About Potter's luck

      In the ritual hall of Potter Manor, next to the ancestral stone stood a thin, black-haired girl dressed in black trousers with pockets, dragonskin boots, a gray turtleneck and a black vest, with a backpack on her shoulders. She read quatrains in the snake language. There was pain and a kind of emptiness in her eyes, but she stubbornly continued the ritual of transferring to another world — there was nothing holding her back anymore. With the last sound, she stabbed herself with a dagger and fell onto the altar, choking on blood. When the last sparks of life disappeared from her emerald eyes, the girl disappeared in a bright flash.       Hera Potter’s life flashed before her eyes, and it was exactly her. Here she sees smiling parents, a living godfather, and here she is already living with the Dursleys. She is three years old and she is crying in the closet because she has not eaten all day as punishment for “abnormality”, Hera remembers that this was the last time she allowed herself to cry. Here she is four and she is washing dishes, standing on a chair near a sink that is too high, but her cousin pushes her and she falls, hits hard, breaking a plate and injuring herself with sharp shards, after which she sits hungry in the closet again; here she is five and for the first time she decides to steal a bun in a bakery, because she really wants to eat, then she was lucky to go unnoticed. The terrible years at the Dursleys flew by and she sees her first trip to Diagon Alley, the arrogant Draco and her beloved Hedwig, here she sits on the train and meets friends who will go through fire and water with her, distribution, the first lessons — memories flew by like a flash. One minute she’s killing Quirrell, and the next she’s fighting the basilisk. Third year, passion for artefactorics, which turned out to be her gift. Fourth year. The whole school hates her, only Ron and Hermione stand shoulder to shoulder with her, help, comfort, protect. Without them, she would definitely have gone crazy. The rebirth of Voldemort, which still comes to her in nightmares, the summer that she and Hermione spend together, and Mr. Granger, a retired military man, teaches them everything that will help them survive. Here she is going through her fifth year again. More whispers, curses in the back and the three of them become animagi: Hera the fox, Hermione the otter, Ron the terrier. So they perform a ritual and become named brother and sisters. Now they feel each other and can come to the rescue if something happens. The sixth year was one of the calm ones: they learned to fight, survive and hide until exhaustion — they were preparing for war. Once again, the horrors of the seventh year, the constant running from place to place, the torture at Malfoy Manor, the battle for Hogwarts, the battle with the Dark Lord and, finally, the latest events. Here she is standing next to what remains of the ancient Hogwarts castle, here a signal coin is heating up, on which there is only one word — run. She immediately apparates to Potter Manor, which has been put in order for two summers, where she almost physically feels the deaths of the people she called her family. She falls to her knees and cannot understand what she feels at this moment. Devastation? A desire for revenge? Hate? Bitterness? Grief? All at once. She wants to howl out loud, but it’s better to die with them, because now she has no one in the whole wide world. She doesn’t allow herself this weakness, she just can’t. Then she will cry into her pillow, then PTSD will cover her, nightmares will come to her, not letting her sleep at night, now she goes down to the funeral hall and activates the full protection of the estate, passing out right on the altar for the next 12 hours. Then she finds out that Dumbledore is very much alive and well, and she abruptly turned out to be the enemy of all Britain, and realizes that she just wants to go to a place where she can live normally. There are moments when she thinks about death, but immediately remembers the murdered friends who would definitely not approve of this, and buries herself in books in search of a way out. Probably, it is only thanks to luck that she manages to find a ritual that will help her leave this world, although it does not guarantee a successful outcome and a specific place of movement at all. All the property, except for the deathly hallows, along with a small note from herself, she leaves to little Teddy, who will get it after coming of age, so that no one can take it away. She wholeheartedly curses those who are to blame for all the troubles that happened to her and her family, not knowing that the curse worked, and leaves for another world right on her 18th birthday — July 31, 1998.       