Chapter 2

Harry Potter + Grey's Anatomy Crossover

By: Griffindorks I'd just been going through the motions of life after the war. I had served their purpose, so I went out and found my own. Now it's my time to thrive and be more than just the Boy-Who-Lived. Read to find out how he went from being wartime Harry to becoming a surgeon at Seattle Grace Hospital, and what changes he brings to its halls. Smart/Competent Harry, Better Summary in Profile.

Rated: Fiction M - English - Drama/Romance - [Harry P., Addison M., Mark S.] Meredith G. - Chapters: 6 - Words: 50,149 - Reviews: 90 - Favs: 414 - Follows: 487 - Updated: May 10, 2020 - Published: Feb 8, 2020 - id: 13496368

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AN: Hey guys! We're posting Ch. 2, two weeks ahead of schedule, as its Part 2 of the 1st chapter. I've also posted a more in-depth summary on my profile, and will use it to update the posting schedule and for broader announcements, so make sure to check it out frequently.

I would also like to say thank you to WizardShinobi & huskilover94 for leaving the very first reviews; they are dearly appreciated. In answer to their reviews and a PM I received from a reader, I would like to clarify a few things.

The pairing for Harry/Addison/Mark has been set and will not be changing. I know what it's like to want to read that perfect fic, and I know there are very few GA/HP crossovers, but for this one, we have a plan made up in our minds, and if we changed the pairing, our entire story would fall apart, and we've already written 7 chs. That does mean, both Harry and Mark are bisexual.

Huskilover94 Harry has gone through A LOT of personal development since the war, which will be mentioned throughout the story, and he has come into his own. He has a dominant personality but is confident enough to be a 'switch' depending on what his partner or he needs at the time.

I hope you all continue on this journey with us, we have some amazing things planned for Harry and the hospital, and especially the realistic dynamics of H/A/M's triad.

Ep. Ref: S01E01

Chapter Two

Neurosurgeon, Ben Carson, once said, "You don't have to be a brain surgeon to be a valuable person. You become valuable because of the knowledge that you have. And that doesn't mean you won't fail sometimes. The important thing is to keep trying." Most say that being a surgeon is too hard, or takes too much time, and they're right. For every one step forward, you take four back, never seeming to get ahead. You spend eight years in school, a year as an intern, and then from five to seven more as a resident, just trying to make all your hard work matter. Sometimes you save a patient, and sometimes you lose one. Sometimes you feel like it was all worth it, and sometimes you just want to walk away and never look back. The thing is, despite all that, I can't… don't want to walk away.

Meredith's POV

Mer knocked on Harry's office door with a quiet, "It's me." It was precisely where his text had said it would be, the second floor of the surgical wing. Only, it had taken her a good fifteen minutes of getting lost, rerouting, and backtracking before she'd found it. Maybe, she should've been paying more attention during the orientation tour, then she wouldn't keep getting lost. That thought however, made her remember getting off-tracked while transporting her seizure patient for a CT scan, which made her thoughts settle back on Katy and what had happened.

Hearing his answering, "Come in," she slowly opened the door to see various objects levitating out of a box and settling onto walls and other flat surfaces. Directing this controlled whirlwind like an experienced conductor was Harry's 'elf' Winky. Harry obstinately refused to refer to them as 'house-elves', something about SPEW.

They both looked up at her at the same time. "Hello, Little Miss," the Elf greeted with a sweet wrinkly smile, before turning back to her task.

Returning the greeting, she turned a look of fond exasperation towards Harry, who looked to be working through a sufficiently large pile of paperwork at his desk. He just gave her an amused little shrug, which Mer from past experience, knew to mean, 'Don't look at me, she still refuses to call me anything but Little Master.'

Despite this moment of welcomed distraction, thoughts of Katy intruded back in. Each second ticked away slowly as Harry continued to look at her eyes, his own tightened in consideration. Suddenly, as if he could sense the turbulence in her soul, he agilely rose from his chair.

"Come here, Bambi," his invitation reinforced by the slight lift of his arms. Mer gave him a sad smile at the childish endearment and stepped into his embrace with a relieved sigh. She allowed his strength to bear her weight and just like that, everything became peaceful. No more whooshing in her ears, no more nausea, no more panic, no more turmoil. Just the calm exuding from Harry. Harry must have given Winky a look over her shoulder because Mer thought she heard an almost inaudible pop she'd learned to associate with 'elf travel'.

