Chapter 2 | Mary

Of all things to happen today, Clarice certainly didn't expect to get a disabled child in her class. Not that she minded of course. It's a shock, that's all.

After the boy, who introduced himself as Harry, sat down. The class quickly erupted with questions while she got a mild case of deja vú.

"Oh you're new here, aren't you? My name is Mary. Currently, my only friend in this life is Death."

Clarice quickly shook it off, she had a class to teach after all. Clapping her hands a couple of times to calm the class down, she explained as simple as she could to the class what blindness means.

Yes, she'll deal with her sudden deja vú in private.

"We're the same age. You said your name is Clarice, didn't you? Can I call you Clay?"

Casting a quick curious look at the green-eyed student, she continued on with the lesson. And although she did put effort to include Harry in most conversations, he seemed to have a talent to quickly shoot it down with weird facts.

"Huh. Hey Billy? Do you know that there are types of rabbits that eat humans? Yeah, do shut up."

The boy seemed to also have a talent in diverting the conversation from him to another classmate in a blink of an eye.

"Me? Oh, nevermind that! How in the bloody hell did you find that! Where did you go? Madam Cole would go nuts!"

And it intrigues her.

"I'm so old. I think my soul is aching."

It intrigues her because the boy reminds her so much of Mary, that one girl who looked so cold yet is probably the kindest one there and she would always berate whoever that causes troubles, especially the bullies.

"Do that once more and you won't have any fingers left to wipe your arse."

The girl who always spouts nonsense and declaring herself as Death's friend, just like the boy in her class. Speaking of the whom is currently whispering to himself, which Clarice remembered, Mary would also sometimes whisper to thin air as though she was conversing with somebody.

".....-Haha, oh shut up you immortal virgin-..... -uh huh, you know your threats don't scare me."

Her whisperings always got her in trouble with Mrs Cole and eventually she became a second residence of the cellar.

"Clay, guess what! I made friends with the guy who was always in the cellar!"

She was a very quiet kid, only jumping in when necessary.

"That means you're an idiot, you idiot."

She was her first friend.

"What? Aren't we friends already?"

She was also her first death experience.

"Can't believe I'm going to die of bloody fucking food poisoning. Death is totally going to use this against me for a few lifetimes, at least."

She quickly shake out her thoughts when grieve overcame her and put on a smile to the students in front of her. She's here right now, with her students. And she has a class to teach.

"Do you believe in reincarnations?"

Grieve would come later, when no one was around.

"Don't worry. I'll be back, Clay. Promise."

XxXxX

The end-of-school bell rang and Clarice find herself standing by her desk, bidding her new students goodbyes as they filtered out of the classroom. All but one.

"Mister Potter?" Her voice slipped through her lips before she could process of what could possibly be the cause of this.

She watched as the boy smiled and sat down on her desk when he gestured for her to do so. He then started to ask her things that would instantly be shot down by most people.

"Tell me, Miss Roman. Do you believe in reincarnations?"

As the boy finished his speech, Clarice blinked, gulping lightly when she felt a lump forming in her throat. Taking a breath, she opened her mouth but no words would come out. It was no lie that currently she felt dread, she felt fear for her sixty-year-old life. She still had more things to look forward to. Her daughter haven't even given her a grandchild yet.

"Harry,"

She called him by his given name as she felt like this is a conversation that was held by two people rather than a teacher-student pair.

Behing those glasses, green eyes blinked at her as the boy tilted his head, patiently waiting for her reply.

Taking another deep breath, "I believe you." She said, steadily.

The ticking of the clock filled the room as the boy seemed to be processing her three-worded sentence carefully before he nodded with a much warmer smile that she hadn't seen before. "Good to know, Miss Roman." He said, clearly pleased with her faith in him. "But I must say, I wasn't really expecting it to be quite easy. Is there any particular reason?" He asked curiously.

Clarice let out a silent breath that she didn't realize she was holding, the grieve that's been bottled up is in the verge of tipping over. Staring at his hypnotic green eyes, she didn't even realize that she had actually started telling her story.

"I grew up in an orphanage when I was young." She started, somehow just knew that she could trust the boy with her story.

"My parents gave me up when I was four and I met this girl in an orphanage." She smiled slightly at the memory, "I don't know why but from this morning 'till now, you've been reminding me of her. And colour me impressed because she was quite the character."

"When we first met, she introduced herself and stated that her only friend was Death. She was my first friend, she took really good care of me and acted as if she was older than me even though we were of the same age. Even though we've only met, we were inseparable. She had quite a dry humour and just kept a lot of interestingly weird facts in her head. But five years later, she died by food poisoning. The orphanage was never the same."

"When she was in bed, just counting down the days, she asked me all of these sort of questions. When I disagreed, she just started telling me all sorts of theories that I actually started to believe her."

Rummaging through her purse, she took out a handkerchief and wiped her tears. Clarice let out a wet chuckle, "I'm sorry. I don't think you would want to hear a story of an old woman."

Though instead of a bored expression, the boy in front of her was furrowing his eyebrow as though deep in thought. "Say," She watched as the boy straightened in his seat and leaned forward on the desk, "Were you born on 1924, 3rd of March?" He asked with a mysterious smile.

Clarice blinked at his tone and nodded before saying "Yes." when she was reminded of his disability.

She watched as the raven let out an airy laugh before he stood up and felt his way towards the teacher's desk, where she was currently sitting.

Curiously watching him, she waited until he finally stood in front of her and grinned, a genuine grin that none could fake, while putting his hand inbetween them.

