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Ohana means family

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Harry thought he had seen it all.

Trolls, a basilisk hidden in the bowels of the castle, dragons, a talking hat that decided your school fate, dementors, werewolves, even a map that showed people moving through Hogwarts corridors.

But nothing, absolutely nothing, had prepared him for the night the Dursleys kicked him out of the house that night, without warning, and he ended up alone, with a backpack containing his most prized possessions, wandering through the small wood behind number 4 Privet Drive.

Then, between fog and green light, he saw it.

A blue, furry, six-limbed creature with large, pointy ears and what could only be antennae. It had enormous black eyes that glittered in the moonlight.

From a distance, for a moment, he thought it was a dog, a very deformed one, or perhaps some lab experiment gone wrong and escaped. Then he thought of Hagrid. What Harry was seeing looked like something Hagrid would definitely take to a Care of Magical Creatures class.

And then another idea occurred to him, one that might be perfectly possible given everything Harry had seen.

 An alien.

"I...is y...an alien?" He whispered, more to himself than expecting an answer. Incredulous at what he was seeing.

The creature jerked its head up and stared at him. It tilted its head to one side and retracted two pairs of limbs, leaving four. Then it smiled. A wide, strange, and toothy smile.

Stitch, from afar, could smell the boy's distress; he was scared, but also composed. He didn't completely trust him, but he remembered Lilo asking him to find a new Ohana and to come visit her with her new family in the future.

There was a tense moment, Harry and Stitch staring at each other, not knowing what to do. Harry was seriously considering running away, and Stitch was considering restarting the transporter and returning to Hawaii with Lilo.

"Umm, wha...what are you?" Harry asked in a shaky voice, ready for anything.

The creature didn't respond immediately. It shrank back, as if assessing whether Harry was a threat. Its large eyes darted around, and its ears drooped slightly.

Finally, he spoke in a hoarse, raspy voice:

- Yo, Stitch

Harry blinked, confused.

"Stitch?" he repeated. "What are you?"

Stitch frowned, his antennae (which he hadn't yet hidden) vibrated, and he took a step back, uneasy.

- Stitch, lost.

Harry was already thinking that all the spells and blows to the head had driven him mad, and that he should listen to Poppy's advice about resting. Because he was talking to an alien, as if it weren't strange at all.

The silence stretched on. Harry didn't know if he should trust that blue, furry creature (judging himself because he was already doing so), and Stitch, on the other hand, looked scared.

- Stitch, do you have family far away? Your family? - Stitch asked, in a low voice.

Harry stared at it, incredulous. He thought this creature (possibly an alien) had some magical ability, like knowing whether a person was good or not, and that was why it was trusting him.

Harry decided to play along.

"I don't have a family," he replied, clenching his fists. "Not really."

The Dursleys weren't his family.

Sirius and Remus, even though one was his godfather and the other his uncle, had abandoned him, and even though he loved them, the abandonment remained. Sirius was impulsive and ended up falling into a trap, and Remus had never sought him out, not even after his third year at Hogwarts.

And he no longer knew if he could trust his friends, since when he had needed them most, they had abandoned him.

Stitch approached slowly, cautiously, and extended one of his four legs toward Harry.

"Ohana means family. Now, Stitch will be your family."

Harry looked at the outstretched paw, hesitated, but finally took it.

At that moment, they both knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

Harry sighed, he definitely needed to think more and stop being so guided by his emotions.