She smiled and tried to snuggle closer, earning a quiet chuckle from her brother, and a tightening of his arms. He always gave the best hugs, not overly fleeting or excessively exuberant, but steady and protective. Hermione had once told her it might be because he'd never gotten hugged during his childhood, so when he hugged, he poured all his caring into it. Teddy said it was the aura from the protective nature of his magic. Whatever it was, it was one of the best feelings in the world.

"Feeling better?" He inquired.

"Mmmm…," Mer confirmed but didn't make a move to separate from the hug.

"Want to tell me what happened?" he asked calmly, gliding his hand over her back in a soothing manner.

"I don't know how to start," she confessed, not sure how to express what she felt.

"Ok, why don't you start with how your day went?" Harry offered, giving Mer a chance to focus on something else before coming back to the issue at hand.

Feeling much more settled, Mer left the safety of his arms and moved to sit on one of the cushioned chairs, and noticed a serving set with tea and coffee on the ottoman.

Pouring herself a coffee and Harry some tea, she began to tell Harry about her day.

"It started out well, but a little weird. There are three other interns in my group, Cristina Yang, George O'Malley, and Izzie Stevens." After a brief pause to think of the best way to describe them, she added, "Cristina graduated first in her class at Stanford and seems very zealous and competitive about becoming a surgeon. George is uh, a little awkward, rambles a lot, but nice. Izzie is really pretty. She used to be a model, apparently."

She peered up at Harry to see his reaction only to see him leaning back in his chair, relaxed with his cup of tea in hand and right leg crossed over the left, looking content to just let her talk.

So, taking a sip of her coffee, she continued. "Our supervisor is a resident called the Nazi," and as a thought occurred to her, she mentioned, "I think you might have already met her. Her name is Dr. Miranda Bailey, and Cristina said she saw her in the OR during your surgery. Oh! Congratulations, by the way, on your first surgery here, I heard it was quite amazing. I'm really sad I missed out on seeing it if I'd known…

"Mer," Harry interrupted, bringing her prattling to a halt.

"Right, sorry," she apologized a little bashfully and waited to give him a chance to acknowledge said meeting.

Resting his cup on his knee, he instead asked, "So, what's your impression of her?"

Surprised at his question, she explained, "Well, what she lacks in height, she definitely makes up for with her personality. She's very, um... brusque?" Taking the laughter in his eyes for agreement, she became more involved in her telling, "Did you know she started us off with five rules? Don't be a suck-up; answer every page at a run; don't wake her if she's sleeping unless the patient is actually dying; the patient better not be dead by the time she gets there, and I quote, 'not only would you have killed someone, you would have woken me for no good reason', and when she moves, we move."

She looked at Harry, expecting him to be entertained by Bailey's rules, but instead, he looked thoughtful. "She's right you know," he stated, surprising Mer.

"Seriously?" she asked. "Seriously?" she added for emphasis.

Leaning forward to place his cup on the ottoman, he rested his elbows on his knees and crossed his fingers. "To a mentor, sucking up means you're more worried about playing nice, appealing to their person, or looking good to your superiors instead of doing your job, which is learning to be a great doctor. Every page must be answered in a way appropriate to its urgency. Not by your decision of what is urgent…"

At hearing this, Mer lowered her eyes and whispered, "I didn't answer my page."

"Mer?" Harry asked with the concern of both a brother and her professional superior.

"I… We," she stuttered over her words, her breaths becoming shallower. "A fifteen-year-old girl was brought in this morning for new onset of seizures, and she had a grand mal en route. I was given the responsibility of overseeing her. I was told to take her for a CT, but it took me a while to find the Radiology Department, and she was so annoying the entire time. She was more worried about missing out on her teen pageant than having seizures.

You know, she tricked the nurses into paging me 911 because she couldn't find the right channel on TV. When," she took a deep fortifying breath to trudge on, "when I got the second 911 page, I thought it was her being a brat again. So I walked instead of running.

When I got there, she was in the middle of another grand mal and all the nurses kept pressuring me to give them orders. They were yelling at me all at once," Mer's brain sped through the dreadful scene, "asking me what to do."

"Everything I came up with wasn't working, and I asked them to keep paging the Attending, again and again, but he wasn't answering, and I couldn't think of anything else that might work, and then she flatlined, and I had to defibrillate her, but her heart wouldn't start. The nurse asked me to call it, but how could I do that?

"I'm a doctor, I'm supposed to save lives. She was fine when I left her," Mer said almost beggingly.

"She didn't make it?" Harry asked for clarification.