She took his hand and felt him giving it a couple of shake.

"Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Harry Potter, I am Death's friend and this is my fifth life in this world." She felt her eye widen but the boy, of course, couldn't see it. "In my first life, I was Hogwarts Peverell. In my second life, I was Rosalina Flamel. In my third life, I was Morris Scamander. And in my last life-" His grin melted into a warm smile, "I was Mary."

"Just Mary."

Upon hearing her name, self-control be damned. Clarice quickly scanned the boy's face for any trickery before pulling the small frame to her, feeling euphoria as though she was finally happy for the first time in years.

"Mary." She whispered into the mess of hair below her.

She felt small limbs wrapping themselves around her neck as the boy chuckled on the crook of her neck.

"Didn't I tell you I'd come back, Clay?"

XxXxX

Harry patted her back a couple of times when she started to sob. But only when the woman finally calmed down was when she deemed it safe enough to pull back from her old friend. "Well, this was more than what I was trying to achieve," She said before smirking, "But totally worth it."

The sixty-year-old gave her a watery chuckle as she tried to dry her eyes with a handkerchief. "Sure did." She said before continuing, "But what in the bloody hell were you trying to achieve by asking a teacher if she believes in reincarnation?"

Harry shrugged carelessly, "Well, I was hoping to skip a couple of grades and just graduate as soon as possible." She said, gaining an amused snort from the older woman.

"Of course, you are." Clarice rolled her eyes fondly. "I swear, giving long speeches is not the only way to solve a problem, you know. I thought I talked you out of that habit." She said in exasperated fondness, ruffling the mess lock of dark hair. "One day, you'll give someone a heart attack with it."

They smiled as they started to pack their things in comfortable silence, Clarice finishing earlier than Harry as she needed to grope her way back to her desk.

Once they're done, Clarice took Harry's hand and started leading them both towards her car. "So, any relations to the three Peverell brothers, Nikolas Flamel, Newt Scamander or Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" She asked suddenly that made the to younger girl stumble.

The ravenette made a sound of shock from behind her and laughed, "I can't believe I didn't realize you were a witch!" She exclaimed in disbelief.

Clarice giggled, helping Harry to climb into the passenger seat before seating herself on the driver's seat. "Well, I didn't really show much accidental magic, did I?" She mused as the girl nodded, humming in agreement.

The older woman laid her hands on the steering wheel, "So where to, O' Boy-Who-Lived?" She teased as the younger of the two groaned.

"Oh, hush you. It's the Girl-Who-Lived now."

She heard Clarice laughed, "Merlin, I swear every moment with you is never boring, Ry." Harry snorted, "You don't know how many times I've been told that."

Harry pulled on the seatbelt and made herself comfortable in the seat before dramatically pointing her hand forwards. "Onwards, my steed! Let us grace Diagon Alley with our presence."

The sixty-year-old shook her head fondly and drove as they catch up on the fifty one years that they were separated.

When they have arrived, Clarice managed to tell her everything that had happened when she was gone. How she wasn't the only one who attended Hogwarts from the orphanage, how her life had been like in Hufflepuff, how her life was after Hogwarts and how her life was with her adopted muggle daughter.

And Harry managed to explain her situation to the older woman. That she doesn't just reincarnate in this world, that she'd lived through hundreds of lifetimes, that she was indeed related to the school, the three brothers, the alchemist and the magizoologist, that her gender changes when she got 'in' the body (It's just something that Death did because he was bored), that worlds are actually fictions in another world (Yes, she does know what happens to the boy-Harry) and that she was indeed Death's friend.

Parking the car sideways, "You ready?" Clarice asked as she watched Harry flattening her hair on her forehead before pocketing her thick, round glasses in Dudley's baggy hand-me-down pants.

She looked at the older woman, "How do I look?" She gestured towards her bare face.

After assuring her that 'no, no one is going to recognize you', the girl and the woman made her way to the alley. The latter taping her wand in a pattern on the wall as it opened itself to them. They walked in and was immediately engulfed by warmth coming from magic-laced air, Harry let out a breath of contentment as she felt like coming home after a very long holiday.

"First stop, Gringgots Wizarding Bank."

XxXxX

Clarice: "Finally! I understand what in the bloody hell you were talking about from fifty years ago!"
Harry: "Haha."

Clarice: "Oh wait... So, Mary was a boy?"
Harry: "Yeap."
Clarice: "Huh. Can't imagine it."
Harry: "Well, it's life."
Clarice: "Huh."

Clarice: "Wait, so are you gay, straight or what?"
Harry: *Shrugs*
Harry: "It depends on the body I live in. Which in Harry's case, he was gay. But now he's straight because he is now a she."
Clarice: "Huh."

Clarice: "Wait, I just realized something. You are really Death's friend then."
Death: *Suddenly appears in the back seat in the form of shadows* " Indeed, she is."

-CAR SCREECHES-

Clarice: "MERLIN-" *Trying to stabilize the car and her heart*
Death: "Haha. This witch is funny. Keep her, Harry."
Harry: "Bugger off, you miserable virgin. I'm trying to catch up here. Go back to your dear Time."
Death: *Grumbles but leaves anyway*
Clarice: "Holy Mother of Merlin."

Clarice: "How many of them are there?!"
Harry: "Hmm. Well as you know, there's Death, and then there's Time (p.s. Death's pathetic crush), Love, Morality, Life, Patience, Destiny and... I don't know there's a lot."
Clarice: "You're going to be the death of me."

J Out!