Harry Tate: Little Harry Bath Time

((sorry it's late, been playing Guild Wars 2, which I got for Christmas))

Chasing a four year old around the house was not the way that Eva particularly wanted to spend her evening, considering she was still a little bruised from the fight she’d been involved in earlier in the day, but if she wanted to get her adopted son to take a bath tonight it was a necessary evil.

“Need a hand?” Nale chuckled as the messy haired child darted underneath his legs and ran down the corridor, wearing only his boxer shorts.

“That would be nice.” Eva growled, pushing past her friend and following the giggling.

Nale smirked and followed, it was always entertaining to watch the immortal bargain with her son.

According to Jin the boy had actually had a bath willingly yesterday, but only because he’d been helping her in the garden and if Eva had managed to teach him anything it was ‘if you’re covered in mud, you have to wash before dinner’.

The day before yesterday it had taken the promise of an ice cream to get him to take a bath, after which the four year old had required another bath, just to get the ice cream out of all the interesting places it had managed to get. Nale had never seen anyone get ice cream in their ears before…

“Now where did he go?” Eva muttered, looking at all the open doors and starting towards the most obvious one, her son’s bedroom.

“I believe this is yours.” Orion stepped out of the study with a rather put out looking four year old in his arms, looking a little exasperated.

“You’d be right.” Eva snorted, amused by both Orion and her son, “Harry, how many times have I told you not to disturb Orion while he’s working?” She tutted at the boy, taking him from Orion and giving the huge man an apologetic look before heading back towards the bathroom.

“He wun’t working!” Harry protested.

“Wasn’t not wun’t, Harry.” Eva gently chided, “He wasn’t using his computer was he?”

“No.” Harry looked scornful for just a second, realised where she was heading and tried to squirm out of her grip.

“For…” Eva bit off what she was going to say, thoroughly sick of arguing with her son every day about the dreaded b word, but not willing to swear at a child, “Harry, remember what I told you about baths?”

“If I didn’t have a bath every day, a monster would come and eat me.” Harry nodded.

“So why won’t you have a bath?”

“Because you and Auntie Jin beat monsters up.” Harry explained patiently, in the exact tone of voice she’d often heard Jin using on her during one of her denser moments.

Ok, so while the fact Harry had seen the pair of them taking down a triad of monstrous creatures this morning, all of whom had been unlike anything Eva had seen before, and likely having originated from the home of the ‘Lord of Darkness’ that Eva had taken down on the behest of her Boss around lunch time (hence the bruising), had effectively ruined that strategy of getting Harry to bathe, it had been rather therapeutic, considering that it had been a while since Eva had been able to pound on anything without having to worry about holding back and motherhood was stressful.

“Fine, if you don’t take baths every day, I’ll stop buying chocolate milkshake.” Eva threatened.

“Uh uh.” Harry shook his head, “Auntie Jin makes the shopping list.”

“I’ll tell Auntie Jin not to put it on.” Eva warned the boy, who watched Nale pretend to sulk, and giggled, only to cause Eva to shut the bathroom door, effectively trapping in the bathroom and stopping Nale from continuing to be a bad influence.

For now at least.

“I don’t wanna bath.” Harry glowered. “I don’t, I don’t, I don’t…” The four year old trailed off at the look on his mother’s face, knowing the look all to well.

“Bath or no milkshake before bed.”

“But…” Harry sulked.

“No buts.”

“Fine.” And now Harry sounded like Nale when Jin dragged him off to help her with the shopping, as he finally got into the bath. “But it had better be a big one.”

Eva chuckled, causing her son to give her an indignant look, “You’ll get the same size milkshake as you always do. Now close your eyes, I’m gonna wash your hair.”

Harry Tate: Year 3 Train Mishaps

Harry James Tate had been asleep since they had left King’s Cross station early this morning, lulled to sleep by the combination of the movement of the train and the music that had been playing on his portable CD player, so when the train stopped and his music cut out, the thirteen year old started awake and looked around, bleary eyed, at his friends, Megan and Hermione, taking one of the buds out of his ears.

“We’ve stopped.” Hermione told him with a small frown, putting her book down and watching the young martial artist take the other bud out of his ear and look out the window, “But we’re still hours from Hogwarts.”

“My music stopped too.” Harry muttered, “I put fresh batteries in, it shouldn’t have cut out for another,” He looked at his watch, “Two hours.”

The lights cut out and the temperature suddenly dropped to around freezing.

Harry called up a ball of ki, the white energy he’d been taught to harness by his mother, if only to stop him from trying to learn it on his own, which lit the room and cast startling shadows.

“Put that out.”

Harry and Hermione turned to look at the man whose carriage they had been riding in. Professor Lupin, who had been further asleep then Harry just moments ago, had gotten to his feet and moved towards the door, waving at Harry to put out the light.

