Ophelia Lillian Potter watched with thinly veiled envy as her cousin Dudley messily ate the large cone of chocolate, vanilla and pistachio ice cream in his hand, a pouty frown on her lips.
It wasn't fair! Why did he get to eat a large, delicious scoop of ice cream with three different flavors while she got a small serving of a mango one? Not that her mango flavor ice cream hadn't been absolutely delicious since it really, really was and aunt Petunia always did tell her that lying wasn't proper behavior for a lady.
Still, it wasn't every day that she got to eat Italian ice cream, or gelato as she heard one of the workers in the store call it earlier and it was very, very tasty.
She knew that her aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon loved her cousin much more than they did her, especially since Dudley was their biological son. Ophelia was just the orphan niece that had been left on their doorstep on a cold November night when she was a little baby because her irresponsible parents got their drunk, foolish selves in a car accident.
Consequently ending their short, pitiful lives and leaving her in the gracious care of her aunt's family.
Uncle Vernon liked repeating that story to her every time he was in one of his moods that she literally had it printed in her mind. Well, the scar she got from that accident was a tiring reminder enough. Fortunately, aunt Petunia agreed with her that it was an eyesore and helpfully styled her deep red hair in a fringe to prettily cover it up. Heaven forbid that a relative of hers prounced around in an atrocious hairstyle, after all.
That was mostly why her aunt was her favorite of the three despite her sometimes mean disposition towards her because she would instantly know that she did something wrong and finding out what exactly that was, was rather easy.
The other two on the hand...
Ophelia couldn't help but resent her parents, if only they hadn't died...her life could have been much better.
She tore her gaze from her ice cream stained cousin and distracted herself by looking at the beautiful paintings hanging on the wall of the hotel's lobby they were standing in front of, impatiently waiting for her guardians who had gone to the public toilet just a few minutes ago.
"Hey," She blinked at Dudley questioningly, tilting her head in curiosity. It wasn't often that he talked to her civilly, after all. "Go throw this in the trash can." Never mind.
He pointed a dirty finger at his melting ice cream and she frowned when she saw that it was barely finished.
"You shouldn't waste food like that, Dudley." She said, vaguely upset but ultimately unsurprised. Her cousin was a spoiled glutton and it wasn't the first nor would it be the last time that he would want something extravagant and eye-catching and then discard it as easily as he had gotten it when he got bored with whatever had interested him in the first place.
The pile of toys, some broken while others looked brand new, particularly the books and the puzzles, laying in the second bedroom was evidence enough of that bad habit of his. Though she didn't mind it that much considering she could borrow the books when she was free from her daily chores and choir sessions.
She could even use the old computer there sometimes to play some games or watch opera music videos if aunt Petunia was in a good enough mood and uncle Vernon was away at work.
"I don't want it anymore. Go throw it." Dudley thrust the ice cream towards her, almost managing to dirty her green dress had she not stumbled a few steps back in instinct, a petulant and demanding scowl on his quickly reddening face as he stomped his foot.
"Throw it now, Ophelia or I'll tell daddy!"
She turned her head to the side and sniffed in disgust, grudgingly taking the cone and making sure to not touch it as much as possible, turning sharply on her heels like she had seen one of those fancy women do when they wanted to convey just how disgusted they were in the soap operas her aunt loved watching nightly, the latter's bag which had been left to her smacking him in the cheek as she marched towards the nearest trash bin in sight.
Stupid, rude Dudley! Just because he was the favorite of uncle Vernon didn't mean he could blatantly lie to him to get her in trouble. Aunt Petunia at least was fair when she behaved nicely but uncle always got mad at her for every little thing and that ugly, hideous pig knew it!
She accidentally bumped into someone's legs and it was only thanks to the hand that steadied her that she didn't fall to the floor and dirty the pretty dress that her aunt had gifted her for her 9th birthday last year.
It was old but well cared for, one of the old dresses of her mother Lily according to Aunt Petunia. It was a gorgeous deep emerald color, with little white birds embroidered at the seams. It fit her perfectly, emphasizing her brilliant green eyes.
The older woman had stared at her with an inscrutable gaze and smiled that smile that always made her chest tingle pleasantly, the one that always made her want the approval of the only caring adult in her life.
She was jostled from her thoughts by a concerned, accented voice asking her. "Stai bene?" It was said in a foreign language, Italian she guessed - mainly because of their location and the fact that it had been the one he had spoken to her with despite his clearly Asian origins - and she quickly scurried through the pretty limited Italian she had learned a week prior before coming here.
Ophelia immediately righted herself, heat flooding in her cheeks as she responded to the young gentleman she had bumped into.
