When she told Hermione, her friend reacted with a mix of jealousy, amusement, and arrogance.
"You didn't really think the syllabus I sent you was the bare minimum, did you?" her friend said, smiling through the mirror. "You know I always study ahead."
"…Are you telling me you made me study extra for an entire year?" she asked in astonishment, with a hint of irritation. "Hermione!"
"What? Are you seriously going to complain, Harika? In just two months, you finished a master's degree in Transfiguration! If you hadn't studied the same material as me for a whole year, you wouldn't have been able to do it."
"Ugh… I suppose I owe you one."
"And don't you forget it!"
They continued talking for a while about their experiences and Hermione's work at the Ministry. Damn Hermione… Since she hadn't attended the classes, she didn't know what syllabus had actually been given. Harika had assumed that what her friend sent her was the required material, but she had never realized it was just what Hermione was studying. When she ended the mirror connection, she had to smile, shaking her head at how her friend had tricked her without her even noticing. And people said Hermione was an angel. Ha!
It was already December, and the tour was following its planned route. They had started in China due to a creature that only appeared in July, so they had spent the entire month exploring the country and its immense diversity of both creatures and vegetation. In August and September, they had visited India and progressively moved westward, passing through Pakistan, Iran, Iraq… until they reached the African continent, which they had been exploring during October and November.
Now, they were in South America, and the plan was to spend two more months in the southern hemisphere of the Americas before moving north for another two months. Fortunately, she had only needed to learn Spanish once to be able to communicate verbally in most of the southern countries. The best part, besides how much she was learning, was the landscapes. From lush, warm, and humid tropical forests with their full rivers and stunning waterfalls to ice and rock deserts, and the vast, dark ocean stretching endlessly on the horizon. The world was immense and, at the same time, just a speck of dust in the universe. It was the dose of humility many people needed to realize that they weren't even a grain of sand compared to everything around them.
"Hey, Hari," called Luna, appearing behind her.
"Luna. Are you done with your session?"
"Yes."
"How did it go?"
"Good. Better than expected," her friend smiled so genuinely that it brightened Harika's day. "Look at all the information we gathered!"
Harika looked at her friend's notes, returning the smile, while setting aside her own notes on enchantments. Tina was the complete opposite of Newt Scamander—strict, calculating, and stubborn. She was determined to teach Harika two more master's degrees before the tour ended and had sworn she would succeed. Half thrilled and half terrified, Harika had nodded at the excited gleam in her teacher's eyes. That meant that whenever she wasn't working as a photographer, she was reading, practicing magic, and taking her own notes.
"Sometimes she gets bored on these trips with me," confessed her teacher's husband one night in a low voice. "Having something to do, something she enjoys, has given her a new purpose. I'm sure you'll earn that master's degree. You know how stubborn she is!"
"I can hear you, Newton Artemis Scamander!"
Newt grimaced, shrinking back on the log he was sitting on with a guilty smile. Then, he winked at her and secretly handed her a small but thick, handwritten journal filled with enchantments and defensive tricks he had developed throughout his career. Harika nearly drooled at the sheer amount of secret knowledge he was gifting her without asking for anything in return. She swore she would learn it all. It wouldn't take much effort—she was eager to practice those spells. Was this how Hermione felt all the time? No wonder she always had her head buried in a book.
She quickly realized that most of Newt's spells were medical, hunting, capturing, or defensive in nature. It made sense. In his life, he must have encountered countless injured animals, and he had likely been wounded many times himself. Not to mention the times he captured creatures to heal them and the other times he had to flee from criminal gangs determined to get rid of him so he wouldn't rescue the animals they held captive for their dirty gold.
One way or another, she was learning so many medical spells that she started considering becoming a healer. It had never crossed her mind before, but why not? She was good at enchantments and Transfiguration, and, despite appearances, she wasn't mediocre at potions either. Her grades proved it. Without Snape breathing down her neck and with so much free time, she had been able to study at her own pace with Andromeda's help.
Still, she couldn't see herself working at St. Mungo's for the rest of her life.
"You could open your own clinic," Luna shrugged. "You'd just need a place to set up your business and some employees. Clinics need a Ministry license to operate, but once you have that, part of your business is subsidized by the Ministry."
