and black outfits, and act like when we were three years old, but it meant no-one gave us funny looks."

"The magical world seems to work to a caste system, and you're not even rated as worthy of magic within it according to a large amount of them normally, so he faked you being from a low rank pureblood family..." Lyria stated, waving to her parents, "Oh, right, Why we’re here. Me and Zarina entered fellowship with your daughters. Gwen questions everything, so I will always be there to help her find the answers, while Hermione needs to learn how much good being unpredictable and free-thinking can be, so The Friz there will be there to suggest alternatives to what is suggested,"

"Still don't know who Peri might be..." Hermione mused, "I've read all the Peter Pan books, and there's no-one named Peri..."

"But that doesn't mean there isn't someone named Peri," Zarina offered from her perch, "Does the book mention either of us..."

"Good point, Good point..." Hermione offered, "Most likely a sister, since Tink seemed very familiar with her… Wait a minute, Gwen, Did you notice something that didn't make sense..."

Gwen looked up at her sister. "If Tink has been working at GOSH or living with Harry this long, why did she still trail pixie dust from her wings?" She asked, Zarina cackling. Mission successful! They just spotted the one thing that didn't make sense, namely the fact Tink was still connected to Neverland, which meant it was definitely time for them to go for a checkup, so they could get, if anything, that answer before they came to the wrong conclusion.

 

Half a continent away, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was in a foul mood. He'd just got a message from Arabella Figg that stated the Dursleys had effectively vanished, and he'd checked to find that the blood wards had dropped like the paper thin shield they were, and the secondary tracking he had on Harry, using the tools originally used for tracking rule breakers within the school, had returned an indefinite result. Clearly, Something had gone wrong there, and he had to find out what. "Severus!" He called, Snape sauntering into the office without even looking his way, "Do you know what happened to Harry's letters? I haven't yet got a reply to his letter, and the equipment no longer works..."

"I do not go round looking for lost people… Ask Tinkerbell. She's an expert in lost children, especially boys. Oh wait, you left her wandering aimlessly after Lily died, so you can't..." He sneered, "However, I will bring up that you didn't use any of the recommendations I tabled in the last staff meeting about book assignments. I have had to visit at least two dozen pure-blooded families to hand out the corrected book lists before they wasted a king's ransom on useless tripe… Half the potions books on the list would cause a melted cauldron! And that’s in the best case!"

"I am sorry, Severus. I understand some of the books you offered are of a better quality, but we have to think of the muggleborn and half-blood students, who cannot afford the prices of those books..." Dumbledore offered with a twinkle of his eye.

Severus sighed. The fact most of the books sold to the school had been done, since Dumbledore's hiring, by a particular printing company, Bumblebee Print Works, whose major recent contract was the Harry Potter books, with two particular families having controlling interests in it, clearly wasn't the reason he ignored the suggestions. Yep, working with the fairies again made him spot Dumbledore's transparent lies so much easier. The real reason he didn't want the alternative, superior, books that came from the continent was that they weren't printed by him, edited by him or even ghost-written by him. Or helping cover for Arthur’s abysmal wages.

"I sometimes wonder, quietly, why the average wizard in the street can't tie their shoelaces properly, then I remember half of them don't even understand needing to bend down to do so… but less about Muggle Studies classes," Severus sneered back, "Yes, the books we used in the 17th century are great books, but they also have been traced back to several fatalities due to improperly cast spells or exploding cauldrons..."

"I will look into ways of improving the book lists without compromising on affordability…" Dumbledore declared, which Snape knew meant he'd buy out the publishers on the better books if he could, and then edit them so that a flobberworm could use the instructions successfully, "I do not have the time to deal with it at this moment, Hogwarts is opening soon..."

Once he'd left the office, Snape sighed. "Maybe if you weren't spread so thinly, you'd actually get more proactive with things, but we can't have that," Snape drawled as he walked away from the office, "You might actually notice I've practically taken over your fiefdom... Oh wait, you wanted that, but it was for my other master..." He then paused. "Although, what would she want with a magical school?... Probably donate it to Great Ormond Street Trust or the NSPCC..."

 

At the same time, several miles away in the Weasley’s home, Molly Weasley was going through the last preparations for the new year. Unlike most parents, however, this didn’t involve making sure her children were packed, but instead briefing her daughter on what she’d be doing on the platform. "Now, You know your role, Ginerva… Albus might be worried about Harry not being there due to not getting his response letter, but we can't guarantee anything. Now, we know for a fact he's not aware of the location of the platform, so we look for a black haired boy in muggle attire, the scar will be easy to see, then go through the area, and you know your lines?" Molly asked, Ginny nodding, for her to smile back.

"I already got reassurances from Dumbledore that the muggles are unlikely to notice my comment, and the guards on duty at the platform are all former Order members, so they will make sure… You do this right, You will get that fairy-tale wedding to the Boy Who Lived, You just need to make sure he notices you..." Molly concluded, before walking off.

"Yes, Mum..." Ginny replied, slumping in her seat as Molly left her alone. Yes, She wanted a hero to sweep her off her feet, and the Boy Who Lived was her age and very much the kind of hero she'd like, but Luna… She'd told her that, often, Real life heroes, unlike how they're presented in books, were flawed and prone to being far from what the authors claimed them to be, pointing out inconsistencies in both the self-published Gilderoy Lockhart books and the Harry Potter ones about particular things. Lockhart's books had become a game between the two to spot the biggest glaring inconsistency. They'd been about to move onto Harry Potter when Molly had her leave Luna 'to mourn', even though Luna wasn’t exactly doing so.

"I wish that I was like Luna now… She can always rely on Peri when she needs advice..." Ginny sighed, for a nearby bush to rustle.

"Is that 'Peri' as in 'Periwinkle'?" A voice declared from the bush, for her to look towards the bush and see a fairy like Luna's friend sitting on a knot between a couple of the branches.

"Umm, Yes… My friend Luna swears by her advice..." Ginny stated, "What are you doing here, Miss..."

"Fawn… I was looking around since there's some foreign, unnatural, magic in this area..." She mused, wincing as something exploded in the house, "Except your magic and that of the twin terrors... The first of those feels comforting for some reason, but the latter… God help us all if The Friz gets near either of them… She already is banned from having her own store of pixie dust,"

"What do you mean by 'foreign'? And who is ‘The Friz’?" Ginny asked, settling down for what she wasn't aware would be a very long discussion...

 

Later that day, Harry went out to get the usual food and drinks from the machine across the corridor, only to notice that there was a new fairy on the mural, Tink and Periwinkle coming out to look when he told them. "Hmm… Fawn has found a companion..." Tink mused, "Wonder who it is… She's a nature fairy, she adores animals of any kind, and is the most down-to-earth and grounded of my old friends… She consulted with Luna a few times, since she helped her figure out some of the animals she thinks she sees... They don't exist. If she’d not accepted Peri’s bond off her mother, she’d likely have been Fawn’s companion..."

“I’ll do some queries,” One of the nurses stated, “Can’t guarantee anything…”

They both nodded. Lyria and Zarina were pure dumb luck, that they found two girls who adored reading and the abridged legend of Pan, well, until recently, at the same time they were being watched by most of Tink’s old friends. Fawn bonding had been done outside of that carefully monitored feint, so they couldn’t figure out anything about it.

