Work Text:
Harry Potter looked up as the person who used the desk next to his sat down. She threw her bag on the floor and immediately logged into her computer.
“Where have you been?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I even tried to explain it, Specs,” Darcy Lewis said, never taking her eyes off of her computer screen.
“That’s not very fair. You disappear for a week and you won’t tell me where they sent you?”
“You watch much television, Potter?”
“No, I don’t think a telly even works in my home.”
“Those poor children.”
“Those poor children, as you put it, went to a Qudditch game last weekend and saw a live dragon. I think my kids are just fine without a telly, thank you very much.”
Darcy finally took her eyes off her computer and rolled her eyes. “Fine, your magic children are fine growing up in their isolated magic bubble.”
“I don’t appreciate your sarcasm, Lewis.”
She smirked at him. “You love my sarcasm. It gets you through the day.”
Harry scowled. “Fine, don’t tell me where you were. Next time I go on a cool mission I won’t share the information with you either.”
The two moved back to their computers and worked in silence that lasted less than five minutes.
“I was in a television show!” Darcy blurted out. “Well, technically I wasn’t. But I was. It’s a long story.”
“I have time.”
“I went to New Jersey because there was this weird force field surrounding a town. You’ll never guess who was causing it.”
“You’re right. I’ll never guess. So tell me.”
“You suck all the fun out of retelling.”
“No, I keep the retelling moving, or else we would be here all day.”
Darcy rolled her eyes again, something she did a lot around him. “Fine, it was Wanda Maximoff.”
“Maximoff?” Harry leaned forward in his chair. The story finally got interesting.
“Yes.”
“But she’s an Avenger, why would she be holding a whole town hostage?”
“Grief.”
Darcy didn’t need to say anymore. Harry understood. After everything he lost in his youth, everyone taken from him too early, he understood grief all too well. And even then, he didn’t lose someone he loved so deeply. If Ginny were to be taken from him...he couldn’t even fathom what he would do. Maybe even take over a whole town?
“So, where does the telly come in?”
“Relax, Potter, I’m getting there. So, when she cast the dome over the town, she basically put everyone in classic television shows.”
“Oh! I know classic television. Well, anything pre-1990 before I went into the magical world.”
“So you know things like “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Bewitched?”
“Yes!”
“Well, she put her and Vision as the main characters into these shows and then freakin’ broadcast them outside of her hex, and we were able to watch them!”
“You’re kidding.”
Darcy shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
“How did you even get to go on this mission? I’m a wizard, this mission screams of magic.”
Darcy scooted back from her desk and reclined in her chair. “We didn’t know it was magic until long after I was brought in. I thought about trying to get you in, but S.W.O.R.D. turned out to be super corrupt and they really pissed off Wanda, and then I was in the hex.”
Harry ran his hands down his face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“What character did you play?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.
A smile grew across Harry’s face. “Well, now I really want to know.”
Darcy pursed her lips and shook her head. “Nope. Let’s just move on from here.”
“Were you their pet?”
“Their pet? Why would you immediately just assume that I would be their pet?”
Harry shrugged. “You don’t want to talk about it, so I assumed that’s because it’s embarrassing. So, the most embarrassing thing I could think of was being their pet.”
“No, I was not their pet. Their pet ended up being killed by an evil witch, but more on that later.”
Harry frowned. “Their pet died?”
“It was all a very special episode level tragic. The kids were devastated about poor little Sparky.”
“So, you weren’t Sparky. Who were you?”
Darcy mumbled something as she looked down into her lap before turning back to her computer, suddenly very interested in getting back to work.
“I’m sorry, Lewis, I don’t think I quite heard what you said.”
She pushed away from her desk again before swiveling to be right in front of Harry. She folded her arms, placed them on her desk and leaned in. Harry instinctively leaned in as well.
“Fine, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise me you won’t laugh.”
“I can’t make those promises.”
Darcy sighed again. “Fine, I was a circus performer.”
Harry smiled. “I don’t see why that’s embarrassing. The circus is cool.”
“I was the escape artist slash magician. Imagine having to tell a person who has actual magic, that you were brought into a fiction world as a person who does fake magic, that’s a bit embarrassing.”
Harry smiled again. “So, can I book you for my kids’ birthdays?”
“See, this is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Can you pull a rabbit out of a hat?”
“I’m done, I’m leaving this conversation.”
“Wait, I have one more.”
“Fine.”
“Do you have a magic wand?”
“You finished?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.”
Silence fell between them.
“Is she okay?”
“Who?”
“Wanda. You said she created this whole alternate television reality due to her grief. Did she come out okay?”
Darcey shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. She released the hex, and let everyone go, and then she just sort of left. No one knows where she went. But she has these crazy awesome magic powers now. I expect you’ll be getting called in soon for your ‘expert opinion.’”
Harry sighed. Ever since the Muggles created the Sokovia Accords, the Wizarding World decided they needed to have someone on the inside, so here Harry was, being one of the many people on the inside. It was safer than being an Auror, but it was also pretty boring.
“Well, I guess I’ll be looking forward to that. They do know not all magic is the same, don’t they?”
“Obviously not. You know how these bureaucrats are.”
“Unfortunately I do.”
“I’m sorry I got to have a really cool experience and you had to stay behind.”
“It’s fine, really. Gin would kill me if I put myself in danger. Ever since The Blip…”
“Yeah.”
Silence fell between them as they each contemplated their fates at the hands of Thanos. Harry and Ginny had been lucky. They didn’t blip, and neither did their three children. Most of their extended family did. They ended up taking in all the displaced Weasley children. It was a hard five years.
“We should get back to work.”
“Yeah, we should.”
Harry turned back to his computer, but only worked with half his brain. The other half was thinking of Ginny.
When lunch hit, he immediately stood from his desk and left the building, making his way to the local wizarding town, with the international floo he used each night. He didn’t often go home during the day, but he felt he needed to see Ginny. Something about Wanda made him have an intense need to go hug his wife.
He stepped out of the floo and into Grimauld Place. It had been about a month since everyone returned from The Blip, but the house was still full of children and Weasleys trying to readjust to everyone being back. The house was large, and he had the room, plus Ginny wasn’t ready to give up the kids they had just started thinking of as theirs.
He moved through the house, knowing exactly where he would find his wife in the middle of the day.
He opened the door to the library to see her surrounded by small children as she read to them their after lunch story. He stalked over to her and pulled her up from her place on the chair.
“Harry? What is going on? Is everything okay?”
He didn’t say anything, he just pulled her into a tight hug.
“Harry, you’re worrying me. Did something happen at work?”
He shook his head. “No, everything is fine. My coworker, Lewis, just got back from a really hard assignment dealing with someone so heartbroken she went to drastic measures. I just needed to come here and make sure you’re okay.”
Ginny pulled Harry tighter against her. “Yeah, Harry, I’m fine.”
Harry buried his face in her neck, inhaling her scent, immediately reassuring himself that everything was right in the world.
As he stood there holding his wife, his mind couldn’t help but slip to the whereabouts of another redhead. And he prayed to Merlin that wherever she was, that she was okay. He hoped that she could find comfort. He hoped she had a friend there for her. Because no one should be alone while dealing with such a loss. No one.