Itoshii Sune-ku

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.


Itoshii Sune-ku.
Chapter 4:Dzuki Ato Arata Soukutsu?


Climbing out of his cupboard, Harry slowly crawled over to his aunt and the his angel. Looking them both over, he smiled slightly. 'Tiny doesn't even begin to cover it.'

"You can let her go now, Aunt Petunia. She helped me. See? I'm all better." Harry whispered, as he watched the girl try and pry his aunt's hand away from her mouth. Finally managing it, the first words out of the angel's mouth sounded like something from a mother.

"You are *not* 'all better.' I'm horrible at healing. I only stitched those bones of yours, and if you rip those stitches apart, especially those on your ribs, those ribs will punch a hole in your lungs. And I'm not capable of fixing punctured lungs! How will I manage that? Huh? I can't! And then, your lungs will fill with blood, and I won't know what to do about that either. Oh dear! What do I do if that happens? I'm not good at healing. And then you might die, and I'd be sad. And I wouldn't have enough time to get you to Serena, and then--"

"Thank you, Aunt Petunia." Said Harry in amusement, as the sharp-faced lady put her hand back over the child's mouth. Huffing, Petunia shifted the girl's weight a bit, then set her down in front of Harry.

"Who are you? And how did you get in my house?" Petunia asked in a whisper. The girl scooted around to face front, either facing Harry, or his aunt. Smiling slightly, she answered.

"My name's Rhapsody. And I got in through the back door." Harry snorted, then quieted and listened a minute. He grinned at his aunt Petunia, and said cheekily.

"She's got you there, Aunt. And that's a nice name. Rhapsody. I'm Harry Potter. And that there is my aunt, Petunia Dursley. What's your last name?" Rhapsody looked at him. She shrugged her shoulders, looking a little put out.

"I don't know. See, I'm a failed experiment. So, I have a couple last names. I just don't really know which one to use. I think it's a toss up, between two. But I like Riddle. Then people can call me, R.R. Well, R.S. doesn't sound any good." She giggled, a little nervously.

"Are you one of them?" Petunia asked. Rhapsody looked at her strangely. 'One of them? What's that?' Rhapsody started to speak, hesitantly.

"Umm......Are you talking about.....?" Petunia cut her off.

"Yes. Are you? If you are, you can take Harry away from here, can't you? You can keep him safe better than I can, right?" Both the children stared at her with wide eyes.

"Ummm.....Well, um, of course, I could keep him safe. I've been taking care of my sisters, and my brother since before I can remember. I don't think it would be any trouble to take care of him, too. But you're like, his mother, or guardian, right? Shouldn't--" Once again, Rhapsody gets cut off.

"He's not safe here. He never was, he never will be. You have parents, and people to take care of you, right? You can take him there, and take care of him. Please?" Rhapsody stood up, turned to Petunia, and stared down at her kneeling form.

"I'm going to Japan. There is someone there that will give me and my siblings a home. Until I'm old enough to get work, and pay for things myself. There are people that want me and my family dead. Are you quite sure you want to leave your charge with me? I'm not the safest person in the world right now. At least, not until I grow up a bit. The only way I'd be able to protect this charge would be to make him like me. I'm not even human. Do you want that for him?"

'Wow. She looks like Harry's age, but she acts years beyond her appearance. I wonder how that occured.' Petunia thought to herself, before answering.

"If you're not human, what are you? You certainly look human enough, to me." Rhapsody snorted, looked down at her body then back up.

"Can't you tell?" She asked. "The pale as death skin tone, the eyes so dark blue they look black, the slited pupils. The fangs--" She opened her mouth to reveal the small but sharp, glinting fangs just barely visible.

"I'm a snake. See, I was created with very few human qualities. Female egg, several different male seed, but I was borne from a snake. A very large snake at that. Do you even know what you're asking me? Do you know anything at all about this?" After that little speech, Petunia didn't know what to say. For the next 6 seconds.

"If you can keep him safe and not tortured, or beaten, then I trust you." Petunia smirked inwardly at the bemused expression on Rhapsody's face.

Harry figured Rhapsody wasn't doing much better than Harry himself was. 'I'm going to be sent away without Aunt Petunia? Can I deal with that? Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.'

'Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. I don't understand this woman! She wants me to turn her charge into something like ME?!?! What the heck is wrong with this woman?!?! Okay. Okay. Calm down...Calm...Calm....I'm not calm!!!' Rhapsody flopped down to the floor, rubbing her temples.

"Are you *Short pause* flippin' insane? I. AM. A. SNAKE. I have fangs. I'm poisionous. I'm allergic to eggs. And whole lot of herbs. See this cloak? It's huge. And very warm. I can't get too cold, otherwise, I might end up dying. And do you know what puberty is going to be like for me? Do you want that for him? Sure. It'll keep him safe. But it'll also impair him from a lot of things.

Like....Potions.....He is going to be going to school, right? Right! So, potions. He'll have to wear a special mask around all those herbs and ingredients. He'll never get to eat eggs again. They're poisionous for me, so they would be for him too.....I think...."

Petunia sighed. "Will you? Take care of him?" Rhapsody stared at her. Then turned her head and stared at Harry.

"You want to come with me?" She asked, watching as her voice, directed at him, snapped him out of his daze. He stared at her for a few moments.

"Are you serious? What about Aunt Petunia?"

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Vernon doesn't like you. He only hurts you because he doesn't want you to be happy. That's it. He just enjoys making you miserable. So, you'll be safe. Perfectly safe." She smiled at him.

"Not perfectly safe. No one can be perfectly safe. Relatively safe, yes. But not perfectly. Now, if you're going to become my new brother--" She said this part with noticable excitement--"then we're going to have to get going. I only came here to find some old towls for my siblings. I wasn't about to steal your blankets. All right? You pack all your things up. And on our way back, I'll explain everything to you. I have 3 sisters, and one brother. Two, now that you're going to be family. You're going to have to learn how to tell us apart, too. We're pretty much identical, except for certain facial features. So, come on. Get ready. I still have to go find those old towls."

After that, Rhapsody stood up and silently made her way around Petunia and still silently up the stairs, missing every creaking step like she had lived there her entire life. Harry and his aunt stared after her for a minute before Petunia snapped out of her daze.

"Hurry up. Let's get your things gathered up. And I'll fix you some finger food to take with you. It'll last you a few days. Hurry now!" And so, at that, Harry crawled *carefully* back into his soon-to-be-former cupboard, to gather the few things in there.