Notes:

As you might have noticed, I am using the Disney Fairies portrayal of Tinkerbell, i.e the minature MacGvyer, rather than any portrayal from Peter Pan materials, because she is the portrayal of Tink I need for a fairy who'd be sat on Lily's shoulder suggesting some way to make something that is outside the box. Meanwhile, I will state that the nature of Pandora Lovegood's rescue is basically that Periwinkle slowed down the commonly accepted out-of-control potion reaction by freezing it, before getting her to the Outlook to deal with what injuries she did get.
Concerning the nature of the Outlook, Due to how the Fairies refer to Neverland, at least, as the 'mainland' in Disney Fairies, I am going with the assumption that the Seasonal Lands of Pixie Hollow and it's surrounding areas are not in Neverland itself. Sometime prior to HP and Tinkerbell beginning, a particularly violent, but bloodless, feud between what factions remained after Peter left caused the fairy territory to be effectively removed from Neverland. This unintentionally saved it from what occurred as a result of both Peter Pan and James Hook ceasing to exist as they should at the same time. Basics are 'Neverland won't appear in this story, as it was, but I need to have Pixie Hollow and it's lands appear'. Enough said.
And, before anyone asks, The use of the name 'Percy Jackson' is a complete and utter accident by Snape. Even if it's such an appropriate false name for Harry. The book wasn't out then. Out of universe, I had barely any knowledge of the franchise when I thought of it. And no, I don't plan to have much knowledge of it going forward. I will state also that the Mural is not intentionally based on how the Smash Ultimate Mural works as more and more is released, but yes, it will take on a similar habit. And it will not just depict fairies, but anyone of Neverland...
Finally, concerning Zarina, due to the Disney Fairies franchise coming to a sudden, and somewhat abrupt, end, I had to take liberties with her design, replacing her rough-and-tumble Pirate Fairy look with a concept that borrows from steampunk science, since her original look, ahem, wouldn't go down well with most fairies, or the Lost Boys either. With her, the Frizzle mantra of 'Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy' applies all too well and they are both redheads similar to Zarina, so she ended up with that as a nickname… especially after electrical work.

Chapter 7: Faith, Trust, Pixie Dust

Notes:

Concerning Ginny, I do not hate her per se, and do not plan, like most writers, to turn her into the Potions Princess, but I hate how much we largely saw two different girls, who we were meant to assume were both the same one. The first year's Ginny was a shy, mouse-like girl who fled as soon as Harry looked at her, one which will be explored heavily in this story.
But then we had the later Ginny, who far too many stories focus on, an extreme in the other direction, an assertive prankster who overshadowed even the twins, with talents that increasingly meshed well with Harry, forcing characters like Luna and Susan into the far background, and demonising Hermione. This will not happen.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

At the same time, the Grangers arrived at the reception of Great Ormond Street. "Normally, large hospitals like this do not do check-ups on random people from the street..." Hermione mused as they walked in, carrying their book bags over their shoulder, only to notice a couple of the staff's eyes alighted on the pouches, and she could tell they were intentionally directing them moments later. They went to one of the receptionists, taking out their new statues. As soon as they did, she just handed them a form from a stack, and directed them to head towards the main ward, and, when they got to the right corridor, to take the third exit on the right, and then '...straight on till morning...'

“I know it’s a cute callback to the Peter Pan stories, but there’s no way to go ‘straight on till morning’!” Hermione groused as they approached the final stretch of corridor for the main ward. 

“I don’t honestly know either. There’s only two exits on the ri…” Gwen began, before she stopped, taking hold of Hermione’s shoulder, as they passed by a odd box on the wall for her to quirk her head, as they looked at the mural on the wall, taking out her wand and pointing with it at a particular arrangement of stars in the background of the fairy mural, “One, two, three… and straight on till morning!”

Within seconds, the ‘third exit on the right’ appeared, showing them an area that was much larger than the space should allow, but clearly exactly where they needed to be, their parents surprised when such a unique callback to the Peter Pan stories, namely the directions to Neverland, also applied to somewhere else. "So that's why the Tinkerbell mural is there!" Jane Granger stated, "Walked past it dozens of times, when it just had Tinkerbell or, presumably, Periwinkle in it, not the positive collection of fairies it has now. Completely innocent, and actually expected with a hospital who owes its existence to the Peter Pan legend, but also is the hidden entrance to..."

"The Outlook, as well as the place where those with fairy companions can sit down and interact as well as, officially, the magical ward of Great Ormond Street. Once you've been once, the same password as the door, while holding your personal Statue of Fellowship, will create an entrance you can use to get here," A white-haired fairy stated, both Hermione and Gwen half-asking, half-declaring, "Peri?"

"Periwinkle, yes. I'm Tinkerbell's twin sister..." She replied, "I'm a Winter Fairy, not that it means anything since we moved here. Talents don't mean anything since we had to move the site of Pixie Hollow..."

"So, Now we've established who you are, why are you not mentioned in the Peter Pan books?" Hermione asked.

"I'll field that, Peri! It's because Tinkerbell was one of two oddities in the fairy society at the time, and interacted a lot with Pan, Audience viewpoint and all that, so no-one really learned anything about over two thirds of Old Never..." Zarina stated, "In my case, I’m an oddity in that I’m a Inventing Fairy, despite being assigned to managing pixie dust. And what happened to me is as likely to happen again as another Great Freeze..."

"The last one happened since Tinkerbell invented a machine to create a zone of cold so I could safely explore the warmer climate where she was. It got knocked into a stream, and just couldn't stop creating more and more cold, so Pixie Hollow began to freeze, and..." Peri began.

"It still got solved without very many people being badly hurt..." Zarina stated, rather too firmly, before continuing, "Still, Both me and Tink fiddled with things we really should just leave the hell alone, made some very stupid mistakes and, in my case, I did a cardinal sin… I worked alongside the pirates, colluded with James..."

"Pirates… James..." Both Hermione and Gwen began, not able to believe their ears, not able to believe the impossible, Zarina nodding.

"Yes," Zarina stated, going to a picture of Zarina in pirate's attire, "I don't know if I caused his obsession with conquering Neverland or not, but I did indeed originally partner with the original Cap’n Hook..."

"Talking of Zarina during those times was forbidden within earshot of… Him," Lyria declared, "So she outright made herself the world's first, last and only Inventor Fairy, and Tink exiled herself to be Peter's fairy, and anything about us… It got left out of the books,"

“Now, what do you want to hear about first?” Periwinkle asked, “There’s a lot to cover…”

 

That evening, Gwen was looking out from the Overlook's balcony, while Hermione was studying Tink and Periwinkle's wings. "They're practically identical, while I’ve examined everyone else’s, and they’re all different. So, you were both born from the same laugh..." Hermione mused, "Why did you end up with different people then?"

"It's the same reason as the fact that Tink is a Summer Fairy and I'm a Winter Fairy, and our talents in both cases are very different..." Peri offered, "We might have been born from one laugh, but we grew up in different places. Up until a few years after the Great Freeze, my talent also meant leaving the Winter Lands of Pixie Hollow would be lethal to me,"

"Why did we end up with different people… In my case, I ended up noticing Lily after I dumped Peter when he got adopted, completely breaking the covenant," Tink stated, "In her case, Peri found herself drawn to the human world during the following winter, and entered a covenant with Pandora, who helped invent a way for her to generate cold like most people generate warmth,"

"When they met in the Magical World a short time later, Pandora and Lily were good friends, and did a lot of things together..." Periwinkle offered, "In present times, I moved onto Luna when Pandora chose to transfer the agreement, and Tink first moved onto Peter again, due to being unable to find Lily, then moved to Harry when..."

"We don't discuss that. All that matters is that, at the same exact moment Peri met Luna, I re-found Harry after being separated from him by bad luck..." Tinkerbell stated, "Harry will always treat Luna like a little sister he never had, because of how… two fellowships work..."

"Me and Zarina are complimentary, in a different way, to Tinkerbell and Periwinkle," Lyria stated, "However, the pairing is a reverse of what happened with Harry and Luna, since you are the sisters who will ensure, into the future, we continue to collaborate extensively. Instead of the fairy being the one who'll unify, it'll be the humans,"

"Still, It's weird, all of this..." Hermione offered, "Out there is Pixie Hollow, a society, who escaped Neverland after Peter Pan finally defeated James Hook… and the place that I heard about from the book, It no longer exists..."