"No, her sinus rhythm came back," she supplied, a bit more calmly, "but then her attending," another bracing breath, "her attending, Dr. Shepherd, he ran in and he…"

Harry moved from his seat to kneel beside her, placing a hand on her arm in support. "Hey, shh…, it's alright, just take deep breaths."

Mer focused on breathing until the feeling of boiling panic leveled out to a simmer.

Harry slightly increased the pressure on her arm in a silent cue to stand, took her seat, and pulled her down to his lap. The last time they'd sat like this was when she found out her mom had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

"Why did the thought of this Dr. Shepherd make you panic?" Straight to the point, Mer thought. She really did sometimes hate Harry's intuitive nature. He's always had this way about him, at least for as long as she had known him, but Harry was becoming almost scary-good the older he got. Mer silently giggled at how Teddy liked to refer to the phenomenon as Harry's 'spidey sense'. It had made it hard over the years for her and Teddy to get away with anything.

Mer knew she was distracting herself, she should just tell Harry, like ripping off a band-aid. "So I went to find Dr. Shepherd about my patient Katy, and it was Derek." Mer paused to gauge Harry's response.

"Derek?" Harry finally asked in a somewhat confused tone, and then uncertainly added, "I'm aware his first name is Derek. I've read several of his articles in journals, and Dr. Webber informed me he was joining the staff as the New Head of Neurosurge." After a brief lull, and with a tone heavy with parental accusation, Harry added, "Meredith? Why does it matter that his name is Derek?"

Feeling like she was back in high school, caught sneaking back into the house, she hesitantly confessed, "Well, um, you know the guy from last nigh…," but trailed off at hearing Harry's drawn-out exasperated moan of, "Merrrrr, no…."

Straightening on his lap and feeling a little petulant, she defended, "It's not like I knew who he was before I slept with him. How was I supposed to know that he was going to be one of my bosses here?"

"I get it, Luv, I just… Remember our conversation this morning about nepotistic rumors?" advised Harry.

"I know, I already told him that we should pretend it never happened, just move on and act professional." While Mer had to admit he was charming, it would be inappropriate to carry on in light of the disparity in their positions.

"OK, then what happened with Dr. Shepherd and Katy?"

"I don't know, he was just so angry, Harry. He yelled that I should've been monitoring the patient. He didn't say it, but I know he was blaming me for not watching her better. If I had, maybe her seizure wouldn't have gotten so bad," Mer explained with apparent self-deprecation. "Harry, he just told me to leave," she finished in a near whisper.

Harry's POV

Harry tilted his head back, allowing the backrest to dig into his neck and closed his eyes as he tightened his hold around the distraught girl. He allowed silence to pervade the room as he fell into the old habit and contemplated Mer's situation. This wasn't the first time he'd found himself in this position, and he could say with complete certainty that it wouldn't be the last.

The first time had been during Harry's first year as an intern. He'd found an eighteen-year-old Meredith crying her eyes out in one of the hospital's supply closets, over another fight with her mother. Having lived through the care of negligent and at times outright abusive adults who should've treated him like family, he had felt a kinship with the scrawny little teenager. With the life he'd led, it had been practically impossible for him to walk away from a child in need, but the sight of the fledgling 'bond string' attaching their souls had cemented his fate. He hadn't known if the bond meant they were destined to become friends, family, enemies, or Merlin forbid, lovers. What he had known, was that he could not walk away, so he'd stayed, and the rest, as they say, became history.

One of the reasons for Harry making the move to SGH had been the scads of 'bond strings' he had seen during his interview here last month, and he didn't know what the future held in their regard, but he had known destiny was pulling him towards this place.

Looking down now, Harry noticed his 'bond' with Mer was substantial and fiery in its vitality. The sight brought a content smile to his face. Thankfully, it had settled in a familial capacity, because while he'd come to cherish Mer, it was entirely in the sense of a younger sibling. A connection he had craved for, for as long as he could remember.

Deciding on his options, Harry called out, "Mer." The quick uptilt of her head let him know he had her attention. "You know I try not to sugar coat things, so, first, you were wrong to not answer an emergency page right away, but it's OK. It's your first day as an intern, and no one is expecting you to get everything right. Second, you should always forward any emergency page you receive to your resident supervisor because, again, you're an intern, you are not responsible for making calls on a patient's treatment. Your only job right now is to do what your superiors say and follow their leads, it's not to treat patients and make judgment calls, and I'm sorry you were placed in that position."

"No one said anything about paging our resident, I didn't know I was supposed to," came the uncertain response from Mer.