Hera woke up in the desert near some canyon, completely unharmed. She examined herself carefully and did not see even the smallest drop of blood. Putting everything down to magic, Hera decided to start getting used to the new world. Soon the girl found a cave and built herself a very comfortable home there. After all that had happened, she preferred to do something all day long, just not to see the faces of her dead friends, because then she passed out and slept, as a rule, without dreams. Pushing herself to complete physical exhaustion became Potter’s habit, but she slept peacefully. For two years she studied this world, engaged in artefactorics and earned money by selling her artifacts to the inhabitants of this planet. Water was in short supply here, so the artifacts that created it came to local farmers just like that. They didn’t ask any questions and were just glad that the artifacts didn’t break and worked stably under any conditions. Once, at the very beginning of the sale of such artifacts, in the shop where she sold them, Hera was caught by suspicious-looking intelligent people who introduced themselves as some kind of Jabba’s henchmen and began to demand strange things. Hera was not going to give almost all the profits to some strange guy and, moreover, work for him. To reveal the secret of creation? Yes, it’s easy — it’s all magic. Can’t you replicate the technology? What a pity. What? The Inquisitors? They scared the cat with a sausage. In general, the conversation was productive. Then, however, they tried to attack her and had to personally come to this Jabba and explain exactly what he was wrong about. Thanks to the imperio and kunfundo spells. Alas, for several days after the unsuccessful attack, the nightmares returned and unpleasant memories rolled in, but Potter was able to cope with this problem, albeit not in the best way.       Soon, her artifacts began to be bought off-planet, and SIB found out about their existence, where they decided that it was the work of some surviving Jedi. According to protocol, an inquisitor was sent to the planet, but he did not return, and Hera did not even find out about him — Obi-Wan Kenobi met him first. After that, they sent as much as a whole grand inquisitor, but he could not find anyone — Potter had an inspiration and she created without leaving home. The information, of course, reached Darth Vader and he announced a reward for the mysterious artifact, alive and, if possible, unharmed. Hera rarely went to the city and always wore a cape with a hood so that her face could not be seen, so no one could tell exactly who was making the artifacts. A month after the announcement of the award, the witch, who knew nothing about it, again went to sell a batch of products to her favorite shop, where she was attacked by some hunter. The girl fought back, but decided to be more careful in the future. She scouted a couple of inconspicuous alleys where she apparated to sell new products. She was still sometimes attacked by hunters, but she managed to get away, sometimes with prey. This went on for quite a long time. In total, twenty-three (non-) intelligent ones managed to attack her, and Hera was well trained to fend them off. For the most part, they were young and inexperienced hunters, but there were also a few experienced ones, although the girl still did not understand who exactly attacked. The experience of war with magicians was both an advantage and a weakness, but in this way she pumped up her already well-developed intuition, non-verbal invisibility spells, silent step, shield and stunning. At the same time, I learned more about the weapons of this world, got five different blasters and three vibroblades. These skirmishes diluted the gray days, but Hera still wanted to rest — she is periodically stormed by thoughts of death and sudden memories of not the best moments of her life. Therefore, after giving the last batch of artifacts, she returned home and decided not to go out for a couple of weeks. ***       For three days in a row, she had been sitting at work on a new artifact, hardly remembering about food, and did not even suspect that Boba Fett had tracked her down, who had been guarding her shelter for a couple of days now, because he could not enter (she had put up magical protection against intruders). Unfortunately, after three days of continuous work, something went wrong and the artifact exploded almost in the hands of the girl, which caused her to suffer greatly, quickly flew out of the cave and hit the rock hard, breaking a couple of ribs and getting a concussion. It’s good that the defense weakened the blows, otherwise it could have been left without hands. — Damn it! Potter muttered softly, feeling the back of her head. Her head was spinning, and she found a wound with her hand, from which blood was actively flowing. This, of course, did not prevent Hera, who was accustomed to injuries, from slowly and carefully climbing up with the help of that very rock and swaying back into the house, but it was very unpleasant. Even if she had been in a worse state, such moments did not bring her any joy.       