Harry was about to reabsorb his ki when a hooded creature appeared in the doorway, breath rattling, floating inches above the ground, resembling nothing more then a ragged black robe that floated along menacingly.

Instead, Harry launched the ki at the creature, who had turned towards the occupants of his carriage. The ball of energy caused the creature to explode into black streamers of goo upon contact.

The goo stuck to everything to it touched, including Harry’s jacket, which he quickly pulled off, before slowly vanishing, cleaned up by the charms in place to stop the train getting messy when students ran rampant in it.

“Soul Stealer!” Hermione hissed, already getting to her feet, shrugging off the remnants of the bad memories brought to the fore by the presence of the creature and watching her friend, knowing that his mother had done everything she could to protect him from the worst of the effects that they had on people’s minds, but knowing that Harry was still susceptible.

“I know.” Harry said, moving towards the door. “Wait here.”

“Don’t move from this carriage,” Lupin, who had reached the door moments before Harry, trying to work out what, exactly Harry had done to the Dementor, blanched slightly as a pair of Dementors floated down the hall towards the compartment from both directions.

“Professor…” Harry hissed, frustrated. He could handle a couple more Soul Stealers, but not if Lupin insisted in getting in the way.

“Expecto Patronum.” Lupin waved his wand and a burst of silvery light, which seemed to take the shape of some animal, though Harry couldn’t quite see what it was, chased the two Dementors away.

The heat was back quickly once the Dementors were gone, but the teen wasn’t paying attention. He was too busy being annoyed at Lupin. “I could have handled those Soul Stealers.” Harry growled at the Professor, who turned to consider him carefully.

“I don’t doubt you could have.” Lupin nodded, watching Harry warily. “But those Dementors were sent by the Ministry of Magic to search for Sirius Black. Destroying one of them is bad enough, but destroying three would get you into trouble. What, exactly, did you do?”

“They’re from Azkaban?” Hermione questioned, looking from Lupin to her friend, fully aware of the deal Harry’s mother had made with the Ministry to avoid clashes between the Ministry’s Aurors and Eva Tate’s little band of misfits.

“They weren’t on Azkaban, this doesn’t void my mother’s contract.” Harry waved it off, though he was certain Hermione would probably contact Eva to check.

“What did you do?” Lupin demanded of the black haired teen, whose mood had been broken by his friend’s interruption and was now fiddling with the MP3 player.

“Well, you see Professor, it’s a long story.” Harry said, not really wanting to tell it, but horribly aware that Lupin was going to get it out of him anyway.

“I will go and speak with the driver and then I will require a full story out of you, Mr…”

“Tate, Harry James Tate.” Harry replied.

“Mr Tate.” Lupin nodded. “With a little luck, we might be able to prevent you getting into trouble.”

“I doubt it.” Hermione sniggered once the Professor had left the compartment. “Since when can anyone keep you out of trouble?”

“He wouldn’t be the first to try.” Harry nodded, amusement sinking in, past the frustration.

Lupin was gone only ten minutes and the train was moving again before he got back to them. Harry, who was giving his cat a treat through the bars on the cat carrier, looked up to find the Professor watching him again. “Yes Professor?”

“The full story please, from the beginning…”

“Well, you see Professor, it all begins with my mother…”

Harry Tate: Harry Potter/Original Story crossover

Eva Tate had been out since five o’clock yesterday morning on an errand for her boss, and had only gotten in at seven o’clock this morning, so when the phone rang at midday, it was her girlfriend, Jin, who had taken the call.

“Eva, love.” The Asian woman with long black hair and startling green eyes shook her partner gently, “Social services are on the phone.”

Eva forced herself out of a well deserved and much needed sleep to nod and pull herself out of bed, following her girlfriend down the corridor and picking up the phone. “Eva Tate speaking.”

“Lindsey Winters, I’m with Social Services.”

“Good,” Eva checked the clock quickly, “Afternoon Ms Winters, does this mean the paperwork’s gone through?”

“Indeed.” Lindsey sounded cheerful, too cheerful for Eva’s liking considering the lack of sleep, but she pushed the irritation aside. “In fact we have a child we need to find a home for as soon as possible.”

“Do tell.” Eva perked up, having been waiting for this good news for months and surprised that they’d been picked out for a child so quickly.

“The boy’s eighteen months old. His name’s Harry Potter.” Lindsey sounded like she was reading off of a sheet, “It might only be a temporary placement, it sounds like he just wandered away from home and once we find out who his parents are they’ll have first rights to the child.”

“I understand.” Eva nodded, “I’d be happy to take Harry in for as long as necessary.”

“Good, we’ll drop him off at two.”

“Thank you, I’ll be ready for him. Is there anything extra we should know?”

“We’ll do all necessary checks before we leave to make sure you’re suitable, but you shouldn’t have a problem.”

“I understand.” Eva nodded, though she couldn’t be seen by the woman on the other end of the phone. “Thank you for choosing us.”

