Work Text:
That first time in Alana’s office Harrison was wary, Hannibal had explained what was going to be happening before they had left the house. The baby voice was annoying, he was three, not a baby. Vibrant green eyes narrowed as he turned his body away from the reaching hand, irritably signing “R S” as the handsy lady who was smiling too much. When the man explained what RS was, he saw the quick flash of disgust run across her face before the smile was back in place, though not as well as before.
Harrison tapped at the thermos Hannibal had put on the table before signing “please”, he ignored the sound from the woman as Hannibal explained it was tea, it was so far his favorite, it tasted like citrus. He felt the whisps he saw coming off people warm, but not hot like when the large round man would yell and throw him into the dark room.
When he was asked to draw some pictures, he did not dump the box out like Dudley would have. Instead, he selected his colors and lay them in a straight line just above his paper before he started on the pictures. He focused on making the images as best he could, he felt the energy from the man who had saved him coil tightly while the woman’s fluctuated, much of it pooling in her face and in her hips. He watched her shift closer to the man and when she couldn’t shift any closer her energy reached out.
He didn’t let it reach the man, his own energy striking out swift as a snake. It was grabbed quickly, but h was still learning how to take it. The whisps were hard to pull, though he kept at it until the man said it was time to go and the lady gave him the colorful squishy stuff. The woman kept insisting he needed to see someone else, he gave a particularly had tug on the energy and watched as she yawned, his own small body suddenly feeling much less tired. He didn’t like it when the woman made that sound from her mouth, she made it to often and batted her eyelashes. Petunia would often do that to Vernon and later he would hear horrible noises from upstairs.
The man and he left for their errands, even getting several magnets that looked like pushpins that held his drawings up on the food box. Though the one that had the antler man was stored in a drawer in Hannibal’s study because other people would find it ‘concerning’.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That lady kept showing up! Even when the man, he’d said to call him tėvas, had not invited her! They would be out getting groceries and she would be there, the most annoying was when they were at the park. They had to drive in the car to get to a play ground, they were trying out several to find which one they liked the best.
Harrison had not liked the last four, the first one some entitled brat had kicked him, the second Alana had shown up and distracted Hannibal long enough for another boy to yank RS from his arm and declare that stuffed toys were for girls and babies.
Hannibal had told Harrison he was allowed to retaliate after the first park. Harrison looked at the boy wide eyed as he started to try and tear RS‘s head off. The small nearly four year old screetched loudly, a blood curdling scream that made every adult at the park freeze and look for their child. The children froze as well, eyes immedietly looking in on the scene. Harrison stood from the sand pit, taking another child‘s large plastic shovel and swung as hard as he could, which was not very hard, catching the child in the face. Harrison heard the gasp from several adults, Alana‘s “Oh my god, Hannibal!” cause the rest of the parents to fly into action and start grabbing their children. Harrison managed to hit the boy twice more and grab his stuffed toy back before he was scooped up gently by tėvas.
Harrison was too concerned with inspecting his stuffed toy to listen to the adults arguing. He was tired now after the ordeal and only grumbled when he was transfered to the soft bare arms of Alana and taken away from the commotion. His eyes widened as his chin was gripped after he was strapped into his car seat. Emerald eyes looking into brown in fright.
“That was not an appropriate action to take. You are going to give Hannibal a bad reputation as a parent. If you don’t want others to use your things you shouldn’t bring them to the park.” Alana clucked her tongue and let go of the small chin and closed the door just as Harrison started crying harshly.
Hannibal made his way over, thanked Alana and did his best to calm Harrison, to no avail, before driving home. He was not pleased to learn what Alana had said, she was too close to him for him to add to the rolodex.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There were a few occasions where Hannibal needed someone to watch Harrison, mostly when he had appointments dealing with magical clients, or in the magical departments. He needed to ensure Harrison was safe here before bringing him to the magical district.
On one such occasion, shortly after Harrison had acquired his violin, Alana showed up to watch the little boy while Hannibal ran the errands he needed. He had a meeting with the goblins about news in England and getting Harrison’s muggle documentation.
Alana came in when Hannibal opened the door, visibly cringing at the screeching of a tiny violin playing twinkle twinkle little star. “Hannibal, isn’t he a little young to be learning music?”