“Oh, Neverland still exists, Old Never collapsed, but the place will always exist to accept Lost Boys,” Lyria sighed, “We don’t talk about why it still doesn’t accept Lost Girls. What happened with Jane was a disaster…”

"You mentioned that she’s a Lost Girl… Why would Wendy's daughter just up sticks and end up in Neverland?" Hermione pressed.

“Oh, there’s more to it than most fairies know, and well, let’s just say she told me to break the covenant when the place collapsed…” Zarina declared, Lyria giving her quite a pointed glare, “I swear to you, Lyria, I’ve only ever had one partner before today, Cap’n Hook…”

"The Overlook should have been looking over Neverland, but most of the Pirates won't come back, and the Lost Boys can't make peace with the rest long enough to restore the system as it was... Good riddance to the pirates and all that." Lyria sighed, “So, there’s Pixie Hollow, all that remains of Old Never, and New Never won’t hold together long enough to allow us to go back…”

The two girls walked towards the bedrooms of the Outlook, noting that there was one marked with Fawn on the fairy marker, but nothing above it. "Before you ask, we do know when Fellowship happens, it's hard not to, but we can't exactly tell with who until the statue appears," Lyria offered, "Helps that the mural shows any bonding fairy, but the problem is that there's no… ahem, magical way to tell who the partner is. GOSH has both names on file as soon as possible, and knows the names of every single Lost Child, former and current,"

"Why do you think they gave you the forms to fill in?" Tink admitted, "It also looks good for the mundane side of things… They keep files on everything…"

 

At the same time, Ginny was sitting in her room, still having her discussion with Fawn, not yet having figured out the 'unnatural' magic, but finding that she now had a very nice statue of Fawn studying a frog, while sitting on a rock with plants surrounding it. "So, have you heard of a… muggle hospital called Great Ormond Street, Ginny?" Fawn asked, "The fairies have quite a beneficial arrangement with the place… Until the break-up, anyone hurt themselves in Neverland, they could be whisked off to Great Ormond Street's children's ward before you could say Cap’n Hook…"

"Why would fairies be associated with a non-magical hospital?" Ginny asked for Fawn to chuckle. She liked telling this story, even with the baggage it had for Pixie Hollow. Losing one of their own was never good, and the amount of things they lost due to the latter days of Pan...

"Well, it all begins with a perfectly normal boy named Peter," Fawn began, "We don't know what his last name was, or where he got his new last name from, but everyone considers the leader of the Lost Boys to be Pan,"

"Is he like the Boy Who Lived?" Ginny asked, beckoning to the set of books that were stacked in the corner of the room, the statue and a basket she’d made for Fawn sat where they had been.

"Yes and No," Fawn stated, "Even without Lyria to pick it apart, even I can tell that some of the things that those books say, well, they don't make sense, since there’s a lot of things that need to happen at the same time, a common issue with really good yarns. You get Lyria and the others a set, and they'd prove quite how much it's wrong. Hell, Tink, Peri's sister, was Lily Potter's fairy after… Banning happened,"

"Banning?" Ginny asked for Fawn to hold her hand up.

"Don't get ahead of ourselves..." Fawn stated, "Anyway, Peter got Lost one day, and ended up in Neverland, a place where lost things end up, and became Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow up and the defacto leader of the Lost Boys, an adventurous group who fought pirates and indians, basically every day was the kind of games boys like that play all the time. Tink was his partner at that time, and, when he left Neverland abruptly, James Hook took over, with only the Pirates, Lost Boys and Fairies left on the mainland, the mermaids and others evacuating. They knew what was coming, even if the rest didn’t. Hell, it turns out, even us fairies knew… Well, one or two did,"

She paused, thinking for a moment. "Now we get to Banning. When he was Found again, he was Peter Banning, the husband of Moira Darling, and had two kids. His daughter believed that, similar to the Cat, his son was a Pirate through and through, and Peter himself almost was a Pirate, a bad time for all. He came back to himself long enough to end James Hook's life, by mutual agreement, and the mainland was evacuated on the order of the one person who could give the order, the Lost Boys heading one way, to find a new place to raise a flag, while the Pirates headed another, I think they ended up meeting some guy named Jack Sparrow. Oh yes, and the Fairies went to where Tink and Peri helped establish the Outlook, a place for believers to stay on the outskirts of the… restored Pixie Hollow,"

"So, What does that have to do with the hospital?" Ginny asked. Fawn then noticed something among the books she'd not tossed aside, pulling it out, checking the inside, then handing it to Ginny. Ginny looked in the book she’d handed her to see a bequest by the author of the book, and its contents, to Great Ormond Street Hospital. "So, the author of this book gave ownership of it to that hospital..." Ginny stated, then, looking at the cover, realised why the Outlook was specifically there. Well, they were the licence holders of Peter Pan's legacy… So, clearlym the fairies were keeping J. M. Barrie's legacy going, even with most of it in tatters...

 

The following morning saw Ginny being helped, discreetly, by Fawn to head through the streets of London, entering the strange building that the fairy called Great Ormond Street Hospital. As she did, she heard a voice whisper, "Get Luna!"

Ginny wasn't sure why her wayward old friend's name would be brought up, and who had said it. As she got to the reception, however, she was surprised to see Luna approaching her, in a very muggle outfit. "She has an appointment," Luna stated, Fawn helped with taking the statue out for the receptionist to point her towards where Luna had approached from, Ginny following when she turned back around.

"What was that about?" Ginny asked.

"Cliff notes version… Straight on till morning… Welcome to the Outlook..." Luna stated as she made a sharp turn, Ginny finding herself in a place that looked nothing like what she expected to find in a muggle hospital, a young man approaching.

"So, your name?" He asked.

"Ginny Weasley..." She stated.

"Harry Potter," He replied, and her legs fell out from under her in shock as she realised she'd been greeted by the Boy Who Lived.

"You idiot! Her mother force-feeds her the Harry Potter books as if they're gospel truth!..." An unfamiliar voice stated, "So, using your real name… Not the best thing to do. Oh, Hi, Fawn!"

"Let's get her into a chair and do that teardown of the Harry Potter books we were planning to do!" Fawn stated, as the bag of books was dumped on a table.

"OK, First things first, any of them mention fairies, Peter, Neverland or… here?" One of the other fairies there stated, everyone else at the table flicking through them, before shaking their heads.

"Right, that's the first point off for them..." Luna declared, "OK, How many of them have him visiting Godric's Hollow or Pixie Hollow?"

"Practically all of them have me go to some graveyard nearby, and promise vengeance on my parent's graves..." Harry declared, as he checked through them, "Usually within the first two or three chapters..."

"Anyone know who Bumblebee Printing Works is?" Lyria asked, then, looking at one of the Hogwarts letters, she declared, "Eureka!"

"What's up, Lyria?" Gwen asked.

"Dumbledore… It's a really old word for Bumblebee, and the publishing house that does the Harry Potter books has the name Bumblebee Printing Works..." Lyria asked.

"They also do the school bo..." Hermione began, "Dammit! None of the other books we got for self-study are Bumblebee Printing Works books, but every single book on the book list IS, The bastard. Abusing books like that!"

"I bet you the price of the next vending machine trip that Albus Dumbledore is lining his own pockets with substandard books that he recommends..." Lyria snapped.

"Vending machine?" Ginny asked.

"The cabinets with all the packets in it, and the similar one next to it," Tink offered, "You put money into the slot, press the right buttons, usually get the right thing. If you don't, head back in, call me or Zarina, and it'll work right afterwards..."

"I'm assuming hot chocolate and a chocolate frog?" Luna stated, going out of the Outlook, and returning with the two items, "Couldn't get the frog out of the vending machine, but the hot chocolate isn't hard. Thankfully, We have an arrangement,"

Fawn just looked at the confection with curiosity, which did a good approximation at blinking at her. Ginny was surprised to see Pandora Lovegood walk in, cast a preservation charm on the frog, and tell everyone to leave Fawn to it, and get Ginny a Dairy Milk or similar. A short time later, someone had conjured a pool of chocolate, and the frog was lurking underneath, and several people looked at the fact Fawn’s statue had her holding a frog, and a general concession was given of ‘Complete coincidence’. The frog wasn’t polled.