“You’re welcome Miss Tate. Provided everything goes well, Harry should be staying with you for a couple of days.”

“I understand.” She repeated.

“I’ll see you at two.” Lindsey put the phone down.

“Eva?” Jin asked, confused.

“The spare room’s free, isn’t it?” Eva asked, pausing on the stairs.

“It’s as neat and tidy as possible.” Jin nodded, “Why? Is it finally happening?” She asked, excited.

“It’s only for a few days.” Eva warned, “Until they find his parents.”

“I don’t care. It could be for a few hours for all I care. If they’ve picked us we’re likely to get picked again if we do a good job!” She danced down the hallway and into the living room.

Eva was about to head up to double check the spare room, wondering if they should get a crib or an alarm or something if the boy was likely to wander, when a bright light blazed out of the living room door, forcing Eva to shield her eyes until it had gone down.

“Eva!” Jin sounded rather annoyed. “You have a visitor.”

She’d kind of guessed, considering all of Jin’s ‘visitors’ appeared at the door or without a flashy light show and their friends, those who lived here at least, had their own house keys.

Eva entered the living room to find a tall, brunette woman in a gorgeous white dress waiting for her. “My Lady.” Eva bowed to her patron, frustrated. Why now?

“Straighten Eva, I must speak with you at length.”

“My Lady, please do not presume me rude, but you have come at a rather inopportune moment.” Eva said as she directed the woman towards the sofa and looked at Jin, who nodded and darted off to make some tea. “You see Social Services have...”

“I know.” The woman said, settling demurely on the sofa and waved Eva silent. “That is why I am here.”

Eva nodded. This woman was the embodiment of fate, the one who dictated how the paths of each individual ran. This woman was also the reason she was alive right now.

Eva had been friends with Jin for years, and, back when they’d been eleven or twelve, Jin had fought with an enemy called Korina, an evil sorceress who was devouring the souls of innocent people in order to prolong her life and had been doing so for around five hundred years. Back then they’d believed the prophecy that had announced that Jin was the only one who could beat her.

When they’d defeated her, through a combination of skill and sheer dumb luck, they’d believed it was over.

So when Korina had returned four years later, they had been unprepared, surviving the first assault against them only because the Soul Stealers had focused their attack on Jin, giving Eva a chance to use what she’d learnt since their last encounter, which, in turn gave Nate, Lucy and Orion time to arrive and help.

They’d found and defeated Korina in battle again, but this time it had been at a price.

Before Jin’s summons could defeat Korina and force her out of the Soul Stealer who she had possessed, in order to seal her away, Korina had struck a lucky blow, sending Jin’s fire bird crashing into a pillar.

Eva who had been in the direct path of the bird, had had to dive out of the way, and had been unable to get to her feet quick enough to get out of the way of a spell cast by Korina, which, as far as everyone else involved in the fight had been concerned, had killed her.

It had been then that this woman, Madam Fate or Lady Destiny, she went by either name and was known by many more, had stepped in.

She had been following Eva’s story closely, especially since Eva’s story was caught up in the story of Fate’s favourites and the girl was studying under a Master of Wu Shu, who had trained up on Xuan Wu’s Mountain, and when it had seemed that Eva was about to be killed, Destiny had plucked her from the battle field, taken her to the world of the Gods and given her a choice.

Become Raised and given a chance to go back and fight alongside her, by that point, girlfriend once again, in exchange for doing a few jobs for Madam Fate, up to and including dealing with Dark Lords, Sorcerers and Mages at the start of their career, so that Fate wouldn’t have to go through the rigmarole of fighting with a world that no longer wanted to believe in Gods and magic to get things done properly, or die.

Those were the choices and Eva had, quite understandably, chosen life, not quite understanding until much, much later what choosing life as a Raised Human would mean, and when she returned to the human world three months later, it was to the shock and awe of her friends, who had believed her dead.

It wasn’t until Eva, as was the norm for teenagers who gained a lot of power, had made the mistake of getting cocky on one of the jobs that Madam Fate had sent her on and she’d gotten herself killed, that she truly realised what being Raised meant.

It meant that while she could be killed, she would return to the human world after a certain amount of time. It could be anything from three months to a stupid amount of years, but she would return. She wouldn’t stay dead.

She also wouldn’t age.

She had tried to pull away from Jin when she’d found that out, unsure whether she could cope with watching her girlfriend grow old and die, and had even asked Madam Fate to Raise Jin like she had Raised Eva.

But even if Fate had been willing, Jin would have turned it down.

She had quite enough on her plate with Korina, without adding any other problems.

And so Eva had stayed with her, and had been about to ask Jin the big question when Jin had made a suggestion.

They couldn’t have children together, so what if they adopted?

Eva, having the most steady income, had made the application, and now it seemed like it was going to come to fruition, but why was Destiny here now? And what did she want with the child that was only going to be staying with them a few days?