"Mmm… I don't know if I want the Ministry involved in my supposed clinic."
"Another option would be to become a private healer," Rolf chimed in, eating dinner across from Luna. "You'd work for a few select families, or even exclusively for one. It's very lucrative, though getting chosen among so many private healers can be tough."
"With who she is, I doubt she'd have trouble," Tina chuckled. "Especially with the two master's degrees she plans to complete in less than two years."
"Though if you had a master's in Potions, you'd stand out even without being Harika Potter."
"Yeah…" she muttered, frowning. "I don't know if I want another master's degree, especially in Potions."
"If I were you, I'd check out a few books before deciding," Luna shrugged after her advice and continued eating.
She blinked. Luna had never led her astray. A part of her thought she had some divinatory abilities, no matter how much Hermione insisted she was just eccentric. So, resigning herself to checking which Potions books she already owned and buying a few more updated ones, she avoided sighing as she realized she had a lot of work ahead. It wasn't that she disliked Potions, but whenever she thought about them, Snape and that grimy, gloomy dungeon came to mind, along with all the times she had been humiliated and scolded.
Tina noticed her troubled expression and, without hesitation, asked her about it. Harika told her everything she thought and felt about Potions—something she could never have done without months of therapy. Before, she would have simply denied feeling anything at all.
"You're letting one person ruin something that could improve your life," Tina said firmly, without mincing words. "You told me yourself that you had good grades in Potions, so you know that the grades you got under this man's tutelage had nothing to do with being 'stupid.' What about that Slughorn fellow? He thought you were a prodigy in Potions."
"Because I was using a book with improved instructions."
"So what? Isn't that what life is about? If something doesn't work, we improve it. Why should we settle for something mediocre just because it's conventional? Besides, if you had been mediocre or stupid, like that Snape claimed, not even an improved recipe would have been enough to brew a perfect potion. You followed the steps, like everyone else, and created something your Potions professor, a master of over fifty years, said was perfect."
"And believe me, Slughorn may be many things, but he'd never lie to someone about their Potions skills," Newt agreed. "I know from experience—I had him as a professor for years."
Harika mulled over the Scamanders' words for days. Honestly, during her classes with Slughorn, she had started to believe that maybe she was better at Potions than Snape had told her, but it was Hermione who made sure she believed otherwise. She didn't know if she had done it on purpose out of jealousy or without realizing it, but that part of her that had begun to recognize her own worth had shattered the moment she hid that book at her friend's command. Now that she thought about it coldly, and objective people were telling her what they believed about the matter, what did the book and its instructions even matter? What truly mattered was that she had followed the instructions and created something extraordinary. Not just because the recipe had been improved, but because she had proven she could brew a potion on her own without messing it up.
She felt a small weight lift off her shoulders when she realized that it didn't matter what Snape or Hermione said. She wasn't a bad portioner. From there to creating a potion from scratch—one that didn't exist—just like inventing a spell… That was harder, but not impossible. It was precisely what she was studying with Tina for her Mastery in Charms: spell creation. It was the final requirement of the mastery, just as becoming an Animagus had been in her Mastery of Transfiguration.
She realized all this in the middle of a stop in California. She blinked behind her glass lens and smiled while clicking her camera. It was February, and they had started the North America tour. They were in the eighth month of the tour, meaning they had already passed the halfway point without even noticing. She adjusted her hat and gloves, despite being under several climate enchantments, and then continued following the dugbogs with her camera.
It was the first time she had seen them in person: a creature that looked like a dead log when it remained still. She had to hold back a laugh when she saw it move, crawling all over the Madrona swamp. She imagined a Muggle sitting on one, only to scream in terror when they saw the log hobbling out of reach. Still, when it emerged entirely from the ground or water, it looked more like a giant toad.
"Oh, look how it devours the mandrakes," Luna whispered beside her, watching with bright eyes as the enormous dugbog devoured a shrieking mandrake.
"Fascinating," she said almost sarcastically. She liked magical creatures, but not enough to dedicate her whole life to them.