Harry made a mental note to bring this up either with Richard or at the next department meeting. Something had gone very wrong with that scenario, and he would try to find out the whys and hows.

"I'll try to find out about that, but for now, the last point. I'm sorry Dr. Shepherd yelled at you. I'm going to say this once and only once. Katy's seizure and her arrested heart are not your fault." Harry saw Mer's disbelieving look and explained, "Think about this, would your running to her room have stopped the onset of her seizure?"

"Well, no," she answered.

"Would your early arrival have meant that you would have thought of more options to calm her seizing?"

"I don't think so, I tried everything I knew," she said, her tone becoming a bit more sure.

"Mer, it's true you made a mistake with the page, but I'm sure it's taught you not to make that mistake again, and it didn't mean that the patient's episode was your fault. Understood?" asked Harry to gauge her morale.

"Yeah," she considered, "I just, Harry, my patient almost died. On my first day."

"Bambi, being a surgeon and a doctor, it's hard for a reason. You have to live each day, each case, knowing that people's lives are in your hands. There comes a moment for each one of us when it becomes more than just a game. For you, maybe that moment was today, or perhaps it will be tomorrow or the next day, but Luv, whenever that moment comes, you have to close your eyes, look inside yourself, and decide. Do you take a step forward and continue to be a surgeon, or do you turn around and walk away.

"So, my question to you is this, can you walk away?" he challenged.

Mer had sat up straight while he spoke, listening with scrutiny, and at his question, inhaled and closed her eyes. She remained there, still as a statue, as each second slowly ticked away. With her eyes still closed, brows furrowed in deep thought, she finally whispered, "No. I want to go back."

"I'm glad you found your answer."

Mer opened her eyes and flashed him a smile.

Harry watched Mer stand up and offer a hand to help him up, not that it made a difference, considering her puny frame and all. "Thanks..." said Mer giving him a tight hug and gave him an impish smile "for always being my Batman."

Harry gave her an indulgent smile. "You and Teddy really are 'birds of a feather.' Now, are you on break or skipping out on your first day?"

"No, I let the team know I needed to step away, so I took a break," Meredith explained as she drifted over to his desk and poked the gold snitch sitting in its cradle.

"What do they have you doing after this?" Harry inquired while he wove a quick charm to expand the room just enough to be easily overlooked. Then he enlarged the bench in the corner, making it just large enough for him to comfortably crash on if needed.

"Well, as far as I know, I'm still on Katy's case, and since we still have no idea what's causing her seizures, I'm not sure." The snitch curled it's delicate wings around her finger, nuzzling it in affection.

"Hmm, in my experience, if you can't find an obvious physical cause for a patient's condition, then fall back on their personal and past medical histories," he advised, then accompanied by a slight shrug, added, "you never know what kind of things may pop up."

"I'll look into it. So far there's been nothing in her medical histo…," Mer started to say before getting interrupted but her phone alarm. "Oh shoot, my break's over, and I never got to ask you how your day was going."

"No worries, Luv, we'll talk later. You better hurry up if you don't want your Nazi on your case," he teased as he saw Mer to the door, and pecked the crown of her head. "Go be a good doctor."

As he watched Mer rush towards the elevators, he once again reminded himself to speak to Richard, see if the evident discrepancies made by the staff, during the seizure, were a single occurrence, perhaps due to panic, or the current status quo of the hospital's procedures. If the latter was the case, then Richard needed to get more actively involved and keep a tighter rein on his staff, but first, he needed to get through some of this twice be-damned paperwork.

Why did I agree to become Head again?

Cristina's POV

If someone had asked Cristina what she saw herself doing on her first shift as a surgical intern, she would have said, "Consulting with patients, watching surgeries, learning from some of the top doctors in their fields, or maybe even getting to scrub in". What she would not have said was, "Researching with the daughter of Ellis Grey". Yet, here she was, amongst the library shelves, sitting on the floor side-by-side with Meredith, files and books scattered around them resembling an impact zone.

In light of still not having a reason for the patient's seizures, Shepherd had assigned a challenge to all interns. Whoever could find the cause, got the chance to scrub in on the surgery. It seemed too good to be true. Cristina had thought that if she and Meredith put their heads together, they would have a better shot at one of them scrubbing in. Her chances got even better when the willowy intern had outright stated she didn't want to work with Shepherd.

A surgeon, not wanting to scrub in? Not a chance. Something definitely happened there. The other woman had refused to explain however, and at the time, Cristina had chosen to gracefully ignored the issue. Nonetheless, the thought continued to niggle at her.