“He showed an interest in the violin, he picked the instrument on his own. He just started his practice and still has forty-five minutes. I should be no longer than three hours. I will contact you when I am on my way back. His lunch is ready in the refrigerator as well as one for you, his nap time is after lunch. If he requests it, he is allowed to take his nap in my bed. Thank you for doing this.” Hannibal left, not happy about having to leave Harrison in Alana’s care, but Zeesey was not a nanny elf.
Alana lasted ten minutes before she took the sheet music from the stand. “That is quite enough of that racket, you are a little boy and should be doing little boy things like playing in the dirt. Put it away and let’s play hide and go seek.”
Harrison narrowed his green eyes and brought the bow to the strings and drew it across. He grunted as his hand was snatched and the bow was pried from his hand. “I said to put it away Harrison. I can’t listen to that horrible noise anymore and have no idea how Hannibal can listen to it. Now put it away.” She pointed with the bow towards the case sitting on the small table next to the little boy.
Harrison gently placed the instrument in the case, as he reached for the bow his magic reached out and took hold of those energy wisps that always came away. He was however unable to tug any free, so he decided to go along with the game for now, even as he kept tugging at those wisps.
When Hannibal returned it was to Alana groaning on a chaise and clutching her head and the screech of Harrison practicing. “I hope he did not spend the whole-time practicing.”
“Oh, um, no, I made him stop after the forty-five minutes. I must have fallen asleep, I’m terribly sorry Hannibal. I don’t know what has come over me. We played hide and seek, had our lunch. We played with the play-doh and then I put him down for his nap… He came down and then I don’t recall. I need to make an appointment with my primary health giver, I’ve been feeling much more tired recently.”
“Perhaps you are coming down with a cold.” Hannibal placed his hands on her cheek and forehead. Maroon eyes watched as soft brown grew hazy. He withdrew his hands and made his way to his study. “Why are you still practicing mažasis?” He took a seat next to little boy as he carefully put his violin back in the case.
“No done. Stop me, you no like?” Harrison looked worriedly at Hannibal. When he was pulled into large arms and onto the man’s lap, he relaxed.
“That was awfully rude of her mažasis. She will answer for her rudeness, but it is best to wait. If we act to soon there are obvious connections to us and they would separate us. I do not wish for that, so we must wait to be able to act, do you understand?”
Harrison nodded enthusiastically and clung to Hannibal tightly. “We must attend to Alana, then we can get on with the rest of our day, perhaps you can draw me some more pictures?” The little boy nodded enthusiastically, wriggling from the man’s lap to the small table set at his height, neatly organized with paper and child friendly drawing supplies.
Hannibal made his way back out to send Alana on her way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took nearly a year but Harrison started requesting Alana come with them to lunch. She always said yes, whether it was at Hannibal’s home, or at one of the few restaurants he was willing to eat at in the muggle world.
On one time when Hannibal had to meet with the goblins in an emergency meeting dealing with his son’s Potter vaults, he gave Alana his keys to his house to take Harrison home, transferring the car seat to Alana’s vehicle before kissing Harrison on the head, whispering to him he would be back as soon as he was able.
Alana took the small boy home, nervously unlocking the door. She had never been in Hannibal’s home without the man present. It had not changed much in the last year, though there were several noticeable differences now that a child lived in the house as well. She still found it strange to find child’s toys around the home, or the tiny furniture that matched Hannibal’s own. “He hasn’t been to an opera in over a year because of difficulty finding a sitter for you. It does make me wonder how you act for the sitters he did try that no one else will take the job.” Her heels clicked on the floor as she followed Harrison to the study, clicking her tongue as the boy went for the violin.
“There’s no need to pull that out right now, I know you did your morning practice already. Hannibal talked about your progress on…whatever piece it is you’re currently practicing. Come sit over here, we’re going to work on some tongue exercises now that I have you alone, let’s start with the tongue in-and-outs.” She had been looking into speech therapy, the little boy made plenty of sounds but had yet to speak a single word in the last year.
She also was far too busy to take the time to learn sign language, Hannibal would be so surprised when it was thanks to her that Harrison would finally speak, he would finally take her on an adults only date!
Alana ignored the child’s glare and just continued to demand the child work on the exercises she had found.