Suddenly, something small and sharp flew into her back, and Hera immediately fell to the sand, completely relaxing her body. Thanks to basilisk venom and phoenix tears, she was not affected by any substances other than individually brewed potions for her, and she remained conscious, but just in case she pretended that she really passed out. Hera did not so much hear as feel soft footsteps in her direction. She had something unpleasant to surprise the next hunter with, and she patiently waited for the moment. Although, of course, she was wondering who needed a modest artifact girl at all (and it doesn’t matter that they don’t know her gender). As soon as the hunter got close enough, Hera nimbly rolled to the side and tied him up incancero. She saw a man in gray-green armor. Some thoughts flashed through her mind that this seemed to be a fairly well-known hunter, and Potter decided to play with him, deliberately not using most of her skills. He clearly did not expect such speed from the victim, but, to the surprise of the girl, he did not lose his head, immediately cut the ropes and fired a paralyzing charge from the blaster. The girl dodged and in response threw an artifact bomb with soporific smoke at him, but the hunter was saved by the helmet filter. But she was unlucky, because behind the smoke she did not see a rope rushing towards her, which immediately tied her hands. It was quite painful considering her injuries, but Hera was used to ignoring the pain. Anticipating the next action of the attacker, the girl pulled the rope first, helped herself with magic and knocked him down. This gave her the opportunity to use another artifact that was attached to her boots, the artifact of flight. In fact, she made herself a mixture of Russian carpet-airplane and boots-runners. She took off and lifted the hunter behind her, hoping that the rope would not support his weight. Of course, she wouldn’t have picked it up on her injured hands alone, but she had magic with her. Alas, this did not help, and then it turned out that the hunter also knows how to fly and pull the rope, so Hera flew straight at him at a good speed, and the flight artifact, as luck would have it, failed. Meanwhile, the hunter fired his blaster again, against which Hera used protego, but this did not save her from ending the flight right in the wrong hands. The girl tried to pull away, and a short blow to the neck quickly sent her to rest.       Boba Fett was pleased when he finally caught his rather nimble victim, and immediately knocked her out so as not to cause unnecessary problems. It was worth checking for serious injuries, so he sank to the ground and carefully sat the prey, which turned out to be a rather fragile-looking girl, near the ill-fated rock. The back of her head was not the best sight, the hunter saw a laceration there and quickly patched it up, as much as it was necessary to protect it from infection and stop the blood. A further cursory examination revealed broken and probably cracked ribs, as well as severe burns to the palms and forearms. Fett fixed his ribs with a bandage right over his clothes, and bandaged his hands just so as not to aggravate them. Along the way, he considered a new victim, who was unlucky that he personally received the order. The “Runaway Jedi” turned out to be a girl of 18-20 years old, black-haired, of medium height and… perhaps that was all he could say about her at the moment. There were many scars on his arms, one on his shoulder as if from a bite from a giant beast, and the other contained the words “I must not lie.” Boba could tell that this hunt had stirred him up a little, but it wasn’t particularly interesting. Although no one has ever forced him to fly like that.        ***       When she woke up, Hera did not show that she had regained consciousness, keeping her breathing even and her eyes closed. It felt like her head and arms were neatly bandaged, the latter still tied in front for some reason. She chuckled inwardly. Great, she was apparently considered quite dangerous, although Potter did not use half of her abilities. Then she felt that her torso was also tied with something right over the T-shirt. Apparently, the hunter decided to check how badly she was injured by the explosion and tried to fix the broken ribs. A slight rocking and strange hands on her back and under her knees indicated that she was being carried somewhere. Hera decided to find out as much information as possible, since she was caught. Besides, intuition whispered that it was not in vain that she had not escaped yet and she should wait a little longer. The rocking lulled the girl, but she forced herself not to fall asleep, although it was oh so difficult — she still sat over the artifact for three days. After about two minutes, according to her feelings, they reached the hunter’s ship. Hera decided that on this optimistic note it was time to wake up and strained her body a little, as she would like to do automatically immediately after waking up. She moved, as any human would, and pretty quickly found herself put on the floor right in front of the kidnapper. With one hand, he firmly but carefully grabbed her by the back of the neck, and in the other he already had a blaster, unobtrusively resting against her back.       — If you struggle, I’ll shoot. — He warned. The charge, of course, was deafening, but it’s not necessary to talk about it.       Hera only grunted at this, as if it was incomprehensible, but she did not resist and went where they were leading without question. And they led into a small grated space. The hunter’s boat was clearly not the largest, so the sleeping place of the ship’s owner, the kitchen-dining room and everything in the world were in one room. The hunter closed it, told him not to get rowdy and climbed up the stairs. Potter didn’t mind being alone with herself, drinking a bonfire, thoughtfully put in her pocket, and thinking about life. And maybe even take a nap. A minute later, Hera felt like a real spaceship was taking off. A stupid smile appeared on his face, but it can also be understood — who did not dream of flying into space.       The hunter, having risen to the main place of any ship, launched all the necessary systems, preparing it for takeoff. Suddenly, the radars detected the approach of another hunter, who decided, apparently, to try to take away Boba’s prey. Fett just grinned at this and took the ship up — he wanted to get into space faster, and only there… There he will show why he should not be attacked. Already at the edge of the atmosphere, the pursuer got as close to him as possible, and unexpectedly for this suicidal hunter threw a small mine, into which he flew at his speed, unable to turn away in any way. It wasn’t enough to kill for sure, but it was enough to break away and go into hyperspace. After this jump, he will inform the customer that the task has been completed and will receive the coordinates of the meeting point. He was not afraid of being framed — Vader would not do such a thing. After about half an hour of admiring hyperspace, Fett decided to go see how the captured artifact girl was doing. The commander-in-chief said that she should be delivered safely, but it was not his fault that she was injured, apparently, while working with her product. She definitely does not have injuries incompatible with life, he immediately checked that. Only one thing was unusual for him — the victim was clearly not afraid of him, did not scream, did not beg, and did not even try to run away when she woke up. That’s why she interested him.       Hera managed to fall asleep, watch a terrible memory dream and wake up with a terrible headache when she heard rather quiet footsteps that were gradually approaching. Potter immediately assumed an air of pride and independence. Soon she saw a hunter come down to her and began to look at him curiously. An unusual gray-green armor for her, definitely stuffed with various weapons, a blaster pistol in a hip holster, the same handcuff from which he fired the rope. This hunter was not like the previous ones.       Fett, in turn, was looking at the girl. When he came down, he saw that she was sitting relaxed, leaning her back against the wall. She looks fragile, although he has already found out that she is very strong, her thick shoulder-length hair is completely disheveled, although it was gathered in a ponytail, there is not a drop of fear in her bright green eyes, which should actually be in any normal person except the emperor and Darth Vader. Boba came closer, and she was just looking straight into the dark strip of the mask’s visor. Their eyes met, and after a second it seemed to her that her right hand had been cauterized with a hot iron. Hera twitched and hissed in pain, but apparently this did not happen only to her, because the hunter’s right hand also made a similar movement. The girl knew only one reason why this could happen, but she couldn’t believe it was true. She cut the bandage with a non-stick spell and saw letters forming a first and last name on the affected skin.       —Ahahahahahahah, — the girl’s sincere laughter suddenly rang out. — Well, it’s definitely my luck.       Fett, surprised by this reaction, quickly went to the cage, opened it and pulled out the still laughing Hera. Now he saw the words of Boba Fett written in his handwriting, which left no doubt.       Soulmates.       