Notes:

I might just have put slightly too much information in the this chapter. That's all I can say. The next major arc, well… I had to change the chapter title, but it's still spoiling far, far too much.

Chapter 8: I'll Try

Notes:

I am very aware that the temporal mechanics of the two universes don’t work well together, and are akin to decoding the time travel involved in the Bill And Ted movies, which operate on a rule where history wasn’t changed at all, it just happened that way in the first place. The events of Hook should be assumed to have happened during the time James and Lily went into hiding. We will completely ignore several minor plot details in Hook, because otherwise we’d be here all day. My god, Peter Pan has the worst timeline going.

As a note, You can probably tell pretty much when, more than likely, the opening scenes could be inserted without damaging much the plot of Hook.

Chapter Text

A few hours later, Luna walked into Ginny's room, where she was sobbing to herself. "How could I be so foolish?" Ginny asked, "You were right. The boy in the other room is honest, kind and selfless, and nothing like the boy Mother taught me about..."

"Severus!" Luna stated, Ginny blinking as Severus Snape looked in, "Will you go to Molly and tell her that Ginny was in a terrible accident, and will need to stay in the hospital for a few weeks? She needs a lot of help, before she has a nervous breakdown after finding her mother was a terrible person,"

"Of course. I'll even warn St. Mungo's ahead of time to stonewall her as much as possible… I needed to be seen anyway," Severus replied, with uncharacteristic humour, before he dis-apparated out of the corridor.

" Use the floo, Dammit! " Pandora shouted back.

"What is she actually doing here?" Ginny asked, "I thought she got killed..."

"Consider this is a hospital, and Fawn likely told you Pandora transferred Periwinkle to me..." Luna stated, "She can't exactly leave, even though she's perfectly healthy, since she's not meant to be healthy… Kind of like you right now, who’d just be a terrible wreck…"

Ginny was startled. She'd completely missed all this? No wonder she was asked to pretend she was badly injured. She had a lot to catch up on… and Luna was right, she’d be a mess if she went out there right now.

 

Dumbledore looked up as Molly's head appeared in the fire. "Severus was just in to visit me… Ginny went off on a trip without telling me, the silly girl. He told me she got into a serious accident, and she'll likely not be able to be at the station..." She sobbed, "St. Mungo's aren't telling me anything, say that rushing it with someone that young would only make things worse..."

"Healing is not magic that can be rushed..." Dumbledore replied, "Just count yourself lucky Severus was out preparing for the coming year,"

"He sent out replacement book lists earlier today, with an apology for a printing error in the school letters..." Molly stated, Dumbledore managing to keep the frown off his face, "Flourish and Blott's even agreed to take the original books back, on the understanding that a corrected book list is given, with only the difference refunded,"

He nodded, turning when Severus entered. "I was only able to do the pureblood families, and establish the exchange program. Unfortunately, due to the broken letter sending system, I doubt the muggle-raised students will be able to get the correct books..." Severus stated, Dumbledore feeling slightly less annoyed. While he'd gone behind his back in rapidly organising better books for the students, he had only managed to replace the ones who could complain about inferior, and more expensive, books being issued.

"So, What's this about Ginny getting herself hurt?" Dumbledore asked.

"Ruddy girl was screaming her head off after a bad altercation with some muggles," Snape stated, "Managed to quiet her down and keep the muggle authorities from taking over. Blind spot to their blasted cameras..."

Dumbledore nodded. These new CCTV cameras were the bane of the Obliviators, since they made it much harder to keep things quiet. The ICW had managed to pass a law allowing to search and seize any CCTV footage that breached the Statute, as well as having a permanent Obliviator on hand whenever an operator spotted said breaches. Within moments of any breach happening, the camera 'malfunctioned', and any footage from that period was accidentally wiped after the aurors and muggle police had watched it.

"So, Won't be able to press charges..." Dumbledore offered, Snape nodding. The things muggles did when they felt that no-one could catch them… Not even realising that it was not those things which were the problem.



A short distance from the former Darling home, A figure in a white hooded coat, the hood having ears like a cat, got out of a taxi.

"It's been… years. I should have gone back to her when that big incident with Hook happened," She mused, before sighing, "No… I'm not a child now, I can take care of myself,"

She sighed, shoving her hands into the coat that had replaced her cowl. " I'm fine… I'm fine... "

 

A few years earlier

Maggie sat down, looking at her ‘F’ grade with a gloomy expression. “Ah, the second girl who he flunked out of Pirate 101,” A cheerful voice stated, for Maggie to see a girl sit down next to her with a hooded coat, the hood having cat ears sewn into the upper folds, “Something to make you feel better… I’m his adopted daughter, and I flunked it as well. So, whose kid are you?”

“I’m Maggie Banning…” Maggie began, for the ears on the hood to seem to spike up as the girl’s eyes went wide, “What’s wrong?”

“Jane, Jane Hook… but I used to go by the name Jane Darling…” She stated, “Wait, Did you just say Banning, as in Peter Banning?”

“He’s my fa-... Wait, Darling, like Granny Wendy?” Maggie began, looking shocked herself.

“Hey, Hook, Why are you talking to…” One of the pirates asked for her to take out a flintlock and shoot him in the leg.

“She’s my niece!” She snapped, “And if what I heard earlier, also my sister-in-law, so you’d best pipe down or I’ll shoot the other leg!”

Once the pirate had left, she smiled sweetly, “Right, you tell me your story, and I’ll tell you mine…”

When they seperated, both of them had things to discuss with their respective parents. Maggie notably heard, as she was trying to sleep, a yelled, “ You abducted members of my extended family to start another feud?!? How many times must you keep doing that?!?

 

“Please don’t raid that chest. That was my first hoard,” Smee heard as he raided Hook’s belongings, looking to see the most dangerous preteen girl in Neverland glaring at him, “When were you going to tell me the Bannings adopted Peter?”

“It never came up…” Smee offered, “Look, you’re…”

“As I told Maggie while those two decided to have one last conflict, I consider her my niece. I’m not going to figure out the logistics of it actually, I’ve lost track of my family tree due to being here so long…” Jane snapped, “The idiot does know what’ll happen when they finish the conflict…”

“What do you mean?” Smee asked, as Zarina flew in, something having caused most of the hostilities to die down.

“Your father just died, ‘Cat…” Zarina stated, for her to look towards the pirates milling about after the huge battle.

“Everyone to the lifeboats! Everyone to the lifeboats! Get going, you scurvy dogs! Abandon Cove! I repeat, Abandon Cove!” She announced, getting out a loudhailer someone had liberated, repeating the announcement. Pulling down her hood and switching it out, she looked towards one of the children who was nearby, snapping, “And you there, This is the one time, the one time rafts will work. Rafts, canoes, anything, just get paddling! Everyone, Abandon Neverland, RIGHT NOW!

The Boy ran off, understanding what she’d said, as she looked towards Zarina. “You’ve followed the Hooks well, Friz…” She stated, using the nickname that had begun going round Pixie Hollow, “I release you from this arrangement. When this bunch of layabouts have found a new crew… I didn’t mean literally … I’ll head to England, see if I can reconnect with my roots, be...”

“Jane, You and I both know... Your name just says it. Here be Cap’n Hook…” Smee offered.

“Well, as your captain, I order you to take what you can, and get out of here,” Jane declared, “As Jane Darling…”

She hugged him. “Stay safe, Uncle Smee,”

The old sea dog smiled one last time before he grabbed what he could and fled for safer shores, Jane grabbing a worn backpack and shoving the contents of the chest she'd singled out into it, along with a few items that weren't as valuable, but, when the cabin was looted by other pirates during the evacuation, there was no trace of anything that screamed it had belonged to Captain Hook, while a raft headed down, surprisingly well considering it's weight...