Now, over an hour later, they were still searching through past files and journals with nothing to show for it.

Thinking of all the possible causes and trying to narrow down their options, Cristina listed, "Well, she doesn't have anoxia, chronic renal failure or acidosis. It's not a tumor because her CT's clean," and with the barest of thought, "Are you seriously not going to tell me why you won't work with Shepherd?" Cristina asked, caving in to her curiosity, her voice low as she adjusted the book lying against her knees.

"No. What about infection?" Meredith questioned, pencil tracing the page as she read each line, and stubbornly dismissed Cristina's own.

Quickly perusing through her notes, she replied, "No. There's no white count, she has no CT lesions, no fevers, nothing in her spinal tap, just tell me." The other intern paused and glanced around, avoiding any eye contact with Cristina.

"You can't comment, make a face, or react in any way." she finally surrendered, making Cristina sit up just a little straighter and stare at Meredith expectantly. "We had sex."

Ooo, Kay! Not what I expected, uh... Cristina opened her mouth, shut it, blinked, looked away casually, all within the blink of an eye, and asked, "What about an aneurysm?"

"No blood on the CT, and no headaches." replied Meredith.

"Okay. There's no drug use, uh, no pregnancy, no trauma…" The Korean woman trailed off, don't do it, don't do it, "...was he good? I mean, he looks like he would be, was it any good?"

Meredith pushed to her feet and reshelved the book she was studying with a frown. Huh, maybe he's the type that just looks like he's God's gift to women, but not actually good at delivering. Still, though, that man sure is dreamy.

"We're out of answers? What if no one comes up with anything?" She asked as she sat down on a stool. Mer's elbows rested on her knees as she stared hopefully at Cristina, once again calmly ignoring Cristina's question. Damn the girl's steel nerves.

"You mean if she dies?" She said instead.

"Yeah," Meredith nodded, and Cristina's head fell back against the shelf in surrender.

"This is gonna sound really bad, but I really wanted that surgery," she admitted with unapologetic honesty.

Most interns would kill for this surgery. I would kill for this surgery.

"She's just never going to get the chance to turn into a person. The sum total of her existence will be almost winning Miss Teen whatever. You know what her pageant talent is?"

"They have talent?" Cristina replied dryly, but Meredith continued without missing a beat.

"Rhythmic gymnastics," she said slowly, her eyes focused on the thin carpet as a smile tugged at her lips.

"Oh, come on!" exclaimed Cristina in disbelief, making them both chuckle at the absurdity. It suddenly occurred to her that she had started to see Meredith Grey in a new light. Sure, her mother was Ellis Grey, and she'd probably had the best education, but still, Mer hadn't used it to get any favors, even with Shepherd. She was pretty down-to-earth, she tried her best, and she seemed competent in her skills. Cristina could respect that, in fact so far, Meredith was the only intern she felt that for. She's smart, but she's learning just like the rest of us.

"What is 'rhythmim' gymnastics?" Meredith asked between giggles, unable to even say it properly, "I don't know - I can't even say it, I don't know what it is."

"Isn't it like something with a ball, and a-" Cristina stopped as Meredith suddenly stilled, and watched as a look of realization washed over the dirty blonde's face, "- what? Meredith, what?"

"Get up! Come on!" Cristina rose to her own feet and quickly followed Meredith out of the library.

Meredith's POV

I'm a bad person.

She and Cristina had been getting along so well and then she had to go and ruin it. Mer knew it was her own fault.

Mer had known how much Cristina had wanted to scrub in for Katy's surgery, craved it. How could she not, they were so similar after all. They both wanted to be the best, but there were differences too. Where the other intern seemed almost relentless, impatient, and often indelicate in her pursuit of success, Mer, for now, just wanted to be in the OR, didn't matter in which capacity. She just wanted to learn everything she could, memorize each technique, and eventually get the chance to use her talent to make a difference in someone's life. Harry had been right when he had said that she'd learned all the background knowledge, now she needed to go out there and build practical experience.

Despite knowing all this, Mer had still cheated the other intern out of her chance. She'd offered her the forbidden fruit and then yanked it right out of her fingertips.

I am such a bad person.

So here she was, sitting dazed on a gurney outside the OR, trying her hardest to make a decision. Despite the reassurances that Shepherd had given her, she still wanted to go back and tell him to give it to Cristina, but she also wanted to scrub in herself, so badly.

Still not coming to a decision with only thirty minutes left before the surgery, she took out her phone and sent a text.

M: Harry, I'm a bitch

H: ?