She saw Tina's cheerful face beside her husband, who was happily ignoring them while watching the creature like a child—just like Luna or his grandson.
In the following weeks, they travelled through more states in the U.S. before moving on to Canada, where they helped Newt and his assistants rescue a group of Graphorns that had been illegally brought in from Northern Europe. Harika couldn't contain a smile at the rush of adrenaline as she duelled a hooded man.
"Stay alert!" Tina shouted, though Harika wasn't sure if she was talking to her.
Harika didn't even glance away. She chained together a series of spells, curses, and transfigurations that ultimately knocked her enemy unconscious.
"Retreat!"
"Oh, not a chance!" she muttered to herself and quickly raised a barrier against Apparition and Portkeys, leaving more than one of them stranded in the middle of the forest.
She heard the screams of a few who had been trapped mid-transport and saw that some were missing a limb or two. Rolf and Luna quickly knocked them unconscious, while Tina and she took care of the others who were left alive and intact. She glanced over at Newt and his two assistants, who were freeing the animals from their miserable cages, using spells to heal their wounds.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, so she jumped to the side just in time to dodge a strange greyish curse flying past her.
"Lumos Solem! Stupefy!" she cast the spells silently. Someone screamed in pain at the blinding light and was immediately knocked out.
Silence fell as everyone tied up and secured the criminal gang they had stumbled upon in the middle of nowhere.
"Are you all right?" Tina asked, rushing to her grandson's side.
"We're fine, Nana."
Then she looked at Harika, inspecting her from head to toe, unsurprised to see her unharmed. Finally, she turned to her husband. Harika levitated the unconscious bodies alongside Luna and Rolf, following Tina's instructions.
"We'll put them in the suitcase and hand them over to the authorities."
"I'll have to return these Graphorns to their natural habitat," Newt frowned. "Unfortunately, it looks like they're in the middle of their breeding season."
Harika listened to them think aloud while securing the perimeter with barriers and enchantments. That night, after they had managed to fit the magical creatures into Newt's fantastic suitcase, they set up camp much farther away. They didn't know if they had caught them all and didn't want to be ambushed near the scene while they slept.
"We'll have to stay here for a few more days—longer than expected," Tina told her a few hours later. "This issue has to be resolved with MACUSA before we can move on."
"I don't think a few extra days will hurt us."
"That's what I said too. You can take this time to rest while I accompany Newt."
"I think I'll visit Central Alley. That's what it's called, right?" she asked, referring to New York's equivalent of Diagon Alley. Tina nodded. "I want to buy a few things."
In fact, she wanted to buy Potion books and stroll leisurely through the shops, buying whatever caught her eye. That's what she had done in Brazil, Argentina, and Peru, where she had literally bought almost 200 books on Herbology, Curses, Weather Enchantments—especially against the heat—and many others that had piqued her interest. She had also purchased several potions that were illegal in the UK and potion ingredients that would have cost her a fortune in Europe.
When she set foot in New York's alley, she was stunned. Like everything in the U.S., it was enormous and relatively new. There were the typical shops she could find anywhere, like the wand shop, the seamstress, the apothecary, the bookstore… but there were also others she hadn't seen in the UK, like a massive beauty salon, a two-story jewellery store, or what appeared to be a shop selling magical Muggle items.
"Come in, come in!" greeted a woman slightly older than her with a big smile. She wore Muggle clothes except for her boots and a short, simple violet robe over her outfit. "I'll be with you in a moment."
Harika nodded distractedly. She looked at all sorts of gadgets: televisions, miniature cars, radios, DIY tools, stuffed animals, picture frames… She had no idea where she had ended up, but she was delighted by what she was seeing.
"Impressive, isn't it?"
"Yes. How is this possible? I thought magic destroyed all Muggle devices!"
"Yes and no," the voice answered. Harika turned to look at the girl. "I'm sure you've seen a magical radio at some point, haven't you?"
"Well… yes. Now that I think about it."
"Exactly. The truth is that in some parts of the world, anything non-magical is frowned upon. Judging by your use of the word 'Muggle,' you must be from the UK, am I right?" Harika nodded. The girl rolled her eyes in exasperation. "The British Ministry loves restricting certain technologies, but here it's different. Oh, by the way, my name is Eve."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Harika."