 

Present Day

McGonagall sighed, about to head for bed when she heard a scratching sound. Ever since Dumbledore had letter-bombed Harry Potter, the equipment in her office pretty much had been assumed to have seized up, seemingly irrecoverably broken by Dumbledore. But the automatic letter writing system, the only part not seemingly irrecoverably broken by Dumbledore’s hubris sprang to life. But she’d already finished all the letters for that year. She manually plucked an envelope from the self-replicating stack nearby, tapping it for the envelope to self-write itself, signing the letter almost mechanically before she sealed it, and finally checked the address, frowning. 

The address couldn’t be more muggle, but something about it made her check a small book, finding it listed. The address had a Special Exemption To The Statute Of Secrecy, that was dated within the last hundred years. The book was so small since there were only a handful of places, like Buckingham Palace and Downing Street, that had them. But a hospital?! Why would a hospital have one, especially since it had no renewal date, while the ones for other places, especially Downing Street, got renewed constantly due to the changing of attendance. She headed to Dumbledore’s office, finding, as usual, Snape there discussing something, declaring, in a clear voice, “I had a very odd incident happen just now...”

“Do tell...” Snape drawled, “I doubt it is anything important...”

“I just had to check the Special Exemption book due to a listed address appearing on a surprise student… Dumbledore, Are you willing to ask the Minister why Great Ormond Street Hospital has it’s exemption?” McGonagall stated, handing him the unsent letter. Dumbledore frowned, checking his own copy of the book she’d just read.

“Ward 1, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3JH...” He read, neither of them noticing Snape looking very worried as he excused himself, reaching into his pocket as he left their sight...

 

This is an emergency! This is an emergency! Tink, Check Ward 1 NOW! I just saw a student letter addressed directly to GOSH itself!’ Snape’s voice declared from the base of a broken statue, only the legs being visible, causing Tink to fall off her current perch in shock, as the fairies all looked towards the statue. Before it got smashed, it was one of Peter himself, and was effectively the ‘connecting line’ for GOSH to the fellowship statue network. It had been smashed by Tink upon Peter breaking the fellowship, involving the swift and decisive application of a heavy object.

“What the hell?!” Tink stated, everyone looking puzzled, “He was at Hogwarts, meaning someone in the hospital right now got an Acceptance Letter for Hogwarts, meaning they need to do a Visit,”

“That’s impossible...” Pandora stated, “All magicals would pass through my desk or Tink’s. Call me a pirate if I’m wrong, but we should have already known!”

“Agreed, and… Who’s that?!” Fawn began, as they left the Outlook, having noticed something in the mural. An unknown person wearing a hooded coat sat in the shadow of a tree in the background, their face hidden.

“Looks like Wildcat Hook, but she’s no fae, she’s as human as you can be, being a pirate from Old Never… Hook adopted her when she got lost in their neck of the woods...” Zarina offered, “Some rumours say she was dating Rufio, but she never confirmed it to me...”

Tink mouthed ‘Old Never’ while looking pointedly at the fact the hooded coat made her think of a completely different hood, only seen worn for a few seconds. No pirate would even sink as low as to wear an animal hood, especially who was from before Rufio. But one Lost Child would. “Whoever Wildcat is, she’s seriously breaking the rules. Tink, Swear to me that Peter was never stupid enough to give a pirate the cowl of a Lost Boy...” Fawn stated. Tink looked thoughtful, knowing she couldn’t lie, then realised a way out of her problem. Namely that she’d said ‘Lost Boy’.

“I can promise, strike me down if I’m lying, There never were, never are and never will be pirates in the Lost Boys,” Tink declared, Zarina looking at her curiously.

 

When they arrived in Ward 1, they saw Ginny was sat talking with a red haired girl in a purple top, the jacket slung over her shoulder, Tink practically crumpling to the floor as she realised who the mystery magical was, and who Hook’s adopted daughter was… Apparently, the First Lost Girl was indeed now the daughter of, and probable heir of, Captain Hook...,

“Hi, This is Jane Hook, although she prefers to be called Wildcat...” Ginny declared.

“We’ve met...” Tink stated, “Long long long ago… Anyway, Ginny, I need you to get to the Outlook, urgently. Wildcat’s caused quite the stir, since she’s been detected as magical… and Snape said you were at Saint Mungo’s...”

Ginny followed the fairies out of sight, as a familiar stern faced woman walked past, just missing the last of them vanishing...

 

“I’m here to see Jane Hook,” McGonagall stated tersely, looking round, wondering why the room went silent, one of the nurses checking a clipboard, her eyes seeming to pop as she read the last name.

“Yep, It says Hook, even wrote down her next-of-kin as Smee, and listed contact details as ‘Extremely Difficult’. No wonder Nurse Bell and her staff were in just now...” The nurse stated, a young girl with a hooded coat walking over.

“Letter?” She stated simply, McGonagall’s eyes going wide as she drew a slender dagger, that was most definitely not an ornamental letter opener, out of her belt, slitting the envelope open, scanning it before stating, “I accept,”

“You accept?” McGonagall asked, surprised she’d not even asked any of the usual questions she got from muggleborns, for her to smirk.

“I live by four words, and three concepts as one… Faith, Trust, Pixie Dust,” Jane replied, “You figure it out, we’ll be able to talk. Until then, you’re not going to understand half of what I have to tell you, and most definitely won’t understand my other next of kin. Admittedly, the last time I saw Smee, he was chatting up a mermaid to get her to help him out...”

She then headed past McGonagall, for her to hear ‘And straight on till morning!’, finding Jane had seemingly vanished when she turned to look for her. She didn’t think that her only passive belief made her completely miss the mural, due to an accidental version of the Notice Me Not charm. It was only when she looked at her bookshelf did she realise that Jane had name dropped some major players in a very old story a nd, when she got a letter requesting the allowance to carry a flintlock and bared steel into the castle, along with 'a family heirloom' she couldn't just leave at home, she shuddered. And allowed the exemption. She had a feeling what the heirloom was. And needed a stiff drink of scotch when she thought about it.

However, now she knew why she didn't ask anything before accepting. The story of James Hook and his perennial opponent had enough magic in it that someone involved in it getting The Letter would just accept it and move on.

Chapter 9: The Last Lost Girl, The Last Pirate Wench

Chapter Text

They looked up as the entrance to the Overlook opened, to see the most unexpected of arrivals. “How did you come to be the adoptive daughter of James Hook?” Tink asked when she’d arrived, for Jane to pause, frowning, before she took out a statue of herself when she was younger, and the hood wasn’t part of her jacket, knocking the damaged one off the plinth and placing it in the same spot. No-one was ready to complain, since her time predated everyone except Tink.

“Got lost one day… and ended up in Pirate Cove. I think Neverland hadn’t forgiven me for the whistle...” Jane mused.

“Whistle?” Peri asked.

“She brought a bosun’s whistle into one of the hiding places Peter used,” Tink stated, “That entire incident was a massive mess and no mistake...”

 

I didn’t know what had happened. I vaguely remembered wandering off, my mind not focused on where I was going...

The bed was unfamiliar, a rhythmic creaking sound coming to my ears as the boards shifted. The only thing that was familiar caused my breath to catch. Sat across from me was James Hook, looking pensive at me. He had to recognise me...

“You remind me of someone… Don’t know who… But this place plays tricks on your memory...” He declared, “Some of my crew fished you out of the briny deep just off the coast of Pirate Cove. Thank Davy Jones I turned that damn squid into calamari, or there would be nothing to recover...”

“Do you make it a habit of fishing girls out of the sea?” I quipped, realising what squid he meant.

“Used to only get mermaids, but most of them have left...” Hook sighed, “The old games are over, Pan and the original kids all left...”