M: I betrayed Cristina

M: Shepherd offered a chance to scrub in to whomever could find the cause of Katie's seizures

M: She asked to work together, so we have a better chance at getting it, and I told her she could have it

M: I didn't wanna work with him because you know…

M: And we found it, but Shepherd, he picked me

H: To scrub in?

M: Yeah, keep up Batman

H: You couldn't say no

M: No, but I promised Cristina and now I don't know what 2 do

H: You both put in = work?

M: Yeah

H: Who found the answer?

M: I did, after I thought of what you said about looking personal history

H: It's fine Mer

H: You are her assigned intern, you saved her life today, you found the cause

M: Funny, that's exactly what Shepherd said

H: Guess he's not as bad as you thought?

M: :) But what about Cristina?

H: Mer this is an extraordinary opportunity for any intern

H: If she's as competitive as you say she is, she'll get over it, but don't do it again

H: You are a surgeon

H: Don't give away surgeries when you can be learning from them & do not let your progress depend on your mood :(

H: Don't let anything get in the way of you taking your shot Mer, be unstoppable, but be ethical

M: Yes Sir :D

H: When is your surgery scheduled?

M: In 30 mins

H: Break a leg

M: I'm just gonna stand there and observe

H: Well, break a leg standing ;D

M: You're so weird. Bye

Harry's POV

Harry glanced at the clock from where he'd been chatting with one of the senior nurses, Debbie, while he logged his orders in a patient's chart and realized he only had ten minutes remaining if he wanted to make it to Mer's first surgery. The thought made him smile in nostalgia. He could still remember his own first surgery as an intern like it was yesterday, and now here was Mer, eight years later, taking part in her first. Sometimes, he still couldn't believe it had already been that long.

"Debbie, I hate to cut this short, but I just realized I'm running late to go view a surgery." With an appreciative smile, he added, "Thank you for bearing with me through all my novice questions."

The highly experienced nurse looked at him fondly and said, "Anytime, Dr. Potter-Black. It's nice to see a surgeon with common courtesy. You're one of the very few around here."

"Uh…," he faltered, not knowing how to respond to that statement. "That's kind of sad, really."

"Trust me, you have no idea," she intimated with her nose scrunched, then added, "Let us know if you ever need anything, we'll be happy to help. Then, with her voice taking on a teasing lilt, she added, "With that accent, it really won't be a hardship."

Quiet giggles came from some of the other nurses at the station, making Harry feel slightly sheepish, before he donned a shocked look on his face, leaned closer to the red-headed nurse, and asked in a loud whisper, "Are you flirting with me, Miss Debbie?"

The giggles got louder, and with a smirk, the usually strict nurse shooed him away in mock affront, "Get gone, you rascal."

Harry laughed at her response. So much like Minerva. Oh, the fun I could have. With one last pleasant farewell of, "Goodbye, Ladies," he made his way towards the ORs.

He quickly found the right room by checking the surgery board and went to claim a seat in the overhead viewing gallery. Upon arrival, he found the room empty, except for the lone woman of Asian descent, Korean, if he wasn't wrong, who was either a resident or an intern, by the color of her scrubs.

However, that was the second thing he noticed, the first being the undeniable 'bond' forming between her and as he looked down to the room below, Mer. Huh. Maybe I'm not the only one with bonds galore in this place.

Yet, another 'potential bond' attached the intern to both himself and Shepherd. Just like he'd noticed with Miranda Bailey, and Nurse Debbie downstairs. Harry knew from past experience 'potential bonds' were just that. Potentials for a stronger connection that would forever linger in your life. Whether for the best or the worst, he was never sure. He wasn't that surprised at seeing the yet translucent strings attaching Bailey and Debbie to him, as they both seemed like wonderful individuals he could really get 'attached' to, he thought amusedly. The thread between this woman and him might be because of her future relationship with Mer.

I guess I'll wait and see. No need to wonder about it now. That way lies madness.

The young woman currently sat with her arms crossed at her chest, staring intently towards the preparations taking place down in the operation theater, but looked over as the door closed behind him.

He could tell the second she recognized him. Her eyes became rounder in surprise and her mouth loosened as if to speak, but then her throat contracted as she swallowed before uttering in a breathy voice, "I.., Hi."

He found himself amused at this absurd reaction people had towards him, which had unfortunately, become much too familiar an occurrence in the mundane world. I really wish it had just remained in the wizarding world.

"You're Harrison Potter-Black," she finally declared in amazement.

"I am?" He couldn't help himself. Why do people always feel the need to tell me my own name?, he wondered.