Eve blinked, and her eyes inevitably landed on the nearly faded scar. She said nothing, but Harika knew she had recognized her. Eve gestured for her to follow.
"If you think the radio is amazing, you're going to love this," she said, showing her a square television that wasn't as large as the ones Harika had seen. It was more… flat, about the thickness of one or two encyclopaedias.
"No way!" Harika exclaimed, realizing what she was looking at.
"Yes! And with thousands of movies available!"
Harika was stunned as she watched the test television play a relatively recent movie called Good Will Hunting. The television was connected on the side to a small black box, about the size of a box of chocolates, which supposedly contained hundreds of recorded movies. She couldn't believe it. Hermione would have a meltdown when she told her.
She finished her day of freedom by restocking the few potions she had used, buying more ingredients, books, and even magical clothing with a Muggle appearance that she couldn't find in the UK. She even allowed herself a visit to the hairdresser, where she acquired a few bottles of magical products that swore to leave her hair glossy and silky. Before leaving, she caught sight of what seemed to be a trunk shop. She hesitated at the door, wondering whether to go in, but eventually, she did. Her bottomless backpack was great, but if she planned to experiment with potions, she would need plants and herbology materials.
"Welcome to Smith's Trunks! How can we help you?"
"Hello. I'm looking for a very sturdy trunk with protective enchantments and such."
"We've got plenty of those," the shopkeeper chuckled.
He showed her a variety of trunks. Some were extremely luxurious, others were simple, some were already designed for special circumstances—like that library trunk—while others were practically a house inside.
"Aurors usually buy this type of trunk," he commented, patting the house trunk. "Unlike a magical tent, trunks take up much less space and don't need to be set up. Simply opening and closing the suitcase after placing it on a flat surface makes it easy to use."
"I see… I suppose if you need to leave quickly or hide, it's much better than a tent."
"Exactly. That's precisely why Aurors request these beauties so often."
Harika considered buying one, but since she had Newt's fantastic journal, she knew she could create whatever she wanted inside it. With that in mind, she preferred to invest in a magical trunk without compartments but with all kinds of spells, enchantments, and protective and concealment runes. She spent nearly 20 Galleons on a black leather suitcase with camouflage spells, but she knew it was a worthwhile investment.
"Look at what I bought," she said with a smile, showing the trunk to the others.
"Oh! It's packed with protection enchantments!"
Harika nodded at Tina's words. She explained her idea of creating a suitcase similar to Newt's, where she could build a home tailored to her needs, as well as a greenhouse. Her plan was to grow her own plants so she wouldn't have to keep buying ingredients constantly while learning potions on her own.
"That's a great idea!" Newt assured her. "You have no idea how many times my suitcase has saved my life in the middle of nowhere. Just by opening it, I could shelter from the snow or the scorching desert heat and get some rest."
"Then, will you help me with my project when you have time?"
"Of course, though Tina knows all the spells I've used over the years."
And so, Tina, Newt, and, surprisingly, Luna started helping her with her new herbology and potions project. The first thing she did was cast the expansion charms that enlarged the space inside her new suitcase. Then she built a wooden staircase and conjured temporary lights, which she would later replace with real magical ones.
"It would be nice to create a hallway from the entrance at the stairs that connects to your house and then to the greenhouses."
"I'd like to build a potions area separate from my house, just in case."
"With this much space, you can literally do whatever you want," Tina laughed, spreading her arms as if she could embrace everything within them.
Time flew by between taking photographs in snowy Canada, studying enchantments and offensive magic, and the slow but steady construction of her new suitcase-home. The easiest part was building the structure, considering she had plenty of materials in the wilderness. She raised walls, laid wooden floors, created rooms, and furnished her new home with more magical furniture. The house now had four bedrooms, a large living-dining room, a kitchen with a pantry, a laundry room, and a library connected to a private study.
In the distance, she built the potions laboratory with a huge pantry filled with potions and ingredients, and connected to it were enormous greenhouses with separate sections. This was, without a doubt, the largest structure inside the suitcase—one she couldn't have fit inside her magical tent.