I fished in my pocket, finding, somehow, the cowl, pulling it on as he turned away. When he turned back, he looked startled, but then smirked. “Oh, Now I know why I remember you...” Hook stated, “I’m surprised you’re back here after everything you did to get off this accursed island...”

“The Lost Boys are no longer here?” I asked. Hook looked thoughtful.

“Well, The ones from when you were around, You little wild cat...” He half-groused, “Oh yes, I noticed something. The whistle. It was nowhere near ye… And you were wearing his colours… but the whistle still sounded…”

“He made a good offer… Admittedly, it was to save his fairy...” I replied, “She was not happy with something I said…”

“Yes, I’m aware that they don’t take criticism that well…” Hook stated, “Well, Even I once had a fairy…”

“Oh, do tell...” I offered, and learned all about Zarina, and the first time his ship flew away on him. And, somewhere in it, I offered him something since, clearly, I wasn't meant to leave any time soon.

 

“Over the following decade, I spent my time living the life of a Never Pirate. Oh, I didn’t go on any of the ships that went in and out of the Cove, but there wasn’t a pirate there who didn’t know me as Seaman Hook or Wildcat Jane, and soon my Lost Boys hood got replaced by the jacket, even though I kept the cowl for a few more decades. It all changed when I first met Rufio...

We were looking at the Clock Tower, well, OK, the display piece that showed off his greatest victory, over the crocodile that took his hand, when he walked over. He was different, his clothes more rustic, than the majority of people I knew in the ‘new’ Neverland. That marked him as a Lost Boy. “So, who are you?” I asked, “You’re too young to be a pirate...”

“Look who’s talking. You don’t look to be older than 14...” He retorted.

“And I’m still older than you...” I replied, “You hear about Wildcat Jane?”

“Hook’s apprentice, Heard of them… But they’re old news, from decades ago,” He responded, “You her daughter?”

“Of course He’d claim that...” I sighed, taking off my jacket, before slipping something out of the inside pocket and pulling it on. He was startled to see a ‘pirate’ wear a Lost Child’s Cowl. Especially the one that wasn’t in the old collection from when they used them. Along with the animal-print onesies.

“What do you…” He began, “What the hell? Were you robbing the old tree?!”

“No-one can get in the old tree that can’t remember the Darlings...” I retorted, for him to hesitantly nod, “How did you get in?”

“Can’t get in the main part of it, but there’s a museum, has the clothes of the old Lost Boys in it,” He responded, then looked puzzled, “Wait, one exhibit, the cowl is missing, there’s just the suit and a picture...”

“Yep, Since I accidentally stuck it in my pocket during the ruckus...” I replied, realising there was a suit for me, “Didn’t expect Peter to put a memorial to me up, since it broke the rules of the game, what happened…”

“A memorial? To You?! But the girl there is from the 40’s!” He stated, and I nodded.

“And I bet if you checked, she’d be called Jane as well...” I replied. Rufio glared.

“I’ll prove you stole that, pirate...” He snapped.

 

For a while, he kept trying to figure out what the hell was going on, until I walked into him in the museum… from the direction of the old tree, missing my jacket. “How the hell were you able to get in here, you pirate wench?” He snapped, as I looked round at the group gathered in the museum, before I smirked, and went to the knot where the switch to open the tree was, going through the poem Peter used to open it, one that only I could remember.

“She opened it?! But none of us know the code!” A portly member of the group stated, several of them already copying my motions. They didn’t need me much any more.

“As I said, No-one can get in the tree that can’t remember the Darlings,” I stated, going to the memorial, which had a certain whistle battered but serviceable, on it, placing the cowl back where it belonged, taking the whistle, tossing it to Rufio, who noticed something etched into it. Hook’s symbol.

“You don’t need me any more, Rufio,” I stated, “Rebuild, rediscover Pan’s legacy...”

I then put back on my jacket. “...I, Wildcat Jane, promise in my honour not to give James Hook the way into the tree. I made the mistake, decades ago, of blowing the whistle on Pan. Now, I suffer for it...”

When I left, he studied the whistle, knowing it had been there since he arrived, and had been undisturbed. But this was one of Hook’s whistles, slightly rusty and battered. “What did she mean by ‘blowing the whistle on the boss?’” Thudbutt asked, then Rufio realised what she meant, including why she said she ‘broke the rules of the game’...

“This whistle...” Rufio stated, “Before our time, The First Lost Girl betrayed Pan… with this whistle. Now, as Wildcat Jane, she is a Pirate,”

The Lost Boys nodded. She’d betrayed Pan. She’d joined the Pirates. And now, she returned their property. Which meant there was only one thing they could do in return.

 

A short time later, James Hook looked up as he noticed the leader of the Lost Boys toss him a whistle. “We’re even with your apprentice, Hook,” Rufio snapped, “She gave us back what she took. We’re giving this back too,”

Hook nodded. Even with the game mostly over, there was a code of honour, and she was a Pirate now. Not the Lost Girl who earned… and lost… her cowl in moments. Now, he just needed to work out how to get his last play of the game past both her and Rufio without one of them gutting and filleting him, before feeding him to the sea.

 

“It took him a few weeks to actually figure out why ‘Wildcat Jane’ and ‘The First Lost Girl’ somehow looked very much like each other,” Jane sighed, “I was still a ‘pirate’ though, and Rufio refused to acknowledge fully that I’d be anything but Hook’s apprentice...”

“Been there, done that, got kicked out of the Dust Fairies...” Zarina quipped. Harry then came back in, with drinks for everyone.

“Mural’s changed. Shows you in a cat-eared suit,” He stated, the others following him out. The ‘painted’ Jane was seemingly snoozing, in the shade of one of the trees near the ‘back’ of the picture, just out of sight of the main group, wearing the entire ensemble she'd never worn in person, only recognisable by the red hair.

“Why does it show you hidden?” Ginny asked. “Because I didn’t exactly get forgiveness for what I did, I only made peace with the Lost Boys by returning my cowl,” Jane sighed, “I betrayed Neverland. That never was me... Even though Peter offered, and the fact the suit was ready when I’m ready for it,”

“While I made up for it, You rejoined the pirates...” Zarina sighed, “The mural will change again, soon enough, when you’ve made your peace with the person you are now...”

Jane pondered something, then went to a payphone, getting out some money, and calling a number, thankful that it accepted it. “Hello, Can I talk with Wendy?” She asked, then there was a pause, “Sorry I didn’t call earlier, Mum...”

There was then a pause, before she continued, “I’m at Great Ormond Street. I was too busy with my boyfriend to come when Hook abducted them… Hook killed him… It was Rufio, the boy who replaced Peter as Pan…”

She hung up, just before the phone rang, and she looked confused, adopting a different posture. “What the hell, Smee? What are you doing calling me here?!” She snapped, rubbing her temple, “Where the hell are you?… Get your sorry ass to Great Ormond Street Hospital, or I’ll get you a ship just so I can keel-haul ya!”

Jane then slammed the phone down before looking towards the picture, where her past self looked out from behind a tree at her, before somehow vanishing. That night, she tried on the one thing she recovered from the museum on her way off Old Never. It fit perfectly.

 

A short time later, Smee found himself hugged by Jane, who was back in her Pirate garb. “So, it’s over then, Cap’n?” He stated, “Hook’s gone, Peter’s as good as gone...”

“Are you in need of a janitor or similar?” She asked one of the receptionists, “Give him a job, slightly better than whatever he’s got...”

“Cap’n,” Smee declared, then walked to the receptionist. She then left Smee talking with her, before she took him out back. “You just let Hook’s first mate work here, in the one sanctuary we have left,” Zarina asked, “Why?”

“I’m not Peter. I’m not Rufio. He stays relatively honest, It’s a place for him to belong...” Jane stated, pausing, before adding, “Plus, notice how he addressed me? He is Hook’s first mate...  Rules of the game, Zarina. There’s only one person he acknowledges as Captain, always has been,”

Zarina then realised. She’d effectively, by Smee himself, been referred to as the current Captain Hook.