"I, uh, sorry." She chuckled in embarrassment as she got up from the bench to approach him. "It's just surprising to see you here. I've read so much of your procedures and research, but I never expected to meet you." She still looked just a tiny bit dazed but seemed to be coming back to herself well enough.

"Thank you. It's always nice to hear my research is reaching others and making a difference," the surgeon replied amiably as he shook her hand. "You must be a resident or...," he inquired while moving to take a seat, and invited her to do the same.

"Oh, Yang. I mean, Cristina Yang. I just started as a first-year surgical intern." Oh right, Mer's ambitious and betrayed teammate. He noticed the hint of pride, which was understandable, as long as it didn't get in the way.

"One of Bailey's interns?"

She nodded, clearly surprised at his awareness.

He observed the proceedings below, taking note of Mer standing off to the side while Shepherd started the craniotomy to remove the patient's skull cap. The tawny blonde intern's eyes glanced up, doing a double-take at his presence. He could just envision the grin underneath her mask. Giving her a swift wink, he tilted his head slightly towards Shepherd. She seemed to understand the gesture because she turned her attention back to the surgery, her attention alight with the interest of a novice.

"Tell me what's happening with the patient?" Harry asked Yang, having decided to test her in order to better understand her potential. After all, she would eventually become one of his students here.

"You know about her?"

"I've heard enough," he confirmed.

"Well, she…" Yang started recounting. What followed, coincided with what he'd been told by Mer, but he did learn that his sister's peer at least had a solid head on her shoulders. She displayed the qualities of a hard worker, but tended to be too straightforward at times. Harry concluded that while she was talented and passionate at a similar level to his 'skinny, fond annoyance', it would need to be tempered by firm guidance. He could see why Mer had gravitated to this one so fast.

Good for her. She needs more friends her own age.

He had the younger woman walk him through the surgical procedure, and once again, found himself pleasantly impressed. "You seem to have researched the process exceptionally well, are you on the case?" He asked, not being able to hold himself back at remembering Mer's texts.

He knew he shouldn't influence bonds since the existence of one wasn't indicative of it's type. For all he knew, the relationship between the women could be one of rivalry instead of friendship, but if it was the latter, then he didn't want this woman's current resentment to fester.

"I had the chance of scrubbing in, but…"

"Tell me," he requested conversationally, his tone unintentionally coming out similar to the one he often used in front of the Wizengamot or when directing ER situations.

Instinctively responding to his authority, Yang informed him about the events surrounding the 'betrayal' without giving away any specifics. Smart girl. Brusquely ambitious, but can be tactful when needed.

Deciding to help the distraught intern come to terms because the circumstances hadn't been precisely fair to her, he asked, "So you went to your peer, expecting a 50/50 chance?"

She nodded.

"How did you expect that to play out originally, what if your 50% hadn't come through?"

Seeing her look of contemplation, Harry resumed, "Who did more research?"

"We both did it together."

"So, it can be assumed that you both did an equal amount?"

Another nod.

"Who finally came up with the answer?" Harry continued with the same tactic hoping to lead her to a logical conclusion.

"...Meredith," she confessed, forgetting for a moment to hide any names under ambiguity, but then rebutted, "but she'd promised."

"You said you are a surgical intern, so tell me, what is your deepest wish, right now?"

"To scrub in," she replied sans hesitation.

"So tell me, if you had convinced yourself out of doing so, for whatever reason, but then came face-to-face with it, would you, could you, walk away?"

Leaving her with that soul searching thought, he turned his full attention to the attending surgeon performing the surgery.

So that is, Derek.

He only knew about the man through his work and a short introduction at a medical conference in New York a few years back. What really disturbed him however, was the sight of yet another bond branching from Mer's soul; this one towards the neurosurgeon. The man was even older than Harry himself. Perhaps, it's of a mentor and student? He hoped, but suspected it would be in vain from what Mer had confessed about them in his office earlier.

He wanted to talk to Mer afterward, but received a page before Shepherd could finish up with the surgery. He turned to the Asian intern who had quietly sat and observed the procedure since their talk. "I need to take my leave, but it was nice to meet you, and don't worry, you seem to have a good head on your shoulders. Keep up with your hard work, there will be plenty more surgeries for you to choose from."

"Thank you," she responded, looking genuinely flattered, and with a reassuring, "Good Luck," to her, and a quick glance towards Mer to catch her eye, he headed back to his department.