"Not all plants have the same requirements," Lenora reminded her. As the potions master of the team, she knew a great deal about plants. "But luckily, we can easily fix that with magic. How many plants do you want to grow?"
"As many as possible, obviously."
Lenora gave her a wide smile before shaking her head. Beside her, Tina let out a chuckle.
"That's exactly what my husband would say."
March passed in a blur, consumed by her renovation project. Meanwhile, Newt, Luna, and Rolf continued studying the strange yet fantastic creatures they kept finding. With each passing day, she became more convinced that someday they would discover a wrackspurt or perhaps one of those gulping plimpies Luna always talked about.
"It's beautiful, Harika," Newt praised her when he saw her latest photograph of a yeti. Yes, a yeti. "Our latest book is going to look spectacular with such images."
"Every kid will want to be a magizoologist," Alfred laughed, combing his beard with a tiny comb.
She closed the album where she stored her collection of high-quality photographs—the ones she printed instantly with magic—with a delighted smile on her lips. Who would have thought? She pictured her younger self, locked in the tiny cupboard under the stairs at the Dursleys', and realized she could never have imagined doing something like this. Something as exciting and fascinating as traveling the world taking photographs, getting paid for something her relatives would have dismissed as nonsense. And yet, who was the one who had already travelled to dozens of countries, for free, staying comfortably in her luxurious magical tent? Oh, if only Aunt Petunia could see her now—her stomach would churn with envy and jealousy.
She didn't want anything to do with them. Not because they had any power over her or could hurt her again, but because they were completely irrelevant to her. When she said goodbye to her cousin, the only one who seemed to have done some self-reflection in his short life, she knew she would never see them again. The only thing she wished for them was that Dudley would continue to become a better person.
"Alright, let's go!"
"Everyone grab the boot, guys and girls."
Harika grabbed the frayed lace of the Portkey and let it whisk her away to their next destination, watching as Alaska disappeared behind her in a white and grey whirlwind. The Australian coast came into view beneath her feet. The contrast was so stark that it took her breath away. Not only was it hot, but the sun blazed overhead, and the breeze carried the scent of the ocean. She saw the shimmer of the waves in the distance, and the sound of the sea reached her ears, growing closer by the second. They landed on a beach with crystal-clear waters and white sand.
"Wow. It's beautiful."
Harika could only nod at Luna's words. With a silent flick of her wand, she removed her winter clothes and cast another protective charm against the sun.
"I can't believe we're about to see a Bunjil," she heard Rolf say, with the same excitement as a child opening Christmas presents.
"This will be the second time in my life that I see a Bunjil in the wild."
Harika shook her head with a smile, listening as the magizoologists and their apprentices eagerly discussed the next creature they were about to see—the Bunjil, a magical bird similar to a brown eagle. Unlike its Muggle counterpart, the Bunjil was significantly larger, with mostly golden feathers on its inner areas. It also had control over the wind and, according to the Aboriginal legend Newt had explained to them that morning, could even breathe life into clay figures.
"On our list, we've also noted the Barramundi, the Currikee, the Coonerang, and the Bogai," Alfred informed them, cleaning a gadget that could detect minute traces of magic—an incredibly useful tool for tracking creatures in the middle of nowhere.
Harika had no idea what half of these creatures were, as some had only been included in the appendix of Newt's book due to a lack of images. The new book was going to be much more complete and valuable for future studies—she was sure of it. Suddenly, she realized she was helping future witches and wizards learn, and she felt proud of her work.
"How's the greenhouse coming along?" asked Lenora, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"I've planted the first seeds and cuttings."
"I can take a look at it later if you'd like."
"Great! I put the runes you told me about, but it wouldn't hurt for you to check them over."
She hadn't studied runes until recently, so she was still quite a novice. Luckily, she had all sorts of books from the Black family and her personal library, so she had started reading in her spare time. The runes were going to be essential for her greenhouse, as they would allow her to provide each plant species with the climatic, nutritional, and water conditions they needed. Every day, she was more amazed at what magic could do. She felt like she had only scratched the surface, just barely touching it with her fingertips—and she loved it.