 

That evening, several people sat around a table, lit only by a lantern, no-one asking who was asleep in it.

“I, Captain Hook, hereby call this meeting to order!” Jane declared.

“OK, Grog all round!” Smee declared, Snape boxing him round the back of the head.

“First order of business...” Jane declared, her stance changing as she snapped, “Smee! No more grog at meetings! I’m underage for grog and might be for a long time, and you damn well know it!”

“Yes, Cap’n...” Smee declared, but it was clearly a joke order.

“Next, Send a missive to...” Jane began, Zarina hissing ‘Fat kid’, for her to say, “Thudbutt letting him know I'm calling truce! And tell him, if he notifies Banning, We’ll get a plank purely so he can walk it!”

No-one noticed Tink looked curious about how Zarina only gave a vague description, but Jane knew his Never-name instantly. Only Peter knew the Lost that well, since there were a lot of Lost Boys over the years…

 

That evening, Smee sat down again with Snape and Pandora, along with the others, in the Overlook, Jane notably in her new old sleepwear, cowl and all. “We’ve got the last true Lost Child, the last true Pirate and the Fairies uniting ‘em all...” Smee stated, looking towards Zarina, “Hey, Zarina, I want you to do something...”

“OK, What do you want...” Zarina stated, for Jane to motion to Tink, who she had stood opposite Zarina.

“We meet here under the flag of truce. Those who are pirates, those who are not...” Smee stated, “I declare, from this point forward, there will be no more open hostility from the Pirates, no more from the Lost Children. We are of Neverland, and that is all we shall be for as long as we all shall live...”

“I name the island beyond, the land claimed by the fairies, Never Neverland, the one and only...” Tinkerbell stated, “A place where all may live in peace...”

There was then a flash of magic, then Smee stood up, bowed and left to go back to his rounds. “What was that about?” Snape asked.

“I came here under the mantle of a Lost Girl. Smee didn’t exactly stop being a pirate when he left Neverland, but Zarina helped in that regard,” Jane offered, “We declared a permanent truce between those who call themselves Lost and those who call themselves Pirates. We ended it. For good.”

“Admittedly, when Captain Hook is also a Lost Girl...” Zarina mused, “It’s a bit hard to keep it up...”

 

Thudbutt arrived in Great Ormond Street, shaking hands with Smee. "So, about the truce. We, the Lost Boys, accept that we will cease hostile actions...” He stated, pausing before adding, “Unless you pirates want a scrap,”

“No problem,” Smee stated, “What’s a pirate without a good scrap? The Truce is about the open hostility the old Hook got up to, not a good scrap, which th' new Hook won't stop,”

“And what’s a lost boy without a good bit of fun?” Thudbutt agreed.

“You can get into fights if you want, but only since it’s all you know...” Jane stated, dropping down from her vantage point, Smee giving a light nod and acknowledging her with ‘Cap’n’, "You don't cause trouble for me, I won't cause trouble for you, yadda yadda yadda, you know the rest,"

“How can she do that?” Thudbutt asked, “It’s...”

“Several decades of practice… plus the fact that I still believe the old tenets,” She replied, heading back to the Overlook.

“Oh yes, you said...” Thudbutt began.

“She be the last Cap’n Hook, as well as th’ First Lost Girl…” Smee offered, “So, we dropped the open hostility since it’s a bit confusing over what side she’s on… Admittedly, she’s also the only person in the entire conflict whose family tree includes both Peter and Hook... so when she says it's a truce on both sides, It's a truce,

Chapter 10: The Most Infamous Of Sortings

Notes:

When Minerva announces Jane, the part of the soundtrack for Hook you need is 'Presenting The Hook'. Well, James Hook was not one for just arriving anywhere.

Chapter Text

A few weeks later, they were on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, getting on the Hogwarts Express. “I still don’t see the practicality of something like this.” Tinkerbell huffed as Harry boarded the train, back under his Percy Jackson disguise.

“There’s no practicality to it, just the wizarding world showing off.” Hermione declared as she joined them, clearly having discussed the nature of the train with Zarina, before looking towards Harry's shoulder, “Tink, you’re not in green.”

Tink chuckled, having changed into a cream coloured jacket and pants ensemble, in a similar style to the other Wildcat, although, for what was happening later, Wildcat didn't have it on. “Yes, yes, I stopped wearing green exclusively after bonding to Lily.” Tink explained, “Admittedly, it’s also since talents went out of fashion after...”

“Peter was to blame, not you...” Jane reassured her, dressed in all the finery you'd expect from a pirate queen, except for the hat notably had a pair of white cat ears, “You’d be frozen in eternal sleep like the entirety of Neverland if that conflict hadn’t happened and Dad didn't order the island evacuated. Dad might have been an evil monster to the rest of the island, but he still kept everything running until the end of it all.”

Tink nodded, Harry looking at the sheathed rapier at Jane’s side. “Olivander took one look at it, then asked me to look at a bunch of stuff, borrowed it, then gave it back a few hours later. I must have the only wand that has a ‘wood’ of finest steel for my wand…” Jane offered, “Also sold me a conventional wand. It’s like making sure you have your flintlock and your sword, not one or the other,”

Neither of them mentioned she also had the flintlock along with the sword-wand… and the Hook, which she’d found could channel magic, but not direct it. Something about the shape. Tink and Zarina had offered to study why it channelled magic, but not for a while. They then found a compartment, watching as a group of boys walked past as Hermione joined them. “Not even there, Ginny did all that for nothing. Told you he’d not be there.” One of them said to the youngest, "Hell, Ginny didn't even want to come, she wanted to go to that Gasp place..."

“Oh what a shame.” Tinkerbell mock-cried, “The Weasleys didn’t find you because your scar was destroyed and you don’t even go round looking like yourself that often in the wizarding world. Someone might even have altered the student roll to list Jane as Captain Hook and you as Percy Jackson, due to a compulsion on a polite letter asking permission for carrying weapons into the school… along with one antique heirloom, purpose undisclosed,”

“Oh what a terrible shame.” Harry mock-cried himself, the nature of the letter telling him it wasn’t an accident, “So, Want to get something off the cart?”

“Since a book on magical food my parents and I went over a few days ago pointed out that the manufacturing process on wizarding sweets actually uses less sugar than is normally possible and you would need to eat several times your body weight to actually feel full after eating them, I just have one question...” Hermione asked, before giving a cheeky smile, “How much did you bring?”

Harry smirked, realising the presence of The Friz had the right effect on the formerly straight-laced bookworm, as he went up into his trunk and withdrew a heavy money pouch. When the trolley lady came past, he simply said, reminding Hermione of a certain standing book order, “When everyone else has bought what they want, I’d like the trolley… period.”

"No problem..." She stammered, accepting the pouch.

"Can't you shop normally? " Hermione scoffed.

“Most of my money is in dubloons…” Jane offered.

“Can either of you shop normally?” Hermione sighed.

 

Way back at the back of the train, a redheaded boy munched on some sandwiches that he really had brought, albeit looking a lot more substantial than the rock he’d wrapped in plastic wrap for the meeting with the absent Harry Potter. He knew those racks of frogs were taunting him, taunting with their knowledge he didn’t quite have every card yet. How his sister had managed to enchant that group of chocolate frogs to do that one day, never mind the fact her new pet was a chocolate frog…

Fred and George smirked as they sat across from him, knowing that Harry was there. Well, they’d noticed a blond head wearing the colours of Wildcat out of the corner of their eye, along with a certain young lady wearing the colours of James Hook, and knew from their contact that those two would only be with Harry Potter. As they sat there, a large stack of Chocolate Frogs appeared in front of them, marked ‘From Ginny’. an attached letter reading ‘We asked the frogs, they’re every card he doesn’t own. When you’re good friends with the frogs, they’ll tell you anything. They'd like it if none of them get eaten or smash themselves on the side of the train,’

“Ohh, Ronald...” Fred began, opening the first frog, pinning it down with his finger, not quite enough to break the spine, but enough to hold it down, Ginny having taught them both exactly how much pressure to use, as it practically handed him the card, “Look which card I’ve got here...”