Harrison had been trying for the last ten minutes to get Alana to go to sleep, these exercises were just silly. Tėvas always told him sign language was a perfectly acceptable form of communication and he was learning to write more so his father wouldn‘t have to be a translator during his music lessons. He smirked as he was finally able to tear away enough of the energy to get the woman to pass out. She had been excited and the whisps had moved a bit faster, slipping from his magical grip repeatedly. He had finally found a loose end he was able to pull and unravel enough like that one lady‘s sweater when it had gotten caught on a bush.
Once he was free of Alana‘s attentions he went to his violin to practice more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alana started suggesting places with child friendly entertainment, children’s museums and parks. The zoo and aquarium, she would even show up on days she knew Hannibal was free with tickets for three at least three times a month.
While at the events, if Hannibal had to leave for any reason, Alana would not correct people that Harrison was not her son. Except the one time the small boy had a meltdown when Hannibal had to use the restrooms at the aquarium and had not told Harrison, who had been preoccupied with the touch tank, where he was going. When the little boy had looked up and only seen Alana, who still had not reliably learned to understand even simple signs, He had a tantrum as she was unable to tell him where Hannibal had gone when he had asked.
She had also started not answering anything, even when Harrison wrote it down, because he had not asked verbally like she wanted. Only when Hannibal was not around did she do this, she felt he would have a better school experience when he started talking like other kids.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For his fifth birthday she had stuck with what she deemed age-appropriate toys and one that would repeat what was said to it. Hannibal had barely managed to keep the grimace off his face at that one.
Another time Hannibal needed a sitter was for an early meeting with the goblins, some old man kept trying to access the accounts. He had also been informed the man that had been hired to retrieve items taken from the vault had made progress.
Hannibal answered the door as the soft knock, letting Alana in. “Harrison is still sleeping; he should wake in about an hour. He is expecting you to be the one here this morning. Your breakfast is being kept warm in the oven, Harrison’s is in the refrigerator, he is allowed to get it himself. I shall return before lunch. Thank you again for doing this.”
Once Hannibal was gone Alana swiftly made her way to the study and sat behind the large desk, pulling open drawers and searching through neatly filed folders. She found several sketchbooks, filled completely with sketches of faces and buildings, of artwork she had never seen in person. One of the books on top was filled with Harrison, all angles and all expressions. Many of them with the boy holding that damnable violin.
How could Hannibal listen to that squeaky thing? She closed the book and moved on, rifling through all the drawers. She found his tax papers, her eyes boggling at the numbers on it, but nothing else important. No birth certificates for either of them and not a scrap of paper dealing with Harrison beyond the sketches. She tsked as she got up from the chair, before going to the book shelves, maybe some of them were fake and hid another box?
She spent an hour and a half looking rifling through everything in the study, including Harrison’s desk. She jumped as she moved toward the door, finally noticing the small silent figure in the door way. “Holy Mother!” She exclaimed, a hand to her chest as her heart hammered against her rib cage. “You learning how to be a sneak? How long have you stood there?”
“Fifteen minutes at least. You are being very rude; we should eat you.” Harrison turned away at her tsk.
“You know I don’t understand your hand waving, it’s very rude to sneak up on people…well you can dress yourself apparently, that’s good. Let’s get you breakfast then.” Alana ushered him towards the kitchen, ignoring his protests as he tried to tell her he had already eaten.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The pattern continues until Harrison is seven and Alana shows up at Hannibal’s office to take the boy to the park that is near the office, for Mr. Froideveaux’s appointment.
“Would you like to push the button to cross?” At Harrison’s scrunched face of disgust, she heaved a sigh, “oh, yes, I forgot whose child I am talking to.”
A bell tinkled as a man pushed an ice-cream cart though the park, Alana agreeing to the treat when the boy signed, please before leading them to the bench to sit and eat.
Once done and cleaned up he placed his hand on her arm to get her attention. He had learned that it was best to grab for a loose fluttering end of the energy in humans, having a second strand of his own magic to cut once he had gathered the amount he wanted. This time however he kept pulling, like sucking up a very long noodle. When she passed out, he pulled a little more, tilting his head as he felt a sensation like tearing a stubborn weed out of the garden.
Alana gave a final shudder before her body slumped on the bench. What am I supposed to do now? Tėvas never told me what to do when this happens. He slid from the bench and looked around, wondering where the usual police officer was when he spotted the swings. He would swing for a bit first and wait for the officer to walk by before speaking with them.
His arm grabbed suddenly he looked up in shock at his music instructor.