Hera watched these actions with the calmness and interest of a researcher. That’s how she finally found out the name of the one who managed to catch her. And then Potter remembered that she had heard about him in the context that he was the best hunter in the galaxy, whom everyone was afraid of. It made me laugh again. Well, it couldn’t have been any other way in her life. Well, at least not the dark Lord, and thank you. She did not yet understand what to expect from such a turn of events. Potter dreamed from an early age of having someone who would love her just because she is. Now she’s been given a chance, but does he want the same…       Fett himself watched the atypical reaction of his girlfriend now and thought about how to treat all this. If she was categorically against it or was shaking with horror — why such a hassle even for the sake of potential soul connection bonuses, and since she is calm, very strong with abilities unknown to the end… It already makes sense to seek favor and voluntary cooperation.       Boba never thought that he would have a soulmate, because this is a terrible rarity in the vastness of the galaxy, and he is also a clone. However, fate decreed otherwise and Fett was not going to miss his chance. Let the profession of a bounty hunter not involve having a family, but… he is the strongest among the representatives of this craft, so he will be able to protect his own. Moreover, the girl herself was clearly not going to throw a tantrum about it or something like that, and most importantly…       — You’re not afraid. Fett stated, looking into her calm eyes.       - I’m not afraid, Hera confirmed in a slightly hoarse voice. — Although, of course, this is unexpected.       — Unexpectedly, what exactly am I or the fact itself? — Boba asked with a hint of amusement.       — Perhaps the second option. Potter chuckled. — I didn’t think I’d meet a soulmate at all.       — So you know about this connection, okay. — He drawled thoughtfully.       — I know. Do you know about all its nuances? — The girl asked.       — Which ones are they about?       — For example, that for the first two or three hours we just need to be next to each other so that the connection becomes stable and strong. Moreover, it will be very problematic to move further than four meters. Hera said.       — What do you think about all this?       - I’m not going to give up on a soul mate. — the hunter answered briefly.       Potter wasn’t going to show her emotions in any way, but Boba saw a flicker of relief in her eyes. He sighed inwardly, took her by the shoulder and led her into the makeshift infirmary. He should definitely treat his own soulmate. The girl did not try to pull away again, although she tensed when he touched her.       That’s not bad, Fett thought.       Hera decided to see what he was going to do and did not show off, especially since her head continued to ache and feel a little dizzy. The small room, fenced off from the rest of the main room of the ship, where the hunter led her, subtly reminded Hera of the hospital wing, and she did not lose.       — Sit down. — Bob threw, and he took off his helmet with gloves and began to get everything he needed.       Potter settled into the only available seat and began to examine the one with whom her fate had brought her. A young guy in his mid-twenties, dark-haired, short-cropped. Her eyes are brown, her gaze is tenacious, attentive and very dangerous, although Hera felt that there was no danger for her at the moment. If it weren’t for his eyes, he could have been given a younger age, but they betrayed his experience. “On the whole, he’s even cute,” Potter concluded.       Fett walked over to her, unwrapped his other hand and began to carefully process them with an unknown composition. To a questioning look, he explained that it was bacta. However, whatever it was called, this substance healed damage perfectly. Then it was the head’s turn.       — You have a laceration. Ideally, it needs to be stitched up, but I don’t have any painkillers. Fett informed him.       — Don’t worry, I’ll take it. — Hera replied indifferently, dreaming of already passing out for about twelve hours.       Boba didn’t like this kind of indifference too much, he doubted that she would really be able to tolerate it, but there was no way out in general. He could knock her out, but it would be more inconvenient for him to sew up. To the hunter’s surprise, the girl did not even make a sound or shed a tear while he was sewing. This aroused respect and at the same time suspicion — well, there is no such high pain threshold without a reason.       — And how close should we be? Boba suddenly asked.       — I don’t know — Hera shrugged (tried) her shoulders. — I think we should start from our own feelings.       Boba listened to himself. He really wanted the girl to be closer than even at such a short distance, for example, when he was carrying her. But it was necessary to feed her, otherwise she was very light, and it was worth eating yourself.       — I need to treat your ribs.       — Oh, you shouldn’t. They are almost fused.       — In what way? I know that three were broken and two more were definitely cracked.       — I had with me a remedy for such a case. Hera explained. — It’s not the first time, after all.       — Okay. Come on, you need to be fed.       In the makeshift mess hall, which doubles as a kitchen, dining room, and so on, Hera was again seated on a chair, and Boba himself began to think about a snack for two.       - Are you a Jedi? — he asked her, while her hands were doing all the necessary things. - No. I’m just an artefactor. Potter replied. — By the way, who needs me so badly? They’ve already got it, I’ve put down 23 hunters lately. You were the 24th one who came for me.       — An artefact? I’ve never heard of them. The second person after the emperor needed you. It’s probably because of your “artifacts”, about which no one can really say anything.       — That’s what it is… — said Hera thoughtfully. — I hope it’s not forbidden to be an artefactor in this galaxy if I’m not a Jedi.       Soon, the nutritious lunch was ready to eat. The hunter was used to living on standard rations, so the taste was about nothing, but there was the necessary amount of nutrients. To be honest, he didn’t expect the girl to eat at least half of it, but he was surprised when she ate the whole portion without even complaining about the lack of taste. He did not know that she had eaten worse things, and this was not even in the top ten.       After removing everything unnecessary from the table, he noticed that the girl was nodding her head off, although she was trying not to show weakness. He could give her his bunk, but then he wouldn’t be able to get to the pilot’s seat if anything happened. There was only one way out.       — Let’s go to the cockpit. There is an opportunity to sleep there. Fett said.       — Okay, lead the way. — Hera agreed easily, although it would hardly be convenient to climb there with bandaged hands.       They reached the stairs and Potter was the first to climb into the cabin. First, he secured her from behind a little, and then she had already climbed enough to not fall off. Fett climbed in right behind her.       Boba decided that it was time to finally listen to his feelings, stepped up to Hera, carefully picked her up and saw how the expression on her face changed from calm to dumbfounded, then surprised, and finally confused, and settled into his place with a stunned burden. He was amused by how calm and unperturbed the girl had been all this time, confused by such a simple action, not knowing what to do. Fett held her gently but firmly against him, feeling how tense she was. For some reason, there was an association with the wild nexu, which they are trying to tame.       — What’s your name? He asked her. — Of course, I can also look at my arm, but for this I also need to take off my armor.       The girl barely smiled at this statement, but replied:       — Hera, Hera Potter.       Probably it was all about the soulmate connection, but Hera was comfortable sitting with him, although the armor was a little in the way, and she gradually relaxed. This did not go unnoticed.       — How old are you? — another question followed.       — I turned twenty recently. And you? Hera asked.       - Twenty-seven. — came the reply. — I hit you with a sleeping dart, but you didn’t lose consciousness. Why?       — When I was twelve, I got into a little adventure in which I became immune to such effects. — the girl replied smoothly.       Don’t talk about magic and a basilisk with a phoenix. Hera, of course, behaved quite relaxed and friendly, but this does not mean that she began to trust him. Yes, he hasn’t done anything wrong yet, apart from kidnapping her, but that’s really a small thing. There had been worse kidnappings in her life. Not to mention that he didn’t know they were soulmates. In the end, he even fed her without trying to poison her. That’s already great.       — Where are we going? Hera asked. — I doubt that to the “second person in the empire”.       — And why did you decide not to go to him? Fett grinned. — After all, no one canceled the order for you.       — Because you obviously attach too much importance to the soulmate connection to immediately give me to the customer. Hera grinned back.       — You’re right. We’re going to another place. I won’t tell you specifically. — replied the hunter, who decided to fly to one of his shelters.       Hera nodded, indicating that she had heard, and then put her head somewhere on his shoulder, closer to his neck, snuggling on it. Potter didn’t show how bad she really felt, but the concussion didn’t go away. Now it was Boba’s turn to be surprised by unexpected actions on her part. And then he was even more surprised when he realized that Hera was sleeping on his shoulder in the most brazen way, and he could hardly say that he did not like it.