The following few minutes were sweet sweet torture for one Ronald Weasley… And the entire group of frogs involved moved into the same chocolate pond as a reward for their work.

 

Back in the compartment with Harry and Hermione, Tink looked up as an owl flew past, pitching a scroll into the compartment. “Cat, your protege just increased the frog count in the chocolate frog habitat by several times, while also playing a massive prank on her idiot brother…” Tink offered. Jane gave a cruel smirk, Hermione sighing. Did she have to be so vindictive?

As she thought about that, a small part of her, that sounded like Zarina, noted that Jane was still Captain J. Hook, complete with the Hook itself being always at hand, even if she had both of her hands, so she had all the right to be a vindictive and cruel monster… when required. And they likely would find the signed and notarized contract that stated it in plain terms, along with her requirement to not get on with the Pan, which Jane almost broke when she dated him, and Tink was wondering something about.

 

In all the history of Hogwarts, the sorting ceremony involving Percy Jackson, the boy who refused to be The Boy Who Lived, and Jane Darling-Hook, the Girl who bore the Hook, was probably the most infamous sorting ever. Albus Dumbledore was frantically scanning the students looking for Harry's scar, Snape was asleep and McGonagall was trying to remain stoic, as she noticed that Jane’s name read as ‘Captain J. Hook’ plain as day. She’d thought that she was the daughter of Captain Hook, not the current Captain Hook.

"Minerva, Why didn't Hagrid go find Harry?" Dumbledore hissed at her.

"Albus, He was busy picking up that blasted stone you brought to the school." Minerva hissed back, "When he got to the place Harry's last letter was going to, he found it deserted."

"Minerva, Why didn't you go instead?" Dumbledore pressed, even more frantic.

"I was dealing with the Grangers all day that day." Minerva almost growled, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have students to get to the sorting."

The first name went without incident, ‘Percy’ talking with Hermione, just before Susan Bones sat down, the hat descended, and announced “ Hogwarts .”

“I beg your pardon.” Dumbledore asked, halting the sorting for the first time in centuries, “There is no House named after the school itself!”

“Old man, I have sorted people into four houses that have degenerated into open warfare, their heads of house left unable to do their job properly.” The sorting hat declared, “I will sort eight students, within each year, into a group who will not answer to a head of house, will not work for a cup that has lost its meaning. Their place is bringing unity to the houses and to the school. So mote it be.”

When the list got to H, McGonagall was sure she felt a chill fall over her as she announced “Captain Hook!”, the magical ceiling turning stormy, a sound like creaking boards coming from nowhere near while voices sang praises for the Hook as Jane walked forward, several of the Muggleborn students shivering at the implication that the successor to one of the most infamous pirates in modern history… was right there. As she arrived at the seat, a loud bang woke Snape up and startled the entire room, ending the metaphorical spell everyone fell under, as she took out a heavy looking gleaming hook, removing the hat she'd been wearing. “Yes, the crocodile got Father, but, well…” Jane declared coldly, “There’s always going to be a Hook,”

“H-H-H-HOGWARTS!” The sorting hat declared, “And please, put that infernal firestick away! And that barbaric hook…”

McGonagall shuddered herself as she watched the gleaming hook disappear into a magically expanded pocket. She’d read Peter Pan, same as many other people on the British Isles, so she knew about the Hook, and the fact the ‘firestick’ she was holding was a genuine not-very-antique flintlock pistol didn’t help her fears about the girl, especially since she could see the small hole in the roof from when she fired it to end the strange spell that just her name had caused. “Did she just claim to be descended from…” Flitwick was heard to mutter, for Snape to look up.

“The most infamous pirate next to Blackbeard, yes. And not claim, prove she is. That Hook is somewhat, ahem, distinctive…” Snape drawled, cutting him off. As the list got to J, Harry smiled as he stepped forwards, still ‘Percy Jackson’ as far as the school was concerned, and joined the row of students who had, instead of a house crest, the symbol of Hogwarts on their uniforms, a uniform black tie with the same crest on them. The message had been given. He would not be sorted into any house, several people more interested in Jane, since her display had completely erased any thoughts about ‘Harry Potter’. In fact, At least a few wizards had asked about the bathroom... All Slytherins.

“Weasley, Ronald...” The roll soon got to, as Harry noted that there were no slots left in the group that were sorted into the fifth house.

“Slytherin.” The hat announced, smugly.

“Wha-...” Ron declared, confused.

“You do not use the brain between your ears for anything but chess, quidditch and schemes to make your family that much richer.” The hat explained, not masking it at all, “You plotted with your mother to meet the absent Harry Potter, not really thinking that he disappeared without a trace a few weeks ago.”

“Is that true?” Susan asked from where she was standing, “My aunt will love to hear about this.”

“Yes, yes she will.” McGonagall agreed, “Now, Albus, when were you going to explain that Mr. Potter’s absence is because you lost him ?”

“I will bring it up in due time. I am currently investigating it myself using personal resources, at great expense to myself.” Dumbledore announced almost pompously, not hearing a small voice say, ‘ He’s bribing several Aurors to track when a particular wand is purchased and used, not thinking most of it was tossed into the reject bin over a week ago, snapped in half after the feather was removed…  Harry’s wand has my wing in it, not a feather from Fawkes,

He then walked out to continue to deal with it, as Blaise Zabini joined Ron in Slytherin, and the hat announced that, while the feast would begin, students needed to file up to the stool and be re-examined for possibly joining the 8 students who had been chosen as ambassadors, part of the four venerable tables rotating to make a 5th table in front of the staff table. As the feast went on, 8 students became 56, and the biggest major change in Hogwarts history began with the Headmaster not even there to officiate, McGonagall handling his duties, for which she was given applause and a recommendation, if Dumbledore did fail to find ‘Harry Potter’, she should keep the job.

“Well, That likely means she’s got the job,” Harry declared from the new Hogwarts table, which sat in the dead centre of the expanded Great Hall, Susan looking curious, no-one noticing that the ball of light on his shoulder had set a group of charms on the table that meant anything said on it would just dissolve into incoherent mumbling away from the table.

“And why is that?” Susan asked, “Strictly off the record,”

He then took out a pair of glasses, slipping them on, the staff too busy to notice. “Still do the investigation. Discreetly drop this address into the places to search…” Harry declared, slipping the address of the Dursleys her way, “Anyone already checking the location isn’t working for your mother…”

 

A few hours later, Kingsley Shacklebolt lost his badge, and Mad Eye Moody was encouraged to announce his retirement, after being found on Privet Drive by Amelia Bones, without being deployed there. A check of Number 4 Privet Drive, which had clearly been rapidly abandoned, gave them enough evidence to declare that, potentially, Harry Potter had been slain by muggles, with the reporters descending like vultures. Albus Dumbledore was officially stripped of the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts, after the student’s recommendation got to the Wizengamot, along with a recommendation that he be stripped of any Wizengamot positions, with Dumbledore told he could have his positions back if he produced a living Boy Who Lived within one year.

Privately, Amelia Bones met Harry and thanked him for finding something that would stick , and McGonagall named Snape her Deputy. According to Snape later, she told him that she didn't trust him at all, but a wise person once said 'Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer'.

When the timetables were handed out a short time later, it was noted that the ongoing double periods had vanished, and shared classes stopped entirely. The Slytherins had complained, but Snape wasn’t taking any of it, for a change, telling them, in their first potions class, that the additional fifth house, and the reason it existed, was why they weren’t having classes with any other house for the foreseeable future.

Notes:

I added some lines implying that Jane claimed her Lost Girl mantle effectively 'posthumously', grabbing the one-piece on the way out, using it as sleepwear.