It was now, just over an hour since Harry and Mer had returned back home. It had been an extremely long and exhausting shift, for the both of them. While Harry may be used to pulling long shifts already from his years at Mayo, this one had involved familiarizing himself with a whole new hospital, two new departments, their staff, and sets of policies and protocols unique to SGH, making it unusually tiring.

Since he'd cooked the chicken stir-fry, Mer was currently cleaning up the kitchen for the night. Despite his earlier plans to go to the market, he'd had to ask Winky to pick up groceries for them as Mer had wanted to stop off at the 'Home' to visit Ellis instead.

Visiting Ellis always took a toll on both of them, but especially Mer. Ellis had been diagnosed with an advanced stage of Alzheimer's while Mer had still been in med school, and the effects of her devolution were heart-wrenching to witness.

On the one hand was Ellis, a strong, talented, and ambitious woman who was now losing her sense of self. She was no longer able to remember which period of her life she was living in. Some days were spent with her reliving her residency years, while others her attending ones. On some, Mer was still a little girl to Ellis, yet on others, she was a rebellious college student.

On the other side was Mer who had already had a strained relationship with the woman. She'd often been neglected, told to stop being a nuisance, and left to her own devices because her mother didn't have enough time for her. Now she had to treat that same woman with kindness, without ever getting a chance to lay out her resentments for the woman's callous treatment.

After these visits, Mer often needed a little time to herself. So Harry had for the time being, parked his arse in one of the single sofas situated in front of the fireplace. He found it to be the height of relaxation, as it reminded of the many years he'd spent in the same exact way inside the Gryffindor common room.

Showers had been taken, dinner had been eaten, and he just wanted to wind down for the night with a bit of drawing, a practice he had kept up with from his time in therapy after the war. The recommendation from his therapist had let him express on paper what he hadn't been able to put into words, even to himself. He'd actually gotten quite good at it over the years. Nothing on the level of his friend and fellow Gryffindor, Dean Thomas, but he could hold his own.

He'd come to discover it worked amazingly at calming his mind, which along with occlumency lessons his latent, or as the English referred to them, 'squib', therapist had forced on him had become a salvation for him to provide order for his thoughts, and to work through the logjam of issues he'd been left with after the war.

For the moment however, he allowed his hand to mindlessly lead the charcoal pencil instinctively as he tried to process his thoughts, tangled as they were currently, like a handful of Gillyweed.

He inevitably found his thoughts turning towards the conundrum of Dr. Shepherd and Mer. He knew she had told him she'd put a definite end to their 'relationship', but one look at her eyes, and he had known her heart wasn't settled yet. At least she'd resolved things with Yang to a positive outcome.

After a long internal debate, he came to the decision that he would just wait and see where it led. No matter the outcome, Mer had the right to her own choices, and to explore where her destiny guided her. It was a choice he had desperately wished for and needed during his earlier years. He would just make sure he was there for her whenever she needed him like he'd been since their first meeting.

He needed to take care of a more immediate problem, however. As Mer had told Ellis this evening, she had decided to keep her mother's house and get roommates to help with the expenses. No matter how much Harry had tried to offer his help, she'd stuck to her decision to take care of it herself. As frustrating as it was for him, he could respect her need to be her own person. Harry had felt the same way when the Weasleys had offered him a place in their home after the war. While he'd loved them for it, he'd just needed to find his own place in the world. He had spent so long living for others and their expectations, he'd needed desperately to find himself and his purpose, on his own.

Honestly, though, he was happy at her decision. It meant she was starting to open herself up and invite people more intimately into her life than just the mundane interactions between colleagues. Doctors were notorious for not having social lives, after all. However, this did mean he would need to contact the real estate agent, the Goblins had recommended.

He wanted Mer to expand her social circle, but he was not going to live in a house full of colleagues, or Merlin forbid, subordinates. That definitely had the potential to cause some awkward occurrences. He would have to remain constantly vigilant to make sure none of the others caught sight of him performing magic, or accidentally come across any magical items. Not to mention, what a SNAFU it would be if the tenants caught sight of any unsuspected, but frequent visitors like Teddy, or Bill, or Fleur, or… No, he definitely needed his own place.

Taking a closer look at his drawing pad, he saw the beginnings of Mer as she'd looked while watching the surgery today, and moved to finish it.

CHAPTER END

7202 Words, Updated Feb. 15, 2020

AN: Please let us know what you think of the story so far? Like it, hate it, have thoughts on the character's interactions? Also, we are in need of a Beta, who is good with proofreading and great as noticing inconsistencies, please PM if you are interested. Thanks!