Chapter Text
Mythra toyed with her new wand, silver lime and Phoenix Tail Feather. Meanwhile, Harry and Hagrid were cheerfully talking like they were old friends as they walked into a tavern.
“Who’s this, Hagrid?” The middle-aged woman behind the counter said.
“This is ‘Arry Potter,” Hagrid said.
“Not that Harry Potter, surely?” The woman said.
“The only one I know of,” Harry said, grinning.
“But- you're far too old…”
“On that,” Harry said, sounding slightly tired, “We can more than agree.”
…Oh, Father, were they going to have a reverse of positions, where Harry wanted to die now? Mythra wasn't sure she would be able to handle that.
“W-well, what can I get you?”
“Two bottles o’ Ogden’s Ol’ Firewhiskey,” Hagrid said and the woman grabbed them, handing them to Hagrid who handed her several of the coins he had used at Olivanders. Harry took several flagons and walked over to a table.
Pouring a healthy amount of it into each one, he passed them out to each of the girls before taking a swig straight from the bottle snapping his eyes open and he gave an interested hum, “They really put the “fire” in “firewhiskey” don't they?”
“Aye,” Hagrid grinned. As Mythra went to take a drink, however a sharp shriek came from outside. All of them, except for Hagrid, immediately lept from their seats and took off towards it, Hagrid taking a moment longer. As they rushed out, they found a man lying on the ground with blood pouring from every oriface. That looked like…
“A Core Crystal?” Harry said in confusion, eye staring at the familiar shape, before he shook his head, “Nia, can you heal him?”
“Of course I can heal him,” Nia scoffed, crouching down and laying a hand on his chest. In the meantime, Harry picked up the Core Crystal, turning it over in his hand.
“Wa’s that, ‘Arry?” Hagrid asked, and Harry, before Mythra could blurt out to remind him that the people they had met, “Wizards”, were constantly releasing a low, though high enough to trigger a Core Awakening, amount of Ether, handed it to Hagrid.
—
The moment Hagrid touched the crystal, even through gloved hands, things shifted. He watched Harry be blown back by the localized blizzard that formed around him, before everything turned to white, his breaths coming out in puffs. He heard something hit something else from behind the white out, but whatever it was was quickly swallowed by the howling of a blizzard.
The snow formed into the shape of a bear, who stepped towards him and sniffed him carefully. Hagrid reached out, burying his hand in the white fur of the beast, finding something solid underneath. It pulled back, dragging Hagrid’s hand along it’s hide until it had completely disappeared into the storm again.
Then, another shadow appeared in the snow, a small one, barely coming up to Hagrid’s mid-thigh. It took a step forwards, and when Hagrid reach a hand towards it, shrunk back for a second before finally taking the hand and letting itself be pulled from the snow.
It was a girl the size of a first year, wearing a white fur coat adorned with the crystal Hagrid had been holding, a blue three leaf clover, skin nearly as pale as the snow and both eyes and hair a light blue. She held out her hands, and white bear claws formed over Hagrid’s hands. Hagrid gave a wide smile, which the small girl returned.
Then there was a sound shattering and the blizzard blew itself away, leaving Hagrid buried up to the top of his boots with both the girl and the bear standing there. Harry was two handing his red sword, staring at them.
“Ursula,” he muttered, “This is gonna change things…”
—
Harry stared at Ursula, trying to wrap his head around what this meant. She turned towards him, eyes widening and quickly shuffling behind Hagrid, clutching his great coat, “How do you know my name?”
“It's a long story,” Harry said, returning Pyra’s Aegis Blade behind his back, trying to appear as disarming as possible, “I knew your previous self. It’s good to see you again.”
“Oh… What happened to my last Driver?” She asked, and Harry glanced at the girls.
“Let's just say he let you go.”
“Oh…” Ursula sounded dejected, “was I that bad?”
Harry's heart throbbed, and he knelt down, shaking his head, “No, you weren't. He was going to do something dangerous, a all in gamble, and didn't want you to know what happened if it failed.”
“Did it?”
“Kinda,” Harry admitted.
Hagrid planted a giant hand on Ursula’s head, a gesture that seemed to make the Blade relax, “Your name is Ursula, is it? I’m Hagrid.”
“It's nice to meet you, Mr. Hagrid,” Ursula said.
“Hagrid,” Harry said, “You just became like me, a Driver. It's gonna be your job to take care of Ursula now, if you don't want that, I can take on the responsibility.”
He could already see the bond of Ether between them; it would be easy to snap it and attach it to himself. It would be nice to have Ursula back, but he didn't want to force the issue.
“No!” Ursula cried, clinging to Hagrid tighter, his beatle black eyes, already friendly and opening softened as he wrapped his arm around Ursula
“I’ll try me best,” Hagrid said, gravelly.
They walked back up to the castle, Hagrid pointing out the hut he lived in, then at the castle muttering something to Ursula, who reluctantly nodded in agreement.
Harry opted not to pry, it would take a while for the two of them to get completely used to each other. Stepping into the hall, his eye widened as he saw the three people inside.
There was a man clutching a lime green bowler hat, practically wringing it as he talked to Albus, “-A disaster Dumbledore, there's too many to obilivate all the Muggles that have seen them, and that's just in England, no idea what we’ll do with the rest of Britain. Has the ICW contacted you at all?”
Tuning them out, Harry focused on the person standing next to the man. A familiar tiger striped Nopon, “Tora!”
“Harry!” Tora whipped around, rushing down the hall with Poppy just behind him. He tackled Harry into a hug, and Harry wrapped his arms around his old friend gladly, Pyra, Nia and Mythra joining in moments later.