He was very tall, maybe two heads taller than uncle Vernon and was dressed in a fine and expensive, black suit and equally shiny black leather shoes, his loose blue tie the only other color besides his white silk shirt in his outfit. His bright smile and relaxed posture also made him look more elegantly casual and handsome than her uncle could have ever managed in his own cheap, boring brown suit. He could easily pass as a rather exotic model in one of her aunt's secret fashion magazines.
"Sì, grazie." She told him, making sure to pronounce the words correctly. "Um, scusa?" The apology turned out more like a question at the end and she ducked her head in further embarrassment.
A warm chuckle graced her ears and she realized distantly that the cone had ended up on the tiled floor.
"It's fine." The accented English response made her snap her head up again, the young, elegantly suited man smiling gently down at her. She smiled tentatively back at him, drawn in his friendly aura despite the stranger, danger rule that the teachers at school always repeated to them.
"What's your na - " Before he could finish his words, the high, angry voice of her aunt interrupted him.
"How many more times do I have to tell you to not wander off on your own, girl?" Ophelia winced. She was using her husband's personal nickname for her so she must be really mad.
So much for her hopes of an enjoyable vacation.
Her wrist was taken in a tight grip, the light red nails digging sharply in her skin as the older woman wrenched her body towards her and wide brilliant green clashed with icy cornflower blue.
"Dudley made me throw his ice cream, Aunt Petunia." Her aunt's lips merely thinned in a severe, straight line, irate eyes narrowed and a biting insult at the tip of her tongue before all the tension left her previously stiff body, her hand loosening its vice grip hold abruptly and she watched with confused but nonetheless relieved eyes as the woman relaxed in a serene demeanor, as though all the rage she had before was inexplicably drained out of her form.
Aunt Petunia apologized almost drowsily to the nearly forgotten man and she automatically curtsied in response, the movement fluid and graceful from all the practice she had gone through to reach her aunt's high standards.
"My apologies, sir." She murmured, eyes downcast politely. At least, her aunt didn't seem to want to pulverize her anymore and Ophelia knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The strangely calm woman led her to the males of the family and all thoughts of charming, nice men fled from her mind as she briefly encountered beady brown eyes.
(and months later meet a weird giant who literally knocked himself entrance to her quaint life to deliver a mindblowing letter in person.)
(It wasn't until years later that this chance meeting would come to mind again, when redredred blood was dripping over her face and hands and her world once again shifted tides as another secret society barged into her already chaotic life.)
.
.
A.N.
Wanted to try a Harry Potter x Katekyo Hitman Reborn since I'm a great fan of genderbent characters - or just badass females, really - and a fem!Harry would be very cool and I just love the world of KHR. I mean, who doesn't? This is also my first HP fic.
Harry or Ophelia, in this case, would be hella different from Canon! Harry since I'd like to believe that if she had any resemblance to her dead mother at all without triggering any bad memories to Petunia, she would be treated just a bit more differently. I'm not saying that she wouldn't be abused or taken advantage of, just that her negative emotions are more towards her male relatives seeing as they treat her like a slave like they did to Harry in canon and Petunia's punishments are much more subtle and psychological in nature.
Harry was described - or at least, to me his character was - as a boy who was desperate for parental approval or just being cared for in general though maybe I'm a bit biased considering all the different fics I've read about him so Ophelia's desire of being loved is handled by Petunia, who is firmly set in making her as normal and freakiness-free as possible in comparison to her mother Lily who she was immensely jealous of when they were kids.
I'm not making Ophelia adult like or thoroughly jaded so early on, as she would still be retaining some of her childishness and stuff due to the different way she was raised (hint, hint: how would Tuny raise a girl? Like making Ophelia a mirror image of her - not appearance wise since that would be just horrible - of course, AKA as lady like as possible.).
Also, the time is that of the Harry Potter books even if advanced technology would appear from time to time in the mafia because they are obviously way more advanced than the civvies.
If you have any questions, just review me.
Btw, who do you think that man in the suit was? I think I was rather obvious, too obvious in fact or maybe not.
OH! Before I forgot, the timeline in KHR is the TYL!. I mean that the future mishap didn't happen yet and this timeline is actually the one in which Tsuna dies during the meeting with Byakuran in the future and the teenagers are transported in the future one by one.
Seriously, is nobody interested in writing that at all?! Sure, the normal canon event is interesting but viewing it from their viewpoint would be much more interesting. If you do know of a good fic that has it though, please I beg you to recommend it!
Traduction
Stai bene- are you ok?
Si, grazie- yes, thank you.
Scusa-sorry.
Not to brag, but I live and study in Italy so Italian is like a second or third language to me. I speak it every day so errors in this department are not a prob.