Shirr. The pebble skidded across the ground. Barely had it come to a stop when Harry Evarbor's loafer-clad foot made contact with it again, sending it flying over the curb and into the busy street. The walk from the Royal Academy to the Evarbors' city residence only took five minutes, but to Harry, it felt like hours. He remembered the distant looks on his parents' faces when he begged them to send a car to pick him up. They attributed his request to him being a typical needy Order brat. They wouldn't listen. They wouldn't understand. How could they? Sheltered by their busy careers, how could they ever comprehend what it was like to walk the streets of Arcana City every day as Roy Evarbor's little brother? 

Conspicuous and vulnerable in his neatly pressed school uniform, he could feel the eyes on his back, the whispers that followed him everywhere he went. No matter how well he did in school and in the Order, he would never be able to shake the brand his past had earned him. He would always be the traitor's brother. 

"Hey, look over there! It's Evarbor. Looking smart, just like his brother!" A voice called out from behind him. 

Harry unconsciously gripped the straps of his backpack and quickened his pace as he turned the corner, getting further from the city center and closer to the historic residential neighborhood that housed his family's home. Only a few blocks further. He smiled as rows of trees replaced roads on either side of the sidewalk. The name-callers rarely dared to follow him this far. Surely, they were gone by now... but he had to make sure. 

Coming to a stop, Harry slowly turned around to see two other boys from his grade. One he recognized as Dave Harrow, one of the numerous descendants of the extensive Harrow clan, but the other was unfamiliar. This, of course, didn't surprise him. He hadn't exactly been a social butterfly in the years since his brother's death, and could hardly be bothered to keep track of all his new classmates at the Academy. 

"Stop following me. I know neither of you live here," Harry said with as much confidence as he could muster. If his words had any effect on Dave, he didn't show it. 

"Well, that's rude. We haven't said anything at all, and you're already telling us to leave. I think Harry should learn to be more polite, shouldn't he? So he doesn't end up like his brother." Dave slowly began to make his way closer to Harry, who inched back instinctively. The cover of trees, which he'd previously regarded as a source of safety, now seemed like a threatening barrier between him and the outside world. 

"You guys should... really go," Harry stammered as Dave stalked closer. He almost reached for his PW, before remembering that using it on a fellow Order member was a crime. 

"Or what?" Dave smirked. The vibe in the air changed and Harry could sense danger. Whipping around, he came face to face with Dave's still-anonymous friend, who grabbed him by the shoulders to hold him still. 

"I think we should teach the terrorist's brother a lesson." By the time Harry heard Dave's voice, it was too late. He arched his back as a burst of pain shot up through his spine, pinned in place and unable to fight back. Harry bit his lip to avoid giving his bully the satisfaction of a scream as he squirmed in the hopes of wriggling out of the taller boy's grasp. 

Just when Dave tightened his fist and Harry prepared for him to strike again, he felt a sudden lightness on his back. Turning around, he saw that Dave's friend had been tackled to the ground by a tall woman in black skinny jeans and a black hoodie tightened to obscure her face. She delivered punch after punch to the poor boy's stomach and Harry stood, transfixed as he began to sob, a mixture of blood and snot seeping out of his nose. 

"What the- hey!" Dave squealed, instantly losing his tough demeanor as the woman leaped easily to her feet, turning her attention to him. She raised her fist, and that was enough to send him sprinting back the way he had come. 

"Touch Harry again, and I will end your life in such a way that your family will become more infamous than the Evarbors." The woman's voice was neither angry nor taunting, and somehow, the utter deadpan tone in which her words were spoken made them twice as terrifying. Harry wasn't sure if the boys had heard her before fleeing the scene, but some part of him knew that even if they hadn't, they probably wouldn't be messing with him again anytime soon. 

"Hello, Harry," the woman approached him, her voice now sounding much more benevolent. She seemed surprised when he didn't back away. "You're not scared?" 

"You're Ravenna," he said simply, looking up at her with a small smile. He knew he should be afraid, yes, but looking at the tall woman with bloodied fists, he found himself unable to see the terrorist who had been all over the news. The woman who dragged unconscious superheroes across a beach, who threatened to destroy human civilization as we knew it. Instead, he saw the Rave his brother used to tell him about at night when he had trouble sleeping. Someone who was hurt, but yearned for belonging. Who'd been hated all her life, but still harbored a magical hope for a better future.

"Smart kid," Ravenna reached down to ruffle Harry's hair, sighing when he didn't react to her touch. "Roy used to hate it when I did that. Said it messed with his look." 

"Well, I don't have much of a look to begin with," Harry shrugged. 

Ravenna laughed, before her expression once again grew serious. When she tilted her head downward to look at him, Harry caught a glimpse of her deep, green eyes. "When we were in prison, Roy made me promise that if anything happened to him, I would protect you. He didn't think of his parents, or Juliana, or the Order. He thought of you. He loved you very much, Harry. Cherish that." 

Harry had grieved his brother's death- he still was- but what he saw in Ravenna's eyes at that moment was beyond grief. She looked so different from the wily, determined criminal he remembered from the news coverage. She looked like she'd lost a part of herself. 

"He loved you, too," Harry whispered, taking Ravenna's hand. To his surprise, she didn't move away. 

"Will you help me honor his memory?"